NIS America and its Japanese counterpart are well known among the hardcore RPG fans in the US. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, La Pucelle Tactics, Phantom Brave, and several other titles have come out of the Japanese branch of the company. Now that the US branch is in full swing, RPG fans will have plenty of solid games to look forward to in the coming years.

Its most recent release, Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, follows in the same basic structure of past NIS RPGs. Atelier Iris was developed by Gust and is actually the sixth installment in a long-running series. As the first US release in the series, RPG fans need not worry about back story. Eternal Mana has a storyline all to itself that requires no knowledge of the previous games in the series.

Before we dig into the elements that make Atelier Iris a solid title, there's one thing RPG fans need to know. If you're a mainstream fan who sticks to the high production games along the lines of the Final Fantasy series, you'll need to check your visual preferences at the door. Eternal Mana is in no way visually appealing to those who are accustomed to titles that push the PS2 to its limits. Instead, the development team at Gust has chosen to go with a 2-D, anime-style visual display. The end result isn't bad, but it's certainly not on par with players looking for Final Fantasy-like visuals.

With that out of the way, we can dig into what really matters in an RPG, the gameplay and storyline. When the game kicks off, you'll be in control of Klein Kiesling, a budding alchemist who recently lost his grandmother. At first, Klein's only goal is to become a better alchemist, but as you progress through the game and add more members to your team, Klein's objects will become much more important.

One unique aspect of the gameplay is the ability to use elements from your surroundings in order to power Klein's special attacks. As an alchemist, Klein can control magical beings called Mana. As you progress through the game, you'll encounter more and more Mana that will give you new abilities. Some abilities will be combat based, while others will give you access to new areas. For example, when you eventually find the Rock Mana, in addition to his combat based skills, the Rock Mana can be used as a stepping stone to reach previously unobtainable areas.

To use many of Klein's techniques, you'll need to find ingredients. To use the Rock Mana's powers you'll need to find stone; the Forest Mana will require wood, and so on. This gives Klein the ability to wreck shop on his surroundings by turning everything from trees to rocks to power conduits into their basic elements. Sometimes this technique will be used specifically for ingredients, but other times you'll need to remove obstacles in your way in order to continue on your quest.

Many of the gameplay mechanics in Eternal Mana require players to backtrack to previous areas. Going back to the Rock Mana example, once you find him, you'll need to backtrack to reach areas you previously had no way of getting to. While it's not as annoying as some backtracking games can be, it does pose one problem. As you backtrack and find ingredients, you'll also be leveling up your characters. This makes almost every battle relatively easy. Even when we explored areas that we weren't necessarily supposed to be in, the lives of our party were never in immediate danger.

In fact, the game is relatively easy throughout most of Klein's journey. With the ability to swap out members of your party mid-battle without losing a turn, and attacks that hit several enemies at a time, RPG fans should have little trouble working their way through Eternal Mana. Still, difficulty is not always the deciding factor in an RPG, and it's not so easy that you won't have to think. Strategy will still come into play during battles, but seasoned RPG veterans will have no trouble progressing through Eternal Mana.

To its credit, Atelier Iris offers quite a few things that should please RPG fans. While new areas will open up as you progress through the storyline, you can almost always go off exploring to level your party up, check out a new area, or just gather up some ingredients for your alchemy. In addition, many of the areas in the game will require players to use their heads in order to reach the end, or obtain some nifty items. There are even a few side quests that will open up special art galleries and sound bites upon completion. You'll also need to keep watch over your Mana to ensure they stay happy. Otherwise, you won't be able to use your alchemy to its full potential, and things will become more difficult.

A nice little feature that seems to be common place in NIS titles is the ability to use the original Japanese audio track. Anime fans that dislike English voiceovers will be pleased with this option. However, when using the English track, there were several times when the game locked up or had a glitch, causing us to reset to our last save point. This seemed to happen much less with the Japanese voice track. Gust also included support for Dolby Pro Logic II and 5.1 during certain areas of the game for RPG fans who own a home theater system.

If you're a hardcore RPG fan who likes to spend time leveling up, and really gets into their RPGs, then Eternal Mana should definitely please. However, if you're more of a mainstream RPG fan with tastes for high budget titles along the lines of Final Fantasy, Eternal Mana may not do it for you. The game certainly isn't for everyone, but true fans of the genre should have a blast with it. The sequel was recently released in Japan, and we've got our fingers crossed for a US port.