Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout

Lore & Background

Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout is a re-release of the twenty-first main entry in the Atelier series and the first of the Secret storyline. The original game follows Reisalin 'Ryza' Stout, a girl on Kurken Island who seeks adventure. She and her friends become apprentices to the alchemist Empel Vollmer and his bodyguard Lila Decyrus, learning alchemy and combat while uncovering the secrets of an alternate realm called the Underworld and the insectoid Philuscha monsters. The game's alchemy system involves gathering resources and placing them on elemental nodes to create items, and it introduced automated gathering and synthesis for players less interested in crafting. Combat uses a modified turn-based system with real-time elements, where attacks build Action Points for skills and special abilities.

Reader's Guide

The original Atelier Ryza received 'generally favorable' reviews on Metacritic, with critics praising its combat overhaul, emotional narrative, and strong main characters, though noting slow early pacing and tedious side missions. It sold 500,000 copies, making it the best-selling title in the series at the time. The Atelier Ryza series as a whole sold over 1.3 million units by September 2022, over 1.6 million by March 2023, and over two million by June 2023. The game was nominated for 'Best Character' at the Famitsu Dengeki Game Awards 2019 for Reisalin Stout. The DX version, released in 2025, adds additional playable characters and content, and is part of the Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy Deluxe Pack. A manga adaptation began serialization in September 2020, and an anime television series by Liden Films aired from July to September 2023.

Did You Know?

• The DX version was released on November 13, 2025, for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 among other platforms.
• The original game sold 500,000 copies, making it the best-selling title in the Atelier series at the time.
• An anime television series adaptation aired from July to September 2023.
• The game's characters were designed with 'voluptuous body types' and 'motherly characteristics' due to Japan's Lost Decades economic conditions.