(Vita) Atelier Meruru Plus review

A stellar final entry in the Arland trilogy that offers a fitting conclusion to all of the intertwined storylines and introduces some brilliant new ideas that propel the series into the stratosphere.

Developer	Gust
Publisher	Koei-Tecmo
Franchise	Atelier
Genre	Role-playing
PSTV	Yes
Physical English	No – digital only

 

World-building & Story

Set in the small kingdom of Arls on the outskirts of Arland, Atelier Meruru follows the titular Meruru, a princess with a love of alchemy who is issued an ultimatum by her father Lord Dessler – either use alchemy to help kingdom grow before its merger with Arland, or quit the craft altogether. The plot follows this journey over a number of years with a cast of characters pulled from every previous entry in the Arland trilogy.

By changing the setting to Arls and setting the goal as helping the land to develop, Atelier Meruru strikes a narrative high note that has gone unmatched for the franchise. By crafting items and delivering them to various areas, you will literally watch the land shift from a small, desolate community into bustling hub which is a fantastic way to track the progress you’re making. I really liked the idea that you’d tap natural resources like wind to generate power (using windmills you help craft), or help to clear a forest to create farmland for food and seeing Arls change along the way is fascinating.

Of course, the core central story is good too – namely, it’s centred around Meruru growing as a person and learning to accept who she is in the world. While not quite as endearing as Totori, she’s a likeable protagonist with plenty of charm and drive for what she’s doing – and that makes it so much easier to root for her along the way. She’s helped by childhood friends Keina (who has a relationship with her very similar to Ceci and Totori, except somehow even more sweet and lovable here) and Lias (who begrudgingly takes up the mantle as her protector) and the dynamics between them – like with every Atelier title – is a particular highlight.

There’s an absolutely massive selection of other characters to interact with here though, each with their own storylines which will slowly build over the course of the journey. Returning from Atelier Rorona are Esty (now playable and on an amusing quest to restore her youth) and stoic knight Sterk, who quickly tries to enact sweeping changes in Arls. From Atelier Totori there’s Gino, the childhood warrior on a quest to grow ever more powerful and the aristocrat Mimi (now grown up and much more likeable here). There’s also Rorona (de-aged into a young girl with predictably hilarious results) and Totori (matured into a wonderfully nurturing teacher) along with newcomers like Rufus (who handles your requests) and the long-awaited return of Astrid, Rorona’s teacher who would rather slack off than do any work despite her vast knowledge of alchemy.

The reason I’ve run through all of these is to illustrate just how vast the character-building is here – each one of the above has their own ‘social link’ where you view events by building a relationship meter with them, which in turn helps you bond with them and care about their plight. Some are humorous – Esty and her constant worrying about age for example, or Astrid turning the town’s water into milk with her experiments, but the majority are actually quite deep and touching. Sterk’s quest to find meaning and establish a new knight program in Arls is pretty sweet but the real winner for me was Keina and Meruru’s touching friendship and them slowly drifting apart as the kingdom grows before finding what it was that tied them together in the first place. Atelier Meruru is filled with moments like this, and it’s all the better for it.

Arls itself is a fantastic setting – as with all the Arland games, it seems based on medieval Europe with stone castles and quaint architecture, along with fantasy elements like towering dragons living in abandoned volcanoes. Exploring every nook and cranny of its landscape is a joy especially as it unlocks bit by bit, presenting a truly fascinating kingdom.

 

Presentation & Sound

Further refining the anime-inspired style of the previous Arland entries, Atelier Meruru is a gorgeous (if not particularly technically accomplished) title that shines on Vita.

As always, characters are simple in their basic models but all their little details and flourishes of design make them brilliant. Meruru for example has a little pink crown above her flowing pink hair on and a wing attached to her sleeve which brightens up the screen when she moves her arm, while Keina’s more delicate maid outfit and short haircut perfectly suits her more reserved character. Their animations are spot on too – whether it be Lias angrily stomping away after an argument (like the big child he is) or Sterk swinging his massive sword with ease during combat, everything is smooth and looks great.

While plenty of the cutscenes are fully animated and there’s a gorgeous opening montage showing each of the characters in Arls, there are a large amount of VN conversation scenes for the rest of the dialogue. These are smartly drawn and feature various different static poses for the characters – they’re not the most engaging, but they work. The same can be said for the CG stills you’re given upon reaching certain milestones – they’re a nice little reward showing things like Esty and Filly getting drunk or Masked G defeating yet another monster, even if a little animation would have been nice.

In terms of environments, Meruru adopts the rulebook used in Totori in that there’s tonnes of variety here for such a tiny kingdom. You’ll run through forests, mines, swamps, deserts, mythical libraries, floating citadels in the sky and everything in between, all of them looking surprisingly gorgeous despite their basic elements. The thing I appreciated most here is that the majority of areas evolve as you develop them – so an early grassland will slowly change into a bustling farm with fields of wheat, grazing animals and storage silos. Watching this happen is always amazing and it helps travelling around the Arland world feel more dynamic and fluid.

