Atelier Viorate – Alchemy plus shop simulation, so addictive

atelier-viorate-coverAtelier ViorateAlchemist of Gramnad 2– is just your standard alchemy simulation game like all the other Atelier series games before and after it. I know I played it on the PS2 many, many years ago, but I didn’t remember much about it when I picked it up again on the PSP last week. All I remembered was it was an easier version of Atelier Judie with a shop and a lot of carrots in it. And that’s a pretty accurate summary of the game if you’ve played Judie. If you haven’t, I’ll go into a little more detail below.

Story

atelier-viorate-psp-trailerViorate’s parents want to move out of the downtrodden village of Karotte, but Viorate refuses to go along because there’s no guarantee there’ll be any carrots where they are going. And Viorate looooves her carrots. She decides to stay home and become an alchemist under the influence of wandering alchemist Aizel. Now she has three years to set up and run a thriving shop selling synthesized goods before her parents return to whisk her off to parts unknown.

Alchemy gameplay

Standard alchemy game fare. Buy or find books containing alchemy recipes, buy and find ingredients, throw them in a pot according to the recipe and then use or sell whatever comes out. As with Atelier Judie, the quality of the ingredients used has a big effect on the resulting item. In other games either each item has a single effect or you can get different effects by varying the ingredients or reagents used. In Judie/Viorate it’s all about the raw materials. Use really good candles and you’ll get really good bombs. Use really good cheese and you’ll get really good cheesecake. Simple enough to understand.

atelier-viorate-alchemyOf course there’s a catch: how do you get the best ingredients? If you’re lucky you can find them in the wild, but can you get them back to your atelier before they go bad? Well, unlike in Judie, you usually can. The original Viorate on the PS2 slowed down the rate of decay from Judie and then the PSP remake relaxed the freshness system even further, so it’s much less stressful and frustrating than in the previous game.

But still, after you get the ingredients home and make an item, how do you stop that from going bad? Simple, you just build a handy-dandy icebox right in your studio and presto, no more trouble. No more traveling halfway around the continent to access the only cold storage in the world. Alternatively you can “register” certain items with other alchemy shops around the continent so they can produce your Lehruns and Flams and Spinach and other items at the same level of quality as the sample you gave them. So for very fragile items you can carry the non-perishable ingredients to the closest pub (you can synthesize in pubs too, don’t ask me how), go foraging for the ingredients, make the goods and then register them on the spot for optimum freshness. Super convenient.

atelier-viorate-shop-registryLong story short, Atelier Viorate’s alchemy system has all the fun and complexity of conventional Atelier alchemy systems but with much less of the frustration Judie introduced. My only little complaint so far is that there aren’t that many items to make. And if you’ve played other Atelier games, most of them aren’t original either. But I haven’t even finished my first 3 years and gotten my 2-year extension yet, so there’s still time to get more recipes and raw materials.

Shop simulation

As far as I know, not having played the PS3 games, the shop system is unique to Atelier Viorate (apart from the useless gimmick in Atelier Annie). However it’s a stretch to call it a ‘robust’ shop simulation. It is certainly not deep enough or addictive enough to make it worth spending time on versus being out on the road foraging and fulfilling quests. And since she can rope trusted associates into manning the store for up to 3 months at a time, Viorate’s only job is to fill the shelves with random stuff and then go roam the world until she gets bored.

atelier-viorate-storeWell okay, it’s not quite as simple as that. The success of Viorate’s store determines whether your game will end in failure after 3 years or whether you’ll get an extra 2 years to play. Furthermore, the better the store does, the more people come to visit Karotte Village. The more prosperous the village gets, the more stores and other facilities open up for your convenience. Plus money is pretty hard to come by, so the little you get from the store really helps. Either way you ignore store management to your own detriment.

I sell mostly foods and rare goods and get along okay.

I sell mostly foods and rare goods and get along okay.

So what exactly can you do? First, stock quality items in your store. You will lose customers if you have a lot of spoiled, broken or low quality items in stock. Duh. It also helps to carry a variety – some food, some medicine, some weapons, but you can specialize in a few categories instead if it’s too much trouble. Secondly you can go around the surrounding towns and villages doing quests at the local pubs to promote your store. It’s probably the fastest way to grab customers and the most Atelier-like as well.

Third, it helps a lot to take part in the yearly village auction, especially if you win. You can get over 100 extra visitors that way, and since your goal is only 500, that’s a big boost. Lastly, probably least important but most lucrative, you can take advantage of fads or ‘booms’ to move a lot of products quickly. One sneaky way to do this is to synthesize the fad item as soon as the boom starts and then register it with your local store. Then you can buy it, mark it up at a premium and make lots of cash, money and moolah, suh-weet.

atelier-viorate-store-display

Your store display changes to reflect what you have in stock.

