Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout Season 1 Episode 12 Recap & Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sRNt93A2ZU

The Changing Days

Episode 12 of Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout begins with Lila and Empel fighting and defeating the crystalized monster Philuscha. Meanwhile, Tao, Lent, and Ryza visit Mr. Fressher and find an interesting artifact. Mr. Fressher lets them keep it because it’s useless to him. Klaudia tells Ryza and the others that Empel and Lila have returned to Rasenboden. They leave Mr. Fressher’s shop to visit them. 

Empel and Lila congratulate Ryza and her friends on defeating the dragon. Ryza asks Empel and Lila about Philuscha. Empel questions if the castle that housed the information about Philuscha was once a stronghold built against it by the Clint Kingdom. Empel and Lila plan to inform Ryza and her friends about what they know. Before that, Empel confirms they plan to clear out their residence here and move into Atelier Ryza.

Empel states he and Lila defeated Philuscha so the area should be safe for now. Afterwards, Ryza and her friends bump into Romy, who hands her a letter from Jonna. Jonna informs them that she’s entering a martial arts tournament and wants Romy to ask Ryza to synthesize a suit of armor for Jonna to wear. Tao looks at the artifact they got from Mr. Fressher’s shop again and realizes it could lead them to treasure, exciting Ryza. 

Ryza and her friends bump into Agatha and her allies. One of her allies knows about the artifact Ryza has in her hands. He says it’s a common item he and his allies would find in most places, including the Fairystone Forest. Ryza encourages Tao and the others to head to the forest with her to do some treasure hunting. They find more tablets and Klaudia puts them together. They realize they must find more of them to complete the sentence written on the artifact they got from Mr. Fressher. 

Ryza and her friends bump into Barbara in town and ask her if she owns one of the stones. Barbara tells Ryza and her friends Pat might own one of the stones. They visit Pat and he hands them the stone while thanking them for all the hard work they’ve done for the town. Ryza and her friends head somewhere in town to complete more of the artifact. The sentence alludes to the treasure being near water, so Ryza and her friends visit a location with ruins and continue searching. They reach a dead end on their hunt.

Lent takes another look at the artifact and tells Ryza they’ll need to find two more tablets to complete the sentence. He suggests they head to Kurken Island to find the treasure. He says his map-making experience led him to this assumption, making Ryza realize the artifact is a real treasure map. Our heroes visit Bascila for intel but she doesn’t have any knowledge about them.

Thankfully, two children arrive at Bascila’s home and tell Ryza and her friends they are playing with one of those tablets. They tell Ryza she can find at the square with the goats. Despite not finding anything during their hunt, a goat stumbles upon them with a piece of the tablet in its mouth. They chase the goat down and retrieve the tablet. Ryza questions if someone already found the treasure. Suddenly, they overhear Ryza’s mother arguing with Lent’s father. He still doesn’t approve of Lent despite giving him a sword to fight the dragon. 

After discussing things with Lent’s father, Ryza’s mother and father notice Ryza with her friends. Ryza asks her father if he knows anything about the final tablet’s whereabouts. It turns out they had the final piece at their home the whole time, so Ryza and her friends head inside to look at it. After putting the map together, Tao says the text claims “Rainbow water, nearby is treasure.” Ryza ponders for a bit and takes her friends to visit an old Rainbow Grape tree. 

Tao spots a cave nearby and he and the others enter it. They find a treasure chest at the end of it, open it, and exit the cave. Ryza’s disappointed with the outcome and doesn’t find value in the bag of Kurken Fruit seeds they found in the chest. Ryza apologizes for wasting her friends’ time, but they don’t mind. Tao explains why the seeds are valuable items and says it has to do with what life on the island was like in the past.

The episode closes with Ryza reflecting on her life so far and visiting Atelier Ryza with her friends.  

The Episode Review

For the final chapter of Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout it was a tad underwhelming. It has some charming messages but it didn’t deliver on certain things many fans were excited for. From the battle with Philuscha to Ryza and her friends spending the entire chapter wandering about for treasure, this captured the same tone as earlier episodes and didn’t feel like a finale in the slightest. 

Based on discussions spread online, this adaptation only covers half of the first game of the same name. This means we still have ways to go before we receive an adaptation of the second and third game’s content. It’ll be interesting to see if another season of this anime gets green-lit since other series seemed to harbor most of the spotlight this season.  

Nevertheless, it’d be great for another season to explore many of this show’s unresolved matters. Instances like Lent achieving his dream to travel to the tower to having Bos reconcile with Ryza and her friends would be great to witness.

Overall, this episode didn’t offer much from an excitement or closure standpoint. Hopefully, another season will be green-lit in the coming weeks or months because Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout has the potential to be a great alchemy-inspired series.