Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & The Secret Fairy is a JRPG sequel that is unapologetically anime. I’m talking about the sickly sweet variety, where a stormy wind blows through some cherry blossoms, a schoolgirl turns to face the camera, and the power of friendship will always prevail. And in the beginning, I found it hard to cut through its crucial positivity.
But learn to accept AR2, or at least Neo-swings out of the way of its sunshine and support service, and a surprisingly complex JRPG emerges. So complicated, in fact, that I still do not really understand how fighting or crafting it works, but I want to play more anyway. I have the urge to dig deeper and I can not stop myself.
However, I would not say that AR2’s plot has anything to do with what got me hooked. Three years after the events of the first game, you play as Reisalin Stout (aka Ryza), an alchemist who lives on the idyllic Kurken Island. She wants to improve her alchemy skills, and decides the best place to do so is the capital Ashra-am Baird of the mainland.
The one sparkling thing leads to the other, and soon Ryza keeps embracing old pals and reminding and planning new adventures. There’s Tao, the intelligent, Patty, the one who swings twice her size with a sword, and Klaudia, the silent archer. Later, more friends joined the crew, including my personal favorite Clifford, the romantic cowboy. It turns out that the gang is hungry to explore the ruins in the capital, just like the good old days! Meanwhile, after having never played the first game, I feel like a memory loss during a school meeting.
AR2 is, for lack of a better term, well anime. Even for an anime fan himself, it has sometimes become a lot. Ryza and her friends mark the herd subjects with thoughts and actions that are all quite predictable. Sometimes I just wanted to shake something other than a pre-packaged answer out of them. Let me not start the fan service either, because the game (which looked through a wave of memes about these thighs) used very questionable camera angles.
After some nice exploration, Ryza and co drive. is connected by a melon-like, squeaky creature called Fi. This little fella is the key to [waves arms vaguely] a few things, or something. From now on, you and the gang will crawl through to find out why this flying mouse-yeti is so important. What this boils down to, however, is very fleeting text about how a large monster pieces move behind the scenes of each well, but never really feels threatened.
For those who played the first AR, I’m sure the new camaraderie will interest you, no matter what. But for beginners like me, the mystery surrounding Fi did not force me to move forward alone. I needed a big antagonist to chase me away, or to run away or even just to cling to me.
But now cut to Ryza’s kettle breaking through the door. In all likelihood, this big pot made me come back for more. This allows you to transform ingredients you have accumulated around the world, such as sardines, ores and plants, into more and more powerful objects: everything from a few healing beans to a new staff. It’s all presented by a dizzyingly intricate crafting menu and a skill tree so large that I sometimes get lost in it.
At first I was scared of everything, but I quickly realized that there is no wrong way to do things in AR2. I like the fact that it caters to those who can tinker with the finest details, and those of us – me – are happy to make just a bracelet of a few mushrooms and a bar. There is a great depth here for people who are well versed in alchemy and like to play with stately percentages, but it does not punish you for giving it the best chance, even if you have no idea what you are really doing.
It also extends to AR2’s battles. Just like Pokémon or Dragon Quest, you start a battle by encountering a monster who devises his own business. It turns you into a custom arena, and the turn-based battles begin.
Unlike some JRPGs, the action in AR2 does not stop indefinitely between turns. This takes place in real time, which means you have to pay attention when you can attack and when the enemy can penetrate a shot. A caliper gives you a head start on this front, but I’d rather you not ask me out about the 8,000 other measures and numbers that are rising and flashing and ringing on me.
Despite my lack of understanding, I enjoy the flow of fights in AR2. I think it’s because encounters feel like mini-management sims. Each attack enters a number or bar and you use it to perform powerful moves with wicked animations. I found it very satisfying to fulfill these quotas, because before you know it, you have put together a series of special movements out of nowhere.
I know someone who gets AR2’s combat complexities will roll their eyes at my meager ability, but it feels like the game has planted a friendly hand on my shoulder, as if to say, “Hey, that’s fine. you know you do not you do not know what you are doing, but here’s a quick move. ‘There’s one I like very much, where Patty sets her blade on fire and sticks it out in one fluid motion and a rotating bomb on throw the enemy.
The exciting battle helps to compensate for the occasional monotony of the dungeon crawling in AR2, which is fairly standard. Mainly you will run down corridors in the direction of search eggs, fighting monsters. Sometimes you break a chest open or climb up a few vines. No Zelda-like puzzles, I’m afraid. You sometimes get a little boss fight as a treat. They are not terrible, but I am not convinced Ryza and the crew find them as exciting as they are going on.
Even though the dungeons look quite pretty. You have crumbling fortresses with moss-covered bells and sunken cities full of plant life. Elsewhere, the capital with its diverse districts and the forests around it is attractive. They are not going to take your breath away, but the game is filled with downright cozy places to pottery over.
But these are really bonuses on my journey, a stimulus from WD-40 to facilitate a world of machinery that I made to increase Ryza’s returns. If you can get past all the self-conscious cuteness, AR2’s focus on crafting might just catch up with you. I mean, look at me: I’m constantly looking for better equipment and I do not even know what I’m doing. I do. Imagine that I done.