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Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout |OT| Adventure, Alchemy, and Summer Memories
- Thread starter Luminaire
- Start date
One weird/unfortunate side effect of the revamped lighting system is that characters occasionally look like toy dolls. Not totally sure what they could've done to avoid this, though (avoiding gradients on characters probably would've helped but I have no idea if that's a reasonable ask of the graphics engine or if it would impact the art direction).
Just gotten to the Secret Hideout part. I don't know anything about this mechanic but I hope it has plenty of depth, I love building up your home base!
Just gotten to the Secret Hideout part. I don't know anything about this mechanic but I hope it has plenty of depth, I love building up your home base!
Theres some areas later where the lighting especially in the evening is very orange and it really does make them look very doll-like
I've always wanted to play these games because of the cute anime goodness. Are they legit decent RPGs?
Also, is the Switch version holding up and worth playing over PC/OG PS4 for the portable nature of it?
Also, is the Switch version holding up and worth playing over PC/OG PS4 for the portable nature of it?
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They're crafting sims/rpgs with slice-of-life storytelling. Earlier entries have deadlines/time limits while later entries are far more lax on that. This game doesn't have one at all, let alone a calendar system. They're great games but it also depends on what you're looking for. If you're seeking a dramatic story with twists and turns and crazy action, you're likely not to find that. If you want something a bit more cozy and grounded while focusing on crafting, you'll find yourself at home.
The switch version runs quite well from all reports I've heard. PS4 has had zero issues for me and I've heard that the PC port is fine, albeit barebones with few options/settings. There's a patch coming for PC. If portability suits you better, the switch port will be perfectly fine for you.
Time limits turn me off so quick in RPGs, so this not having one is excellent.
And since the Switch port is good, I'll be picking it up for my work trip this week. Thanks!
So I've only put in about 6 hours so far, having a decent time so far, but did I completely misunderstand something or is core charges the only way to use items in battle?
Has anyone else had issues with the game crashing? I'm trying to to make the recipes you get after beating the castle boss and the game keeps crashing when I get a cutscene after making one of them. Managed to skip one of the cutscenes, but couldn't skip the other one (which, weirdly enough, I had been able to watch earlier without the game crashing) so I'm kinda stuck.
Now trying to uninstall/reinstall the game hoping that'll fix it but I'm curious if anyone else has had the same issue
Now trying to uninstall/reinstall the game hoping that'll fix it but I'm curious if anyone else has had the same issue
Not that far in myself, but so far the answer is yes. (I haven't yet figured out how to increase the number of core charges but I assume it'll be an effect some accessories/armor have.)
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You can convert items back into CC. I usually do this with items on other chars. Resting (the sunlight flower things) will generally restore CC. I've not been out on an expedition long enough (about 13-14 hours in) to need to worry about restoring CC. Using items outside of battle consumes CC as well, but it's nothing a couple burner items on chars can't solve. I did have a longer area that I just came across but there were two rest spots along the way.
I also haven't seen a way to boost CC yet.
I also haven't seen a way to boost CC yet.
Look who's here! I was waiting for this. Wish they'd make up their mind regarding her name though!
I definitely felt the need to at least once (I was using a lot of items the first time I was in Fairystone Mines, though I suppose that was also because I had a party quest about using items). I sorta forgot about the ability to restore CC by converting items, though. I keep forgetting about battle mechanics--I don't even remember if Quick Action uses up any resources or not, and now that I've been introduced to Special Attacks I keep meaning to look it up but forgetting to do so.
Is she still a
Look who's here! I was waiting for this. Wish they'd make up their mind regarding her name though!
ghost
Is there a way to control which Action Order a character uses? Is it random?
I mean which resulting move you get from them when doing the order btw.
I mean which resulting move you get from them when doing the order btw.
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Quick Action takes 10 AP and then you need the AP of whatever ability you're trying to also do. If the enemy is in Break/Break Down status or charging up a special attack, using a quick action will force an Extra Order from both other party members for follow ups.
Okay, so if I understand correctly (the tutorial wasn't amazing for this): if an enemy is charging a special attack, you'd use Quick Attack to a) try to interrupt by using items/skills that increase the sun gauge, and b) possibly trigger Extra Orders from your party that could also increase the stun gauge? Does being in Quick Attack mode inherently add stun to your attacks or is it purely an early opportunity to do whatever stun damage you would normally be able to do?
I am LOVING the game and I'm not just talking about the obvious reasons of Ryza being super cute and hot and all that. First, the pacing is WAY better than the last few installments. The progress is snappy! The music is excellent! The graphics, *smooch* Lovely! So far I'm liking the characters and story even if they're pretty rote.
