Atelier Mysterious Trilogy Deluxe Pack Review

The long-running Atelier series is back once again with another trilogy pack that sees three titles get several upgrades while being re-released on modern systems. This time around, the trilogy pack includes new deluxe (DX) versions of Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book, Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey, and Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings, each released in the West in 2016, 2017, and 2018 respectively. Available as a pack and separately, this release is the first time Atelier Sophie and Atelier Firis have been on the Nintendo Switch and so, that’s the version we jumped into for all three to see how they hold up.

For those unfamiliar with the Atelier series, they are JRPGs with a focus on more relaxed adventures in which you will spend your time learning alchemy, gathering materials, making friends, and enjoying compelling coming-of-age stories. While the games feature turn-based battles, they take somewhat of a backseat to the alchemy and narrative but still provide fun and challenging activity.

Now while each game in the trilogy has links between them, mostly in the form of returning characters, each tells a self-contained story you can enjoy on your own. Atelier Sophie, for example, focuses on the adventure of Sophie helping a strange talking book regain their memories all while she learns more about alchemy. In Atelier Firis, the story follows Firis on a journey to not only discover the wider world but also to try and pass an alchemist exam within a set time limit. Lastly, Atelier Lydie & Suelle sees the twin sisters jumping into paintings to explore worlds within and overcome challenges that await.

In terms of gameplay systems, each game has very similar systems in which you will follow a gameplay loop of gathering materials and crafting items to improve your alchemy to do it all again. How you gather materials can vary with some found in the world, others brought from stores, and some gained from battle. As you gain more experience, you’ll be able to make better quality items but you can also improve them further by selecting high-quality materials and assigning bonuses during the crafting process. It can be a bit confusing at first but once you get the hang of it, the crafting gameplay loop feels very rewarding as you work to make the best items possible.

What is interesting about the Atelier Mysterious Trilogy DX is that it showcases not just three very good games in the Atelier series, but three very different games. While each game in the series makes changes to the formula to move the series forward, the jump between each game in a trilogy is usually quite small. Here however, each game is so different that playing them back-to-back almost feels like you have to relearn even the common systems due to how different they are. They remain fairly accessible, including the battles, but it’s worth bearing that in mind as your muscle memory will need to be rewritten as you play through them. It also shows why it’s most likely worth playing through the trilogy in order, as you’ll have the best experience in terms of gameplay.

In terms of visuals and performance, each of these three titles looks and runs fantastically on the Nintendo Switch. While it’s fair that there hasn’t been much in the way of visual improvements to each title, that doesn’t stop them from looking brilliant. Both in handheld and docked mode, each game holds up with next to no noticeable drops in performance throughout the whole experience, even when you speed up the gameplay. You also have the option to play with English or Japanese audio in all the titles, with the expectation of Atelier Lydie & Suelle which only supports Japanese audio, which is a shame.

Being the DX versions, each game in the trilogy comes with a number of extras and quality-of-life improvements including the aforementioned option to speed up battles. There is also a photo mode, a digital art book for each title, and most of the previously released DLC respectively. Atelier Sophie also has a number of new costumes, cauldrons, and a new sprinting function. Atelier Firis has several new monsters to fight and a number of vehicles to help explore the world and harvest materials. Lastly, Atelier Lydie & Suelle features a new painting based on the world of Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World, which has a new story episode and boss enemy.

At the end of the day, the Atelier Mysterious Trilogy DX is a brilliant package for those wanting to get into the series or revisit these three fantastic titles. With each game already being 40 to 50 hours in length, the included additional content extends that even further, offering a totally complete experience. Some might feel that the additions are not enough to warrant picking up the DX versions; those who do will find three of the best games in the Atelier series to enjoy.