As a relative newcomer to the franchise, and an expat of its mobile sibling, I welcomed the announcement of Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian, the second game in the Atelier family to release this year.
The lineage of this new entry in Gust’s long-running franchise is a little trickier to trace than usual. Instead of establishing its own world like most games in the series, The Red Alchemist & The White Guardian is set in the same region, Lantarna, as the mobile game Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and the Polar Night Liberator. This gacha-based game was originally conceived as a brand new story and a commemoration of Atelier‘s 25th, but its global version shut down back in January, after only a year of service.
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian picks up around the time of a major event in the mobile game, where protagonists Resna and Valeria led a courageous effort to defeat a terrible beast. Yet, while the two games’ stories run concurrent to each other, and Gust is treating them as two halves of the same whole, there’s absolutely no need to have any knowledge of the mobile game to play the console game.
The console Atelier Resleriana focuses on two different heroes, Rias and Slade. Both hail from the town of Hallfein, which was destroyed years prior in a mysterious accident. Rias hopes to reopen her grandfather’s store, while Slade is carrying out a mission related to his late father. Joining forces to pursue their aligned goals, the duo set about exploring, restoring the town, and—since this is an Atelier game—unlocking the art of alchemy.
“Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian handles its cavalcade of alumni cameos well, in a manner that shouldn’t seem too jarring for absolute newcomers.”
It should be fairly familiar ground for anyone who’s played this series before: advance the story, explore the area, harvest ingredients, craft new gear, repeat. To the series’ credit, however, each game manages to keep the experience somewhat distinct and interesting. The systems here are more reminiscent of the Atelier Ryza paradigm, with a dash of sensibilities from its mobile counterpart.
First, Atelier Resleriana sets itself apart from its peers with its dual-protagonist approach. Where other Atelier games are focused on the titular alchemist, this outing allows players to choose either Rias or Slade to start the game with. That character’s perspective is shown from the outset, though they cross paths fairly early on, and can then be swapped at will in the game’s main environments.
It’s a setup that sounds like Resident Evil 2 or Star Ocean: The Second Story on paper. In execution, however, the concept falls somewhat flat. We’re mostly privy to both characters’ thoughts, depending on the situation, and the choice has few ramifications. It’s not the first in the series to have two main characters, but it was somewhat unique to have a male lead promoted in this way, and it’s disappointing to see it amount to little more than a short-lived gimmick.
Starter choice aside, the original cast of Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian walks the typical line for the series: more than paper cutouts of cliche anime characters, but not breaking new ground either. The heroes are likeable and have compelling arcs individually and as a duo, and the supporting cast of NPCs is about the same.
As an anniversary title, however, there is a prominent contingent of guest characters from previous Atelier titles, which is also a given since these alumni were all over the mobile game’s gacha system. To its credit, Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian handles its cavalcade of alumni cameos well, in a manner that shouldn’t seem too jarring for absolute newcomers.
In fact, most of the playable party is made up of characters from previous games, as Raze, Willbell, Totori, and Sophie fill out the 6-hero unit. The game tidies the plot threads all away neatly by explaining that it’s actually common to see “wanderers” from other worlds fitting into Lantarna’s society. Others will drop by as the town’s restoration efforts progress, with an impressive roster of up to 28 characters stopping by.
“What really ties all the elements of Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian together, however, is the town restoration element.”
Atelier Resleriana‘s party fills in hero by hero, to gradually build out its unique new spin on combat, which returns to a turn-based format. The party is divided into a front line and a rear guard, with the front line participating actively. Players can swap these rosters mid-battle by calling in a rear guard character with a “Multi-action” attack, where both characters use a skill in tandem.
In typical Atelier fashion, battles come down to managing action resources—like the Action Points required to use skills, or the Technical Points to use Multi-actions or interrupt an enemy’s turn—while considering usual RPG concerns like turn order, elemental matchups, and so on. Gradually increasing the party’s size eases players into this paradigm pretty efficiently, and battles are as fun and breezy as other recent installments in the series despite ditching the more active approach.
It helps that exploration revolves heavily around not just the usual natural locales, but “dimensional paths.” These otherworldly dungeons are semi-randomized, changing the configurations of enemies and harvestable ingredients—offering a welcome break from the static environments. As they scale with your heroes’ level, they help alleviate some of the potential monotony from the whole hunting-and-gathering process.
As is typical, gathered resources can be used in alchemy to craft upgraded ingredients and equipment. It’s a core tenant of the franchise, like an open-ended puzzle that yields better gear, depending on which puzzle pieces you gathered from the outside world.
This may be the most similar gameplay system between the two Atelier Resleriana games, although the console version didn’t adapt the “teamwork alchemy” concept of its older sibling—just the colour-matching component for combining ingredients. Instead there are new forking paths in recipes, where using certain items can yield a new offshoot result. Alchemy has its own unique flavour here, but remains familiar enough to other Atelier games, and can still be an absolute time-eater.
What really ties all the elements of Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian together, however, is the town restoration element. Fulfilling Rias’ dream of rebuilding her grandfather’s business runs concurrent to the rebuilding of Hallfein (an effort which her older sister, Camilla, oversees), and this endeavour gives the game a cozy element that feeds synergistically into all other departments.
The goods the party gathers from the outside world or crafts at the atelier can be sold at the family’s store, Mistletoe Miscellaneous, in a sort of minigame. Stock the shelves, appoint a crew of fairie employees, and open the doors to earn a day’s worth of revenue—gold which can then be invested in buying more resources, or put directly into Hallfein’s restoration efforts. Increasing the town’s ranks increases the inventory at other merchants in-town, who offer new recipes and goods for alchemy… which can be used to craft better goods for sale, and the cycle repeats.
Adding this second set of turning gears into the series’ existing machinery scratched an itch I didn’t know I had. It’s a cherry on top that validates and feeds into all other aspects of the game—its story, crafting, gathering, and battling. Best of all, the impacts of your efforts are reflected in the town itself, which gradually comes alive as you level up its departments.
I also appreciated this aspect having played the mobile Atelier Resleriana long enough to see the events referenced in the console version. While not a required experience, having seen the devastation of the Apexi added a layer of emotional resonance to rebuilding a destroyed settlement. Thankfully for otherm mobile veterans, Resna makes an early appearance in the story, alongside her stalwart friend Izalna, and Valeria isn’t far off… although I can’t help but lament that they weren’t amongst the six playable characters. A new perspective on Lantarna is great, but the “Resleriana” aspect should’ve been
While I still enjoyed Atelier Yumia‘s own innovations earlier this year, Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian was more of the follow-up to the Atelier Ryza trilogy that I’d hoped for, as someone who only came to the series through reviewing those titles. Yumia’s rifle-staff and sprawling open world areas were fun, but I’d like to see more of Rias’ store and rural restoration approach, moving forward.
The overall experience has a somewhat “cozy” feel that’s right at home with the focus on building one’s own magic workshop. This sort of scope feels more natural for the series, too, tying back into its origins.
And like Atelier Ryza, Atelier Resleriana is a great place to hop aboard the series (and not only because of the coziness). It introduces other familiar faces that pop up frequently, including Ryza herself, and offers a sufficient cross-section of what the franchise is all about: not reinventing the wheel that is roleplaying games, but offering a solid hybrid of classic JRPGs and crafting, that’s great for unwinding at the end of the day.