I love the Atelier series, but recently I hadn't been as big on them as before. The first Atelier game I didn't take much of a shine to was Atelier Shallie. This was for two reasons: The removal of the time mechanic, and the INCREDIBLY arbitrary "inspiration" system that had you learning new recipes by doing the most random shit. While succeeding Atelier games have been marginally better (admittedly I've yet to clear Firis and L&S), they kept the stupid "inspiration" system from Shallie that I bloody hate because it's annoying, arbitrary, and required me to spend damn near 50% of my time in the menu just to remember just what the cripes I needed to do to learn that new thing. Even Lulua wasn't spared, which sucked because outside of that I loved the return to Arland. What makes Atelier Ryza work so goddamn well is that they finally, FINALLY fixed this system not by scrapping it, but by making it a LOT less arbitrary. Instead of just doing random shit to gain new recipes, instead you learn them by engaging in the main mechanic; the alchemy! The "skill tree" looking system in Atelier Ryza allows them to show the player what they need to do to gain a new item to synthesize. They show you the exact path, how to get there, and you know exactly what you're getting once you fulfill the requirements. It finally works!
This is the most fun I've had with the series since Escha and Logy! :D :D :D
I love the Atelier series, but recently I hadn't been as big on them as before. The first Atelier game I didn't take much of a shine to was Atelier Shallie. This was for two reasons: The removal of the time mechanic, and the INCREDIBLY arbitrary "inspiration" system that had you learning new recipes by doing the most random shit. While succeeding Atelier games have been marginally better (admittedly I've yet to clear Firis and L&S), they kept the stupid "inspiration" system from Shallie that I bloody hate because it's annoying, arbitrary, and required me to spend damn near 50% of my time in the menu just to remember just what the cripes I needed to do to learn that new thing. Even Lulua wasn't spared, which sucked because outside of that I loved the return to Arland. What makes Atelier Ryza work so goddamn well is that they finally, FINALLY fixed this system not by scrapping it, but by making it a LOT less arbitrary. Instead of just doing random shit to gain new recipes, instead you learn them by engaging in the main mechanic; the alchemy! The "skill tree" looking system in Atelier Ryza allows them to show the player what they need to do to gain a new item to synthesize. They show you the exact path, how to get there, and you know exactly what you're getting once you fulfill the requirements. It finally works!
This is the most fun I've had with the series since Escha and Logy! :D :D :D
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I believe Extra Orders (the action orders used during Quick Action during Break/Break Down/Enemy Special) do more stun damage. At least, I've been able to stun charging enemies fairly consistently. Either that or they die. There are some bosses later that will pretty much one-shot you if their special goes off so get in the habit of breaking that stun gauge!
Yeah, it honestly feels like they should've introduced the stun gauge mechanics way earlier--there's one early mission that I had a surprising amount of trouble with because the enemies would two-shot the whole party very quickly and there wasn't much you could do about it unless you were smart and quick with the heals.
I really didn't expect this to look so good on the Switch. It's surpsingly once of the better looking titles on the system. It looks better than DQ 11 in a lot of ways thanks to the high resolution and (so far) flawless performance.
I was so so on the battle system at first. It seemed frantic and like I had no real control. But a few hours in and I'm really getting a good grasp of it and I feel nearly in full control. Very cool!
Complaints so far far would be that pressing - for "tactics" is kind of annoying. It's not a button I like to use regularly during combat. The double/triple hits are weird as well...you have to hit the button pretty early. It's easier to just mash A since you're guaranteed to not miss in that case. I wish they just did away with the timing attack altogether since there's no challenge to it anyways.
Otherwise, I'm really digging it!
I was so so on the battle system at first. It seemed frantic and like I had no real control. But a few hours in and I'm really getting a good grasp of it and I feel nearly in full control. Very cool!
Complaints so far far would be that pressing - for "tactics" is kind of annoying. It's not a button I like to use regularly during combat. The double/triple hits are weird as well...you have to hit the button pretty early. It's easier to just mash A since you're guaranteed to not miss in that case. I wish they just did away with the timing attack altogether since there's no challenge to it anyways.
Otherwise, I'm really digging it!
Normal difficulty is way too hard, just had to lower to easy to beat the first boss (the blue ore one)
The two creatures would just one shot one party member and it would be over after that.
I was really enjoying my time with the game, but this encounter really put me off for some reason.
The two creatures would just one shot one party member and it would be over after that.
