Dead Game Walking
Fun Lete fact: I consider myself a bit of an aficionado of short-lived and defunct gacha games, whether their demise is imminent or long-past. I think there's something special about a game you know will be gone soon, beyond the obvious FOMO element. Maybe it's knowing a game is in as complete a state as it will ever be, or having a clear hard cap of time remaining to play before it's gone for good. Whatever the specific mix of factors is, it fires up some motivation in me to try it out before it's too late.
Such is the story when, two weeks ago on January 27th, I saw the end-of-service announcement for the Global version of Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and the Polar Night Liberator. As of writing, the JP servers are yet unaffected by the move, but for Global players, the game will shut down late March--just two months following the news.
Now, I had actually installed Atelier Resleriana several months ago but never launched it. The EOS announcement was my cue to finally dive into the game and see for myself whether it'd be worth playing... and possibly even switching over to JP afterwards.
Well?
The Two-Week Verdict
So far, I'd say Resleriana is "pretty okay" with a raised-eyebrow nod of approval. The repetitive gameplay loop mainly leans on uninspired turn-based combat that's remarkable only for its heavy reliance on RNG. But the story is engaging and presentation is rock-solid. That's really the reason you'd pick this title up, and put up with the not-so-great "video game" that binds it all together.
I'd like a few more hours of the game under my belt before I give any sort of definitive breakdown, but here's some key points from my first two weeks of pretty heavy playing.
The G in GUST stands for "Good music."
GUST IPs have good music, simple as. Resleriana is no exception, and the original tracks for this game, both BGM and vocal, are all excellent. They carry the familiar Atelier spirit, both playful and heartfelt, and justify a pair of headphones when playing this game even on the go, and especially during story moments.
Story is everything, and probably for the best.
I'd feel confident classifying Resleriana a story-focused game, to the point that progression and metagame feel primarily in service of the player moving through the story. There's a giant button at the corner of your screen that always promts you to continue the story, and the game is presented in a much more linear format than the typical mobile-game chapter -> stage selection style that similar titles generally use. In actuality, the story in Resleriana is still broken up that way, but there's a clear effort to split up story content from the evergreen daily quests.
The story will be the deciding factor in whether you stick with Resleriana or not, because conversely what you have outside of it feels rather bare-bones. Progression is practically railroad in terms of how linear it is, which is a blessing in disguise when attempting to see as much of the game I can in the span of just two months before the servers shut down.
So, about that story...
After the obligatory explanation as to how everyone from different worlds and timelines ended up together in the same place, Resleriana promptly discards the standard trappings of the "franchise crossover story." In place of the "multiversal big bad" or "series of comical misunderstandings that make the good guys fight each other," you have a focused story that follows the game's original protagonists: Resna and Valeria (yes, the "Res-" and "-leria" of "Resleriana").
I have to praise Resleriana for being ambitious, even if it's to a fault. It presents a wholly original story following two separate protagonists, using franchise crossover as a supporting element rather than the primary gimmick. It's intended as the birth of a new mainline Atelier series, yet locked to a freemium mobile gacha game with a necessarily limited lifespan: a decision both intriguing and confounding. The original setting of Lantarna is well-constructed with world-building, and complements a generously large cast of original characters and thoughtful writing overall.
I don't want to oversell it; four chapter in so far, Resleriana's story has done little to really wow me. It's fun with its occasional surprises and twists, but I find more enjoyment in the ride than any particularly thought-provoking moments. That's just fine, though--it's cute anime comfort food. And the presentation is polished enough that it's always easy to boot up the next story segment for the next bite-sized piece.
The gameplay, then?
Oh, boy. I'll have to digest my thoughts on the gameplay some more before firing off something that might be unfairly critical. I can sum up my current thoughts on the gameplay, both inside combat and out, as "not bad, but not great." And that's graded on the gacha game curve, to say nothing of an (unfavorable) comparison to the deeper console Atelier and other GUST titles.
The combat system so far feels slightly over-tuned towards RNG, which can lead to frustrations as you lack control over outcomes to make a meaningful difference. There are instances where you feel compelled to repeatedly restart the fight, rerolling RNG while on auto-battle, to brute-force a stage. This doesn't happen all the time, and you are given multiple tools to manipulate luck in your favor, but it's common enough to feel like a problem.
Outside of combat is a progression system that's a mixed bag of standard gacha game mechanics and a few interesting aspects such as the Boards and Research upgrades. Resleriana's brand of hallmark Atelier alchemy is present here. The way it's tied to your character roster is a double-edged sword, where your crafting options are limited by your ability to spend on the gacha... but it does at least grant value to characters that are otherwise pointless in combat.
This game looks really good.
Let's end on a strong positive note: the presentation. Character models are highly detailed, cutscenes look great with some active camera techniques and DOF effects, and the lighting engine? Oh, the lighting is excellent. Everything in this game has a vibrant, dreamy look it it, but depending on the environment and time of day the way characters appear can vary dramatically. The photo mode is an excellent excuse to see the game's characters and scenery on-demand outside of cutscenes.
During story scenes, facial expressions are excellent, and characters will actively emote mid-dialogue: a bit of "future gaming" that's still delightfully novel to me. All these subtle visual details, in addition to the aforementioned soundtrack and fully-voiced story cutscenes make for an engaging experience, especially when played fullscreen on a proper PC.
Closing Thoughts
There's a certain irony in Resleriana lacking the built-in time limit that most other Atelier games have... only to succumb to the same fate with a real-life two-month countdown to Global server shutdown.
My time with the Global version has acted as a form of trial period to decide whether I find it worthwhile to migrate to JP after March. So far, I feel like my answer is probably no. I'm enjoying myself enough that I'll likely stick with Resleriana until the Global shutdown, but beyond that I'm content to move on to other, more worthwhile uses of my time.
That said, I'm looking forward to a relaxing final two months that'll hopefully leave me with some good memories of Atelier Resleriana. Here's hoping that the story stays fun, the gameplay grows more tolerable, and RNG smiles upon me enough to snag a few more banners, before it all returns to nothing.