Koei Tecmo Games have opted to release the Atelier Mysterious Trilogy of games remastered and with all the previous DLC in one handy dandy pack on Nintendo Switch. Gamers can purchase each title separately but buying the entire pack is recommended since it works out cheaper to do this.
The Atelier Mysterious Trilogy includes, Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book DX, Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey DX and Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings DX. Each game featured has been given the “DX” treatment which includes quality of life features brought to each game. If you aren’t a fan of JRPGs or games that feature a lot of text and visual novel elements, you should avert your eyes and look elsewhere. This is a JRPG trilogy that will appeal to JRPG fans predominantly.
Players are advised to start off with Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book DX since this is the first game in the trilogy. With that said though, each game in this trilogy is a separate story with some returning characters. You can play through them in any order if you want to but going through them in chronological order is advised for full effect since there are some references to previous characters.
Starting off with Atelier Sophie, this game is arguably the most dated in terms of design. The original game launched on PS3 as well as on PS4 and PS Vita way back in 2015 in Japan. Atelier Firis and Atelier Lydie & Suelle however skipped the PS3 completely because by the time they were released, the world was well into the PS4s life cycle. Visual elements of Atelier Sophie therefore might look rather dated but this isn’t exactly a problem when playing on Nintendo Switch since the art style is still excellent. Atelier Firis and Atelier Lydie & Suelle are a noticeable step up with Atelier Lydie & Suelle looking fantastic thanks to massive improvements in graphics.
Atelier Sophie : The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book DX tells the tale of Sophie, an alchemist that comes across a “Mysterious Book” which is central to the game’s entire plot. Sophie soon discovers that the book has a will of it’s own and she’s tasked with restoring its memories while improving her own alchemy craft in the process. The entire game is rather lengthy with upwards of 60 hours of content. Thankfully, since the game is now on Nintendo Switch, it’s great fun to play it in bite sized chunks.
In fact, the entire trilogy benefits from this same fact. Some of the stories across all three games are very lengthy and being able to play through them in smaller sizeable chunks over the past almost two months has been an absolute pleasure. If you can purchase the trilogy on Nintendo Switch, I highly recommend you do so. Playing the game on a non-portable platform will probably still give you the same level of enjoyment but there’s just something to be said about the fact that you can easily load up any of the three games on Nintendo Switch and pick up right where you left off without any fussing about.
Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey DX kicks off with Firis, an ore miner. Firis soon befriends Sophie and Plachta from the previous Atelier game and learns the basics of alchemy. The entire plot of the game revolves around Firis taking a test to become a fully fledged alchemist and then earning the right to travel the world. Unlike Atelier Sophie, Atelier Firis has multiple endings so the amount of time you can spend with this game is significantly more if you want to get every single ending.
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings DX is the longest game in the trilogy with an absolutely massive amount of content to get through. Atelier Lydie & Suelle’s story focuses on Lydie & Suelle, twin sisters with basic alchemical skills that work at their father’s atelier. The twins discover a mysterious painting and get drawn into the painted world where their adventuring takes place. There are multiple endings in this title however they are far more manageable to obtain than Atelier Firis’s endings. You can get the true ending in one playthrough if you fulfill certain conditions too which is great since the game is rather lengthy.
Across all three games, alchemy and synthesis are the key gameplay elements driving the title forward. Venturing out into the world, defeating enemies with turn-based combat, returning back home and creating new items is the core gameplay loop with a lot of variation between all 3 titles. For example, Atelier Sophie is far more linear with less open environments. Atelier Firis however allows you far more freedom to explore. The same can be said about Lydie & Suelle with it’s more detailed environments.
Atelier Sophie and Atelier Firis include both English and Japanese voice acting with subtitles. Atelier Lydie & Suelle however only includes Japanese voice acting with subtitles. The voice acting across all three titles is excellent though, especially if you opt to listen to the Japanese voices since the characters are voiced by seasoned veterans of the anime voice acting industry that have lent their talents to numerous characters over the years.
The soundtracks of each game all feature numerous extremely catchy tunes. Much like how the original Atelier Arland Trilogy and Atelier Dusk Trilogy had excellent OSTs so too does the Atelier Mysterious Trilogy. Each game’s main theme is great and the background music for the various regions and areas in each game each stand out in their own particular way. Players will soon be humming certain themes to themselves after playing each of these games. The OSTs really are just so good and Koei Tecmo and Gust need to be praised immensely for this.
Overall, if you’re a newcomer to the Atelier franchise of games, I recommend you start out with Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book DX and then play the others in this trilogy. This is purely because of how beginner “unfriendly” the Atelier games tend to be. There’s a steep learning curve in the trilogy because of the way synthesis works and this changes across all three titles but if you sink the time into the games, you’ll find that they are all excellent in their own particular way. Each title also succeeds with engaging and heartfelt stories told via visual novel elements. This is interspersed with solid turn-based combat gameplay and third-person exploring. The time-based gameplay from the older titles has been done away with too, making the game’s feel less frantic while player exploration is encouraged.
If you’re looking for three enjoyable JRPG games with excellent voice acting, music, and story, look no further than the Atelier Mysterious Trilogy. Each of the three games here are worth playing while Atelier Firis stands out as the one with the most replayability thanks to the multiple endings. The quality of life improvements brought to the game which include 2X battle speed, being able to “Run” in Atelier Sophie and having access to all the previous DLC content makes this a great trilogy of games to recommend. Doubly so if you’re planning on playing them on-the-go on Nintendo Switch since the games ran with zero issues on that platform. Highly recommended
Publisher: KOEI TECMO
Developer: Gust
Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, and PC
This was reviewed on Nintendo Switch and can be purchased here for £73.99
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