It may not seem it at first, but the subtitle (not on the spine, so I figured I wouldn't include it here :b) of "Atelier Lilie - One More Story" makes it pretty clear that this is a spin-off of the Atelier series. This is a visual novel that's a spin-off (and, at least I'd argue, an ultimately non-canon one) of the third Atelier game, Atelier Lilie. It's also one of the very very few games in the Atelier series that is both a spin-off and not a remake that's also on a home console and not a handheld console. I enjoyed Atelier Lilie quite a lot, and so the opportunity to spend a bit more time in that world in a bit of an unfamiliar genre seemed right up my alley. As luck would have it, there was actually a copy of this in my city (although I had to drive all the way across town to get it XP), so it wasn't a difficult choice to spend the 800 yen to pick this up. I had heard it was fairly short, which proved true when I completed it in just around 5 or so hours, but it was time I ultimately found very worthwhile. (I will be getting into some spoilers in this review, fair warning)

As the title heavily implies, this game is about Hermina and Culus. Hermina is one of the two young (like 10 years old) proteges of the titular alchemist in Atelier Lilie, and she's the more mischievous and slightly less straight laced of the two. Also along for the ride is a totally new character, Culus, who is a homonculus that Hermina has created in secret to help her with her alchemy. Culus is also you in the story, and it's overall the story of Hermina and Culus growing closer over the period of his rather short life.

Hermina created Culus in secret, so she's unaware that homonculi only live a few weeks. Gust's usual good character writing really has a chance to not just breathe but thrive in this little novella that starts out about a simple slice of life between a child and her unconventional new best friend, and it ends up turning into a really touching story about death, loss, and acceptance of those things. Part of it may be because it just caught me off guard, but DAMN did this game hit me good. As anyone familiar with my reviews may well know, I'm no stranger to having games and media make me cry. That said, I'm not sure any piece of media has ever brought me to tears as much as this game did. It's just such a sweet, touching, human story that it really gut-punched me in the final act, but that's nothing if not a mark of just how well this game brings its world to life for the brief time you get to hang around in it.

Hermina & Culus isn't a kinetic novel. That's to say for all you (like me) non-visual novel connoisseurs, that this isn't just a story you watch to its end. It has branching paths and different things that can happen, although there isn't a huuuge amount of choice. The main gameplay is choosing where to go among the handful of locations in the city and talking to the characters that are there. Very often you'll have one or more "events" you can go watch, which are actual unique happenings in the story and not just canned dialogue like the non-event encounters are. While most of these are just little quick slices of life in the city that you're observing, you'll also very often learn new words from these. Hermina isn't just your creator and friend, she's also your teacher (your relationship is very difficult to define in a single word, but it's also a very sweet one).

You have a certain amount of time most nights to talk to her about words you've learned and learn their meanings from her. Now this isn't a language learning game, but Culus has only just come to life, so his language skills are still quite limited, and Hermina teaching him the basics of speaking are all a part of learning to be a good alchemist's assistant. Once you've learned words, you can "think" about them, putting two words together and asking about that concept (such as "alchemy" and "synthesis"), and this will often also earn you new words. However, walking around the city drains your energy, and thinking also drains energy. On top of that, you only have an hour of in-game time per night to ask about things, so you must use your time and energy wisely. This is all because all the talking and learning you do increases an affection meter with Hermina, and the status of that meter as well as certain events you can see or things you can "think" about will be what determines which if the game's 5 endings you get (I got ending C, myself).

The presentation is very polished, but it also reuses a lot of assets from Atelier Lilie. However, this game also has a ton of new drawn CGs of Culus interacting in different events, as well as a very well animated Hermina during your sessions talking with her every night. It also has a lot of reused music, but a fair bit of new tracks as well, and these tracks are very good as Gust is always so reliable to provide.

Verdict: Highly Recommended. This is one of my new favorite games, full stop. I wasn't a super duper fan of Atelier Lilie (I quite liked it, but it's not my favorite in the series by any margin), and that's what generated my initial interest in this game, but by the end of it I was sure that it stands on its own very well. It's a really sweet and well written story about the pains of growing up, and it's definitely earned a treasured place on my shelf. My only difficulty in recommending it is that it's never been translated in any way shape or form, so while it's not a terribly difficult game to get a hold of (uncommon, but cheap), the barrier to entry in terms of language barrier will likely be too high for most people reading this review. However, if you do have the ability (or if this game ever does get fan translated), this is absolutely a story worth checking out, even if you have no prior interest or experience with the Atelier series.