Lydie & Suelle.... *used to* be the finale of the Mysterious series, but now that we have Sophie 2 that released in 2022, we can instead say it's chronologically the last in the Mysterious series. L&S goes back to basics with the hub-based format of Sophie 1, and deviating from the more open-world format that Firis set. This has it's upsides and downsides of course, but the main advantage is much less downtime between tasks, and being able to see all the content the game has to offer pretty efficiently. Firis had a pretty grievous issue of inconsistent pacing because of Firis' slow movement speed and limited fast travel options, so it's nice that you can go practically anywhere in L&S with the simple tap of a button to bring up a fast travel menu.

The main gimmick of this game is the titular Mysterious Paintings, which can be entered and explored to gather new materials and meet colorful characters. In terms of pure gameplay, these might as well be just larger versions of the usual outskirts areas you can explore and adds a dungeon-esque feel to the story progression. However, it makes up for it in spades in terms of the visual style. These are paintings disconnected from the real world, so the art team were able to create some wacky and fun environments that don't abide to the rules of reality. You always get a very nice coat of paint whenever you explore a new painting, so the game never feels like it's retreading the same ground.

The story, tonally, is much more comedy-focused compared to Sophie and Firis. It chooses to throw a lot of zingers in event scenes rather than more insightful stuff. That's not to say there isn't emotional weight in the story, because there are some questlines that I would argue have the most emotional and heart-gripping scenes in this entire sub-series. This is in part thanks to previous protagonists Firis, Sophie, and other recurring characters getting the book closed on all their arcs, and it's very satisfying if you've been sticking with it from the beginning. The twins don't get the shaft though, their whole arc hinges on a pretty heart-wrenching motivation, and you want to see them succeed because of it.

The twins are the star of the show though. The studious, rational Lydie, and the energetic, instinctual Suelle (or Sue for short). Of course they deserve to stand alongside the others as protagonists. They're quite a bit younger compared to most other Atelier protags so they can be immature, mischevious and naive. All of this ends up adding a lot to their charm though as they slowly end up realizing their purpose in life and why they do alchemy at all. Being surrounded by the other party members who are adults puts their world view into perspective, and it's a lot easier to see them grow as characters than some other Atelier protagonists. Lydie & Sue can also be swapped out as the controllable field character at any time in the story. They also have their own music mixes of not just the Atelier and Battle, but almost all of the explorable gathering areas in the game. The game does a fantastic job putting emphasis on the twins being dual protags, and encouraging you to switch between them every so often. There have been dual protags in Atelier before that used these same features, but these two were the first in quite a while.


In short, Lydie & Suelle is pretty much taking Sophie 1's structure and further refining it to be more enjoyable with it's own bells and whistles. The story and characters are also a joy to watch as it typically is for this series. If you enjoyed Sophie 1 and don't mind L&S playing it a little safe, it's absolutely worth your time.

Lydie & Suelle.... *used to* be the finale of the Mysterious series, but now that we have Sophie 2 that released in 2022, we can instead say it's chronologically the last in the Mysterious series. L&S goes back to basics with the hub-based format of Sophie 1, and deviating from the more open-world format that Firis set. This has it's upsides and downsides of course, but the main advantage is much less downtime between tasks, and being able to see all the content the game has to offer pretty efficiently. Firis had a pretty grievous issue of inconsistent pacing because of Firis' slow movement speed and limited fast travel options, so it's nice that you can go practically anywhere in L&S with the simple tap of a button to bring up a fast travel menu. The main gimmick of this game is the titular Mysterious Paintings, which can be entered and explored to gather new materials and meet colorful characters. In terms of pure gameplay, these might as well be just larger versions of the usual outskirts areas you can explore and adds a dungeon-esque feel to the story progression. However, it makes up for it in spades in terms of the visual style. These are paintings disconnected from the real world, so the art team were able to create some wacky and fun environments that don't abide to the rules of reality. You always get a very nice coat of paint whenever you explore a new painting, so the game never feels like it's retreading the same ground. The story, tonally, is much more comedy-focused compared to Sophie and Firis. It chooses to throw a lot of zingers in event scenes rather than more insightful stuff. That's not to say there isn't emotional weight in the story, because there are some questlines that I would argue have the most emotional and heart-gripping scenes in this entire sub-series. This is in part thanks to previous protagonists Firis, Sophie, and other recurring characters getting the book closed on all their arcs, and it's very satisfying if you've been sticking with it from the beginning. The twins don't get the shaft though, their whole arc hinges on a pretty heart-wrenching motivation, and you want to see them succeed because of it. The twins are the star of the show though. The studious, rational Lydie, and the energetic, instinctual Suelle (or Sue for short). Of course they deserve to stand alongside the others as protagonists. They're quite a bit younger compared to most other Atelier protags so they can be immature, mischevious and naive. All of this ends up adding a lot to their charm though as they slowly end up realizing their purpose in life and why they do alchemy at all. Being surrounded by the other party members who are adults puts their world view into perspective, and it's a lot easier to see them grow as characters than some other Atelier protagonists. Lydie & Sue can also be swapped out as the controllable field character at any time in the story. They also have their own music mixes of not just the Atelier and Battle, but almost all of the explorable gathering areas in the game. The game does a fantastic job putting emphasis on the twins being dual protags, and encouraging you to switch between them every so often. There have been dual protags in Atelier before that used these same features, but these two were the first in quite a while. In short, Lydie & Suelle is pretty much taking Sophie 1's structure and further refining it to be more enjoyable with it's own bells and whistles. The story and characters are also a joy to watch as it typically is for this series. If you enjoyed Sophie 1 and don't mind L&S playing it a little safe, it's absolutely worth your time.