You know, I have a real soft spot for games that never received much acclaim. It’s really quite fun playing a game that not many people will, and I always figure that someone has to love these games. Unless of course they’re actually terrible games. But for a mediocre or average game, I like to give the underdog a chance. Today’s game is not on many people’s radars, so hopefully I’ll be able to get the word out about it. Now, Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana was the first game in the series to be brought to the US, and it apparently fared well enough that the entire series started showing up over here. The subsequent games will have to wait until I can find them somewhere. Until then, let’s start off the series right.
The premise of Eternal Mana is thus. In the not so distant past, alchemists led a golden age of civilization, and created the fabulous city of Avenberry with the help of the mystical beings known as mana. However, one day they tried to create an entirely new mana through which they could channel elements and create artifacts. The plan backfired, and the great city fell into ruin. Generations passed, and alchemist became scarce. Enter Klein, inheritor of a grand family tradition of alchemy, come to the town of Kavoc that sprang up to meet the needs of those adventurous enough to seek their fortunes in the ruined Avenberry. Along the way, the plot thickens, and Klein’s party becomes aware of a new attempt to harness absolute power so as to take over the world. Yes, I’d like one generic RPG plot please, hold the surprise twist at the end. Actually, the plot is pretty segmented, because a lot of the game is made up of apparently pointless fetch quests.
Well shoot. Looks like the story isn’t going to keep us playing. Maybe the characters will? Certainly not our protagonist Klein, because he’s boring and has stupidly overpowered protagonist powers. He’s the only one who can heal for most of the game, and the only one with access to a variety of elemental attacks. Lita, the leading female, is surprisingly decent, combining a good amount of upbeat energy with some quite somber interludes. Delsus is pretty funny, being the older guy of the party who enjoys wine, women, and… well, you get the idea. His interactions with Lita as the foil form some of the more interesting dialogues in the game. The villain and the rival miniboss squad are both underwhelming, with the villain being especially bland. His motivations are left entirely undeveloped, and really, you hardly see him at all during the game. There is a certain amount of anticipation in the game over acquiring your sixth party member, but it’s drawn out a little bit too long.
Let’s see, how about the game system? Battles play out in classic turn based fashion, with each character having their own special moves and passive defensive abilities. Most characters have a few attacks that can affect an area, so enemy grouping is also important in battles. Outside of battle, you can level up each character’s skill by spending skill points gained at each character level. Characters can be equipped with mana gain bonus points to certain skills when their mana accrues a certain amount of experience. In keeping with the alchemical theme of the game, Klein creates mana items from pure elements he absorbs from random junk lying around, and these disposable items form the backbone of his abilities. It’s a simple yet effective system, with at least the illusion of customizability.
Real customization comes in with the crystal synthesizing. Items called mana stone can be turned into crystals which can be combined with other crystals and/or attached to certain weapons and accessories, granting abilities to the weapon itself. It’s an intimidating system at first, since you can use any of your 9 or so mana allies to create crystals from the 11 mana stone types. Once you get the hang of it, you can get some pretty cool effects by combing various properties, assuming you have the patience to try out hundreds of combinations. Or you could just look at a guide.
Finally, this game’s use of mana abilities is worth mentioning. Most of the mana come with a special command. This might be something simple like destroying blocks, or it could be preventing damage floors from affecting you. Combined with a few standalone powers, they form a solid exploration and puzzle solving mechanic. Plus, there are things called growloons to destroy, and reaching a few of these beasties can be tricky.
Replay value is “zilch.” Really, no good reason to play this game more than once. There are a couple of missable items, which could make filling out the item collection impossible, but that’s about it. The game is pretty linear, there’s not much customization at all until the very end game, and there’s only the merest shadow of a carry over feature. Basically, once you beat the game, you can save after the credits, which opens up an optional dungeon. Take your time and get everything in one go, because you won’t have any incentives to go back.
The final numerical score for this game needs to wait just a second, because there are a few things that should be talked about. Shop synthesis involves giving shops ingredients and getting them to make items for you. In two of the game’s shops, this opens up interesting characters who aren’t directly related to the story, but instead provide some pleasant side stories. The item collector who will unlock music and images in exchange for finding sets of items in the game is another fun sidequest. These mitigate some of the unfortunate nature of the plot, and allow this game to be solidly fun instead of mediocre. The rating is simply 7.5 out of 10. It’s got okay puzzle solving and exploration, good enough characters, and surprisingly fun sidequests, but its story is lame, dungeons are ridiculously short, and there’s little in the way of strategy options until quite late in the game.
Quick Tip: If you have a limited supply of one element necessary for an alchemy recipe, one way to stretch things is to make only one item at a time. If the mana are healthy and happy enough, they will frequently make one extra item, so you can sometimes get two items for the price of one.
How I Broke Game: I gave Arlin a weapon with a holy attack, a fire attack, and a straight up extra attack. This made him do ridiculous damage, which was actually necessary for the optional boss at the end of the bonus dungeon.
If you liked this game, you might want to look at some of these games. Wild Arms and Wild Arms 2 both have quite similar puzzle mechanics, but the puzzles in those games are much better. Dark Cloud, and to a certain extent Dark Cloud 2 have weapon synthesis systems that are moderately similar to the one in Eternal Mana. Finally, Thousand Arms is another game with a similarly corny RPG feel to it.
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