Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout

You're here for thick thighs and a chill ride. Not a super remarkable story, it's as simple as an adventure with a bunch of teens.
Great music, and I appreciate the option to set music for any environment you can walk in as you unlock new biomes and hear new music. This works especially well for the atelier, since you'll be spending prolly half your time there fiddling with ingredients (if you want to).
Alchemy system is addicting, and once you get how it works, you will destroy everything even on the highest difficulty. Fiddling with ingredients to get the most OP items is very fun. Slapping endgame ingredients that fills out every node in the tree just triggers my dopamine response every time. As good as it is, it is entirely optional as this game has no restrictions on difficulty. You can change it any time with no effect to achievements.
Characters are pretty basic, but they're teenagers figuring out their place in the world. It's a good starting point for the sequels.
The environment looks good for the most part, especially more unique biomes that aren't ruins. It's a shame that the interactivity with the world is pretty low, limited to gathering and using traversal items you craft later on at determined points. This is massively overhauled in the sequel, and I think it's worth playing this just to appreciate the upgrades the devs made alone.
The combat is simple. It can be a bit overwhelming at the beginning, but once you find a comfortable combo and rhythm, it's just like any other turn based RPG. Enemy variety is fairly low, and they don't have a lot of strategic interactions. Bosses can be entirely trivialized with good item management. It fits the goal of this game to be a chill, relaxed experience.

20 hr in main story questline , not too grinding if not aim for 100%achievement

the achievement itself suck yourtime as much as story mode (15-25 hrs) (all 84 sides quest & requirement to grind for quality of item )

suit for who want to spend time working on perfect crafting the item because this game others environment of JRPG is not good as other famous JRPG

40 hour JRPG tricks you into playing 30 hour menu simulator

and I love those menus

Ii had no thoughts going into this game but ended up being so happy that I downloaded it on a whim. I found the time-based fighting system to be really well done and enjoyable, especially as it's not as common in RPGs as turn-based. And while the synthesizing process occasionally felt a bit grindy, it honestly kept me interested and engaged with all the different items and skills you could make with it.

Once I beat the main story, I was excited to see that there are two more games in the series, so I can't wait to start those!

Good game, runs great on deck, does reset graphics settings on restart though.

I like very much how the combat evolved, and I also like the alchemy part.
I will surely want to continue with Ryza 2 because I saw how wonderful the story evolves.
Didn't want to see more because I didn't want to get a lot of spoilers, I prefer to be pleasantly surprised. After playing Ryza for so long, I can't wait to see the best Ryza game, Ryza 2. :)

I wish there was a mixed thumb for these reviews because I think that would probably sum up my experience with Ryza a little better. I am a JRPG and RPG fan in general, this was my first Atelier game and I felt that after a little bit of research I'd know what to expect, some crafting, some battling, some story and repeat. I don't think though I quite realised how MUCH crafting there is. I say this to try and help people like me who think they understand an Atelier game but have never played one.

Crafting is really detailed and extensive, building items though a long process where you fill nodes with items. Each item has different qualities, some have different effects (e.g Attack + etc), some debuff enemies and the list goes on. This is really great, I like the idea of creating some stupid powerful weapons and items. What I didn't enjoy though is the gathering. As you go around the world various things, be they rocks, flowers or trees, sparkle to show there is an item you can gather from there. You then use different gathering tools you've created to collect, for example your staff on a bush may get leaves, while using a bug net would capture bugs. Items and their location are tracked through your notebook. However, extremely vaguely. For instance " Oh you want that red bug you found 18 hours ago, well it lives in this field with a million bushes but only in one of them, good luck" or "Oh you want this item an enemy dropped, well they live in 5 different places, but only one of them drops it with a drop rate of 1% but we won't tell you that until your eyes bleed from harvesting the same thing for hours".

Numerous times, especially late game, I'd be aiming at crafting the best quality weapon or armour I could, only to be short a few items. But, to create those items it meant another 25 mins hitting a weasel until it coughed up the sparkly thing I wanted with it's dying breath. To be honest, I just stopped crafting end game stuff eventually, ground down by the back and forth between fields and the atelier to synthesise.

But this was a negative for ME, it could not be one for you. I can see a world where if I was a little more relaxed and patient, it would be really relaxing taking my time gathering, enjoying the world and music. It's a shame I just couldn't vibe with that part, because I really like everything else. The characters are great, I love how it looks and I really enjoyed the chilled out story (though the focus is always crafting above story).

