if I had a remnant of doubt whether or not I would enjoy the atelier series this game smacked my face and made me come back to reality as soon as it was necessary

can't believe I bawled at the ending

atelier ryza is my first iteration with the entire series and while I have never played ANY atelier game in my entire life after being advised by trustworthy gaming sites (gamefaq lmao don't @ me) this game elevated the bar so high already i'm surrounded by stars and planets and I cannot drop down anymore

as my first dive into this franchise I was expecting a lot of things and its so weird that they managed to crush them eat them and spit them in my mouth in a runtime of something like 30 hours what the fuck how did they even do that

talking meat of the game the gameplay is probably the most intoxicatingly addictive loop I've ever experienced since the binding of Isaac i started the game by chance one day when I just wanted a quick look into this and ended up play for like 10 hours in a row it was MAGICAL SHIT don't get me started

while I have zero means to cross examine this title what I saw here can be already peak of the series for what it's worth the exploration of the different and unique places gathering and foraging for items is so fucking fun I swear to god if you had told me picking flowers up and breaking stones and cutting grass would be so entertaining I wouldve not believed you (no actually I wouldve I've played stardew valley yknow) and thats probably the whole meat of the game just going around getting as much material as possible to just throw it in the cauldron and wait for something to happen

and this may be boring at first sight but it has such a lit of nuance there's genuinely infinite amount of items to get a lot of variety to not make it as redundant as it would probably get and when you think it could not be better the game shoves different gathering items that can be used to get DIFFERENT LOOT from places you already visited before this is insane the depth of this mechanic is so deep I can't see the bottom

while it could probably not impress other people as much as it did to me it's probably unfair to say that this is not a great mechanic like just going around living your life getting some ingredients for a couple of potions likeeeeeee I wish that were ME OK??????

this is probably the main reason why filled the container in like a single day (real life day) and I was like umhhhhh… so what now

sure getting items is the main focus but I gotta say the whole sense of exploration here feels so fucking tight every single part of the world is filled with so much wonder to look at points of interest to note on your diary and stuff to get apart from being fucking gorgeous but that's something for later

this all culminates in the alchemy system which is just so fun as a whole you get a lot of items into the thing and new stuff comes out wow greatest premise ever . gotta say at first this system confused me a lot it's really intricate when you have like items quality traits effects materials elemental balls to fill (sounded better in my mind) to think about and at first it's just so fucking intimidating you're like “ok lemme make a cute little potion teehee” and university level maths diagrams come out worst jumpscare of my life genuinely what the hell

that being said when you get in the flow you realise how actually all this is tied together and its actually not that hard but since the tutorial is less comprehensive than I thought it would be (maybe it is but I'm adhd) I ended up walking in the dark maybe because I've also never played an atelier game that could be also the reason and I kid you not theres insurmountable amount of stuff to make that range from flower potions to fucking lintels to construct the hideout im not joking what the fuck is ryza cooking in there and for most of the stuff you will get a recipe at some point but if you fuck around enough you can get new recipes from the ones you already have and that shit is cool as fuck don't touch me

there's some more nuance to this like the item worlds or the duplicator or the forge but they're just some more addendum to the already intrinsically deep alchemy system so that's a plus

something that really confused me was the battle system . i read everywhere that the fighting is the weaker part of the entire game and while I think that is definitely not the focus of the game how dare you say its terrible when I had so much fucking fun with it you deserve nothing in your life but drakengard 1 type of gameplay

sure it's simple sure it's not as bad as people say and I gotta tell you they worked with what they had and made a super engaging way of slaying enemies and I will not disrespect this kind of effort theres nothing more fun than upgrading your tactics and seeing your main combos and skill go from 1 hit slashes to a full 100 attacks assault in a couple of levels

the shit is simple . turn based combat . some kind of final fantasy ATB . normal attacks and skills and items . special moves and tactics and when you want you can actually switch to the other party members to issue commands

as I said simple ! but effective the action is super fast and the battles go super smoothly for the most part as soon as you realise how this combat system works youre gonna be enthralled just trust me

