 Today I am reviewing Atelier Risa 2, and I have a long history with the Atelier series. I already reviewed Lydian Suelle, Atelier Luluang, the entire Dusk Trilogy, and I reviewed Risa 1. And actually one of the most commonly asked questions that I get is which Atelier game is the best one to start with. And there is just no easy answer for that, because there's so many games. I could say just go for the girl that you like the most. But I also feel like Risa 1 is actually the best starting point. Also Luluang is really starter friendly, and you can also start with Risa 2. Atelier Risa 1 was apparently so popular that they decided to make a sequel. This time called Atelier Risa Lost Legends and The Secret Fairy. So the question is, is the new Risa better than the first one? What is new? What is old? Can you start with Risa 2 even if you haven't played Risa 1? All of those are good questions indeed, and I will try to answer all of them to the best of my abilities. Okay, so I really love this series, and I keep hearing other people describe this series, and I have to agree with them. This series is like comfort food. I mean my friends over at SwitchUp and over at SwitchWatch both made super solid reviews for this game already. I highly recommend checking out those reviews as well. Well, now here's my review. And I want to start off by saying that this is a highly complex JRPG series with crafting, collecting, fighting, and adventuring. Risa 2 is actually the 22nd entry to this long-running series, and the first one at having a returning protagonist. Story. Three years after the events and adventuring in Risa 1, Risa receives a letter from his friend Tau, who is living his new life in the capital, where he tells her about some weird and mysterious ruins that he has discovered. And while Risa is pretty bored at her home island, she decides to travel over to the capital. She meets up with a few of her old friends and eventually meet even more of her old friends. There are also a lot of new characters, each with their own storylines, that are explored through side quests. There's one girl who's afraid of talking to boys, and another girl who needs help with her farm work. Risa is just as I remember, personality wise, she's really easy to like. Tau is now all grown up since the first game, and all returning characters now has new outfits, along with all having grown up in some way or form over the past three years. So, as all characters have their own storylines, the main driving story of the game, however, is to figure out the mysteries of all the ancient ruins found throughout the world. Also, to find out what this weird flying mascot is, as no one has ever seen anything like it, but it seems to have something to do with the ruins. It's just all exciting, and the story in draws you in, and I feel like you really want to know where all of this leads. I have to warn you, if you are not familiar with the Atelier series, that there are a lot of cutscenes. In this game and in most of the games of the entire series, a lot of text, a lot of cutscenes, all the time, and everywhere. You can see available cutscenes on the map selection screen by looking for a character phrase or a question mark, which indicates a side quest. As for understanding the story, you have to pay attention, and unfortunately, there is no English voice acting. Gameplay. If you have already played or experienced an earlier entry in the Atelier series, you will find yourself right at home with what to do, and for the most part where to go, if you don't have previous experience, you will most likely find it confusing to understand where to go or what to do next. But if you are ever stuck or unsure, hit the plus button to sort through all of your current quests. But honestly, this time around, even I found it confusing at times. Not gonna lie. Sometimes the story is simply locked behind you having to craft a very specific item first to progress, and it's not always clear what that item might be. I found this to happen throughout the entire game, actually. So, this is also what I mean by you have to pay attention to the story, listen to what they are specifically asking you to craft, because sometimes you just have to craft one specific item to progress. You control Ryza all the time outside of battle, and you can control any of your party members in battle. You will initiate battle by coming in contact with an enemy, when out in gathering areas. And the battle mechanics are still quite similar to those of Ryza 1, but with some new things, of course. It is however a bit funny how Ryza is now starting off from scratch again. It's like she forgot everything that she learned with fighting from Ryza 1 after three years. So the battle mechanics, they are a sort of waiting for your turn-based combat, where you can do regular attacks to build up AP, which is action points, which you then can spend on stronger skill attacks, which then again makes you get CC. I don't remember what that stands for. So that you can use items. And with the items, they for the most part either can do damage to the enemy or heal your party members. You can also push up and down on your d-pad buttons to change combat style to aggressive, so that your party can also use AP and stuff like that. Here are some of my pro's tips for this game. Now listen up. And I also think that this is probably what makes most of you people confused within this game. You have to equip all items in the menu when you are in town or home at your Atelier. This is so easy to forget, trust me. This means you have to manually equip all of your new gathering tools like the sight, the axe, the net, etc. And also your adventuring tools like the lantern, the fishing rod, beast whistle, and core items, items that you use in battle. You have to actually equip all of these things before leaving town or your Atelier in order to use any of these skills out in the field. So make sure you're all set before leaving town. And when it comes to these tools, they are used out in the fields and caves for both gathering a bunch of materials and traversing the terrain. You can often use different types of tools on the same gathering point, such as using your staff, your axe, or your scythe on a tree. And the tree will give you different types of materials based on which tool you used. So make sure you check out all the combinations and whack everything with all your different tools. Gathering tons of materials has always been a huge deal in every Atelier game, as you will need all of them for crafting at home at your base in the cauldron, which is called synthesizing. A huge part of the game is synthesizing also, I