Atelier Rorona Plus: Cramping my style

This had to happen: I finally made my first foray into the long-running Atelier series as well as into the vast world of so-called "alchemic RPGs".

I was initially planning to play Atelier Escha&Logy Plus, but I reasoned that it would be better to start with what can be considered the roots of the series on the Vita, i.e. the Arland trilogy. More specifically with the first game in the trilogy, namely Atelier Rorona Plus. And thus I found myself embroiled in Rorona's epic fight to keep her master's atelier afloat and discovering the marvels of videogame alchemy for the first time ever. And boy, does it defy and crush my expectations regarding virtual alchemy in general and Atelier games in particular.

Indeed, I used to have my own private vision of how both virtual alchemy and Atelier games should play like. Said vision was informed by my love for all things grinding and by my playthrough of Hometown Story, which is the closest thing to a simulation game I'd played before picking up Rorona. I envisioned games that would let me forage for hours on end and synthesize items by the truckload, in what could only be described as an alchemic-flavoured take on good ol' grinding. As for the time limit, while I vaguely knew of its existence, I fully expected it to be lenient and to allow for a lot of foraging, synthetizing and running around trying various things.

The actual gameplay of Rorona is, of course, a million miles away from this rosy picture, and I can see from here the knowing smiles on the faces of the players who are familiar with the franchise. Never before did I play a game in which every single decision matters so much and must be so carefully pondered. Not only is the time limit so stringent that there is very little room for error and/or experimentation, but the resource management is absolutely diabolical. Nothing is given for free in that game and nothing must be taken for granted: every single action costs resources, time and/or money, and balancing everything that must be accomplished is a full-blown challenge. In fact, not only is it a challenge, but it's actually the whole point of the game. The alchemy is but a pretense here: at its core, Rorona is really just a game revolving around time management, whose sole purpose is to accomplish as much as possible in a given amount of time.

Despite the fact that I've performed honourably so far, clearing the first two assignments with a three-star evaluation and all ratings to the max, I have to admit that playing Rorona makes me feel quite fidgety and cramped. This is not the most relaxing of games, especially for a total beginner. Not only do I tend to fret about the best course of action, but the risk of failing an assignment and seeing a couple of gameplay hours go down the drain looms large over my playthrough. Of course, there is no indication that this is ever going to happen; if anything, my first steps into the game are rather indicative of the opposite. Now, only time will tell if I keep up with the good work and manage to do a clear round or if I stumble along the way. At any rate, I hope I will manage to relax a trifle and handle my alchemic duties with more gusto and abandon on the long run. Let's play and see!

So far, while I'm having a decent amount of fun playing Rorona and can certainly feel a rewarding sense of accomplishment when I manage to monitor tasks and assigments in a clever way, I didn't have a massive crush on the "alchemy simulation" subgenre. As a matter of fact, I was expecting to love the genre considerably more, and the relative tepidity of my feelings for Rorona definitely took me by surprise. On the other hand, this means that I can dispense with purchasing Japanese physical editions of all the Vita Atelier games for the sake of perennity; given my moderate love for the genre, my physical edition of Atelier Escha&Logy will certainly suffice to satiate all my cravings for virtual alchemy in the decades to come. Good thing I restrained myself and didn't purchase Japanese physical versions of Atelier games before playing Rorona. Patience is definitely paying off! Now if you'll excuse me, my third assignment is waiting to be tackled. See you later for more alchemic deeds! Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!