The third and final part of the Dusk trilogy of Atelier games, Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk DX is another generous helping of light JRPG action with the series' trademark deep alchemy system at its core. Telling the story of two very different young alchemists, Shallotte and Shallistera, it sees you choose from one of these two young ladies as you set out to solve yet another ecological problem brought about by the Dusk. Shallotte, a resident of the town of Stellard, is headstrong and outspoken and longs to be free of her low paying job, confident that fame and fortune lay in wait in her not-too-distant future. Shallistera, on the other hand, is absolutely not the fame-seeking type and has made a long trek to the Stellard in order to find a solution to a water shortage which is threatening to destroy her home.
As is always the case in the Atelier series – this entry is the sixteenth entry, in case you were wondering – it's not long before one person's problem becomes everyone else's and the water shortage that's affecting Shallistera's village must be stopped from ravaging Stellard. Choosing either of the two main protagonists here will see things play out in different ways and, as usual, there are multiple endings, cutscenes and bits and pieces of dialogue which open up depending on who you've settled on playing as. However, in terms of actual gameplay, for the most part you'll spend your time here running errands for Stellard's union in order to grow more powerful and help stop the drought threat.
After a brief pre-credits sequence which gets you acquainted with the two heroines on offer, this entry in the series jumps pleasingly quickly into action, avoiding the rather turgid opening few hours of its predecessor in favour of letting you get out-and-about on your world map and crafting away to your heart's content as it teaches you the ropes along the way. And there are a few rather nice new ropes to get acquainted with here.
As well as being the first Atelier game to feature a freely-moveable camera whilst out in the wilds – something that really makes it feel much more modern – this third part also switches up some of the standard gameplay loops of the franchise, this time completely excising the time limit which usually sees your characters having to complete their various tasks and missions within a set period or fail. To be fair, the last two Atelier games had made it so lax that it wasn't really much of a challenge to keep within your allocated time, but by completely removing it here, this entry allows players to relax, taking all the time they want to explore its various locations, gather and discover new resources and battle monsters.
With the time limit mechanic now completely gone, Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk DX implements a new 'Life Tasks' system which sees you check off a bunch of tasks in order to unlock progress to the next chapter in the storyline. Jumping into your character's menu via a press of the X button allows you to monitor your progress, and it's something you'll need to do quite often as you'll always have a long list of things going on at any one time. Life Tasks will also change on the fly depending on how you choose to play your game. If you've been out battling monsters more than crafting then it'll charge you with going after certain types of enemy, whereas if collecting resources is your jam, it'll fix you up with plenty of errands to suit.
It's not a bad system overall, although we did find it a little irritating just how much we ended up having to go in and out of the menu to check what we were doing or how much more we needed complete in order to move on. For sure, these games have always been about running constant errands and checking things off lists in order to progress, but something about the Life Tasks system here really draws attention to it all in a way that makes it feel much more like a chore.
However, away from this, it's mostly all good news for fans of the series. The turn-based battle system has continued to be beefed-up and improved upon and now, as well as your staple move sets, special skills and assist actions that let you stack attacks and jump in to guard weaker members of the team as you fill your assist gauge, there's a new introduction in the form of the Burst Gauge. Successfully attacking enemies fills the burst gauge up whilst getting hit drops it down again; by filling it right up to 100%, you'll unleash burst mode, enabling your party members to attack much more ferociously, doing lots more damage to their foes. It's another nice little wrinkle in what's a pretty old-school but really rather enjoyable combat system, and it certainly sees the fighting element of these games in the best shape it's been up until this point.
Elsewhere the alchemy, the very heart and soul of any Atelier game, has also had a lick of paint and a few tweaks here and there. It's still the same absorbing and addictive minigame-style system as it's always been; easy enough to get to grips with, but with enough depth to it that it really does become a pretty engrossing timesink – especially once you've levelled-up and unlocked enough abilities to let you really start to tinker with your creations. As well as all the usual variations in ingredient types, purities and rarities, this time around you can also add traits to your ingredients in order to give them bespoke properties such as extra damage or healing strength, or perhaps the ability to generate a greater yield of whatever salve or offensive item you happen to be crafting. It's a versatile and fun system into which every other facet of the game feeds in a very satisfying manner.
World traversal and exploring remains largely the same as ever here; you'll blast around a map collecting ingredients and battling monsters in small, tightly-contained areas – although we have to say Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea DX does better in this regard with areas that are larger and slightly more interesting to look at than the previous entries in this trilogy. Make no mistake, however, this is still not anywhere near the type of open-world roaming you'll be used to from a full-fat JRPG, so if that's the kind of deal you're looking for, the Atelier games probably aren't really for you. The story once again keeps things pretty small-scale and ties into the trilogy quite nicely; there are plenty of returning cameos from the previous two Dusk games, but rest assured, if this is your first Atelier outing you won't struggle to jump into this third part as the plot is pretty much self-contained, save for some overlapping threads here and there.