guess. Your base this time around is an apartment in the city that you are renting from the family of the rich girl, patty. In this apartment you can sleep in your bed, save your game at the diary, have a slime get materials for you, change your outfit, and even do some home decorating. It's a cozy home and I have a goat for no apparent reason. So when it comes to the synthesizing, the crafting in this game, it can also be confusing to newcomers. For the most part you can do autographed, but at some points in the game it is required that you at least somewhat know what you're doing. Recipes in black means you can craft them, recipes in red means you don't have the materials, and this is where you should pay close attention. Recipes with a white paper next to them means they have a hidden unlockable recipe within them. And the red paper means you're missing the materials to reach that hidden recipe. You should always try to get the hidden recipes. There are a bunch of them. Each recipe has some active nodes in them and they are required materials to create the item in the first place. Some nodes are color locked, where you need to add materials with that color to unlock your pathway. And then you make your way over to the hidden recipes. I highly recommend experimenting with this and try to make everything. Now to get the recipes to begin with, you unlock them at the skill tree in the menu. I am loving the skill tree and I'm trying to unlock everything and I think I'm pretty close to having unlocked everything at this point. And to do that you need SP. And the fastest way to get SP is by doing quests at the board in the cafe in the city. At this board you can also increase your reputation with all of the groups in the city, unlocking new cutscenes and quests. And I have maxed out almost all of those at this point. When you have a bunch of items, you can sell some of them off at the market, leveling up your development level within each item type. I don't know, I found this weirdly satisfying for some reason. Out in the field you can sling yourself with a rope, you can swim now, and for the first time even go underwater. I like it. To get stronger in combat you will need to grind enemies a tiny bit and level up and also make sure you have the best and upgraded equipment equipped, which you can either buy or create yourself and upgrade at the blacksmith's place. I mean, this game almost has it all. It even has a bit of farming, very simplified but it even has a tiny bit of that. And you also get a cute mount that you can ride around and this mount can even dig up some materials from underground. The ruins in this game, they are fun. You will have to explore them a bit first, then you will have to collect memory fragments using the blinking compass thing and then you connect the memories together to unlock the history of the ruins. It is so satisfying to get a ruin to 100%. That's what I'm aiming for in the entire ruins thing. Fun. So basically the gameplay loop is incredibly fun. Just be aware that there are a lot of cutscenes too. It is a big part of the game. I feel like a lot of cutscenes. Graphics. I say this in every Atelier review that I do, but an Atelier game has never looked better than now. I say that all the time. I mean every time. But they just simply look better and better for each entry. What can I say? Now I also have this game on PS4 and it does look better on there, but it still has its breathtaking moments even on the Switch. There are a lot of variety in its locations, as we are used to seeing. And the main city in this game, it is huge. At least it feels really huge. This game is not like Genshin Impact Beautiful, but it has its moments. I like the graphics. Some NPCs however look a bit rushed, but all main characters are beautifully detailed. The sky and lighting is gorgeous, and some places the textures just look poor. But there is no problems with performance and I think it both runs and plays smooth on the Switch, both in handheld and on TV. And these are the type of graphics that makes me happy to look at. I just get a lot of enjoyment from how a game like this looks. The colors. Greengrass game. Music. The music was good. I do tend to like Italian music across most of the games. It is simply just well made music. It's not some cheap music that is cheap. I already mentioned this in my first impression video, that the town music was really great. The only piece of music that I got tired of really fast is actually the Atelier Rue music. But that may be because you end up spending a lot of time in your room doing all the synthesizing, and you end up hearing this piece of music just a lot. All major places have night versions. That is a calmer version of the daytime music version, which is really cute. Risa shouts a bit too much, but all sound effects sound good. Both when gathering materials and doing synthesizing. Often when out and about, the characters have voiced random conversations between them. But here is the thing. All voice acting is in Japanese. And that is the one thing that I don't quite understand. Why there is no English option for voices. Because there has been English voices in earlier entries to the Atelier series, so I don't get that. In my settings I had background music lowered a tiny bit, so that I could hear sound effects and voices a bit more. But the music was good. Verdict! My biggest gripe with Atelier Risa 2 is that there can be times where you are simply unsure about what to do or where to go next, or what to craft even, to progress the story. And that is, perhaps in a way, not very inviting to total newcomers to Atelier. Risa 2 is however, in my opinion, just as enjoyable as Risa 1 was. So I think that you can start anywhere. With Risa 1 or Risa 2, if you want to. But I think it is a safer bet to start with Risa 1. For story reasons. The relationship between the characters. Reasons. It is a big and solid game, with complex crafting available for you to indulge in, if you want to. But you can also go through most of the game with little to no knowledge about the more complex crafting mechanics. I love this game and I knew that I would love this game. I have had such a fun and good time with this game. Such a cozy time. I found the things that I was looking for in a game, in this title. That is why I personally give this game for me, a 9 out of 10. I found everything that I needed. And I needed this game right now. So that was all for today everyone. I hope you subscribe to my channel and like the video and comment down below. Check out my other reviews. Did you hear my bird? So anyways, thank you so much for watching and I will see you later.