Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout Review (PS4)

A cute, little girl.  Cute, little monsters.  A cute, little world.  It time to return to the world of Atelier.  This is Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout.

The Atelier series has been one of my favorites since Atelier Totori.  These games seem to be coming out more frequently since then, but I still look forward to each entry.  The cuteness of the world is appealing to me and at the center of it all is a cute, innocent female protagonist.  This particular tale stars a girl call Ryza and her merry band of friends as they search for adventure and discover danger.

Ryza is a little different than other Atelier protagonists in one obvious way; she's stacked.  Seriously, her character model would be fine for Dead Or Alive, but it's a little too much for the main protagonist of an Atelier game, where the heroines usually seem to be 15 or under.  I'm not sure how old Ryza is, but the point is she's simply too sexy to be an Atelier protagonist.  Also, she's not as stylish as most other protags, choosing drab but functional clothes over the gaudy garments of past alchemists.

Our protagonist is hotter than she has any right being.

She still an Atelier protag deep down inside.

The gameplay is quite different from past Atelier games, especially when it comes to combat.  You are encouraged to increase your tactics level.  Each time you do this, your characters will perform longer combo attacks, doing more damage to enemies.  You have very little control over your AI allies, but you can freely switch characters at any time.  On the whole, the combat is refined and I enjoyed battles more than previous games.

Combat has a lot of moving parts, but is pretty smooth overall.

On the map, monsters may or may not attack you.  Some will charge you if you get close.  Some will stand there looking confused, especially if you're much stronger than them.  Some won't attack, but may issue a warning in the form of a hiss.  Others will be going about their daily lives, laughing and frolicking through the tulips.  No matter what, if you touch an enemy, you'll enter combat.  Make sure you "touch" them with your staff to get a preemptive strike, which usually gives you two free rounds to attack and one free tactical level.  Unlike most games, you don't have to sneak up on them for this to work.  Just hit them with your staff before they touch you and you'll have the advantage.

Sometimes monsters will ignore you and go about their daily business.  It's cute.

You'll also go on quests, both for NPCs and party members.  Completing a request for a party member may allow them to learn a new move, so you'll want to do those.  You also have storyline request, which you MUST fulfill to progress the story.

Party quest will make you characters stronger, so make sure to do them.

Alchemy is a little different.  Supposedly, you can create your own recipes, but that's BS.  You CAN find recipes within others, but you can't just pull a recipe from your ass with whatever ingredients you can put together.  It's not bad, but perhaps I was expecting too much.

Recipes can be found within other recipe or by reading books.

As usual, you'll have to forage, scavenge, and buy the best materials you can find to make the best items.  You'll even rob farms of their crops, beat on trees with an ax and hammer, and dig through garbage to get what you need.  Using different tools on a gathering point will usually yield different resources.  For example, using an ax on a tree will usually get you eiche, but using a hammer usually will get you dried lumber.  So you're encouraged to try everything.

There are differences outside of combat and alchemy, too.  The most jarring thing is that you can't just talk to anyone.  You can only talk to people with a Pacman symbol over their heads.  You can also talk to people with a box of stuff over their head, indicating their status as a shopkeepers.  Of course, you can talk to people with quest markers.  It's not a big deal, but as someone who's played many RPGs where you can talk to everyone, it was an adjustment.

Tell me that doesn't look like Pacman.

At first, I thought this was a castle over the shopkeeper's head.

Request badges come in red urgent task and green for less urgent tasks.

On to the little stuff.  Graphically, the game is the best Atelier game yet.  Characters and especially environments seem to have more "pop" than in previous games.  I've already gone into detail, about Ryza's appearance, but another character is even...bigger than her.  All the females have more "appeal" than in previous entries in the series.  Most of the monsters are still cute and little, but some actually look intimidating.

Look at the size of this woman's..."appeal".

It's so...cute!

Environments are beautiful, especially at night.

The music is a little less cute and more epic than usual.  Just a little.  There's still plenty of cute flute music in here.  As for sounds, the biggest difference I've noticed is that that monsters on the map make noises.  The eerie, childlike laugh of the fairy-types stands out the most.  Sadly, there are no English voices.

On another note, there seems to be an unusual amount of swearing in this game.  I've played a lot of Atelier games and I've missed just as many, but I don't remember the characters talking like this before.  It's not overkill, but it was pretty weird to see.

Did Atelier characters always talk like this.

Of course there's DLC.  No game is complete without it these days.  Honestly, some of it is interesting if nothing else.  It's there if you want it.

With Atelier Ryza, we have a good game.  Graphically, the game has more pop.  Musically, the game has a slightly heavier tone, but still has some cuteness.  The game has a slightly more mature feel without losing too many of the things that make an Atelier game.  Ryza herself is a little much physically and there is an uptick in swearing, so some innocence has been lost.  Obviously, there's stuff I didn't touch on for the sake of length, but for the most part, everything has been improved.  Can't wait to try the sequel.  Play it.