Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key review

The concluding chapter of the Secret sub-series offers a vast world for exploration, offering a poignant finale for Ryza.

Entries in the Atelier series often open with a similar cutscene. Here, a young, female protagonist attempts to synthesize a basic item. After giving her cauldron a few hopeful stirs, the mixture inadvertently ignites, leaving the character’s face covered with soot. This embarrassing stumble kicks off a trek toward self-actualization. Across dozens of hours, we witness the budding alchemist gradually master her craft.

Unlike the archetypical heroes whose physical development thwarts cataclysm, Atelier games are more subtle. Here, women like Rorona, Totori, Meruru, Ayesha, Shallie, become the cornerstones of their community, using their skills to assist those around them, and habitually becoming a catalyst for compassion.

Once More, With Feeling

Yet, the series hasn’t always provided much time to appreciate their protagonists fulfilling their ambitions. However, that changed with the release of 2021’s Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy. Set three years after the inaugural entry in the Secret story arc, the title was the first time Gust allowed players to reunite with an accomplished protagonist.

Here, Reisalin “Ryza” Stout exhibited achievement, working as an alchemist and a teacher on Kurken Island, until she’s asked by a friend to help research a set of ancient ruins. The subsequent exploration revealed Ryza harnessing her alchemical abilities but also being a force of radiant optimism that helped to unite those around her. The release of Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key provides one last opportunity to relish Reisalin’s infectious cheerfulness and sense of confidence.

Summer Reminiscence

In execution, this means a fully fleshed-out lead character. Ryza will often reflect on preceding events with returning friends Lent Marslink and Tao Mongarten. These moments are more than mere callbacks, revealing the characters recognizing their own growth across the series. As acquaintances since childhood, there’s a playful and organic bond between the characters, as evidenced by the occasional barb traded during lighter moments.

Meanwhile, fellow Kurken Island resident Bos Brunnen continues the pursuit of his ambitions. Once a bit of a jerk, Bos has ripened into a seasoned scholar, becoming an integral (and now playable) part of your adventuring party. Witnessing Ryza and Bos recognize instances of doubt in other characters and offering words of encouragement that stem from their own experiences is amazingly tender. Some might fault End & the Secret Key for being too wistful. This is a title with an eye intently focused on the rear-view mirror.  But as rewarding as Ryza’s trek has been, it’s hard to fault Gust for taking a victory lap. Smartly, there’s just enough tension in the plotline to keep the game from feeling too familiar.

An Alchemist’s Bond with Animals

Bringing together a bulky adventuring party of eleven different characters, End & the Secret Key plotline launches when an enigmatic atoll appears near Kurken Island. As the landmass’s resident alchemist, Ryza’s preliminary exploration results in a travel across a succession of visually distinctive open worlds. Ranging from subaquatic spaces, crumbling ruins, and vibrant forests, the game methodically shirks the feeling of desolation often associated with sprawling game spaces. Instead, the developers have crafted each area to feel like an spirited playground, whether through the scattering alchemical materials of the inclusion of time-saving tools like ziplines. And yes, Ryza gets to ride on the back of a dolphin, which is every bit as blissful as it sounds.

But that’s hardly the only convenient method of travel. Although the game’s multiple map perspective can be a bit confusing at first, you’ll be provided with the ability to fast travel at the start. This is exceptionally useful after a stint of material gathering, allowing you to return home to alchemize in a manner of seconds. Knowing that you’re never too far from your secret hideout, End & the Secret Key urges exploration of its regional maps. Initially, areas of your atlases be obscured with clouds. But by exploring, you’ll find landmarks, causing the vapor to dissipate and offering an unobscured outlook of each area.

Mixing it Up with Item Synthesis

Pleasingly, alchemy scales in complexity. As such, you can analyze every ingredient that goes into your recipe or simply automatically add materials for some basic synthesis.  Should you choose to micro-manage your mix, you’ll begin a formula by dropping a designated ingredient in the main branch of the synthesis screen. To improve the quality, endow traits, or elicit effects, you’ll drop in additional items in interconnected side branches. Experimentation with materials that have super traits and recipe morphs inject a bit of variety, but since Ryza is an accomplished alchemist, there are no skill-based mechanics to be found. I would have liked to have seen a basic timing system influence the quality of your craft.

That said, combat maintains consistency with Ryza’s previous outings, with the integration of a real-time system for parties of up to five characters. A continuously recharging gauge regulates when you can issue attacks or use items. The characters you aren’t directly controlling act autonomously, but you can command them to use basic attacks or go aggressive with skills. But given the hectic pace of encounters and a camera that frames the action far too tightly, battles can be frustrating at first. Expect to be ambushed by offscreen foes until you grow comfortable adjusting your targeting of different enemies. Although I would have preferred the intricacy allowed with traditional turn-based battles, undoubtedly Gust preferred consistency with Ryza’s previous outings.

During combat or when discovering fast-travel landmarks, you’ll also encounter the game’s eponymous keys, which is one of the game’s more curious additions. These expand several of End & the Secret Key’s mechanics in different ways. During combat, the items can provide crucial perks such as healing HP for a specific period or applying buffs to the entire adventuring party. In exploration, secret keys can provide access to locked-off areas, while they can enhance items when synthesizing. Narratively, the keys provide a new challenge for Ryza, giving her something new to study and learn.

Execution That’s Less than Idyllic

Initially, I spend time playing Ryza 3 on the Steam Deck, as the previous chapter was a competent performer on Valve’s hardware. But after encountering everything from aggravating freezes, image judder, and clunky framerates, I gave up on experimenting with Proton compatibility layers and option tweaking. Moving to a desktop-based setup reduced some of these stains, but even with an RTX 3070, Ryza 3 had a difficult time maintaining 60 FPS output at 1440p. Despite End & the Secret Key’s loftier open-world ambitions it would be great to see performance match the game’s predecessor.

Despite these performance blemishes Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key is a fitting farewell for the beloved alchemist. Across Gust’s trilogy, we were able to watch the lead character mature and inspire those around her. Ideally, other role-playing games would study Ryza’s journey. We need more personal stories where courage and compassion are the catalysts for change rather than mere strength.

Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key was
played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.