Hot on the heels of Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? (one of the most exciting 2D platformers in years), NIS America is back with their next exciting portable adventure game. Unfortunately, Mana Khemia: Student Alliance is definitely not worth getting excited about. This is a shoddily thrown together port of a so-so adventure game with annoying characters, ugly graphics and a serious amount of technical problems. Outside of a few interesting ideas, Mana Khemia proves to be nothing more than just another mediocre PSP role-playing game.
There are a lot of Atelier games out there, and Gust keeps adding to the lineup with new installments in the main series and spin-offs to keep track of. It is a lot to deal with. Also, the major installments tend to come out in trilogies, which share storylines and sometimes gameplay mechanics. One line might not be as interesting for specific players, but another could be a perfect fit.
Arland best. Couldn't finish Mysterious. Dusk is good. The ones before those are good but I prefer the 3d games
Pretty good article. The Atelier series is a very weird one. As each game have it's own ideas and can play vastly differently than another title even in the same trilogy.
But to get to know the franchise or at least what was the fundation of it. I would argue that the Arland is the best one, even though I prefer other sub-series even more.
411mania talks about this week's game releases. Highlights include Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy, Metroid Prime Trilogy, Cursed Mountain, and Harvest Moon: Magical Melody.
Mana Khemia is a relatively solid game. Despite its numerous clichés and poor choices in graphic design, the game presents a fun and relatively addictive battle system and alchemy system. Backed with solid audio, Mana Khemia balances its cons with its pros. However, these remarks apply only for the PS2 version from 2008. 2009's Mana Khemia: Student Alliance deserves little praise.
The port's errors transform an average game into an abomination barely worth touching. Atelier fans that have not yet checked out this spinoff series or readers interested in the combat and alchemy should avoid Student Alliance and hunt down the PS2 version.
