A fine collection for any JRPG enthusiast!
- Developer: GUST
- Publisher: Koei Tecmo
- Release date: 22nd April 2021
- Genre: JRPG
- Platforms: PS4, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC (Steam)
- Reviewed on: PS5 via backward compatibility
- Game Supplied by: Publisher
[su_accordion]
[su_spoiler title=”About” style=”fancy”]
Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book (2016)
A chance encounter between a young alchemist Sophie and a sentient book Plachta takes them on an adventure to recover Plachta’s memories and gain alchemic knowledge.
Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey (2017)
Firis has a modest dream of travelling freely in the outside world. After she encounters alchemy and is able to leave the town for the first time, she is taken on a magical journey that has no limits.
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Paintings (2018)
Twin sisters Lydie and Suelle are two novice alchemists. One day, after discovering a mysterious painting, they get closer to turning their dream of running the best atelier in the kingdom into reality.
[/su_spoiler]
[/su_accordion]
If I am ever asked for a recommendation for a good entry-level JRPG for someone wanting to get into the genre, my go-to series is usually Atelier. The Atelier Mysterious Trilogy pack marks the definitive editions of the 17th, 18th, and 19th games in the series, so it’s a safe bet to say GUST knows a thing or two about what makes a good JRPG.
Some would also argue that the Atelier series is just hitting peak form with the last two Atelier Ryza games, so it might be of interest to newly converted fans to play some of the back catalogue games that were released in sequence just prior to Atelier Ryza. With a bare minimum amount of extra content for each of the game, the trilogy is not really something owners of the previous games would need to re-play here, but if you are new to the Mysterious Trilogy, there is a gobsmacking amount of incredible content over the course of three diverse games to play.
Is this a proper trilogy?
In order of when they were originally released and therefore the best order to play them is:
- Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book (2016)
- Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey (2017)
- Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Paintings (2018)
Although the games all follow a theme, and indeed, characters from the previous games make appearances in the later games, each story is self-contained and can be played in any order you so wish. Be that as it may, it is a superb adventure in sequence as not only do you see characters grow through the stories and into later games, but you also see how the games themselves change and adapt too.
Despite GUST churning out three games in three years, you would expect that each game would be very similar, and although they all have that laid back relaxing vibe to them, and drop-dead gorgeous visuals, major aspects of each are in fact different which therefore makes them all eminently playable. As soon as you have finished one, you will want to play the next.
Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book
Of the three games, the one that plays it safest is Atelier Sophie, but it is still an excellent experience.
The game revolves around the coming of age of wannabe Alchemist, Sophie, who through a magical book learns how to become much better at alchemy. As she unlocks more recipes allowing her to synthesize more items, more memories from the magical book “Placta” are revealed, and so Sophie decides she wants to restore Placta to her former glory. The game then revolves around this quest Sophie sets for herself. Sophie herself has a bright and cheerful demeanor with a tomboy-esque attitude, and it’s really easy to get caught up with her infectious enthusiasm on her adventures.
The additions as part of the DX version of the game include:
- New episodes of Sophie’s growth and a new costume that will help her follow in her grandmother’s steps.
- Three new cauldrons to assist in your adventures.
- Sprinting option to make getting around a lot easier.
- ‘Fast Forward’ feature for fast-paced battles.
- Lots of previously released DLC.
- Photo mode.
Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey
Atelier Firis is completely different to Atelier Sophie. Firis herself is much more timid and fragile than Sophie, as she lives in an underground city and dreams of one day being able to leave the confines of it to explore the outer world. One day a passing Alchemist (Sophie) accidentally blasts her way into the underground city and therein introduces Firis to Alchemy. Finding out that Alchemy could be used as a means to escape the city, Firis is tasked to prove herself worthy and sets forth on her adventures to do so.
Atelier Firis is different to Atelier Sophie in many ways, not just the tone of the story but also the size of it! There are a whopping 600 missions in the game to complete, with twelve different story endings. The world itself is also around ten times larger than the world of Atelier Sophie and has a greater variety of environments to go with it.
The additions as part of the DX version of the game include:
- Four new vehicles/exploration tools to increase efficiency & speed
- A quest to defeat 7 new monsters and fight a powered-up version of Palmyra.
- ‘Fast Forward’ feature for fast-paced battles.
- Lots of previously released DLC.
- Photo mode.
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Paintings
Atelier Lydie & Suelles main difference is in the title, as you play as twin sisters who run an Atelier. As well as the death of their mother, and the fact that their father is still in a state of shock and a little aloof, the Atelier they run is not doing very well. This is compounded by the town they live in being inundated with Ateliers, which makes it hard for Lydie and Suelle to make their Atelier stand out from the crowd.
One day they venture into the basement where their father keeps his paintings. On one such trip into the basement they discover they can enter one of these paintings, and in this fantasy world, find items that they can use to synthesize items back in the real world that no other Atelier in their town can. However, the girls are convinced they can hear a voice in these paintings and vow to find out who it is by searching ever deeper.
To add even more reason to replay the game, Lydie & Suelle has around ten different story endings depending on choices you make during the game.
The additions as part of the DX version of the game include:
- A new painting based on the world of “Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World, featuring new story episodes and a new boss enemy.
- New “Nelke’s world” painting fragments scattered around various painting worlds.
