A duplicate was offered by Koei Tecmo for assessment. Thanks!
I’ve been taking part in JRPGs for a really very long time, and have come to treat them as my favourite style of video games. What began off with Kingdom Hearts has spiraled into taking part in tons of video games within the style like Remaining Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and my two favourite sequence within the style, Tales of and Trails. Nevertheless, one of many sequence that I don’t discuss a lot, however I play loads, is the Atelier video games. The sequence falls extra into JRPG tropes than the others I discussed, however it’s nonetheless good enjoyable. I keep in mind taking part in the earlier mainline launch, Atelier Yumia, and I favored the course the sequence was heading.
But, in a transfer I didn’t see coming, the most recent mainline recreation, Atelier Resleriana: The Purple Alchemist and The White Guardian, really takes a few steps backward. I used to be shocked initially, because it appeared just like the sequence was shifting to the previous as an alternative of increasing and fine-tuning the brand new concepts launched in Yumia. I went into the sport a bit fearful, however I got here out of the expertise impressed. I wouldn’t have guessed it earlier than, however the steps backwards really helped make this considered one of my favourite video games in the complete sequence.
I’ve had Atelier Resleriana for fairly a while now, and as an alternative of speeding by means of to verify my assessment was out earlier than launch, I made a decision to take extra time with it. I had fallen in love with the sport, and I wished to take my time to verify I noticed all the things that needed to be seen and benefit from the story. I’m glad I did as a result of it simply made me benefit from the expertise way more than I’d have.
The story is general on a a lot smaller scale than plenty of different JRPG video games, however that made me admire it extra. We play as Rias and Slade, who find yourself on an journey to revive the city of Hallfein and uncover the secrets and techniques behind this mysterious Atelier present in a cave. Nevertheless, this may lead them the world over and into completely different dimensions, all whereas attending to the underside of the Geist Cores and what really occurred to the city years in the past, and what this pink mist may very well be.

It is a smaller story that principally revolves round this city, and it is fantastic to have a extra centered story as an alternative of one thing extra dramatic that entails the complete world. It really makes the emotional connection that Rias and Slade have with the city really feel heavier. Rias’s connection particularly hits exhausting as she goes from a mischievous determine that desires to be included to a staple figurehead that makes use of her alchemy presents to make others completely satisfied and assist the city. Along with her primarily turning into an alchemist, she’s going to make gadgets and lift cash wanted to convey the city again to its former glory.
Atelier Resleriana additionally encompasses a ton of characters from earlier entries within the franchise, like Ryza, Sophie, Totori, Ayesha, Elie, and plenty of extra. It seems like a Trails recreation in some methods, with so many characters from the previous video games showing in each main and minor roles. There are some particular interactions and facet tales with these characters as properly, and it is a good contact to work together with them extra. With the great-looking world and attention-grabbing settings, and a few strong voice performing, I used to be completely into it. As a lot as I take pleasure in English voice performing, the Japanese voices match extraordinarily properly and simply really feel proper.
In comparison with the earlier mainline recreation, this one does make the mechanics less complicated and simple, but nonetheless has the innate complexity that I’ve come to anticipate. Synthesizing, the core part of each Atelier recreation, grew to become a extra accessible part to take pleasure in. With every ingredient we decide up being put right into a class, we’ll take three or 4 of them to create the preliminary merchandise. As soon as that’s carried out, we’ve the choice of including three extra substances to additional improve stats, add new traits, or enhance the amount that we get.

On the floor, it’s fairly easy. All we’ve to do is select the perfect substances of their respective class and match up colours to make our merchandise as highly effective as attainable. Every ingredient additionally has a trait, which might be added to the merchandise, so discovering and matching the perfect substances with the perfect traits goes to be what we do for some time. It’s nonetheless fulfilling, and I like watching my gadgets get extra highly effective, however this didn’t begin satisfying me till we bought to recipe morphing and colour altering.
By utilizing particular substances, we will morph the merchandise we’re making to create a extra highly effective model of it. This can even carry over all the upgrades we’ve put in with the preliminary merchandise. So, it turns into extra helpful to start out from the start of the recipe as an alternative of utilizing a shortcut to simply get the upgraded merchandise desired. We can even unlock the power to alter the colour of every ingredient, and even change the class of ingredient for a particular slot. This can be essential to create probably the most highly effective gadgets, and is a good way to assist maximize the standard of the merchandise you wish to synthesize.
Even nonetheless, regardless of the brand new mechanics, it by no means feels overwhelming. It provides simply the correct amount of choices to maintain the mechanic participating, even within the late recreation, and I by no means had a tough time understanding. Atelier Resleriana strikes a stability that I didn’t anticipate it to have, and I couldn’t be happier.

Over time, we’ll unlock new mechanics to boost gadgets additional, relying on the characters and fairies you’ve got, however my favourite is merchandise duplication. It’s sort of a chore to need to create superior elements wanted for late-game gadgets, however if in case you have sufficient cash, you may duplicate gadgets you’ve already synthesized. So, so long as you’ve got the cash, you may duplicate that extraordinarily highly effective crafting part, so that you don’t need to make a brand new one each time when making an attempt to get the right finish product.
There are a number of methods to get the substances we’d like for synthesis. We are able to go round and collect from a mess of spots round every map, however we will additionally get them by means of the turn-based fight. Most Atelier video games function some kind of fight and RPG leveling system, and identical to the synthesizing, Resleriana simplifies these as properly. You battle monsters along with your social gathering, utilizing primary assaults, expertise, and gadgets. Whenever you beat them, you get expertise, cash, and talent factors. Expertise ranges up your workforce, rising their stats and making them extra highly effective, whereas talent factors are used particularly to unlock nodes on every particular person’s talent tree.
I do like many of the mechanics to benefit from in fight. Enemies have elemental weaknesses that we will benefit from, which might help convey down their respective stun bars to cease them from attacking and deal further injury. There’s additionally a separate Unite meter that, because it rises, allies who beforehand took their flip can are available in with a follow-up assault, and if it hits the max, we will begin utilizing extra highly effective skills to deal tons of injury.

