Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings for PS4 is just as adorable as it is addicting. This RPG by Japanese developers, Gust, is the nineteenth installment of the mega-popular Atelier series. The popularity is well founded.
As with all Atelier games, alchemy is the dominant theme of gameplay. In this installment, we play as twin girls, Lydie and Suelle, whom play parents to their widowed father while simultaneously keeping the family atelier afloat. The girls’ main objective is to collect and synthesize materials to improve their alchemy rating to increase the complexity of the items they can develop, but more importantly, to make their atelier the most prestigious in the kingdom.
The first striking element in this game is the spectacular design of the world and the characters within. Scenery colors capture the eye in both contrasting and complementary tones of vivid brights and rich pastels. Flowers are saturated hues of tropical sunsets, water is a nearly-translucent shade of turquoise, and the pastel brushstrokes that frame gameplay inside the magic paintings are fantastically airy. All characters, playable and non playable, are crafted with careful detail. Characters remain true to Japanese anime style—female characters have exaggerated figures, extravagant fashion, and beautifully colored eyes and hair. Male characters are tall, slim, and have distinctive hairstyles.
The witty humor in Atelier Lydie & Suelle adds a welcome richness to what would otherwise be very vanilla cutscenes. While the frequent cinematic insertions are commonplace in lighthearted RPGs such as this, a quarter of these scenes would be more than enough. The majority of the game’s conflicts are between the characters and are introduced through these cutscenes, but a good portion of them seem pointless and lack contribution to the main storyline. Example: the girls develop a friendship with master alchemist, Ilmeria, who serves as their mentor and frequently rescues them from trouble. Ilmeria visits the girls’ atelier frequently to introduce new components of alchemy, which serve a significant purpose in the game, but many of her visits are only to deliver treats and make idle chit-chat in drawn-out scenes that cannot be skipped.
While at times gameplay can be a little tedious, there are plenty of mini quests to combat the repetitious nature of fighting monsters and foraging items to synthesize. Most side quests are opportunities to make money to purchase and customize weapons for battle, but some are to build relationships with the townspeople. Doing favors for NPCs may seem like a waste of time and sometimes it is, but it is to your benefit to fulfill a good majority of them, as often times you will be rewarded generously in gifts or assistance.
Unlike some other open world RPGs, opportunities to customize the game’s storyline are very limited. When you’re asked to do an action by one of the characters that pertains to the plot, them asking you is essentially rhetorical because the opportunity to refuse is nonexistent. But what this does share in common with the genre’s contemporaries is that the repeated foraging, battling, and creating are almost instantly addicting.
While your logical mind is telling you that you’re tired of searching the map for water crystals, you’ll do it anyway, and although you’ll hate yourself (just a little bit) for spending so much time on it, that feeling of triumph will override any regrets.
Rating: 8.5/10
Watch the Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Painting Gameplay Video:
PlayStation 4 Review
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Overall Score - 8.5/108.5/10
Kendra grew up in the era where playing Donkey Kong in the dentist's office was a thing. Her creative mind enjoys the imaginative genius that goes into the intricate worlds and enticing narratives that have become the new wave of gaming. Forever a devotee of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro, Kendra has stepped into the next generation of gaming with favorites like God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Spider-Man. She is always looking for the next gaming challenge and utilizes her fancy English degree to articulate her detailed reviews for hungry gamers like you.
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