- ‘Fast Forward’ feature for fast-paced battles.
- Lots of previously released DLC.
- Photo mode.
A new year, a new game!
It absolutely staggers me that in a time where western developers take multiple years to make just a single game, GUST manages to churn out masterpieces year after year in such a short timespan. Of course the crux of the games are much the same, but even the base mechanics get a new tweak here or there. Combine that with the diversity of the stories, beautifully crafted into these gorgeous worlds and each game is refreshingly different to the last.
The constants through each game though are Alchemy, Combat, and Exploration.
Of the three, Alchemy differs the least, although it has slight tweaks where one game might have you trying to upgrade an item with a mini game, whereas another just shows in numbers how things would improve, with the end result pretty much the same crafted item, just in a different style.
The Combat, some could argue, is the most interesting aspect because not everyone (and by not everyone I mean me) is a fan of how the current combat system works in the Atelier Ryza series. Atelier Ryza has a fast, action based system, whereas here in the Mysterious series, they are of a more simple turn-based variety. It also has to be said it is pretty simple turn-based action too, however, that doesn’t mean it’s without depth. Like the timeless game of chess, the Atelier combat has a few basic moves for its pieces, but the tactical ways in which you use them never got dull, and it was fun to experiment. For example, you can use or upgrade a character to be a healer whereas another is more of a front line damage sponge/tank. Depending on your preferred playstyle, you will need to upgrade your characters accordingly.
What is really pleasing about the turn-based system over it’s current counterpart is that with a simple graph either left or right of the screen, you can plan your attacks, spells or other moves clearly on the board, as you can see how long an action will take to complete before your next go. Do you wind up for one big attack that you hope will finish the enemy off, knowing that if you don’t they will finish you in their next strike, or do you get two quick less effective attacks in, or do you heal? With these games you can sit and stew over these decisions, unlike in the Ryza series where that moment is gone in a realtime flash!
Probably the biggest area of difference is exploration. Whilst the world Sophie is set in is pretty standard in so much that the surroundings are for JRPG standards adequately filled with interest, it was also very pretty too. Firis, however, has a massive amount of ground to cover and thereby a lot of diverse environments to explore. Additionally, she can use vehicles to get around, unlike Sophie who is on foot. Conversely, Lydie and Suelle get to explore fantasy worlds in the multiple paintings they can enter, which are quite literally out of this world environments.
As you can see, each game not only has its own story but significant differences in gameplay variety that keeps each game feeling fresh and distinctive from the last.
Stunning Graphics and Fabulous Audio
The one constant throughout all of the games is the stunning art design and graphics alongside beautiful musical scores. You could tell this is a GUST designed game from this alone.
Each character has a wonderful hand-drawn watercolour quality that screams high end art to the viewer. The character models also have interesting clothes designs, from mildly drab to over the top weird. The animations of these characters within the game world are stiff, but as your mouth will be agape at the wonderful art in the surrounding settings, you won’t care. Although the worlds are not the most detailed by any stretch of the imagination, there has been effort to introduce interesting details to the environments and not just be a blocky green landscape like some of the earlier Atelier games.
Whether it’s the special effects when synthesizing, ther over the top actions when launching powerful attacks or the beautifully rendered cutscenes, it’s really hard to choose a favourite aspect. A little more rendering or extra layers of texture wouldn’t have been amiss, but for a sense of playing a game in a fantasy land in the middle of an anime series, you really can’t go wrong here.
The voice acting was also of great quality, with the exception of Lydie & Suelle. I have to be honest I found them a little too trite. Unfortunately, this is the only game in the trilogy that didn’t have an English audio option. For the two Atelier games that have English voice acting, it is a welcome addition, as some gamers are put off by subtitles.
The music is something that could be written about a lot. Each game seemed to have a base theme but also a lot of variety. Atelier Firis’s audio, for example, had a jaunty pirate sea shanty vibe whereas Sophie was more classical. Each game has sufficient variety in the music so even if you weren’t keen on one area’s background music, it wouldn’t be long before a more pleasant score arrived. Indeed, from the settings menu you can choose from a wide variety of tracks to listen to, so changing music that you aren’t a fan of is easily done.
Lastly, some of the extras.
As part of the Deluxe Trilogy pack you also get the digital art books for the games. Normally these extras are something I gloss over with little interest, as once you’ve seen one character model you’ve seen them all. However, I quite literally spent hours with these as the art style of GUST is remarkable. This content not only has in-game character models but also grander, more detailed concept art paintings, many of which I could have blown up and used a poster to line my gaming wall, such was the magnificence of the artwork. Captivating and beautiful, as all art should be.
Summary
DX or definitive edition, however you wish to describe these games, they are excellent value for money. If you have previously played these games or still own them, then there really isn’t much extra content to warrant purchasing them again for the extras. However, if this is your first time playing these games or you have been recently introduced to the Atelier series through Atelier Ryza and were curious as to what the previous games had to offer, then this trilogy is excellent value. It is a great starting point to see not only how the series used to do things, but it is also worth playing in its own right as each game is a magical experience.
The Atelier Mysterious Trilogy is gaming comfort food. It’s safe, wonderful, JRPG escapism, that you could spend hundreds of hours buried deep in, with each game feeling different to the last. Wholesome uplifting stories based around stunning graphics and addictive gameplay. What more could you ask for?
