Game Commentary: Atelier Ryza

Atelier Ryza is the latest entry (as of the time of writing) into the ever-expanding Atelier series by Gust. For people who’ve never played an Atelier game, the easiest way to break it down to you is this: cute girls doing alchemy things. I want to say cute things but sometimes you fight dragons, other times you make corrosive bombs. Though I suppose some people find that cute. 

The Atelier series is infamous for being the ‘iyashikei’ of the video game world, at least from the standpoint of the JRPG genre. The games are a relaxing blend of simple turn-based combat, endless crafting (alchemy), cute characters, a simple story, great music and stellar art. It’s a game you turn to when you need to lull yourself into a comfortable slumber or for a lazy afternoon when you’d rather just not think too much. 

I’ve only ever played Atelier Iris (which isn’t representative of the staple series formula) and two games from the Mystery trilogy: Sophie and Firis. While I did enjoy Sophie, I didn’t quite like Firis. The majority of fans seem to agree that the proper bread and butter of the series lies with the Arland and Dusk series but I haven’t touched them so here’s an outsider’s perspective. 

Ryza is different. Ryza is better. Much better. In fact, I want Ryza to be the series standard. 

Atelier Ryza is the first entry of the Secret series with Atelier Ryza 2 already announced for an English release at the end of January 2021. The easiest way to describe Ryza in a nutshell is that it's the best iteration of the Atelier formula with an added bonus of being mostly accessible to newcomers. However in doing so, it may have shunned quite a number of diehard fans of the series but we’ll get to that later.

Here’s the formulaic premise: Reisalin Stout (Ryza) dreams of adventures beyond her isolated, stultifying island life. She drags her two best friends to the mainland, befriends three others and gets into alchemy after witnessing what it can do. She uses alchemy to initially do menial chores for people, learns about the dark secrets of the island’s history and uses alchemy to ultimately solve everything.

It’s as Atelier as it gets. Except maybe for the dark history part but that argument is a bit of a stretch. The gameplay loop for this title remains partly the same as with other titles. Use alchemy to solve any quest or story related content, explore and gather materials while engaging in turn-based combat, synthesise better gear and basically just live out this magical adventure.

So how is it different? How is it better?

The journey from a humble farmer to a master alchemist is not necessarily an interesting one but it is nonetheless a satisfying one. Ryza may have thicc thighs but she’s feisty, stubborn and constantly motivated by self-improvement. She’s lazy when it comes to helping her parents around the farm but she’s constantly optimistic when it comes to improving her alchemy. She’s not simply a moe airhead waiting to be cute whenever the opportunity arises. I like all her faults and sass. She’s fun to be around and the change she inspires during her adventure is believable (enough).

The other characters serve well in their supportive role too. Lent is a proud warrior born to an abusive, alcoholic father. Tao is an illiterate child trying to understand how the world works. Sure, the game DOES backpedal on these negative traits (rather, it hardly addresses them aside from the initial introduction) but I think it sets enough of a tone going in that allows the players to at least understand the characters’ own perspectives with regards to the theme of the game.

The journey definitely does not go beyond the norm but the scope is just narrow enough to turn what would be a lacklustre JRPG adventure into an endearing coming of age story. It’s cheesy yes but considering how the gameplay is literally focused on just alchemy, it’s probably the most suitable story to tell with what they’re going for.

Story content aside, the gameplay is addictive if you’re okay with some questionable design decisions. Much like other niche Japanese game studios (coughFalcomcough), some design decisions have stuck around since the 90s and while that’s okay if the overall content has been improved, it still remains a speck on an otherwise shiny window. This isn’t exactly a complaint though as I only have praises for Ryza.

The only thing that stands out as a complaint would probably be the use of currency. Buying and selling serve very little purpose aside from easy access to hard-to-find materials (sometimes) and quick quest completions (buy your items instead of synthesizing them!). I used it more often than I did for other games but it’s still not as robust as it should be for a modern game. It’s there and it doesn’t really bother me. Better to have it than not in this case.

