"The Atelier Iris series has proved to be immensely popular since we first brought it to Europe, ending up as one of the UK's best selling Japanese RPGs of last year. With this latest instalment featuring countless improvements and advances we hope that fans of the series will see this as a fitting finale to such a fondly regarded series." said Will Curley, Sales Manager for KOEI Ltd.
Atelier Iris 3 centres around two adventurers called Edge and Iris. Upon finding a magical book which will grant any wish once all eight pieces have been brought back together they set out on a quest to locate all of the missing pieces.
For the first time in the Atelier series players can freely accept or reject quests. The brand new Guild Quest system enables intrepid adventurers to browse the job list at the Guild and simply select the ones which are most appealing. It's a much greater level of freedom that should make each player's experience far more enjoyable and a great deal more individual.
Grand Phantasm maintains one of the Atelier series most popular features which is that of the item and weapon synthesis. By combining items, entirely new and incredibly useful potions, weapons and items can be created, but only when the right combinations are discovered. It is an area that inspires as much devotion as the actual quests and battles and has now been made even more interesting, creative and challenging than in previous Atelier Iris titles.
Battles have also been lavished with some major advancements including an Active Cost Card Battle system, where the quicker you are to move the sooner your next strike comes around. Grand Phantasm also features a skill gauge that replaces the traditional magic point gauge found in many RPGs for one more akin to a special skill gauge found in fighting games, which fills as you attack.
Burst mode enables players to unleash a flurry of undefended attacks. The more combos you string together the more damage you inflict. But burst mode can only be triggered when you've filled the burst meter in normal battle. Mana spirits can be summoned into your team to unleash incredibly powerful magic attacks but only once you have built up a team capable of acquiring mana spirits.
And for the first time in an Atelier Iris game players are no longer at risk from random battles. Symbols on the map now confirm where enemies reside and players get to choose whether to engage the enemy, run away or simply attack them on the map whereby victory will clear your path, give you a chance of picking up any dropped times but won't improve your experience points. Only proper in-depth battles will improve your stats. But depending upon the situation a variety of choices are now at the player's disposal.
Key Features
- With the fast paced ACCB system, battle sequences are ordered by cards that represent the characters’ action order. The quicker the character, the faster their action turn comes around.
- An innovative change for AI 3 is the introduction of a symbol encounter system. Players will no longer randomly encounter enemies, but visually confirm and engage them.
- Unlike previous Atelier Iris titles, the all-new Atelier Iris 3 adopts a guild quest system. With this system, players can easily accept quests and missions that the guild posts.
- Job class system –Blades Master
- Comprehensive item/weapon crafting
- Breathtakingly beautiful animated artwork
Already available in North America, Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm is set for release on PS2 across Europe in July.