REVIEW: Atelier Rorona Plus: The Alchemist of Arland

Now that we have gathered some ingredients, it’s time to get to crafting some items. This may seem really complicated at first, but it really is not as bad as it seems. You will need to obtain some recipe books. These are obtained in many different ways, like completing optional quests, finding them in treasure chests or purchasing them from shops. The more of these you obtain, the more items you will be able to create.

The first thing you do is pick the item you wish to make. It will show which materials you have, and which ones you do not. If you are missing a material that can be synthesized, you can press the Triangle button to do so. Next, you will choose your ingredients. You will want to to check the quality of these ingredients which is displayed on screen as a number and rank letter. These letters will run from E — being the worst — to S — being the best. A little gauge under each ingredient is the effect gauge, and you will want to choose an ingredient with a higher level so that effects will be produced. Effects can range from bigger stat bonuses on crafting materials to bigger healing bonuses for healing items.

As you synthesize items, it will take time to make them. Depending on what you’re making and how many, time spent will vary. You will also need to be sure Rorona has the proper amount of MP to make said item, and last, but not least, check the level of the item you’re trying to make. When you start to make an item on the left side, it will show you the Alchemy level you need to be at to have 100% success in making this item, as well as your current level. If you have a 50% of less chance of making something, it will likely fail. You will gain more alchemy levels by simply making more items. Make a few more items, level up and go back to said item if need be. You can also use my method of saving the game and trying to make it anyways, and reload if you fail. The choice is yours.

Now, if your item is successfully created you will now be able to give it some traits. These have varying effects from making something worth more cash, raising its overall quality or it may even make it stronger or weaker in battle. You can choose up to five traits, and these will come from the ingredients you used to make the item. You will just have to be wary of the cost level; this will also be determined by what you used to make said item.

The item crafting is actually really fun once you get the hang of it. I personally spent hours just trying to make the best possible healing and attack items to use in battle. Some of these items will have effects that last over multiple rounds. Healing bells will heal your entire group over several rounds with a good quality and some good traits you can get yourself some nice buffs out of it, as well, or with a meteor that attacks over several rounds, you can add some status aliments to each attack. The possibilities are almost endless in what you can do. This will take a bit of trial and error, for sure, but, in the end, you will be rewarded for your efforts.

Something else brand new to this version is an extra post-game chapter featuring the protagonists from the other two games in the Arland trilogy, Totori and Meruru. To avoid spoilers, I’m not going to go into a great lot of detail here, but the two girls get sent back to the past, and now they need to find a way back. There are some great event scenes here, and this is the first time you can actually have a party of all alchemists, which is strange and very cool at the same time. This section will last one year of game time, and there is plenty of fun to be had here. Though I do suggest making sure you’re leveled up properly before starting this section. As always, aside from the new post-game chapter, you can always start a New Game + where you carry over whatever gold, weapons, armor and accessories you have equipped from the previous playthrough to get the other endings.

This is one of the best titles I have played in a long time. This new enhanced version fixes all of the problems I had with previous release, from it being difficult to keep track of quest deadlines to the having to walk everywhere in town. All of these issues have been resolved. Add to that the fact that the additional content, including some new costumes to unlock, is great, the new graphics are outstanding and that you can customize the soundtrack any way you like, and this title is just a plain winner all the way around. It also supports cross-saving between the PS3 and Vita versions. For its price of $49.99 on the PS3 or $39.99 on the Vita, it is worth every penny. If you played the original, there is plenty of new content here for a second look. If you haven’t played the original, and want to jump into the series, this is a great time to do so.