If you can get along with gathering the I would recommend the game. As I got toward the final credits, I'll be honest, the bittersweet ending did make me realise I'm going to miss these characters and world, even if at times I felt like story and character took a backseat to me hitting a rock.

I love this series. Gameplay is fun and addicting, story is really nice for what it is, OST is amazing, characters are super likeable and the voice actors give them so much personality. The crafting system, I can literally sit there for hours just doing it. It's that engaging. Absolutely love these games. Love them so much I have 100% all 3 of them on console and i'm re 100%ing them on PC.

tldr: i'll give the game 8/10, pretty good if you want something cozy, could be improved in other aspects like the story but i'm not exactly the pickiest person

Atelier Ryza is my introduction to the atelier series and man it's pretty addicting. Graphics are really pleasing to look at. **Character design** was definitely a plus lol. It's a super chill resource gathering game and the alchemy system was definitely fun to learn! It is pretty overwhelming when you're new to the atelier series, but once you get past the learning curve you just can't stop playing

I have to admit though that there are many things I didn't like with the game, including story having lack of depth & the optimization updates kinda ruining the performance. Pacing was a bit off and the NPC quests were also pretty annoying to finish at times. The ATB system in Ryza was a bit confusing at first, however, you get used to it pretty quickly towards the middle of the game. I feel like a lot of this was offset by the core gameplay, so I honestly didn't think about those problems too much

Overall, I think Ryza 1 is a great game if you're looking for an easy-going, comfy game. There is definitely room for improvement, but we will see when I get to play more atelier games. See you guys when I finish Ryza 2 lmao

Written-by Mr. Kim Dotcom, circa August 18, 2024:

"This may be the most important post you’ll ever read because it provides a simple explanation about why our world is being destroyed, by design.

I’m not antisem itic nor a N azi. I’m simply a former hacker with great analytical skills who understands what’s happening in the world.

At the end of this post I will quote from a world domination plan. You will recognize the truth immediately because that’s what’s currently happening in the world. Today’s reality suggests that this plan is real.

When you do your own research you will learn that the origin of this plan was discredited and that the alleged creators have nothing to do with it. But who was the person providing the key evidence?

It was allen dulles. The man who raised money from US industrialists to fund Ad olf Hi tler, his Na zi party and his war. The man who later became the director of the CIA during Kennedy and the head of The Warren Commission that investigated the Kennedy Incident. Why would anybody believe a man with such a questionable character?

The protocols of the elders of zion have unquestionably borrowed ideas from several authors but you can say that about most important writings throughout history. It was called a fabrication and is one of the first uses of the term ‘conspiracy theory’.

Why do zionists have a massive over-representation in the media, politics, banking, and world-affairs? How did such a small community get to dominate all the centers of power and information?

Why can isreal ignore UN resolutions, international-law, and commit a genocide in Ga za, to standing ovations in the US Congress? Why is isreal acting like it is above the law seemingly without any fear of consequences.
Read some of the alleged zi onist world domination plan below and compare it with reality. Is all of this just a coincidence?

“Our power will be more invincible than any other, because it will remain invisible until the moment when it has gained such strength that no cunning can any longer undermine it.”

“We shall absolutely control the media, so that not a single announcement will ever reach the public without our control. In this way we shall have a sure triumph over our opponents, for without the media, they are helpless.”

“We will distract the brainless heads with vain conceptions, fantastic theories, rotten amusement, games, and filthy passions, so that they will be unable to use what intellect they have. They will never suspect that they have been stage managed by us.”

“We shall establish huge monopolies, so that all will go to ruin when the political smash-up comes. We must, at all cost, deprive them of their lands, we must lower wages, and raise the prices of all necessities of life.”

“We shall create an economic crisis, which will stop dealings in all exchanges and bring industry to a standstill. We shall throw onto the streets whole mobs of workers, simultaneously, all over the world, who will rush to loot property and delight to shed blood.”

“In our government, besides ourselves, there must only be the mass of enslaved people, a few billionaires devoted entirely to us, police, and soldiers. To do this we must create chaos and hostilities, and we must use all deceit, treachery and falseness, possible. Our greatest weapon is the media.”

“We shall establish one king over all of earth who will annihilate all causes of discord, such as borders, nationalities, religion, state debts, etc., and get peace and quiet which cannot be secured in any other way. To attain our ends we must foment trouble in all countries, utterly exhaust all of humanity with hatred, struggle, envies, torture, starvation, and diseases, so that the people will be forced to take refuge in our complete sovereignty.”

“Our master card has been, is, and shall be, the destruction of all privileges, on the ruins of which we shall set up our absolute autocracy.”

