We previously got a sneak peek at Atelier Lydie & Soeur: Alchemists of the Mysterious Painting and Gust has provided new screenshots and details on the game’s story, setting, twin protagonists, and new battle and synthesis elements.

The first two entries of the Mysterious series in Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book and Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey both set new standards for the series.

In Atelier Lydie & Soeur, we’ll see the depiction of everyday life of the twin protagonists in an uplifting adventure in the fantastic and mysterious worlds of paintings.

While keeping the characteristics of the “daily life system,” the game is being made with the concept of mixing everyday life with extraordinary experiences. To make this come true, it was decided for this title to use “paintings” as the theme.

The story starts out in a small atelier located in Merveille, the capital of Adarett Kingdom. There lives the twin sisters and novice alchemists who spend their days helping out their alchemist father.

The two had a dream: “One day, we’ll run the best atelier in the country.”

However, the twins are still inexperienced, which doesn’t work out for their lofty dream. The days pass as they impatiently watch their dream and reality separate little at a time.

One day, the twins find a painting. This painting depicts a mysterious world that has mountains of material they’ve never seen before. With the accidental discovery of the “mysterious painting,” the twins’ dream gets closer to becoming a reality.

Here are details on the twin protagonist:

Lydie Marlen (CV: Maria Naganawa)

Illustration: Yuugen

Age: 14

Occupation: Alchemist

Height: 150cm

The older twin sister who lives in a struggling atelier. She’s a gentle, sociable, and kind-hearted girl. She does things at her own pace and occasionally shows her natural airheaded side.

She’s not very athletic, but she’s good at studying and has a unique sense for art.

Soeur Marlen (CV: Hikaru Akao)

Illustration: Noco

Age: 14

Occupation: Alchemist

Height: 149 cm

The younger twin sister who lives in a struggling atelier. Soeur is a cheerful and mischievous girl with a tomboyish personality. She may seem like a genius for some things, but she’s mostly careless about everything else. She doesn’t like insects and freaks out whenever one so much as lands on her shoulder.

Lydie and Soeur happily live at the atelier while helping out their alchemist father. They spend their days working hard in order to become the best atelier of the land. However, the atelier doesn’t get much work and they barely make enough to put food on the table. Living in such an environment helped strengthen the bond between the two sisters. The above 3D model image comes with the message of “the best atelier in the country, together with family” and “together with my family and everyone I love,” a promise that was made with the mother.

Lydie is a of firm character and watches over her sister, who occasionally drags her along with her own pace.

Soeur is a prankster who usually likes to tease her sister, but shows nothing but support for important situations.

The above is a look at the 3D models of Lydie and Soeur.

The world of the mysterious painting.

Here’s the mysterious painting that was found in the atelier basement. As the two were enchanted to the painting, they end up finding themselves inside it before realizing what had happened.

They find themselves in a world with a fantastic scenery full of blooming flowers and faraway floating islands. It appears that the world inside this “mysterious painting” allows visitors to freely explore.

Inside the painting world, the twins are able to find all kinds of material that can’t be found in the real world.

Lydie and Soeur suddenly find themselves inside the world of a painting. Here, the twins will explore the world in search of ingredients, they’ll fight monsters to acquire rare materials, as they continue working on their alchemist skills. The girls will face the objective of clearing various problems, getting evaluations from the country, and raise their Atelier Rank in order to become the best atelier of the country.

In Atelier Lydie & Soeur, you’ll get to explore all kinds of paintings and their worlds in search of rare materials. By increasing Atelier Rank, you’ll get to explore more mysterious paintings.

As you improve on alchemy skills, evaluation scores also increase. There are all kinds of requests and problems that can be solved with synthesis in the city of Merveille. As Lydie and Soeur’s reputation increases in the city, so does their Atelier Rank.

It wouldn’t be an Atelier game without a proper synthesis system, and this time around they’re introducing a big change with the “Activation Item” system. Gust is aiming to make a synthesis system that is easy to use, and we’ll see some surprising and unexpected results from the new Activation Item element. Activation Items are basically special items used during synthesis that greatly influences the synthesized item.

Similar to Othello/Reversi, the Activation Item will change panel colors, and depending on the type of Activation Item, you’ll see various effects. Think of it as a way of giving the usual synthesis a bit of an accent.

Last but not least, the game introduces a new kind of battle system called “Combination Battle” that will have you work with frontline and backline teams. It’s a battle style that works with the “twin protagonists” theme, with a battle style that changes according to team composition. Moreover, the game introduces a “Battle Mix” feature that lets you synthesize during battle.

Parties consist of teams made of two characters. There can be a total of three teams (maximum 6 characters) in your party. The frontline characters are the ones who directly face the enemies while the backline characters provide support for their frontline partners. The backline characters provide support by automatically acting accordingly with the situation, so you’ll get to pull off flashy combos by simply controlling the frontline characters.

As for the “Battle Mix” feature, it can be used with a “Battle-Exclusive Synthesis Command” that allows you to create items using gathered materials and instantly use it in battle.

Atelier Lydie & Soeur: Alchemists of the Mysterious Painting releases this winter in Japan for PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita, and Nintendo Switch. You can check out its Premium Box and Atelier 20th Anniversary Box editions Japan is getting in our previous report.