Very little of that requires Viorate to be in the store herself, though. Unless you’re really into shop simulation games (in which case you should play something else) it’s best to put some decent items in your store and then focus on driving up popularity by fulfilling quests. If you can get some good business going from the Karotte Village and Fasbender pubs (tip: sell the free Fasbender booze for quick money) and participate in all three auctions, that should be enough to get the 500 visitors you need to clear the 3-year time limit.

That means the store management part of Atelier Viorate can be thought of as a mandatory side quest or minigame rather than as a main attraction. It’s not annoying or tedious and doesn’t take anything away from the game. I’m not convinced it adds anything either, especially given how low-key it is, but it works in the context of this particular game and Gust had the good sense not to carry it into other games, so we’ll leave it at that.

Battles and exploration

atelier-viorate-random-battle-1Foraging is just going around picking up items off the ground. However there are field obstacles that you’ll need alchemy items to get around if you want to get to the really good stuff. For example you might find a big pool of water in your way. You can fly over it with a flying broom, or dive under it with an air drop, or freeze it over with a Lehrun bomb, it’s all up to you. Can be frustrating early on when you don’t have any of this stuff, otherwise it’s just a minor inconvenience later on in the game.

Combat is standard turn-based random battles with a 3-member party. You get 1 skill point on level up to improve your battle skills. Apart from that and buying equipment there isn’t much party customization to do. Almost everyone is useful so just pick whichever character you like. I usually use a combination of Brigit, Roland, Rodfried and Bart.

atelier-viorate-random-battle-2For the first few dungeons you can get by pretty well with your starting equipment. After that store-bought equipment will carry you for a while, especially if you’ve strengthened some good skills by that point. Eventually though, you’re going to want to craft custom armor and weapons with buffs and protections and status effects. E.g. fire protection will come in handy when fighting a fire boss and LP-draining weapons are always useful.

As alchemists, Viorate and Aizel can also use powerful healing items and bombs to carve a path through enemies like a hot knife through butter. And they will, just as soon as I actually get round to crafting some of those things. I will, I really will, one of these days. Right now I’m still scraping by on whatever I can cobble together from the leftovers in my foraging basket after fulfilling quests. But I’ll get round to making good stuff, really I will.

Overall impressions of Atelier Viorate
Obligatory "Kyaa~ Oniichan, you pervert!" scene.

Obligatory “Kyaa~ Oniichan, you pervert!” scene.

I’m not done yet, but I’m having a great time. It’s been a very long time since I played a PSP game for so long that my wrists started to hurt. A long time since I moved one aching wrist only to realize the battery light was flashing and then plugged the PSP in and kept right on playing until it was fully charged again. I’d almost forgotten that feeling, I’ve been playing so many lackluster games lately.

It’s great to explore new areas and fight new enemies, barely making it out alive only to heal up and dive right back in again. I like all the playable and non-playable characters without exception, I enjoy the alchemy system especially when I get a new recipe, it’s exciting to see Karotte Village develop from backwater boonies to thriving town based on my efforts alone, etc etc. There’s plenty to like about Atelier Viorate.

There are only a few minuses to the game. For one, I feel like the scale of the game is a bit small. There are several field areas to explore, which I’m grateful for, but a lot of areas are walled off until you can create higher-level items, by which time you can’t even remember where you couldn’t go before. Plus the continent feels a little empty of people. The towns and villages you visit aren’t lively and don’t feature any interesting NPCs or extra activities to do. No wonder your parents emigrated.

"...What are you covering up for? Silly oniichan~"

“…What are you covering up for? Silly oniichan~”

Second complaint, there aren’t enough alchemy recipes! The flams are there, but where are the mega flams and giga flams and other familiar world-destroying goodies? I think I already mentioned this earlier in this review, but it’s a pretty big deal in an alchemy game. Maybe I’ll luck upon some more recipes as I explore dungeons and defeat bosses.

Last complaint: I find playing around with item attributes tedious. I want to make lots of different items instead of making one beer that does X and the same beer again that does Y this time, and the same beer a third time until I get a useful effect from it. It’s good for the perfectionist who wants to make the perfect honey and the perfect handmade paper and stuff. And it does offer great game-breaking potential once you fit several great effects onto a single item and then mass-produce it, buuuutt…. In this particular case I prefer quantity over quality, is all I’m saying.

Still, all that only slightly affects the fun I’m having with Viorate and co. After all, it’s not like I’ve made all the items I have access to, and there’s so much of the map I haven’t explored yet that I don’t even know where to start. I haven’t cleared out the thief’s hideout, I haven’t explored the sea tower, I haven’t entered Westlich Nabel, I haven’t gone through the long tunnel that’s supposed to lead to another city, I haven’t cleared the swamp across the river, phew! That two-year extension might barely be enough to scratch the surface of all those things. Depending on the ending I get and the things I get to carry over, I might be tempted to do a replay of Atelier Viorate once I’m done. See you then!

