Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 21
  3. Negative: 0 out of 21
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  1. RPGamer
    Jan 27, 2020
    70
    After the disaster that is Nelke, I wasn’t sure if I would ever get back to playing and reviewing the Atelier series. While Ryza is a shorter experience clocking in at just over thirty hours, I admit to enjoying nearly every second of my time with the game. Atelier Ryza ushers in something new while still feeling like a familiar experience. Sure, it’s not the perfect Atelier experience, but I appreciate the changes in Ryza in a way I did not with any of the Mysterious subseries or recent iterations. Ryza is easily the best heroine since Totori, and while her game has some ups and downs, I would play another game with her at the helm.
  2. Playstation Official Magazine UK
    Dec 17, 2019
    70
    There’s a lot to love about Ryza’s new adventure – Atelier’s cutesy charm is still infectious – but it ends up feeling less sure of itself as a game about alchemy than prior entries (such as the great Atelier Lulua), while also being a promising setup for things to come. [Issue#170, p.86]
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  3. DarkZero
    Nov 25, 2019
    70
    Though it may require a bit of patience to get to the sweet stuff, Atelier Ryza is a wholesome and addicting experience that RPG fans will gleefully gulp down, even if they’ve never dabbled with the Atelier franchise before. Thanks to the strong visuals and countless gameplay features, now is the best time to jump in on this niche series, which may end up becoming much more recognizable thanks to this latest solid entry.
  5. Destructoid
    Nov 22, 2019
    70
    It’s a refreshing change of pace from moody protagonists saving the world from unambiguously evil villains. While I like to poke fun at fashion issues like Ryza’s butt hungrily devouring her shorts, I had fun with Atelier Ryza. It’s not quite enough to get me to run out and pick up the rest of the series, but if I’m ever in the mood for some more anime crafting hijinks, I’ll probably give them a look.
  6. Twinfinite
    Nov 4, 2019
    70
    The best thing that can be said of Atelier Ryza is that it is accessible. Down to its core it is meant to be enjoyed by new players or by series veterans who might be looking for a nice light addition to the franchise. This is the ultimate distillation of what makes Atelier so great in one package, with better combat to boot. Any previous notion of the best jumping on point is erased in favor of Ryza and the enjoyable journey that the game presents.
  7. Jeuxvideo.com
    Oct 25, 2019
    70
    Quotation forthcoming.
  8. PlayStation Universe
    Oct 25, 2019
    65
    Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout makes some fundamental changes to the core mechanics that may get under the skin of long-time fans but are welcome for those looking to jump into the franchise for the first time.
  9. Cubed3
    Feb 11, 2020
    60
    Big booties aside, the easiest way to sum up Atelier Ryza is: an absolutely great game framework, waiting for a game. The battles are interesting enough, the gathering okay, and the alchemy very good, but it all fails to connect on a purposeful or coherent level. With no driving narrative or reason, pretty rapidly the whole point becomes to simply battle, gather, alchemize, repeat; all of which fails to pull the player into something deep or meaningful. The is a great casual-friendly title, but it lacks any serious staying power.
  10. We Got This Covered
    Nov 19, 2019
    50
    Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness and the Secret Hideout feels like a massive step backward, both in terms of gameplay and story. Although GUST attempted to inject some real-world themes into this tale, it's unfortunately just more of the same.

Awards & Rankings

93
#93 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2019

User Reviews

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User Score
8.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 114 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 92 out of 114
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 114
  3. Negative: 13 out of 114
  1. jaymz1970
    Oct 29, 2019
    10
    apparently jerks are trying to review bomb this because of the eye candy in game. really fun game, beautiful areas, alchemy is also veryapparently jerks are trying to review bomb this because of the eye candy in game. really fun game, beautiful areas, alchemy is also very entertaining.
    first in series I've bought.
    noticed it BECAUSE of the eye candy, its not a bad thing, really sad people who have a problem with it..    … Full Review »
  2. Patters84
    Jun 25, 2020
    4
    I am new to the series, and While I do find the story somewhat fun and the alchemy pretty interesting, the EXTREME lack of monster varietyI am new to the series, and While I do find the story somewhat fun and the alchemy pretty interesting, the EXTREME lack of monster variety coupled with the low choice in party composition makes this kind of a letdown. The animations are pretty off in the cutscenes, as in, they're pretty stiff. Game seems pretty short, as I appear to be at the end of the game (according to the characters in-game).

