The Atelier series has been a personal favorite of mine for many years now. Since I played the first game in the franchise to release in North America (Atelier Iris) back on the PlayStation 2, it has made itself known as a solid RPG franchise. To celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the series, the developers at Gust decided to create Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World. While it isn’t exactly what I would have expected from a spinoff title, it is an experiment I think is worthy of people’s attention.

Before I get into the overarching premise of Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists, it is very important that I make sure you are aware of two things in particular. The first important bit of information is that there is absolutely no English voice acting in Nelke at all. I personally find this strange, since most other games in the series are voiced over in English, but I do understand that some people prefer subtitles with Japanese voice acting, rather than English localization.

The second bit of information you should be aware of, is that Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists includes characters from the entire series, including games that were never released in North America, such as Marie from Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg. I personally like this touch, because it allows western consumers to get to know characters they may not have seen before.

The premise for Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists is simple. You play Nelke, a young and inquisitive girl who becomes the town administrator overseeing the development of the village of Westwald. Her goal is to develop the city for her father, while also searching for the Granzweit Tree, a rare Sage Relic from the age of alchemy. If Nelke fails to develop the town, she will be forced to return home to a life she does not want, therefore failure is not an option.

In order to search for the Sage Relics (and develop the town in the process) Nelke finds herself enlisting the help of alchemists from other worlds, who help her by researching and synthesizing recipes. Unlike in other Atelier titles, you do not do the alchemy yourself. Nelke has no alchemical skill of her own, so you must instead issue requests to the alchemists in order to get the items you need.

Nelke’s task is no walk in the park, and there are a lot of layers to the gameplay. At the beginning of the game, your resources and options are limited. Therefore you must not only build shops and Ateliers for your residents to use, but you must also explore the area around Westwald to gather useful ingredients for synthesis and development.

There is a lot to discuss in terms of the gameplay mechanics, so let’s step back and break the game down a bit. There are three overarching sections in the game; Weekdays, Holidays, and Investigations. Weekdays are when Nelke does most of her administrative duties. You are unable to explore on weekdays, but you can build facilities, roads, farms, decorations, and also issue requests and dispatch villagers to do various tasks.

To further break this down, during weekdays you not only have to manage what new buildings you need but also what wares they sell. Ateliers are required for alchemists to do their work, while stores are required to sell those goods. The frustrating issue with this, is that while Alchemists can make multiple things in a single “turn” (turns are considered a unit of measure,) stores can only stock a single item at a time, causing you to need to regularly update your stores to make sure you are getting the most bang for your buck.

It is also important to know that in order to use these facilities, you have to assign people to them. Each alchemist (and town resident) has different strengths, weaknesses, and talents that give them a specialty. Some residents are better at gathering or combat and should be dispatched to various locations. Other residents may be better suited as shopkeepers or farmers and should be assigned to stores, groves, or farm plots instead.

Moving on to holidays, the game uses holidays in a similar way to a weekend. Nelke has no administrative duties on holidays and is able to do a variety of other things during this period of time. Nelke can visit with alchemists and townspeople to grow their friendship rating or accept quests from them. She can also assign alchemists to do group research, since the alchemists come from different worlds, putting their heads together just makes sense in this regard.

Holidays use time as a currency. Visiting residents takes up certain amounts of your overarching time, which could be used during an investigation. Alternately, you can forego the idea of visiting with residents altogether, and simply gather your party and go out on an investigation instead. Visiting is important because it increases your friendship level with those you visit and is important for unlocking recipes and endings.

Investigations are the closest thing to a normal Atelier experience that you will get in Nelke’s adventure. You gather up a party of five and begin exploring a route. You do not get to physically explore (or drive Nelke yourself) but rather you watch as she and her party walk, gather items, use tools such as shovels and pickaxes, and occasionally run into monsters.

In order to explore a route, you must first invest money into it. After that, you must fully explore a route before the next one will be unlocked. You only have to invest money into a route once, however, you can invest again multiple times to acquire various bonuses for investigating that area.

Running into monsters throws you into a more turn-based RPG style combat situation. The characters in your party are divided into two categories: Attack characters, and Support characters. Alchemists tend to fall under the support category and are not directly controllable. Instead, they act depending on the situation, and either attack enemies, heal, or do other support actions.

