The last four years have been fruitful for the Atelier Ryza series, going from being a sub-series within the larger Atelier series to now being the dominant incarnation. The third Ryza entry expands the scope due to her and her friends' hometown being in jeopardy. The events of the first two adventures have forged strong friendships despite Ryza being naive to start and then maybe too headstrong, but the evolution of the cast is impressive to see in action throughout.
The increased stakes here help take a more grounded story to a new level while building up more bonds between the cast. Ryza calls upon her allies to help unravel what’s going on and use the power of alchemy to win the day. With a blend of action and turn-based combat at play alongside timing-based mechanics, the Ryza series has something for everyone when it comes to JRPG combat. It’s a logical-looking turn-based battle system with speed to it.
One issue with normal turn-based JRPGs is that if you look at the scene as a slice of reality, it makes no sense. Now for something like FFVII, it would be enhanced by having the absurdity of the party fighting a house – but most games just featured people taking turns attacking each other and logically, it looks weird to the eye. Much like animation, things that seem absurd in theory – like a Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote scenario – can work because the animation makes visual sense of everything going on. Here, combat allows for both a brisk pace but limits turns based on a cooldown – like avoiding overexertion in an MMA game. Now as a player, that could get old, so if you want, you can switch between characters in real-time using triggers and then change their temperament with the d-pad. I loved this because if I had an enemy that was just going after me, I would go into the head canon and figure okay, this enemy has it out for me and just go into a more aggressive mode whereas regular enemies would just get the standard balanced mode where the focus is split between combat and healing.
The CPU-controlled allies work nicely with this setup and early on, it’s usually safe to just blitz through everyone. When you’re facing tougher foes, you’ll need to have characters go with a balanced approach and switch others to aggressive modes to deal out more damage faster. Combat has a brisk pace across the board and being able to switch characters allows each battle to feel fresh. The core gameplay loop makes combat feel like a reward as well. Generally, you’ll go through town and solve problems for NPCs – with fetch quests alongside object-finding missions. The fetch quests have a good variety and the alchemy is diverse, with both items and weapons being forged with a similar spider web-style interface with branching paths for different elements. The different items being crafted can all have different power levels or potency, with more powerful weapons taking higher-end elements to craft than something like a single healing item.
While many of the core elements needed for crafting can be found in the world, others can be purchased. This allows the player to have faster access to things like stronger spells or different elemental effects for weapons. Those used to a format of buying or finding better items and weapons in the wild may be thrown off by having to forge things, but it does result in largely the same end result – just with more control being available to the player in terms of what supplies they fill their party up with.
The quality of life for combat is a joy, but there’s room for improvement when it comes to a quality of life across the board. Text size is entirely too small and it’s not particularly bold either – it’s dull and usually hard to read. Many times, it’s placed against a white background or something light blue, making it nearly impossible to read. It wouldn’t be a massive issue if the game had a dub, but Japanese language with subtitles is the only option, making the ability to read the text crucial to everything that goes on in the game. Down the line, hopefully a patch is released to allow not only larger text, but different colors so it can be read more easily.
Visually, the rest of Atelier Ryza 3 is solid overall with some sticking points. The character models looks fantastic and animate smoothly, while the environments are lush and have a lot of color. They do lack in fine detail, though, and textures do appear muddy when viewed up close. Fortunately, the flaws aren’t all that visible in real-time because the camera is always moving around the environment for sweeping shots when you enter an area, and you’ll spend a lot of time exploring – but it does stick out more if you use the in-game photo mode to snap some shots. You do get a lot of picture-esque areas to view, but the textures aren’t always ideal.
Musically, the soundtrack is strong with a slew of sweeping tunes to get the blood pumping. It’s got a quick pace for battles and a more subdued, laid-back approach for exploring towns. That design works nicely when you’re engaged in dialogue with an NPC as it prevents it from being overtaken by the music. The sound effect work for combat is also effective as there’s a satisfying slash for blades alongside solid elemental sound effects for magic.
Closing Comments:
Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key is a fantastic blend of turn-based and action RPG combat with an engrossing storyline. The chemistry between the cast works nicely and is reminiscent of something like Lupin III or Cowboy Bebop, where the ensemble cast allows everyone to shine. The brisk battle system keeps combat engaging, while alchemy makes weapon and item forging satisfying to accomplish. The game is held back by iffy visuals in the form of small text and muddy textures, but has gorgeous-looking character models and animation alongside a killer soundtrack.
Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key
The sequel to 2020’s Lost Legends & Secret Fairy, Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key finds the alchemist entering her final summer adventure. Gust’s turn-based JRPG features 11 playable characters, the most in the franchise’s history.
