Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings celebrates the 20th Anniversary for the franchise and summons players to become the best alchemist ever by following the tale of the apprentice alchemist twins Lydie and Suelle. While working with their father to make their atelier the best in town, the outgoing twins surprisingly discover colorful worlds by jumping into magical paintings and soon find that the mysterious paintings hold the residual thoughts of their deceased mother. Traveling through different paintings reveals vivid worlds for the twins – from the light tones of the ethereal ‘Heavenly Flower Garden’, with the falling rain of stars, to the gloomy hues of the not so delightful Halloween-inspired ‘The Spooky Forest’.

This fateful discovery is just the beginning of the twin’s adventure leading them to their joint goal… to run the best atelier in the country.

To help the pair reach their joint goal of running the best atelier, Suelle creates the Ambitions Journal where she tracks everything they need to accomplish along the way. The ambitions listed in their journal contain tasks related to the key pillars of the Atelier series: alchemy, synthesis, battle, and character relations. As these are completed, Important Quests are unlocked, which will raise the twin’s Atelier Rank upon their completion. This rank is extremely important for young alchemists as chances of discovering new paintings increases the more they level up their Atelier - and opening up opportunities to undertake the ever-necessary alchemy Promotion Tests.

Throughout their adventures in Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings, the twins will find a bounty of resources which will be needed to create incredibly useful items. Synthesizing items is a necessity for the twins to perfect their skills, as they train to run the best atelier in the country. The Synthesis system has been tweaked with the addition of Enhancing Agents, making the learning process easier for aspiring alchemists. The newly introduced Enhancing Agents attach new effects onto synthesized items and, depending on the agent used, will change the synthesis panel in unique ways.

Change Agents cause colored tiles to transform into the color of the agent, while Color Adjacent Agents turn the chosen tile and those next to it into the same color. Additionally Connect Agents change all of the tiles connected horizontally, vertically and diagonally to the chosen square into the same color. Color All Agents causes all tiles of the same color to transform into the color of the agent. Carefully utilizing these agents at the right time can ensure synthesized items are even more effective. For example, bombs can have a wider explosive radius and perform more damage; while health items will have stronger healing properties.  

Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings also includes appearances from the protagonists of the previous titles - Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book and Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey. The adventurous Firis, her protective older sister Liane, the inquisitive Sophie, and her friendly alchemy teacher Plachta are all back to help Lydie and Suelle fulfil their dream to run the best atelier in the country. Fans will also be pleased to see other familiar faces returning in this brand-new tale, such as Ilmeria, who has now taken the role of a teacher for the new alchemists!

Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings is coming to Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PC via Steam on March 27, 2017 (March 30 In Europe).