Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian from KOEI TECMO America and Gust is the latest entry in the long-running series. Are you ready? Then check out our Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian review!
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian from KOEI TECMO Americaps4b and Gust is the latest entry in the long-running series. Many years ago, the town of Hallfein was once situated at the border of three provinces, which allowed it to thrive as a sort of hub for trade, thanks to its outstanding mining possibilities. Unfortunately, a mysterious disaster struck the town, which made most of the residents to go away. As expected, this made Hallfein a restricted area. Time moved on, and the restrictions were eventually lifted, with a plan set in motion to hopefully restore it to its former glory. You’ll be taking on a new adventure by leading a pair of characters who once called Hallfein their home. They’ve ventured deep into the ruins to try and find the truth… even if they risk their lives in the process.
If you’re new to the series, the Atelier franchise got its start all the way back in 1997 on the original PlayStation console – which means we’re very close to a potential 30th anniversary extravaganza! I’ve previously gotten a chance to review several of the Atelier games, such as Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea many moons ago on PlayStation 3, Atelier Ayesha Plus: The Alchemist of Dusk on PlayStation Vita, the Mysterious Trilogy Deluxe Pack on Nintendo Switch – which includes Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk DX, Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky DX, and Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea DX – as well as the fun but more retro-leaning Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg, which finally brought us the former Japan exclusive on PlayStation 5 with a revamped take. This new game takes place in the same subseries as Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and the Liberator of Polar Night, which was released on PC and mobile. Your adventure will have you exploring the Lantarna mainland, as you dive into multilayered dungeons known as Dimensional Paths, in which the map changes with each visit, in a bit of a roguelite twist to the series.
Earlier this year, I got a chance to do an Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories and the Envisioned Land review on PlayStation 5, a game that took the series into a familiar yet different direction. It features real-time combat, exploration feels more seamless, and the world that you’ll be running through is massive. For Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian, the developers wanted to bring us a game that felt similar to that of the classic games in the franchise, taking a look back at the experiences that have allowed us to get to this point in time, hence why we’re getting turn-based combat, a simplified synthesis system, and a story that is a bit less serious and a bit more funny.
As your adventure begins – and once you’ve picked the difficulty setting – the game will allow you to choose which of the two protagonists you’d like to start playing as: Rias Eldreise or Slade Clauslyter. This is an important choice because, even though the other character you don’t pick right away will become playable as the story progresses, this choice will affect the content of some of the story events. After the starting story cutscene for the character you picked is over, you’ll get to play through a tutorial segment that will teach you all of the basics.
You’ll be taking control of your character by using the left analog stick to move around each area, pressing the R1 button to sprint as needed. The right analog stick will be used to move the camera around, and you’ll be able to zoom in and zoom out by using the R2 and L2 buttons, respectively. Your character can also jump by pressing the Triangle or Circle buttons, depending on the configuration you choose. You’ll have access to a mini map, which will be displayed in the lower right corner of the screen. You can toggle the display range by pressing in on the left analog stick. Follow the icons to your next story destination, a tracked quest target, or an exit.
While exploring each area, you’ll be able to perform wire actions at specific spots that are located near cliffs or trees that have a blue glow. Just get closer and press the X button to change Ria’s staff to wire mode, which will allow you to, say, swing over a chasm or scale up a cliff. At first, you’ll be limited to performing wire actions in areas that have a blue glow, but later on, you’ll be given the chance to perform wire actions in other areas that have a glow of a different color – that is, once you’ve managed to meet certain conditions.
A couple of minutes later, the game will present you with the first battle that will allow you to quickly get the hang of things. As mentioned before, battles are of the turn-based variety. What this means is that your party members and the enemies – and bosses! – you’re fighting will be taking turns to perform actions. Your goal is simple: you must defeat all enemies to win a battle. If everyone in your party is knocked out, then you will lose the battle and will need to give it another go. Both your allies and your enemies will be taking turns based on their order on the timeline, which you can review on the right side of the screen.
For your allies, they’ll be able to use normal attacks, skills, items, or block incoming attacks. Normal attacks don’t consume any AP, which is why they’re not very powerful, but they will certainly help you defeat enemies if that’s your only option for attacking. Using your normal attacks will increase your AP, which is needed for using skills. Skills, as expected, are more powerful abilities that you can use to deal damage to enemies, sometimes with elemental damage and/or a potential status effect. There are also skills that you can use to protect your allies or to help heal some of their wounds.
If an enemy is about to attack, you can hold down the X button to block and reduce the damage you will receive. You can also go into the settings menu and activate auto-blocking if needed to help you during combat. If you block right at the precise moment when an enemy is about to hit one of your allies, they will perform a precision guard. A precision guard will greatly reduce damage while also preventing your character from being inflicted with a status effect, which can be especially helpful during boss fights!