Please be mindful that most pro-isreal comments on social media are generated by the largest bot network in the world, not by real people.

Specifically, this is what has been done, using video-games to brain-wash, indoctrinate, demoralize, and fractionalize, young(er) people who would otherwise be focused-on family and community, is IN-YOUR-FACE, now, and is openly-known to be happening with the games we buy from Steam, and others.

Search for this article using the following search-terms: Zero Hedge "Leftist Consulting Firms Exposed Behind Wokification Video Games":

""How the tables have turned in the past decade. If you were involved at the inception of the culture war around a decade ago then you probably remember an abrupt and distinct change in popular media from 2015 to 2016. There was a surge of far-left and feminist propaganda in movies, television, commercials and even video games that was highly aggressive, perhaps even militant. Some people spoke out at the time and questioned the motives behind the trend, only to be smacked down by angry mobs of activists and corporate journalists with accusations of “conspiracy theory” and “bigotry.”

In other words, their claim was that you were not seeing what you thought you were seeing. There was no feminist agenda. There was no gay or trans agenda. There was no socialist messaging. It was only in your head.
If there is one rule that encompasses all political endeavors, it is this: If you have to hide your intentions and lie about your goals when trying to spread your ideology, then something is probably very wrong with your ideology. This is exactly the problem inherent in the attempt to spread woke doctrine – Activists and provocateurs never ask anyone if they want to hear about woke ideas; they seek to force everyone to see and hear woke ideas, to the point that people cannot escape the messaging.

Even more insulting is the fact that even though most of these activists claim to be fans of the media they target, they are usually discovered to be frauds. Woke ideologues have little sincere interest in nostalgia, movie making, video games, comic books, etc. They only care about these properties because they see them as a vehicle to be co-opted, infected and dominated. Leftists know well that if they control pop culture they can control the thinking of the next generation."...

Quite confusing and overwhelming at first, but stick to it and it's a really enjoyable game.

A charismatic crafting sim game with light-hearted story, but manages to capture you with its charms. Ryza is cute, the gang is cute, everyone here is cute. Recommended if you want a relaxing craft-and-gather simulator but also wants combat elements. There is a difficulty setting in the game, so everyone from all levels of skills including newbies to Atelier games can try their hands on it.

My first Atelier game and it was uplifting. Ryza is a classic bubbly female protagonist and kept the energy through most of the playthrough. The gameplay loop was pretty exciting since your overworld experience is affected by the items you craft and their quality; the way exploration and crafting complemented each other had me hooked.

The story was competently done, though largely not for me. Lots of sentimental moments that for me maybe felt a bit forced, but there was still a sensible and engaging story underneath so I gave them a pass. I feel that's just kind of the territory you're in with anime-esque games.

Can't wait to play the sequels!

Very calm and charming game

tldr: Game is good, recent "optimization" updates trashed performance.

Fun game. Wish there was less menu navigation, and the story isn't the most engaging. But the crafting can get pretty in depth and combat is decent. Looking forward to the sequels.

As a newcomer to the atelier series, it took me a while to get hooked on this game. However once I learned the mechanics of the game, I couldn't stop playing. The crafting in particular is enjoyable despite the fact that it is normally a turn off for me in most other games. Highly recommend if you like jrpgs or a more relaxed gameplay loop.

Klaudia.

First Atelier game for me and I think this is a great entry point in the series - runs great on the steam deck. Colourful world and memorable characters. The synthesis is definitely the highlight with it being an atelier game and I found it easy to understand and quite addictive. Gathering the materials and creating powerful items is super fun💗

At first it was fine, a few hours in it got better, then once the adventure really starts it stops... It was becoming somewhat exciting and all of a sudden a routine sets in (partly because you have to wait for some quests) so you go fight some monsters, explore and harvest your 458th ingredient... Thing is the combat is not great and not really rewarding, the alchemy is confusing and a bit frustrating while the exploration is limited.

All in all it's not great, there's quite a lot of cutscenes that break the rythm of the game and if you're looking for a chill adventure game, just know that it's real-time turn-based combat so you have to act fast.

And why the enormous breasts seriously...??

played a few other atelier games. although the art direction is not my favorite (i like the dusk series more), this one is more fun to play by far. looking sooo forward to the upcoming games featuring yumia!

Cozy collection/puzzle game mixed with hardcore classic style JRPG? Um...yes, please. And some feel good Japanese young adult fiction which comes off quaint and down to earth despite existing entirely in a fantasy world of magic and monsters? Ok. I can do that.

Lyza... I'm sorry *cough* Ryza-no-Atelier is a great entry point into the series.

