Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key Nintendo Switch Review

Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the Finish & the Secret Secret’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 supplies 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 resulting from her previous actions, heroic deeds, and now helpful expertise. Nevertheless, 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 mates, some new, some returning, as extra particulars concerning the occasion start to unravel.

The primary few hours of Atelier Ryza 3 are extremely nostalgic, notably for returning gamers. These segments concentrate on recalling Ryza’s prior adventures with returning characters comparable to Tao, Lent, and Klaudia through flashback sequences in the midst 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 very partaking and heartwarming.

Gameplay & Fight

As for gameplay, Atelier Ryza 3’s fight system is detailed, fast-paced, and fulfilling. 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 Potential Factors which can be utilized to carry out particular magical and bodily expertise. Moreover, utilizing expertise offers you Core Cost Factors, that are wanted so as to use fight and consumable objects throughout fights. As you may in all probability inform, the fight system is nearly too detailed, particularly if you add in new and outdated components comparable to buffs, debuffs, therapeutic, and extra. Nevertheless, 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 difficulty 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 celebration members are shocked and the bar resets. 

Outdoors fight, gamers may also 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 objects wanted to craft extra superior instruments and weapons. The brand new ‘Secret Key’ mechanic is the most recent addition to this technique. Gamers can create particular keys that can be utilized in fight to buff their celebration and out of doors fight to boost synthesis throughout crafting. Just like the fight system, returning gamers can have no points with the synthesis system as 90 p.c of the mechanic carries over. Nevertheless, new gamers could take for much longer to get the hold of.

New Gameplay Options

Essentially the most thrilling a part of the gameplay for me was the a number of new places with improbable outdated and new traversal strategies, from zip strains to new mounts, comparable to dolphins within the ocean. These new traversal choices do an amazing 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 sorts. Most will job the participant with exploring surrounding areas to collect supplies or combat enemies for NPCs, whereas “random quests” are extra time delicate and are often faster to do than the common aspect quests. Whereas I discovered these quests comparatively inoffensive, a lot of them are, sadly, predictable and repetitive.

Except for that, although a bit much less on the Change, Atelier Ryza 3 sports activities extremely detailed and vibrant visuals, a extremely aesthetic artwork course, and wonderful crisp animations. The sport additionally runs properly on each docked and undocked. Nevertheless, my largest difficulty with how the sport runs is how noticeably gradual all the pieces is throughout cutscenes. Each character movement is visibly gradual, and transitions really feel very delayed. As somebody who values velocity in video games, the pacing actually threw me off, however fortunately I obtained used to it shortly.

Ultimate Ideas

Total, regardless of some points, Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the Finish & the Secret Key supplies an amazing expertise that wraps up the collection and finish issues with an emotional bang that can depart longtime followers happy.