Heads-up: if you’re a blog subscriber, it may be a few days before you get email notifications again, as the service I was using shut down.
All right, now let’s get into today’s topic – Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land and the unanswered questions we had about it after its announcement trailer.
This morning, Gust and Koei Tecmo held a live stream at which they revealed new information about Atelier Yumia, followed by a 10-minute English trailer.
Now, the stream wasn’t translated, so I had to pick up what I could just by watching it and then fill in some details with the English trailer later. Fortunately, it wasn’t hard to see that the next trailer they showed was featuring party members. I don’t know if they saw fans jumping to conclusions that there wouldn’t be party members or if they always intended to introduce them during this live stream, but they showed off five party members.
Their next focus was on field exploration. It looks like you can shoot enemies and materials in the environment. They showed some crafting after that and then moved onto combat.
Combat was the other big question from the announcement, and I watched the combat section over and over to try to figure out if it’s action combat or very fast-paced ATB. They show the character moving right at the start, but for the most of it they stay more or less in one place aside from movement related to the attacks, and there’s a “range” button that changes what range you’re attacking at, so right now I’m leaning toward it being a highly fast-paced ATB system like in the Ryza games. You can also switch characters on the fly.
Base-building also looks like it’s going to be a big deal, as you not only can create and arrange furniture, but also construct entire buildings?? I’m really curious about how much that’s going to play into it.
The story does seem darker than usual for the series, but it also looks like a beautiful game. The environments they’ve shown so far have been breathtaking!
(Oh, and they’re definitely aiming for fanservice again with some of those designs. They know it worked with Ryza and want to keep that momentum.)
Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land will be out on March 21, 2025. I still have not played most of the Atelier games in my backlog. I promise to get on that! In the meantime, are you looking forward to Atelier Yumia?
It will be held on September 20 at 3 AM PT / 6 AM ET, and they’re expected to announce the next game in the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series.
Previously they said their next game would be revealed at TGS, which is roughly a week later, so I’m not quite sure what to make of that. Either they meant they’re going to show their next game at TGS and it was misinterpreted to mean an announcement since they hadn’t mentioned the RGG Summit yet, or they have multiple games to announce.
Let’s talk briefly about the past RGG Summits.
The first one was in September 2022. Like a Dragon Ishin had been announced the previous night at a State of Play, and the Summit provided more information about that, along with the first reveal of Like a Dragon 8 (later titled Infinite Wealth) and the surprise announcement of Like a Dragon Gaiden. While not being announced at the Summit, Judgment and Lost Judgment PC ports were shadow-dropped afterwards.
In short, the first RGG Summit was huge.
In June 2023, the RGG Summit returned to show trailers for Gaiden and Infinite Wealth that had already been shown at other events, with a little more information provided.
Then in September 2023, there was another RGG Summit that provided a deeper look at Infinite Wealth.
So this is the first time since 2022 that we’re going into an RGG Summit without the next game(s) already having been announced (unless you count the Switch port of Kiwami). That opens up the potential for it to be an exciting event with multiple announcements like that first RGG Summit was.
Personally, I’d love to see a new Judgment game, and I haven’t lost hope for a Dead Souls remaster. A Kenzan remake would also be quite a pleasant surprise. It feels too early for the next mainline game to be announced, but another Gaiden side game isn’t out of the question. And let’s not forget the mysterious “Yakuza Wars” trademark we thought would be the TGS announcement.
I’m probably in the minority on this, but I don’t want a Kiwami 3. Yakuza 3 might feel a bit clunky to play, but its remaster is still fine and I’d rather them use their time and energy on other games.
Meanwhile, I’ve started Infinite Wealth but am still early in the game, and I’m partway through Lost Judgment. Here’s hoping I make enough progress before September 20 so that I don’t risk spoilers by watching the Summit…
What are your hopes and expectations for this year’s RGG Summit?
How does Nintendo keep bringing out awesome showcases like this?
When we discussed the combined Indie World Showcase and Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase announced for yesterday on Monday, I hoped for “some good surprises.”