This is my review after 100% completion

-VERY GOOD GAME OVERALL + minor complain (mostly technical)
-This game remind me of good ol Mana Khemia, Ar Tonelico and Atelier Iris series (miss all of this game so much i wish they will bring to STEAM) PLEASE !!
-Battle system is fun, fast and engaging
-Awesome character artsyle
-Beautiful graphic
-Great story (TRUST ME ITS GOOD)
-Good/meaningful sidequest which include NPC background and story
-Variety of party member to choose which is unique on their own
-Banger music (especially the Elemental boss fight)

Small issue with this game
-Lack variety of enemy (MOSTLY recycled/recolor of the same enemy bruhh) THE Elemantal waifu theme is nice but at least make other 4 elemental different like fire demon, water leviathan, thunder beast etc
-Some minor performance issue (u must have joystick plugged in to avoid stuttering and i have to disconnect my 2nd monitor coz dual screen cause my FPS dropped below 30 during synthesis)
-NO STEAM TRADING CARDS :(

10/10 (PLEASE BRING BACK MANA KHEMIA AND AR TONELICO SERIES <3)

Lighthearted adventure with friends, while doing alchemy. What do you want more? Oh yeah, zettai ryōiki.

Boring

Barrel~

The game control is extremely awkward. It's not keyboard friendly, and I do not own a game pad. Thus, I cannot play this game ......

- Cutscenes every 3 steps
- Hours spent tediously alchemizing incredients for other ingredients for mostly irrelevant or quest/fetch items
- Endless fetch quests
- Combat is extremely repetitive and mostly trivial, not very well designed

+ The story and characters are reasonably well done
+ You can substantially choose how your party is geared/customized

I enjoyed this far more than I expected.
There were certainly times when the collecting/crafting piqued on being too tedious but once I understood the system properly my appreciation for the game grew greatly (though it could still be tedious at times).

Enemy variety was lacking but the game wasn't too heavily combat focused - I think it was just enough to keep me hooked.
The story ended on a rather bitter-sweet note and left everything feeling quite satisfying.

If you don't have a controller, run the game through Special K Injector. Doing so will fix the fps issues.

This was my first game of the Atelier series, and I found it enjoyable, chill, and wholesome. The storytelling and graphics are not world-class but work well with the amazing soundtrack. Some parts of the story were relatable and even inspirational. The synthesis and combat system may seem confusing at first, but I understood it after a bit of practice. I recommend this game if you want a JRPG that combines action, drama, and comfy “slice of life” moments.

no

Went into this game with 0 knowledge, and 0 expectations as I don't normally play JRPG-type games, and I found myself loving it!

The lighthearted and carefree nature of the characters is such a nice change of pace from the typical "Hero of Light, save our world from the forces of Darkness and Evil!!" That's not to say there aren't any stakes in the story, they just appear later on and never really took the focus away from the character's stories in my opinion.
The visuals are colourful and wonderful, the music plays banger after banger (and you have the option to change to previous Atelier games' background music if it gets repetitive), the combat is not too complicated, and the Alchemy crafting has a surprising amount of depth to it!

You can play through the game casually and reach the ending totally fine without getting too deep into the crafting system which takes up a large portion of the game. If you opt to go for full completion and all achievements like I did, you'll find yourself learning about more complicated systems that you didn't even realize were there!

I can genuinely recommend Atelier Ryza to anybody who enjoys RPG's. Even if this doesn't look like something you would typically play, or you're not too into JRPG's, because neither was I! Now here I am with another perfect game, and a couple of sequels on my wishlist!

Wow. I actually ended up loving that a lot more than I thought I would. Gust knows how to push my buttons with the "Everyone moving on" trope that always gets me...



P.S., Koei I'd love to play more of the series if you ever dropped your years old games below $20...

Loved the game! Journeyed over the months and finally finished the story just couple weeks ago, then playing for post-story achievements.

What made me stop now: Recent update (Sep 2024) changed my entire settings incl combat keyboard mapping! Tried using the new mapping but could not activate fatal drive. Tried changing the keys to no avail. was frustrating to go up against post-story bosses while trying to re-discover the keyboard, only to find out i cant use the fatal drive.

I really wish there was an option to keep my settings during update... and really don't wanna experience something like this again... :(

I heard Sophie 2 is all around better

Story and characters were pretty weak, felt like skipping most of the dialog. Dusk and Arland series do this better.

Alchemy system was pretty easy, new recipes can be found in the more basic ones. The basket is pretty small, found myself teleporting back every map segment mid-game.