only gripe: items are a pain in the ass somehow they have a super low counter of like 10 points for use and when you have no more points you either have to temporarily sacrifice an item for the sake of more points or go all the way back to the hideout to replenish it . not the greatest item system I've ever seen but its serviceable for the type of combat you're gonna engage in

so all this to say

atelier ryza as a character story and an overall narrative absolutely struck me im not joking here

ryzas story is simple yet effective an adhd tomboyish girl with fat ass cheeks and thicc thighs is tired of her ordinary life in a island in nowhere and with her friends the hung cavalier lent with a huge sword and a huge heart and also another sword that he carries all the time if you know you know and tao a … knowledgeable blonde twink ? I'm not sounding very professional here so I was saying

girls tired so as soon as she meets new visiting alchemists from overseas she decides to mix drugs and help the townspeople and theres that

the plot thickens a lot during the last ⅓ part of the game there's a lot of political intrigue and invasion war typa talk I was not expecting and the lore of the entire island really is the center of this entire plotpoint which is definitely a cool highlight it's good to have a “lives are at stake” trope for the tension but while I think this is also great what really bewitched me of atelier ryza are characters their little interactions and their little development arcs

ryza goes from a bratty child with family farm duty to a powerful alchemist genuinely interested to townspeople and the towns entire wellbeing lent gets more and more courageous and hunk ish as time goes on tao umh… likes books !!! I think !!! and klaudia is my sweet little sweetheart with daddy issues and lesbian energy to boot

I love all my children dearly I have nothing bad to say about this apart from the fact that maybe having klaudia and ryza scissor for 2 and a half hours in a 3d rendered lesbian cutscene was a bit too much

really tho the sexual tension between those too… women

empel and lila are also nice characters with good backstories and arcs but the main 4some is what I really liked of this entire affair they're just ughhhhh I love them so much I can see them caring for each other and shit they're sweethearts

bos is a pretty nifty addition and it's definitely a huge part of the game dealing with him and his superiority complex but his character arc pays out and I can't wait for him to actually be a cool lad in the sequels

last but not least the art direction is incredibly tight the little character portraits for each one of the crewmembers is super charming and even the 3d models have a lot of character to them sure you're gonna have ryzas fat ass in your face for the entire game but is that a bad thing

I can really respect the fact that they indeed put horny designs like lila has an H cup and all her coochie out ryza has pants that hold her entire butt with the help of the Holy spirit klaudia isn't inherently a horny design but she's my favorite one and the girl I want as my wife for the rest of the years to come so it's horny design FOR ME and lent is also horny design FOR ME because you put a knight with his man tits out and pretend I won't thirst cmon but what I was saying is that even though they put these designs they never used them in an oversexualised way belittling the characters and their arcs so there's that

the environments are lushly constructed and super diverse from one another the hometown is cozy the mountains are as dangerous as ever and the pixie forest is dreamlike and soothing and the ruins are haunting and shit like theres a lot of variety in the places this game is gonna opt for and I genuinely had so much fun exploring the nooks and crannies of each one of them

unfortunately the monster design falls flat not because of the monster designs in themselves (they're gorgeous) but the fact that they're really heavy on recolors something that i sure don't like in dragon quest and here the monsters aren't as numerous or as iconic to actually have a reason to be reused for the entire game but I digress they're still pretty good looking….. if you know what I mean I like the scissor hands

last point of note the side quests and the character quests are pretty straightforward but very fun to do I don't know I usually don't care for side quests and here they aren't even as deep as some other side quests I saw in other games but they're so fun wtf

OH and the music is great but I put some restrictions on the amount of stuff I'm gonna link but in the meantime I can say that every single ost hits whether it be a soundtrack for a certain place in the game or a recurrent theme during your stay in the secret hideout or even battle themes for some reason atelier games have the sickest battle themes like just listen to this one why did they have to snap this hard I don't get it I don't get it what the hell anyway the entire ost is a gem just listen to it honestly

I said everything I wanted to say and last but not least I cant wait to play the next games in the ryza trilogy and in the series as a whole the finale of the game left me no tears in my eyes it's not even that sad but I care for each and every one of my sweet children so when I say it hit it HIT

I wasn't expecting atelier ryza to be the game for me or even actually have this much on an impact on my current videogame backlog situation and shit but now I know why it has such an affectionate cult following there's nothing else that felt like this till now

ryza can't wait to play your second game and for you to actually have a french kiss with klaudia im literally aching here please please please

I'm trying to convince a friend to actually get this game but it's 59.99 lmao OK whatever

Atelier Ryza is a good game? Yeah, something like that.

