Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy Deluxe Pack review – adorable JRPG

Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy Deluxe Pack arrived to recapture Ryza’s adventures, in an era in which Gust has already transitioned to Yumia, the latest game and the most refined version of its formula. Atelier Yumia is one of my favorite games of 2025 and any dedicated fan of JRPGs has already found a special place in their heart for the Atelier series, but while I eagerly await what Gust will do next, revisiting the Ryza trilogy was much more interesting than I would have imagined.

This Trilogy Deluxe Pack includes improved and expanded versions of Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout (2019), Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy (2021), and Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key (2023), three of Gust’s best Atelier games, which when played in these DX versions clearly show the journey of evolution achieved here. Whether in the combat system or the design of the game world.

Ryza’s trilogy began as a very simple JRPG, with a fragmented design and a simple combat system, but from game to game it exhibited strong improvements in combat mechanics and the world, in addition to expanding, became much less fragmented. Many may even be surprised to see that 2021’s Atelier Ryza 2 already displays many of the combat mechanics that have made Clair Obscur highly praised around the world.

Lovely stories of personal discovery and alchemy

Reisalin Stout is a young teenager who, without imagining it, is about to live the memorable adventure she so desires, whether to escape the life that is too peaceful for her rebellious spirit, or to find the much-desired greater purpose for her life. Atelier Ryza begins as a coming-of-age story, of teenagers trying to find their place in the world as they are about to become young adults. However, Gust creates these stories around alchemy.

Without imagining it, Ryza lives on an island very close to a land of mysteries and wonders, but only when she begins to learn the art of alchemy does she find her real purpose and interest. Along the journey, new characters appear that change her life, which eventually takes her to the capital in the second game to expand horizons and learn more. When you meet her in the third game, she is already a well-known alchemist in her homeland, but she has no idea that she will live another adventure with the destiny of the world in her hands.

The Atelier da Gust series does not focus so much on grandiose villains with the end of the world in sight or wars between empires like other RPG series, it is much more down to earth, focused on a banal everyday life with alchemy at the center of journeys of personal growth. It’s part of its charm and when you have a protagonist as captivating as Ryza, everything becomes more interesting.

These Deluxe editions include more story scenes, more playable characters, but still nothing that is really mandatory for anyone who has already played them. However, new players have a kind of expanded remaster that becomes even more interesting, but the charm comes from what is already in the original versions, such as the combat systems.

Dynamic combat systems

Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy Deluxe Pack is really a very interesting journey through Gust’s recent past, especially because it allows us to quickly understand the evolution achieved over 5 years and which has benefited Atelier Yumia so much. The combat system is one of the best ways to realize this. As with story design, progression and world activities, collecting items for alchemy recipes is a very important part of game design, something that also applies to combat systems.

In the first game, turn-based combat is simple, even compared to JRPGs at the time, but in the second game you have a much greater dynamism, which reaches its best version in the third game. The design of attacking to gain points that allow you to use special skills, protecting at the right time to reduce damage, constantly switching between characters, using items and managing systems that allow you to attack faster or more aggressively still remain fun.

When it comes to story and world design, it won’t be easy to find a consensus on the best game in Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy Deluxe Pack, everyone has their points in favor, but in the combat system, it’s an exciting crescendo that Gust achieves with several improvements. That’s why you should play the games in order of release, not just for narrative reasons, but because after playing 2, you’ll have a hard time going back to the simpler, less exciting combat of the first. Between 3 and 2 the difference is not that much, but it is noticeable.

The rhythm and dynamism of combat increases from game to game, the same mechanics are presented in an in-depth way to make everything even more fun, the controls become more intuitive, and the mechanic of protecting at the right time means that you are constantly paying attention. Until Yumia arrived, it was the best Gust could do.

Improvements to an evolving design

Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy Deluxe Pack includes more playable characters in each game, more story scenes, graphical improvements, better performance and benefits such as faster loading times that are related to the arrival of more powerful hardware, but still, the design of each game plays a fundamental role in how each game will leave an impression on you. Understandably, the first game is more humble, with a fragmented design as it is divided into several small-scale areas, separated by constant loading.

Along with the simpler combat, the fragmented design could make it the worst game in the series, but in terms of narrative, it’s easy to see it as many players’ favorite, with its own charm. The second expands this fragmented design with larger areas, greatly improves the combat system, but the story around dungeon exploration and how that shapes the progression design built around alchemy can detract from some of its appeal.

The third game is definitely the one that most meets current standards, after all it was released 2 years ago, but as Gust’s first experience in large-scale and open designs, it leaves something to be desired. The game world is huge, with large-scale open areas, so large that they detract from the experience as there is not much interesting to do in each area. The improvements to the fast travel system in Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy Deluxe Pack help to overcome this, but it is still easy to see that this first Gust test did not go well.

You have lots of huge areas that aren’t particularly interesting to explore, that just seem like giant areas to collect recipe items, without arousing a taste for exploration. Ryza 3’s grand design may even bother some players and it’s easy to feel that Yumia has a better balance and open design approach than Gust began testing in the 2023 game. At the same time, this means that it may be difficult to find a consensus on the best and most balanced game in the series, as there are technical aspects that favor the release order, but whether it’s narrative, experience design and scale, the conversation is different.

Conclusion

Returning to Ryza’s trilogy after playing Atelier Yumia was much more interesting than I imagined. On the one hand, you can see the evolutions achieved by Gust over those more than 5 years and how this shaped Yumia, but on the other, it shows how Gust has already taken great steps that must be followed in the future of Atelier. Furthermore, the new features of Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy Deluxe Pack do not transform the experience for those who have already played these adorable JRPGs, but make them the definitive versions for those who have not yet played them.