Atelier Ryza 1 Review (66 hours in):

I recommend this with one caveat: If you don't want to grind for the end boss, watch a walkthrough on YouTube and save your money. Good games are play-balanced so that by the time you reach the final boss, you usually don't have to grind to beat them. This game requires a lot of grinding for the end boss, and there are a huge amount of things the game doesn't explain adequately (nor does the Internet). Note: I did not finish the game, and according to Steam achievement stats, neither did 77% of the other people playing this game. Consider this fair warning.

Negative things - if you don't like them, find another game:

- GAME DOES NOT PAUSE IN COMBAT !!! It's NOT turn-based !!!
- Can't run from battles
- Run is not fast enough (can only synth fast-run items in late game)
- Game doesn't save run or zoom settings
- Cannot zoom out far enough
- Camera is awful (stay zoomed out or get hit from behind, especially in caves)
- Not enough carried inventory space, and no synth items to increase space by first major boss fight (only good stuff is in late game, and it's insane to max out)
- You do NOT have ANY healing for first battles in forest (you die immediately with just one hit point in a fight)
- Invisible walls where you should be able to jump upward / downward (longer time to traverse level)
- Not all quest items are adequately identified - some are just items you pick up later in the game, not synthesized items
- Some quests have you scratching your head as to where to find the target (fairy creatures by weazel sanctuary)
- Some quests and main story cutscenes will not activate unless you take the long way to get there
- How to activate Extra Orders is not clear at all, even in the online manual - had to look it up on Google, and still having trouble activating them for the quests (even with the giant monsters)
- The party AI sucks (Lent doesn't use his multi-hit skill nearly often enough) - GO BACK TO PLAYER-CONTROLLED TURN-BASED PARTY FIGHTING
- The synth system is not good (compared to Atelier Sophie's method with a synthesis formula book and a cauldron-based synthesis grid)
- Exploration notes are practically maguffins because they're not explained properly - you have to find all landmarks to complete a region, THEN you can MAKE exploration notes on the atelier map
- The map systemS suck - you have one (down dpad) that shows you most of what you need (but only your current map region), but the other map (dbl square on Xbox controller) shows all the quests per region for all map locations --> This needs to be combined into one big map that you can see ALL the stuff and navigate to ALL the regions - I hit the wrong map button all the time
- Switching between gathering items sucks - yes, you can obtain different items by switching the gathering item, but doing so with MONSTERS MOVING AROUND SUCKS (see dragon temple entrance) - and then add the numerous camera issues, the slowness on the gathering item's swing, and the heavy penalty for the monster attacking you first
- Selling items for quests (two of them) is a royal pain - you can choose to sort by quantity (most in your container) or by quality, but NOT BOTH, which is necessary for quickly getting of low-grade items and keeping the high-grade items...and you need to sell 2000 for the first quest, and 4000 for the second quest
- You can't get to the higher areas without a special jump item, and it isn't revealed until near the end of the game
- MAJOR PROBLEM: Items cannot be used if the item level is higher than a character's dexterity, and you CAN'T RAISE DEXTERITY (have to synth low-level healing / KO items for anyone but Ryza)
- CANNOT BUFF OR FORGE ARMOR (unlike in the Sophie series)
- The overpowered end boss is a two-stage fight with no healing or carry-over of AP, so you have to start over from tactics level 1 (unless there's some item that starts you off with a certain amount of AP per battle)
- To beat the overpowered end boss, you need to do a TON of synthesizing to up your armor stats - it's too much of a grind for me - this happened in the Sophie series as well
- When you Game Over, you respawn in the atelier, but you lose random items from your atelier basket, and that's not acceptable (time to reload)

This game series isn't for everyone. I love the story, but the mechanics just suck (and the Sophie series wasn't much better in this respect). If you love grinding synth recipes, you'll love this game. If you don't, move on to something else. There's lots of chances to insta-kill yourself too (especially with the special island that comes from DLC), so you have to understand the mechanics VERY well to flourish in this game. Again, 77% of players never finished the game according to Steam, and I'm one of them - the final boss wiped one of my players right before the 2nd stage, then wiped out the rest of them, having 15000 HP and I'd lost my main hitter with no ability to raise them out of KO. When I went to synth recover KO gear for another crack at the end boss, nobody but the main character had the Dexterity to use them. I got tired of banging my head against the spiked brick wall, watched the end from a YouTube walkthrough, and now I'm moving on. YMMV, but you've been warned.

Great casual play RPG.

After just 3 hours of gameplay, I’m completely hooked.
The atmosphere is extraordinary. It’s all about exploring the world and finding your own path, which is a refreshing change from the tragic, dramatic, or heroic motivations we usually see in games.
The characters are adorable. You want to see them thrive and grow as you learn the fundamentals of the gameplay.
The alchemy system is, of course, well-designed and very enjoyable.
Combat doesn’t lag behind either—it’s worthy of a great JRPG.