Gust’s long-running Atelier collection has come on leaps and bounds over the previous few years. Its varied current appearances on Swap particularly show a steely willpower on the a part of the Japanese developer to step up with its JRPG franchise and make a concerted effort to rub shoulders with the massive weapons. In Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the Finish & the Secret Key, it feels prefer it’s hit a brand new excessive, serving up one of the best Atelier journey but and a recreation that followers and newcomers to the collection ought to discover lots to be delighted by.
For essentially the most half, the Atelier collection has switched out its primary protagonist for every entry on this 27-year-old franchise. Nonetheless, Ryza — whether or not as a consequence of reputation or as a part of an general plan — finds herself helming her third outing in a trilogy that is seen her develop from an harmless youngster stumbling into the world of magic to the well-renowned and sought-after alchemist we meet firstly of this remaining chapter. In affording Ryza time to develop and develop over such an extended arc and permitting her pals to observe and develop alongside her, Gust has managed to imbue the narrative with an emotional depth not beforehand seen within the collection, and so they actually do dig into this side right here.
There are many surprises, returning characters and cameos for followers to experience, numerous introspection and scenes the place we see the little children from Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness and the Secret Hideout immediately in comparison with the younger adults they’ve develop into, we’re even handled to sepia photographs of them collectively as they revisit places from earlier adventures. It is a good contact and it makes for a recreation that followers will really feel instantly at residence with. The outdated staff is again and so they’re prepared for a brand new journey — an journey made all of the extra poignant as a result of we all know it will be Ryza’s final as the primary protagonist.
Going down only one 12 months after the occasions of its predecessor, Misplaced Legends & the Secret Fairy, Atelier Ryza 3 kicks off with Ryza, Lent, Bos, Tao and the remainder of the crew leaping again into motion as a mysterious group of islands, the Kark Isles, seem out of the ocean near their residence. Ryza has just lately discovered herself compelled to craft a wierd key while working at her atelier and it appears this secret’s associated to a magical door on the centre of those islands. And so one other summer season of grand adventures, mysteries and friendships begins. There’s one other effective story right here with the standard laid-back mixture of parts that focuses on friendship, studying, discovery and private development as a lot because it does any menace emanating from the brand new islands our heroes got down to discover.
We’re not gonna spoil a second of the sport’s roughly 40-hour marketing campaign, we’ll go away it so that you can uncover its surprises in your personal good time, however for sure it is palms down one of the best Atelier story but, and one which’s backed up by a bevy of significant mechanical enhancements which have been launched to the core gameplay. The modifications delivered to Ryza 3 present extra thrilling exploration, deeper merchandise creation, one of the best fight within the collection thus far and a world that is greater and extra numerous than the rest within the franchise. Not solely has each side of the core gameplay loop been enhanced right here, however Gust has additionally made it extra approachable than ever, with auto-synthesis and all method of useful aids for gamers who’d slightly take a little bit of a backseat or do not need to get slowed down in merchandise creation that may be mind-bogglingly deep when you go to city with it.
The most important change this trip focuses on the sport’s titular secret key, which supplies you a brand new gameplay mechanic revolving round key creation, letting you take in powers and parts from enemies throughout battle in addition to out of your environment all through the journey. As soon as you’ve got created keys you’ll be able to deploy them in varied methods; utilizing them in battle provides you momentary bursts of assault energy imbued with all method of buffs, or quick home windows of time when you’ll be able to overlook about your AP gauge and simply whale on opponents continuous. You may additionally deploy them to open up obstacles throughout the panorama, get your palms on treasures and open up extra avenues of experimentation, supplying you with extra synthesis prospects, larger merchandise ranges and a better variety of results and buffs so as to add to the multitude of weapons, instruments, armour and so forth that you’re going to create and equip.
Keys make for a very glorious addition from a collectible perspective too. While combating enemies you’ll be able to select to leap right into a menu and create a key by leaching varied traits out of your present foe, and these traits fluctuate relying on who you are battling. This creates a want to get on the market and discover uncommon baddies and larger beasties who’ll imbue your key assortment with higher buffs. You can even drain key power from new places at set intervals, which helps gamers get extra concerned on a number of ranges. If you’d like one of the best key assortment, you have to get busy exploring to earn it.
