Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists provides tips on managing the town
Gust has released a new information batch for Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World in Japan, which goes more in-depth on the town management system in this Atelier spinoff game made to celebrate the series' 20th anniversary.
To be able to develop the town and build facilities, Nelke needs to collect money first to be able to fund the constructions. She can earn money by selling items through shops that have been built. But she also needs to assign another character who is residing in the town to become the shop clerk.
Each character has a different set of stats that determine how well they manage a certain type of shop. There are five types of shops in this game: General items, Food, Weapons, Medicines, and Clothing. The higher the character's stat for the shop type they are assigned into, the more items can be sold by them and thus the more profit can be generated. The stat can also be improved over time if the character continues the same job.
After each week has passed, the game will generate charts showing income and population growths. It also analyzes the supply chain and can even provide suggestions on which parts should be improved in order to gain more profit in the future. The game also ranks contributions made by other characters, and the one with the most contributions will be marked as MVP and gain a relationship boost with Nelke.
When Nelke has befriended certain characters close enough, she can unlock not only special conversation events with them, but she will also be able to place new landmarks related to them. For example, by befriending Felt Blanchimont from Atelier Iris 2, she will be able to build a park with a sword being rested at its center, which should look reminiscent for those who have played Iris 2 before.
Gust has also revealed a new batch of legacy Atelier series characters that will be featured in this game, which are as follows:
- Bartholomaus "Bartel" Platane (from Atelier Viorate)
- Lita Blanchimont (from Atelier Iris)
- Suelle Marlen (from Atelier Lydie & Suelle)
- Ulrika Mulberry (from Mana Khemia 2)
- Uryu (from Mana Khemia 2)
Other than the above characters, Gust also announced that Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists will have over 100 characters throughout the whole Atelier series appear in the game. Although the following characters have not been featured in promotions yet, My Sextans from Atelier Marie, Keina Swaya from Atelier Meruru, and Angriff Dahlmann from Atelier Firis have also been confirmed appearing here.
Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World will be released first in Japan for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on December 13. The English localization has also been confirmed to be released in early 2019 with an additional PC Steam version. You can also read our hands-on impressions from the Tokyo Game Show 2018 demo to get an overall feel of how this game plays like.