On the right side of the screen on the aforementioned timeline, you’ll be able to spot effect panels. These will benefit one of the party members or enemies on the timeline, which is why you’ll sometimes want to change who benefits from an effect panel! You can do this by defeating enemies, thus altering the turn order. Say that an enemy is about to get an effect panel that will heal a bit of their HP. By defeating that enemy, you can speed up a party member’s turn, so that the panel effect lands on them instead.
When fighting an enemy, you can end up stunning them once certain conditions are met. There’s a stun gauge for each enemy that you’ll need to reduce to 0 by using regular attacks or skills. Stunned enemies will have their turns delayed and will take additional damage from attacks and skills until their next turn comes up. Along with stun, something else to keep in mind is TP. TP can be consumed to perform multi-actions by pressing the L1 button. As the name suggests, multi-actions will allow you to perform multiple actions at once while changing rows, which can allow you to deal a ton of damage to your opponents!
As you defeat enemies and bosses, your party members will accrue experience points. Once they’ve obtained enough, they will get to level up! When this happens, they will receive a boost to their max HP, attack, defense, and speed. That way, they’ll be able to take more damage, deal more damage, have the overall damage they take be lowered, and act faster during combat. That last one is very important, since the more turns they get, the more times they’ll be able to act during combat, thus more easily gaining the upper hand on enemies. Leveling up will also sometimes reward a party member with a new skill!
And now, let’s talk about the synthesis system! For this new game, the synthesis process is going to feel a bit more streamlined, which helps to get things done at a faster pace. You’ll start the process by picking the recipe that you’ll be working on completing from the list of recipes that you’ve learned so far. On the left side of the screen will be the details for the recipe. Once you’ve placed all the necessary ingredients, you can press the Options button to start synthesizing. Blink, and you’ll have a new item to aid you on this adventure. You’ll test this by synthesizing a healing salve that provides a bit of health recovery.
Trophy-wise, there’s not much I can discuss for this one, since Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian is one of those games that has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy in which every single trophy is a hidden trophy! Because of this, this time around I won’t be talking about any of the game’s trophies, so as not to spoil the overall story progression. There will be a handful of trophies that will pop during the extended tutorial segment that deals with elements such as exploration, combat, and item synthesis.
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian is the latest entry in the long-running series. Many years ago, the town of Hallfein was once situated at the border of three provinces, which allowed it to thrive as a sort of hub for trade, thanks to its outstanding mining possibilities. Unfortunately, a mysterious disaster struck the town, which made most of the residents go away. As expected, this made Hallfein a restricted area. Time moved on, and the restrictions were eventually lifted, with a plan set in motion to hopefully restore it to its former glory. You’ll be taking on a new adventure by leading a pair of characters who once called Hallfein their home. They’ve ventured deep into the ruins to try and find the truth… even if they risk their lives in the process.
The game is fully voice-acted, but the voices are presented in Japanese with English subtitles. That means that, if you’re not familiar with the Japanese language, there’s going to be a lot of reading in your future! For most of your time with Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian, you’ll be able to save your progress and load from any save by going into the corresponding menus. Do know there are some exceptions to this during specific segments of the game.
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian launches tomorrow on PlayStation 5 with a $59.99 price tag. You can also get the Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian Digital Deluxe Edition for $69.99, which, along with the base game, includes costume palette changes for Rias, Slade, Raze, Wilbell, Totori, and Sophie (2 for each character, 12 total) and a Head Start Item Pack with 10 types of ingredients and 2 types of Starpearls. There’s also the Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian Ultimate Edition for $99.99. That one includes all from the Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian Digital Deluxe Edition, as well as the Season Pass and the Season Pass purchase bonus. The Season Pass purchase is the Alchemist of Memories costumes for Rias and Slade. As for the Season Pass itself, it will give you access to 5 extra items:
1) Gust Extra BGM Pack
A pack of “Atelier” series background music that can be used when changing the in-game BGM.
2) Additional Characters – Resna and Valeria
After a certain point in the story, Resna and Valeria from “Atelier Resleriana” will be added as party members with additional characters stories.
3) “Beginning of Summer Days” Costume Set
A set of new swimsuit costumes for Rias, Slade, Raze, Wilbell, Totori, and Sophie. (1 each, 6 total)
4) Recipe Expansion Pack “The Essence of Alchemy”
A pack of useful recipes for your adventure.
5) High-Difficulty Dungeon “Backwards-Ticking Clock Workshop”
After a certain point in the story, the high-difficulty dungeon will be added.
Disclaimer
This Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by KOEI TECMO America.
