Review for Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland. Game for Nintendo Switch, PC and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 20/03/2019 The version for PC came out on 24/05/2019 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 24/05/2019 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 21/05/2019
The JRPG landscape can be described as a contradiction of itself. Although it seems for years in constant decline for the quantity of titles, in reality it is saturated with mediocre games that do not bring any new idea to the plate and end up being short and forgotten parentheses in the videogame career of fans. Atelier Lulua: The Scion of the Arland is placed in an even more particular position: the original formula of the now classic Atelier series gives the title an interesting and satisfying gameplay loop, however an essential lack of courage and perhaps even commitment to some situations penalizes him by preventing him from exiting in all respects from the insipid average mass of Japanese role-playing games.
We can tell you right away that, even if the review will highlight several defects, Atelier Lulua is a good title, which we recommend to fans of the series but also to anyone who is curious to try Gust's games; being a very good entry point for how it is structured.
Atelier Lulua is set years later than Atelier Rorona, a title released in the PS3 generation, and will put us in the shoes of Lulua, daughter of the protagonist of the previous title, Rorona. While this premise may seem like a stumbling block for those looking to get closer to the series, Gust has developed both the script and tutorial system to favor newcomers, doing a great job on that front. Unfortunately, however, it is the screenplay in general that is sinning. There are some attention-grabbing intrigues and the game does a good job of creating empathy through gameplay (which we'll discuss later) but these elements are wasted for two main reasons. The heart of a good script is in the characters, and the blood that gives it life is the dialogue; Unfortunately, Atelier Lulua fails in both fields.
The cast of protagonists is rather bland. We will find ourselves in front of the "factory standards" of the JRPG industry: the proud knight who is ashamed in the presence of the fair sex, the positive but inattentive girl, the shy friend who tries to make her think but ends up getting involved in crazy ideas and who more has more put. The cast of the new title of Gust did not at all convinced us in the concept and failed to make us change our minds even after having witnessed the numerous dialogues present. In terms of dialogue, the game alternates unnecessary and heavy skits to follow with cute cutscenes that never take the extra step to become memorable.. This is combined with insufficient cutscene management, typical of low-ranking JRPGs of the last 10 years, lacking in style and with a truly lazy and sterile framing work.
The game redeems itself though with its core gameplay core: unlike the competition, Atelier Lulua (and other Ateliers before this one) specialize in gameplay based not on combat, but on crafting. There will be turn-based combat sections, but the focus of Lulua's adventures is on the study and discovery of alchemy. Thanks to the Alchemyriddle, a magical book that only Lulua can read and complete, we will be continually given new recipes to discover by finding the right ingredients through gathering or combat.
The loop that the title creates involved us a lot: the exploration in search of the right material to be able to decipher the recipe necessary to continue, or to be able to unlock the recipe to enhance a character's weapon, is fun and represents the greatest strength of Atelier Lulua.
The balance between battles and exploration is managed almost perfectly, with game pacing that we have rarely seen so successful in a JRPG. This is also thanks to the division of the game areas, usually quite small, but full of objects to be collected, which manage to give the impression of a constant sense of progression of the character, even when maybe in reality you find yourself not making much progress.
The combat system is not particularly complex, but it has several interesting mechanics that deepen it just right for such a title, without making it too demanding and risking obscuring the gameplay, but without being bland or banal.
The graphic sector of the title is rather pleasant, within the limit of the budget reserved for Gust for this project, however, very niche. We are not talking about phenomenal models like those of the recent Kingdom Hearts 3, or even the explosion of style that is Persona 5, but the result obtained from Koei Tecmo's study is satisfactory. The characters are well modeled and the settings pleasant to see. There are many not-so-exceptional details looking around our characters' surroundings, but the overall result is still pleasing.
We do not feel instead to promote the soundtrack, which we found bland and devoid of memorable tracks; a real shame, especially for a title of this genre, famous for being heavily based on the music sector. In terms of performance, the game performs very well on Playstation 4 Pro, with no frame-rate drops or graphics bugs or crashes.
Atelier Lulua is a good game that could certainly be better. It creates an interesting and engaging gameplay loop, but is limited by a cast of anonymous and mundane characters. Recommended for both fans of the series and those wishing to know the titles of Gust, however it fails to differentiate itself as much as needed from the general mediocrity of the JRPG of this generation.
► Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland is an Adventure-RPG game developed by Gust Co. Ltd. and published by Koei Tecmo for Nintendo Switch, PC and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 20/03/2019 The version for PC came out on 24/05/2019 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 24/05/2019 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 21/05/2019
