Fans of Gust's Atelier Iris role-playing game series will be happy to know that the trilogy is now complete with the release of Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm in North America from Nippon Ichi Software America (or NIS American as they are fondly referred to). The final installment in this 2D role-playing game from Gust takes some of the better features from the first two titles, and mixes them in with some new features to create something that fans should enjoy. For all intents and purposes fans will like what NIS America has brought stateside, but RPG fans looking for innovation and major changes in the series will find little if anything major that deviates from the formula of the first two games.
Grand Phantasm opens with the story of the Wizard's Librim of Escalario, an ancient and powerful book that has the power to grant the bearer (in this case familiar alchemist girl Iris) their heart's desire. The problem is that the power that unlocks this book has been divided up into eight crystals and scattered throughout the world so that it doesn't end up in the wrong hands. The upbeat alchemist Iris, for the first time a playable character within the game, is in possession of the main part of said book, but to unlock its powers she'll need the help to find those eight gems that have been hidden in various exotic locales around the world. Luckily for her, and the player, she has the mighty sword arm of Edge, a somber sword wielding adventurer with spiky red hair.
The main focus of your adventures will be as part of a guild. In the game you are a member of a guild that handles problems for the populace by taking on tasks that are available on guild boards. These special quests are important because they end up intersecting and unlocking the main plot of the game. At first these adventures are pretty linear, but as the game gets rolling more options become available and the players is allowed to pick and choose what they want to do.
Fans of previous Atelier Iris games will feel right at home with the third title because it borrows the best features from the first two and meshes them together with some new stuff that is interesting. The game features the familiar Atelier Iris battle system: when an encounter happens the player is thrown into side view ala classic Final Fantasy with the enemy taking up the left side of the screen and the player's party taking up the right. The battles are turn-based and everyone takes their turn based on initiative. When it is your turn you select an action from a radial over the character's head to do things like attack, defend, use magic, use a skill, use an item, etc . Despite being turn-based, the battles are over pretty quickly because the pacing is near perfect, so an encounter will end in short order.
A good portion of your combat will take place in Alterworlds, special areas separated from civilized areas by portals. These areas are great for leveling up and random encounters are a thing of the past because you encounter sprites to make a battle happen (or they run into you). There are other things to do in these areas including fetch quests, missions directly connected to the main storyline and acquiring material for synthesis. When you are all done in these special zones, you are given points that are related to meeting a certain condition in those areas. These points accumulate and eventually give a special one time reward to the player.
Item synthesis is still a major component in the third game, and with the help of Iris, the players has the ability to create some interesting things. Grand Phantasm uses the same mechanics as the previous games: players choose items to put together in a combination called a recipe. These recipes allow Iris to create unique goodies, and as she practices her craft she gains alchemy skill, which in turn opens up new ways to learn even more recipes. But beyond getting "new ideas" the players has many other avenues to find new recipes. Finding these new recipes is as easy as going on a quest and an event occurring or simply following the main plot line.
