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| Mike Salbato |
The title formerly known as "Project A15."
03.27.13 - 12:11 AM
We may have just seen the release of Atelier Ayesha here in North America (plus that whole Atelier Totori Plus debacle), but Japanese magazine Dengeki PlayStation has now revealed Gust's next entry in the series. Previously known only as Project A15, the fifteenth Atelier game will be titled Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky.
As you may have guessed from the title, the game features two protagonists in Escha and Logy. Playing as each will offer different perspectives on the story, and brings with it not only multiple endings, but character-specific endings, so the replay value should be high. Atelier Escha & Logy is set an unknown number of years after Atelier Ayesha, and as its events also take place in the land of Dusk, we can look forward to seeing some returning characters. Of course, there will be a new cast as well, featuring the likes of Logix Fiscario (below, second image). The 18-year-old has left his schooling at a main city to join a "drop out development squad" (don't ask me what that means), and battles using both the pointy end of a sword and alchemy.
We don't have any information on Logy yet, but we do know 15-year-old Escha (pronounced 'Eska') Malier is the latest alchemist in her family, having inherited the tricks of the trade from her mother. As someone who follows her dreams, at fifteen, she is of course still just starting out as an alchemist.
As far as the gameplay mechanics go, Escha & Logy is a combination of old and new. Once again, the battle support system will be intact, allowing party members to assist in both offensive and defensive roles. New is the fact that the game will see an engine upgrade, using the Dynasty Warriors LTGL engine (as you likely know, DW is produced by Tecmo Koei, who is now Gust's parent company). As a result, you'll be able to bring six characters into battle now and swap them between front and back rows like many classic RPGs. The other new system announced is that of a 'Memory' system, that sounds like a feature geared towards players new to the Atelier series to understand the ways of alchemy.
The final random – and unclear – piece of information is that the game may come bundled with Mana Khemia 2 ~Fall of Alchemy~ for early buyers. Mana Khemia 2 was the tenth game in the Atelier series, released in 2008 for the PlayStation 2, and unlike many games in the series, has not seen a re-release in some form.
Being developed for the PlayStation 3, Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky is scheduled to release on June 27 in Japan. While it's too early to speculate about a North American release, it's probably a sure bet we'll see it. Maybe we'll even hear about it ahead of time!
