Toshiro
June 18th, 2008, 14:10
Official Website:
Official Website (http://mana-khemia.jp/mk2/)
Thanks to:
Gust for making the game possible
Silverwolf X for some translation work and early gameplay information
Trailers:
Japanese Introduction:
Gametrailers.com - Mana-Khemia 2 Japanese Introduction by MaverickHL (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/224186.html)
Last year Gust decided to add new branch for their Atelier Project series, and this started with project A9 called Mana Khemia. This game was then later released in North America this year for all the fans thanks to NISA. Only about a month after its release in North America, Japan receives the sequel Project A10 to this game called Mana Khemia 2: おちた学園と錬金術士たち and we shall see what has improved since its first iteration when it was released last year. This goes to show that the PS2 still has some life left before it says goodbye.
PLOT:
The story begins 15 years after the fall of the prestigious Al-Revis Alchemy School. Due to the decreasing amount of Mana in the world, the power that sustained the school caused it to collapse to the lower lands. Now the school's reputation has fallen pretty badly due to the lack of talented alchemist. To help curve the decreasing attendance rate the school introduces other courses outside of alchemy to help bring the school back into prosperity.
At this point the story for this game will revolve around two main characters: Rozeluxe Meltzen (Roze for short) and Ulrika Myberg. Rozeluxe is not really interested in alchemy but is forced to go the school by orders of his employer's daughter. Rozeluxe has a certain disdain for mana due to a past traumatic experience.
Ulrika on the other hand wants to become an alchemist and having received a mana egg when she was a child wants to see it hatch and have a pact with it. Ulrika of course drags her friend who is not really interested in alchemy but goes along anyways.
There are two stories interwoven into this game and as such you will have to play each role to find out the whole picture of this game.
GAME SYSTEM:
Mana Khemia 2 system is not that all different from the first, but they tweaked and added things to improve it from the first game.
SCHOOL SYSTEM:
This system has not changed from the first game. This time the game will only cover a 1 year time span and will follow this setup:
EVENT -> WEEK of Lessons -> FREE WEEK -> EVENT (continues story to the next Phase).
The first 3 Phases introduces much of the school system as well as the battle and alchemy system. The Lessons again consists of different task with certain conditions to get a good grade. However unlike the first game, about more than half of the lessons are mandatory, some of these lessons teaches the battle system in general.
So unlike the first game it is easier to actually pass the courses and setup time for FREE weeks which are used for Character Event quests and Job Quest like those found in Mana Khemia or Atelier Iris 3. The Character Event Quest are used to build up relationship with your party member. In the first Mana Khemia, there was one character who's character quest allowed them to help you in your alchemy. In this game all character quest has a tie to help improve your synthesis of certain items.
The Job System has not changed since Mana Khemia, but is more difficult as some of the quest requiring to alchemize items have harder restrictions compared to the first. They also introduced a Bazaar, which takes up a free week. The Bazaar is used to sell some of your rare alchemized items to the school body in then later becomes available as an item one can purchase in the regular shops. This is a good way to get those rare ingredients to help improve your alchemy.
ALCHEMY SYSTEM:
The alchemy system is now the same as the first Atelier Iris where everything including weapons, armor, and accessories are made in the Atelier. For those who do not know, Alchemy in this game is basically synthesizing ingredients together to make other ingredients or items.
All alchemy requires a partner when synthesizing items, each partner has unique passive/active skills that will help increase or degrade the ether quality of your alchemy when applied to certain ingredients. For example, Rozeluxe's partner Lilia is a water type, so her passive skill will give +7 to any water type ingredients. Active skills are triggered by pressing the Square button and a menu will appear giving a selection of active skills for that specific partner. So for Lilia one of her active skills turns all the elements on the wheel to water to insure getting good ether value for the water type ingredient. To improve passive and active skills for each alchemy partner, you will need to spend time in Character Event Quest to acquire them.
Also to add a little complexity to the system, each ingredient has a positive or negative ether value. For example if an ingredient is an element of fire with -10, you would need to select water to give it +10 to the ether value.
GROW BOOK SYSTEM:
The Grow Book system from Mana Khemia is back, this time it is better organized and harder to get 100%. The Grow Book is a system similar to Final Fantasy 10's Sphere Grid system where there are no levels for each character, but at the end of the battle each character will receive AP.
The AP is used for the Grow Book to apply for stat boost and skills for each character. To get these boost, you need to alchemize your items. Alchemy is tied to you gaining stats, for example Rozeluxe has a dagger (main weapon) once it is alchemized it will appear in the Grow Book and AP can be applied to it to get stat boost and skills. Each alchemized items has 3 selectable parameters.
