Amazing review! I just finished Ryza 2 and I'm right now jumping into Ryza 3 extremely anxious and curious for what I'm about to experience! I loved Ryza 2 SO MUCH, I think it was one of the best jrpgs that ever played in my life, I really hope Ryza 3 can be an improvement in all meanings from Ryza 2
Yay, I’m so glad you liked Ryza 2 so much! SAME, I really enjoyed it so, so much. Apart from Atelier Sophie 2 and the Dusk trilogy, one of my favourite Atelier games for sure 💕😍 Like I said, Ryza 3 is an amazing game and better than 2 in many ways!! The story/pacing is a bit off, but I’m sure you’ll really enjoy it!
Awesome review! After recently beating Ryza 2 I can definitely say that as I was playing it I appreciated all of the improvements upon Ryza 1. A bit of a bummer to hear that 3 stumbles in certain aspects but I'm still excited to get into it soon. Also appreciate you shouting out the Dusk trilogy, I still think it's the peak of the franchise!
Thanks for watching! It’s 100% worth playing- it’s a super fun, addictive game and one of Gust’s best, BUT the pacing just didn’t feel as good as Ryza 2 (generally most fans seem to agree with that). But considering how much content Gust crammed into this game, makes sense that it couldn’t be perfect!! They still did a great job.
Great review of Atelier Ryza. I enjoy the Ryza games but they are not my favorite in the series. I prefer the Mysterious games (Sophie, Firis, Suelle). I hope the next Atelier game takes a step back like Atelier Sophie 2 did, while bringing in the visuals an quality of life improvements of Ryza series. I'd prefer turned based combat to return but i won't be upset if they bring back action style form Ryza. I like the open world for Ryza 3 but i'm unconvinced i want it for future games. I'd rather go back to having a world map with landmarks to visit, but have those areas bigger than they normally would be in previous Atelier games. I feel like Atelier Sophie 2 has the blueprint of what i want for the next one.
I absolutely agree with you on a lot of this. I LOVED Sophie 2 - it was also the closest thing to a perfect Atelier game for me. It just reached such a perfect balance, and the exploration/turn-based combat hit such a great sweet spot. I loved Ryza 3 because it showed the potential that Gust is capable of! I agree that they should make another game similar to Sophie 2 but include all the QoL/gameplay improvements from the Ryza series. 🙂👍🏽
P.s. My favourite overall trilogy is Dusk, but I rate Sophie 2 extremely highly. Mysterious is great too- I LOVE Firis because it felt so unique and tried so many new things.
I agree that the soundtrack was a bit on the weaker side this time. Sardonica, Windle, the new workshop theme, Kark Isles and the battle themes were the most memorable songs for me. That being said I think they did a great job tying up loose ends and I found a lot of the character arcs very satisfying. The Underworld being greatly expanded upon was such a treat. The pacing definitely fell off a cliff in the final third, but it is what it is. (Very personal and biased complaint, but I'm sad Ryza and Klaudia didn't end up travelling together by the end). I do not speak Japanese, but I've heard it enough to be able to tell when the subtitles are flat out wrong. Which is quite often. The game also feels very unpolished in many areas and I experienced far more crashes and glitches than any other Atelier game I've played. There's a lot of cut corners also in terms of animating stuff. GUST is kinda starting to feel like Gamefreak in the sense that their games need more dev time for polish. Because I freaking adore everything they do, and it hurts to see hiccups like this. Despite all of that I love Ryza 3 and none of this brings my experience down. I'm sad to see Ryza and co go, but it was an incredible trilogy that introduced me to the world of Atelier games. I have only played Sophie 1 & 2 outside of Ryza, so I suppose it's time to return to the Mysterious trilogy.
Thanks so much for this comment! I totally agree with everything you said! I still enjoyed the game so much overall, and it was a worthy ending to the finale. Made me love the characters even more. I am hoping this mobile game announcement means that the main Gust team will take their time on the next game and polish it a bit more! Let’s hope 👍🏽👍🏽 P.s. I personally recommend the Dusk trilogy over the Mysterious!! It has more of a story and more likeable characters, in my opinion. If you’re coming from the Ryza trilogy, Mysterious will seem VERY basic to you :(
Fingers crossed for future Atelier games :D Also I'm glad you enjoyed the Dusk games, I'd love to get around to them someday. That being said uh.. I didn't enjoy Sophie 1 any less because it's simple. And I don't think that's gonna be the case for the rest of the trilogy either.
