Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy Review

The Atelier series has always been one that is released on a yearly basis (in rare cases, multiple games within that year) and are best known for their slice of life stories and extensive alchemy systems. Sales had been dipping recently until the release of Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness and the Secret Hideout in October 2019 and it was clear from the outset that the series had received a much-needed budget increase. As a result, Atelier Ryza was the best-selling game in a series that stretches 20+ titles so a sequel was bound to follow up. Having opened to excellent first week sales in Japan back in December, Ryza 2 looks set to follow in the footsteps of its predecessor.

Story

The Atelier series usually focus on trilogies set in the same world, with recurring characters while the lead protagonist changes each time. This current arc, the Secret series, is the first direct sequel in the Atelier series, Ryza’s popularity as a character pushing the focus on continuing the story with much of the same cast. The story takes place in the capital city of Ashra-am Baird, a vast difference compared to the island life of Kurken Island where the first Ryza game took place. After being given a strange jewel from the mayor of Kurken Island, Ryza departs to the capital to meet up with childhood friend, Tao, to discuss it and help him with some of his research there in the capital.

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The ability to ride a mount makes gathering a lot easier.

Three years has passed since the events of the first game and characters from the previous adventure have been aged up and travelled their own paths. As Ryza 2 is a direct sequel to the first game and tends to focus more heavily on story than previous Atelier games, there are plenty of references to the first game and events that happened there, the game certainly expects you to have played through the original as there is not much in the way of catching up. The story is by no means the grandest epic to ever exist but what starts as a simple search for lost ruins ends up with an unforgettable adventure that threatens the very world.

As with every Atelier game however, the main storyline is just the setup and the character events that trigger constantly throughout the game is where much of the story comes from. Outside your party of seven, there are several other characters that inhabit the city that Ryza will meet and befriend, adding more background to the city. Ryza 2 continues the trend of placing icons on your quick travel map to indicate whenever there is a new character event or quest available making it easy to know how to advance the storylines and in general, getting around the world a lot smoother. As the story wrapped up, I was satisfied with the conclusion and all of the characters got more than enough screen time that you really get the feeling of being on an adventure with these characters, the core theme of the game.

World

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The addition of being able to dive adds a whole new layer to exploration in Atelier Ryza 2.

With the capital city of Ashra-am Baird serving as the primary hub for this adventure, it is clear to see that a lot more time and detail went into creating it. Already from the start you can see that it’s a lot larger than the majority of the areas you see in the Atelier series and it’s constantly filled with people going about their day. There is no real way to interact with the majority of them, but it serves its purpose to show a lively city, even if there is the odd occasion of the same NPC appearing multiple times in the same location which was a little disappointing. Weather effects also make a return, sunshine and rain being the conditions and it is a nice touch to see the effects of rain in the city the following day, puddles will emerge on the ground for example and it is a massive step up from what you normally come to expect from the Atelier series.

As your main hub in Atelier Ryza 2, you will find everything you need in the city starting with Ryza’s Atelier where you will be doing much of your alchemy work. Her new apartment offers the opportunity to decorate the walls, floor and rug which will grant special effects in battle while you can also create and find a host of decorative items to which you can spruce it up to your own liking. It doesn’t do much, but it gives you your own personal touch to the Atelier and stops it from being just a prop. Outside of the Atelier, you have the café, where you can go and accept quests from people, all of which add to the new Reputation System. Clearing quests will unlock reputation factions such as Aristocrats, Students and Merchants and raising your rank will unlock tougher quests and lower the prices of shops across the city, it’s not much but it gives the usual throwaway quests a bit more substance.

This leads nicely into the Development system introduced in Ryza 2. With the game being set in the capital city, naturally, you’ll find plenty of shops, the majority of which are conveniently located in the Erster Central District. Romy, another returning character from the first Ryza game, will set up a system for you to enhance the development of the shops using the items you find or create. By turning them in to her, you can have new items available across the many stores or raise the Quality (which helps when creating items through Alchemy) of existing stock. This gives shops a lot more purpose in Ryza 2 and when sat alongside the Reputation System, gives you a lot more to do around the city. You’ll also have a Blacksmith with which to rework your gear, adding exclusive properties you can’t do anywhere else, there’s plenty to do and see in the city which is welcome as a lot of your time is spent there.

Alchemy

Of course, being an Atelier game, alchemy is the main draw of the game and Ryza 2 is no different here. The system used this time is largely the same one from the first Ryza game, a much-simplified version of the alchemy system from the rest of the series which makes it a lot easier for newcomers to get accustomed to. That’s not to take anything away from the Ryza series’ version of alchemy, it’s one of my favorites in the franchise as it doesn’t waste my time getting me to what I want to do or create. As you access the cauldron in Ryza’s Atelier, you will bring up a list of learned recipes and once selected, the material loops will appear. Here, you’ll place the items you’ve gathered or synthesized to fill the conditions for that loop before moving on to the next, every item has an elemental value attached to it and filling the conditions on the loop with activate the effect on it.

