On June 21 Gust is going to release another sprite based Playstation 2 RPG, Mana-Khemia: Gakuen no Renkinjutsu Shitachi. Don’t be surprised if it reminds you of Atelier Iris series, before Gust billed Mana-Khemia with a name it was called project A9 as if it was part of the Atelier series. The battle system in Mana-Khemia looks like it is an adjustment of Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm’s where burst mode returns with flashy special attacks. While Mana-Khemia doesn’t attempt to deviate from the Atelier formula much (cute sprite characters, item synthesis, throwback to 16 bit era of RPGs) the series has enough fans to keep Gust afloat.
What about a North American release? NIS America, who has been releasing Gust’s titles has not announced they have picked up Mana-Khemia yet.
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