It's such a shame that after Ryza 1, Ryza 2, and Sophie 2 all had superb localizations, the final entry in the trilogy had such a disappointing localization. I'd say it was my single biggest issue with the game, of which I had a handful of. I frequently found myself having to read lines of dialogue twice or even three times because of how awkwardly they were written. I replayed 2 promptly after beating 3 and the difference was night and day. I pray that the next game in the series either returns to the localization team of the previous games or the new team improves drastically. While I did enjoy the game (although I did start to feel a bit burned out toward the end), it bums me out that the trilogy ends on sort of a weak point. I'd still say I prefer Ryza 3 over Ryza 1, but that's almost entirely to do with 3's main cast and how it wraps up each character's stories. However, I still think I would rather replay 1 over 3 due to how much more focused and polished it is. It just goes to show how bigger doesn't always equal better. This was an incredibly ambitious game for the studio, but unfortunately it fell flat in several areas due to its scale. It also doesn't help that I played the game on Switch, where the visuals suffer a decent bit compared to other platforms (for context, Ryza 1 and 2 look nearly identical to PC and PS4 save for some slightly lower-res shadows and lighting, but the difference between graphics for Ryza 3 is significant. Of course, let's also not forget that trying to read the puny text in 3 when playing in handheld is very challenging despite me not having near vision issues). While I appreciate the ambition here, playing Ryza 3 actually makes me hope that future games in the series scale back a bit and take a smaller, more focused approach (not counting Marie, which I haven't played and am not particularly interested in *because* of how basic it seems to be lol).
Here's the simple truth. those games you mentioned did NOT have superb localizations. They're passable at most. If a game has Japanese voice acting and it's not dubbed in its localization, it by default can't be called a superb localization because they're not putting in the effort or willing to. If the Legend of Heroes games can do dubs, there's no reason Ryza games that sold better than the whole series can't put in effort. That's including Ryza 1 and 2
@iKickBullies I get what you mean, but since I would prefer to play with Japanese audio anyways, I really dont mind the lack of an English dub. (Heck, i tried the dub for Sophie DX and found it somewhat off-putting). I guess maybe calling it a superb "localization" is a poor choice of words... what it is is a great "translation." I understand why Atelier stopped doing English dubs, given how niche of a series it was, but I do find it kind of funny that almost immediately afterwards we get Ryza 1 which was a massive success as far as this series goes. The fact that they didn't capitalize on that success and bring in even MORE new players by bringing back the English dubs for 2 and 3 is rather disappointing. Plus, 3 having an English dub would've practically guaranteed a better translation that what we got.
Yes I played Dusk DX on Switch and, for me, there were no problems at all. Framerate was a LOT smoother than the Vita versions, and no bugs that I can remember. If you buy all of them together on eShop, I believe you get a digital artbook included (but double-check that). Whichever Dusk game you start with, it’s AMAZING and such a great experience ❤
To be honest I don't really care about games stories that much FE3H had away better story than engage but I still enjoyed engage more which is why I think that I will will enjoy this one more than AR2
Thanks so much to those who watched so far! Subtitles (closed captions) available for anyone who finds them useful!! ❤
Amazing review! I just finished Ryza 2 and I'm right now jumping into Ryza 3 extremely anxious and curious for what I'm about to experience! I loved Ryza 2 SO MUCH, I think it was one of the best jrpgs that ever played in my life, I really hope Ryza 3 can be an improvement in all meanings from Ryza 2
Yay, I’m so glad you liked Ryza 2 so much! SAME, I really enjoyed it so, so much. Apart from Atelier Sophie 2 and the Dusk trilogy, one of my favourite Atelier games for sure 💕😍
Like I said, Ryza 3 is an amazing game and better than 2 in many ways!! The story/pacing is a bit off, but I’m sure you’ll really enjoy it!
Awesome review! After recently beating Ryza 2 I can definitely say that as I was playing it I appreciated all of the improvements upon Ryza 1. A bit of a bummer to hear that 3 stumbles in certain aspects but I'm still excited to get into it soon.
Also appreciate you shouting out the Dusk trilogy, I still think it's the peak of the franchise!
Thanks for watching! It’s 100% worth playing- it’s a super fun, addictive game and one of Gust’s best, BUT the pacing just didn’t feel as good as Ryza 2 (generally most fans seem to agree with that).
But considering how much content Gust crammed into this game, makes sense that it couldn’t be perfect!! They still did a great job.
Great review of Atelier Ryza.
I enjoy the Ryza games but they are not my favorite in the series. I prefer the Mysterious games (Sophie, Firis, Suelle).
I hope the next Atelier game takes a step back like Atelier Sophie 2 did, while bringing in the visuals an quality of life improvements of Ryza series. I'd prefer turned based combat to return but i won't be upset if they bring back action style form Ryza.
I like the open world for Ryza 3 but i'm unconvinced i want it for future games. I'd rather go back to having a world map with landmarks to visit, but have those areas bigger than they normally would be in previous Atelier games.
I feel like Atelier Sophie 2 has the blueprint of what i want for the next one.
I absolutely agree with you on a lot of this. I LOVED Sophie 2 - it was also the closest thing to a perfect Atelier game for me. It just reached such a perfect balance, and the exploration/turn-based combat hit such a great sweet spot.
I loved Ryza 3 because it showed the potential that Gust is capable of! I agree that they should make another game similar to Sophie 2 but include all the QoL/gameplay improvements from the Ryza series. 🙂👍🏽
P.s. My favourite overall trilogy is Dusk, but I rate Sophie 2 extremely highly.
Mysterious is great too- I LOVE Firis because it felt so unique and tried so many new things.
