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Shortly after the release of the 25th anniversary work, the "Alchemy Workshop" series, which was a GUST annual product, ushered in a new work "Leisha's Alchemy Workshop 3 ~The Alchemist and the Secret Key of the End~" the following year, and the protagonist returned to Leisha's body. At the end of the previous game, it is not difficult to guess that there will be a sequel, but it is not surprising that this should also be the last story of Leisha and her group, and PV is also promoted with "the last summer, the last secret".
Since its birth, the series has put the same person as the protagonist three times for the first time, and compared to the trilogy mode since A11, Leisha's chapter is not only highly independent in terms of plot, but also has a leap in the evolution of game mechanics, which can be described as a new style different from the previous "Alchemy Workshop" series. The capacity of the game base exceeded 30G for the first time, and as the final chapter of the secret trilogy, GUST made bold attempts in many aspects.
Say goodbye to a calm day
After completing the adventure of the royal capital, Leisha returned to Keuken Island, at this time Leisha was 21 years old, her status was different from the past, and the island's residents would take the initiative to entrust Leisha to help with big and small things. However, just after Leisha's life returned to calm, strange things came to her again, and an unknown archipelago appeared near the port of Keuken Island, known as the Kirk Islands, and Leisha's group also began to investigate on the island. One day, an earthquake suddenly struck Keuken Island, which was protected by a suspension device, and upon examination it was revealed that it had malfunctioned due to some unknown force.
Aware of the coming crisis, Leisha wrote to Kolotia and the others, and after gathering her companions, they went to the depths of the Cork Islands together. In the ruins of the island, Leisha and her group saw a huge door, and the mysterious voice that had guided her to the Vientiane Canon suddenly echoed in her mind, and the mysterious key that had been reconciled not long ago began to shine. After obtaining the power of the key, Leisha also found the direction of investigation, and in order to be able to resolve the crisis on Keuken Island, everyone began an adventure to explore the roots of alchemy.
Conquering the challenges of seven years ago
In Leisha's Alchemy Workshop 2, the addition of the compass mechanic makes the maze more valuable to explore, and the interactive mechanism of the map has become richer. However, there is a more subversive innovation in this work, and the "Phyllis's Alchemy Workshop" in the Dusk trilogy is themed on travel, and the maps are unlocked by players through exploration, which has an open world prototype in terms of gameplay.
However, maps still need to be cut-loaded, but this game is different, all field maps are seamlessly connected, becoming the first open-world RPG under GUST. After the stage of the game returned to Leisha's hometown, GUST also redesigned the original old map, which not only highly restored the scene and terrain, but also brought players a completely different exploration experience with the addition of new mechanics.
After being acquired by Glory, GUST's works began to become more and more fan-oriented, and although Leisha made the "Alchemy Workshop" series achieve a circle-breaking phenomenon, it is still difficult to get rid of the evaluation of outsiders as "not fun". In previous works, being able to jump into the water and swim was an excellent performance, not to mention a large number of air walls. However, this game is very different, not only every corner of the map can be explored, but also interactive content such as riding is integrated into the exploration, and the terrain setting added for the first time, there will be a height difference between scenes, players can climb and teleport and a series of operations, exploration methods are richer.
More choice of tactical styles
The combat in this game is still ATB turn-based, with the most controllable characters in history, including up to 11 new characters, and the team formation has added one more guard than in the previous game, that is, up to 5 people on the field. Battles are still obtained by launching normal attacks to obtain AP values, so as to assign various action commands, and in this game, normal attacks can be continuously entered, making the early pace faster.
In addition, the overlapping stunt system in this game has also been improved, and after the conditions are met, the currently controlled character can be swapped with the defender role, and if there is still AP value left, the new character can activate the skill immediately, thus maintaining the chain state of the skill. At the same time, after achieving the teammate's move needs, additional QTE skills can be triggered, and other mechanics added in the first two games make the battle more strategic.