Elsewhere, you’ll spend a lot of time in menus which honestly aren’t the most intuitive and are a bit of a pain to navigate around (particularly during alchemy), but are something you’ll get used to after a while. Meanwhile combat remains a visual treat – enemies range from tiny blue blobs to towering demons that cast fantastical screen-clearing moves. Of course, you can counter with your own arsenal and some of the special attacks (particularly from Gino and Sterk) are a sight to behold.

Music is as good as ever for the series, with a beautiful selection of tracks to frame action, comedy or tense scenes perfectly – I also really liked that each character had their own theme which played whenever they’re on screen. There’s also a large amount of English voice acting which is all high quality and brilliant.

Soundtrack highlight – Cloudy

 

Gameplay & Content

Meruru’s quest to grow her kingdom follows the same Atelier formula fans (like me) unashamedly love by now – crafting, fighting, gathering and triggering events, which is still as addictive now as it’s ever been.

So the major shake up here is that like Rorona, your goal is to complete a series of tasks – except instead of a new one every few months, it’s an overarching task to help the kingdom of Arls to grow as big as possible before it merges with Arland. This is done by collecting requests from citizens then reporting to Rufus who will draw up a plan, which invariably involves defeating monsters or delivering materials. It creates an addictive loop where not only are you constantly running around pulling off goals, but you’re also trying to be as efficient as possible (i.e travelling to two different areas in one excursion outside the city).

By completing these tasks, you’ll be rewarded with development points which can be spent on building new facilities for Arls – arenas, libraries, markets etc which each add a population bonus as well as various perks (i.e cheaper items in shops). You’ll also have to manage specific requests from Filly (taken at a quest counter like in previous Arland entries given by Cordelia or Esty) that are used to raise your popularity (which in turn attracts more people to Arls), as well as requests from party members which raises their friendship.

That’s because there’s a sort-of social link system here where raising the relationship meter with Meruru’s friends will unlock new events and reveal more about their personalities, which is always worth doing as there’s some very amusing scenes included here (Lias and Pamela in particular remained highlights throughout). Aside from requests, you can also raise friendship by taking these people out as escorts during Meruru’s adventures in Arls and this is where the bulk of the gameplay in the Atelier series lies.

See, there’s a whole kingdom out there just waiting to be explored (shown by a points-based map that uses in-game time to run around) and as you develop areas you’ll slowly gain access to more and more places. Entering them reveals fixed-camera locations that you can run around and engage enemies (that are thankfully shown on screen meaning you can avoid them) and gather items which in turn can be used for alchemy. No matter what you do, it uses up time, meaning exploration is a careful balancing act between getting what you need and not overstaying and wasting valuable days.

Combat in Atelier Meruru is simplistic turn-based fare that still works very well. You have a turn meter at the right side of the screen and each character can choose from various actions on their turn such as attack, defend or use skills, while alchemists can also use items (this includes Totori and Rorona). Fighting normal enemies is usually a matter of choosing the correct foe to take down in the correct order to minimise damage to your team, but bosses pose a real challenge and are where the game truly excelled for me.

Throughout the main story you’ll be challenged by demons, dragons and other gigantic creatures that require tactics to effectively subdue. Meruru can chain items with her escorts by draining their assist gauge which can result in some really flashy attacks, while a further specials meter allows the escorts to pull off impressive screen-clearing moves (Sterk’s is definitely the best). There’s even a bonus dungeon called Makina Domain containing some insanely difficult bosses I couldn’t even begin to tackle given that harder battles rely much more on having the best equipment than grinding enough levels to take them on.

Equipment, just like everything else in the Atelier series, is created by alchemy. Those items you get by collecting at gather points in areas can be combined in Meruru’s cauldron to make new items – be it bombs, ingots or materials, you’ll need to master the art of synthesis to succeed. It’s a simple system (throwing together what you want) made complicated by traits (different effects on your items) and levels (some synthesis will fail if you’re not high enough), but it’s always fun and finally creating that new trinket to make your characters all powerful or to complete a quest is a rewarding feeling.

There are multiple different endings to unlock when you’re done with the journey and this is honestly my biggest criticism of Atelier Meruru – they’re vastly different and work on a priority system meaning that without a guide, you’ll be stumped. Indeed, a guide feels almost mandatory to see everything on offer here – but the game feels best when you’re exploring its mysteries and uncovering them on your own, just the chance of missing important things is extremely high.

Still, there’s dozens of hours of content here and plenty of incentive to return (some characters aren’t even unlocked until new game play) and I had a brilliant time playing the game throughout – I definitely didn’t want this one to end.

 

Conclusion

A stunning conclusion to a fantastic trilogy of games, Atelier Meruru offers everything I’d hoped for and more – the conclusion of the storylines for characters I’d grown to love, an exciting new adventure in a brand new area of Arland and a fun new city-building mechanic that feels right at home in the series. Combined with the fact that the base gameplay from previous entries has been tweaked even further (it was already pretty great to begin with) and you’ve got a truly special RPG here – one that’s undoubtedly among the best Vita has to offer.

9.5/10