Performance-wise, the whole thing runs perfectly smoothly in both docked and handheld modes, and for our money it's easily the best-looking of the three entries in the Dusk trilogy. Framerate problems, which hampered the PS Vita version of the game, are non-existent and this is, once again, a title that really does suit portable play fantastically well; blasting through your checklists of life tasks in small chunks here and there when you find the time is brilliant stuff.
This DX version, as with the other two games in the trilogy, comes with all the additions from the PS Vita release of the game – including that reworked storyline – and also packs in numerous quality of life features such as the ability to fast forward through swathes of dialogue, speed up travel on the world map and turn up the rate at which combat encounters play out. There are three different difficulty settings – including a story-mode which lets you sit back and relax entirely – and overall, as with the other Dusk games, this is an entry which bends over backwards to be accommodating to players.
Conclusion
Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea DX is the strongest entry in the Dusk trilogy. It adds a nice new camera, spices up the alchemy, strengthens the turn-based combat system and gives you two heroines to play through as, each with a journey unique enough that it's more than worth your while playing through the whole thing twice. World exploration is just as tightly controlled as in previous Atelier games and won't perhaps suit those hoping for a real sense of adventure or the desire to get completely lost in the wilds of the world presented here but, for fans of the series or those wanting to jump in and check it out, this is another solid entry in the long-running franchise that performs excellently on Switch and suits portable play perfectly.
Comments 21
All 7/10 I see. Fair enough reviews, personally I love the Atelier games, so id rate it higher ᕙ( • ‿ • )ᕗ
@PJOReilly If it's not too much trouble, I'm curious to know which other games in the series you've played (if any) and how you'd say the Dusk games stack up in comparison?
Welp, I was bang on. Triple 7/10. Yikes.
@BenAV Played Arland trilogy way back when and the newest one, Ryza. I reckon Dusk is better than Arland, again my personal opinion, lest some get offended, but overall I'd say Ryza is the best one I've experienced overall, I loved how they opened up the gameplay and moved the series forward in quite a few ways with Ryza.
Wish these were out on cartridge (are they!?) because 19 gigabytes is a lot of microSD real estate...
@Shiryu
There's a physical edition in Japan, with English language option, that you can get from places like Playasia: https://www.play-asia.com/atelier-dusk-trilogy-deluxe-pack-multi-language/13/70d5hx
Their info states that the triple pack comes in 1 cartridge and that you'll have to download the DLC. So a partial download still, but way better than 19 gigabytes per game (or whatever the size of the other 2 is...).
@PJOReilly Thanks for that.
It's pretty hard for me to pick a favourite out of the ones I've played (because I really love them all) but I'd probably go with Rorona or Meruru if I had to pick one (although there are things I really like about Lulua and Ryza too so it's at least very close), so if the Dusk Trilogy is of comparable quality to the Arland Trilogy, potentially even better, then that bodes pretty well for my personal enjoyment.
@NinjaSyao Thanks for that, added to my next PA purchase list.
@BenAV It's defo on a par with Arland I reckon, they're good games!
Wow, putting out 3 Atelier Reviews back to back. That's pretty impressive
These games are pretty pricey for ps3 remastered games
Ugh....WHY do they put the copyright stuff down there with screenshots? Is it really necessary? God Eater 3 also did this, it's so annoying for some reason! xD
This generation has been one of Nintendo's best JRPG generations since the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
I 100% don't agree on this being a strong conclusion. There is so much missing from the story, what is this mysterious central we keep hearing about. That's one of the few things thay stayed constant. Lynca for the most part is still a mystery. Oh, she was created in a test tube by unknamed scientist number1. The same could be said for Odella. All we got was a silhouette of keithgriffs character model in Aysha. There are so many other's. The water problem isnt solved it's a "It could get better,but probably not ending". Even worse for the most part everything seemed okay in Escha & Logy. There was not reall hint of what Shallie brought up " The entire world has 1,2 years tops before all the water is gone. It's a massive jump that shows how rushed this game was.
Put in a pre order in December. Kinda sucks they only ship them on release day though.
@NinjaSyao thank you! Was about to whine about no physical releases! Would prefer a domestic version but this might do! Do we know what’s on the DLC? I mean, story? Cosmetics? Side quests?
@DockEllisD Same here, I pulled the trigger last night. I usually don't really ship sigle games alone from PA, but since this had free shipping and I had a spare coupon, another cartridge to add to my collection it is then.
"Should you, for example, decide to plump for Atelier Shallie instead of Ayesha." Yeah. I get it, it's funny because the phrasing sounds like getting an erection. yawwwnnn
@Tharsman
I did a bit of digging, but I can't find what the DLC is exactly for this release, but I do know what it was for the older versions (based on my experience with Ayesha & Logy):
@Shiryu
Just got the triple pack in the mail... and there are no downloads whatsoever.
No DLC on the eshop to download, no patches, nothing. And when I fired up Ayesha and Escha & Logy to check, they already had a bunch of DLC costumes ready to go.
It seems like Play-asia's info about needing to download the DLC is false, not that I'm complaining xd
Gotta tip my hat to Gust and Tecmo Koei, they actually put everything on the cartridge! O.O
@NinjaSyao Mine is still incoming, but glad to hear!
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