Publisher Sekai Project has been mostly known for their involvement in visual novels but The Emerald Tablet is a pretty different genre then what we often see by them. Developed by {uni} The Emerald Tablet intends on showing a lot of love for games like the Atelier Series. Players who enjoy RPGs with a focus on micromanaging time and crafting ingredients will no doubt want to pay attention to what we’re about to say! That’s right readers, today we review The Emerald Tablet for Steam! Let’s see if this indie developer can match the greatness we’ve come to expect from alchemy themed games!

Combining 2D RPG action and alchemy crafting, The Emerald Tablet feels like a simpler version of titles like Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland or any Gust title for that matter. Players take control of Misty who dreams of being an alchemist but finds that dream isn’t a simple one to accomplish. Not only does Misty get into incredible debt thanks to her student loans—a feeling many of us college students can understand—but she also learns she needs to raise her reputation if she wishes to become relevant. The player will need to guide Misty and her friends through an adventure to gather ingredients for alchemic purposes and take on quests for money/reputation! Time is not on Misty’s side and if the player fails to reach a certain goal by the year’s end…Misty won’t be living the life of a grand alchemist! Simplified RPG mechanics and random events makes The Emerald Tablet a nice indie themed RPG for all to enjoy!

Misty has one dream, becoming an alchemist. Unfortunately, Misty has learned on day one of her enrolment to the academy that being an alchemist is far from simple…or cheap to do. Thanks to her childhood friend Gladys, Misty has the money to enter school but now has only a year to make it big as an alchemist hopeful or will be doomed to serve Gladys as her maid like their friend Winnie! Can Misty muster up the gold needed to pay off her debt and earn enough reputation to become a rich and popular alchemist? The clock is ticking and Misty’s mission begins now!

Let’s just throw this out there right away. If you’ve played any Atelier titles—meaning the franchise from well-known developer Gust—then The Emerald Tablet won’t surprise you too much. However, we do know some gamers out there might need further explanation and to say The Emerald Tablet is a clone of the Atelier franchise isn’t right either. That’s why we’re going to break down what to expect in this JRPG with crafting gameplay themes. Time to break down The Emerald Tablet and what its gameplay is like.

The Emerald Tablet wastes no time throwing you into the fray. Players are going to assume the role of Misty who needs to go from normal girl to expert alchemist and the road towards that title isn’t going to be the simplest one. Maybe after ten minutes of playing, Misty ends up owing tons of gold—for her tuition—and must not only pay that gold back to her best friend but also earn reputation for the academy of alchemists to earn her title. Like the Atelier series, all this must be accomplished in one in-game year and that means every action from henceforth needs to be thought out in order to avoid wasting time. Luckily, The Emerald Tablet learns from the mistakes of past Atelier games and while the setup of both games might be similar, the execution is quite different.

The first major change you’ll notice in The Emerald Tablet is actions don’t require time or points to use. The Emerald Tablet offers you a nice amount of freedom to do what you want in a single day. Want to make items in the Atelier, do it. Want to go out exploring and finding items/materials—more on this in a minute—you can. The Emerald Tablet isn’t as constricting as Atelier games of old as it allows a lot of freedom to spend your time in the ways you feel are best for you and your upcoming Alchemist. We actually loved that about this system as days felt realistic and unlike a lot of time-based JRPGs, The Emerald Tablet realizes humans can do ten different tasks in one day without having to spend the entire 24 hours in one task.

If you choose to go away from the city and explore, this is where The Emerald Tablet becomes its own game entirely. When you choose a place to go to you end up on a 2D battlefield where combat isn’t like most JRPGs. Instead of choosing simple attacks like a turn based JRPG or issuing orders, you instead control Misty or her allies in an action based system. Using either the keyboard or a controller, you control your selected sprite character—which are adorable by the way—and use various attacks each one has. Misty as an alchemist can throw barrels/TNT barrels or create decoy/healing areas. Meanwhile her friend—the rich princess Gladys—can use her rifle for long range attacks or summon two soldiers to fight with the group. There are several more characters you’ll get to choose and play with depending on level and events but no matter who it is, the combat stays the same.

Outside combat, you’re going to need to beat the clock during exploration. The Emerald Tablet gives you a set time to fight baddies or accomplish tasks and when the timer hits 0, your team leaves. The same can be said if you die in battle. Your team will just flee and you’ll lose anything gained in that run which means you wasted your time ultimately. The Emerald Tablet is all about simple systems and that works quite well in the big picture. However, in favor of simplicity, The Emerald Tablet made a few rather large mistakes that affect the title as a whole.

Our biggest gripe/issues with The Emerald Tablet is the lack of explanation for a lot. While there are tutorials that will explain the main concept of how combat works and how to visit places to talk to people/take on missions, most of this game is trial and error. You’ll never know what characters can do with their various attacks until you do it yourself and that seems rather strange. Making items via the crafting system seems simple but can be overly complicated as The Emerald Tablet doesn’t explain step by step how crafting works. There’s even a free crafting system but while this sounds fun and enjoyable it’s a lot of trial and error that tends to be more failure then success. Some formulas are simple such as making items stronger by combining two materials/ingredients together but most aren’t and you’ll find the free system to be useless more often than not.

Another minor issue is how to really advance the story. Most of the events in The Emerald Tablet are random. You’ll see on the map screen an area highlighted meaning an event is happening there but these random events don’t feel like they progress the story. One event even made our debt go up considerably and that wasn’t a fun thing to see. The Emerald Tablet has some solid ideas for a more freeing JRPG experience. Yet, some of those ideas feel a bit weak and often overly random/simplified.

Ending our review on a good note, The Emerald Tablet does succeed in providing solid visuals and a great OST. From the sprites to the CG static images/backdrops, The Emerald Tablet might be an indie title but it looks like the team had some true experience in their art. The soundtrack also is wonderful boasting some great tunes during combat and exploration alike! While there isn’t any voice acting—this is an indie title after all—you can almost imagine what these characters would sound like thanks to the music that accompanies the situations around them. Kudos to team {uni} you guys did a fantastic job for an indie crew!

The Emerald Tablet is a very simple JRPG and that works in its favor and against it as well. When it works, The Emerald Tablet is addicting and can be truly fun as you go on random quests and enjoy random bits of story. The Emerald Tablet falters mostly in its overly simplified combat and strange crafting system that feels more like trial by fire. We really wish The Emerald Tablet kept the simpler crafting systems found in the Atelier series but making items from complete luck or basic recipes isn’t a horrible idea. Overall, The Emerald Tablet is a fun crafting JRPG that while not perfect, does more right than wrong. If you want a more indie themed JRPG, you’re going to like The Emerald Tablet!

The Emerald Tablet isn’t game of the year quality but that doesn’t make it a lesser title. We enjoyed our time with this quirky crafting themed JRPG and are sure many of you will too! At only $19.99, The Emerald Tablet is an addicting JRPG with a personality that tries to be different than others like it and we appreciate that greatly. Are you going to try out The Emerald Tablet as well? Comment below to let us know! For even more game reviews and other anime related topics be sure to keep stuck to our magnificent hive here at Honey’s Anime!