Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & The Secret Hideout - PlayStation 4

Graphics: Bright pastel colors ripped straight out of a light hearted anime all over the place. No framerate issues and textures look good, although the PC release will be stronger here than the PS4 version for obvious reasons.Gameplay: The game's synthesis system involves recipes that are connected by nodes. Each node is based on a particular ingredient that, when fulfilled by the player, allow for new item types to be made. You're given some level of freedom over the process: you can plan these out or toss random things into the cauldron and hope for the best. Ingredient gathering expands over time to include a vast set of tools which you have to make (fishing, bug nets, hammers, scythes, saws, and many more). Later on, you gain the ability to create tiny worlds that can grow the exact ingredients you're looking for. After certain story events, you're given the game's eponymous hideout which you can customize to your liking, both inside and out.Main quest and sidequests will last you about 40-50 hours. Yes, there are fetch quests, but the storylines tied to them are all interesting. Not once did I feel bored. Most pleasing to me: the time limit of past Atelier games is thankfully gone, so you'll no longer be locked out of certain content.New for this game is an overhauled battle system. Battles occur in real time and are fast paced. You can directly control your party members, or tailor their AI to your playstyle. AP is earned while fighting, which can be used for things like skills, allowing characters to attack multiple times successively, and quick actions, which let you stop time momentarily to perform extra actions. Enemies have a stun gauge that, once filled, will allow you to get in some extra damage. Item use drains your core charge. Rather than having to carry multiples of each item, you simply equip an item to a character, and they can use it repeatedly as long as you have core charge left. You can sacrifice an item to replenish the pool, but you're locked out of it until you rest. Its a system focused on tactics which forces you to take into account your enemy's strengths and weaknesses and when to perform actions. Difficulty spikes later on and will test you.Story: Yes, there's a plot (and no, I'm not referring to her bust. Yet.) Our tomboyish, headstrong heroine lives on a small farm with her parents on an isolated island, and dreams of going on grand adventures with her friends. Naturally, she wants to break free from this humdrum lifesyle and hatches a plan to escape mom and dad's grasp and prove herself. This leaders to her discovering alchemy after encountering two wandering alchemists. Not everyone around her is too keen on this however, and events snowball into something larger. The writing is good, with the lead hilariously breaking certain genre tropes in her dialogue, and yes, she is very much aware of the nature of her appearance to a 4th wall extent. The plot unfolds in ways contrary to how you initially think it will.Other observations: The game has no English voice acting. Some may consider this a con but as someone who can't stand dubbing and its tendency to leave certain jokes lost in translation, its omission is welcome.Its nice to see an RPG that doesn't dumb down its mechanics for the sake of a wider audience.(And before I forget: yes, there are boob physics. This developer knows who their audience is, and doesn't cater to a certain screeching minority engaging in review bombing over imaginary mammaries.)

The alchemists series just keep getting better (although If you wanted to play previous entries not related to ryza, they are still good and the ps3 versions will feel to have nostalgia) this particular one has run time as what you will expect. Using it on a ps5 also feels better but ps4 does it's frames justice (This game was made during ps4 era, it's what you'll expect) (In case you don't have a ps5 - Not gloating).I kept hearing it but just in case a few people who only wanted to look at juicy thiccness, it's a triple feature, the game has a story that's wholesome and animation is amazing and the ost are awesome (I honestly don't like games that originated from anime itself like SAO and One Piece to name a few (they don't nail things I enjoy from the manga/anime...but I still buy into them..., gameplay is great still and it's also hard when game creators think we've got to move on to full open world gameplay attacks, turn base is still amazing. Being the alchemist you are there is plenty to do (not to mention they also have ryza 2) but of course I had to say it like everyone else:She protec - She attac - but most importantl - She THICC

I have been a fan of the Atelier games for a long time and Ryza is by FAR the best one...it transforms the franchise from low-budget feeling to a proper AA jrpg. The game isn't *different* than the previous entries, staples like light hearted story and of course item synthesis are present but the quality all-around improved. The item synthesis has taken a drastic change for the better, battles are much more fun and dynamic. The story starts out slow but build up into a much more intense and interesting affair than what you would usually expect from an Atelier game. The visuals are also a lot better than before, the developers gave especial attention to the lighting and it definitely shows. The environment are much better looking with a lot more details than previous entries. I have always found the character designs of Atelier games to be great and Ryza is no different. Overall, this is a great game and a great place to start if you have never played an Atelier game before. It's not as harsh with time management as older entries and the quality/polish has definitely improved. 5/5 stars.

Atelier Ryza is a wonderful evolution of the series while remaining true to its roots. I've played every US release Atelier game and this is the best one yet. The story is a great wholesome "childhood friends making their dreams come true", the characters are lovable with real personality. The music is dreamy and wonderful, there are a lot of good tunes throughout this series, but this game has consistently great music. There is no English V.O. which is always a bummer, but English V.O. has never affected my enjoyment so it will never affect my score. The combat feels fantastic and frenetic in it's presentation which at first can seem challenging especially if your used to turn based RPG's, it's a system that is easy to learn and steadily evolves into a deeper system the more you progress. The graphics are smooth and run steady consistently, the animations are great and every thing seems to have nice little shine to it.Bottom line this is a great place to start playing Atelier games, and a better place to continue the love affair.

The game is great so far! Wonderful graphics, good storyline, and gameplay was easy to pick up. Only issue was that during shipping the disc became loose and was rattling around in the case. I would recommend putting the disc in some kind of protective sleeve behind the booklet.