Now for the hard part of the Grow Book system, by default if you do not alchemize the item with a 100 ether value, you will only have access to 2/3 parameters for each alchemized item. This means you will be spending a good portion of the game refining your ingredients to achieve better Grow Book stats.
There are certain shared alchemy items for all the character but it will not necessarily give the same stat boost. The system is very balanced and you can't really over level in this game. It gives it a nice steady pace in progression. Meaning by the end of game you are powerful enough to beat it but have a chance of getting wiped.
Alchemy and Grow Book System:
Gametrailers.com - Mana-Khemia 2 - Alchemy Gameplay by MaverickHL (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/224191.html)
FIELD SYSTEM:
Mana Khemia had some frame rate issues when moving around the field. THe major causes of this was due to the fact that the main character had an attack animation. This attack animation is used to cut grass in the field which yield ingredients as well as initiate first strike on monster parties. In Mana Khemia 2, they eliminated "grass cutting" and left the bags on the field for the player to pick up. Also there is no cutting animation anymore and it is replaced by a generated random button to initiate first strike on monsters.
All of the previous activities in Mana Khemia 2 such as mining, harvesting, and fishing are now there own separate mini-games. The harvesting is using a slot machine whereby having all the ingredients the same gives a bonus ingredient. The mining now requires button memorization, as the game will show a set of buttons to press and you need to press it before the timer runs out. Fishing has also changed, where one needs to damage the fish in order to tire it and reel it in.
Basically Mana Khemia 2 added more interaction to the ingredient gathering, and though it is fun at the beginning, it might get tedious later on.
DUAL STORY MODE:
At the beginning, the game will let you choose between Roze or Ulrika and so you will be locked into the route you have chosen for the rest of the game cycle. Each route will have a total of 5 unique party members (Main Character + 4) and each main character will have a unique story as you progress through the game.
BATTLE SYSTEM:
Mana Khemia 2 has fast paced turn based battle system and once you learn the system you will enjoy it. The battle system uses the card base turn order system just like in Mana Khemia. The basic concept is that when a player turn comes up they can attack, use skills, items etc. just like any typical turn based game. In Mana Khemia 2 they added a few new systems to make the battles fast paced and very interesting.
Support System:
This is a throwback to Atelier Iris 1 and 2 where you can switch characters. However you can not switch on the fly, there is a gauge that needs to be filled for the support characters before their turn comes up. Support System allows characters in the support chain to either help attack or defend the main party during a battle.
During the game, 3 main players and 2 supports are available at any time (once you get at least 5 characters). If one of the main characters attacks, a O button becomes available in the lower right menu telling you, you can use the support character to attack. You can chain up to two more attacks to increase the damage.
You can also call in another person from support to take damage for you so that you can distribute the damage among the characters. Once you have filled more of the Grow Book you will be able to have better support attack and defense abilities at your disposal.
Guest System:
During the chosen route a guess might appear to help the party during battle. All guest character will not gain any AP during battle and his/her Grow Book will not be accessible. The Guest is mainly there to fill the 6th position in the support so you have a full 6 party team during a portion of your chosen route.
Unite Mode:
Unite Mode is basically Burst Mode in Mana Khemia. There is a gauge in the upper right of the screen and it gradually fills up when you damage the enemy. This gauge will move slow and will only significantly increase if you get a critical attack or you exploit an enemies elemental weakness. Once Unite Mode activates all characters attack increase and critical rate is increased.
Intimate Strike:
Intimate Strike can be only be used during Unite Mode. During the battle if the main party attacks and calls upon the two supporting members to attack, the last member to attack will be given the option to do a support attack normally by pressing the O button or Intimate Strike by pressing the triangle button. Intimate Strike is basically the same as Vain's Variable Strike in Mana Khemia. Each person has a unique attack and is a very strong attack compared to some of the earlier skills that you start off in the game.
Intimate Protect:
The same concept as Intimate Strike except you would call both your support to guard instead of attack. Each person will have a unique Intimate Protection. During the battle if the main party is about to receive an attack, you can calls upon the two supporting members to defend, the last member to defend will be given the option to not defend by pressing the X button or initiate Intimate Protect by pressing the triangle button. Some Intimate Protection abilities include regaining lost SP, increase attack and defense boost.
Finish Strike:
Finishing Strike is a powerful attack that each character has the ability to do once a special gauge is filled up. During Unite Mode there is a second gauge that requires the player to fill up before Finishing Strike is activated. Unlike Mana Khemia there is no special requirements to fill up the gauge, you just need to hit the enemy a lot of times during Unite Mode. This gauge does not fill up as fast the Unite Mode gauge and may take several turns to get Finish Strike to activate. Once the gauge is filled, Finish Strike will happen automatically and you will select one of the three main active party members to use the Finish Strike ability. You can cancel the strike if you don't want to waste it, but be warned, that the gauge will drop about 2 bars from full, which would then need the player to fill it up again before you can use it.
