Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings Reviews
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings has allowed me to rediscover why I fell in love with the series in the first place. And though I did find the lack of characters and inconsistent translation frustrating, just about everything else blew me away.
Atelier Lydie & Suelle is a lovely relaxing turn based RPG that suffers from some aspects that make it feel rushed but still a welcome improvement from Firis that nearly killed the franchise for me.
If you really love crafting, Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Paintings might be your jam. But if you like literally any other aspect of a typical JRPG, you're going to be disappointed. It might be worth $20 for the curiosity, but at $60, I really can't recommend it to anyone who doesn't already like the series.
Atelier Lydie & Suelle isn't as innovative as its predecessors, but that doesn't mean you should write it off entirely - it tells a charming and captivating story that ends up being the best tale in the whole Mysterious trilogy. There are plenty of enchanting areas to explore as well, and as always, there's a deep alchemy system for you to master.
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings is a serviceable entry in the long-running JRPG series by Gust, offering an experience that's surely entertaining, but not as good as Atelier Firis. Additionally, the lack of any real innovation in both story and gameplay departments translates into a very predictable game.
_____________________ “With its liberal utilization of brilliant hues, playful melodic tones and exceedingly enthusiastic characters make for a pleasant and light hearted experience.
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings is one of the weakest games in the series. There are a number of interesting elements, but it's not enough - the gameplay is too dull.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Despite lacking the variety of previous Atelier games, Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings has a happy charm that makes it hard to put down.
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings knows what it wants to be, and for the most part, it delivers. Those looking for style and substance will only find the former in abundance, but there's just enough of the latter to keep Lydie and Suelle's adventure interesting enough to explore deeper. Just don't expect to become too invested in any of the game's story or characters. For a world that's built on the notion that the sum can be greater than the whole of its parts, Atelier Lydie & Suelle never becomes more than its addictive gameplay and two-dimensional protagonists, for better or for worse.
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings has a good battle system and premise, but overall I wanted more from the final entry in the Mysterious trilogy. It seems like a missed opportunity to not include an open world and instead opt for a streamlined adventure with quick travel being the only option for exploration. As main protagonists, Lydie and Suelle are fantastic, but I felt like they deserved better. If you're looking for a solid story and a decent battle system or if you're a long time, Atelier fan than Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings might work for you, but I was left unimpressed.
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings is another solid chapter in the current era of Gust's franchise about heroines drawn to alchemy—and that's said in both a good and a bad way. If you've enjoyed previous Atelier games for what they've been, then twins Lydie and Suelle are ready to take you on another adventure of crafting items, fighting monsters, and uncovering the secrets that hang over their homeland. However, if you've been hoping for some real progress or change in the Atelier formula, that recipe, sadly, remains undiscovered.
Atelier Lydie & Suelle is a rather standard entry to the Atelier series. Content with relying on a pretty standard setup, the game doesn't innovate or move forwards, although fans of the series will no doubt be interested in the new story alone. It's a pretty interesting take on the ridiculously wide genre of RPGs, with a much heavier focus being given to its deep crafting system, but that might not be enough to convince new players on its own.
Atelier Lydie & Suelle': The Alchemist and the Myterious Paintings looks like an efficient and long RPG with some good mechanics but will clearly fail to impress or surprise you (except if we talk about its expensive DLC), as its lacks novelty. If you're a true fan, you'll get what you want. If you're not familiar with the series, you could give it a try with this Switch version.
Review in French | Read full review
A novel, thematic conceit is the most interesting element of this repetitive experience; the rest is weighed down by crybaby characters and vague, unsatisfying gameplay objectives. Atelier is overdue for a revamp.
19th Atelier game, celebrating 20th anniversary of the series, gave up an open world but cute twin sisters make up for this omission. All in all, it's a good old alchemic series from Gust, for which fans have been waiting.
Review in Polish | Read full review
If you love the Atelier series, want to play with some cute girls or simply enjoy anime/manga tropes, odds are this will be a winner. However, if you're hoping for a combat driven or deeper experience, elements of that are certainly here, it just requires a fair amount of time invested. If that doesn't sound bad, give it a go, otherwise you might want to consider sitting this one out.
With its bland story and uninteresting characters, this is a series that is in a dire need of a substantive reboot.
Given how many incredible JRPGs the PS4 already has, this wouldn't even be near the top of my recommendations for the genre on the platform- but if you're looking for a nice, sweet game to relax with, you could do far worse than Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings.
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings is the kind of game that's best played when one just wants to sit back and relax for a while.
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings is a delightful 3D turn based RPG that successfully melds slice-of-life with fantastical environments.