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GAME: Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy


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gridsleep





PostPosted: Wed Jan 27, 2021 5:14 pm Reply with quote
Why isn't she wearing any pants?
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Gem-Bug



Joined: 10 Nov 2018
Posts: 1193
PostPosted: Wed Jan 27, 2021 5:51 pm Reply with quote
gridsleep wrote:
Why isn't she wearing any pants?


Because she's wearing shorts? Albeit incredibly short ones.
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HypeTrain



Joined: 27 Jan 2021
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Wed Jan 27, 2021 6:08 pm Reply with quote
Maybe I'm misreading this, but the reviewer claims to have played this game for 25 hours, but then says that the game does not allow you to fast travel away from the atelier. You can, in fact, fast travel wherever you want at any time, it just takes a couple of hours of gameplay to unlock that feature. And the combat may be simple, there are certainly more options at your disposal than simply using 3 normal attacks and then your specials. These options, once again, open up as you progress a bit farther into the game.

I'm certainly not attempting to attack the reviewer or dismiss their (valid) criticisms, but it also feels like they wrote this review after playing for only a couple of hours.
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Brook09



Joined: 10 Jan 2021
Posts: 81
PostPosted: Thu Jan 28, 2021 12:40 am Reply with quote
I'm going to wait to buy this one.

As like last time they'll probably release some dlc's like the summer one. Very Happy

Also one of the main reasons the predecessor of this game sold so well was cause of ryza, and looks like they amped her sexyness, so it could be save to assume this one will sell also pretty decently to good. Smile
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 5886
PostPosted: Thu Jan 28, 2021 12:53 am Reply with quote
@HypeTrain

Very possible they overlooked the mechanic.
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gacha



Joined: 03 Mar 2018
Posts: 74
PostPosted: Thu Jan 28, 2021 3:26 am Reply with quote
It's literally impossible to overlook and it's not the only case. Details from literally the whole review make it obvious that they have only played the game for several hours. Wouldn't be the first time with ANN game reviews, honestly.
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Flare-kun



Joined: 26 Jun 2010
Posts: 92
PostPosted: Thu Jan 28, 2021 3:57 am Reply with quote
Just curious: Has the reviewer played Atelier games before? These games are always slice-of-life and not plot heavy at all. The last one I can remember with a strong main story was Escha & Logy, which was, I dunno, six games ago or something? Atelier games are always about watching the adorable cast grow and mature through troubles and hijinks (and lots of alchemy), just like any slice-of-life anime. A review like this might be helpful for someone coming to the series for the first time, but it's seemingly lacking context for those who know the series well and are wondering how the new installment holds up.

Also, to echo HypeTrain, you can indeed fast travel. Again it's typical of Atelier games for this feature to unlock a little ways in. I actually looked up when it would become available with a simple Google search in less than a minute. Obviously that information wasn't available if the reviewer was playing before release, but it couldn't have hurt to fact check before posting the review.
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Levonr



Joined: 19 Nov 2003
Posts: 807
PostPosted: Thu Jan 28, 2021 8:22 am Reply with quote
gridsleep wrote:
Why isn't she wearing any pants?


$$$$$$

I think I heard the Atelier games were selling bad, so they were desperate & made heroine thicc Embarassed Now this series is selling well apparently.
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wolf10



Joined: 23 Jan 2016
Posts: 898
PostPosted: Thu Jan 28, 2021 9:27 am Reply with quote
Levonr wrote:
I think I heard the Atelier games were selling bad, so they were desperate & made heroine thicc Embarassed Now this series is selling well apparently.
I get that you're joking, but thicc thighs aside, they also scrapped the widely-despised calendar mechanic in favor of a more accessible pace, ditched the worst of the moe pandering to better appeal to the series' sizable female fanbase, and brought in a successful LN author to give the character writing much-needed depth. Not sure if he came back for the sequel or not, though.
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 02 May 2011
Posts: 2930
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 28, 2021 10:09 am Reply with quote
I'm following up with the reviewer re: fast travel.
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vidjamouse



Joined: 11 Jun 2020
Posts: 21
PostPosted: Thu Jan 28, 2021 1:10 pm Reply with quote
@HypeTrain

I rebooted my copy and after looking in a wiki I immediately found the fast travel option. You were right - I overlooked it, and I'm going to see if I can edit the review in post to reflect that. Similarly, it took me much longer than it should have to figure out how to use items in combat. I'm not sure if this was a universal issue or more strongly related to how I play games, but I found a lot of the text tutorials to be very unclear and often found myself missing out on things that should have been obvious.

