Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis

RPG Fan

Mana Khemia is an incredibly fun game with a fairly large scope, that takes a minimum of 40 hours to complete. And, with a simple New Game Plus feature, serious fans can get all of the character-specific endings without doing much work.

Worth Playing

It isn't particularly deep or thought-provoking, or noticeably challenging. It's just fun.

Hardcore Gamer Magazine

Anyway, Mana Khemia has a solid story, hilarious character dialogue, and an engaging combat system, and it lets you make giant swords using only dirt, vegetables, woodchips, and household cleaning products.

G4 TV

NIS America picked a nice, light RPG to bring out in Mana Khemia, and its localizations are steadily improving.

AceGamez

Its most distinguishing feature is the quality that permeates the experience; a light-hearted-but-engaging romp in a fantastical world of alchemy and demonic teddy bears, Mana Khemia is a testament to the flexibility of RPG design - and it's a lot of fun (except that damn theme song!)

GotNext

Mana Khemia offers plenty of humor, great looking 2D graphics, solid music, and a combat system that makes the turn-based approach a little more hands on.

GameSpot

It seems old-fashioned at first, but Mana Khemia takes a surprisingly fresh look at old role-playing conventions.

ZTGameDomain

The deep alchemy system and unique grow book are worth the price of admission alone and the collector’s edition is chock full of fan-service.

Game Informer

Mana Khemia is different in name and structure, but it still hangs on tight to the process of item synthesis that drives "Atelier Iris", making it a spiritual sequel in most respects. [May 2008, p.94]

Playstation: The Official Magazine (US)

Mana Khemia is hardly innovative, but if you're a fan of classic Japanese-style RPGs, you don't want to miss it. [May 2008, p.87]

games(TM)

A rare game in which you really need to take an interest in all of its components in order to progress with any of them. [May 2009, p.119]

Play Magazine

As much as I enjoyed most of what Mana Khemia had to offer, actively disliking three of the game's main characters(Vayne, Jess and Flay)made it easy to be apathetic every time a storyline cutscene kicked in. [Apr 2008, p.61]

PSX Extreme

The control is fine, the gameplay as a whole is fine, the characters and atmosphere are acceptable and even amusing, and Gust does hit the correct note when it comes to presentation. But the Academy aspect of the game drags big time, the voice acting and graphics are sub-par, and although the Alchemy is involving, the overall depth isn’t as intricate as you might believe.

Vandal Online

Because of the wide RPG library in PS2 and PSP, and especially on PS2 during its ten years of life, Mana Khemia can sneak modestly between hardcore Atelier Iris fans. There are not many surprises in this game, which is too conservative, but can offer some hours of fun.

Cheat Code Central

If you are a fan of past Gust RPGs like Atelier Iris and Ar tonelico, Mana Khemia may be something worth looking into. However, be forewarned that this game in no way features the same amount of freedom to roam and spend as much time as you please.

Games Radar (in-house)

Even if the storyline is somewhat intriguing and the battles (eventually) excite, sitting through one lengthy dialogue tree after the other while alchemists-in-training spout empty phrases about homework diminishes the experience.

GamerNode

This niche title does little to captivate its audience and its main gameplay mechanics will act as deterrents to the average gamer.

IGN

The lack of challenge across the board, from accomplishing class tasks to battle and even skill acquiring will disappoint most players. It's not a horrible title, but it definitely is weaker than the series it's trying to take over for.

GameZone

Been there, done that, and don’t want to do it again.

1UP

The core gameplay is sound, so it's a shame that it's burdened by a derivative plot, generic characters, and archaic visuals (reminiscent of the 32-bit era in a bad way).