By way of the fight, those that do not need to be taught all of the intricacies of SP, CC, Motion Orders and Order counts, can bypass a lot of the depth of the combating. You may management only one character throughout scraps and go away the AI to cope with the remainder of your occasion, change between assist and aggressive modes to shortly get what you want from teammates, simply escape from battles or just about keep away from encounters altogether to concentrate on the collection’ signature amassing and creation if that is extra your bag. Atelier video games have all the time been pretty chilled experiences and Ryza’s third outing manages to retain that vibe while additionally giving gamers who need fight and motion way more to jot down residence about.
Fight is the one side of this collection that is seen essentially the most constant enchancment over the course of the previous few entries. It used to take a again seat to exploration and crafting, and it was a component of the sport we have not all the time significantly loved, but it surely’s grown over Ryza’s tenure right into a correctly engrossing affair, filled with unlockable strikes, fancy expertise and a circulate that retains it partaking. Switching between characters freely, hanging out with assaults when your AP gauge is charged, timing your defence to deflect and injury enemies and placing collectively flashy combos that help you pull out a number of specials earlier than chaining a transfer to a different character, there is definitely lots to maintain you busy throughout every face off right here and the brand new key mechanic suits into the combination completely.
There is a regular drip-feed of recent expertise to deploy as you rank up the members of your occasion, loads of new offensive objects to deploy as Ryza’s ability tree develops and you’ll spend an absolute ton of time exploring and creating, crafting extra highly effective bombs, higher well being objects and stronger armour and weapons. Yep, the synthesis here’s a greater timesink than ever earlier than however, as we talked about, when you’re not down with studying the intricacies of merchandise crafting, you’ll be able to let the sport take over, sit again and let it whip you up high-value consumables whilst you get on with exploring the large world.
Whereas that world is not strictly a totally open one, it is one other very optimistic step up for the collection, giving gamers 4 giant and diversified areas to discover. When you’re in a area you’ll be able to traverse the size and breadth with out additional loading screens, making for a extra seamless expertise as you go about gathering and amassing the countless array of substances and parts that Ryza can use to craft again at her atelier. As you discover, you will discover quick journey spots dotted all around the panorama that you may then soar between utilizing the map — and you may want to leap round lots as you are summoned backwards and forwards on varied story-critical missions, in addition to the various facet quests that pop up as you roam the wilderness.
Mounts make a return too, supplying you with an array of quick and enjoyable methods to get round — who would not like to journey on the again of a dolphin to cross our bodies of water? There’s extra verticality, Ryza can swim, climb, slide and zipline by means of environments, numerous treasure chests hidden round to find, an enormous array of enemies to struggle and loads of magical places to tick off your checklist of locations visited. For a collection that used to really feel a bit of barebones, with worlds that have been a far cry from the usual of most AAA JRPGs, that is the closest Atelier has come to matching one of the best within the style. Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the Finish & the Secret Key remains to be unmistakably a AA recreation, however there’s way more to take pleasure in this time round, as a finer stability has been struck between exploration, fight and crafting.
On a extra damaging notice, there are a handful of points that do drag the enjoyable down in locations. Firstly, potential gamers ought to notice that there is not any English dub once more, so when you’re not comfy with subtitles then you definitely’re out of luck. Relating to subtitles, those who seem as characters chat in battle and while exploring are far too small to comfortably learn and we might’ve finished with the choice to extend the dimensions of those as we’re lacking lots of flavour textual content consequently. We additionally had some points with mission descriptions throughout our time with the sport, typically discovering it tough to know precisely what we have been required to do subsequent. It isn’t an enormous drawback, however some additional streamlining of how info is relayed to the participant would not go amiss.
On the efficiency facet of issues, whereas Atelier Ryza 3 appears to be like nice and performs very properly in each docked and handheld modes, there are some events the place you will discover the odd stutter right here and there as you certain by means of environments, and we often needed to look forward to a couple of moments throughout merchandise creation as the sport caught as much as what we have been doing. General issues run properly right here, however there are a couple of niggles that hopefully we’ll see ironed out.
Other than these small points, Gust has served up what’s undoubtedly one of the best Atelier entry but. Atelier Ryza 3 is a sprawling journey filled with enjoyable exploration, outdated pals, new faces, versatile and fast-paced fight, an enormous recreation world and merchandise synthesis that is extra addictive than ever earlier than. There is a unbelievable gameplay loop within the trifecta of exploring, crafting and battling, which supplies gamers lots to have interaction with at any given second. Should you’re a long-term fan you are going to love how the ultimate a part of this story performs out and, while we might advise new gamers to spend time with the primary and second Ryza video games to maximise enjoyment, the sport does job of getting you in control on previous occasions if you wish to soar straight into the combination.