To skip and save you time, if you only care about a complex story and characters, or even combat, you will not find so much here. But if you like a nice and chill atmosphere to farm and craft and listen to your favorite podcasts while having a cool adventure, you could give it a try.

The story is really underwhelming, nothing more i have to say. The only real good character is Ryza (no, not because of the thighs). She is charismatic, the rest of the cast is... forgetable.

The big star of the game is the alchemy system. I don't know about the other Atelier games, but i really liked this system. I stayed hours and hours making the best items i could (and obliterated the last boss).

Anyway, a fun game, nothing really remarkable, but i sure had a good time playing, no regrets (no, not because of the thighs).

Atelier Ryza is a fun and enjoyable RPG, and as my first Atelier game, I really enjoyed it a lot. The alchemy system was a bit confusing to me at first, but I think I understood it fairly well at the end. I also really liked the characters, especially Klaudia and Ryza are great. It would've also been nice if the game had an English dub. As far as I know, the other older Atelier games had one, so I think it's a bit of a shame that this one and the other Atelier Ryza games have no English dub. Overall, I can recommend trying this game out. (And btw, the game has so many German words that, despite the fact the game has no German translation, I sometimes almost thought I would play it with a German translation.)

Atelier Ryza? More like Atelier Boring.
You know how there are multiple types of Atelier games:
adventure type (Totori, Firis), cozy games with one town or a mix of both.
This game is the first in the series to introduce innovative "shit" type as I call it.
What makes atelier towns charming? Yes, the people.
There are legit 6 characters in the entire game (not joking, you see them all in first 15 minutes). All the people in town are generic NPCs with little to no importance.
These shitty NPCs have quests, for some godforsaken reason when you take the quest they have to tell you their entire life story and make 20 lines long exchanges, it could be the same as in older games, just display quest window or 1 dialogue line " i need X item". Even better solution would be to have a well designed charming character to handle quests. But I guess the entire budget went to 5 normal character designs and the 6th with giant boobs for no fucking reason.
There is no friendship system, different character endings, and no new companions. (holy shit it's worse then Lulua)
OK let's move on from charming town talk, there surely are other aspects that are better, right? RIGHT??!!

5 characters aside from Ryza are generic in the worst ways:
- a small nerd that gets to piss his pants in every cutscene he is the only important character in the game (if all others weren't there nothing would change), because of his nerdy expositions he does all the time.
- a big chad character (literally nothing to say about him I guess he has dad issues, whatever...)
-a girl that wants to play a flute, the culmination of her arc is that she did in fact played the flute (peak writing)
-girl with big boobs (she is important in one single cutscene to drop the twist about underworld)
-a mentor alchemist (when he joins at the end of the game he becomes the same character as the nerd, but I guess he is an alchemist so it changes something?

OK surely the gameplay loop is good? gust will never fuck up the gameplay loop in atelier game, right?

the synthesis - oh god, spending time on it as agonizing, the recipe morph is shit, it makes navigating menus a nightmare. It doesn't help that after adding a single ingredient you have to spend 3 seconds on "level up" animation and watch Ryza clap or some shit.
This game also introduced new exclusive to "shit" type gameplay mechanics: bloodborne chalice, item rebuild (which defeats the entire purpose of synthesys), forging thing from Dusk but worse and some other useless shit.

