Thank you Koei Tecmo for sending us this game to review!

Way back in 1997, a young company named Gust made a little game that would become their legacy: Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg. While it was only released in Japan, it began a series that has had new releases almost every year and is beloved by gamers worldwide. Virtually every aspect of what makes the series great is present in this remake of the very first Atelier title, but without much of the complexity that the series has picked up over the decades. It's a short and sweet beginning, and a wonderful game for anyone curious about the Atelier series to see if these games are for them.

Our main protagonist Marlone, who goes by Marie, has the lowest test scores in the history of the Royal Academy of Magic. Despite that, her instructor Ingrid thinks she might just have a different learning style, and gives her one last chance to save her education. Marie will spend the next five years doing practical studies, running a local atelier. If she can complete her assignments on time and successfully, she still just might get a chance to be a licensed alchemist.

While the main story takes place within five years, there is an unlimited mode available for those who don't like time pressure. In my playthrough I stuck with the normal five year mode, but I was certainly shocked at how quickly that time can get eaten up. Each and every task, from stepping out into town, to coming back into your atelier, crafting the most basic item, or traveling anywhere to gather ingredients takes time measured in days. Once you arrive at your destination, every act of gathering or taking part in battles also takes a day, each. Time is a limited resource, and burning through days is very, very easy to do.

Atelier games have a rather simple gameplay loop. You talk to people in town learning things from them, or as this game calls it, hearing rumors. You then go to gathering points like the nearby forest, where you can fight monsters if you wish, as well as gather items from picking them up at gathering spots. You can hire assistants to come with you if you want, but you will need to make sure you have enough money to afford their services. Assistants are only used during combat, but that's a really good reason, since Marie is likely to be in a world of hurt if she's alone and outnumbered. Once you gather the available ingredients, you can go back to your atelier and craft with them, which not only makes items which you can sell or use in battle if you wish, but more importantly, often townsfolk want you to turn them in to complete quests, which earns you money and reputation.

Money is always in short supply, especially since the game does have useful and sometimes critical items for sale. For example, the Academy sells recipe books, which you need in order to make new items. It also sells items like a mortar, which are used to increase your chances of success when crafting certain items. In later titles, there is a whole lot of detail to worry about, like material quality, transferred traits, and more - none of that is here to worry about, making crafting so much simpler. If you want to make enemies go boom, make the attack item with the most power that you can, and don't worry about the rest. I really appreciate the simplicity in crafting after having played so many games that have deep, complex crafting systems like Atelier Sophie and Ryza. Even the oldest title in the series I reviewed before this, Atelier Rorona, has a ton of 'stuff' added to crafting to make it fairly complicated. The basic 'add ingredients, make item' formula here is incredibly refreshing.

Reputation and knowledge are two stats that the game uses to keep track of your progress. If you keep completing quests when you can, then your reputation should steadily increase. You will see people respond to you better in town, and more and tougher quests open up for you, with greater rewards. When you don't have a main quest to tackle, this should be your main area of focus. Knowledge is gained when learning a new rumor, crafting a new item, fighting a new enemy, and several other ways. This is used more to gauge your progress with the Academy, and opens up things there also.

Atelier Marie Remake is a fairly self-driven affair, in that you are given an assignment from Ingrid, but outside of that, you are not told what to do. You are given suggestions, like completing quests, and you will run out of items if you don't explore and gather ingredients, but how you spend each specific day is totally up to you. There are occasionally scripted events, and some show up on your timeline, and are usually worth doing when given the option. For example, if there is a market day, and what you can buy is often very useful and at a good price. Eventually Fairies arrive, and you should hire one at the first opportunity, as they can help you craft or gather things. Extremely helpful!

Many of the available party members you can hire have story sequences as you raise friendships with them. I enjoyed these sequences, and you learn more about the people in the town more, which brings spice to the game. Unlike many Atelier games, most people in the town can be talked to, even if the town is absolutely tiny in comparison to most of the games in the series. Everyone you can hire can equip some weapons and armor, and has skills of their own. Everyone can also equip items, so they can throw a bomb or heal a teammate in a pinch. Using items is a permanent loss, so either be prepared to get or make lots of them, or use them sparingly.

Battles are fairly straightforward for most Japanese Role-Playing Game (JRPG) fans. Combat is turn-based, and the sequence of turns, friend or foe, is laid out in a list so you can plan attacks based on turn order. You can attack, defend, use a skill (that takes up MP), or use items if they are equipped on that turn. You can also run if you want to try to avoid battle, and there are also battle rows, where you can ideally put melee fighters up front and magic users like alchemists in the rear. It's a pretty simple battle system that most JRPG veterans should feel right at home playing.

Because of the relative simplicity of the game's systems, I found I was able to become quite powerful, and I was able to defeat most of the game's optional bosses, which is nice. With that said, most of the toughest victories came from spamming megabombs, which are expensive and/or time consuming to replace. That's what they are there for, right?

Being a remake, I was concerned that the chibi art style would be odd, but it really isn't. Looking at screenshots from the original game, it actually suits it quite well, and the art style is really shiny and detailed. Once I got used to it, I found it quite charming after all. The music is well done, and the Japanese voice acting is nice as well, though not every conversation has it. I can't fault the art or music, even if it's not cutting edge in any way.

The game runs fine for the most part, and I actually played something like 90% of the game in Linux (despite this being a Windows game). It also runs on Steam Deck. Both of those do need the latest Proton-GE as of this writing in order for embedded movies to work, though. Those are only in the opening and ending credits; otherwise the game works just fine out of the box. Frame rate stability was perfectly fine in Windows, and slightly stuttery but playable in Linux. There is a fan-made mod called 'atelier-sync-fix' that can help with performance if you need it, but I doubt most people will. Keep in mind that Linux or Deck working at all is a bonus, because it's not a supported operating system to play the game on according to Koei Techmo's system requirements. I had absolutely no issues at all in Windows.

Morally, this is probably the cleanest Atelier title I've played, and I've played quite a few of them. Even still, it's not without flaws. Some characters, including Marie, wear outfits that expose a lot of skin and cleavage. Thankfully, other sexual content or jokes are kept to a bare minimum; I only caught one guy being attracted to a girl, which is part of normal human relationships, and he was not inappropriate. There is an old guy at the bar commenting on how attractive some of the ladies are, though; whether that's creepy is up to you. Speaking of which, alcohol consumption is referenced.

Turn-based combat against creatures like wolves, bandits, and dragons is present, and magic can be used by both enemies and the player. As you might expect from a game about alchemists, alchemy is present. This is where you craft new things in a cauldron with various materials, and different items are produced. Language is relatively clean, with minor curse words like 'd*mn' and 'h*ll' present. I noticed one use of 'God', as in pleading with God.

Atelier Marie Remake: ~The Alchemist of Salburg~ is a charming remake of the very first Atelier title that those outside of Japan never got to play. It has all of the fundamentals that the series has kept ever since, and yet is quite simple and bare-bones in many ways that I find absolutely delightful. With that said, it's nearly a full-priced game that I beat in around twelve hours. So, if you are willing to keep beating the game to unlock all of the endings, then I'd say it's worth the price. If you are more likely to play it once and that's it, then I would encourage you to wait for a sale. It's a fun if simple game, and if you've wanted to check out the series but don't know where to start, there is literally no better possible option than the very first game!