Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian Reviews
Part dungeon crawler, part economy sim, Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian has a lot going on without being too complicated. The graphics and overworld controls land somewhere between nostalgic for PS2-era JRPGs and perhaps underwhelming for a modern game, but more attention has been placed on characters and enemies, which pop with energy and are given extra life by enthusiastic actors. The story and characters have a charm that reflects the laid-back but never underwhelming gameplay, which offers many different subsystems or metagames players can often choose how much or how little to focus on. Performing alchemy is a minigame itself, as is running the shop, and combining it all means The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian offers hours of content, carried by charming characters who have believable motives, often driven by their own care for each other, and making this a no-brainer for anyone who wants a dense JRPG they can pour hours into on the go.
This latest Atelier game is a delightful RPG that will let you escape to another world.
Between a restrained scope and structure that harkens back to the Atelier games of old, a bevvy of fresh gameplay twists to call its own, and a metric ton of fanservice for veterans, Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian feels like a triumphant celebration of the entire series' legacy.More importantly, it's just a really great RPG experience. Appropriately, it mixes together a bunch of quality ingredients - a heartwarming narrative, strategic and dynamic turn-based combat, complex crafting systems - and synthesises them into a jolly little romp of an adventure. There's certainly a bump in the road or two, but the ride is too enjoyable to linger on those for long.
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian doesn't exactly carve out it's own path - you can tell it's part of a bigger picture, and it's a shame that bigger picture is inaccessible due to the fleeting nature of gacha games. Still, taken on its own, this is an incredibly fun Atelier entry with an exciting new shopkeeping system that I hope is a major and bigger focus in future entries.
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian looks and feels cheap (I hate to go there, but it’s unavoidable) to play, and is full of what feel like kitbashed structural systems clumsily molded into a single player game that suffers from its connection to a failed gacha joint. It bums me out to say it, but that’s the vibe.
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & The White Guardian marks a return to the series' roots, abandoning recent experiments in favor of a more traditional, alchemy-focused approach. With a solid and relaxing crafting system, a charming cast of familiar faces, and a light yet engaging story, it delivers a comforting and enjoyable experience for long-time fans. However, a very low difficulty level, outdated exploration design, and uninspired dungeon layouts keep it from standing out, making this a solid but non-essential entry in Gust's beloved franchise.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and The White Guardian leans into the old staples that the franchise sustained itself on, focusing on turn-based combat and crafting to win the day. Several elements take a step back from what recent titles in the franchise have done, instead focusing more on farming instead of exploring. It's still about alchemy, but getting to the alchemy is more repetition and less discovery. For longtime fans of the series, the Atelier formula is still there for a good time. With that said, newer fans may recoil a bit if they first jumped into the franchise alongside Ryza, Sophie, and Yumia.
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian succeeds through the strength of the sum of its parts. Its story and dialogue are a bit obtrusive at points, but the simple loop of fashioning items to flog them to forge even better ones is compelling. With strategic turn-based combat and breezy presentation, this is an overall enjoyable RPG time sink – even if its character designs and anime tropes may immediately turn some players away.
All in all, Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian is a slow-paced but cute JRPG with an expansive crafting system. If you like Atelier games, you’ll have fun with it. If you’ve never tried an Atelier game, it’s not a bad place to start. Just don’t expect something revolutionary from a slice of life game about grief, town development, and alchemy.
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian is a series callback not just with its familiar characters, but in the simplified exploration, synthesis, and turn-based combat, too. Fans of older Atelier games may welcome the change, but it may have simplified too much for those seeking a challenge worthy of its price tag.
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian isn't a revolutionary addition to the RPG genre, but nails down its execution well enough to be an entertaining game in its own right. The alchemy system is surprisingly deep while its combat mechanics are decent for an evening of fun without the need to master enemy attack patterns and party windows.
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian never once feels like it was developed beyond the boardroom meeting of its conception. It fails to venture beyond the foundations that the series has set for itself or delve into the world of innovation and experimentation that the series is known for. Superfans of the series may find something to love here, but for those who don’t care to dig that deep, they will find a mish-mash of boring dungeons, a bland story, mind-numbing levels of repetition, and a plethora of design shortcomings in a setting that requires prior knowledge of the world.
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & The White Guardian is a grand time in the Atelier series. It is fun and returns to the roots of the series, even by bringing back past characters from the series. It still suffers from the difficulties of the previous Atelier games, but fans will love it.
Atelier Resleriana's console outing is both a crash-course in the franchise's core tenets, and a welcome breath of cozy-esque fresh air.
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian follows the series' established path while refining systems that were already well-received in past entries. Its combat and alchemy are among the stronger aspects of the series, and though exploration feels fairly standard, details like the tracking function noticeably improve the experience. For longtime fans, the chance to reunite with many familiar faces may be its greatest strength.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
Koei Tecmo and Gust added yet another page of fantastic alchemy goodness to their long list of ateliers, not just for ongoing fans, but maybe a few new ones looking for another good JRPG to enjoy.
Continuing the Atelier Resleriana series in this form after pulling the plug on Forgotten Alchemy and the Polar Night Liberator is a fitting decision. It's a delightful Atelier game, peppered with characters from previous installments.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
A fun entry that takes a look back at the experiences that allowed us to get here
Its title may be a mouthful, but Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian is an excellent entry into the long-running Atelier series. Series fans will love the wealth of familiar faces that pop up, and JRPG fans will love its tight story, its fun combat and its varied gameplay.
There’s still a lot to like here — I appreciate combat and alchemy systems that make you think at least a little bit. I just wish this had either been a direct adaption of Forgotten Alchemy & the Liberator of Polar Night, or a completely original game instead.