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Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Journal! This week I’ve been playing Fire Emblem Engage, and it’s immensely enjoyable so far. As soon as I finish it, I will undoubtedly review it in the Journal, so stay tuned! EmeraldDM8 and I have also started watching both .hack//SIGN and Log Horizon; the former being a 2003 anime set before the events of the first .hack games (I hope he’ll like it, I’m so excited about it), whilst the latter is a series that was recommended to me as I both love Sword Art Online and .hack. If they’re worth it, they will definitely end up becoming a topic on this blog; so once again, stay tuned!
This week, however, I’m going to be talking about the final title (story-wise) in the Atelier Mysterious miniseries, as I’ve recently completed it:
| Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings |
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It’s a JRPG that came out in 2017 for PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch in Japan, then later in 2018 for PlayStation 4, Steam, and Nintendo Switch for the rest of the world. As usual for this series, an enhanced version of the game later came out for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Nintendo Switch in 2021, once again for worldwide audiences. I personally played the enhanced edition on my Nintendo Switch. As a sequel to Atelier Firis, and unlike last time with Atelier Firis, I’d actually recommend that you at least complete the prior game in the series before delving into this one.
We play as Lydie & Suelle, two alchemist twins who run an atelier with their father; due to harsh competition among the few alchemists in their town, and also thanks to the apparent incompetence of their father, who would rather paint all day, the twins are running out of money and can’t go on any longer. Suddenly a decree is enacted in town, declaring that an atelier ranking system will be established in order to attract and reward new alchemists, and the twins realize it’s finally time to surpass the competition! Shortly after, we’ll find out that there was another reason this system was created; mysterious paintings have been recovered, which allow people to go to other worlds shown in the pictures. Not knowing what dangers could be inside, the crown has decided to ask for the help of the best alchemists available, and the twins will be two of them.
Just like in the previous games in the Atelier series, this title is more about crafting than battling, requiring you to craft your entire stock of items and equipment by yourself. If you remember from my previous Pages about Atelier Sophie and Firis, I had explained how the two games had a different ratio of battling to crafting, with Sophie containing bosses to fight, whilst Firis offering none until it’s post-game, as it was more focused on passing an exam instead. Even Atelier Lydie & Suelle “thinks” quite differently from its two predecessors, managing to mix the two aspects perfectly! To improve their status in the ranking system, the twins will have to pass various small exams, while still having to fight bosses and tune their gear accordingly. While it’s certainly less cozy than Firis, I actually enjoyed it a lot more, as it successfully manaed to fuse the two aspects I love about this series: Alchemy and Battles.
Now then, time to brush off all our knowledge about crafting amazing gear! As with Sophie, you’ll survive the game with no issues if you stock up on well-made bombs, although you’ll need adequate gear as well. If you know what you are doing, you won’t find many issues with the battles; most of the bosses just need a few powerful bombs to be defeated, while for the final boss (not considering the extras for the True Ending) you’ll need to improve your gear as well. Concerning the exams, you can keep doing whatever you were doing in Firis, just craft what they ask you to. Sometimes you’ll get the opportunity to turn in more than what they ask for, and this will increase your score in that specific exam, but apart from (I think) a trophy, you won’t get any other reward, so just do what you can and it will be fine. The final exam (it’s not a spoiler, don’t worry) is a shorter version of the Firis one, and you’ll have to craft an item with a high “quality” stat. This time, though, the requirement is actually more lenient, and while you can look up a guide for it, you should be able to solve it by yourself, since you’ll only need 40 quality to pass and that’s quite easy to achieve [from this guide: “A Quality 40 item will get you the bare minimum. A Quality 120 will get you the second Tier. Quality 200+ should get you the third tier.”]. Thus, I’d say they successfully fixed one of the biggest flaws with Atelier Firis, being the unclearness and insane absurdity of its exam.
While the final exam is definitely easy and manageable (when you go and turn in the item, the game will show you what meets the requirements, and you can choose among the available items), what isn’t are the tasks required to unlock the exams themselves! The first ones the game will assign you sound clear and easy enough, but don’t let these fool you, as what comes next is far from understandable. What are these tasks, you might be asking? In order to unlock the chance to sit every new exam, you’ll have to increase your atelier reputation, and that can be done by completing a certain number out of a series of actions that Suelle will come up with and write in her notebook. Sadly, as the game lore suggests, Suelle doesn’t really like studying, thus will list everything you need to do with weird and impossible names, which will rarely make sense. Sometimes the game will offer a “translation” via the magical Minus (or Select, depending on the platform) button, which will show related pages on the title’s encyclopedia, yet this isn’t the case for all tasks. At the very least, you can complete those first, and look up a walkthrough for the rest. Unfortunately, some of these tasks were quite annoying and relied on RNG (you needed to find rare material, for example), though thankfully you could skip most of them. I’d go as far as saying that this feature, whilst interesting, ultimately became what I would consider to be the worst aspect of the game and probably remains as its only flaw.
Luckily, the title redeems itself in every other aspect, including the newly added paintings! The twins will be able to unlock and investigate these worlds, which are extremely unique and different from each other, such as an ice manor, a creepy forest, the underwater den of a pirate, and a land where the past is eternal. While, in the end, they’re just areas you can go in and gather items from, they all have their standalone stories and lore and are all immensely entertaining to visit. I loved my time in them and I appreciated the variety they added to the series’ landscapes, which are generally more natural.
Now, having reviewed all three titles in the Atelier Mysterious subseries (plus the newly released one, but we’ll put it aside because it’s too new in comparison), which would I consider to be my favorite, and why?
Firstly, I’d surely rate Atelier Firis lower than the others; I disliked having to rush exploration, and the final exam felt too hard and cryptic for me to actually enjoy it. Regarding the others, honestly, I’m not sure which one I loved more; Atelier Sophie is cozier and straightforward, and I prefer its main characters to Lydie & Suelle’s, though I really appreciated the added complexity of the atelier ranking system (even though it had its flaws) and the various paintings we can explore. But whilst I can’t say which game I think is better, there is one thing I know for certain: Sophie is definitely the best protagonist. Whilst Suelle and Firis are particularly adorable, and Lydie is decently nice, Sophie remains the cutest, most determined, and bravest of the group, and thus is my favorite.
At last, it’s time for the usual recommendations! If you loved Atelier Sophie, but would like a more alchemy-focused, yet still battle-oriented game, then look no further! If you haven’t played any of these three yet, possibly start from Sophie, although you could technically skip it and go straight to Firis (you’d lose on “best girl” XD).
I hope you enjoyed my dive into the Atelier Mysterious subseries, and I hope to see you in either the next Italian translation, or the Journal page! Thank you so much for reading! ✨
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