- Publisher: Koei Tecmo Games
- Release Date: Jul 13, 2023
- Also On: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Aug 14, 2023Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg offers a refined version of a twenty-five-year-old item-crafting simulator RPG. The game is short and sweet, finishing in around 10 hours with an endless mode option allowing for an expanded runtime with Marie and her companions, ending when the player decides. The game does not attempt to retrofit the title with features from more recent entries; rather, it focuses on presenting a version of the game that matches modern sensibilities while still retaining the core gameplay from 1997. The end result is a short and charmingly dated experience. This refresher course on the game that started a decades-long series may not be sitting at the top of the class, but it still earns high marks. For a student like Marie, that’s a perfect recipe.
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Jul 31, 2023If you are unsure where to begin with this series Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist Of Salburg is a great starting place. It’s the first in the series, and the facelift it has been given is very welcoming to newcomers, like me. I’m glad I gave this one a shot before trying something else in the series; trying this one out after might have felt like a downgrade. Combat and gathering, two of Atelier Marie’s main elements, can be done automatically, making them feel unimportant when I know that is not true. Focusing on learning about the world’s characters is where you’ll find most of the enjoyment. Atelier Marie Remake has sold me on the idea of playing another game in the series, I hope they feel more modern, and require more work on my part.
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Jul 12, 2023Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg brings the series’ original entry out of the shadows with a charming, thorough aesthetic glow-up, yet retains some of its more archaic touches.
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Jul 12, 2023A simple but endearing experience, Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg is a nostalgic adventure that does justice to the satisfying crafting mechanics that have represented the series’ identity for nearly a quarter of a century. While it might lack the complexity and depth of more recent entries, and some of its “classic” elements feel a little dated, it provides a solid core gameplay loop within a charming package. It’s a bite-sized nostalgic RPG romp that feels cosy as heck and never outstays its welcome.
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Jul 12, 2023The simplicity of the Atelier series in its base form requires you to manage your time and discover things for yourself. Like the original, Atelier Marie Remake has a pretty small scope, with a playthrough easily taking less than ten hours and most players aren’t likely to do more than two playthroughs. The changes to this game make it a joy to look at and smooth to play with very few issues. Some people might enjoy the shorter run time, but pairing it with the price, I don’t think it should be a nearly full-priced game. However, it is a mostly relaxing experience that still keeps the essence of why people enjoy Atelier games.
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Jul 12, 2023Atelier Marie isn’t the Atelier series at its peak, but I wouldn’t expect it to be: it is the first game in the series, after all. As such, I likely wouldn’t recommend this game to a newcomer to the series. Each subseries (i.e. Arland, Dusk, Mysterious, Ryza/Secret) is self-contained, so it’s not necessary to play Marie before those other games. However, for fans of the series it’s fun to see where it all started and how much Gust got right from the start, considering this is still a very fun, breezy JRPG to play. It makes me hope that other games in the series can be brought to modern platforms and that the Atelier series can continue to thrive.
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Jul 12, 2023Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg offers players a chance to discover the roots of this beloved series. The updated menus and graphics give this adventure a chance to be enjoyed by new and returning players, but the simplicity of it all might limit any genuine player investment. It’s a bite-sized Atelier experience that provides moments of charm alongside some frustratingly simple gameplay mechanics.
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Jul 12, 2023Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg provides a nice RPG history lesson, but the combat and alchemy feel pretty outdated.
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Jul 16, 2023The long test to which we subjected Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg unfortunately confirmed the reservations we had towards the product. The one created by Gust Corporation is a mere 1:1 scale remake of the title originally published in 1997 and only renews its graphic design, leaving its serious playful and narrative gaps unchanged. Although the introduction of the Unlimited Mode removes the annoying temporal limitations of the original Atelier Marie, today as then the story is in fact weak and far from engaging, and the side characters are mere archetypes. Bearing in mind that even the longevity is really insufficient by the standards of the genre, we suggest the purchase only to the most die-hard fans of the series, who in order to discover its origins may be willing to pass over its many flaws and the expensive ticket admission (€50). We are therefore of the opinion that producing a 1:1 scale remake of such an obsolete title was not the most sensible way to feed the progenitor of the saga to the new generations, which on the contrary deserved to be re-imagined in almost every aspect .
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 5 out of 7
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Mixed: 1 out of 7
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Negative: 1 out of 7
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Jul 14, 2023