Atelier Annie: Alchemist of Sera Island is a Nintendo DS game that blends role playing elements, resource management and item crafting together to create a fun and interesting adventure that has similarities to the popular Harvest Moon franchise. Released in 2009 to the Japanese and North American markets separately this title will challenge players with 6 major quests during their 3 year adventure on the special Sera island.
The game follows Annie who loves nothing more than dreaming about marrying into money one day and avoiding the need to work hard for the lifestyle she desires. This leads her to endlessly fantasize about this possibility and living a lazy lifestyle as she thinks it is only a matter of time until it happens. Of course Annie’s parents are extremely worried about her daughter so they decide to consult her wise grandfather on the best method of teaching Annie to live a normal life and to escape this daydream cycle.
Her grandfather decides the best pathway to teaching Annie is to kidnap his granddaughter and bring her to Sera Island to participate in the new resort building project there that will require a wealth of hard work and no opportunity to escape from the island. This is where the player joins the game and takes control of Annie after being woken up by Pepe the fairy who assists the player in learning alchemy in order to construct the resort. While initially reluctant one of the possible prizes for winning the competition is marriage to the rich Prince of Orde which will allow her to live the dream she has been waiting for.
Told over the period of 3 game years players will have to rise to several challenges that result in Annie learning the value of hard work, mastering alchemy, making new friends, challenging rivals and even owning her own shop on the resort. All of this requires players to constantly push for new resources and cash to build out the island with special buildings like gardens, aquariums and theatres in a repeating loop of challenges.
This gameplay in Atelier Annie: Alchemist of Sera Island blends elements of simulation and role playing together along with forward planning. Much of the game revolves around questing and battling which Annie engages in while searching the wild for alchemy ingredients to take back for upgrades and said quest completion. These ingredients are split into basic and advanced items which can be synthesised together with Alchemy to create new items.
Combat itself is both strategic and straight forward with a turn based battle mechanic system that emphasises careful positioning of characters to alter their stats and maximise their special abilities. Players can also learn about monster element types that allow them to use specific weapon types to maximise damage output against them with players eventually learning this ability for themselves rather than relying on weapons they find in the wild or from the stores. As noted earlier players also own their own store with players able to place a party member in the store to manage it although this makes them unavailable for combat.
Twice during each game year Annie will get the chance to compete against others and demonstrate what she has learned in Alchemy in order to acquire additional funds for the resort. Players are limited to only building 5 resort buildings and with 10 options available you’ll have to replay the game at least twice to use them all. Each of these attractions requires players to choose a shop owner to manage them with certain individuals being more skilled at running particular attractions.
Summary:
- Interesting mix of alchemy, combat and resort building that creates an addicting loop of progression.
- A unique setting and storyline for players to complete.
- Multiple endings gives you a sense of purpose and impact on the result.
- Recruit a range of friends to help with your adventure or look after your shop and other attractions.
- Available for the Nintendo DS console.
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Review Platform: DS