During the Xbox Tokyo Game Show Broadcast, which aired earlier today, Head of Gust and ‘Atelier Yumia‘ producer Junzo Hosoi held the spotlight to talk about their upcoming alchemy-infused role-playing game, including what inspirations came into play.
In the segment highlighted, Junzo highlights the important of alchemy in the series and its setting and how it grounds the player into their fantasy worlds. The tone of the Atelier series has always fluctuated thanks to the playable main character and this time, developer Gust is approaching their narrative with more serious matters compared to the lighthearted protagonists in previous titles.
Atelier Yumia is a young lady who, while sharing the same optimism as Atelier Ryza and the like, is a more independent women who takes situations more seriously. Yumia tasks herself to unravel the mysteries behind the Aladissian empire and more importantly, the mystery behind the death of her mother. In this unknown continent, the empire has decreed alchemy as a forbidden practise and Yumia will also face a villain who takes pride in their beliefs for what the world aught to be.
Junzo also highlights the evolution in gameplay that Atelier Yumia will see. Not just in its combat system where, for the first time, an Atelier game is not truly turn-based. But in its world, where the producer says he was inspired by the first ‘Halo: Combat Evolved’ game in terms of how they should approach Yumia’s region. Stepping out into a vast open-world, just like Halo’s, that experience is an important one to building excitement in the player and the producer wanted that same feeling for Atelier Yumia.
Lastly, the producer also talks about the game’s newest core system: Synthesis. Synthesis is incredibly important to the player’s journey as they trial and error with different item combinations to get other, more useful items that can be helpful. Players can also build their own ateliers around the game map to practise their “forbidden arts” as they so please, without having to return to a safe house.
Check out the video above for more details and gameplay tidbits. Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land will launch on PC via Steam, the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and, for the first time ever, Xbox consoles on the 21st of March 2025. You can also read more into Yumia herself in this Xbox Wire blog post.
