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| The most romantic atelier game. |
Developer/publisher: Koei Tecmo/Gust.
Platform: PS5/Switch etc.
Official Site: https://atelier.games/resleriana_rw/us/
Official Site: https://atelier.games/resleriana_rw/us/
Release date: 26-09-2025
Okay since there wasn't anything else I wanted to play and it was rotting away
in my backlog I decided to get started on it. I didn't really have many expectations.
This is also like my first atelier game with... spinoff elements.
Disclaimer: This is purely my own opinion and it could be different from yours
this is not meant to be some kind of all-truth, just an opinion that came from playing this.
If you don't like what you're reading then close the tab, move on and just idk play it yourself.
Resle: Red Alchemist & White Guardian is another half of what originally was gacha game.
I never got the play the gacha game cuz they pulledthe plug in eng, however
it is still active in japan, at time of writing this review anyway.
Either way my opinion on this game varied a lot depending on my progression.
I wasn't too impressed early on but it does come into its own and I actually liked
the relationship between the leads by chapter 5 which is what I enjoyed the most.
Pro's
- Great chemistry between leads.
- Combat is really well done.
- Character events are fun.
- Story can seem weak or convenient but I still found part of it well crafted.
Grey Area
- Alchemy is rather simple but left/right colour system makes it cumbersome.
- Difficulty spikes; starts out cozy but is significantly more difficult by chapter 6.
Con's
- Some cameo's like Mu or Judie just feel like they barely meet an appearance quota
also don't expect wanderers to get any major development or anything.
- No CG's featuring wanderers.
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Well I honestly wasn't sure how to approach this game? it had main entry energy
but it also tried to be a spinoff which honestly is a weird mix to me.
Needless to say there still are characters unique to this universe and I did
enjoy getting to know characters like Randolf or Camilla.
Rias is definitely a fun protagonist, Slade seems to have his reasons
for being around and without their paths crossing the story wouldn't exist.
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ART/MUSIC.
The graphics were okay and the world like in the screenshot above can look beautiful
however most of the time we spend our time in the dimensional paths.
The areas were also smaller in scale which I liked, honestly maybe its because I am tired
of the open world so gust did well with this game in that sense.
The battle theme was good but other than that the music was on a just fine level.
I did love the OP and ED's.
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COMBAT
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| My only combat screenshot is of a poor ghost about to get nuked. |
I didn't quite like Ryza or Yumia's battle systems. I think it was fairly simple
and it doesn't get too deep till you get all the members which is when
it reaches the full potential of managing the front and backrows.
I really did like the combat this time and it works so much better than whatever
Ryza had going on where you couldn't even use items unless haha.
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SYSTEM ramblings.
There's a skill tree and you can use SP to get stat boosts among other things
the SP mostly seems to come from quests and combat. The pool is shared so
you gotta remember to do it evenly, I did sometimes invest more into one member.
Early on I thought this was some sort of cheat to get statboosts due how casual the early
hours were but this game does not forget that you have to craft your own gear and items too.
By the end of the game everyone was actually maxed out their original tree.
since it can get rid of junk materials. I got nervous when I saw the auto-add try
to get rid of rarer stuff so I ended up just doing it manually.
Its mandatory to raise the town level and it will roadblock the story, thankfully
it was not too grindy, you can hit the caps and then you have to invest to unlock
the next levels by turning in special items which are usually recipe morphed ones.
Its actually kinda nice to see how it goes from a ruined village to an actual town.There was a moment where the town rank can seem like some gacha game mechanic which is
out of place in a console game but other than that as long as you explore you will have
all the mats and optional recipies so none of it was particularly difficult just a bit of busy work.
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| A rare CG that isn't Rias x Slade with a character that comes and goes. |
in eight hours of play and the majority was spend on story,gathering and fighting.
However around chapter 4-5 your really should remake your starting gear
since this is when the game gets more serious and less casual.
By the time of chapter 6 you should absolutely have your things in order
as this is where the difficulty spiked up to the point it wasn't casual anymore.