I agree that the soundtrack was a bit on the weaker side this time. Sardonica, Windle, the new workshop theme, Kark Isles and the battle themes were the most memorable songs for me.
That being said I think they did a great job tying up loose ends and I found a lot of the character arcs very satisfying. The Underworld being greatly expanded upon was such a treat. The pacing definitely fell off a cliff in the final third, but it is what it is. (Very personal and biased complaint, but I'm sad Ryza and Klaudia didn't end up travelling together by the end).
I do not speak Japanese, but I've heard it enough to be able to tell when the subtitles are flat out wrong. Which is quite often. The game also feels very unpolished in many areas and I experienced far more crashes and glitches than any other Atelier game I've played. There's a lot of cut corners also in terms of animating stuff. GUST is kinda starting to feel like Gamefreak in the sense that their games need more dev time for polish. Because I freaking adore everything they do, and it hurts to see hiccups like this.
Despite all of that I love Ryza 3 and none of this brings my experience down. I'm sad to see Ryza and co go, but it was an incredible trilogy that introduced me to the world of Atelier games. I have only played Sophie 1 & 2 outside of Ryza, so I suppose it's time to return to the Mysterious trilogy.
Thanks so much for this comment! I totally agree with everything you said! I still enjoyed the game so much overall, and it was a worthy ending to the finale. Made me love the characters even more.
I am hoping this mobile game announcement means that the main Gust team will take their time on the next game and polish it a bit more! Let’s hope 👍🏽👍🏽
P.s. I personally recommend the Dusk trilogy over the Mysterious!! It has more of a story and more likeable characters, in my opinion. If you’re coming from the Ryza trilogy, Mysterious will seem VERY basic to you :(
Fingers crossed for future Atelier games :D
Also I'm glad you enjoyed the Dusk games, I'd love to get around to them someday. That being said uh.. I didn't enjoy Sophie 1 any less because it's simple. And I don't think that's gonna be the case for the rest of the trilogy either.
It's such a shame that after Ryza 1, Ryza 2, and Sophie 2 all had superb localizations, the final entry in the trilogy had such a disappointing localization. I'd say it was my single biggest issue with the game, of which I had a handful of. I frequently found myself having to read lines of dialogue twice or even three times because of how awkwardly they were written. I replayed 2 promptly after beating 3 and the difference was night and day. I pray that the next game in the series either returns to the localization team of the previous games or the new team improves drastically.
While I did enjoy the game (although I did start to feel a bit burned out toward the end), it bums me out that the trilogy ends on sort of a weak point. I'd still say I prefer Ryza 3 over Ryza 1, but that's almost entirely to do with 3's main cast and how it wraps up each character's stories. However, I still think I would rather replay 1 over 3 due to how much more focused and polished it is. It just goes to show how bigger doesn't always equal better. This was an incredibly ambitious game for the studio, but unfortunately it fell flat in several areas due to its scale. It also doesn't help that I played the game on Switch, where the visuals suffer a decent bit compared to other platforms (for context, Ryza 1 and 2 look nearly identical to PC and PS4 save for some slightly lower-res shadows and lighting, but the difference between graphics for Ryza 3 is significant. Of course, let's also not forget that trying to read the puny text in 3 when playing in handheld is very challenging despite me not having near vision issues). While I appreciate the ambition here, playing Ryza 3 actually makes me hope that future games in the series scale back a bit and take a smaller, more focused approach (not counting Marie, which I haven't played and am not particularly interested in *because* of how basic it seems to be lol).
Here's the simple truth. those games you mentioned did NOT have superb localizations. They're passable at most. If a game has Japanese voice acting and it's not dubbed in its localization, it by default can't be called a superb localization because they're not putting in the effort or willing to. If the Legend of Heroes games can do dubs, there's no reason Ryza games that sold better than the whole series can't put in effort. That's including Ryza 1 and 2
@iKickBullies I get what you mean, but since I would prefer to play with Japanese audio anyways, I really dont mind the lack of an English dub. (Heck, i tried the dub for Sophie DX and found it somewhat off-putting). I guess maybe calling it a superb "localization" is a poor choice of words... what it is is a great "translation."
I understand why Atelier stopped doing English dubs, given how niche of a series it was, but I do find it kind of funny that almost immediately afterwards we get Ryza 1 which was a massive success as far as this series goes. The fact that they didn't capitalize on that success and bring in even MORE new players by bringing back the English dubs for 2 and 3 is rather disappointing. Plus, 3 having an English dub would've practically guaranteed a better translation that what we got.
No!!!! I missed ur stream!!! 😢
Haha no stream this time! I hope you can watch the review ☺️👍🏽
Is the Dusk trilogy good on Switch? Or are there issues?
Yes I played Dusk DX on Switch and, for me, there were no problems at all. Framerate was a LOT smoother than the Vita versions, and no bugs that I can remember. If you buy all of them together on eShop, I believe you get a digital artbook included (but double-check that). Whichever Dusk game you start with, it’s AMAZING and such a great experience ❤
To be honest I don't really care about games stories that much FE3H had away better story than engage but I still enjoyed engage more which is why I think that I will will enjoy this one more than AR2