Topic: Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & The Secret Hideout

Has anyone played any games in this series and would recommend jumping in with this new title? Koei has earned my respect and attention following Three Houses so this might be a strong follow-up considering their new-found position as RPG geniuses.

They're pretty chill gathering/crafting/rpg games. Most of the entries in the series have reviewed well, scoring between 7/10 to 8/10. Atelier Ryza looks like the series is moving to a new engine. The game looks like it might be the best in the series.

I gotta say I've been having a blast with this game, despite some of the honestly real nasty graphical issues it had on Switch.

But those aren't an issue anymore! The latest patch, which also added in a bunch of new music and the ability to set the music to each area however you like - also cleaned up almost all of the issues the game had. It looks a lot better now! Like 95% of all the issues are gone. There's still some rough edges here and there but they fixed almost everything! Just waiting for another cut scene to see if they fixed those too. None of the issues were a big deal for me - but they were very noticeable, so I am glad they've been fixed.

And all this new music they added is really nice! I could seriously just sit here and listen to it like a CD!

They've had a couple patches since I got the game, adding in a couple new features here and there and also cleaning up some of the bugs. Major kudos for all the free updates they've had since launch. Most AAA games don't get so much support!

I am honestly really blown away by how much I am in love with this game! For a game that I bought just because I thought the anime girl protagonist was super cute (no really, that's all I knew about it going in, beyond the genre being a JRPG), I'm completely addicted to the crafting mechanics, I've gotten real into the battle system, and I really really like the cast of characters!

Ryza isn't just super cute - she's become my single favorite female video game protagonist EVER! Being fair, there are so few she has to compete with - female lead characters in games are almost as rare as shiny Pokemon - but still. I really like her. She's cute, strong, loyal to her friends, not afraid to speak her mind, motivated and forward thinking! She's got the whole stinking package! Looks, brains and power!

And the supporting cast is interesting too. A lot less on dimensional than I first feared. They've all grown on me a bunch! But I can't say why without spoilers.

Oh, but minor spoiler: Ryza's special attack/extra skill is stinking awesome! I didn't remotely expect her to be able to do that, and I love it!

So tempted to pick this up whilst it's still on sale. Just posted on the Push Square forum before finding this thread here. I think I'm kind of hoping for a similar kind of experience to @Heavyarms55 in finding the characters and crafting engaging. Definitely looking for something pretty chilled out to play too.

Until last year I'd never played an Atelier game before but once I got my first taste (with Atelier Rorona), I got addicted and I've played eight of them in the last 18 months. They're all excellent and up there as some of my favourite JRPGs on the Switch. Atelier Ryza would definitely be a reasonable starting point in the series. It's very beginner friendly and requires no knowledge of previous games.

Sounds a bit like what happened over the last couple of years with me and Pokemon, @BenAV ! I started with Let's Go and have since played Ultra Sun, Shield, Omega Ruby, X and have Platinum, Black, Black 2 and Soul Silver ready to go.

I'm pretty much convinced to jump in with Ryza, so good to hear that it's a good place to do so. What in particular do you like about the games? Or is it more the way all the components mesh together to form the final result?

@mcdreamer Yeah, just a bit of everything. The characters are always fun and likable and the interactions between them are always entertaining, gameplay is addictive with plenty to do, nice soundtracks, etc. I also like how they're not afraid to change mechanics up pretty significantly from game to game even within the same trilogy. Each game in the series feels like its own thing.

@BenAV Sounds great. I like series that are happy to mix things up. Soundtrack is super important to me too, especially in a JRPG. Already checked out some Ryza tracks on YouTube and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve heard.

@Heavyarms55 Out of interest, what issues did the Switch port have at launch?

@Ralizah I'm a little curious about that too because whatever they were, I must have just never noticed, haha.

@Ralizah It had a lighting glitch that I've never seen elsewhere in another game and have a hard time describing. It was just very clearly the lighting engine was not working right. The game was also just less polished feeling overall. Kinda chugy here and there and occasional resolution drops. But after a couple patches, I no longer noticed those issues for the latter half of the game.

@mcdreamer I really enjoyed it. I shamelessly bought it because Ryza is mega cute, but I really enjoyed the game. It's got this chill but still serious plot with a competent fighting system and an engaging crafting system. It was very very easy to say "I'm just gonna craft a couple things, and then BOOM, I've been crafting for 2 hours and replaced almost every piece of equipment for every character in my party.

And this is a game where I've read, you can super max out your characters if you really get serious about its crafting system.

@Heavyarms55 Ryza doesn't have a time limit like some of these games do, right? I think it's the biggest thing that has put me off of this series.

@Ralizah Time limit? No, none during the main story anyway. I haven't done the post game.

@Heavyarms55 I picked up the game and definitely getting some chilled vibes so far. Not that far in yet but looking forward to getting deep into the crafting!

@mcdreamer Have fun man. The sequel is coming too!

Just a heads-up to anyone who wanted a physical copy of this, I know it's been hard ro find but some places are restocking it now. I just bought it on Amazon.

@JasmineDragon

Would you do me a favor? When you receive your copy could you let me know if there's a download patch? I'm curious to see if the reprint has the latest update baked in or if there's still a 1 GB download regardless.

@Magician Will do! I'm probably going to start it tonight - I'll let you know.

@Magician There is a download of 907MB. Also, this is a European copy apparently, as it has a PEGI rating on the cover.