In an interview released on the official Koei Tecmo app on September 16 (web excerpt available here), the developers of Atelier Karia: The Night Kingdom & the Guide of Memories gave an update on the game’s “body shape changing mechanic,” which became the topic of much passionate deliberation following an peculiar player survey from Gust. While the positive “interim” results of the poll from last month already suggested as much, it seems the mechanic is now on its way, with the developers busy at work to implement it before launch.
Atelier Karia is the latest entry in the long-running alchemy Atelier JRPG series, scheduled to release in February 25 on Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2. The game’s heroine Karia boast the impressive ability to eat anything – from actual food to synthesis items, and even weapons and bombs. The things Karia eats during exploration and combat can alter both her appearance and abilities, with the game accounting for over 100 possible snacking-related transformations.
Given that eating is a core gameplay mechanic, Atelier Karia’s developers wanted to know whether players were on board with heroine Karia being able to transform into a somewhat “plumper” version of her original design after she’s had a lot to eat, which resulted in last month’s viral user survey.
In the new interview, producer Junzo Hosoi and director Daiki Fukui say they were surprised by the overwhelming demand for the feature, with just under 75% of fans expressing a strong desire for it to be implemented. Among English-speaking users, the figure was even higher at 90%. The survey was conducted across Asia, North America, and Europe, and Hosoi says each region was in favor of the new mechanic, though the response was the most passionate in North America.
Fukui, meanwhile, revealed that the dev team had anticipated various possible outcomes when they decided to conduct the survey, and they’d made preparations in advance for implementation. Although he did not explicitly confirm that a final decision has been reached for Karia’s body shape changing, his comments imply that work on the feature is indeed in progress, with the team working at full speed. According to Fukui, while the development work is challenging, it will not have a major impact on the overall development schedule, so he asks fans not to worry.
On a related note, in the interim results of the survey, among players who said they would like body shape changes to be included, 62% wanted to be able to lock Karia into their preferred body shape, while 32% wanted her body to change spontaneously according to how much she eats. It’s not yet clear what the devs have decided on when it comes to this, so we’re likely to see another announcement down the line.
Atelier Karia: The Night Kingdom & the Guide of Memories is set to release in Early 2027 for PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2.
