With Atelier Rorona and Totori being such utter delights, it was hard to imagine Atelier Meruru being in any way disappointing. And naturally, it was anything but, joining its prequels as some of my favorite games of all time.
Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland sees you in the shoes of the titular Merurulince Rede Arls -- Meruru, for short. Meruru is the princess of the kingdom of Arls, a small country to the northeast of Arland. She isn't, however, interested in her royal duties nor in playing the role of princess, a fact that puts her constantly at odds with her father, the king.
A familiar face to the player comes to Arls to assist its people, none other than the accomplished alchemist Totooria Helmond herself. Her and Meruru quickly grow close, with Meruru developing an interest in alchemy and ultimately opting to pursue that instead of her life of nobility. With the help of her now mentor, she convinces her father to let her try to concilliate her royal duty with her newfound passion, by finding ways to develop the kingdom using alchemy.
As is standard for the series, the premise for the story is very simple, maybe even mundane. There is no imminent threat, no antagonist to fight, and even the ordeal the characters are faced with are simply an excuse to get their stories moving. In fact, so long as you are on top of your game, Meruru will have proven herself to her father by the halfway point of the game, freeing her to focus on other things that have been set in motion.
To the plot-obsessed kind of person that is especially common in Western audiences, this might seem absurd, but again, this is a series of character-driven games where the premise is just an excuse to get the characters moving. Atelier games are journeys of self improvement that lead to the main character growing as a person, helping others grow, and causing many other stories unravel.
Meruru actually acknowledges this late in the game, in what I found to be a beautiful moment of self reflection that perfectly encapsulates her game, and how her journey isn't simply about alchemy or the kingdom, but about her finding herself in those two things.
I think I get it now – what I saw that day, in the act of alchemy… It was actually the potential within myself.
Meruru, herself, is a fantastic main character, again, as per series standards. She's headstrong and adventurous, but also has a big heart and treats her people as equals. She has many allies, both in old friends from her own kingdom as well as returning faces from previous games. In fact, all four generations of alchemists, all the way up to Astrid are here, and the payoff of seeing these four together is quite incredible. In addition, the relationships between other characters, such as Sterk and Gino, Totori and Mimi, among others, is deepened.
Also made deeper is the synthesis system. Its characters being alchemists, the Arland trilogy is home to a deep crafting system where items have lists of traits that can be passed to other items when those are used as ingredients. By carefully choosing components and planning your syntheses, those traits can be passed on, as well as combined to create more powerful versions of themselves.
Atelier Meruru perfected this system, creating the version that would later be backported to the Plus and DX versions of its predecessors. I cannot stress enough how much time I’ve spent in the crafting menu for these games: they have truly clever mechanics that had me taking notes at every turn. And it all feels incredibly rewarding as well, with the game allowing you to become brutally overpowered if you put enough effort into preparing for battle.
If anything, I think the game has two issues: One, the crafting UI could afford to offer more information so to be more approachable. Rorona Plus has better filters for items and traits, so I’m betting Meruru DX also has those. It would have been nice, also, to have the ability to view the list of items in certain categories in game, as it would make planning syntheses a lot easier.
On another note, as much as I don’t mind myself, I don’t like that the game requires you to play through it twice to unlock all endings. Rorona did it as well with the millionaire ending, but Meruru takes it up a notch by having an entire plotline only be available in NG+. To me, this wasn’t as much of an issue since I dedicated NG to creating powerful equipment for NG+, but it added 40 hours to my playtime and definitely makes the game less approachable.
All of that said, though, Meruru wraps up the trilogy so well that I feel like jumping straight into Lulua, to see more of these characters I love so much. There’s still plenty of Atelier for me to see, but the wholesome experiences the Arland trilogy will always have a place in my heart.
Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland sees you in the shoes of the titular Merurulince Rede Arls -- Meruru, for short. Meruru is the princess of the kingdom of Arls, a small country to the northeast of Arland. She isn't, however, interested in her royal duties nor in playing the role of princess, a fact that puts her constantly at odds with her father, the king.
A familiar face to the player comes to Arls to assist its people, none other than the accomplished alchemist Totooria Helmond herself. Her and Meruru quickly grow close, with Meruru developing an interest in alchemy and ultimately opting to pursue that instead of her life of nobility. With the help of her now mentor, she convinces her father to let her try to concilliate her royal duty with her newfound passion, by finding ways to develop the kingdom using alchemy.
As is standard for the series, the premise for the story is very simple, maybe even mundane. There is no imminent threat, no antagonist to fight, and even the ordeal the characters are faced with are simply an excuse to get their stories moving. In fact, so long as you are on top of your game, Meruru will have proven herself to her father by the halfway point of the game, freeing her to focus on other things that have been set in motion.
To the plot-obsessed kind of person that is especially common in Western audiences, this might seem absurd, but again, this is a series of character-driven games where the premise is just an excuse to get the characters moving. Atelier games are journeys of self improvement that lead to the main character growing as a person, helping others grow, and causing many other stories unravel.
Meruru actually acknowledges this late in the game, in what I found to be a beautiful moment of self reflection that perfectly encapsulates her game, and how her journey isn't simply about alchemy or the kingdom, but about her finding herself in those two things.
I think I get it now – what I saw that day, in the act of alchemy… It was actually the potential within myself.
Meruru, herself, is a fantastic main character, again, as per series standards. She's headstrong and adventurous, but also has a big heart and treats her people as equals. She has many allies, both in old friends from her own kingdom as well as returning faces from previous games. In fact, all four generations of alchemists, all the way up to Astrid are here, and the payoff of seeing these four together is quite incredible. In addition, the relationships between other characters, such as Sterk and Gino, Totori and Mimi, among others, is deepened.
Also made deeper is the synthesis system. Its characters being alchemists, the Arland trilogy is home to a deep crafting system where items have lists of traits that can be passed to other items when those are used as ingredients. By carefully choosing components and planning your syntheses, those traits can be passed on, as well as combined to create more powerful versions of themselves.
Atelier Meruru perfected this system, creating the version that would later be backported to the Plus and DX versions of its predecessors. I cannot stress enough how much time I’ve spent in the crafting menu for these games: they have truly clever mechanics that had me taking notes at every turn. And it all feels incredibly rewarding as well, with the game allowing you to become brutally overpowered if you put enough effort into preparing for battle.
If anything, I think the game has two issues: One, the crafting UI could afford to offer more information so to be more approachable. Rorona Plus has better filters for items and traits, so I’m betting Meruru DX also has those. It would have been nice, also, to have the ability to view the list of items in certain categories in game, as it would make planning syntheses a lot easier.
On another note, as much as I don’t mind myself, I don’t like that the game requires you to play through it twice to unlock all endings. Rorona did it as well with the millionaire ending, but Meruru takes it up a notch by having an entire plotline only be available in NG+. To me, this wasn’t as much of an issue since I dedicated NG to creating powerful equipment for NG+, but it added 40 hours to my playtime and definitely makes the game less approachable.
All of that said, though, Meruru wraps up the trilogy so well that I feel like jumping straight into Lulua, to see more of these characters I love so much. There’s still plenty of Atelier for me to see, but the wholesome experiences the Arland trilogy will always have a place in my heart.