I was really enjoying my time with the game, but this encounter really put me off for some reason.
Personally, no. You get some different colored variations of their vanilla costumes and a summer set (basically removes some extra armor/clothing for them) for Ryza, Tao, Lent, and Klaudia. The summer adventure Ryza costume you get automatically if you purchase the game before November 12.
You also get two different sets to customize the hideout but they're really nothing special. You can change the walls, flooring, and rug. Last is the 100k gems which is the only thing that helps with gameplay. They basically are used to enhance items once you get to that part of the storyline. All in all I'd probably just stick with the base game unless you're a die hard and need to have every unlockable.
What level were you? I had trouble with that too but after leveling some more and getting some better armor and utilizing things like healing with core items and action orders it wasn't too bad. Definitely a weird difficulty spike early on, though.
Haven't finished all the quests but so far it is heavily implied with Ryza thinking she is "flighty" and wondering to herself "Is she a ghost or something?"
I think I was level 8 on all. But yeah, didn't expect to have to grind a bit so early in the game. Considering I didn't have any issues with the other wondering monsters.
For a game that's not really about the combat system this game actually has a really good one. I thought it was a little confusing and hectic at first, but once you learn all of the mechanics it's very fast paced and fun. It definitely keeps me way more engaged in a fight over a traditional turn-based JRPG battle system. I would totally not be against using this system for other games.
Something I would have liked to see was more enemy variety, though.
Something I would have liked to see was more enemy variety, though.
I just built the hideout, somewhere between 8~9hrs. Don't really think everything it took to get here took that long but there were several stretches where I just ran around collecting stuff. Switching between tools was getting annoying but then I learned how to make a new one that combined all the ones I had so far so that was nice.
Got the hang of synthesis finally (thanks youtube). Biggest things I missed was the connection between the white numbers on the materials and the small dots around the edge of each ring/node. That and wondering why the game kept stopping me before I was finished with a recipe.
Battle is still largely a mystery to me, at least the finer elements of it. 99% of fights though are easily finished by just attacking and upping the tech level, which is about all I know how to do. It took a while to figure out how to heal though. I've only run into one monster so far that I would call a "boss" and it knocked me out soundly, but was apparently optional so not too worried about it.
Still, really into it, especially synthesis and seeking out new mats and figuring out how to get all the hidden recipes. Story wise is kinda neither here nor there and the drunk dad that shows up occasionally really sours the otherwise upbeat mood of everything in general. Lots of moaning and groaning about parents. Ryza might as well throw out a "ok boomer" every time she talks to someone not in the party.
Got the hang of synthesis finally (thanks youtube). Biggest things I missed was the connection between the white numbers on the materials and the small dots around the edge of each ring/node. That and wondering why the game kept stopping me before I was finished with a recipe.
Battle is still largely a mystery to me, at least the finer elements of it. 99% of fights though are easily finished by just attacking and upping the tech level, which is about all I know how to do. It took a while to figure out how to heal though. I've only run into one monster so far that I would call a "boss" and it knocked me out soundly, but was apparently optional so not too worried about it.
Still, really into it, especially synthesis and seeking out new mats and figuring out how to get all the hidden recipes. Story wise is kinda neither here nor there and the drunk dad that shows up occasionally really sours the otherwise upbeat mood of everything in general. Lots of moaning and groaning about parents. Ryza might as well throw out a "ok boomer" every time she talks to someone not in the party.
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Definitely more QoL additions the further you get into the game. I see the story reasons for doing so but it does make the early game more annoying than it should be. I'm not totally sure I like how the story flows here--not that the story itself is bad, but there's a lot of sections where you're just going from area to area to see another cutscene, or killing some time before you can do the next thing, or whatever. It often takes a few area transitions/cutscenes before you have something substantial to do.
That said, Ryza's been pretty good at making the island feel like a real place with a history, and with actual people who all know each other. Lulua tended to lean very heavily on your past knowledge of Arland to get across the same feeling, and it arguably didn't work nearly as well. Amazing how little touches like, say, watching people walk/run through town can make a difference.
FWIW I hit this exact difficulty spike as well. You'll be surprised at the difference some better gear makes, but the primary advice I have for this encounter specifically is to make sure you have good enough gear/leveled sufficiently that Ryza isn't one-shotted, and then make sure you can heal up. Ideally no one gets one-shotted but I find things go south more reliably if Ryza is down. Unfortunately I don't remember what level my party was when I hit this particular speed bump.
