Review for Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings. Game for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, the video game was released on 21/12/2017 The version for PC came out on 30/03/2018 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 30/03/2018 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 30/03/2018
Atelier is a successful brand, consolidated by a long experience that has nineteen titles since its launch twenty years ago, one chapter after another up to Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists Of The Mysterious Paintings, conclusion of the “Mysterious” trilogy which began with Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist Of The Mysterious Book and continued with Atelier Firis: The Alchemist And The Mysterious Journey.
In all its numerous releases, Gust got us used to that oriental style of play, made up of colorful worlds to explore. With the third chapter of what is the best trilogy of the saga, the brand lands for the first time on Nintendo Switch, enriching the releases on PlayStation 4 and on PC. Let's say one thing right away: if you want to better understand the story, you need the background narrated in Atelier Sophie and in Atelier Firis, as we will find many quotes from the other chapters. The story revolves around the events of the twins Lydie and Suelle Marlen, alchemists as it is obvious that they are.
Raised in the city of Merveille, capital of the kingdom of Adalet, the alchemists discover that the kingdom has launched a competition to decide which is the best Atelier in Adalet. Reaching the goal is not easy at all, but Ilmeria Von Leinweber, a character from Atelier Firis, will come to help them. As in the other chapters, the alchemists will have to go around the world to collect ingredients to use in the cauldron. The novelty, as the title suggests, is the presence of paintings made by expert alchemists. The twins will discover that they can literally enter the paintings and explore them to find rare ingredients and further hone their alchemical skills.
This new chapter of the trilogy takes what Atelier Sophie and Atelier Firis have to offer: exploration from the former, the fighting style from the latter. If on the one hand the open world of Atelier Firis is abandoned, it must also be said that the return to the world map already experienced in Atelier Sophie and in the other chapters, it disperses activities significantly less. From Adalet you can then open the game world map and from there select the areas to explore. This results in a smooth frame rate and areas that are very rich in detail.
As in Atelier Firis, the combat system is decidedly different from the canons of the saga. The party will consist of six elements, basically we will have three offensive characters and three defensive characters. This will allow us to chain attacks and create spectacular finishing moves all colorful and brilliant. The real novelty, however, which for the first time appears in Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists Of The Mysterious Paintings, is the Battle Mix, or the possibility of synthesizing the objects we need directly in a battle. After each victory we will get experience points with which to level up.
The core of the experience is the alchemical creation: exploring the world, defeating enemies and completing the side quests, we will in fact obtain several alchemical elements. These will be mixed in the cauldron to create items to be used in battle, equipment or to meet the demands of the inhabitants of Adalet. As in Atelier Firis, the new cauldron system allows you to customize objects with "traits", giving passive bonuses to creations, weapons and equipment. As mentioned, there are numerous side quests that will be given to us by the inhabitants of Adalet, which further enrich the story.
The dubbing is completely in Japanese, however the English subtitles make you appreciate the characterization work of the characters, some outside the box and certainly interesting. We close with a hint of the graphics, made in cell shading with a pastel effect that gives an extremely colorful touch to the game world and a very characterized soundtrack, perhaps the real flagship of the entire videogame production.
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists Of The Mysterious Paintings closes Gust's “Mysterious” trilogy at its best. With consolidated and further refined gameplay, colorful graphics and an excellent soundtrack: we have found perhaps the best chapter in this long saga.
► Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings is a JRPG type game developed by Gust Co. Ltd. and published by Koei Tecmo for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, the video game was released on 21/12/2017 The version for PC came out on 30/03/2018 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 30/03/2018 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 30/03/2018
