Despite the niche nature of their games, developers Gust have done very well for themselves in North America. They’re committed to creating deep, complex traditional 2D RPGs, and thanks to a publishing deal with NIS America Gust has no fewer than three separate but related series of games they’re working on. The Ar Tonelico and Mana Khemia series have each seen multiple game releases in the last few years, but it’s likely neither would have been brought to America were it not for the success of Gust’s Atelier Iris series. While the original three Atelier games were PlayStation 2 releases, the newest franchise installment sees a new main character and a new system to call home in Atelier Annie for the DS.

Annie is a spoiled, lazy girl who loves sleeping all day and whose greatest ambition in life is to marry someone rich and powerful so she’ll never have to work. Unfortunately for her, her grandfather has different plans; one day while she’s snoozing he ships Annie off to Sera Island, which is being developed into a fancy resort. There she meets Pepe the fairy, who informs Annie that she has to stay on the island for the next three years, assisting in the resort’s development while learning the ways of alchemy. While she’s initially freaked out, when Annie learns that the most successful alchemist on Sera Island after three years will be allowed to marry the prince, she dedicates herself to the project in hopes of fulfilling her life’s dream.

Atelier Annie’s story is charmingly goofy in a comedy anime kind of way, and there are more than a few chuckle-worthy lines of dialogue throughout, but overall the story just feels like it’s trying too hard. There are pages and pages of dialogue before, during, and after each story event, and some of it is totally unnecessary. For instance, at one point Annie goes looking for a certain character at his office, she’s told he isn’t in at the moment, so she goes back to her room where the character meets her. This little sequence takes about three minutes to read through, and none of it matters in the least. You do have the option of skipping past dialogue, but then you run the risk of missing important story or quest information.

 
Dialogue scenes are long and frequent.

When you’re not talking to the other inhabitants of Sera Island, you’ll be busy with alchemy tasks. The alchemy competition that Annie is in will require you to complete six alchemy challenges over the story’s three-year span, but there are tons of extra jobs you’ll need to complete to earn money and experience. In game terms, alchemy is the process by which Annie creates new items. Essentially, you’ll create items by combining raw materials you collect from exploring Sera Island, though there’s a whole lot more to it than that. The game takes a ton of different factors into account, including the quality of your alchemy equipment, your alchemy skill level, supplemental items you can add to give your created items various traits and characteristics, and so on. You’re then judged on how quickly you completed the task at hand, and of course the quality of the final product. It’s a deep system, and players have the freedom to experiment and create items their way.

As I mentioned, the raw materials you need to perform alchemy is found by exploring the island; this is where the game’s RPG elements come into play. To find ingredients you’ll travel to various gather points, depending on what kind of items you’re looking for – if you need minerals or ore you’ll head to the quarry, for example. While you’re there looking for items you’ll have to deal with monsters through the game’s battle system. Fights are pretty standard turn-based affairs, with your characters taking their places on a 2x3 grid. It’s a straightforward battle system, but it works well enough here, especially since fighting isn’t really the game’s focus.

 
As you’d expect, front row characters deal more damage, but take more as well.

As you complete tasks and odd jobs for the citizens of Sera Island you’ll begin earning large amounts of money, which you turn around and invest in new attractions and locations for the island resort. This resort-building aspect of gameplay is more like a simplified simulation game than an RPG, as you’re responsible for building and maintaining the shops, restaurants, parks, and so on that comprise the resort. This element of the game is fun and gives the player some freedom as to how the island develops, but I wish there was more depth in how each new location is improved; usually it just comes down to more alchemy or one of a handful of side quests.

It’s a cute game with some interesting elements, and there’s no doubt that some RPG fans will fall in love with Atelier Annie. At the end of the day, though, it left me feeling unfulfilled. Certain elements of gameplay, mainly the sim-style island development, just weren’t as fleshed out as they should or could have been. It’s a good little RPG, don’t get me wrong, but with a little work and improvement in some key areas, a sequel could really be great.

Gameplay: 7.1
Gameplay is pretty much divided into three parts: alchemy, resort development, and combat. Of the three, only alchemy really feels like they took it as far as it could go. Fighting is a relatively minor concern, so it’s understandable that the combat system isn’t very deep or complex. The resort management, on the other hand, feels overly simplistic.

Graphics: 7.3
Gust knows their way around high-quality 2D anime artwork about as well as anybody making games today. Characters are well-drawn, enemies are cute yet threatening, and both get to show off highly detailed portraits during combat and dialogue sequences. The actual in-game pixel art is stylized but attractive, and every environment is bright, colorful, and eye-catching.

Sound: 6.8
The soundtrack is utterly forgettable, bog-standard fantasy RPG music. There is a nice amount of voice acting on the cartridge, but only in Japanese.

Difficulty: Easy
Combat doesn’t require much strategy and your characters level up quickly, so that’s not an issue. The only difficulty you’re likely to encounter comes from the various alchemy challenges – you’re graded on how well and how fast you complete each. Still, if you pay attention it’s not tough to complete each with the highest rank.

Concept: 8.2
RPGs based on something other than a world-threatening evil power and a band of young heroes out to stop it come along far too rarely. The resort development idea is interesting, but again, I wish they’d taken the concept further than they did.

Overall: 7.4
Atelier Annie is a fun little RPG that will definitely appeal to fans of comedy animes – it’s got a cute story and a bouncy, energetic style and tone. It’s not the most substantial RPG the DS has to offer this holiday season, but younger players and those looking for something a little different won’t be disappointed.