#oneaday Day 598: New Game Plus

Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy has one of the most enjoyable New Game Plus modes I've played through for a while, because it finds a good balance between letting you carry stuff over and still providing some meaningful things to do. Plus Ulrika and Raze's storylines are completely different from one another, so you really are getting two games in one here (plus the extra bit at the end when you've done them both).

For the uninitiated, Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy allows you to carry over all your recipes, items, records of things you've previously crafted and money to a new playthrough, but character progression is reset. Or rather, since you're playing a completely different set of characters when you do your second playthrough, they simply start from scratch.

There's a key difference, though. As you'll know if you read my feature on the game's progression mechanics, Mana Khemia 2, like its predecessor, doesn't use a standard "XP and levels" system. Instead, you unlock "cards" in a character's "Grow Book" by crafting items, then use AP earned through combat (and through a couple of other means) to unlock abilities on those cards — these can either be stat boosts, specific skills or improvements to innate abilities.

Because the New Game Plus mode carries over all your recipes and a record of what you crafted in your first playthrough, you'll find most of the cards are unlocked at the start of your second run, meaning you just need to get some AP in your pocket to buff up your stats quite significantly. And, chances are, you'll have some good armour left over from that first playthrough, too — though you'll still have to craft weapons for each of the characters, since those are unique to each individual.

In other words, the New Game Plus still provides meaningful things for you to do, but demands less of your time. It also provides a few nice little bonuses along the way, too, such as an NPC that allows you to change the battle music (including selecting tracks from the first Mana Khemia if you so desire) and a shop that allows you to spend AP on fruit that permanently increases stats if you do ever find yourself maxed out progression-wise.

I'm pretty sure this has been my favourite Atelier game so far, which is why it's such a crying shame it never came to Europe. I'm glad I got a copy when I did, though; as PS2 drifts further into the world of "retro", prices are creeping up!