I got my wish and then some, even though there was no Professor Layton trailer like I’d been hoping for.
The indie showcase didn’t have too much that excited me, although Balatro getting a crossover with The Witcher ranks up there with the most unexpected crossovers, and seeing Sea of Stars DLC reminded me that I never did play that game.
As for Date Everything, the dating sim where you can date personified furniture, I’m still highly skeptical. I need to see more evidence that the stories have actual depth instead of deriving all their interest from the wackiness of dating whatever inanimate object the character happens to be. (Having 100 dateable characters is not proof; if anything, that makes me more concerned that the romances won’t have depth.)
But the Partner Showcase is where things really got interesting.
After a few announcements that didn’t interest me much, they went into a quick montage of upcoming games, starting with… excuse me, was that a Trails in the Sky remake??
Titled Trails in the Sky the First, this full 3D remake of the first Trails in the Sky game got all of 5 seconds despite being a major announcement that sent fans into chaos. Falcom has hinted and teased that they might remake Sky, but nothing had been announced until now. I was shocked when I recognized it, and it being revealed so casually only make it feel more surreal. Fortunately, the Japanese Direct included an actual trailer.
Since then, things have gotten a little strange. No other platforms have been announced yet, which flies in the face of the remake being intended to make Sky more accessible, and it seems they aren’t sure if they’ll even go with a western publisher or not. The translation appears to be the same as the Xseed-published versions currently on Steam.
But regardless of how they handle it, Trails in the Sky the First looks beautiful and it’s exciting to see this remake!
There were a few more announcements after that and then another JRPG announcement… and not just any JRPG, but the next Atelier game! Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories and the Envisioned Land looks a lot more intense than I’d expect from Atelier, but I’m intrigued.
Fans have already jumped to all sorts of conclusion about Atelier Yumia, from believing it’s an action RPG to assuming there are no party members, but further details are set to come on September 2 and will hopefully clear up this confusion.
Moving on, remember the Suikoden I & II HD Remaster announced in 2022? Konami finally remembered them too, as after the long stretch of silence, we got a new trailer, and it looks pretty good. Right on its heels was a new trailer for the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, with a new job revealed.
While not a JRPG, I was also interested in the announcement that the three DS Castlevania games have now been released in a new collection called the Castlevania Dominus Collection.
The next announcement didn’t interest me, but then they moved on to a Tales remaster! Yes, they’re remastering Tales of… Graces? That’s right, it’s not the rumored Xillia remaster, but Tales of Graces f.
Tales of Graces f is being remastered with a bunch of quality-of-life improvements, so unless it turns out buggy, I’ll probably play this over my unplayed PS3 copy. Even more significant than this announcement alone is that the trailer begins with a “Tales of series Remastered Project” logo. It seems Graces f is only the first remaster planned to celebrate the 30th anniversary next year, and more will follow.
(It’s time to localize one of the untranslated games, Bandai Namco! It’s your turn!)
After a few more announcements, they caught my attention again with a new trailer for Rune Factory: Project Dragon, which now has the official title Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma. It looks even better than it did before!
Finally, they ended the Partner Showcase by announcing a port of Yakuza Kiwami for the Switch.
I was stunned. Yakuza on the Switch feels like the sort of announcement you’d see in a fake Direct leak. It’s coming out on October 24, and I’m tempted to get it just to support the series on the Switch. RGG Studio had previously claimed Yakuza didn’t fit the image of the Switch, which to me always sounded like an excuse. I personally believed the actual reason was because the original first two games were ported to the Wii U and sold poorly, and they didn’t want to just say that. Yakuza finally making it to the Switch only makes me believe that more.
All in all, it was a surprisingly exciting showcase, especially as a JRPG fan. Trails in the Sky the First, Atelier Yumia, Suikoden I & II HD Remaster, Tales of Graces f Remastered, and Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma are all set to be released in 2025, so next year is already looking stacked.
What announcements from the two Nintendo showcases are you most interested in?
Heads-up: if you’re a blog subscriber, it may be a few days before you get email notifications again, as the service I was using shut down.