I didn't have that much trouble with the ch6 fight but if I hadn't made that healing bell
with revive I would have been in trouble. I also was able to trigger burst here for the first time
but I was not able to ult since the enemies died before that could happen. 💀💀💀
The alchemy system itself was kinda simple? but the recipe system was convoluted
constantly had to press L2 to see the recipe tree was annoying. I'd say its a little more
advanced than say Marie. I didn't really like the random color thing either but I thought
it was easier to understand than some of the other recent atelier games.
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PLOT/SETTING ramblings.
Storywise it definitely had some interesting hooks but it wasn't deeper than it had to be.
I wasn't sure what this game was trying to be, or atleast I thought this way 5ish hours in.
If anything surprised me at all, is the chemistry between the leads.
It could seem Slade was bland and generic but he was surprisingly thoughtful!
who wouldn't want a man like him? ISTG.
I didn't expect it to be romantic but there was more than enough shipping fuel.
There was a found family theme between Rias and Slade and I LOVED THAT.
Although one moment did remind me she can be a bit of a slave driver.💀
Rias was an OK protag, a bit of an airhead, Slade complimented her
and he compensates for her. They're like the perfect duo.
I was not sure why there was even an option to choose between them
but I guess its a callback to Eschatology or Mana khemia.
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| I'll remind everyone here that Rias has a whip. |
Most of the story could seem straight-forward, I'll give them credit since by chapter 10
I did think they did cook a bit with this one. There was a bit of convenient writing
going on with a decent attempt at worldbuilding.
Why other atelier characters got isekai'd into this world as wanderers
wasn't really important, its totally a normal occurance in this world.
Overall storywise, not particularly strong but it served, I wondered what if they didn't rely
on characters from other entries. Since the chara's unique to this game were pretty good.
I kinda wanted Brad to join up but he was gone before I knew it, a waste.😞
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| Thanks for letting me meet him I guess? |
The character interactions were great atleast which was nice
but they never really did anything that surprised me, or would drop
their entire character lore. I never played Mana Khemia 2 btw so Raze was just
a nice capable guy with a cool sword who looks a little like Anaxagoras.😅
At best they might hint at stuff from their own games but nothing deep
almost as if they want you to play their game or expect you to know.
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Overall Resleriana the red alchemist and the white guardian can be nice
if you want a more traditional atelier game with familiar faces. I don't see why
you'd have to play the Resle gacha game but you can get by just fine without it.
I never played it either, it did make me interested.
There's some callbacks but the plot of this game is very selfcontained.
It took me around 45ish hours to finish the game, the early hours were rough
for me due to it being very slow paced but 20 hours in I got the hang of it.
Due to that I wondered if should have skipped this game but the chemistry
between the leads was adorable, I have no regrets!!!
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TL;DR
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| There were no group shot CG stills so this is as good as it gets. |
for the chemistry between the leads, other than that I found it decent at best.
Early on I was not very gung-ho about playing it despite that I am glad I stuck with it
so I got to enjoy all the Rias and Slade moments! The story was OK but it was rather
self-contained to whatever else goes on in this world. Some parts were well written
like the legend tying past to present so they did cook but... that's about it.
The game is mostly light-hearted but it can have some serious undertones.
All that really sticks to my mind were a bunch of sappy moments.💀
I was too busy shipping Rias and Slade as well as Randolf and Camilla.😂
That was also the fire that fueled my progress through this game.
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| Gust, if you want to make another otome game then go for it! or get otomate to port Elkrone to switch. |
I'd recommend it if you're looking for a mostly laidback RPG or if you want
another atelier game with cameos and don't mind romance between the leads.
I'll add to this that its not afraid to actually have you make better gear so
I wouldn't call it a cozy game cuz if you cozy it up Lara will step on you.💀
Compared to Yumia both games have their weaknesses but I personally
liked Resleriana Red Alchemist more! not just because of the romance
I genuinely liked the combat system more as well and the exploration didn't
overwhelm me either, it was just a nice cozy game that can get a lil difficult
but if you try then I don't think there's anything too difficult in this game.
8.5/10
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Some more rambles after the jump, its just character stuff and my final thoughts.
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