The combat and alchemy are by far the best parts about Ryza but they also invite the most complaints from series veterans.

Combat in Ryza is a real-time turn-based system reminiscent of Final Fantasy’s ATB system. You make decisions for any one character at a time as their turn timer ticks down. You don’t really get to pause this timer and decisions have to be made with haste if you intend to exploit openings for damage, buffs, stuns or heals. Characters not controlled by the player default to either a passive or aggressive action and provide follow ups as necessary if certain conditions are fulfilled. Skills tap into a shared pool of AP (action points) that can be saved to level up skills and stats for your party during the combat duration or it can be spent to ideally take advantage of your enemy’s position/weakness. This makes up the core of the combat with a few more additional aspects that I can’t talk about lest we turn this paragraph into an entire page worth of content. 

I find the combat here to be extremely satisfying. It keeps you on your toes without overstepping the difficulty through mechanics alone, it creates moments of great tension in an otherwise blissful game and it’s incredibly fun to chain long combos with your allies. It’s simply designed to work with newcomers while bolstering the fun of an already great gameplay mechanic. Easy to pick up but difficult to master as I like to put it.

But this here’s where the fans tend to get mostly upset about. The tried-and-true turn-based combat is gone, combat becomes a bigger portion as opposed to the game being purely about alchemy and the need to craft consumables basically amounts to naught because they aren’t actually spent in combat (they essentially replenish on return to the atelier).

I don’t share the same sentiments because I’m new to the series but from an objective standpoint, I can’t see the faults. It’s still turn-based but with an added real-time mechanic that brings it to the modern age of video games. Combat being a bigger part is great to appeal to a wider audience and give some weight to the storytelling and characters. Crafting consumables IS still a thing since they’ve expanded on its usage to be more than just in direct combat. Crafting itself has been overhauled so remaking consumables is a natural evolution of the mechanic.

Much like the combat, alchemy in Ryza has been completely overhauled. No longer are you matching tetris blocks in a petri dish. It’s simply a matter of choosing which ingredients to put in which part of the alchemy grid. It streamlines the experience without making complicated choices seem superfluous in nature. The complicated parts here come from actually managing which items go where and to be able to get the desired result within the item limit. As you level up, your limit increases, opening up new opportunities to use more complex materials to possibly recreate a better, stronger version of that item.

Other aspects of alchemy allow you to upgrade already synthesised items (with the caveat of raising its required level to equip) and such upgrades require special currency, one that can be obtained by breaking down unused items or materials. The rarer and stronger the material or item, the more currency you get.

This currency can also be spent during weapon upgrades and synthesising pocket worlds (to gather select materials extremely quickly). Weapon upgrades, aside from regular materials, can also take in consumable items to enhance the weapons with new effects. It’s all a mesh of good quality mechanics that make the entire journey worthwhile.

Again, diehard fans have shot this down saying the puzzle matching was more involving while arguing that this iteration of the mechanic is simply too easy. I disagree once again. It’s easy enough for newcomers but can get downright complicated if you don’t know what you’re doing. Sure the skill window isn’t that high but I can’t see how matching puzzles on a grid can be more ‘involving’ when alchemy is literally depicted as dumping in a bunch of items and synthesising something great through item synergy alone.

These mechanics were dying to be upgraded and this was simply what it needed to shine through. There’s a reason why Ryza is the best-selling title in the series.

Oh, but I haven’t even mentioned the art or music! Though let’s be honest, when we play Atelier games, we can expect them to deliver on that front and this game is no different. What’s better though is the graphics which is a big jump ahead from where Sophie left off. Granted, it’s been many years since then but it’s always nice seeing a jump in animation/presentation when it comes to the more niche Japanese titles. Traditional isn’t always better.

I really enjoyed my time with Atelier Ryza and I’ve very much excited to sink my teeth into Ryza 2. Yes, they did not change the main character this time around. Does it matter? I don’t think so. Ryza and friends still have plenty of development left to show and another summer adventure with them sounds like the perfect opportunity for it.