#oneaday Day 526: Ensemble Cast

Ah, man. I'm really enjoying Mana Khemia, and a big part of that is the ensemble cast. There's a really "tight-knit" feeling to the central group of characters that is thoroughly in keeping with the school setting; it really does feel like you're hanging out together at this school for alchemy wizards, getting to know everyone.

A big part of this is actually through non-verbal stuff. In Mana Khemia's alchemy system, for example, while you (as protagonist Vayne) are crafting things, various characters can be seen getting up to all sorts of mischief around the workshop while you try and concentrate. This is partly a mechanical thing — Mana Khemia's alchemy system features a timed button press mechanic, and these animations are designed to distract you from it — but the ways the different characters behave are all so well and truly in keeping with their personalities that I can't help but just enjoy them charging around, doing handstands and taking ill-advised "tastes" from the alchemy cauldron.

It's an interesting change of pace after the three Atelier Iris games, too. While all three Atelier Iris games featured some sort of potentially world-ending threat by the end of them — and this threat became clear by partway through the narrative — Mana Khemia, so far, feels rather more mundane. I suspect this may well change by the end of the story and I'm fully prepared for that, but at the moment it's just about schoolkids who happen to be good at making stuff in cauldrons. And the most inappropriate school nurse that has ever been seen in a piece of Japanese popular media.

I'm into the game's second "year" now, and its fifth chapter; I believe there are something like twelve chapters altogether, and multiple endings. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to cheese the multiple endings by being careful about the order in which I'm doing things and making a tactical save… that would be the sensible thing to do in terms of getting the game done efficiently, of course, but I also just kind of want to play the game and enjoy focusing on whoever becomes my favourite character.

I also don't really know who will end up being my favourite character yet, because they all have their own very different charms. We shall have to see!