So unlike Mana Khemia, the sequel made a bit more difficult to activate a Finish Strike attack, but when you activate it, it is worth while to see the flashy attacks.
Boss Battle Videos:
Part 1:
Gametrailers.com - Mana-Khemia 2 Boss Battle Part 1 by MaverickHL (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/224193.html)
Part 2:
Gametrailers.com - Mana-Khemia 2 - Boss Battle Part 2 by MaverickHL (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/224749.html)
SOUND:
The soundtrack for the game is great, but compared to the first Mana Khemia it fall a little weak. The game introduction has a better song, but some of the in game battle music does not flow as well as I expected. So far there are only about 2 or 3 BGM that stood out to me. The good news is that later you will have access to all of the sound track from the first Mana Khemia game so that will be a welcome change to those who might not like the music in Mana Khemia 2.
SAVE CYCLE SYSTEM:
As I mentioned earlier that when you choose one of the main characters you will be stuck with the character for that one whole play through. Once you beat the one route you are given the option to make a clear flag. This clear flag when loaded lets you play the other unchosen character with the added benefit of having all the items from the previous cycle. This is one of those systems that you might like or might not. It basically means if you want the full story you will need to go through this game a full 2 cycle. Once you finish with those 2 cycles you have one more final Phase to conclude the game completely. This is a unique way of doing a New Game+ system and unlike previous Gust game you will spend around 70 hours to fully beat this game.
CONCLUSION:
Mana Khemia 2 has many improvements and some short comings, but overall this is an amazing game and worth picking up when it gets localized. The story in this game just like all other Gust games is pretty weak, as all of the other sub-stories from the character quest has more precedence compared to the main story. The Alchemy and Grow Book system is even more closely tied than before making most of your time invested in getting good alchemized items. The battle system is amazing and little to no slow downs in the game compared to the first game. There is a complex replay value for this game as there are 11 endings to acquire. You will also see some cameo appearances of some Mana Khemia characters.
oops, request from mods, could I get the thread title to have the [PS2] tag at the beginning. Thanks.
Official Website (http://mana-khemia.jp/mk2/)
Thanks to:
Gust for making the game possible
Silverwolf X for some translation work and early gameplay information
Trailers:
Japanese Introduction:
Gametrailers.com - Mana-Khemia 2 Japanese Introduction by MaverickHL (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/224186.html)
Last year Gust decided to add new branch for their Atelier Project series, and this started with project A9 called Mana Khemia. This game was then later released in North America this year for all the fans thanks to NISA. Only about a month after its release in North America, Japan receives the sequel Project A10 to this game called Mana Khemia 2: おちた学園と錬金術士たち and we shall see what has improved since its first iteration when it was released last year. This goes to show that the PS2 still has some life left before it says goodbye.
PLOT:
The story begins 15 years after the fall of the prestigious Al-Revis Alchemy School. Due to the decreasing amount of Mana in the world, the power that sustained the school caused it to collapse to the lower lands. Now the school's reputation has fallen pretty badly due to the lack of talented alchemist. To help curve the decreasing attendance rate the school introduces other courses outside of alchemy to help bring the school back into prosperity.
At this point the story for this game will revolve around two main characters: Rozeluxe Meltzen (Roze for short) and Ulrika Myberg. Rozeluxe is not really interested in alchemy but is forced to go the school by orders of his employer's daughter. Rozeluxe has a certain disdain for mana due to a past traumatic experience.
Ulrika on the other hand wants to become an alchemist and having received a mana egg when she was a child wants to see it hatch and have a pact with it. Ulrika of course drags her friend who is not really interested in alchemy but goes along anyways.
There are two stories interwoven into this game and as such you will have to play each role to find out the whole picture of this game.
GAME SYSTEM:
Mana Khemia 2 system is not that all different from the first, but they tweaked and added things to improve it from the first game.
SCHOOL SYSTEM:
This system has not changed from the first game. This time the game will only cover a 1 year time span and will follow this setup:
EVENT -> WEEK of Lessons -> FREE WEEK -> EVENT (continues story to the next Phase).
The first 3 Phases introduces much of the school system as well as the battle and alchemy system. The Lessons again consists of different task with certain conditions to get a good grade. However unlike the first game, about more than half of the lessons are mandatory, some of these lessons teaches the battle system in general.
