0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Atelier Marie The Alchemist of Salburg
The Atelier series is a long running series of
role playing games developed by Gust Corporation, the series has been a regular
on the Playstation system since 1997 and continues to this day with the 19th
main line entry in the series releasing in December of 2017 in Japan this year
was also the 20th anniversary of the series.
Atelier Marie The Alchemist of Salburg is the
first entry in the main series of Atelier games and the first to appear on the
original Playstation back in 1997, the game is the first of a trilogy of games
as part of the Salburg sub series, over the course of the last 20 years there
have been seven sub series in total.
The game would be ported soon after release to
the Sega Saturn as well as Windows the game along with the second in the
Salburg sub series Atelier Elie would be bundled together and released on the
Sega Dreamcast and Playstation 2, the game released for the original
Playstation on the 23rd of April 1997, the game has never seen a
release outside of Japan.
The game is centred around the gathering of
ingredients this is usually done outside of the town, these ingredients are
used for creating items, for user while in combat or maybe part of a quest.
Marie can synthesize items using the various ingredients she has collected this
is one in her workshop.
To make an item in Marie’s workshop, the
process is much more simpler that more recent Atelier titles which modern games
giving the various items traits and qualities unlike the older titles in the
series. With items needing certain ingredients to be made.
When visiting an area outside of two Marie is
able to gather ingredients this is done with a three option menu that will be
presented to the player. The first option is to search for one day, this will automatically
pass one in game day, there will be two outcomes to this either the player will
receive materials for Synthesis or they may be attacked by enemies.
The Camp menu this will bring up your status
menu from here items can be used however equipment can not be changed, the
final option is Go Home this will take Marie straight back to her workshop. In
the tavern in town Marie is able to take tasks to earn popularity and money,
earning popularity will encourage higher level adventurers to accompany Marie
outside of town.
The battle system in Atelier Marie The
Alchemist of Salburg Is a turn based system, with an active party consisting of
a maximum of three members, these members will have a basic set of commands
such as attack, defend, position, special ability, use item and run, these
companions can be hired by Marie. Marie gains experience by synthesizing items
and by fighting enemies.
Over time with each additional port of the game
it saw several additions, the Sega Saturn port saw an internal clock added to
the game in addition a number of events and mini games were also added . An
enhanced version of the game released on Playstation in 1998 called Atelier
Marie Plus had the additional features of the Saturn version with the exception
of the clock which the Playstation did not support.
The first game in the series revolves around
the character Marie a 19 year old student in Salburg a medieval style city, which
houses the Royal School of Sorcery, Marie is a highly talented alchemist
student but her lack of concentration has effect her academic performance, to
the point where she is the worst performing student in her class.
Her performance has been so bad Maria is facing
expulsion from School, however her teachers offer her one last chance, she is
given a workshop (French translation Atelier) and given five years to produce
something outstanding.
Critic reviews for this Japanese only release
are hard to find with just one available which comes from Legendra who scored
the game at a 60/100, the French publication praised the games music and called
the game unpretentious but very pleasant.
However the game is quite minimalist according to
the review with battles that are over far too quickly, with the end game
quickly visible. For a fan of Gust games it could be worth checking out this
pioneer of the Saga, however other will see an unusual curiosity and far from
being essential.
With the lack of critic reviews we head over to
GameFAQs for their user ratings where we find this game currently sitting with
an average rating of 3.50/5 from a total of eleven user ratings. Where we find
a big spread of user rating with a majority around the 3.5/5 or 4/5 range, a
couple of users rated this game very highly with a 5/5 while an additional user
scored the game at a 4.5/5.
At the other end of the users rating we find
one user that I can only assume they had a torrid time with the game scoring it
at a 0.5/5, another user the next lowest scoring user rated the game at a 2/5
while the final user rated the game at an above average 3/5.
Moving on to the games difficulty where we find
six users rating this category with a majority rating this game as having just
the right difficulty level with a total of three users rating it as Just Right.
The remaining three users either rated the game as Simple, Easy or Tough,
averaging out at an Easy to just right difficulty rating.
Finally we move on to the games lifespan where
we find five users rating this category, with all five spending plenty of time
with the game, one user each spending either 40 or 60 hours with the game, the
remaining three users spent around 80 hours with the gave, averaging out this
comes to around a 74 hour lifespan.
This is the part of 0
to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the
title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this
title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com,
eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very
location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge
stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable
at other retailers.
So lets get down to
business with Gamedude who unsurprisingly don’t stock this Japanese only
release, same goes for Retrogames.co.uk, while eStarland.com does have other
versions listed like the PS2 Atelier Marie & Elie collection as well as the
Saturn version of the game but no Playstation 1 copy.
Moving on to
Amazon.com we find a handful of used copies available with prices starting from
$16.63 for a complete copy, this price is for both a good and very good quality
copy, with both coming with free shipping. At the time of writing no like new
or new copies of the game are available, prices for a used copy of the game
currently peak at around the $24 mark.
Written by
P J Gibbon
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