Combat isn't great, you attack or use an ability or use and item like healing or a bomb. it's hard to choose an action for more than one character per turn since combat is almost real time. I didn't like crafting gear, it takes a lot of resources. New tier gear is not always better.

I did like the world and town areas, very well designed. Monsters were cool too I guess. NPC's were okay

Yes

What a wonderful experience Atelier Ryza was. As far as jrpg's go, this is certainly one of the most unique that I've had the pleasure of playing.

The majority of your time is spent exploring the world looking for materials to gather, which you then bring back to your sweet atelier to synthesize into sweet items. This whole process is incredibly addicting, as the game is constantly feeding you new and better materials to synthesize. The alchemy process itself is simple enough to understand the basics, but complex enough to keep you engaged trying to make better items.

The easiest way to describe Atelier Ryza is chill. The environments are serene, the characters have great chemistry and well-written dialogue, and there's minimal drama or tension for the most part. It feels like the main objective is just to take it easy and enjoy yourself, and enjoy myself I did.

That's not to say there isn't any drama or combat, but it's definitely not the focus of the game. The combat is highly enjoyable, it's a sort of hybrid real time-turn based system like in Chrono Trigger. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you start synthesizing the good stuff you'll mow all your enemies down without breaking a sweat.

The only thing I wish was different was the item limit of 5000. That seems like more than enough, but I got way too carried away just blissfully gathering everything in sight for most of the game, and then discovered the hard way that I was gonna have to throw a lot of it out. The filters/system could definitely be set up better, a "mass discard" option with better filters would be a godsend. It got kinda frustrating getting all of these awesome materials late in the game, but then having to painstakingly sort through them one by one to decide which ones to keep.

TL;DR - Atelier Ryza is a lovely game that is a breath of fresh air from the ultra high-stakes, high-tension drama that is present in most media these days. If you're looking for a change of pace, something a little more light-hearted, then definitely give this one a try.

if you are into cozy games this is for you 8/10

This game is so awesome. I bounced off this game 5 or 6 times but something for me clicked this time. You can't really approach this like you would a regular JRPG. The game is going to force you to engage with its systems. Grinding Alchemy is more important than grinding levels and even 14-15 hours in to a 23 hour play through its still giving me Alchemy tutorials as more and more things unlock for it.

The story was just absolutely awesome. I was sold on Atelier as a slice of life, lower scale, sort of JRPG. No world ending stuff...Well in this game there sure is some world ending stuff going on but what makes it special is its all character driven. The characters really grow and evolve in believable ways even though some of the character arcs are very obviously going to happen. I fell in love with all of the characters.

The combat is simple but good enough to keep me engaged. The game doesn't rely on it quite as much as a regular JRPG game and I think that serves the game well. The characters and the Alchemy is the star of the show here. I felt like the end of the game dragged on perhaps a little too long but this was a very enjoyable game from start to finish.

9/10

this game fucking sucks

It's like the other ateliers, but no time limit, no alt endings and a very simple crafting system, in retrospect, these changes aren't that bad and I really appreciate it as a non sweaty gamer.

Game is really nice, if you're looking for a chill, harvest and gather type of Jrpg. Wait for a sale tho, cause I would not be very happy if I dropped 60€ on this. Its often down to 24€ I think, which is a good deal.

The game was released in like 2019, but in reality, its just a polished 2006 jrpg game. Pacing is a little wacky with the ''wait x days'' (so just spam bed like 2-3 times) or the enter the area to watch 4 cutscenes and then leave. I like that Lent is actually jacked, instead of a funny skinny anime man with few lines on him that are supposed to be muscle. Character chemistry is nice, the story is alright, the locations look pretty and the fighting system is just as nice. Real time x turn based crossover, blends pretty well and is fairly simple. Not challenging (except the first bigger story boss if you werent ready for the diff spike and the damn 4 Elemental girlies), a little repetetive tho.

Crafting in the game is very fun, once you figure it out. Not everything works on everything and a good chunk of traits available on specific item, is useless. Half the time youre just gonna be reteleporting to areas to collect those 3 specific nodes hoping to get an item with specific traits.

But as I said, the game feels really outdated at some parts, especially out of crafting and fighting. Has that old old jrpg vibe, but this time, the game actually allows you to fast travel from anywhere to anywhere and has a ton of quality of life updates. Overall a solid 7.5/10, but you gotta realize there isnt much else going on, aside gathering, crafting and some fighting. 100% the game would probably take like appox. 10 hours more, but I got most of stuff done in about 30 hours.