Atelier Ryza 3 is not only the worst game in the trilogy, but it's also the first game I've played from start to finish that I would not consider good (although my sample size is pretty small, so take it with a grain of salt). While there were many features in this game that really improved on the mechanics of the first two games and smoothed out my experience, the actual game is rather mediocre and underwhelming compared to the two that came before it. Since there's not much time to spend on talking about it here, instead I'm just going to give the three big reasons why I think this game was a complete and total downgrade from Ryza 2.

First of all, there's the grammar/spelling mistakes. Now this isn't a huge deal because it doesn't hinder my enjoyment of the game by any means, and I do understand that it can be tough localizing the game into different languages. But it does feel a bit worrisome because it isn't something that should be happening on here, especially for a high-budget game and considering that the other two games didn't have this problem. And a little side note here since it does fall into this category: the interface is the worst it's ever been. I'm referring to the font style/size and how difficult it is to read it all. And I'm not just talking about the dialogue on the side, I mean that the game as a whole has a poor contrast to the light font style they stuck with. It's fine if they use Century Gothic as a main typeface but they can't compromise visibility to save space on the screen and have it such an eyesore to read things.

Next, there's the lack of coherency. I'm not talking about the game's story, I mean that Ryza 3 tries to add so much content into the game without finding a way to put them in, that when you actually come across it, they're so confusing and pointless that you can just ignore it and you won't have a problem at all. I don't know if its because they had less time to work on this game based on how high in demand the game was, or maybe they were just being sidetracked on developing Resleraina, but it really does seem like there's way too much of a focus on style over substance in this game. Even though the map is much bigger, there's almost a third of the map that has no purpose in the main story and can be ignored until post-game. There's more pointless features too, like how the chests try to lure you into finding a way to "complete" the game when there really is no reward for it other than useless trash. Or how about puni raising? What about the keys that aren't ultra rare? These features are so complex that it frustrates me when I realize that it's all just crap outside of achievement grinding. They could've put this to use, but no, they didn't put an incentive to them.

And last, the mundanity . Fitting for a protagonist whose main character trait is being ordinary, right? But I digress. And this accounts for everything from the underwhelming and forgettable soundtrack (aside from a few select tracks) to the annoying quests that this game tries to shove into your face to try to divert your attention away from the main plot, until it turns into a massive, jumbled mess. Or how about the fact that the quests they do have are so tedious and unsatisfying? Let's also talk about how the cutscenes are so dull and tedious compared to how they were in Ryza 1 and 2. Not to mention that goats in this game are ubiquitous and yet instead of giving them attention and adding something like, perhaps, letting us pet them or talk to them, or even have a side quest for them, they're just demoted to background objects that make you lament about how much wasted potential they were. I loved the goat quest in Ryza 1, I was hoping they could expand in the third game, but they did nothing. Zilch. And on top of ALL of this, the difficulty is just plain trivial. There's the early game, which is a bit harder than the first two, but after the Cleria region you can easily synthesize your way to the max and destroy everything till the game is over. I tried looking back at the first two games to see if I was just getting more familiar with the mechanics, but nope, those games still had a reasonable difficulty curve unlike this game, which is virtually nonexistent two hours in. For a game that tries to end the trilogy, it just ended up being so boring that it made me regret ever investing my time into this series.

All in all, these three things permeated the entire game from the start to the finish, and they became so prominent in the postgame that it becomes more apparent that this is just a downright inferior video game. It's a rather mixed bag, and while I wouldn't say it's terrible, it's too complicated and too research-dependent for me to enjoy the game. That being said I don't want to trash this game entirely, as it does, story-wise, end the franchise on a satisfying note, and there are many signs that it feels like Gust is trying to bring something new and innovative to the table. Like I said earlier, the world map, the key system, the interface changes. Of course, they were subject to various results, but at least I can respect it for what it is. It was a nice experiment, but it did not work well with the game itself. Overall, this game is a hard pass, UNLESS you're devoted to completing the trilogy or UNLESS you want to complete the RNG-dependent achievements of the game.

Booba

As the third game in the series I expected this game to improve on the previous two. While the game had a rough first couple of hours, and I've personally experienced a number of crashes, I currently think this is the most mechanically well made of the trilogy. The first game had the best story, this is the best mechanically, and the second game is the awkward middle child going through growing pains. I would still recommend the entire series.