Attackers are more traditional, directly-controllable characters, which are able to attack, use skills, and use items. In order to use battle items, you must have crafted them at least once before. However, unlike in other Atelier games, you can use any item you have crafted before, once per investigation. Making more of said battle item merely increases its potency and effectiveness in combat.

Aside from using items, Attackers tend to have skills and abilities unique to them. Aside from the regular attack option, all actions in the menu cost “drive points” which build up as you attack. You can also get drive points from activating the burst gauge, which strengthens your damage and the potency of your skills.

Combat feels a bit more watered down than in other Atelier titles, but since Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists is more of a “Simulation” or “City-Builder” style game, it makes a bit of sense. Because of the time factor, you have to carefully balance the time you spend visiting with your allies, and the time you spend investigating to uncover new materials and routes.

The last section of Holidays is focused on research. Research can open up new recipes, new routes, and new districts in your town. There are other reasons to perform research as well, but most of the time you will be focused on prioritizing research that will help you reach the goals given to you by Nelke’s father, the lord of the area.

This is where the concept of tasks comes in. There are three types of tasks: Main Tasks, Sub Tasks, and Citizen Requests. Main Tasks are required tasks to progress the story. If you do not fulfill the requirements in these tasks, you will get a game over and Nelke will be forced to return home. Sub tasks are more like side-quests, which offer money and various other rewards for their completion, but are optional.

Citizen Requests are exactly what you would think. Residents of the town will give you optional requests, and by completing them you will increase your friendship with that resident, while also gaining a reward of some sort. Nelke’s father may also give you optional requests called “National Policies” which are more difficult but have greater rewards.

After your week has ended, Nelke’s most loyal ally Misty, will give you a report of the week’s progress. Here you will see in detail the population growth of Westwald, as well as the economy and happiness of Westwald’s population. I wish I could tell you that this was helpful, but I found myself scrambling to understand how the detailed report suggested I proceed.

With that being said, Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists gives you plenty of tools to manage and organize requests and necessary items. You can tag things you want to synthesize for easy access in the list, as well as get detailed information on your villager’s levels and proficiencies. Where information is lacking, is advice on how to proceed.

The tutorial (while comprehensive) only gives you information on how things work. It doesn’t necessarily give you ideas for how to adapt those mechanics to suit your needs. For example, one task I encountered was to have positive income in my village for three turns straight. The problem with that is, it isn’t easy to figure out the best way to make money early on, not to mention the fact that there are tons of ways to spend money, most of which are very necessary.

As a fan of the Atelier series as a whole, I’m somewhat torn. I love the story segments of the game, and I enjoy the investigation aspect. I wish I enjoyed the city building side of things more, but it is missing what I love most about the Atelier series. To put it into more easily understood terms, I think Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists takes a more “hands-off” approach to the Atelier formula, while the mainline entries are more hands-on.

For example, in the mainline Atelier series, you do the alchemy yourself, you gather materials yourself, and you fight monsters and bosses, yourself. In this game, it is more about managing your resources, and delegating so that other characters do those things for you. As someone who loves the challenge of making better equipment and items with Alchemy, I prefer the hands-on approach.

If anything, the simplified combat and exploration make it feel more like a mobile game than an Atelier game. That doesn’t make it bad, it just makes it a bit different than what fans and veterans of the series might be used to.

My main complaint lies in the learning curve of figuring out how to make all the mechanics work together. The game does a decent enough job of telling you what to do, it just doesn’t tell you how to work the game’s systems in your favor to get that result. I will say that as a fan of the series as a whole, Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists is a bit different than what I am used to.

However, if you are looking for a city builder or simulation game that has a lot of heart, great characters, and an interesting story, you’ve come to the right place. The sheer volume of characters, dialogue, and endings involved give plenty of replay value, not to mention the prospect of New Game Plus, which lets you carry over things from previous playthroughs.

All-in-all, Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World is a great spinoff title for fans of the series who might want something a little different. Could the formula be refined and improved? Most definitely. Perhaps if it performs well, we’ll see another incarnation of it down the line. Either way, here’s to 20 more years of the Atelier franchise.

A Nintendo Switch Review Copy of Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World was provided by Koei Tecmo America for this review.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World

$56.71 USD

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Tons of Interesting Characters
• Deep City Builder Gameplay
• Fun Story
• Lots of Replay Value

Cons

• No English Localization
• No Guidance on How to Make Mechanics Work Together
• Combat is a Bit Watered Down

Buy Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists on Switch with our Amazon affiliate and support Phenixx Gaming at the same time!