Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian is the newest addition to the ongoing “Atelier” JRPG series. A standalone game based on the characters of the mobile game, never released outside Japan, Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and the Polar Night Liberator.
Rias Eidreise, a fledgling and hopeful alchemist, returns to her hometown, Hallfein, alongside the strapping spear-fighting warrior Slade Clauslyter. Both of them seek the truth behind not only what happened to their home, but also learn of the Mysterious Dimensional paths that appear throughout the land and the secrets they hold.
With the recent release of Yumia’s Atelier game, which came out earlier this year, some followers of the series might still be going through the fatigue of recently playing an Atelier title. With this gorgeous and wondrous entry, there’s still room for one more recipe of delight – find out in our Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian review!
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian
Developer: Gust, Koei Tecmo Games
Publisher: Koei Tecmo Games
Platforms: Windows PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch (reviewed)
Release Date: September 26, 2025
Price: $59.99
Upon beginning the game, you can choose between starting as Rias or Slade. The option bears no weight as shortly after the opening cutscene, they meet up, allowing you to freely switch between each other following a simple tutorial. When exploring the ruins where they’re searching for answers, a hidden Atelier facility is stumbled upon.
In pure Atelier series fashion, recipes, ingredients, and the pursuit of finding these are exactly what one would expect from its predecessors. There is no experience system gained from crafting.
New recipes are learned strictly from acquiring recipe books found throughout the game and are typically earned from Shopkeepers. The lack of having to repeatedly grind the same known recipes, however, can be seen as a boon, saving time and effort.
Grinding in this Atelier game comes in many, many other forms. Leveling characters comes via combat, building your town, searching for fairies, and even building relationships among the many acquaintances that are found as you delve further into the adventure.
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian once again holds the torch of their series’ fantastic and rewarding combat systems. This time around, with glorious turn-based combat, it’s possible to perform team-based attacks via a limited resource.
Utilizing characters not on the frontlines, you may call them in to perform tandem attacks, combining either a skill or an alchemized item, or any combination of the two, for devastating attacks against the enemy. In a pinch, this technique can also be used defensively as well, doubling down on healing items, spells, or supportive buffs.
When the gauge reaches a certain amount, it will give the blessing for the heroes to perform their most aggressive skills, which turns the tide of battle. Combat gets more advanced the further you create combat items, and most importantly, utilize the skill tree system, in which every character gets their own unique tree.
SP, which is gained every battle, is shared among all characters. This seemed like a mistake at first, but then I realized it was a fun element of tinkering. This meant I could put more effort into making one character very strong and specialized, while I leave the other character’s builds to simpler things.
The battle flow can be sped up as far as four times the speed. And for those who aren’t in the mood to battle, the auto feature is there as well. Some of the battle animations, at times, feel a little less impressive than others. I especially put Rias on the bench, as her basic attack action leaves a lot to be desired.
Once she performs the use of her skills, such as the quintessential Wind Whip attack, her animated and cute self wastes no time impressing. Strategy is paramount if one plans to experience the game on harder difficulties. Though all higher difficulties seem to do is increase enemy health and damage, it feels like the right way to play the game.
Sadly, and most regrettably, the difficulty system itself, like most modern released games, comes with virtually no trade-off or reward. It can be switched to a lower difficulty level at any time if you can’t handle the challenge.
The world of Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian is fairly large. Many regions of the game all seem to vary pretty uniquely in their presentations. While the locations themselves might leave a bit to be desired, there is always something to discover and farm as you explore.
Treasure chests are generously marked on the minimap and always contain something lucrative. This is also further reinforced based on the color of the chests as well. Red color chests always have something very nice in them. Using Rias’ Whip, she can travel to higher altitudes using colored aerial nodes.
Certain nodes will remain inaccessible to her until further progress in the game. Slade has a similar exploration system. Using a device he has called a “geist core”, he’s able to open up rifts called “dimensional paths”, allowing you to explore mini dungeons which contain all sorts of loot. During these excursions, you can find loot, materials, and most importantly, “fairies.”
The fairies are little guys that have one sole purpose~ to help you build your shop so you can make profit and rebuild your destroyed hometown. Leveling these little guys up is a beast all on its own, as it requires you to really put Rias’ alchemy skills to the test.
It’s disappointing that they all literally look identical. You are tasked to recruit many of them to fill in as employees to clean, manage, and run the shop. The only visually changing thing between them is the color of their outfit, which doesn’t vary much in itself.
Despite those misgivings, they are cool dudes and work their ass off to ensure your shop’s success. Just make sure you keep up with the shop so they can level up, and put them on break as they do get tired if you overwork them.
Atelier Resleriana has a great cycle of grinding, building your shop, working on alchemy to put items in said shop, side quests, and more. This game is brimming with distractions and activities. Having played a lot of games from the series, this feels like the most ambitious one yet.
After played Atelier Yumia earlier this year, I was gravely dismayed by how obtuse the progression was. When you level up, the enemies would scale up as well, causing everything to feel like a complete waste of time.
I am thrilled to announce that this is not the case with Atelier Resleriana. If you level up and get stronger, it’s time to move further into the game if you want a challenge. Early on, enemies watch out!
Despite being a very large game, there are only 6 playable heroes. The game boasts over 20 characters coming from many of the past Atelier and Mana Khemia games. But only getting to control a handful of them made me feel a rather large wave of disappointment.
It was confirmed that DLC will introduce more playable characters! Since it’s paid content, and a bit of a way out from the initial release, maybe a bit too late for most people to even care by that point.
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian is a phenomenal game. The story doesn’t really pick up till a good amount of hours into the story, but the large amount of distracting content and shop management will keep you busy.
Koei Tecmo and Gust added yet another page of fantastic alchemy goodness to their long list of ateliers, not just for ongoing fans, but maybe a few new ones looking for another good JRPG to enjoy.
Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided by Koei Tecmo Games. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy can be found here. Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian is now available for PC (via Steam), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.
