While the Atelier series has spanned 28 years and 27 mainline titles (not counting remakes and side games), there are multiple ways you can divide this up into eras. The games are officially divided into subseries, such as the Dusk and Mysterious subseries which are (largely) self-contained universes. Fans generally consider games from Atelier Rorona (in the Arland subseries) and onwards to be modern Atelier. But beyond that, when it comes to series popularity overseas, I’d say that there’s a clear dividing line: Before Ryza, and After Ryza. Even though the series has had its fans, Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & The Secret Hideout brought lots more recognition to a niche series of JRPGs, and has allowed for developer Gust to continue to put out more games and invest in the Atelier series as a whole.

Because of this, it makes sense that Gust and publisher Koei Tecmo would continue to capitalize on the success of the Ryza/Secret subseries, even as the trilogy has come to a close, and they’ve done that with a new Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy Deluxe pack. This includes all three of the games updated for modern consoles, all the DLC content that was released previously, in addition to some new story content.

Being a fan myself, Ryza 1 was my first introduction to the series shortly after it came out, but I have since played as many Atelier games as I can and have loved other games in the series to a similar degree. A big part of me wondered how it would feel like going back to Atelier Ryza. However, these games are just deeply fun, and within no time I found myself craving to keep playing, even though I had already finished the trilogy as it was released. These are fantastic games, and, if you don’t own them, the Secret Trilogy Deluxe Pack is the best way to play them.

For the uninitiated, Atelier is a JRPG series focused on alchemy and crafting. The Ryza trilogy starts on a small island, where the protagonist Ryza first becomes introduced to alchemy as she’s starting to take first steps into adulthood. Throughout the trilogy, Ryza and her friends go through a coming of age story, growing from being timid teenagers who have never left the island they call home to pursuing their goals and dreams as competent adults. While the story might sound a bit cliche, the real joy is getting to know these characters and follow them throughout this journey. Ryza is a dynamic heroine, and the other side characters are likable and fun to follow.

The core gameplay loop is also something that is very engaging to explore, that being the alchemy component. Throughout the games you gather ingredients that you then use to craft new items, which then you can employ during combat and to aid in your gathering. The way this is integrated is one of my favorite parts of being an Atelier fan, as it’s very satisfying to get to a new area and find an ingredient you need for a recipe, which will then allow you to make a stronger weapon for yourself. There is also a fair amount of depth in the crafting systems, as different ingredients have different traits, attributes, and quality so that you can adjust items to suit your own needs.

Coming into this from the original Switch versions, these Switch 2 Deluxe versions do look noticeably better. This isn’t to say that the original games looked bad, but that I could immediately tell that there was a visual and performance upgrade. Areas that might have struggled with performance in Atelier Ryza 3, for example, feel smooth and look great in this version. I wondered if this was mostly because I was playing this on a Switch 2 so I loaded up my non-deluxe copy of Atelier Ryza 3 just to see if it was the difference from playing on a more powerful console or if the difference was from an actual upgrade to the software, and it seems like it’s a little bit of both. Still, I was excited to see this difference and enjoyed it. I also liked messing around with some of the DLC I hadn’t previously purchased, much of which was cosmetics or music that I never felt like buying before.

The reason for this review being in progress, though, was that the main new content is added playable characters and new story content, which I haven’t been able to get to for all three of the games due to being accessed later in the games’ stories, with save files from the original games not able to be transferred to the new titles. I have seen the new story content for the first Atelier Ryza, though, which was an enjoyable peek into a moment with a side character, Bos, that previously had taken place off camera. There is also an additional episode set after the first game that lasts about an hour. Some of the gameplay in this segment felt a bit irrelevant, since it didn’t have any way to connect back to the other characters. I messed around with some of the newly playable characters (Agathy and Romy), but I never felt like using them in the main game because ultimately, while having them in my party is a fun novelty, the story is clearly not written for them. I’ll update this review once I have gotten to more of the new content for Ryza 2 and 3, but if this is what we can expect, it’s pretty slight.

That new content being pretty light is what gets me to my recommendations for this package, because if you’re an Atelier newcomer I think it’s pretty much a no-brainer. If you buy the entire trilogy it’s $30 per game, whereas if you buy one game at a time it’s $40, but either way there’s a lot of value in picking up some fantastic JRPGs for that price. However, if you’ve already purchased the Atelier Ryza trilogy piece by piece, I can see this being a difficult ask - I wish there was an upgrade pack that people who already own the series could buy to upgrade to the new DX versions of the game. Ultimately I do think the new content seems to be slight enough where I wouldn’t say this is a must buy for people who have already played through the Ryza games, but of course your mileage might vary on that.

At the end of the day, however, this is the definitive way in 2025 to buy a trilogy of some fantastic games along with its DLC, new content, and other upgrades. If you’ve been thinking about getting into the Atelier series and don’t know where to start, this is a great place to begin your Atelier journey. If you’re already a seasoned alchemist, it might be OK to wait to see what else Gust is cooking up - or hey, pick up one or both of the other Atelier games released this year.