    All in all, looking back, I would not have bought this game for $60, but I fed into the eye candy hype sadly. That said, I don't regret my purchase, but I would recommend waiting for the price to drop.    … Full Review »
  3. yorgash
    Nov 9, 2019
    7
    I played almost every Atelier games, and loved all of them since Rorona greatly.

    This one is... a bitter, very bitter letdown for me. I'm    I played almost every Atelier games, and loved all of them since Rorona greatly.

    This one is... a bitter, very bitter letdown for me. I'm not saying it's not a decent game, but if I rate other titles 9/10 I can not honestly give this one more than 5, were it not for the many new ideas implemented, and the somewhat decent if a bit overly basic story.

    1.) Synthesis:
    Of course the new ideas are welcome, but not if they come at the price of letting the old ones go. Nearing endgame it becomes more and more obvious that this game almost entirely lacks item traits; it has maybe 5 useful traits coupled with 5 "stack-able" level-based ones. Compared to the 100+ that could be combined in many ways in former titles. Not to mention the "reformed" synthesis is basically dirt-cheap compared to the second most recent one, Lulua (I could say Lydie+Sue or Shallie too) for example. You just... add materials if you have them to the effect you want to have. And you can edit it later, not even having to worry about the quality.

    2.) Battle
    The battle is also a mess. I see what they were trying to do, making it a bit more "active time" than plain old turn-based, but it really is just turn-based. Worse yet, one could say you can only control one character, since going for speed build and trying to control all characters is plain impossible. To be a little more exact, it needs you to make about 20 button mashed in 0.5 seconds. If there were a way to issue or set up tactics for your party that might actually work, but you can only choose "spam what they have enough AP for" or "normal attack". Can't even make them use items. Not to mention that aside from the 3 members you currently select the others are just there being reserves - no assists, stat boosts, combination, nothing. That's a huge step down from almost every other Atelier games. Not to mention you can simply not get excited to battle with any monsters, since basically there are 4 enemies recolored, two "big bad" ones, 1 optional boss for recoloring and maybe 2 additional models. Their strength increases linearly to match your progress while in the main story, nothing afterwards.

    3.) Characters
    Aside from the main character and maybe one of the other party members the others are just comically simple avatars of their archetypes. Of course the glasses shorty acts just like he's "supposed to" being a scaredy-cat bookworm. The hot-blooded warrior wants to beat up monsters. The "alchemist with a heavy past" is just that. The interactions between characters are minimal and hardly interesting or entertaining. You just... don't feel for any of them.

    4.) Music
    The music not only is forgettable, it's almost impossible to like them. And it's not that they are terrible; it has more to do with being way too atmospheric and trying hard not to overtake the scene. You can almost use the battle music for your atelier comfy music and vice versa... It's the first time that after playing 50+ hours I have no desire to listen to its OST - nor could I recall them if I wanted to.

    5.) The pros
    ...are the new things implemented poorly. The premise of a gathering synthesizer is good, adding materials in this fashion could be good, reactor forge is an interesting - if not overpowered - tool, no nonsense way to duplicate items is also pretty decent for an idea. Item rebuild would be a nice touch if it came with any restrains (aside from the ridiculously negligible constraint of your alchemy level). Most of these ideas could make a good foundation for an actually good implementation, but as is currently it's a pretty bad mix. And after getting through the initial confusion it's sickeningly simple.

    Overall this game could be improved upon so vastly it'd be more efficient to do it the other way around: just use any older titles and implement the good parts of this one. Atmosphere, OST, characters and everything... not saying they are terrible, but way out of Atelier's league.    … Full Review »
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