All right, there’s still time before the interesting matches start, so time for a quick post. And it’s double quick in this case because I’ve already played Atelier Marie, Elie & Anis Message on the Gentle Breeze (Soyokaze kara no Dengon) before, long long ago. I played it quite a while before tackling Atelier Marie, Elie and Lilie, which was bit of a mistake because this is more or less a direct sequel to Elie. That doesn’t necessarily mean the Elie+Marie endings are the only canon ones in that game, though. They could easily have gotten together again later down the line after whatever end Elie picked.

So much for the introduction. What is Atelier Marie, Elie & Anis about? A new library is going to be built in Salburg and Ingrid has asked Marie and Elie to write new alchemy books for the library. The two ladies have kindly donated all the alchemy tools and books they already had to the library, which is why you have to start collecting everything all over again.

To produce books featuring brand-new recipes, Marie and Elie turn to a new method, Image Synthesis. This means they imagine the kind of item they want to make, e.g. a toy, a fragrance, an accessory, see what they already have in those categories and combine them to make new things. There are only about 250 items in Marie, Elie & Anis, but quite a lot of them are unique to this game because of the new method.

And where does Anis come in? She’s a transfer student from some some country or another, studying abroad in Salburg because there aren’t many facilities in her home school. She also ends up writing alchemy books under Dorunie’s supervision but these are sent back to her home country, not to the library. In addition to Anis there are also two other trainee alchemists, Cecile and Fils, who Elie communicates with by letter and who come to Salburg to be alchemists at the end. They’re secret characters, more or less, and I dropped the flag for Cecile halfway through, but I managed to complete Fils’ route and meet her at the end:

The point of Atelier Marie, Elie & Anis is to show the passing of the baton to the next generation and close off the Salburg series (though this is technically a non-canon game, they’re not fooling anyone). So at the end of the story Dorunie retires as headmaster and hands the academy to either Ingrid or Hermina depending on how well you did. Marie and Elie are now full-fledged alchemists and the role of earnest trainee goes to new characters like Anis, Cecile and Fils. The older adventurers are beginning to settle down, so the role of plucky bodyguard is being passed on to younger guys like Anis’ bodyguard Saeed. And the rest of their lives are left up to your imagination, but we suppose they all live happily ever after.

As far as gameplay goes, Marie, Elie & Anis isn’t all that different from the previous games except you have two alchemists to manage instead of one. You can play with either Marie x Elie, Elie x Anis or Marie x Anis as you please. You can have them synthesize the same item together to cut down on time taken and MP used, or you can have them synthesize two different things at the same time. You can also send them adventuring together or you can send one person off in this direction and the other in that direction. Or one person goes out and the other stays home. Or they both go out and leave hired fairies at home doing alchemy. Or vice versa. Like I said, more of the same only twice as much of it.

There are a lot of character events and interactions that didn’t mean diddly to me the first time I played but are quite interesting to read now that I’ve played all the other games. Who married who, who has a little sister he’s never mentioned before, how are all the other cities in the game getting along, etc. I also fought some new bosses like the dragon in the ice cave and the ghost in the desert while redoing older quests like the Airfolk Tower gauntlet.

It was a good game, both on its own merits and as a followup to the rest of the Salburg Atelier games. The only tiny issue I have is that the game was rather easy. When I played it the first time as a relative newbie to the series I found it challenging. After many extra years of experience, though, this game was pretty much a joke. You can’t really enjoy it unless you’ve played some of the others, but at the same time if you’ve played the others then it will be too easy.

I had every item in the game except the Eternal Ring and the last year-only items made by year 3 and was able to write 10 books for Ingrid & Hermina and 4 for Anis and raise all 5 of my fairies to rainbow status without breaking a sweat. None of the bonus bosses posed a challenge either. But if you’re a fan of the Salburg games or just a fan of the Atelier series in general then this is definitely worth at least one playthrough.

Related posts:

Atelier Elie = Fantastic! Atelier Lilie Plus – Unceremonious ending GET! Atelier Lilie Plus – Same end, different day Quick thoughts about Atelier Lise