Even though I've played a lot of video games over the years I'm not really what you'd call a 'hardcore gamer'. I'm the type of person who picks up a game and just plugs away at it for a couple hours at a time. There are very few games out there where I'll just sit and play for hours on end. The Atelier series is one of those. Be it the Arland trilogy, the Iris trilogy, or even the Mana Khemia series I just loose so much time on these games! I have so much fun with the alchemy systems in the games, it's very addictive, gotta get S-Rank on everything! So it shouldn't be too surprising that I'm very excited to see Phat! Company is getting ready to release the title character of Atelier Meruru: Princess Meruru!

Meruru here is about as perfect of a scale video game figure likeness as you'll find. The sculpting is fantastic with tons upon tons of little details throughout. Folds, hems, and textures cover every inch from boots to tiny crown. Even her alchemy staff has a neat little green gem in it. And if the sculpting isn't enough the paint is top notch. The real highlight here is the gradient used on the inside of her cape, a sort of faux-opalescence since the real thing wouldn't quite look like the game art. The other paint highlight is the flower pattern found on her collar and sleeve cuffs, details like that can't be easy to pull off. The face and pose are both awesome, perfectly capturing Meruru's outgoing and always cheerful personality. The background is a bit bare, but better than nothing and certainly has a few nice touches to it. If I had to complain about one thing it's the use of silver, it's accurate, but seems a bit heavy handed and appears to be bleeding on the edges a little. However this is a prototype so the final version might look a little cleaner.  

If you're interested in making Elixirs with Meruru she's expected to go on pre-order in Japan on November 29 with solicitations starting in only a few hours from now. Phat! recently released the child version of Rorona from this game and we're also told that there's an accompanying Totori figure in the works featuring her older appearance from the Atelier Meruru game which shouldn't be confused with the nice looking figure they made of her from her own game.

[via Mikatan's Blog]