1/19/2024 0 Comments Nintendo life reviewsThis creates a desire to get out there and find rare baddies and bigger beasties who'll imbue your key collection with better buffs. Whilst fighting enemies you can choose to jump into a menu and create a key by leaching various traits out of your current foe, and these traits vary depending on who you're battling. Keys make for a particularly excellent addition from a collectible point of view too. You'll also deploy them to open up barriers across the landscape, get your hands on treasures and open up more avenues of experimentation, giving you more synthesis possibilities, higher item levels and a greater number of effects and buffs to add to the multitude of weapons, tools, armour and so on that you'll create and equip. Once you've created keys you can deploy them in various ways using them in battle gives you temporary bursts of attack power imbued with all manner of buffs, or short windows of time when you can forget about your AP gauge and just whale on opponents non-stop. The biggest change this time out focuses on the game's titular secret key, which gives you a new gameplay mechanic revolving around key creation, letting you absorb powers and elements from enemies during battle as well as from your surroundings throughout the adventure. Not only has every aspect of the core gameplay loop been enhanced here, but Gust has also made it more approachable than ever, with auto-synthesis and all manner of helpful aids for players who'd rather take a bit of a backseat or don't want to get bogged down in item creation that can be mind-bogglingly deep if you go to town with it. The changes brought to Ryza 3 provide more thrilling exploration, deeper item creation, the best combat in the series to date and a world that's bigger and more diverse than anything else in the franchise. We're not gonna spoil a second of the game's roughly 40-hour campaign, we'll leave it for you to discover its surprises in your own good time, but needless to say it's hands down the best Atelier story yet, and one that's backed up by a bevy of meaningful mechanical improvements that have been introduced to the core gameplay. There's another fine story here with the usual laid-back mix of elements that focuses on friendship, learning, discovery and personal growth as much as it does any threat emanating from the new islands our heroes set out to explore. And so another summer of grand adventures, mysteries and friendships begins. Ryza has recently found herself compelled to craft a strange key whilst working at her atelier and it seems this key is related to a magical door at the centre of these islands. Taking place just one year after the events of its predecessor, Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy, Atelier Ryza 3 kicks off with Ryza, Lent, Bos, Tao and the rest of the crew jumping back into action as a mysterious group of islands, the Kark Isles, appear out of the sea close to their home. The old team is back and they're ready for a new adventure - an adventure made all the more poignant because we know it'll be Ryza's last as the main protagonist. It's a nice touch and it makes for a game that fans will feel immediately at home with. There are plenty of surprises, returning characters and cameos for fans to revel in, lots of introspection and scenes where we see the little kids from Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness and the Secret Hideout directly compared to the young adults they've become, we're even treated to sepia shots of them together as they revisit locations from previous adventures. In affording Ryza time to grow and develop over such a long arc and allowing her friends to follow and grow alongside her, Gust has managed to imbue the narrative with an emotional depth not previously seen in the series, and they really do dig into this aspect here. However, Ryza - whether due to popularity or as part of an overall plan - finds herself helming her third outing in a trilogy that's seen her grow from an innocent child stumbling into the world of magic to the well-renowned and sought-after alchemist we meet at the beginning of this final chapter. In Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key, it feels like it's hit a new high, serving up the best Atelier adventure yet and a game that fans and newcomers to the series should find plenty to be delighted by.įor the most part, the Atelier series has switched out its main protagonist for each entry in this 27-year-old franchise. Its various recent appearances on Switch in particular display a steely determination on the part of the Japanese developer to step up with its JRPG franchise and make a concerted effort to rub shoulders with the big guns. Gust's long-running Atelier series has come on leaps and bounds over the past few years. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)
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