The next paragraph is prologue and story runt.
Running around with awful speed for 3 hours and watching cutscenes before unlocking world map. I dropped the game 3 times at this point. Does it get better after teleportation is unlocked? No. Press start - do what is says like: rest for 1-3 days, go to X, go to X, go to X, make item with X quality.
This "handholdy" approach to the story ruins the pace.
The game tries to be "story-rich" and it doesn't work with atelier writing. It creates a giant bloat of useless dialogue that has no purpose, like nerd saying he is scared, chad being confident with Ryza and ignoring him. At some point you climb the tower and nerd reads some backstory lore notes every floor, it's hilarious how bad it was.
BTW there are no story hooks, for example in Sophie you want to know more about the mysterious book, in Ayesha if you fail her sister fucking dies, in Firis if she fails she'll be sent home. Yes, hooks like these. Even fucking Lulua wanted to open the door the entire game. There a shitty boring plot is constantly happening, everything is super scripted, no cool characters visiting atelier (back to character issue)

Ok let's talk combat. It's stupid, if you don't hit the enemy, you spend entire minute to lvl up tactics level, then another minute to build AP and turn on aggressive mode.
You control one character at a time and can use items on any character. I dislike it, it's slow, you do the same thing over and over. My verdict: Lulua combat was better (It did get worse)

In the end it's insulting to me as big Gust fan that this game got 2 fucking sequels and big youtubers recommend people to start atelier from this game. New people will drop the game after 3 hours of walking and say that the entire series is shit. It also gets a fucking anime.
The guy that wrote this game only worked on Ryza. (second game might be better without him but for some fucking reason he came back for third)
The guy who directed it worked on Blue Archive. Is this game also shit?

If you got to this point, thank you for bearing with me, haha. My condolences if you played Ryza too. Otherwise I recommend spending your time for better games.

my first atelier game ive played/finished !!

this game is so chill & fun with great characters

klaudia x ryza is so real btw

Atelier Ryza can only really be described as "adorable". It's a quaint little story about a group of kids and outcasts breaking free from an ordinary life in an extraordinary world, becoming adventurers.

I think it's a fantastic game that breaks a lot of the tropes of the JRPG genre, in a very good way. Definitely a game I recommend to anyone looking for a comfy game that still has a good story and world to wrap yourself up in.

My singular complaint is that, of the 6 character cast, one character falls to the wayside pretty hard, and another has an arc that is set up interestingly, but wrapped up almost entirely off screen. HOWEVER the other four characters - and especially our protagonist, Ryza - are phenomenally written and executed.

A wonderful, quaint, fun romp.

Feels-good-man type beat. You meet some bums and you kick their butt but nothing terrifying is aluded to in the course of your life as Ryza (or is it?). I wouldn't have it any other way. Being faced with the prospect of finding a real job, there are no thoughts in Ryza's head... Same, girl. It goes well with the mandatory quest system where this time it's limited mostly to people Ryza has known for some time, and new skills are locked behind personal achievements for the characters. Diegetic achievement system?? So, no trope of meeting a bunch of random people and changing the course of their lives forever (yeah I played Octopath recently), Ryza gossips and does shopping, there's literally a quest where you talk to this old dude Ryza knows who's back from traveling for some time and that's it, the quest is completed without doing anything... feels like half the quests don't require you to do anything but talk actually.

The battle mechanics are a bit goofy BUT I appreciate it trying to be unique (inb4 dozens of games pop up on my feed with that exact system) and it gets better as the mechanics start to sink in, and don't be surprised when the Pokémon syndrome of bosses going from house-sized to goat-sized during battles starts to creep in. The movements are jank but not too severely, I don't really see the point of adding a jump other than having me mash the jump button when I'm running because yes, I'm that restless. I also wanna point out this hoe is insulting me every 30 seconds in the background while I'm writing this review, so I'll wrap this up... farm girls smh.

I really wanted to like this one. I like the idea of a cozy JRPG, but at no point did it ever really feel like a cohesive experience. The combat feels like it wants to be in a game that's more focused on the combat, and the crafting just never really clicked for me. There was also a weird sense of the game throwing too many tutorials at me but also not really explaining anything. Cap this off with questionable performance on Steam Deck, and I just couldn't finish. I might try it again someday, but for now it's a pass.