While the skill mechanism has become richer, the core crystal mechanism has also been added to the prop system, which can bring a variety of prop-related BUFFs to the character by strengthening or adjusting the attributes, and fighting enemies with the same attributes will also have additional income bonuses, encouraging players to use more props in battle. Finally, there is the tactical level system, which, like the previous game, still increases the tactical level by launching skills or completing various commands, and obtains more enhanced BUFFs according to the level, as well as unlocks special kills and additional attacks.
However, a new gameplay has been added to this work, that is, the key system introduced in the title, after the tactical level is greater than 2 and the monster's HP is less than 80%, different types of keys can be refined according to the monster. There are 4 types of keys in this game, the key of the burst class can apply various enhancement buffs in battle, and the symbolic class provides the character with attribute bonuses, which is also the auxiliary system that is the core selling point of this work, involving all areas of the game.
A reconciling way of coexisting hardcore and simplicity
After undergoing the optimization of the first two games, the alchemy system of this game has become quite perfect, and compared to previous works, the improvement direction of the secret trilogy is quite clear. As in the previous game, the quality of the finished product will be determined by the attributes and values of the materials during the blending process, and the number of affixes will also be affected by the unlocking of material rings by investing various materials. For players who pursue alchemy quality, this game has added a new system such as super characteristics to increase the upper limit of finished products, and for players who pursue leisure, this game also retains a one-click blending system for random feeding.
The recipe of this game is almost all unlocked by consuming SP points, players can freely choose the priority level, the key effect of the synthesis class is somewhat similar to the essence of the previous game, with additional specified synthesis effects, and the degree of freedom is higher than that of the previous game. The most noteworthy aspect of harmonization is a new system called Link Call, which allows the base effect to replace the inherent effect of the finished product when alchemy with materials with "base effects". This change is quite bold throughout the history of the Alchemy Workshop series, which means that all the effects of the finished product have room for plasticity, allowing players to create new items with higher ceilings on the one hand, and reconciling new toys that subvert the original usage on the other.
In the process of wild exploration and collection, in addition to being a traditional wild boss, this work has richer side content, not only will different exploration tasks appear according to the unlocking of the scene, but also randomly brush out various limited-time missions related to characters and materials, so as to obtain high-quality materials and SP points and other rewards. Keys to the corresponding domain can also be crafted at teleportation points, adventure keys can be used to open chests at supply stations, and rare monsters can be summoned for battle. The addition of the key system and the open world not only increases the upper limit and strategy of various systems, but also provides intuitive feedback on benefits.
An attempt to break away from the fan orientation
As the final chapter of the trilogy, GUST not only returns the stage to the most familiar starting point for players, but also allows all the friends Leisha has made during the journey to appear. The first two games have been integrated and overhauled, and the introduction of the open world has made all aspects of gameplay more fulfilling than ever.
While the core gameplay of alchemy continues to evolve, the experience and pacing of the rest of the mechanics are closer to traditional JRPGs, making it easier for new players to accept. Even if it is still worth optimizing in many places, such as the UI access information is not intuitive enough, the operation of keys is too cumbersome, and the character development positioning that is the focus of RPG games is vague, and the homogeneity of skills is serious.
However, it can also be seen in recent works that GUST is not eating the old book of a fixed fan group, which is enough to see the determination to get rid of fans to the label. 4 years is not a long time in the history of "Alchemy Workshop", but Leisha's growth and achievements are undoubtedly beyond everyone's imagination, and although the theme of this game is Leisha's graduation trip, the tone of the style is still quite relaxed and pleasant.
Even though there are still flaws in some places, the final game is undoubtedly overfulfilled by fan needs, not only full of innovation in gameplay, but also greatly improved, but also gives players enough time for this farewell trip. In addition to ending everyone's journey, the finale also leaves suspense and foreshadowing, and I believe that in the near future, players will meet again as predecessors.
epilogue
Today, when the homogenization of GUST works is becoming more and more serious, "Leisha's Alchemy Workshop 3 ~The End Alchemist and the Secret Key~" has made an unexpected transformation, this work not only realizes the open-world gameplay that was tried as early as the A18 period, but also allows players to see a new direction for the development of the series. GUST spent 4 years shaping the growth path of Leisha, and the secret trilogy was gradually stacked into a huge innovation through each generation, bringing the "Alchemy Workshop" series into a new era.