From the first game released in 2019, Leisha, an ordinary alchemical girl from a farming family on Keuken Island, is destined to become a milestone figure in the 10-year Alchemy Workshop series. And after nearly four years, we finally ushered in the final work of Leisha's secret trilogy "Leisha's Alchemy Workshop 3 ~The End Alchemist and the Secret Key~", this review about the growth and adventure of boys and girls in the summer, what changes it has undergone, what touches and regrets it has brought, and what kind of foreshadowing the future of the entire Alchemy Workshop series, this review will discuss with you in a shallow way.
To briefly summarize the feeling of "Leisha 3": it is full enough in every sense. For example, the three dimensions of the protagonist's growing strength, the most ambitious seamless open world map in the series, up to 11 new and old members gathered together, a large number of various missions, and a tuning system that further plays new tricks based on the first two games.
GUST threw the sincerity directly on the faces of the fans, apparently preparing for quite a long time, giving people a sense of satisfaction beyond doubt. However, "Leisha 3" is also a work with hidden ambitions, in which the "experimental" content has obvious pros and cons, and there will be some dissatisfaction and regret in addition to playing, which I will try to expand on below.
The secret series foreshadowing is all retracted
In case of spoilers, I won't say much about the plot. Without deliberately doing character side stories and world side stories, my first clearance time is about 30 hours, and the main line basically answers the questions left by the first two games, such as the relationship between the dragon and the Otherworldly Gate, another secret of Keuken Island, and what is the initiator of the trouble, Philversa, and the purpose of the ancestors of the Golden Age, these questions are reasonably explained one by one as the plot progresses.
Not only Leisha herself, but also every teammate involved has found the answer in their own hesitation, ushering in their own endgame in this summer, just like the subtitle says "The Alchemist of the End", which is the end of the story, but also the end of ignorance towards maturity, "Leisha 3" spends a large amount of cutscenes and side quests to complete this, although these stories are intertwined, making the structure slightly messy, but the experience is complete and beautiful, and it does not make people wait so long in vain.
Best feature: seamless open world
In previous interviews with producers, the game's "four open large maps" and "seamless map switching" were the biggest selling points. Imagine a game with thighs and an alchemy system as the core, and suddenly entering the open world in the last game, which does not seem to be in line with GUST's eye-catching and technically stable temperament, but this open world really surprised me.
For example, the first map, in fact, is a slight improvement of all the maps of the first game and then stitched together, you can run from the secret hideout at the shore to the top of the volcano in one breath, the collection point monster distribution and dynamic elements of each scene are crammed, and the PS5 frame rate has been in a stable state, this kind of gathering adventure in the wild to spread your legs and run freely is the first in the series.
As for the new three maps, the vertical three-dimensional design is quite rich, so much so that a new zipline has been added to quickly traverse, in addition to adding different mounts to correspond to some scenes that cannot be passed. There are also many hidden elements, which are part of the content that takes twice as long to complete after the game is completed. That's right, the word I use here is "one of them", and more exaggeratedly, there are random tasks full of maps and favorability dialogues that need to be cleaned up, and there is a feeling of tasting "Ubisoft's little can".
The advantage is naturally to improve the durability, but the problem of this approach is also obvious, such as many tasks actually have no meaning except to collect some material, the sense of repetition of random tasks is very high, I will complete it in the early stage, and when it comes to the later stage, it is not at all ignored, and some tasks are released and completed in the same area, and when you go to complete it along the way, you basically forget what to do, which is a common disease of the open world, and "Leisha 3" is not avoided.
It is worth affirming that in order to make it more convenient for players to move in this open world and collect more conveniently, the game has added a large number of action interaction elements, such as fast running, climbing, moving along the wall, sliding downhill, etc., and also added different mounts, even in the water can move quickly, and the most convenient is the collection action, that is, press the X key when running through the collection point to complete, no need to squat frequently to waste time, other sickles or hammers and the like are also optimized in interaction. Basically, I didn't let go of the running button the whole time, and as soon as Leisha ran all the way, the ground was "bald".
Players who have played the PS5 version must have noticed the problem of blurred depth of field, which was better in cutscenes, but in the end, the visual experience was affected. As you can probably guess, the development team is making a trade-off between the pressure of open-world performance and image quality. I can understand, but this depth of field picture is really miserable, and hopefully this will be improved with a patch in the future.
Having said that, this is the first time that the Alchemy Workshop has done an open world, and you can't take so-and-so and so-and-so rings as references, and it's already very happy that "Leisha 3" can do so much in the collection adventure part, at least let people know that GUST is trying to reconcile the possibilities beyond the system and characters, paving the way for new series in the future.
A key system that seems to be important
"The Secret Key" also appears in the subtitle, which is important in the game, but the personal experience is not very good.
