Honestly, I am not even sure if I will get Atelier Ryza II. The first one was really just below average. Around all bases, mechanics were forced, and or not properly explained. The story was all over the place. The alchemy was just shoved down the throat, and rather just puts the game at a staggering halt. The battle system, I ended up using normal attacks for the majority of the game.Honestly, I am not even sure if I will get Atelier Ryza II. The first one was really just below average. Around all bases, mechanics were forced, and or not properly explained. The story was all over the place. The alchemy was just shoved down the throat, and rather just puts the game at a staggering halt. The battle system, I ended up using normal attacks for the majority of the game. Gave no incentive to explore the rest of the features. The game for an open world has been very poorly done. Limited to where the story wants you to go.
Also, most NPC’s cannot even be interacted with. The cutscenes, which were a lot did not contribute much to anything. Honestly, this is my second Atelier game I have played. First was Atelier Iris 3, and in all reality. Ryza does not come on the same level, not even nearly enough.
The only thing good about Ryza, or should I say passable are the characters, and the ending. Even the ending is just barely giving any credit. I just did not feel like anything was effectively executed.
Hell, even the constantly warping back to the Atelier to deposit items has been poorly done, and slowed the game down a lot more. The concept of finding your own way in life is great, it is just that. This game manages to screw everything up along the way. Other than the passable characters, graphics are the only other thing going for it.
I invested about 40 hours into this game, and it has been nothing but painful from beginning to end. Which is really disappointing, since I wanted to play another Atelier game for years. I really loved Atelier Iris 3. The amazing characters, the freedom to explore, even though there was a time limit. The alchemy was more friendly as well. They did not shove it down my throat. So I could progress how I wanted. Gathering as well was much more pleasureful. The plot on top of this was the best thing. Seeing how Edge slowly is tearing apart the further the days goes by, it really makes you feel for these characters.
Despite being on a lower graphic scale, they made use of everything they could. The battle system, was more engaging as well. Knowing how to manipulate the turn order. More boss battles than Ryza, a lot more. Much more tracks that does well with the moment. More incentive to explore.
This here is minor, but the dialogue in battle. I still remember the battle with Ash. How it shifts to the second phase, they really knew how to push the battles to its peak.
I guess to say, I was expecting a lot more excitement. Especially seeing the reviews, the game was more or less just thrown together. The only thing that had any effort was the alchemy system, and even that was not interesting.
Please take note, this is the first time I have ever given a game a 0/10. Hell, the least I have ever given one before this point was maybe 5/10? Either way, it was never that low. This is with me having played one other Atelier game, so I basically went in new again. Usually, a known game, especially by such a company would score higher. Though this one? It has so many problems, I cannot even begin to count it. I suppose a plus is that there are no bugs I found, but that is negligent. I have played buggy games far better than this.
I also forgot to mention this. Wanna know when I unlocked the ultimate attack for the characters? Pretty much right at the ending of the game. I think it was after I did the final battle. Maybe if that was introduced far sooner, I will have given the game a better rating, but I was practically done with the game. This game is not worth a second play through, hell not even a single play through. The pacing is terrible, the mechanics are unfriendly if not boring, the alchemy feature is just there to halt the game, the leveling is not even worth it, hell I did not even make it to level 50. Which is where some new feature is supposed to come in. The story is linear, and bare bones. The exploration is very limiting for an open world game. The interactions are subpar, the cutscenes have little to no contribution. The ending was not effectively executed for what they were building up towards, etc. Don’t get the game, it is not worth the money, even on sale...… Expand
Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret HideoutYour Score0 out of 10User Score
