Oh Ryza what a journey it's been. This game is great, although I'm not 100% sold on some of the new characters, you get Lila back in this one which is enough of a W. Combat is fun especially with the new mechanic leads to a lot of possibilities. All in all, this concludes Ryza's trilogy and it was a damn good one!

Finally finish this series, love the story!

Atelier Ryza 3 is an easy recommendation to people who have played the previous two games in the Secret series. Story details from the previous games are heavily referenced and returning characters build on the bonds forged on the last adventures.

The Atelier games are RPGs that balance combat, crafting (synthesizing) and gathering. You HAVE to make everything; weapons, gear, accessories, traveling equipment, consumables, etc. It'd be strange if you spent more time in combat than synthesizing.

The synthesis system in the Atelier Ryza games is pretty fun. You follow a recipe that requires a specific ingredient or an ingredient of a certain category/element. The ingredients themselves have traits that can be inherited into the final product.

The main new mechanic in Ryza 3 is the Key Creation system, you basically can create these keys in-combat from weakened enemies or from fast travel locations. These keys (depending on rarity and RNG) can provide buffs in several aspects of the game. You can use one mid-combat, use one while gathering, use it during synthesis, etc. It's a little overwhelming at first and it took me a while to understand how powerful keys were, but I thought it was interesting.

As for the rest of the game, I'm not a fan of how much Ryza 3 leans towards "Open World". The maps in-game are large and there's a lot to explore, however, I found that a lot of the ingredients would repeat themselves too often. Honestly, I don't think they knew what to do with so much space. By the time I finished the main story, I think I uncovered 1/3 of the landmarks (fast travel locations) across all regions.

Even after uncovering all of these landmarks (for 100% achievements), there seemed to be a lot of NOTHING going on aside from the occasional dungeon that hosts a quest or two. While I appreciate them adding the Ryza 1 areas, they were barely used too.

As for the story, I'm split down the middle. Personally, I don't find it satisfying because there's a lack of an actual antagonist. Contrary to this, I really like the characters. Everyone in the cast has a personal struggle and it's great to see how the characters rely on each other. Though, I feel like they overdo it sometimes with the character quests. I don't like getting bombarded with slice of life cutscenes when I'm progressing through the main quest or just want to go back to the atelier to craft something.

Ryza 2 had a similar issue and that felt 10x worse ... so I guess they eased up on it a bit since then.

Combat is immaculate, it was very fun and I never got bored. I think the combat system has come a long way since Ryza 1. My favorite parts are the skill combos, swapping characters mid-fight, and the option to change which abilities trigger from Action Orders and when. It kept things from getting dull. Klaudia is best bard!

Those are my overall thoughts on Ryza 3. I'm kinda sad that Ryza's series has come to an end, but definitely looking forward to what Atelier Yumia has to offer in 2025. I hope a lot of my issues with the "open world" stuff in Ryza 3 are addressed then.