This early in the game it's a bit difficult to optimize your gear because you don't have a ton of alchemy options. Later, you'll probably run into another difficulty spike; there the answer is more obviously to synthesize some new weapons and armor. Don't neglect your accessories either. And don't forget Wassher's store; he's got some armor and accessories you might find useful in a pinch.
Not sure if difficulty works the same way it did in the Mysterious trilogy/Lulua, but you might want to raise your difficulty back to Normal if it does. Difficulty in previous games affected the traits and rarity of items you collected. I don't know if Easy made them worse, but increasing beyond Normal definitely made them better, so something to think about.
That said, Ryza's been pretty good at making the island feel like a real place with a history, and with actual people who all know each other. Lulua tended to lean very heavily on your past knowledge of Arland to get across the same feeling, and it arguably didn't work nearly as well. Amazing how little touches like, say, watching people walk/run through town can make a difference.
FWIW I hit this exact difficulty spike as well. You'll be surprised at the difference some better gear makes, but the primary advice I have for this encounter specifically is to make sure you have good enough gear/leveled sufficiently that Ryza isn't one-shotted, and then make sure you can heal up. Ideally no one gets one-shotted but I find things go south more reliably if Ryza is down. Unfortunately I don't remember what level my party was when I hit this particular speed bump.
This early in the game it's a bit difficult to optimize your gear because you don't have a ton of alchemy options. Later, you'll probably run into another difficulty spike; there the answer is more obviously to synthesize some new weapons and armor. Don't neglect your accessories either. And don't forget Wassher's store; he's got some armor and accessories you might find useful in a pinch.
Not sure if difficulty works the same way it did in the Mysterious trilogy/Lulua, but you might want to raise your difficulty back to Normal if it does. Difficulty in previous games affected the traits and rarity of items you collected. I don't know if Easy made them worse, but increasing beyond Normal definitely made them better, so something to think about.
Oh, dunno if this will help anyone, but I figured out a few things regarding alchemy that might not be common knowledge:
1) The number of items you can add to a synthesis increases with your alchemy level (I suspect it's every 5 levels). Occasionally you'll see a cryptic message after leveling up that says "You can now add one more item." That's what that means.
2) When you envision a recipe (i.e. unlock a new recipe by activating the right node in an existing recipe), you get a prompt in game asking if you want to perform the synthesis. You can actually say NO to this; the game doesn't cancel the original synthesis, but lets you proceed through the alchemy tree of the new item instead. Occasionally this is useful for carrying over traits or effects that normally don't exist on the new recipe. You can also carry over any ingredient excess you had left over from the previous recipe, ex. if you normally get 5 ingredients per recipe and only used 3 to unlock the new recipe, you'll have 2+5 ingredients you can place in the new recipe.
3) If you don't have enough ingredients/the right ingredients for a node in a recipe, you can in fact jump to that item's recipe directly like in previous games; you have to select the node, bring up the empty ingredient selection screen, then hit Start (or whatever the equivalent is on your system; I'm guessing + on Switch?). You'll get a context menu that has Synthesize on it.
4) I think there's an automatic element increase (i.e. an item will be 3 ice icons instead of 2 ice icons) once you hit 65 quality for an ingredient. Still need to check this, though; I'm not sure if it varies from ingredient to ingredient or something.
1) The number of items you can add to a synthesis increases with your alchemy level (I suspect it's every 5 levels). Occasionally you'll see a cryptic message after leveling up that says "You can now add one more item." That's what that means.
2) When you envision a recipe (i.e. unlock a new recipe by activating the right node in an existing recipe), you get a prompt in game asking if you want to perform the synthesis. You can actually say NO to this; the game doesn't cancel the original synthesis, but lets you proceed through the alchemy tree of the new item instead. Occasionally this is useful for carrying over traits or effects that normally don't exist on the new recipe. You can also carry over any ingredient excess you had left over from the previous recipe, ex. if you normally get 5 ingredients per recipe and only used 3 to unlock the new recipe, you'll have 2+5 ingredients you can place in the new recipe.
3) If you don't have enough ingredients/the right ingredients for a node in a recipe, you can in fact jump to that item's recipe directly like in previous games; you have to select the node, bring up the empty ingredient selection screen, then hit Start (or whatever the equivalent is on your system; I'm guessing + on Switch?). You'll get a context menu that has Synthesize on it.
4) I think there's an automatic element increase (i.e. an item will be 3 ice icons instead of 2 ice icons) once you hit 65 quality for an ingredient. Still need to check this, though; I'm not sure if it varies from ingredient to ingredient or something.
