Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings

Atelier Lydie & Suelle isn't as innovative as its predecessors, but that doesn't mean you should write it off entirely - it tells a charming and captivating story that ends up being the best tale in the whole Mysterious trilogy. There are plenty of enchanting areas to explore as well, and as always, there's a deep alchemy system for you to master.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle is a rather standard entry to the Atelier series. Content with relying on a pretty standard setup, the game doesn't innovate or move forwards, although fans of the series will no doubt be interested in the new story alone. It's a pretty interesting take on the ridiculously wide genre of RPGs, with a much heavier focus being given to its deep crafting system, but that might not be enough to convince new players on its own.

With its bland story and uninteresting characters, this is a series that is in a dire need of a substantive reboot.

A novel, thematic conceit is the most interesting element of this repetitive experience; the rest is weighed down by crybaby characters and vague, unsatisfying gameplay objectives. Atelier is overdue for a revamp.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings is a serviceable entry in the long-running JRPG series by Gust, offering an experience that's surely entertaining, but not as good as Atelier Firis. Additionally, the lack of any real innovation in both story and gameplay departments translates into a very predictable game.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings is the kind of game that's best played when one just wants to sit back and relax for a while.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings is a delightful 3D turn based RPG that successfully melds slice-of-life with fantastical environments.

While the perfect product wasn’t synthesized, Lydie & Suelle was a step in the right direction for the series, blemishes and all.

The game system in Atelier Lydie & Suelle is solid, combat is great and the soundtrack is nice, but we could have expected more from a title marking the 20th anniversary of the series.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle': The Alchemist and the Myterious Paintings looks like an efficient and long RPG with some good mechanics but will clearly fail to impress or surprise you (except if we talk about its expensive DLC), as its lacks novelty. If you're a true fan, you'll get what you want. If you're not familiar with the series, you could give it a try with this Switch version.