Whereas I just like the follow-up assaults, I’m not the most important fan of the Unite meter. I nearly by no means get it to hit max to benefit from these extra highly effective assaults. Even with bosses, I both get the Unite meter as much as max after most of my allies are useless, or simply both totally die or defeat the boss earlier than it occurs. There are Multi-Actions we will make the most of, like somebody coming in to make use of an merchandise or use three completely different expertise at a time, however that has its personal meter that should recharge. I’d have favored to make use of these assaults extra, however I in the end was by no means actually capable of.
Nevertheless, I like how a lot we’ve to concentrate to the timeline of assaults. With the sport having turn-based fight, there may be an order through which every particular person and enemy assaults. Whereas we will modify the time period order with expertise to push enemy assaults again, we should pay much more consideration as a result of particular turns can have completely different constructive and unfavourable buffs. This may vary from gaining well being or extra assault, to getting injured by way of frostbite or protection taking place. So it is now not nearly pushing enemy assaults again; we additionally need to weigh in on whether or not there can be any constructive or unfavourable results for it.
Whereas we do get some cash from combating enemies, the primary approach we’ll get cash is by promoting our gadgets on the store. After selecting 9 completely different gadgets, which might be placed on the cabinets to offer bonus cash, we’ll open the shop and promote them. It’s a neat concept that I want have been expanded a bit extra. It feels very primary and extra of a chore to do as an alternative of one thing to take pleasure in. I admire that there is an choice to routinely place gadgets to promote, and we will considerably customise the look of the store for further bonuses, however in the end, it wasn’t one thing I seemed ahead to.

Other than that, we will tackle facet quests to get extra talent factors, substances, and cash, and that can be utilized to put money into the city to offer us some passive buffs and enhance the city stage. We are able to additionally go to Dimensional Paths, which seems like a really mild roguelite mode. We are going to discover Fairies that can provide us some bonuses, and these fairies might be employed to work on the store. The Dimensional Paths are a pleasant addition that I really like, discovering myself going again in and getting the perfect substances, discovering new fairies, and combating highly effective monsters.
Atelier Resleriana: The Purple Alchemist & the White Guardian – Steam Deck Efficiency
Atelier Resleriana: The Purple Alchemist & the White Guardian is a pleasure to play on the Steam Deck. I used to be really a bit shocked, since I solely found I used to be taking part in on the highest attainable settings once I had gotten to the tip of the sport. It is fairly superb how properly it runs, and I’d contemplate this a straightforward Finest on Deck recreation.

Personally, I most popular taking part in the sport on the highest settings, solely altering the decision again right down to 1280×720, and I set the framerate/refresh charge to 45 FPS / 90Hz. This saved the sport trying incredible, feeling clean, and battery drain beneath 14W on common. You possibly can play at 60 FPS for probably the most half, however going to 45 provides an additional hour or so of battery life and nonetheless feels splendidly clean, so I’d contemplate it extra of a professional than a con.
There are a few spots the place it appears some bottleneck pushes the framerate down. Probably the most constant was in Cape Petal, however 95% of the areas will run like a appeal. If you need probably the most secure expertise, with a low battery drain, we will set the framerate right down to 30 FPS, however it would solely add about 45 minutes to the battery life, and I’d nonetheless simply say going to 45 is healthier general.

Curiously, making an attempt to play at 60 FPS simply is not as viable as I would love. Even on the lowest settings, there are extra areas that may hit bottlenecks and produce the framerate down. I discovered this odd, because the recreation is working at 45 FPS on the very best setting, however it nonetheless has these points. So, in the long run, I nonetheless advocate simply taking part in on the highest settings at 45 FPS.
Accessibility
Whereas there is no such thing as a accessibility tab, we will invert the digicam controls and alter sensitivity, change the problem, toggle autosave, change the minimap rotation, modify keybindings, enhance textual content dimension, and enhance or lower audio settings. We are able to additionally change the colour filter settings to account for Deuteranopia, Protanopia, and Tritanopia colour blindness.
The sport does not help 16:10 resolutions, however it does have cloud saves and controller help. There are not any HDR settings.
Conclusion
Atelier Resleriana: The Purple Alchemist & the White Guardian is a incredible subsequent entry within the sequence. The sport strikes ahead by taking a couple of steps backward, which works properly in its favor. The extra accessible and easy-to-understand synthesis and fight is incredible, whereas the smaller-scale story really makes it extra emotionally endearing with tons of visitor characters. Even with some minor nuisances, it is a incredible entry within the sequence that’s properly value taking part in.
The sport can also be a pleasure to play on the Steam Deck. We are able to play it at 45 FPS on the very best settings, and though there are a few areas which are bottlenecked, a majority of the sport will run with ease, and it is superb to see.
Our assessment is predicated on the PC model of this recreation.
Should you loved this assessment, make sure to try the remainder of the content material on SteamDeckHQ! We’ve got all kinds of recreation critiques and information which are certain to assist your gaming expertise. Whether or not you are in search of information, ideas and tutorials, recreation settings and critiques, or simply wish to keep up-to-date on the most recent traits, we have got your again.