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It's kind of frustrating whenever people deemphasise the combat elements of Atelier. I always have a bunch of fun with it, and Gust is great about including a ton of post-game superbosses and stuff that really force you to mess with building a good set of gear, etc.
Re: the combat of this game in particular, I'm still not really feeling it compared to past systems. PS2 Atelier + Rorona Plus + Escha and Logy are my personal favs in that regard.
Yeah, I noticed this, too. At least fast travel in this game is super quick, otherwise it would be unbearable.
I didn't mean to frame that in a derogatory sense, it's just I wasn't expecting such a great combat system with this game.
Also, I just got the gathering synthesizer...
So Ryza basically becomes a god and it's done so nonchalant. lol
But I had no idea this game had any online functionality whatsoever, but we can visit other people's gathering worlds with codes? That's pretty damn cool.
But I had no idea this game had any online functionality whatsoever, but we can visit other people's gathering worlds with codes? That's pretty damn cool.
Oh nah, I wasn't aiming that at you. Typically whenever Atelier is brought up, it's always couched with 'just don't expect good/much combat etc' when being recommended, but the systems are typically good :(
I'm having a great time with this so far! I like the laid back nature of the exploration (at least early on). The last RPG I really got into was Tokyo Xanadu ex+, and while I loved what I played of it, I had to play with a guide open to ensure I didn't miss talking to specific people or seeing specific events and missing things. I know some people love that stuff...But I simply cannot be bothered to do that with my work and life these days.
Also, Ryza is cute. That's all.
Also, Ryza is cute. That's all.
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Yup, Gust makes really great battle systems IMO. They layer on quite a bit over the course of the game and by the end you're doing all sorts of crazy things with new mechanics. I kinda feel like most people who say not to expect combat/good combat played maybe 5 hours of Totori.
One tip for those looking to not burn through their ingredients. Once you start the synthesis you can stop and create the item by pressing start. You do NOT have to wait for the traits screen to appear. Granted the item will likely be of lesser quality/traits but if you just need to create a burner item for a particular synthesis without burning through all of your good stuff you can do this.
To add to this, the minimum number of ingredients you need is shown by the yellow dots at the bottom of the screen, just above the "ingredients to add" counter. You can also tell by looking at the top of the screen for the "Start Synthesis" button prompt if you've filled the requirements. I'm pretty sure 2 is the minimum number for all recipes but I haven't tested this explicitly.
(and dear god sometimes you need a LOT of burner items, I think I used five axes and two scythes just to make a combination axe/scythe. Ryza, have you ever heard of duct tape?)
LOL very true, that's probably the one and only thing thus far that's been a little "meh" about Ryza for me; LOTs of burner items. I've synthesized and burned SO many ingots and whatever the new names for the upgrades are by this point LOL. Also Cloth.
It took me almost 8 hours, but I've discovered that there is a main quest journal, it's just inexplicably not under the 'quests' screen section but rather has its own button to push (options button for me playing with ps4 controller on PC). That's uh, a real interesting design choice. Definitely would have been nice to know that while I was running around looking for cut-scene triggers.
Heh, I have the opposite problem: I keep hitting Options to view my party quests because I always forget that they put all that stuff in a separate menu for some reason. I agree, they should really just combine all of them into a single menu.
I bring up the journal after almost every cutscene lol, don't know how I would know what to do next otherwise. A few times the journal will say something like "after talking to such-and-such Ryza decided to do this-and-that" and I'm pretty sure the preceding conversation never mentioned that at all? hehe.
Yeah, it's likely my fault. I'm not used to hitting the options/start button for anything other than pausing the game. In fact, the only reason I found it was because I went to pause the game by reflex when my doorbell rang. I mostly game on PC with mouse/keyboard so I can be pretty dumb when using a controller, lol. Still wanted to put it out there as I might not be the only mainly PC gamer playing this.
I feel like the last few games have been really lacking in the combat department being super easy and easy to break open but this one seems better balanced overall.
That's true, Lulua made it really easy to make all your skills cost 0 MP, which felt super good but probably not the best balance decision. Though I did still get wrecked by end-game bosses.
I think what makes Ryza harder is largely the real-time aspect and having to juggle the interface. Like, often I have a pretty good idea of what needs to happen, but trying to execute the plan before everyone dies can be difficult. I also feel like this game needs some way to communicate with your other members, instead of forcing you to take control of them. Klaudia not healing anyone unless you control her, for example, seems really dumb. Like Mitsuru Marin Karin levels of dumb.
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Does she not heal in Aggressive Mode? She won't use AP in Negative mode.
