Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the Finish & the Secret Key’s the final installment within the fan-favorite Atelier Ryza collection within the flagship Atelier collection and one which concludes our favourite heroine’s story in an emotional manner. And whereas not with out flaws, the sport additionally offers gamers with new and acquainted gameplay components.
Starting of the Finish
Atelier Ryza 3 takes place a 12 months after the final sport in Ryza’s hometown of Kurken, the place she’s revered as each a hero and a extremely succesful alchemist on account of her previous actions, heroic deeds, and now worthwhile expertise. Nonetheless, whereas performing her duties because the native alchemist of the island, her peaceable life is unexpectedly disrupted by the looks of recent mysterious surrounding islands, together with a mysterious voice in Ryza’s head that tells her to craft an equally mysterious key for a far-off location. To resolve issues, Ryza calls upon the assistance of her pals, some new, some returning, as extra particulars in regards to the occasion start to unravel.
The primary few hours of Atelier Ryza 3 are extremely nostalgic, notably for returning gamers. These segments deal with recalling Ryza’s prior adventures with returning characters corresponding to Tao, Lent, and Klaudia through flashback sequences in the course of missions. After these scenes, the story then shifts focus to the primary occasion and introduces all new characters main to an enormous 11 playable character forged, all with their very own tales, which I gained’t spoil. Whereas the sport’s narrative admittedly takes a while to get going, when it does, the story being advised is extremely partaking and heartwarming.
Gameplay & Fight
As for gameplay, Atelier Ryza 3’s fight system is detailed, fast-paced, and pleasurable. The sport makes use of a mix of turn-based and real-time fight. Gamers should wait till the motion bar fills as much as carry out fundamental assaults. Doing so will grant you Means Factors which can be utilized to carry out particular magical and bodily abilities. Moreover, utilizing abilities provides you with Core Cost Factors, that are wanted so as to use fight and consumable gadgets throughout fights. As you possibly can in all probability inform, the fight system is nearly too detailed, particularly while you add in new and previous components corresponding to buffs, debuffs, therapeutic, and extra. Nonetheless, whereas a newcomer could take a while to determine all of it out, returning gamers gained’t discover a lot new to be taught. The one actual problem I discovered is that the pacing of fight typically will get disrupted when gamers want to attend to assault in pivotal moments, and much more so when a number of social gathering members are shocked and the bar resets.
Outdoors fight, gamers can even spend important time with the collection’ signature alchemy “synthesis” crafting system. The system primarily stays unchanged from the earlier sport. Gamers can collect supplies so as to craft instruments with various traits, stats, and high quality. Crafting with the perfect stats and supplies will grant a number of distinctive bonuses, whereas instruments crafted can be utilized to collect superior gadgets wanted to craft extra superior instruments and weapons. The brand new ‘Secret Key’ mechanic is the newest addition to this method. Gamers can create particular keys that can be utilized in fight to buff their social gathering and out of doors fight to reinforce synthesis throughout crafting. Just like the fight system, returning gamers may have no points with the synthesis system as 90 % of the mechanic carries over. Nonetheless, new gamers could take for much longer to get the hold of.
New Gameplay Options
Probably the most thrilling a part of the gameplay for me was the a number of new places with unbelievable previous and new traversal strategies, from zip strains to new mounts, corresponding to dolphins within the ocean. These new traversal choices do a terrific job of permitting gamers to discover the a number of new lush, vibrant, and detailed places the sport has to supply, a lot of that are a lot bigger and extra partaking than in earlier video games.
Whereas exploring, gamers may run into a number of sub-quotes of various varieties. Most will activity the participant with exploring surrounding areas to collect supplies or battle enemies for NPCs, whereas “random quests” are extra time delicate and are normally faster to do than the common facet quests. Whereas I discovered these quests comparatively inoffensive, a lot of them are, sadly, predictable and repetitive.
Other than that, although a bit much less on the Swap, Atelier Ryza 3 sports activities extremely detailed and vibrant visuals, a extremely aesthetic artwork course, and wonderful crisp animations. The sport additionally runs effectively on each docked and undocked. Nonetheless, my largest problem with how the sport runs is how noticeably sluggish all the pieces is throughout cutscenes. Each character movement is visibly sluggish, and transitions really feel very delayed. As somebody who values pace in video games, the pacing actually threw me off, however fortunately I acquired used to it rapidly.
Closing Ideas
General, regardless of some points, Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the Finish & the Secret Key offers a terrific expertise that wraps up the collection and finish issues with an emotional bang that can go away longtime followers happy.
The Evaluate
Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the Finish & the Secret Key
PROS
- Nice story
- Nice fight system
CONS
- Sluggish paced story and cutscenes
- Overly difficult mechanics