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Alchemy is based on the same system as the Ryza 1 with some much needed additions.

Although this knowledge alone is another to get you by, the alchemy system does expand as you progress through the plot for those that want to delve into it deeper and really create equipment and items with effects that will trounce anything you’ll encounter. It’s a nice balance that allows newcomers to jump straight in and beat the game with little hassle but allows hardcore fans to really go wild with it. New to Ryza 2 is the removal of the alchemy level so often seen in this series, instead, Ryza will learn new recipes in multiple ways but predominantly via the new Skill Tree system.

With this, you’ll use SP (Skill Points) that you earn via creating items with alchemy, quest rewards or through ruin exploration to unlock recipes on a large grid. These in turn unlock more recipes or effects to increase your gathering rate and once you unlock the ability to morph recipes, you can even learn new recipes from existing ones. There’s a lot to unlock and the Skill Tree system provides that incentive to collect SP and unlock more, I find it a much better system than the previous alchemy level system.

Combat

Combat is one area of the first Ryza game where opinion was divided, despite still being very much a turn-based system, you only directly controlled one character at a time while the others follow an AI routine that you have control over. Ryza 2 takes that same principle but gives you a lot more tools to really impact how battles play out, starting with allowing you to change control to another character with a press of a button. Characters take turns based on their Speed stat and there is a turn order at the bottom right of the screen indicating the flow of battle. You have basic attacks that you can use and chain that will accrue AP (Action Points) and then, with them, skills that characters have with either a physical or magical priority. At certain intervals, your two other party members will call out for your controlled character to use a skill, be it physical, magical or a certain element and using one will result in them using Order based skills. It seems basic in nature, but it provides fast, flashy battles that you have full control over and the game is constantly giving you new skills or features to play around with.

You also have the return of the Core Crystal; this is how you use the attack or restorative items you create in battle. In the first Ryza game, you were limited on how you could use them based on a resource that everyone shared, including out of battle. Ryza 2 changes this drastically, starting with every character having their own pool of CC to which you use items. You equip the items in each character’s slots on their Core Crystal and they can then use them in battle if their Dexterity stat is higher than the level of the item you create. You then need to go into battle and use skills to accrue CC to then use the items in question, these will never be consumed so as long as you have CC, you can use the items. You can take this further by customizing each character’s Core Crystal too, levelling it up to grant you increased CC at the start of battle (Ryza for example can start with up to 5) and the maximum amount they can have in battle, this will allow you to use items from the start of battles if needed.

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Combat is fast and flashy while being able to use Items a lot more freely gives them more purpose.

Exploration

As the title of the game may give away, exploring ruins is very much the theme of the game and you’ll be pleased to hear that exploration areas in general have seen a massive improvement over both the first Ryza and the previous games. Areas are far larger now in Ryza 2 with better level design incorporated into them and using alchemy, you will be able to create items that help you get around faster or to new areas. In Ryza 2, you can now use a magical rope to grapple to out of reach places, swim and eventually dive underwater or even ride a mount that can dig the ground and find special treasures, the environments are lot more interactive. There is also a great variety involved with them, from crystal caves to underwater cities, there’s a lot to see and I never once got tired of where I was going next. When riding the mount, you’ll also cause enemies to flee from you, making it a lot more convenient when you want to visit an area just to go gathering.

The ruins themselves have their own mechanic being the main focal point of the adventure. When you enter one for the first time, you’ll receive a Research List in your exploration diary. These will include tasks such as defeating a certain enemy to looting specific treasure (of which is marked on the map) and once the list has been fulfilled, your magical compass will activate. At this point, you’ll be able to locate memories of the past civilization in these ruins and interacting with them will grant you a memory with which you can use to piece together artifact fragments also found with the compass. Completing each of these fragments will award you massive amounts of SP, unlock new recipes and features on the Skill Tree or provide the method to progress the story. This all contributes to a total percentage of that particular ruin giving each of them more personality, background lore and provides you with more to do with them rather than just passing through. It’s a great addition and one of my favorite changes to Ryza 2.

The music deserves a special mention, I was not particularly fond of the first Ryza’s soundtrack, it was just background noise for the most part. Ryza 2’s soundtrack on the other hand is fantastic, there are many great themes throughout the game with some of the final ruin tracks being exceptional while every battle theme is engaging. I’d have liked the option to have English voice acting, I’m always a fan of sticking with English voices unless the performance is awful, but I understand the reason for them not being there and if the budget not spent on that contributed to the improved technical side of the game along with the greater focus on the exploration areas, it’s a sacrifice well worth making.

Atelier Ryza 2 is a much-improved sequel over the first game and when my summer adventure came to an end, I was left wanting more and I hope Gust follow up with a final entry to Ryza’s story. The characters are endearing, the lore of the world is intriguing and with each entry, the gameplay improvements are there to see. It’s not without its faults, there are graphical glitches when running up staircases and the constant pandering of Ryza does become a bit too much at times. The game often takes liberties with the camera to focus on Ryza, especially when crawling through gaps (of which goes a bit too far with its focus).