(Winner of the "Plot and Backstory Award" for best representation of women, speech below)

Gust keeps cookin' up new ways for us to appreciate the Ryza games. Over this robust video game trilogy, the titular Ryza has shaped up into a well-rounded woman.

All of her assets are on display here: Her extensive knowledge of alchemy, her kindness, her charm... and as we explore her huge tracts of land, we can't help but appreciate how she's grown and how she has captured our... hearts, with her quirky charm.

And what talent she posseses! Civic engineering, economics, fighting off an extradimensional invasion.. all in a day's work for our perky protagonist.

And who could complain about this presumed final entry, with all of her old friends and allies joining in on the fun?

The past three games have been a long and satisfying ride, and while she's already called a cab and left for work, there'd certainly be no complaints if our alluring alchemist had us coming again.

I have a thing with Atelier games. I don't like finishing them. I can't fully explain why, I think it has to do with the vibes. I always find myself trying to prolong these games for some reason. With Atelier Ryza 3, that was multiplied to 100. Ok, between finishing my Zeldathon, Tears of the Kingdom, the trip to Spain i took, and finishing up the semester, along with work, it definitely took time out of me finishing this game. But it worked, because I didn't want to finish it. I'm still counting this game as a game i played in 2023 and it's going on the list but man, never before have i prolonged a game like this.

To kick things off, if i had a nickel for every 2023 game that is a sequel that reused the world map from it's predecessor while adding to it, i'd have three nickels, which isn't a lot, it's just weird it's happened thrice. Granted, unlike TotK and Spider-Man 2, the reused map isn't the "main" map if that makes sense, in fact it hardly matters this time.

I'm actually gonna start by listing some negatives first: while it's clear that Gust wanted the Secret trilogy to end with a bang, they banged too much, because the size of this game's areas isn't really justified. It's a technological achievement for the team for sure but by a certain point i was preferring the smaller maps. It didn't help that it's actually surprisingly easy to get lost in this game, in the sense that the navigation is pretty poor. I never had this problem with Atelier games before which is surprising to me that i'd encounter it here. I didn't have this problem with Xenoblade areas, which are still bigger than what's found here, so it leads me to believe that there's just something wrong with how Ryza 3 handled navigation.

Another negative i have with the game is the combat, specifically how enemies are handled. For some strange reason, enemies scale with your level so even in the starting area, you'll be coming across Lv.80 enemies eventually. Of course by that point in the game you'd have long snapped the game's balance in two but it's still just an odd decision. The Key system that is supposed to be central to the game (look at the title) is lame and undercooked and i barely used it except when I had to.

With these points, it seems like the game is a step back compared to it's predecessor and it some ways it still kinda is. In others, it's a great improvement. While navigation sucks, movement is actually pretty good, well as good as it can get for this sort of game. No longer do you have to stop in your tracks to gather items, you can just zoom around picking up everything and anything. How Ryza does this in heels i have no idea. You have different animal buddies you can ride. You can create wind surfing shoes that let you schmove down slopes. It's all pretty fun. The combat itself is mostly the same from Ryza 2 i think but it actually fixed my biggest problem i had in that game, the stun mechanics. In Ryza 2, whenever a boss would prep a big attack, you are given the opportunity to stun it by fulfilling certain conditions.....except it didn't matter anyways. Ryza 3 fixed this, i found myself stunning the bosses much more consistently by following the instructions.

The characters and story beats are also good. This game follows Lydie & Suelle in being a "trilogy ender" game that actually feels like it's ending the trilogy, as opposed to simply being a third game. Character arcs are wrapped up nicely and everyone is given a chance to shine despite the fact that there's 11 total party members, which isn't actually the highest number for an Atelier game but is a rather high number for all being part of the story. It was just really nice and pleasant to see. I'm truly gonna miss the Secret crew though i'm sure they'll be back in 2029 for the 10th anniversary of Ryza. My only complaint with the characters has less to do with them and moreso how character events are handled. This ties into my issues with the map but the character events feel "less accessible" than in previous games since they're no longer relegated to just the hub area.

The thing about this game's story and probably a big reason of why i held off on finishing it is because it hits pretty relevant right now. A subtle element to the narrative here is how growing up means that you'll be seeing your pals less often. It doesn't mean that you'll never see them again (though that might happen eventually) but the road of life often means going separate but connected paths. This probably would've hit even harder if i was a high schooler graduating but even as a 24 year old in college, i still strongly resonated with this. I hated school back in the day but i do find myself reminiscing on at least the simpler days back when the responsibilities were low and you could do relatively anything. Of course, despite it all, you still have to keep moving forward.

Music. Music in this game is still the good Gust stuff i know and love. Admittedly the battle themes are kinda lacking in this unfortunately but that's where good ol' "change BGM" came in. Final boss plays the game's main theme tho and that's based. Environmental themes are good, no issues there.

Once again, i am giving a game a higher score than i would've because the ending is very good. Love the ending. Even if i hate endings. I wish things didn't have to end. You know why Doctor Who is the greatest show ever? Cause it doesn't end, it just keeps on going and going and going, it is designed to not end. Endings suck.

.....nah but jokes aside, this game was the perfect sendoff for the Secret trilogy. And now we wait for the next Atelier game. Not the gacha shit, i mean the actual next Atelier game.

Great game, but I think Ryza 2 is my favorite of the trilogy. This game feels like it takes a lot of the fluff out of Ryza 2 and replaces it with different fluff, like a needlessly big, SMT5-adjacent overworld that makes it really hard to find specific materials and enemies without looking it up. The fact that there are a staggering 11 party members; 4 more than the previous game; constrains resources quite a lot, as you really need to be crafting the best gear you can for everybody to keep up with the increasing power of enemies. Before you get to that, though, the early game for this one is such a drag; it takes a really long time before it feels like you're really in the swing of things and crafting some quality stuff, and for the first 10-12 hours of the game, you're gonna be stuck scraping by with whatever crappy gear and items you can get.

That being said, once it does get going, it really gets going; it's got by far and away the deepest and most complex crafting and combat systems in the trilogy. All of it culminates into a very satisfying game to sink your teeth into, even if some of it feels a bit undercooked, and some of it overwhelming. Loved the new iteration of the Wind Shoes.