Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the Finish & the Secret Key was my most anticipated sport this spring. I imply, certain, Zelda’s on the horizon, however I knew this (seemingly) remaining journey for Ryza and her rising band of pals would successfully fill the time forward of Zelda’s launch. And it does…largely.
Ryza 3 is ready a yr after our heroine left Kurken Island to expertise the large metropolis life-style of Ashra-am Baird in Atelier Ryza 2: Misplaced Legends & the Secret Fairy. She’s now again house in Kurken, and her alchemy expertise—at one level complicated and unsettling to the townsfolk—are very a lot in demand. When an archipelago all of a sudden seems close by, it’s as much as Ryza and her pals to research. Do these islands have something to do with the occasions of Ryza’s earlier adventures? The group relishes the chance to seek out out.
As with the earlier video games, the celebration begins small however grows shortly. Ryza begins with Lent, Tao, and Bos by her facet, the latter character changing into playable for the primary time. Klaudia joins the combo pretty shortly, and a bit later we’re launched to our first new character: Federica. Finally, gamers will be capable to optimize and swap between practically a dozen characters—new and acquainted—in fight, making for a busy however regularly evolving expertise.
It’s quite a bit to handle, particularly when you think about all of the crafting that must be performed to maintain your celebration as much as snuff. However that, in fact, is the purpose of the Atelier video games; merchandise crafting is on the sport’s very core, and Atelier Ryza 3 presents numerous methods to make sure you’re spending the correct period of time on the cauldrons.
All of it begins with merchandise assortment. Atelier Ryza 3 presents the most important world but, and it’s filled with objects to reap alongside the best way, both by selecting them up or utilizing instruments resembling a hammer, bug internet, or ax to seize them. The chosen instrument and its stage decide what you’ll get, and even these need to be crafted and enhanced to be correctly used. The crafting system is mainly the identical as within the earlier Atelier Ryza video games, so followers might be snug with the method (save for the keys, which I’ll get to in a bit). Nonetheless, the interface isn’t fairly as visually clear because it was previously; I discovered it tougher to find out which aspect to maneuver to subsequent and to see what precisely an merchandise will do when crafted. (Talking of laborious to find out, the dialogue textual content is vindictively small. Unsure how that obtained previous high quality management.)
Crafting can also be considerably muddied by the open world strategy to exploration. In contrast to in Atelier Ryza 2, for instance, areas aren’t opened up linearly. There aren’t dungeons to discover and clear (so, sadly, no mysteries to decipher) to be able to progress to a different space. As such, there are a ton of craftable merchandise on the onset that you’ve completely no skill to craft—and gained’t for fairly some time. Settling for lesser merchandise with the crafting objects readily available was disheartening.
And did this large world additionally harm the graphics? The characters look nice each whereas exploring and through their dramatic, Alex Raymond-esque dramatic battle poses and animations, however the world itself is considerably flat. Colourful, however missing element.
The open world additionally causes extra meandering. The sport normally tells you the place to go subsequent, however Ryza would by no means take a direct route, so why ought to the participant? Reaching sure areas fortunately unlocks warp factors, and also you additionally purchase the flexibility to trip round shortly on the again of assorted animals. Wandering about usually opens pop-up quests and yields priceless objects, however at the price of actually slowing down the narrative and coming into you into battles you’re not able to win. If a quest requires me to discover previous 4 or 5 unopened checkpoints, am I actually imagined to be on that quest?
Am I able to deal with the monsters alongside the best way? Some kind of enemy stage indication would show helpful, however it’s normally not too laborious to make a fast escape. And though the video games have gotten higher at telling you what objects could be harvested from objects resembling timber or rocks, I actually want gamers might see what number of of these objects are at present in stock. The icons are sometimes fairly related, making it laborious to recollect whether or not you could have 8 or 80.
Fortunately, the battle system is one of the best it’s been. The modifications from Atelier Ryza 2 threw me at first, however as soon as I grasped the brand new movement and interface, I got here to love it extra. It’s nonetheless laborious to find out the speedy menace when combating a number of enemies, however emphasis on swapping combatants and protecting them healed forces you to determine issues out shortly. Tutorials floor every time a brand new fight element is launched, and except you manually bypass them, you’re compelled to execute them to be able to proceed. Fast assaults could be chained for higher harm. Saved up AP can be utilized to launch focused bodily or magical assaults (look ahead to vulnerability indicators). CC can be utilized to gradual issues down for therapeutic or utilization of crafted objects. Though it’s bizarre you may’t use objects to heal characters between fights, you do have the choice throughout fight to heal those that aren’t within the lively battle celebration. I believe I swapped combatants within the first ten hours of Atelier Ryza 3 greater than I did all through everything of the primary two video games. That’s a very good factor; it makes it tougher for fight fatigue to set in.
Then there are the titular keys. All elements of Atelier Ryza 3—crafting, exploration, and fight—are affected by key creation and use. The keys are obtained at quite a few locations all through the sport’s world, and might then be utilized nevertheless you see match. Use them whereas crafting to enhance your outcomes. Use them throughout fight to energy up buffs or to develop your AP assault chains. Use them whereas exploring to open new areas or enhance your harvest. They’re a useful gizmo that, once more, prevents the sport’s proceedings from rising stale, however I actually want they’d been higher defined firstly. What does it imply that there are solely 4 makes use of left, when that quantity doesn’t drop once I use them? Why can I not equip a key in a personality’s key stock slot? I used to be a couple of dozen hours into the sport earlier than I actually felt I had a grasp on learn how to correctly use keys, however perhaps that’s on me. I recall being a couple of dozen hours into the primary Atelier sport I performed earlier than I used to be totally snug with crafting.
We’ll name it a optimistic facet, then, that Atelier Ryza doesn’t demand good execution for the participant to proceed. It’s very a lot doable to push ahead and benefit from the journey with out mastering every facet of gameplay. On the atelier, you may let the sport deal with the crafting for you (superb for shortly producing objects you could craft higher issues, however you threat losing priceless objects within the course of). And so long as you could have a pair characters with strong therapeutic talents, you may bully your means by means of fights with out taking full benefit of your high-damage strikes.
However Ryza’s not a bully, and that’s not the best way to play this sport. I’ve learn it may be accomplished in 40 hours. I counsel doubling that; exploring each nook of the map and tinkering relentlessly with merchandise crafting will present larger rewards. Whenever you really feel like taking part in an motion sport, struggle. Whenever you really feel like taking part in a puzzle sport, craft. Atelier Ryza 3 is provided to be what you need.
That flexibility, nevertheless, slows down the story, and it’s an excellent story. As earlier than, the stakes are small firstly, and so they by no means develop to the everyday JRPG stage of god killing. As an alternative, the emotional affect comes from the characters and their relationships—how they view one another and the world round them as they develop into extra deeply hooked up to it. And even through the moments which are particularly tense or wistful, there’s an optimistic vibe that carries by means of—not lots of anime-style screaming to be heard right here.
Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the Finish & the Secret Key subsequently succeeds fully at its personal tempo. Regardless of transferring in direction of the open world strategy of Breath of the Wild or Xenoblade Chronicles, for instance, it’s not involved with competing in opposition to them. It desires you to take pleasure in it for what it’s, and that’s very simple to do. I did want Misplaced Legends & the Secret Fairy, however simply barely. That is nonetheless a comfortable however intricate journey that closes the Atelier Ryza trilogy in a means that ought to please most followers. Depend me amongst them.