Developed By: Gust
Published By: Koei Tecmo
Category: RPG
Release Date: 09.26.25
Price: $59.99
*Game Download Code graciously provided for the purpose of review
The Atelier franchise is massive, there’s no denying it, and it’s only getting bigger. You would think that the series out have begun to slow down after nearly 30 entries. But Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian proves that’s not the case. Despite playing nearly ten Atelier games on the Switch and enjoying all of them, Resleriana thoroughly blew my mind.
This game takes place in the same universe as the mobile game titled Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy & the Liberator of Polar Night, which shut down earlier this year. I never played the mobile game so I can’t speak on it, but you don’t need to have played it to enjoy this one.
The game follows Slade Clauslyter and Rias Eidreise as they return to their hometown to pick up the pieces of their past and discover the mysteries of alchemy along the way. On his way to the village of Hallfein, Slade rescues Rias from a golem and inadvertently helps her realize that she has an aptitude for alchemy.
Rias’ grandfather used to run a shop in the village before his mysterious disappearance years ago. He wasn’t the only one who disappeared and she wants to bring the shop back to its former glory. Slade is returning to the village because of mementos left behind by his father. Resleriana is about the two joining forces as they explore the continent and beyond.
The aspect of Resleriana that I liked the most is that it incorporates many different gameplay loops, all of which are massive. Exploring the world is just one of the gameplay loops. The world itself is massive and full of dungeons and secrets. Explore for story reasons or to collect thousands of ingredients.
Another gameplay loop is the incredible alchemy system. Once you have a recipe and all the required ingredients, you can synthesize them by connecting their colors to make something brand new. Using additional ingredients can imbue special effects and traits to whatever you create.
The alchemy system is incredibly detailed and can get very complex if you’re into that. But the foundation is simple enough for newcomers to understand and enjoy at their own pace. Once you’ve become an expert at gathering and synthesizing, the next gameplay loop opens up, town management.
Restoring the village to its former glory is a huge aspect of the game. All the items you synthesize can be sold in Rias’ shop. There’s a detailed supply and demand system based on the village residents that will influence how well the shop does. I had no idea this was a feature until I reached it, and I immediately fell in love with it.
Once the shop is profitable, use your earnings to help further restore the village. Make investments into development and watch Hallfein improve as different industries grow and more merchants set up shop. Running Rias’ shop is just the beginning, improve the entire village until it thrives.
The last major component of the game is the combat, which I had a lot of fun with. The combat is very simple to start with just two main commands, but there’s so much room to master the finer details.
Each character has their own set of simple attacks that they can do every turn. There’s also an option to block. If you time it right, you’ll parry your opponents attack and take less damage. This is a nice change of pace from games that use things like evasion, luck or type weaknesses to reduce damage.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to combat. Accumulate AP to use skills that are far stronger than simple attacks. Utilize TP to unleash massive combo chains across multiple characters from your party. Your formation consists of three party members in the front and three in the back, which allows for lots of strategy.
The last major detail for combat is all the skills. Use SP to unlock them, each character has a massive skill tree. I thought combat itself was good, but what really made it so much fun was the speed. Turns were fast and loading screens were practically non-existent.
It’s probably a byproduct of playing on the Switch 2, but going from the overworld to the action selection screen in combat took on average 1.5 seconds. Other loading screens were fast too. Combine this with your ability to increase game speed during combat, and the result is a fast paced game that’s lots of fun.
The game only had two negatives, but neither of them were a deal breaker for me. The first is that the story is pretty light compared to other recent RPG’s. The storyline isn’t as grand as Trails in the Sky or The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy. But for me, the game was more entertaining and fun than story driven, and I was perfectly fine with that.
Games with phenomenal storylines are great, but this game makes up for it with detailed RPG mechanics, fun combat, and quirky characters. The other negative is that the visuals were sometimes broken, but I think this was mostly because of playing docked on a bigger screen.
If you’re a fan of the Atelier franchise, you’ll enjoy Resleriana. Even if this is your first experience with the franchise, you’ll still enjoy it. This game is lots of fun.
4/5
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