Reisalin “Ryza” Stout and her friends are back in a heartwarming RPG to conclude the “Secret” subseries. The long-running Atelier series is well-known for featuring a young alchemist who spends many of his adventures gathering ingredients, crafting new items, and defeating enemies. Atelier Ryza 3 is no exception to that format, but what has changed is the scale of the world you can explore.
Taking place exactly one year after the events of the last game, the game begins in a familiar location: Ryza’s homeworld of Kurken Island. But things quickly start to get strange when mysterious new islands and ruins appear nearby. As the only alchemist on the island, Ryza undertakes to go find out for herself. Before long, you will be traveling a long way.
There’s a very strong sense of nostalgia in the opening hours, as you’ll be reintroduced to many of Ryza’s childhood friends. Some are new, but many of them are familiar faces. It’s great to see how Claudia, Lent and Tao have grown over the course of the trilogy and of course if you haven’t played her first two games some of these moments are will be lost. There’s a handy recap movie available from the main menu that summarizes the events of her last two games, but if you haven’t played them, it probably isn’t detailed enough.
As you progress through the story, you unlock new regions to explore. Each is a large open area with a different vibrant style. There are areas filled with forests, ancient ruins, and underwater areas. Large open worlds can sometimes feel a little barren and empty, but thankfully that’s not the case here. Launch ziplines, summon cute rides, climb mountains and run around to explore every corner of the world. It’s really fun to look ahead, because you never know when you’ll come across new synthetic materials and treasure chests.
There are many side quests that will take up your time while you investigate what the emergence of new islands means. can. There are also many time-limited quests that randomly trigger as you walk around. The rewards for completing them are usually pretty big, but the actual activities can be a bit repetitive. You won’t be penalized for not meeting a deadline, so unless it’s something you can do on your way to the next story quest, it’s usually easier to ignore.
Indulging in too many side activities can slow the pace of the main story. It will take a while for the mysteries of the islands to be revealed, but it doesn’t matter too much because exploring the world and playing with alchemy is a lot of fun.
It’s a bit annoying (not entirely unexpected) that Ryza seems to have misplaced many of the adventure tools and weapons she crafted in her second adventure in the capital. Thankfully, she at least remembers how to recreate most of them, and the Alchemy system is simple enough to understand. Add materials to each node, and if they have the right elements, unlock traits or increase the stats of the finished item. It’s an incredibly fun and flexible system. There are many things you can create, such as items that are useful in battle.
The combat system is fast and fluid, but can be a little chaotic at times. In battle he has 3 party members and in the back row he can swap 2 members. Actions take place in real time and you have to wait for the gauge to fill before using your basic attack. These attacks earn ability points that can be used to activate various combat skills. Using skills gives you core charge points that are used to activate items in battle. It can be a little confusing, but it doesn’t take long to get used to the rhythm of building different points and unleashing all kinds of pain on your enemies.
Most enemies you’ll encounter aren’t too difficult, but bosses can definitely be a little tricky. It’s a sign that you need to spend some time upgrading.
Developer Gust isn’t reinventing the wheel here. Both the alchemy and combat systems are similar to the previous games, with some quality of life improvements to make things more streamlined.The biggest change is the new “secret key” system. You can create special keys that can be used in a variety of ways, such as giving buffs to your party in battle or strengthening your compounding with alchemy. Each key you create has a limited number of uses, but you can easily increase the number of uses through combat or by absorbing “land energy”. It’s a unique system that definitely becomes more useful as you play around with it and gain access to stronger keys.
Considering how impressive the majority of the game is, it’s a bit disappointing that the text is a bit unpolished. Mistakes and grammatical errors are especially noticeable. It’s also disappointing that you can’t adjust the text size because the UI is a little busy and it’s hard to read everything without sitting close to the screen.
Conclusion
Atelier Ryza 3 The End Alchemist and the Secret Key is the greatest Atelier game ever. Ryza and her friends are as charming as ever, and this is a great way to wrap up the trilogy. will give you
