Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis

[Aylmer]

This is a niche JRPG of the artsy/bizarre/old school variety, but it deserves better than the mediocre reviews it's gotten. I'm just a few hours in, but I'm hooked. It has turn based battle elements of Grandia, Rogue Galaxy, Growlanser, and some others thrown in. It's battle system is good to the point that you'll go out hunting often. it's mission based, as in completing assignments given at 'school'. A very unique item creation system is included.

If you are an anime fan (like me) then this game is beautiful, with hi-res 2D overlays with dialog, etc. the audio is neat, too, and it comes with a music cd. Level design is ok, with an old style 2.5D with fixed perspective. It used lots of sprites, but they are jaggie free.

I think Tashi might like this, perhaps some others. The main chars weapon is a cat that morphs around his arm. Upgrade the cat's collar and you upgrade the weapon. It is weird shyt like this that keeps me buying these games...

[T.Tashi]

This is a niche JRPG of the artsy/bizarre/old school variety, but it deserves better than the mediocre reviews it's gotten. I'm just a few hours in, but I'm hooked. It has turn based battle elements of Grandia, Rogue Galaxy, Growlanser, and some others thrown in. It's battle system is good to the point that you'll go out hunting often. it's mission based, as in completing assignments given at 'school'. A very unique item creation system is included.

If you are an anime fan (like me) then this game is beautiful, with hi-res 2D overlays with dialog, etc. the audio is neat, too, and it comes with a music cd. Level design is ok, with an old style 2.5D with fixed perspective. It used lots of sprites, but they are jaggie free.

I think Tashi might like this, perhaps some others. The main chars weapon is a cat that morphs around his arm. Upgrade the cat's collar and you upgrade the weapon. It is weird shyt like this that keeps me buying these games...

I think I would too. I've been wanting to pick it up and I've gathered together a few mediocre titles I've been struggling to finish but I think I'll just say eff it adn trade 'em in, which is something I haven't done in a while, because I don't like that Gamespot takes their new games out of the shrinkwrap. But maybe I'll just order it from Amazon. No tax, shipping is free and I can save the gas. So thanks for posting. It's always nice to get a perspective from someone who appreciates the genre and especially one with elements of Grandia which has my fav battle system ever.

[Aylmer]

people who play the occaisional JRPG will probably not like this game. those who play them a lot probably will. I still say it's a niche game, with almost 20 hours in, so I'll explain some aspects of the game so you'll know what I mean.

There is a very vague, almost non-existant story line. there is no big task of saving the world, etc. you are simply a student at an Alchemy school.

there is no leveling up. none. you increase your party member's stats in two ways. one, by creating new items with increased stats thru alchemy, and two, by spending AP points you earn in battle on your 'Grow Book', which is very similar to the big board where you have plugin sockets that open up other abilities, like Star ocean or Rogue Galaxy.

enemies are represented by little glob guys on the field map, sorta like a Tales game, so you do not have to fight if you don't want to, though if you get close they'll come after you if they notice you. once contact with a glob is initiated, you go to a Grandia-like battle screen, with the little icons arrayed across the top of the screen. Only then do you find out exactly which monsters you'll be fighting, and there are surprises indeed. much of what you need for alchemy is based on item drops i.e. one monster will drop one particular item, so this can be tricky. one thing about this sytem that is different from Grandia is the fact that attacking and healing spells can have their own icon in the chain. this means you have to strategize a bit. a lot, actually. So, if there are 3 in your party and 4 in the enemy group, and you cast a healing spell that iterates three times (meaning it has three icons spread out in the chain) then you can maneuver your guys so the healing icons will hit the ones where it's needed. unfortunately, the enemy AI knows what you're up to and will try to screw up your plans.

there is a lot of exploring to be done, but there is a clock system, complete with lighting changes, etc. I've played many games where the enemies get stronger after dark, but with this game, it's insane. They get WAY stronger and WAY more agressive, and the field map globs get a lot faster. For the first few hours, i just warped back to town when it got dark, since I was getting killed so much.

all items have characteristics, usually no more than three, sometimes more. so, an alchemized wepon may have stun, and may also boost your attack and defense too. but, even things like bombs have them. I made a firebomb that had one characteristic, called Orgasmic. I'm thinking, wtf? So i used it in battle, and the enemies moaned and groaned in ecstasy while they were burning. very strange.

and so it goes. again, if you are a fan of the genre, get this game. if you are an occaisional JRPG player, get DQ8 instead.

[T.Tashi]

I was gonna wait til the PSP version til I found out there is no NA release date. So it might come here or it might not. Plus the Japanese version is slated for late summer\early fall release, so we wouldn't see an American release til 09 probably. So that kinda bums me out. I know I'd have more time to play it if it was portable. But I'm getting more and more curious so in all likelyhood, I won't wait.

[Aylmer]

that is a shame, as I would have been interested in the PSP version as well. the game would be enhanced with a wide screen aspect ratio.

btw, lots of cool goodies at Play-Asia. Looks like Super Robot Taisen Portable is coming out on both the PSP and DS in a couple of weeks. Like you said, a US version would be sweet.