Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland is the third installment of the Arland series of Atelier games, originally released on PS3 back in 2011. It serves as a direct sequel to Atelier Totori, which we covered in the past, and reuses most of the existing game engine with some significant improvements and quality-of-life changes.

The story follows the life of Merurulince Rede Arls (called Meruru by everyone), the princess of the small kingdom of Arls. The kingdom is currently undergoing procedures to merge with the republic of Arland. This gives Meruru the freedom to try and convince people to allow her to become an alchemist, just like her mother.

Totori (who has been dispatched to Arls) acts as her teacher and immediately notices the talent Meruru possesses. However, the King (Dessier Hahlsner Arls) and his advisor Rufus Falken put a strict condition on her ability to pursue her dreams. She has to work to improve the living conditions of Arls by using the alchemy skills she learns.

This gives her three years to achieve specific objectives to make Arls a bigger country before the merger. As is tradition with the Atelier series of this era, this acts as the time limit in which you need to achieve the main goal to get your ending. There is also an extension of two years that allows for more freedom to explore and play around, assuming you pass the initial test.

The mechanics here revolve around building new structures in the kingdom (following Rufus's orders) and exploring new areas to make them usable by the population. You are essentially managing a colonization effort. Of course things become more complicated as you explore more areas.

One of the important story elements is understanding what happened to Meruru's mother in the past and why Dessier was so much against Meruru becoming an alchemist. As you keep going through the exploration you gather more hints that allows you to finally learn the full story.

The playable companions are:

Rorolina Frixell

The main character of the first game. She is supposed to be 26 at the beginning of Atelier Meruru, but Astrid (her teacher) was unwilling to let go of young and cute Rorona. So, she concocted a "Youth Potion" that was meant to bring her back to the "ideal age" of 14. Unfortunately, the potion was too strong and caused Rorona to become an 8-year-old in this game. One of the story paths involves searching for a way to revert her aging.

Totooria Helmold

The main character of the second game. She is now a much more mature woman (20 years old) and acts as Meruru's teacher, supporting her whenever she can. Contrary to Rorona, she is actually fit for the job and is an amazing teacher to have around. She has been dispatched to Arls as part of the merger.

Keina Swaya

Meruru's childhood friend. She acts as her personal assistant and is extremely devoted to her. She is polite to everyone and seems to have a natural luck ability, as things often move around to ensure she succeeds in whatever she does.

Lias Falken

Another childhood friend of Meruru and the younger brother of Rufus. He works as the gatekeeper of the Arls castle. Unlike Keina, he seems to be cursed by bad luck of absurd proportions. This causes lots of things to go wrong, like him falling into traps or picking the only poisonous mushroom in Meruru's basket.

Rufus Falken

The advisor to the King and the extremely strict tutor of Meruru. He acts as her guide during the renovation projects, suggesting what to build and doing all the needed paperwork. He cares deeply for his little brother but doesn't show it publicly.

Mimi Houllier von Schwarzlang

A returnee from the second game. She is Totori's best friend and an adventurer from Arland. She lends her skills to Meruru for exploration while trying to get closer to Totori. Many of her character scenes were extremely cute.

Gino Knab

Another returnee from the second game, Totori's childhood friend and a powerful adventurer. He is still on his journey to become strong enough to defeat Sterk.

Sterkenburg Cranach

A returnee from the first game. He is an ex-knight and an extremely powerful individual. He is still searching for the King of Arland, Gio, to ask him why he abolished knighthood and ditched the country. As usual, people are scared of his stern face, but he is quite gentle at heart.

Esty Dee

A returnee from the first game. She is Sterk's senior and an extremely powerful individual. She is here to support Meruru in her renovations while also keeping an eye on Sterk.

Gio

The former King of Arland and a sort of "uncle" figure for Meruru. He wants to help Meruru but doesn't want to reveal his identity, so he wears an extremely obvious mask while interacting with her. He is very powerful but tries to avoid being discovered by Sterk.

I am a bit conflicted here. While Meruru and Keina's relationship reflects the pattern of "yuri friends" that we saw with Cordelia/Rorona in the first game and Mimi/Totori in the second, I feel the dynamic is lessened by the servant/master relationship they have. This kind of makes me more attached to the sequel of the back-and-forth between Mimi and Totori in this game. Their interactions were really cute and definitely worthy of putting on the yuri glasses.

There are also other minor characters appearing like the merchant Hanna, the adventurer guild receptionist Filly Dee, and many more returning from the other games. It is sort of an ensemble cast since this was supposed to be the last game of the trilogy.

As usual, there are multiple endings (11 in total excluding the character specific endings) to the game that change depending on a series of triggers ingame. Getting all of them in one playthrough is not impossible, but quite difficult considering the high threshold of dedication that some of them require.

If you played the first two games, there is no reason not to play this one too. It is more of the same with an improved gameplay system and a very adorable story.