Good game, but it has simplified a few too many systems.

[Keebz]

I really love some new things, and other things I'm uncertain about so far. Open world exploration and building are fun additions to the series. That said, coming from Ryza 1 (the only Atelier game I've played to completion) it feels like they might have lost sight of a few elements that make this series stand out.

The combat, gathering, and alchemy systems seem to have been over-simplified in this iteration. I'm not far enough into the game yet to say how this will affect my long term enjoyment, but my gut feeling is that they may have dumbed down a few of the most unique things this series typically offers.

In Ryza, discovering new recipes was a satisfying "maze" where you had to build items in a certain way to unlock new recipes. Now recipe unlocks are just a single menu.

Manual synthesis doesn't seem as important. The game isn't hard enough to demand it (so far) which is a shame because that's the main thing that sets this series apart. The satisfaction of manually cooking up an amazingly powerful item that you couldn't have auto-crafted was really fun.

Gathering has no challenge to it now, as everything can be gathered with your starting tool. I miss having different gathering tools I could unlock as the game progresses.

The new combat system is mostly button mashing with minimal strategy involved. All of these elements are a step back from Ryza, in my opinion, BUT the overall feel of movement, the visuals, animations, the story, etc. are all steps forward.

So I still recommend, and I'm addicted to it. It STILL has that satisfying gameplay loop. It plays great on the Steam Deck. But what they need to do going forward I think is blend some of what they've done here with those other cherished elements from Ryza that they've let go of.