Hot on the heels of the incredible release that was Atelier Yumia, GUST comes back with another impressive addition to the Atelier franchise with Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian.
Set in the town of Hallfein, we follow Rias and Slade as they join forces to uncover the secrets of the red mist that destroyed their home twelve years previously. Aided by a delightful cast of new and familiar faces, they work together to restore Hallfein, adventuring through Dimensional Paths to locations all over their world and using the ingredients they find to create all kinds of wondrous alchemical creations. However, nothing can prepare them for what awaits them at the end of their adventure.
The story is presented through a blend 3D-animated cut-scenes and beautifully drawn scenes that stand as a staple of the Atelier games. It’s fully voice acted in Japanese and continues to handle the balance between exposition and actual play really well.
Choose Your Hero
Players are given a choice of which protagonist they would like to start with: Rias or Slade. It doesn’t have a huge impact on the story, but there are moments where the narrative splits, allowing for a few quiet moments of introspection with each character.
Rias is young but curious, and Slade is serious yet loyal; however, they bond over their shared goal of restoring their home. Their relationship is cute and tender, and builds into something powerful as the plot reaches its climax. It’s also complemented by a strong supporting cast of new characters who comment on how close they are and tease them.
The pair are brought together when uncovering a hidden atelier and the portals held there. Rias is drawn naturally to the power of the atelier and has a hidden aptitude for alchemy. Here they begin their adventure, bringing back all that they find and learn for the betterment of Hallfein.
The Heart of Hallfein
Rias owns a shop that she once ran with her grandfather. It was once the heart of the town, but has been struggling since she returned to reopen it. Here you can sell all of your finds and alchemical creations, with each sale gaining “cole” (money) and adding to the town’s expansion level.
The shop introduces a new mechanic where you stock shelves and level up your store depending on what you’ve sold and how you decorate. You don’t have to do this alone; the fairies you find in the Dimensional Paths are more than happy to help you manage things. They can be hired to give sales and service bonuses, gain experience, and can be replaced by higher-ranking fairies you find in later levels.
You can maximise your cash flow using the shop, but I only really used it when trying to level up the different districts. It costs items and cole to level up each district, and requires some heavy craft grinds to acquire some of the goals. Still, it was a fun mechanic, and having story roadblocks like “reach level 40” created natural breaks in the narrative to go back and craft all my new unlocks.
The Recipe For Success
Every Atelier game has a different crafting mechanic, and Atelier Resleriana introduces a fun yet versatile system centred around matching colours. Think of Dominoes as you match the two colours of each diamond to link them together.
Each item has a diamond with two colours. As you place them into your recipe, one item at a time, and link the colours, it carries over the traits and bonuses. Thus, creating a higher-quality product with all the bonuses you choose to include.
Although the recipe dictates which type of ingredient you can use, you can use items to change these. You can also change the colours of an item if the ones you have don’t fit where you need them to go. This comes in handy when you are working your way through the recipe tree and trying to unlock new items.
Morph Your Recipes
Among the various upgrades you unlock with exploration is the ability to morph recipes into new ones. This is the heart of the puzzle-solving element that comes with Atelier Resleriana’s alchemy system.
By placing the correct item into a recipe, you unlock the ability to morph it into another. This will unlock the new recipe, allowing you to craft it and add it to your book. I found some of these really challenging, but it felt good to finally figure them out, as they usually lead to something.
Familiar Faces
I’m sure many of us were excited to see Tortori and other previous Atelier protagonists featured on the cover art for this entry, and I really enjoyed their appearance in Atelier Resleriana. The characters from previous entries are introduced as Wanderers, people who have been transported into this world for some unknown reason. It’s never really explained how or why they are there, but it was really fun bumping into all the various characters.
The returning characters have quests and storylines for you to uncover. They’re nothing especially taxing, usually fetch or extermination quests, but they offer some insight into each character. Some even join you in your mission as playable characters and offer to take on requests for you. Either way, it was really cool seeing them dotted about Hallfein among the NPCs.