The key system affects many aspects, first of all, it is the key word in the story, and secondly, it has also changed the map exploration, tuning, equipment, and combat. The map unlocks air wall areas with corresponding wind, fire, thunder, and ice attributes, and can also be equipped to bring buffs to characters, and even add keys to change the blending effect when blending, and buffing yourself and your team during battle, which seems to be useful.
But the key is more like something that is added to make something changeable, originally I found the hiding spot and went directly to search for it, but now, I need the corresponding key to unlock this air wall, provided that you have made this key with an adventure effect, and it happens to be hung on the keychain when you go out.
The biggest problem with the key system is the hassle. The secret key (shell key) needs to be crafted, and it cannot be copied in large quantities with a copy pot. Secondly, when making keys at outdoor teleportation points, it is random, not only the attributes are random but also the effect is random, but also depends on the quality of your secret key, so making a large number of keys has become a step in the implementation of the whole process, affecting the coherence of the exploration process.
In terms of equipment, tuning, and combat, its role can also be replaced by other things, which is equivalent to adding an additional equipment slot to the equipment interface, adding an additional "essence" when blending, and an additional type of props on the buff during battle. There's nothing wrong with these increased changes, but the irritation of collecting keys outweighs the benefits, even though the shapes of the keys are good.
Refined combat and tuning
The seamless large map and key system are the main features of the three generations, and the rest is further fine-tuned on the old system. The first is the experience of the chain blending system.
The chain blending system continues the previous relationship map between materials and synthetics, what materials can be used to do, what can be changed by the formula of a certain synthetic, and old players can directly and seamlessly get started. There is a small change is the skill tree, such as the creation of iron ore, you need to point out "quality 700" in the skill tree to unlock, if memory serves, in the 2nd generation is in the formula of star iron ore to make changes can be directly obtained.
The interface of this chain tuning is more vivid than before, and any material added to the material ring can be displayed with small icons on it, and Leisha's actions are also much richer.
As for the key system, which rings can be added to the key will be prompted, and can not be added casually, you need to correspond to the attributes. The synthesis effect and recipe level of the key affect the blending process. The synthesis effect is called up when the secret key is made, and the formula level is activated after the key meets the conditions, which will activate the corresponding level effect of the formula, so that the properties and effects of the finished product are further enhanced.
The combat has not changed much, and the most satisfying thing is the return of all the old team members, and 3 new characters have been added, a total of 11 people go out to fight monsters. During the battle, they are divided into 3 guards and 2 guards, switching between each other, and if all 5 fall, they will be teleported home.
The 11 people obviously add a lot of combat combinations, in addition to customizing the timing of teammates' skills on the command interface, such as when the enemy charges up to attack, you can release the main skill of breaking defense, and when the enemy breaks the defense, then use skills such as high damage or reduced defense.
The flow of the battle has not changed, by spending AP points to release moves, accumulating CC points to use props, accumulating battle levels to release deadly drives, etc., the whole combat experience is smoother and faster than ever, and the effect is much more gorgeous.
The combat class is divided into three types of basics: support, defense, and attack, and then you can advance to a high level, and finally become a bluffing rank variety such as "Rapid Warrior" and "Strong King". The only change is that during the battle, the player will be reminded that the key has been activated, and selecting the key in the prop interface will bring different buff effects, this enhancement is obvious, and can even turn the tide of the battle, but still the previous sentence, if you are too lazy to make the key, then this part can also be skipped.
In addition to these, there are some small improvements that are very well intentioned. For example, Leisha's facial expressions are more varied, and this kind of close-up is often seen in cutscenes.
The Alchemy Workshop base has also been adjusted, and it can even be built many of them, and it is divided into a survey base (showing treasure chests), a farm (you can farm), and a research institute (increasing SP acquisition), which have different effects, and the interior can be further expanded to add new effects, but the decoration has not changed, and you can only choose to place some gadgets in a fixed location.
summary
"Leisha 3" comes with a lot of sincerity, not only boldly adding seamless open-world gameplay, but also introducing a key system to add some novelty in tuning, combat, and wilderness exploration. The amount of content and characters are also full enough to be satisfying. But the problems brought by the open world cannot be ignored, the cumbersome sense of the key system is more prominent, and the strange depth of field problem of PS5 also needs to be solved by the official as soon as possible.
Although there are regrets, "Leisha 3" still exceeded the mission of the final work of the series, making people have a feeling that they can keep playing and "summer never ends", which is a reluctant emotion and the most sincere way to say goodbye to players.
Rating: 8.0
【Advantages】
Seamless open world
Plenty of content
Improvement of the blending system
All staff return, foreshadowing recycling
【Disadvantages】
The PS5 version has a blurry depth of field
Random tasks are highly repetitive
The key system is cumbersome