Mere moments intoAtelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key, and heroine Ryza has already reminisced half a dozen times. Every other line of dialogue feels like a nod to what came before. Characters reflect on how they’ve changed through the years - and all the quirky ways in which they haven’t. The first hour of this game feels like so many winks after another it’s a wonder Ryza didn’t suffer facial injuries.
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Maybe this series has earned the right to winking. After all, we’re on our third go-around with Reisalin ‘Ryza’ Stout now, and she and her allies have been through the wringer together. The Atelierfranchise is special in that, though it dips its toes in epic conflicts to some extent, the story’s focus is always far more attuned to character development.
As such, there’s been a great deal of it for folks like Tao and Bos, two strapping lads who are adventuring alongside Ryza at the beginning of the game. Ryza reflects on how they’ve grown. In turn, Tao and Bos comment on Ryza’s steady graduation from bumbling lass to Kurken Island’s trusted alchemist. There are flashbacks galore. As someone who adores this cast, my stupid grin hasn’t dissipated as I’ve made my way through this early sliver of the story.
If you’re wondering why I spent three full paragraphs talking about characters talking, you might be new to Atelier. There’s a lot of talking in Atelier Ryza 3, as is the rule with this series. Much of the appeal here is in the sincerity and positivity of the core cast, and the ways in which they come together time and time again to scour the land for materials and craft super-cool stuff, which is the other big appeal.
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Crafting and gathering are as much a part of Atelier as catching monsters is in Pokemon, so one of the things I look for with new entries is how Gust will improve the process. There should be as little friction as possible between the player and the ingredients they’re gathering, and the synthesis system for item creation should feel easy to comprehend but equally thrilling in complexity.
More than ever, I get that exact sense with Atelier Ryza 3; it hasn’t rewritten the book on these time-tested gameplay mechanics, but it’s never felt better to run around and grab what’s needed, then return to the atelier and see what I can make. Much of my warmth for the game stems from its delightfully pretty (and larger than ever!) environments. Though I’ve noticed things can get a bit distractingly blurry in Pixie Forest, the early areas I’ve explored have broadly been quite beautiful. I don’t know what Gust is doing to fine-tune this engine between installments, but it’s working.
I wasn’t overly fond of the battle system in Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout. It was bland and poorly integrated into the whole ‘alchemy’ premise. Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legend & the Secret Fairy fixed all that with one of the best bits of combat in the series. My favorite improvement was the inclusion of Core Drives, which encouraged players to craft up a storm to equip the party with powerful special items. Thankfully, they’ve wisely kept this in the threequel.
Swapping between characters on the fly mid-battle, tapping into Core Drives as well as their own unique abilities, recognizing when to block and such - it all feels like a novel expansion of what Atelier Ryza 2 got right. No doubt combat will open up with new ideas as the game goes on, especially with the whopping 11 party members confirmed to appear. I look forward to learning howthe ‘keys’ we’ve heard aboutwill factor into fights. For now, it’s good enough to know they haven’t broken what didn’t need fixing.
That sums up my thoughts so far: nothing’s broken, and it’s great to see the team back together again. The expanded environments give the game a greater sense of seamless scale. It’s pretty, it’s got some lovely tunes, and I can still leap from significant heights without taking fall damage. Oh, and there are cats and dogs all over the place, who you can pet, and they may even reward you for it. Solid start.
One last thing. If this will be your first foray into the Atelier Ryza games, do yourself a huge favor and watch the little prologue movie that recaps the events of the other two. It does a pretty good job catching folks up. Frankly, it would be better to just start with the first game and go from there - Atelier Ryza 3 is designed with veterans in mind. But if time or money’s an issue, you do you - as recaps go, this one’s pretty good.
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