GamersInfo Review - Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis

GI.net: "There comes a time in your gaming "career" that the simple old days are, well, too simple. Not that it is a bad thing per se. It is pretty much the sole reason that video games and their developers are supposed to be doing: pushing the medium forward. And the "simple" games are there as comfort food. That is the reason the Dragon Quest (incorrectly translated over here as Dragon Warrior for eons) series has survived as long as it has. It the equivalent of role-playing game comfort food because it has been cooked to virtual perfection. Super Mario World is the platforming equivalent. I digress. This past summer, my friend gave me a game by the name of Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis. You're probably wondering if it is any good. The short answer is that it is a bit of things from both ends of the spectrum. The long answer, as usual, is below.

But first things first, let's get our facts straight about alchemists. (If you remember your days of learning about them through chemistry class, then skip the following paragraph.) As many people know, alchemy was the predecessor to chemistry. And the main goal was to turn lead into some sort of precious metal, preferably gold. In other words, take different things and somehow make something exceedingly valuable out of it. The chemicals they used are still used today and are historically important because they were the first to use symbols to denote an element. These were, for the most part, God-fearing men who wanted to make gold not only to help their country but to be rich as well."