Atelier Annie is a wonderful RPG experience with plenty of engaging content to entertain both first time RPG players and long time fans of the genre. The story line was very fun and cute with plenty of likable characters who aid Annie in her quest to be the most successful alchemist on Sera Island. The adorable graphics and above average quality of the voice work and music add greatly to the game’s charm.

The basic premise of the deals with the story of a young girl, Annie, who is kidnapped one night by her famous grandfather’s minions and transported the Sera Island. Upon awakening in her new home, she is told that she is going to have to participate in a series of alchemic contests to develop Sera Island into a more habitable place for people to live and vacation. The final goal of which is to teach her to be a more independent individual and less of a lazy slob whose sole goal in life is to marry someone rich. As time goes along, you will encounter many engaging characters and humorous situations. Cutscenes occur frequently and the storyline changes depending on your overall progress in the game.

The graphics are simple but display a nice sense of whimsy about them. Cutscenes are told via static character images with each character only having three or four poses. Despite this drawback, the developer still tried to inject a bit of extra energy in these scenes by having the pictures slide back and forth across the screen during certain events such as when one character is flee another or other such shenanigans. Navigation in the field and around town is done via mixture of tapping certain points on a map and top walking around small 2D environments. The chibi art style used during these segments were so cute, it made even my cynical gamer heart melt.

The battle system is simple with only a few moves available to each character. Different characters have different areas of attack and special moves, but for the most part, there really isn’t a lot to distinguish the various characters from each. I found myself using the same characters all the time because there was little to no benefit in spending the time leveling up new characters when that time could be better spend tackling high level areas. One nice touch I did notice with the game was the option to speed up combat by holding down the “Y” button. Found myself using it quite often when beating down lower level enemies that were of little to no threat to me.

Really the only problems I had with the game is its failure to give an adequate amount of information about how to accomplish certain missions as well as a frustrating shortage of time to accomplish the numerous tasks that pile up if you do not manage your time properly. Finding the right balance between gathering resources, helping out friends, building and maintaining facilities, synthesizing alchemic components, and completing tasks for the alchemist contest can be a very difficult at times. It got very frustrating at times and I ended up going through game more than once due to failure. Since the game takes place over the course of three years and involves completing a variety of challenges successfully while building up a variety of successful business, it is very possible that a player can complete the game and still lose.

Bottom Line:

Overall, Atelier Annie offers fun, addictive and challenging gameplay all at the same time. If you are looking for a fun, casual RPG that can completed within a few days of dedicated play, but offers good replay value, this game is well worth trying. This was my first experience with the Atelier series, but I will definitely be looking forward to playing more Atelier games in the future.

Final Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by: Christine Natatchez and LC1
Review Format: Nintendo DS