14 DAY TRIAL // The fourth title in the RPG series, Mana Khemia Alchemists of Al-Revis shipped to retailers across North America, together with a Limited Edition that includes the original soundtrack, a quick synthesis chart and a full color poster nicely boxed in a premium cover. And if you are a fan of Japanese anime chicks, you'll really love the poster (and the game, but you already know that).
Mana Khemia Alchemists of Al-Revis - a game you can only play on your PlayStation 2 console - is a bit different from the other Atelier Iris titles. This one is a campus sim-style RPG that allows you to interact with your classmates and professors and complete all the academic quests. As Vayne Aurelius, a novice alchemist, you will have to solve the mysteries of alchemy together with your human and not-so-human people you'll meet along the way.
An interesting feature brought by this fourth title is the fact that you might fail your academic quests and if this happens, you will have to stay after school (no, nobody will spank you). However, failing or completing the quests, as well as how much of them you have completed before failing influences the outcome of the story. Probably we can't talk about 200 endings, but it still is a nice implementation.
Also, the avatar crafting options allows you to personalize your character like never before: instead of just leveling up through combat, you will have to craft your skills and stats, which means total freedom (and if you really want, you can create a warrior that's an expert in summoning magic!). Many people might be tempted to say this is not real and warriors are not good at magic or archers have less vital energy - but you know... we don't REALLY know that, do we?
One of the things that was really frustrating in the past games was the random encounter system. Fortunately, that has changed now and all your enemies are visible and you can choose when the right time is to engage in a fight. And since we're here, you should also know that the fighting system allows you to create combo attacks, just like in your regular fighting game - which means that Mana Khemia Alchemists of Al-Revis will offer much more variety than most of the similar titles available for the PlayStation 2.