Did someone say a new Atelier game has been graced to us?! Yes folks, we have indeed been given a new title called Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~. However, this new entry isn’t a main title for the series and acts more like a spin-off title. Does Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ still warrant us to go wild and buy it right away or does it suffer from being altered in many ways? We will answer those questions and more in our full review of Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ for the PS4! Just scroll down and see what we thought of this latest Atelier game.

Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ is an RPG title from the long running Atelier games. Players assume the role of Nelke who must build up a small town and make it prosper to prove her worth as a noblewoman. You’ll need to manage time, resources and characters wisely Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ in order to see your town thrive in the best way it can! Alchemists from the Atelier series will lend you assistance as they craft items in their shops to help make profits for your town to expand and prosper! You’ll still need to do battle against enemies and threats though to help the town out, but you have an arsenal of strong warriors willing to help you out! Can you prove your governing skills are up to the task Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~?

Nelke has always wanted to prove that her noble background wasn’t just for show and wasn’t just a title bestowed upon her by her father. When Nelke is tasked with helping an up and coming village grow, she rushes forth with her reliable assistant/maid and takes the challenge head on! Nelke will need to prove her worth by helping this small village rise up, but she won’t be on her own thankfully! Familiar alchemists from various parts of the world—and other worlds—have found themselves mysteriously drawn to Nelke’s new town and are eager to show their alchemy skills to help Nelke out! Can Nelke stand by her guns and help this town become something akin to a city?! Find out Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~!

The Atelier series has easily been one of our favorite JRPG franchises here at Honey’s Anime. The beautiful mix of turn based combat and chore system that had players crafting items to sell and prove their micromanaging skills has always been a fun recipe for a great game. Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ is the latest Atelier game but acts more akin to a spin off then a main title in the series. We have invested some time Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ and have some things we love about the game and some elements we truly loathe. Let’s find out what Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ does right and wrong in our full review of it for the PS4!

Unlike most Atelier games, Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ is a bit different in terms of design and gameplay. Player’s assume the role of Nelke and have found themselves becoming the governor of a town called Westbald. Different than most Atelier games, Nelke isn’t an alchemist but is meant to be the main force behind Westbald growing in popularity and fame. Accomplishing this task means Nelke must hire alchemists who can create tools and items for the town, sell them and help the land grow. Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ begins to show its strength and weakness in this design and because it is like that, we decided to do our review a bit differently than we usually do. We’ll talk about each element that works in Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ but equally explain how those positives also come with significant negatives…

The first major change from most Atelier games is the focus on shaping the village versus crafting for it. Due to Nelke’s inability to create using an atelier, Nelke needs alchemists and luckily has a slew of them from past titles. Characters from nearly every Atelier game—and we mean every one—appear in some form in Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ and are willing to help Nelke get Westbald up from the ground. Players will play a more business-like role in Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ as they craft shops and buildings, place them on a small map—that becomes larger as the game progresses—and then assign tasks/bodies to each building. Akin to most Atelier games, you’re judged based on how fast you accomplish various tasks—like growing in population in several turns or making money rather than losing it—but aren’t the one directly making the items to sell. Your goal is to make choices daily to build up your village in either money or populous. Though, this decision removes a lot of the hands of crafting from other Atelier titles and makes Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ feel more like Moonlighter—minus the combat—or Harvest Moon title without the movement or exploration…which brings us to a weakness of this design.

Atelier games are known to have players exploring rich fields or dark caverns for items and alchemy ingredients. Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ removes all of that and makes everything simple and user friendly. Rather than run around town talking to people or exploring various locals, players just need to click a button and watch as Nelke and party do their thing. You’ll still explore fields and dungeons, but now it’s on a 2D plane where you watch Nelke and friends walk/run to the end. Occasionally, you’ll have the party stopping as they find random ingredients and /or activate events, but you don’t need to move them at all. Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ goes for a simple format that removes player interaction in favor of focusing on making choices or actions.

Now don’t be alarmed too much if you think combat has been removed though, folks. Battles still take place Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ but even that has a double-edged sword feel. Like most of the Atelier games, characters will engage with enemies in turn-based combat, but Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ has changed it up quite a bit. Players will notice a lack of MP and/or AP and a strange new system that has counters increasing with each regular attack or turn. If you want to perform a special move or use an alchemist attack—we’ll explain that in a minute—then you need to build up points as the battle progresses. Alchemists will attack with random skills and items during the course of battle but only specific moves can be chosen as their counters fill up. This element of Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ works mostly to keep battles from being long and/or repetitive, but often no battle is overly complicated. You’re still going to level up and you’ll still find plenty of characters to choose from making your party pretty darn overpowered as you go through Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~.

Speaking of characters, if there is one bright side to Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ it would be the inclusion of so many familiar faces from the series. What’s even better is that you’ll get your chance to interact with these characters quite often outside of battle—or during exploration—by visiting them during off days—when you’re not micromanaging the town—to learn how they appeared here and why they wish to help out. We loved how developer GUST and Koei Tecmo made sure to include alchemists from nearly every game of the series and even some who are lesser known!

Lastly, let’s talk about the visuals and music for Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~. Once again, Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ does some things right here and also fails in some regards. Visually, Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ doesn’t look too bad. Towns and locations suffer from a bit of an outdated look/design, but they still have that rich color palette that GUST is known for. The music of Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ also still rocks with some solid tunes and sounds but isn’t going to be our favorite in the series. Our biggest issue with Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ is the lack of English voice acting. We understand that hiring English voice actors/actresses isn’t a small task, but almost every Atelier game in the franchise has dual audio and Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ missing that kind of shows this is a spin off title more than a main entry in the series. At least most—not all—of the older character’s VAs return, which is a welcome treat for fans of the Japanese audio.

Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ isn’t a bad game as you progress through its simple set up. We had a lot of fun building up our village, placing buildings down to make the village look neat/organized and relying on familiar alchemists to run their shops and make our town money. Combat too is fun just watching old and new characters unite to take down various baddies they come across. Ultimately though, Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~’s value is diminished with the removal of alchemy crafting and free exploration. There’s a joy to be had walking through a town/forest/area versus just seeing it from small cuts and simple camera movements. Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ enjoyment will come from those who absolutely love micromanaging titles or those who truly love the Atelier series even when it makes strange gameplay design choices. We won’t say it’s the best Atelier game ever, but it could be worse and thus, it gets a pass from us.

If you realize Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ is a spin off of the main Atelier games then you learn to forgive its strange design choices. The biggest problem with Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ is just that it feels too simple and dumbed down. We loved exploring various areas, crafting items and making progress as we became better alchemists. Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ removes most of this in favor of micromanaging a town which while fun, isn’t the way we want future Atelier games to be. Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ is a decent game at its core, but only go into it if you can oversee the various issues it has and keep in mind that this isn’t a true addition to the franchise. Are you playing Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists ~Ateliers of the New World~ and have a different opinion than us? Comment below to let us know and or if you agree with us! For all your game, manga and anime article needs, be sure to keep stuck to our hive here at Honey’s Anime.