As far as plot and setting go, Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis for the PS2 is basically an anime Harry Potter. You play as Vayne, a shy orphan unsure of his past who's thrust into enrollment at a special school that teaches alchemy to gifted children. It quickly becomes apparent that everyone is in on some kind of big secret about Vayne that he's clueless about. Within the first 30 minutes after orientation, he's flanked by his future companions: a quiet bookworm with pink hair and a feisty half-girl/half-cat monstrosity. The familiar plot is easy to swallow; it's the ridiculous dialogue -- each line is over-acted and blurted out with no regard for the one that came before it -- that makes every cut-scene an eye-rolling process of mashing the X button to speed up the text.

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