Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key – Our exclusive interview with producer Junzo Hosoi and director Shinichi Abiko Interview

Geschrieben von Simon Münch am 16.09.2022

In 2019, studio Gust and Koei Tecmo published a game for the JRPG franchise Atelier: Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & The Secret Hideout. Despite the big number of female main characters in the Atelier series, Ryza was the one fans loved the most. Due to this, the franchise gained more popularity especially in western countries. Two years later a sequel was released. Ryza's young appearance, her personal developments and the numerous adventures of her and her friends created an extraordinary fan base within the franchise.

It's time for the last chapter! After a two year long break Ryza is ready to return to the Nintendo Switch. Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key will be released on 24th February 2023. We got the exclusive opportunity to talk to two staff members of the production team: Junzo Hosoi (Producer) and Shinichi Abiko (Director). We thank both of them and the translator for their time and effort answering our questions.

ntower: The recent Nintendo Direct presentation gave us a short glimpse of the new and final chapter in the Atelier Ryza saga. Can you explain what the plot of Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key is about?

Ryza and her friends explore the Kark Isles in their last adventure.

Junzo Hosoi: The story of Atelier Ryza 3 can be described as an analogy: Ryza has been going to high school for years and now, in Atelier Ryza 3, she is at a stage in her life where she is about to become an adult. This is going to be her last adventure before adulthood. That has been fearful for her in the previous games. Therefore, the story is her step into adulthood. That means, that she is finally able to find the one thing she wants to do. That she is willing to spend her live with a purpose.

The story will also investigate the roots of alchemy. There are still various things left unsolved or unresolved in the first two games. So we should be able to solve those puzzles or mysteries in this last game. It will be a big conclusion of everything in the series.

ntower: Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key is the third installment of the series. How do you plan to make this game accessible for new players?

Junzo Hosoi: The game begins with a prologue movie and players will be able to see a collective of events that happened in the first two games. So players will be able to understand sort of where Ryza 3 takes place in the story. Players will be able to catch up with the story very fast.

ntower: You brought the lead writer of the first Atelier Ryza Game, Yashichiro Takahashi, back for the third game. Shinichi Yoshiike was the lead writer of Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy. Why did you bring Yashichiro Takahashi back? Did they collaborate in the production of the new game's plot?

Ancient ruins and florishing fields are waiting to be discovered.

Junzo Hosoi: Yes, Mr. Takahashi was involved in the first game. Mr. Yoshiike was involved as a main planner for the first game, too, and ended up being the main writer for the second game. Since it's the third and the final chapter of Riza’s story, we really wanted to be able to bring Mr. Takahashi back because he started telling the story and so we have him come back to tell the ending of it.

We did receive a lot of positive feedback for the first game. Players really liked the taste he brought to the game and to the story. So that's another reason why we brought him back.

We actually wanted to have him involved with all three games – the second game as well. But there was a scheduling issue, which is why we could‘t work with him. Luckily things aligned this time around. We are able to work with him for this third title as well. Mr. Yoshiike is involved in this game too.

ntower: Players who played the first two Ryza games saw her personality maturing. She started as a naive girl learning the basics in the art of alchemy in part one. In part two she was in a big city far away from her hometown managing her own alchemy atelier. She was more mature than before but still childish at some point. How do you plan to show that Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key plays one year after part two. How will this time jump affect Ryzas personality?

Junzo Hosoi: In this game in terms of how old she is – She is considered to be an adult. Emotionally, her personality is still quite not fully matured yet.

Taking the experiences that she had in the second game, players will recognize changes because the third part plays one year after. She is using other types of words for example. The way of speaking and her way of thinking will be able to show those differences within her growth even when it was just one year. She will be using phrases that she hadn’t been using before and she will be able to interact with people or things differently.

She isn't quite fully matured yet but players will be able to see her growth into a full adult. The story revolves around how she can become an independent person.

ntower: We learned together with Ryza in Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout the very basics of alchemy and studied more of this art in Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy. How do you implement her already existing abilities into the game?

The synthethis of items has old and new elements to offer.

Shinichi Abiko: There's the alchemy and synthesis in previous games. It has been well received and so we have it as the base for this game. We’ve basically improved everything to make it better.