So unlike the first game it is easier to actually pass the courses and setup time for FREE weeks which are used for Character Event quests and Job Quest like those found in Mana Khemia or Atelier Iris 3. The Character Event Quest are used to build up relationship with your party member. In the first Mana Khemia, there was one character who's character quest allowed them to help you in your alchemy. In this game all character quest has a tie to help improve your synthesis of certain items.
The Job System has not changed since Mana Khemia, but is more difficult as some of the quest requiring to alchemize items have harder restrictions compared to the first. They also introduced a Bazaar, which takes up a free week. The Bazaar is used to sell some of your rare alchemized items to the school body in then later becomes available as an item one can purchase in the regular shops. This is a good way to get those rare ingredients to help improve your alchemy.
ALCHEMY SYSTEM:
The alchemy system is now the same as the first Atelier Iris where everything including weapons, armor, and accessories are made in the Atelier. For those who do not know, Alchemy in this game is basically synthesizing ingredients together to make other ingredients or items.
All alchemy requires a partner when synthesizing items, each partner has unique passive/active skills that will help increase or degrade the ether quality of your alchemy when applied to certain ingredients. For example, Rozeluxe's partner Lilia is a water type, so her passive skill will give +7 to any water type ingredients. Active skills are triggered by pressing the Square button and a menu will appear giving a selection of active skills for that specific partner. So for Lilia one of her active skills turns all the elements on the wheel to water to insure getting good ether value for the water type ingredient. To improve passive and active skills for each alchemy partner, you will need to spend time in Character Event Quest to acquire them.
Also to add a little complexity to the system, each ingredient has a positive or negative ether value. For example if an ingredient is an element of fire with -10, you would need to select water to give it +10 to the ether value.
GROW BOOK SYSTEM:
The Grow Book system from Mana Khemia is back, this time it is better organized and harder to get 100%. The Grow Book is a system similar to Final Fantasy 10's Sphere Grid system where there are no levels for each character, but at the end of the battle each character will receive AP.
The AP is used for the Grow Book to apply for stat boost and skills for each character. To get these boost, you need to alchemize your items. Alchemy is tied to you gaining stats, for example Rozeluxe has a dagger (main weapon) once it is alchemized it will appear in the Grow Book and AP can be applied to it to get stat boost and skills. Each alchemized items has 3 selectable parameters.
Now for the hard part of the Grow Book system, by default if you do not alchemize the item with a 100 ether value, you will only have access to 2/3 parameters for each alchemized item. This means you will be spending a good portion of the game refining your ingredients to achieve better Grow Book stats.
There are certain shared alchemy items for all the character but it will not necessarily give the same stat boost. The system is very balanced and you can't really over level in this game. It gives it a nice steady pace in progression. Meaning by the end of game you are powerful enough to beat it but have a chance of getting wiped.
Alchemy and Grow Book System:
Gametrailers.com - Mana-Khemia 2 - Alchemy Gameplay by MaverickHL (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/224191.html)
FIELD SYSTEM:
Mana Khemia had some frame rate issues when moving around the field. THe major causes of this was due to the fact that the main character had an attack animation. This attack animation is used to cut grass in the field which yield ingredients as well as initiate first strike on monster parties. In Mana Khemia 2, they eliminated "grass cutting" and left the bags on the field for the player to pick up. Also there is no cutting animation anymore and it is replaced by a generated random button to initiate first strike on monsters.
All of the previous activities in Mana Khemia 2 such as mining, harvesting, and fishing are now there own separate mini-games. The harvesting is using a slot machine whereby having all the ingredients the same gives a bonus ingredient. The mining now requires button memorization, as the game will show a set of buttons to press and you need to press it before the timer runs out. Fishing has also changed, where one needs to damage the fish in order to tire it and reel it in.
Basically Mana Khemia 2 added more interaction to the ingredient gathering, and though it is fun at the beginning, it might get tedious later on.
DUAL STORY MODE:
At the beginning, the game will let you choose between Roze or Ulrika and so you will be locked into the route you have chosen for the rest of the game cycle. Each route will have a total of 5 unique party members (Main Character + 4) and each main character will have a unique story as you progress through the game.
BATTLE SYSTEM:
Mana Khemia 2 has fast paced turn based battle system and once you learn the system you will enjoy it. The battle system uses the card base turn order system just like in Mana Khemia. The basic concept is that when a player turn comes up they can attack, use skills, items etc. just like any typical turn based game. In Mana Khemia 2 they added a few new systems to make the battles fast paced and very interesting.
Support System:
This is a throwback to Atelier Iris 1 and 2 where you can switch characters. However you can not switch on the fly, there is a gauge that needs to be filled for the support characters before their turn comes up. Support System allows characters in the support chain to either help attack or defend the main party during a battle.
