Review | Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout

A short review

Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout is a turn-based role-playing video game developed by Gust (they did all the other ones as well), and originally released in Japan for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows in September 2019. It was released in North America in October 2019 and the rest of the world in November 2019 for the same consoles. It is the twenty-first main entry (missed much?!) in the Atelier series and the first of the Secret storyline. An updated version of the game with additional playable characters and content, titled Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout DX, is scheduled for release on November 13, 2025 on the same platforms, also including PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 as part of the Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy Deluxe Pack.

You can easily play the current version, although PS5 Pro has some weird graphical glitches and unstable frame rate at times. Still, in games such as these that is no issue, but you can wait for the DX version if you prefer that to be fixed (which hopefully will).

Other than that, there is not much to add here. This is my second Atelier game, and although I had some mixed feelings about it, this one is decent. If you hate mixing items and progressing based on what you create, probably skip this one and the entire series. I loved that part, and the turn-based combat was a lot of fun. Let's dig in!

Meet the crew! A fun little crew in a fun little town in a fun little adventure, followed by awesome music

Story and the characters

I can't really say that the story is something else. It's a well-known save-the-world scenario with a couple of twists. It all revolves around your party: Ryza, who is the protagonist and the new alchemist in town, and a couple of other members that go alongside. It's a solid crew, well-written, but really casual in terms of seriousness. Think of it as a "feels good" game where you mix and progress, and not much else is happening. We can even say it's very predictable.

I do love the music and the atmosphere, it felt like home. Ryza is a great character, and she and the rest of the crew have a backstory. Whether you progress the story or the side quests, you will learn more about the town, dungeons, and the characters. I really dig that, nothing feels fetchy. It's all about the progress while leveling up your characters and progressing through the dungeons. Really simple, but really fun.

There is just something right about the good progression system. I love when the game offers more and more when you have more, and challenge you and unlock more fun mechanics and lore bits.

Game design, exploration

Like mentioned, you progress the story, craft, and complete more and more dungeons. You go deeper, fight some bosses, rinse and repeat. It may sound dull, but it's fun. The whole crafting system is huge, a bit complicated, but it makes a lot of sense and it's well-balanced.

I love the dungeon design, even its simplicity. You can find optional boss challenges, some treasure chests, even some unreachable areas that you can access only when you craft certain terrain accessories. As you will constantly gather materials, you will need more tools like hatchets, bomb hammers, etc., and all of that matters inside dungeons and wherever you can find materials. I love this part; it makes you gather and combine to unlock more and more in terms of exploring.

Even quests tend to be fun, although fetchy, but each quest adds story/town progress, so completing them makes sense. I love when they have some impact on the game and your progress. Having a hub (a house) later on is also a great addition. The game offers multiple fun factors and spending 40 hours is just enough to enjoy almost everything the game has to offer.

Treasure hunt was cool. Even though it's marked on the map, it's still a challenge to reach some areas for which you need optional tools with certain skills.

Combat

Combat is like Grandia games — you have an action bar and your characters get turns based on their speed. You can attack or use skills, or items that you've crafted. It's all about finding the balance. You can't abuse items; they deplete the item usage limit. You can't spam skills; they need action points which rise when you attack or use items. You can even raise the action bar level, or spend these points to override the turn and activate some special attacks if you meet certain conditions.

I had a lot of fun in combat, because it combines with crafting. There are also party member challenges that once completed, add passive skills. The only downside here is that you can't use backup party members as you see fit, for example, some characters only go in the front row and can replace only some, not all of your party. This means if you want Lent, you can't have him and some other members in at the same time. Too bad, plus, you can't change them during fights. It would be a great addition.

Other than that, I loved breaking enemies’ guard bars and disrupting their plans. Play on Normal, it's just enough of a challenge.

I just love the colors and the art direction. The anime-styled turn-based JRPG's are my favourite games and this style is no exception.

Side Content

Side content was already mentioned, but it's all about crafting whatever an NPC needs, or killing some enemies for them. Simple, but as they give more lore and revolve around town progression, it's a good game segment.

The rest is about finding monument discoveries around the world, writing logs, killing optional bosses, and mostly it's about crafting stuff and breaking the game with high-quality mixing. You can even duplicate all items you can craft, which was something I loved truly. I was not frustrated, but the game doesn't really explain everything, so it might take a while to understand how to transfer Traits (passive skills on equipment) and how to achieve higher quality.

And lastly, since you need materials, you need to craft every type of terrain tool to reach and harvest all points. For example, destroying a wood log with a hammer gives different materials compared to using an axe. Cool stuff.

Make sure to find some good harvesting point to farm game currencies so you can craft better and better equipment and items. It's a well-rounded system that you can break, but there are challenges that expect that from you.

Conclusion

If you prefer casual turn-based RPGs (JRPGs) with a basic story, solid characters, and light themes, alongside heavy crafting and gathering of materials, Atelier feels like home. For someone who is not really into such games, I want to play the rest in the series. As long as they keep this formula, I'm in.

Also, be aware of boobs bigger than heads. Why they keep doing that, I have no idea.