Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key is a bit of a unique game, not because it’s another Atelier entry, but it’s the first real one that has kept a single protagonist for multiple games. As someone who had never played any of the other games before, either in the Ryza sub-series or the Atelier series over all, coming in, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. What I found though was a game that was packed with interesting characters, more systems than you could count and  world begging to be explored.

For this game, it is a continuation of the storyline of the first two games in the Ryza series, I don’t mean that it picks up right after the last one ended, but rather it keeps the same characters. As this was my first time engaging with many of them, what it meant is that I was utterly lost on who was who at the start and that needed to be corrected. Thankfully the internet was the answer and after reading about the stories for the other games, I was able to continue here. As summer beings for Ryza and her friends, a group of mysterious islands have appeared and that is causing problems for the island life that Ryza enjoys, not to mention those who use the seas for shipping, fishing and more. While doing some early investigation work, Ryza gets a vision about a key and being an alchemist, she creates it and that kicks off a grand adventure. If you power through the story you are looking at roughly 30 hours, but there are side quests galore to discover, so there is a lot going on. Even without the direct connection to many of the games characters, I was able to engage with the story, which is a testament to just how likeable many of them are. I will say though, that if you are like me and haven’t played any of the others, just be ready to get lost at times.

When talking about the gameplay, it can be broken down into four areas, the last one being a new addition to the series. The first is exploration of the world and it surprised me at just how massive each of the regions was. I did check to see if this was standard in all the games, as I do love worlds you can explore, but turns out that is not the case. The developers this time have managed to include the world in giant chunks, without the need for a loading screen. As you explore the world you will see icons over most things around you, letting you pick them up, smash them or touch them in other ways and that is the second aspect, collecting. This is crucial as without collecting elements, you can’t create new items, which you need to do in order to progress and that ties in nicely with the third aspect, Synthesis. When the game first presented me with that screen, I was honestly overwhelmed, there were so many parts to it and then levels of quality on the ingredients and number of them. The game does allow you to select an auto-fill option, which takes the guess work out of things and also lowers the complexity to almost non-existency, which was something I really enjoyed.

The final aspect of the game is combat and the game has delivered a combat system that I was ok with, it isn’t the best around, but it is far better than most. When you begin a fight a small circle will begin to fill and once it has, you can select an attack and then once you are done, you need to wait for the circle to fill. With each succession of it filling up, a point is added to your special skills bucket and once you have enough, you can unleash some stronger attacks. You can also block and swap out for other characters, take charge of the other members in the fight with you and more. Where it falls a little flat for me is that you can’t move around, the fights take place in the exact spot you were in, but your character gets tethered to that spot. If you could move around, fights could feel more dynamic and dangerous, but for the most part they just feel like a button masher, more so with the basic attacks. The real reason though that it is a problem is that without the ability to move around, enemies behind you can often attack and you won’t see it.

One aspect of combat that ties directly to synthesis is that of the keys, which ties back into the games title. While the first key you create is driven by the story, most of the rest are up to you to decide when you want to make. In combat, once an enemy has lost some health and if you have the right skill points available, you can attempt to take the essence of that enemy and turn it into a key. Once you have keys on your belt, you can use them in fights to provide buffs to yourself and your party or take abilities away from enemies. They are not things you will use in the fights with smaller targets, but being able to take away some stronger attacks or counter them with a useful buff can help out in major ways later on. Key creation can also be done at the various landmarks round the world, which also then act as your fast travel points. These landmarks can be used as often as you like, but there is a need to wait a while between uses. While combat is the main use of them, you can use keys out in the world as well, to help you access treasure and what not, which opens up exploration and given the size of the world that is a welcome change.

That brings me to the final point, the size of the world and your ability to navigate it. Exploration is pretty straightforward, but there are some issues, sticking with the good though. As you explore the world you will come across campfires and here you can rest to recuperate but also change the time of day. Cooking is also an option here, which lets you get buffs for your group, for a limited time. While you won’t need to spend time cooking as much as you would in say Breath of the Wild, taking the time to do so when you pass by a campfire is going to help you out in the long run. The other aspect of world exploration is tied to you building Ateliers in each region. While you can fast travel back to your original one, the games load times are fast enough it won’t matter, sometimes just having one in the same part of the world is helpful. Your creation of these is not a simple choice, as the type of Atelier you build, will determine what it specialises in.

Now I have to talk about the issues with exploration, getting around on ziplines and dolphins is fun, but like many Japanese developed games, small edges seem to be insurmountable. There were times in towns when there would be a gate, not a tall one, but Ryza wouldn’t be able to jump it, but then elsewhere she could clear a fence the same height with room to spare. In the larger world, the lack of upwards mobility is impacted by the fact you can get down with ease, putting it another way, I often Skyrim’d down the side of mountains and such as often as I could. Now I am not saying that I should be able to scale all buildings and mountains in the game as if I was some sort of alchemic Spider-Man, but there needs to be a better mix, especially when you have seen the characters jump higher than the ledge you can’t access.

I played through the game on Switch and for the most part the games presentation was flawless. The characters look great, you can see them emoting, even seeing their eyes grow and contract as their expressions changed was wonderful. The locations are basic, let us not beat around the bush there, but they are full of life at least. The home town is fine, but once you reach the larger towns that sense of life seems to fade, there are people about sure, but when the town feels like it’s the size of a CBD and has only a handful of people on screen, it undercuts the grandeur of it all. The world beyond the town walls is teeming with life, creatures both friendly and not roam around and make everything feel alive. When leaving the larger towns or turning out of a narrow pathway into the wider world, the game would struggle to have everything load in, which did leave a lot of pop-in to take place, but beyond that, things ran fine.

The games audio is a mixed bag, the voice acting - which is only in Japanese was great, the characters were clear and easy to distinguish who was who. As the spoken audio was only in Japanese the game does put subtitles on the screen, at least most of the time. When I was creating items and a few other times, Ryza says things that are not given any subtitles, so I had no idea what she was actually saying. While the subtitles were fine when I was docked, playing in handheld is not something I can suggest, the load issues mentioned above were not the reason, it’s the subtitle size for their random conversations that is the problem. The text is set by the developers, and you can’t change it, there is no choice here, you get them on and in one size and in handheld on an Switch OLED, the text is so small and close together, reading it requires some magic skill. Major cut scenes and such are not so much of an issue in handheld, but I can only imagine that on Switch Lite it might be.

Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key was a fun game to play and makes me wish I had gotten into the series earlier. As someone who didn’t the lack of connection between the characters felt like I was missing things and even though I read the stories online, it wasn’t the same. Beyond that though, the games combat, exploration and synthesis all come together to make for a delightful time. I do have to call out the world, as the zones are massive and full of locations and things to find, though the ability for more upwards motions would be great. A few technical hiccups aside and some small subtitle offerings don’t detract from the joy I had playing it. If you are like me and coming in for the first time, you will find a game worthy of your time and long time fans will find a rewarding end to the journey.