During the game, 3 main players and 2 supports are available at any time (once you get at least 5 characters). If one of the main characters attacks, a O button becomes available in the lower right menu telling you, you can use the support character to attack. You can chain up to two more attacks to increase the damage.
You can also call in another person from support to take damage for you so that you can distribute the damage among the characters. Once you have filled more of the Grow Book you will be able to have better support attack and defense abilities at your disposal.
Guest System:
During the chosen route a guess might appear to help the party during battle. All guest character will not gain any AP during battle and his/her Grow Book will not be accessible. The Guest is mainly there to fill the 6th position in the support so you have a full 6 party team during a portion of your chosen route.
Unite Mode:
Unite Mode is basically Burst Mode in Mana Khemia. There is a gauge in the upper right of the screen and it gradually fills up when you damage the enemy. This gauge will move slow and will only significantly increase if you get a critical attack or you exploit an enemies elemental weakness. Once Unite Mode activates all characters attack increase and critical rate is increased.
Intimate Strike:
Intimate Strike can be only be used during Unite Mode. During the battle if the main party attacks and calls upon the two supporting members to attack, the last member to attack will be given the option to do a support attack normally by pressing the O button or Intimate Strike by pressing the triangle button. Intimate Strike is basically the same as Vain's Variable Strike in Mana Khemia. Each person has a unique attack and is a very strong attack compared to some of the earlier skills that you start off in the game.
Intimate Protect:
The same concept as Intimate Strike except you would call both your support to guard instead of attack. Each person will have a unique Intimate Protection. During the battle if the main party is about to receive an attack, you can calls upon the two supporting members to defend, the last member to defend will be given the option to not defend by pressing the X button or initiate Intimate Protect by pressing the triangle button. Some Intimate Protection abilities include regaining lost SP, increase attack and defense boost.
Finish Strike:
Finishing Strike is a powerful attack that each character has the ability to do once a special gauge is filled up. During Unite Mode there is a second gauge that requires the player to fill up before Finishing Strike is activated. Unlike Mana Khemia there is no special requirements to fill up the gauge, you just need to hit the enemy a lot of times during Unite Mode. This gauge does not fill up as fast the Unite Mode gauge and may take several turns to get Finish Strike to activate. Once the gauge is filled, Finish Strike will happen automatically and you will select one of the three main active party members to use the Finish Strike ability. You can cancel the strike if you don't want to waste it, but be warned, that the gauge will drop about 2 bars from full, which would then need the player to fill it up again before you can use it.
So unlike Mana Khemia, the sequel made a bit more difficult to activate a Finish Strike attack, but when you activate it, it is worth while to see the flashy attacks.
Boss Battle Videos:
Part 1:
Gametrailers.com - Mana-Khemia 2 Boss Battle Part 1 by MaverickHL (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/224193.html)
Part 2:
Gametrailers.com - Mana-Khemia 2 - Boss Battle Part 2 by MaverickHL (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/224749.html)
SOUND:
The soundtrack for the game is great, but compared to the first Mana Khemia it fall a little weak. The game introduction has a better song, but some of the in game battle music does not flow as well as I expected. So far there are only about 2 or 3 BGM that stood out to me. The good news is that later you will have access to all of the sound track from the first Mana Khemia game so that will be a welcome change to those who might not like the music in Mana Khemia 2.
SAVE CYCLE SYSTEM:
As I mentioned earlier that when you choose one of the main characters you will be stuck with the character for that one whole play through. Once you beat the one route you are given the option to make a clear flag. This clear flag when loaded lets you play the other unchosen character with the added benefit of having all the items from the previous cycle. This is one of those systems that you might like or might not. It basically means if you want the full story you will need to go through this game a full 2 cycle. Once you finish with those 2 cycles you have one more final Phase to conclude the game completely. This is a unique way of doing a New Game+ system and unlike previous Gust game you will spend around 70 hours to fully beat this game.
CONCLUSION:
Mana Khemia 2 has many improvements and some short comings, but overall this is an amazing game and worth picking up when it gets localized. The story in this game just like all other Gust games is pretty weak, as all of the other sub-stories from the character quest has more precedence compared to the main story. The Alchemy and Grow Book system is even more closely tied than before making most of your time invested in getting good alchemized items. The battle system is amazing and little to no slow downs in the game compared to the first game. There is a complex replay value for this game as there are 11 endings to acquire. You will also see some cameo appearances of some Mana Khemia characters.
oops, request from mods, could I get the thread title to have the [PS2] tag at the beginning. Thanks.