Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key Review (Pew)
Atelier Ryza 3: One Step Forward, Two Steps back
This should be the title.
Only buy this game if you enjoyed playing Ryza 1 and 2 and you want to play more Ryza. If not, don't bother or wait a year later so that all patches and updates are in.
TLDR: This game is disappointing. 3/5 (its ok at best).
Why not recommended? I need people to look past Ryza's thighs (It's hard I know) and admit that THE UI IS TERRIBLE. The UI is worse than Ryza 1 and Ryza 2. That's right. The 3rd installment of the series has worse UI than that of the 1st game released years ago. The developers fell for the Minimalist UI crap common to open-world games. Ryza 3 even has the compass at the top-center of screen with quest markers like Bethesda games. They went so minimalist that certain basic UI elements are now gone.
What's wrong with the UI:
- In Ryza 1 and 2, the Gathering Tool you have equipped can be seen in the corner of the screen.
THIS IS NOT PRESENT in Ryza 3. You need to press a button just to see which gathering tool you have. How can such a Basic UI element went missing? Who knows.
- In Ryza 2, opening the Gathering Tool wheel near a gathering point will display all possible items that can be obtained.
THIS IS NOT PRESENT in Ryza 3. You need to switch gathering tools just to see the possible items.
-In Ryza 1 and 2, you can see the time of day in the corner of the screen.
THIS IS NOT PRESENT in Ryza 3. Want to know what time is it? Just look at the sky, I guess. Another basic UI element that went missing.
-In Ryza 1 and 2, there is an option to switch the confirm button to X or Circle (yes I'm using dualshock). THIS IS NOT PRESENT in Ryza 3. You need to remap the buttons if you want to switch. The problem is that this is not reflected during combat. It will still show Circle for the basic attack while you are pressing X.
This is the 3rd game...
-In Ryza 1 and 2, the Equipment screen can be selected in 1 menu.
In Ryza 3, the Equipment screen is now behind 2 menus. You need to go to Menu > Battle preparations > Equipment. Why hide one of the most used option behind 2 menus?
-Missing icon labels.
If you are wondering what category your items are, you need to simply press the option button (or whatever you call it) however, there is no label. Never played 1 and 2? Good luck guessing the what the icon means.
-Some Quests wont appear in the Quest Log.
Ryza 3 introduces Random quests. This quests just appear at random while you are walking around. These quests does not appear in the quest log. They instead appear at the right side of your screen.
It's kinda funny that they went for the minimalist UI when the right side of the screen now has a Quest list. There is also a floating cursor in the screen pointing you to the next quest objective.
Also, certain NPCs will give you a fetch quest that will not be listed anywhere. I hope you have a notepad ready or have a good memory.
I have other complaints but this will get too long.
As for some positive things to say:
-You can now see the remaining Basket space in the corner of the screen unlike the previous games.
-The areas from Ryza 1 are now connected with no loading screens. Well most of them anyway.