The Atelier franchise has always been more character-focused, leaning heavily into the slice-of-life storytelling that lends itself to natural and wholesome character development, but Atelier Resleriana has pushed this even further. Adding familiar characters made this new world all the more nostalgic and homely. I hope each new face encourages people to check out their origins (see many previous Mashashy reviews) as they built on previous lore and character tropes really well.
A Turn-Based Return
While Atelier Yumia had become more of a spectacle fighter, Atelier Resleriana returns to the turn-based action of the early Atelier games. It’s much more reminiscent of the Alrand and Dusk entries, but adds some of the refinements of later entries.
Characters have a basic attack, skills, and items, with individual proficiencies and uses. You have Action Points, which allow each character to use their skills, and Technical Points, which you can use to chain multi-attacks. There’s also the later addition of interrupting the timeline and follow-up attacks. This all combines to create a fast-paced and engaging system as you balance attacking opponents to gain TP with using it all up to create devastating combos.
The addition of a guard trigger when enemies attack has been in a few systems and adds a level of tension to the turn-based game-cycle. This means you have to be on the ball between your attacks and the only real down-time is when you are taking your turn.
With the addition of items there are multiple ways to build your team and equipment, but it’s not got any addition mechanics other than their initial traits. Each character also has a comprehensive skill tree. You can pretty much unlock these however you wish, but there are some roadblocks hidden behind the story progression.
Unite And Go Further
Attacking in battle increases your “Unite Gauge,” which can be triggered at level five. This gauge adds to your team bonuses as it increases over the course of each battle, adding to the number of follow-up attacks that are triggered until activated. Once activated, follow-up attacks trigger more frequently, and team members will unleash devastating attacks.
This gameplay looked and felt amazing, but was difficult to trigger if you’re overpowered, since it took so long to build up your Unite. It was also difficult to predict who in your team would do the super-dooper-finishing move, so I hadn’t actually seen them all by the end of the game. BUT I’m only complaining about this because the other ones were so awesome and had references hidden in them, so I wanted to see them all. Just give me time.
The Good Stuff
I’ve rambled on long enough by now that perhaps you can tell that I enjoyed Atelier Resleriana to its fullest, but I don’t think I’ve quite done it justice. The creators set out to release a love letter to the previous Atelier entries, and they’ve achieved so much more.
It looks beautiful, encompassing all the visual elements of modern anime realism with a more hand-drawn texturing that calls back to the earlier games. The music is spectacular, the softer orchestra themes build the sense of home, while the heavy metal screeches of the Dimensional Paths are unsettling and put you on edge as you fight through waves of monsters. Everything just comes together so perfectly. Even the user interface was elevated to the next level with animated backgrounds and characters.
The randomised nature of the Dimensional Paths makes grinding out items more fun, but I never really felt the need to hit it hard. I went back to clear out area bosses and such as I unlocked more exploration items, but most things I could afford to replicate after I had made one, so I only needed to go on the hunt for missing items or quests. There’s also a later unlock that allows you to insta-kill any mobs more than three levels below you to get all their exp and drops, which, while OP’d, was incredibly useful.
There were so many little things that just made playing an enjoyable experience. I spent countless hours happily grinding out the different items I needed to equip my team and chasing after random quests. They added a lot of interesting mechanics with the shop and town upgrades, and being able to see the physical changes to Hallfein as it levelled up was a nice bonus.
Accessible To A Point
There are accessibility settings for Atelier Resleriana, although they largely centre around the text size. The unfortunate thing is that while the voice acting is incredible, it is likely to remain in Japanese until the “DX” remake, like its predecessors. As such, Atelier Resleriana is not going to appeal to everyone, but that just means I can redirect them to my best-girl Ryza, who will be getting her remake in the months to come.
Okay, okay, I’ll Stop Now.
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian is a strong entry to an already incredible franchise. I might be biased and a bit of a fan-girl at this point, but the story takes an impactful turn and ends beautifully.
If you’re looking for an RPG with a character-driven plot with deep personal stakes and lots of crafting, then definitely pick it up. Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian is the perfect entry point to the series for new commers and a refreshing take on what made the Atelier series what it is today.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows
Developers: Koei Tecmo Games, Gust
Publishers: Koei Tecmo Games, KOEI TECMO AMERICA Corporation
Played On: PS5
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