This is a review of the DX version

Atelier Lydie & Suelle is the best game in the Mysterious series of Atelier games and it's not even a question. While the previous two games ranged from meh to alright, L&S injects a ton of life into this subseries and the game itself is on par with the better Atelier games in most regards. This is currently the only Mysterious game where i can say i liked the entire cast, not a single member felt weak. However, there is a caveat here in that this game's cast is mainly made up of returning characters, even moreso than any Atelier title, which i feel vindicates how i feel about the overall cast of this trilogy. What's good here however is that i feel that the new characters can hold their own even without the support of the returning characters. Lydie & Suelle are fun to be around with and is just another example that multiple protagonists is usually better than just having one. The twins bounce off each other so well so i was definitely invested in their struggle.

The alchemy system in this game is basically the same as in Atelier Firis, except it's objectively better, as it's now much easier to get those bonus tiles since there's no more weird lines you have to line up, something that made Atelier Firis' alchemy rather tricky. In fact, i went back to Atelier Firis to see if i was just being bad or if the alchemy system there kinda sucks and you know, i'm feeling the latter on that. Tbh, even after all this time, i'm still not completely sold on this trilogy's way of doing alchemy but i can say i easily had the most fun with that method in this game. The combat in this game resembles that of the latter two Atelier Dusk games as well as Atelier Lulua and i really liked the combat in those games so it's natural that i would like it here too.

This is one of the few times in the series where i have to give praise to the world design. This game's "gimmick" is the various worlds you visit inside paintings, which allowed Gust to come up with more creative world designs. In the grand scheme of things, it's not super amazing but it did allow for some more "out there" world concepts and it even when it's simple, i still found myself really liking. The Starlight Plain, for example, is exactly what it says it is: a vast plain underneath a very starry sky. But the visuals there combined with the music (Atelier music wins again btw) made it become a favorite among the series. It sucks that half the OST just isn't on YouTube.

Out of all the "third games" in Atelier, this one feels the most like a conclusion. A lot of character arcs set up in the first two Mysterious titles are brought to their natural conclusion in this game, whereas usually character arcs are contained to whatever game they started in (which makes sense why the upcoming Atelier Sophie 2 is a midquel). This does have a slight personal negative tho because if it were up to me, i'd say skip Atelier Sophie and maybe Atelier Firis (i say maybe cause i still found it decent) but then you wouldn't get the full experience out of this game if you do. I mean, it's Atelier, so it's all pretty simple, but still. This game also has some weird missing QoL. You can't fast travel within dungeons which becomes a bit of a tedious issue if you need to revisit areas with multiple sections. The true ending has a rather obscure requirement that is totally possible to miss without any indication that you would've needed it. Considering this game has no other missable events besides that, that's especially jarring.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle ends the trilogy with a bang, and it needed to be. While i wish the Mysterious trilogy was overall stronger, i do appreciate what the game did and i'm glad i'm able to complete the Mysterious trilogy feeling good. Especially since, as of this moment, i have played every modern Atelier title currently released.