
Koei Tecmo Games has announced the latest game in Gust’s Atelier series, Atelier Ryza, alongside numerous details regarding the game, which were reported on in the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu.

Official website: https://www.gamecity.ne.jp/atelier/ryza/

Atelier Ryza’s story is being handled by writer Takahashi Yashichirou (Shakugan no Shana) and character designs are by illustrator Toridamono.

The main themes of the game are “regular youths growing up just a bit” and “memories that everyone has with their friends, that are nevertheless precious to each person”.

Protagonist Reisalin Stout (voiced by Noguchi Yuri) is said to be a normal girl, somewhat boyish who feels unsatisfied by her unchanging daily life, and spends her time with friends who, like her, long for adventure. A “certain meeting” sets events in motion for the story to begin.

Atelier Ryza is stated to have graphics on a completely new level from previous games, with expressions of light and shadow, wind, and depth. The systems are also entirely different from previous Atelier games: For example, in ingredient collection, using different tools to collect items from a tree will result in obtaining different ingredients being obtained.

While no concrete details have yet been revealed about the battle and synthesization systems, screenshots show battles to have a “tactics level”, with Ryza in a “forward position” labelled as an “attacker”, and it is stated that battles will have a higher “sense of tension” that was not possible with the older turn-based command system, suggesting that the new system may be realtime or semi-realtime, or action-based.

Weekly Famitsu’s article on Atelier Ryza also includes a short interview with producer Hosoi Junzou.

When Hosoi is asked about intention behind how the game’s Japanese subtitle (“The Queen of Endless Dark and the Secret Hideout”) does not include “Alchemist” in it as is traditional for the series, to which he says that the Atelier series has reached a point where “Atelier” alone, without “Alchemist” is enough for people to be able to identify a game as part of the series. He says that as Ryza has new characters in a new world, they wanted a subtitle that would allow players to imagine what the game would be about, and that the “Queen of Endless Dark” and “Secret Hideout” are both very important to the game’s story.

Hosoi is next asked about the reasons for using Takahashi Yaichirou and Toridamono for the story and character designs. Hosoi says that Takahashi is well known for being skilled, and that his style is somewhat close to the Atelier series, which lead to them getting him, while Toridamono being used came from them wanting someone who could strongly characterise both male and female characters, and they felt that Toridamono could meet these expectations.

Atelier Ryza is said to be 45% complete, and is scheduled for an autumn 2019 release for the PS4 and Switch in Japan, with a PC (Steam) release to follow later.