15 thoughts on “Atelier Viorate – Alchemy plus shop simulation, so addictive

  1. K says:

    Cute that they give you a scene where she distrubs the guy for fanservice too. Not that it makes much sense having him only be shirtless – he’s more covered up than if they’d go swimming at the beach together xD “Kyaaa, you’ve seen my exposed shoulder blades, now no one will ever want to marry onii-chan”

    • Kina says:

      That was her reaction. “Like seriously, you’re a guy, nobody cares about seeing your bare chest so get over yourself.” :-p
      But Bart got off relatively lightly in this scene. In most anime/games if a girl walks in a guy changing, she hits him for being a pervert.

  2. eylenasorena says:

    Nice to see a review of this game~

    Also the reason everyone calles her Violet is because of trinity universe as it was localized 🙂
    http://triuni.wikia.com/wiki/Violet

  3. Kami says:

    I wish i could get my japanese level up higher so i can play this game. I’m a big fan of atelier series, but those only released in japan make me cry coz they’re so hard to play. I find myself crying at the TV screen for not be able to play succesfully Atelier Viorate. Such a pityful, but still I want to try thanks to your entry! Thank you so much! <3

    • Kina says:

      You’re welcome! Keep up the Japanese studies! Localization companies do their best, but not everything can be released in English. You’ll start seeing results within 2 years and by the 5 year mark you can enjoy all your favorite JRPGs in their original language. Good luck!

      • Kami says:

        Well, thanks to your review, I played the PSP version and got this final where Viorate stayed in Karotte. Karotte got 1182 visits and grown really well, but I’m not sure if the finale I got is a good final. I never got the chance to visit the flying ship and I left a lot of unfinished recipes. Do you know how to reach the ship? T.T I would thank you till the death

        Once again, thank you for your review.

        • Kina says:

          I know how to reach the area where the ship appears, but I’ve never fought it. It’s supposed to be the hardest boss in the game which escapes after 5 turns unless you’re going for the Lapis ending and encounter it in an event. To reach it, you just need a good quality living rope. Talk to Offen after seeing the ship once and then make your way through 迷いの森. There may be some other stuff you have to do, but it’s not hard to find.

          The ending you got sounds the カロッテ市 ending. You get it for having over 900 visitors to Karotte and nothing else. You can view the ending list here and translate it with Google Translate.

          • Kami says:

            Quite useful! Thank you so much! Mmmm it seems like I really need to synthtetise a Flying Board… The Phantom corridor… it says that the phantom corridor I can find the book for the recipe but… where the heck can I reach the Phantom Corridor? (T___T so sorry for asking but I really don’t know anyone who actually do play Japanese videogames)

          • Kina says:

            It’s underground somewhere, can’t quite remember. Oh, it’s in the Q & A. According to the Q&A you have to use an Air Drop to dive underwater at one spot in the Forest Plains (樹人原).

            The high-quality Gravia stones you need to make the Flying Board can be found on the Zorn Plateau if you don’t have them already. Take along Living Ropes or Flying Broomsticks.

  4. Kami says:

    Well, here I am again, asking for help.

    I’m trying really hard to get the true ending, but the thing is I don’t know any way to get any movie in game. Do you know how to get any? Getting LVL40 in alchemy and adventurer isn’t that complicated, and the Popularity lvl… in game, I don’t know where consult it, do you know where?

    Greetings from a desperate chilean boy

    • Kina says:

      You don’t need to see any movies to get the True ending. The ムービーあり in the requirements just means the ending is animated.

      The easiest way to check Popularity is to look at your stats when you save. Here’s an example:
      Atelier viorate save file
      You can see 100 next to 人気 and 2年延長 at the top. This save file qualifies for the True ending.

      • Kami says:

        Kina, I’m so thanksful for you always responsing my sillynesses

        I see that this is for the PS2 ver., isn’t it? I’m playing the PSP version T_T

        Maybe I’ll try playing the PS2 version. I just want the free play modo so baaad ToT!!

        So at the end you just got to make it to the lvl40 (alchemy and adventurer) and lvl 100 in popularity. I think popularity comes with completing jobs in every bar, am I right?

        One more little thing: How do you use the flying board for fly to ハーフェン? I get to unlock the way through the Faraway Forest and the Fairy Forest ’till ハーフェン. But I just don’t know how use it, just in the exploration.

        Once again, I’m tremendously thankful for you to always helping me. I’m enjoying this game so much!!

        • Kina says:

          The ending list I gave is for the PSP version. The pic is a random one I took from twitter to illustrate the save file. I’m not playing games this November so I can’t check the PSP version until next month.

          I don’t understand the question about Hafen? If you can’t fly on the map, you might have the wrong kind of flying boards. There are 2 kinds, one that speeds map travel 3x and one that lets you jump over obstacles in the field. Which kind you make depends on the quality of ingredients you use.

          • Kami says:

            Now I get it. Maybe the ingredients I used in previus mixing were not right in order to get the “speed map travel 3x” review… The flying boards that I’ve been synthesied just let me jump ove obstacles as you said, so, I’ll have to work it out a little more.

            Thank you so much -3-

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