@Flare-kun

You're right on the money. This is my first Atelier game. In the same vein, it's probably many people's first atelier game, seeing as how broad the marketing has been for it, so I hope this review can serve those folks well.
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Millhi



Joined: 20 Feb 2017
Posts: 136
PostPosted: Thu Jan 28, 2021 1:41 pm Reply with quote
^That explains a lot to be fair.
Still weird to me to review a game that's a sequel to the previous entry.
I'm mostly interested in how it turned out compared to the first ryza entry which had nice designs but the story wasn't as good and shafted side character stories (which was something the producer even admitted in later interviews) compared to previous entries.
So i really hope ryza 2 improved on that regard.
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sneaky_squirrel



Joined: 28 Jan 2021
Posts: 3
PostPosted: Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:19 pm Reply with quote
I played both Ryza Games (1 and 2). I'll only comment on my impressions of the mechanics.

One of the main differences I noticed between the two games is a significant difference in information the player is expected to soak in from the start. Ryza 1 gives you access to a handful of linear areas at the start, and limits the amount of different ingredients you can pick up. Ryza 2 lets you visit multiple locations from Ryza 1 early on (which have ingredients not found in any of the new locations).

I have one complaint about the old locations in the new game, and that is the fact that I was lost for 2-3 hours trying to find "Cotton Grass" only to remember about the one text tutorial that mentioned the old locations and finding it there (I had a hard time finding the signboards that teleport you there). I thought it was odd considering that Cotton Grass is a mandatory ingredient in one of the earlier recipes (Alchemy Fibers). I would have thought they would sprinkle some Cotton Grass nodes in the new locations, but I never found any there.

The old locations also have ingredients you would usually find in the middle of a playthrough (Higher quality score, 2 advanced traits). Felt like Ryza 2 meant to let players ignore the weaker ingredients in the starter locations (Since you can access much better ingredients in the old locations).

From a mechanics perspective, Ryza 2 feels like a game designed for players who played Ryza 1. Practically no introductory period (As in, super short), and keeps throwing new toys and tools at you. I played the first game twice before playing this one, so I can't fathom how the primary game loop would feel for a newcomer, to me it felt like I constantly got stuck (Of the many ingredients I picked up, few seemed relevant to the starting recipes). The crafting mechanics and recipes feel much more difficult to handle and learn in the sequel, even after playing the first game.

The recipe morph mechanic was an immediate advantage in Ryza 1, but it does not seem to be the case in Ryza 2 (Ingredient elemental scores are much lower, so you end up with less ingredients in the recipe if you morph into it compared to just starting in that recipe to begin with).

I also felt that it was very easy to overlook a mechanic in Ryza 2. If it were just 1 mechanic introduced, it would be impossible to overlook, but they constantly introduce new mechanics. I read the signboard tutorial, but failed to find any signboards for 15 minutes inside the city districts and proceeded to forget about them. They even have mechanics that are not explicitly explained, but instead they only imply them. For example, you cannot finish a recipe unless you have at least one ingredient inside each of the larger material loops (I do not recall this being explicitly explained in text, learned this through experimentation).
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:27 pm Reply with quote
It's pretty normal that ANN won't have a reviewer touch a direct sequel anime if they didn't watch the immediate preceding season. Not sure why they would have someone who didn't play the first Ryza (or any Atelier games period) review Ryza 2. Bizarre.
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Flare-kun



Joined: 26 Jun 2010
Posts: 92
PostPosted: Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:53 pm Reply with quote
sneaky_squirrel wrote:
I have one complaint about the old locations in the new game, and that is the fact that I was lost for 2-3 hours trying to find "Cotton Grass" only to remember about the one text tutorial that mentioned the old locations and finding it there (I had a hard time finding the signboards that teleport you there). I thought it was odd considering that Cotton Grass is a mandatory ingredient in one of the earlier recipes (Alchemy Fibers). I would have thought they would sprinkle some Cotton Grass nodes in the new locations, but I never found any there.

Cotton Grass is available from nodes in normal maps. It's just, well, you get them from spiderwebs. Pretty odd! Laughing
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