In the second part there is a character and linked to this character is an ability level. Unfortunately, this character is not present in the third part - for this reason we have developed a new system. The title of this game mentions keys. Using these keys is kind a new system introduced in this game. This will allow players to have a lot more freedom in how they play the game. I think there's gonna be a lot more new things that we can't quite tell you about yet.

I think people can look forward to see new aspects as well. Players will be able to have some more freedom with recipes and we've been able to really improve this system in a way the players wanted to. We're allowing players a lot more freedom in this game.

ntower: One follow up question regarding these keys: Mysterious keys are introduced into the game. As we understand it, these keys may be real game changers. Please describe our audience how these keys interact with existing gameplay elements like fighting or exploration.

Shinichi Abiko: Yes, as you mentioned in terms of fighting, synthesis and as well for exploration – The keys really have an influence on the entire game. There are going to be a lot of systems where the keys will be involved with. As we mentioned before, keys have an effect on synthesizing. You can use them in battles, too. For example: You can use them to power up characters for a moment of time. You can provide certain special effects as well.

Mysterious keys can be game changers in a fight.

Additionally, in field explorations you can find treasure boxes and depending on the key you use to open the treasure box, you can get different things out of these treasure boxes. There are some areas where, in order to access them, you need to use these keys.

Regarding the main systems of the game, keys have a central role in systhesis, fighting in battles and in exploring. It’s going to be something players will enjoy using.

ntower: Fans of the Atelier series love the photo mode. Can you explain what changes and optimizations fans can find in Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key?

Shinichi Abiko: Yes (laughing), the photo mode. We were able to see a lot of photos users took in previous games. There are some very unique things that we were able to see as well. Some pictures made us laugh, some pictures surprised us. We definitely made sure that this game will have the same functions for the photo mode as in previous titles. We're looking forward to create more options, provide more possibilities in terms of unique character poses. This is something that we're actively working on right now.

In this photo mode you can also include enemy characters from the start. Players will be able to create various situations within the photo mode and just have fun using it. Our team is putting a lot of effort into this part of the game as well.

ntower: In Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key Ryza and her friends are back on Kurken Island. Another group of islands, the Kark Isles, appear and have a negative effect on Kurken Island. Are these islands based on real places? If so, where should fans look for these places?

Older and stronger? The new story shows Ryza's last steps into adulthood.

Shinichi Abiko: So the Kark Isles appear for the first time in the series. There isn't an exact island or set of islands it's based on. The Kark Isles refer to a lot of different islands and we took parts of various islands that we liked the best and put them all together. So there really isn't a certain place that it's based on.

Kurken Island is the place where the story began. It’s a little bit cramped and a lot of rooms have their own themes. Sometimes it kind of feels spiritual. There are other parts of the island that kind of feel creepy. So there are a lot of different images within Kurken Island. When we worked on these themes, creating Kurken Island, we talked to the artists and what they think of these pictures and how it would look like. I think depending on where on the island you are the atmosphere really changes. It's not really based on a specific place because of this combination. Similar to the Kark Isles we've taken inspiration from various other places to put them together into one (pondering).

The first thing that came into my mind was that these islands are possibly based on some Japanese islands. You might recognize Japanese islands in some of the artworks.

ntower: JRPGs are gaining more and more attention in Europe and especially here in Germany. One major problem for German customers is the fact that localizations are missing. The question is: Do you plan to include German subtitles in Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key? Will there be the option to use English synchronization?

Junzo Hosoi: We do not have any plans for including German in this game. If there is a large demand for it, we would consider adding it as an update. Atelier Ryza and the Atelier series in general do not include German so far. We really do listen to the voices of the players. If there is a lot of demand for that, then there's something that we really want to consider. But at this point there are no plans for German subtitles.

Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key will have Japanese voices only. But similarly, if there are demands of players, we can consider it. We love to hear the clear voices of our players. But because the demand is not that obvious, we're not planning to change that right now but maybe in the future

Once again, we would like to thank you for your time and effort. We are looking forward to Ryza’s last summer adventure launching in late February 2023!

Follow the link to find the German translation of this interview!