Atelier Ryza 3, which is the third installment in the Atelier Ryza series, has finally been released on March 23, 2023. As such, fans of the series can’t wait to see what the third part of the series has to offer.
For those who have played the previous games, Atelier Ryza 3 will feel familiar as they’ll find a lot of features and mechanics make a comeback. However, if you’re completely new to the series, you might find several of its key mechanics a bit confusing.
To help you out, we’ve created this beginner’s guide to show you some useful tips and tricks that can make your playthrough a lot more fun, immersive, and less confusing.
Do and Complete as Many Side Quests as Possible
Atelier Ryza 3 is riddled with tons of side quests. This is a step up from the previous Atelier Ryza games. As you progress through the game and explore its areas, you’ll come across side quests popping up every now and then.
I recommend picking them up, even if you don’t plan to do it right away. Since most of the game’s side quests are designed in a way that they’ll eventually lead you to the main story quests, doing them along the way will net you decent experience and rewards.
There are also a bunch of random quests that will appear here and there. However, unlike side quests, most of them aren’t even worth picking up. Instead, you can just focus on those that have a character icon on them.
These random quests will grant bonus stats to that character when completed. In some cases, they will even reward SP which you’ll need to unlock and level up certain skills in the skill tree.
Focus on Unlocking Certain Skills
To say that Atelier Ryza 3’s skill tree is huge is an understatement. In fact, newcomers to the series might find it too overwhelming to decide which parts of the skill tree they should unlock first.
In that case, you want to focus on the most important skills that matter a lot during the first few hours of the game. These would include the following: · SP Gain – This allows you to receive more Skill Points each time you perform a synthesis.
· Medica Powder – Located on the upper section of the skill tree, Medica Powder allows you to unlock various crafting abilities and recipes.
· Gathering – Resource gathering is very crucial in Atelier Ryza 3, and you’ll often find yourself gathering tons of resources in various areas.
As you gain more and more skill points, you can then proceed to unlock other skills like Duplication, Quantity Up, Weapon Recipes, and a whole lot more.
Take the Time to Get Yourself Familiar with the Combat
The combat system in Atelier Ryza 3 is a mix of real-time and turn-based action. It’s not fully turn-based where you have to wait for the other characters to finish before you can take your turn.
While this might turn off players who are not into turn-based combat, it’s actually fun and engaging as long as you know what you’re doing.
That said, you will command a party of five, with three characters at the front and two at the back. However, you don’t necessarily have to take full control of all your party members. In fact, you can only control one character at a time. The rest will act automatically as long as you’re not directly controlling them.
There’s also a mechanic called Action Orders where your party members will ask you to perform either a physical or magical attack. As long as you fulfill that request, they will be able to use even more powerful skills and even get in some free attacks.
Later on, you’ll unlock Order Drives which allows you to earn a point each time you make a successful Action Order. Once you have enough points, you can then use them to perform a special skill from any of your party members.
Craft Items Whenever Possible
The majority of your playthrough will involve crafting items in your cauldron. As you start the game, you will only have access to a limited number of recipes, which means limited SP potential.
While you can focus on crafting specific items, ignoring other stuff that you could readily craft will cause you to miss out on a solid amount of SP. As such, I highly recommend crafting an item as soon as it becomes available, even if you do it only once. This will give you a decent SP boost which you’ll need to unlock even more skills in the skill tree. Also, you won’t really know how useful an item is until you crafted it. That’s the beauty of the game after all – you experiment with something and see the results for yourself.
Make Sure to Craft Survival Tools
During your first few hours of the game, you’ll want to gather as many resources as you can. You start the game with only a staff to smash small rocks and break pots. However, some resources will require specific tools, so without those tools, you won’t be able to get any of them.
It’s for this reason that you have to craft survival tools as soon as you can. Ideally, you want to focus on crafting a hammer, woodcutter’s axe, fishing rod, grass sickle, and catcher’s net. Each of these tools has its own specific purpose that will grant you access to a wide variety of resources in the game.
Make the Most Out of the Area Map
The area map gives you a much better view of your current area. However, what you might not know is that it also shows the enemies that you can encounter during exploration. The game won’t tell you this, but to do so, you need to zoom into the map far enough to see icons of monsters in a given region.
It’s one good way of planning where you should go in case you need some materials that only drop from certain monsters.
You can also see the locations of nearby chests, though you can only unlock this ability once you build ateliers within each region.