Atelier Mysterious Trilogy Deluxe Pack (Nintendo Switch) Review

The series starts with Atelier Sophie, who is a mischievous girl with alchemy talent. Her grandmother was a renowned alchemist and she is carrying on in her footsteps. Discovering a talking book, Placta, which happily flaps around in the air with a mesmerising fluid movement, Sophie begins a new friendship, doing all she can to return Placta's memories by learning alchemy and researching with the help of her friends who fight alongside her, Moniker and Oskar to name a few. There ends up being eight characters to choose from for the fighting party, with Sophie always being a mandatory member. In the beginning of her main title, Sophie does not stand out much as a unique alchemist, unlike Firis, Lydie, and Suelle, whose distinct personalities are evident from their first appearance. However, Sophie's personality eventually develops over the course of her game and the series: she becomes a mentor to Firis and also plays a role in Lydie and Suelle's lives, and both roles suit her well. Her determination to help Placta and her willingness to help others are fine qualities for her role as a teacher.

Atelier Firis has a fascinating concept: young Firis has never been outside her mining town's walls. Few are allowed out of the door, there is only a sliver of sky that bubbly Firis gazes up at longingly when she can snatch some free time. Unlike the other protagonists, Firis does not start out as an alchemist. She has an ability to locate ore which is used much by her community, yet it is not fulfilling to her inquisitive side which wants to see the world that her older sister Liane gets to venture into. A fateful meeting with alchemist Sophie and her friend Placta, now no longer a book, leads to Firis joining Liane in exploring the world, learning enough alchemy to take the official alchemist examination. Sophie does not remain with Firis for long, but they do cross paths later in the game, allowing Firis to remain the main character. While all alchemists in Atelier games roam about the land, Firis travels the furthest with her portable atelier building that looks tiny on the outside but is roomy on the inside. She positively sparkles with delight at every new sound, smell and sight. Liane protects Firis in fights since Firis is initially quite weak, although soon becomes adept at defeating monsters with alchemy made items.

Finally there is Atelier Lydie and Suelle who are twin alchemists living with their absent minded father who is an alchemist but not the best of ones, dabbling in painting whenever inspiration strikes. Having two protagonists is unusual in the franchise: thankfully it is easy enough to switch between the sisters in their atelier so both can be played with. Their journey focuses on a strange ability to get into paintings, explore the worlds within, using the materials to create better alchemy items and work on becoming the best alchemists in the land. They meet both Sophie and Firis in their journey, bringing all the alchemists into each others' lives which creates a sense of unity despite each individual having their own adventure.

One of many new features of the deluxe trilogy is that Lydie and Suelle end up in a painting relating to Nelke, who has a spin off game Atelier Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World published on Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4 in 2019, after the original Mysterious trilogy was published. All three games have the ability to change the background music in specific areas to that of previous titles, perfect for older fans to listen to favourite tracks, and new fans to explore the vast music library that belongs to the Atelier franchise, even if they can not yet play all the named games on Nintendo Switch. It can only be hoped that one day the Atelier Iris trilogy, and all the older ones may get ported across.

All three games look stunning both in handheld mode and on the TV, and surprisingly takes up less than twenty-six gigabytes of space. The tutorials are simple to follow and can be referenced at any moment from the menu. There are several costumes for each character, not all available from the start, providing fun customisation for the protagonists. The basic essence of performing alchemy is the same in the three games, with slight differences that are easy to follow. Like previous Atelier series, the Mysterious trilogy does have some aspects of time limits. Atelier Sophie's time limits are on certain quests, but there are always plenty of days to complete them and it is made clear on the request page. Atelier Firis has the most time constraints, with the introduction to the game having a short time frame, with a whole year allowed for completing the main story, culminating in the alchemy exam. This limit is predominantly absent in Atelier Lydie and Suelle. The timed features are nothing like previous Atelier games, there is little sense of pressure to complete everything in the allotted time, and post game play has limitless time to explore, gather and fight. The way Atelier Firis is played, it is better to stick to the main story then fully explore and have fun once the examination has been passed.