I’ve been playing the Atelier franchise of video games for quite a long time now and while each of the games have incrementally changed things along the way, Atelier Ryza’s trilogy has been one that has been quite captivating thanks to the character development and growth shown by Ryza herself.
Previous Atelier Games would do away with a protagonist and introduce a new one in a subsequent game. While pushing the old protagonists to the wayside served as a way to introduce new characters, the Ryza trilogy did things differently. It kept Reisalin Stout as the main character for all three games and players have been along for the ride as she’s grown into a great alchemist and extremely lovable main character.
The End of an Era
So with the third instalment of the Atelier Ryza franchise finally upon us, Koei Tecmo and Gust have thrown us straight into the deep end without wasting much time. Upon launching the game, players do have the option to view a video which will recap the events of the previous two Ryza games. If you haven’t played through those games though, it’s highly recommended that you do not watch this video and rather purchase and play through the previous games yourself first. It’s definitely worth it and you can check out our reviews of the previous two game here and here.
Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key kicks off with Ryza and her pals involved in a battle on a beach. After this, before heading back to Kurken Island, Ryza suffers from a headache and hears a mysterious voice in her head. Chalking this up to fatigue, she heads back along with her friends and the story moves along at a brisk pace introducing you to recurring characters and some new ones.
Fast forward a little bit and Ryza ends up synthesizing a mysterious key back at her Atelier. This key becomes a central plot point for the entirety of the game and it draws you into the narrative quite well. Without spoiling too much, there’s a lot of mysterious events that are happening and Ryza and her pals get drawn into an extremely satisfying tale that will keep you coming back for more right up until the very end. It’s quite sad seeing the trilogy come to an end especially since the characters have really grown on me throughout this series.
Gameplay in Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key is fairly straightforward. Players will adventure around the extremely large open world environment and thankfully there aren’t any loading screens between areas. This makes seamless exploration a lot more enjoyable and feels like a massive step up over previous Atelier games where you’d have to wait for loading screens in-between traversing areas on foot. The fast travel option is also available almost immediately and this is extremely welcome because the game world is rather large.
Explore and Synthesize
Exploration is also extremely satisfying in Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key because there’s so many different resources available to gather in each of the areas. Exploring different areas and harvesting resources is a key part of the franchise after all. The resources which are collected by Ryza can be simply picked up or obtained by smacking them with her staff and there isn’t a need to stop entirely to gather basic items now. Once resources have been gathered, they can be used back at the Atelier for synthesis.
Synthesis this time around has again been streamlined even further into a more accessible system than its previous iteration. The overall visual look of synthesis is a massive step up over Atelier Ryza 2 and players can easily tell what’s going on both visually by the images and via the on-screen user interface text. The tutorial which explains synthesis was also quite easy to understand and since everything is visually represented really well, it’s a breeze to synthesize some really powerful items which you can use. You’ll certainly be hooked on trying to synthesize the best items once you really get into the game.
Graphically, Atelier Ryza 3 will be polarizing with fans. Personally, I prefer Atelier Ryza 2’s overall look and graphics. Atelier Ryza 3 features a more washed out, almost watercolour painting-esque aesthetic and while it still works for the game, I would have preferred the more traditional art style and graphics as seen in the previous game. The character outfits are also something that will be hit or miss with fans. I personally preferred Ryza’s outfit and design from Atelier Ryza 1 for example while others may prefer her newer, plumper design. Thicker thighs aside, the character animations in Atelier Ryza 3 also feel a bit more stiff or rigid but it might just be my memory playing tricks on me since I don’t remember it being this way in the previous titles.
With that said, the effects in battles have really been amped up a lot in Atelier Ryza 3. Attacks and skills are a visual feast for the eyes. Especially when you’re stringing together combos against tougher foes. Atelier Ryza 3 also has a photo mode once again and players can spend a lot of time creating the perfect screenshots in the game world.
The battle system in the game is still quite familiar and features a lot of character swapping, using skills and chaining together combos to defeat foes. Of course, using your alchemical creations is also important here and the “Super Traits” that you can impart on your items makes a world of a difference in battle. Keys also play an important role in the game and as you unlock more keys, Ryza’s abilities improve. This is worked into the game really well without vastly changing the core mechanics established by the previous two titles in the series.
Some of the battles in Atelier Ryza 3 can be a bit of a challenge if you’re not paying attention. If this does happen though and you find yourself struggling, you can always lower the difficulty setting to make your life easier in-game. Atelier Ryza 3 will take you around 30 hours or so to complete or even longer if you plan on doing everything there is to offer in-game. There’s a lot of content to get through here, as expected of an Atelier game, so be prepared to spend a lot of time exploring, crafting and doing a lot of resource gathering for side quests and more.
The Soundtrack of Atelier Ryza 3 is great and fits right in with the Atelier franchise’s already quite extensive list of excellent tracks to listen to. The voice acting in the game is performed by returning Japanese voice actors but dub fans will be disappointed since there once again, isn’t an English dub here. Thankfully facial expressions are extremely well done in the game and convey emotion really well when combined with the dialogue. The Japanese voice actors have done a great job here as per usual but the locailisation and translation work seems to have suffered a bit with some lines being left out such as during battles.
Final Verdict
Overall, Atelier Ryza 3 is a solid conclusion to the Atelier Ryza trilogy. Koei Tecmo and Gust have wrapped up the trilogy and it feels quite sad to be saying goodbye to characters that have been around since 2019. Even with the few missteps and changes to the formula that the series has gone through over the years, the Ryza trilogy has with no doubt revitalized the Atelier franchise and hopefully we’ll get to see more titles in the near future that can take it to even greater heights. If you’ve played Atelier Ryza 1 and 2, 3 will be an enjoyable end to the story, and if you’re a newcomer, I suggest picking up the other two games first before diving into this one otherwise you’ll be a bit lost.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows
Buy your copy here https://www.koeitecmoeurope.com/ryza3/
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