Game Title: Arcade Spirits
Genre: Visual Novel
Developer|Publisher: Fiction Factory Games|PQube
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on PC, Mac, PS 4, Xbox One, iOS and Android )
Price: UK £19.99 |EU €19,99 |AU $30.00|CA $26.45 |US $19.99
Age Rating: EU 12+|AU PG| US T
Release Date: May 1st 2020
Review Code provided by PQube. Screenshots are also from the early game to keep things as spoiler-free as possible.
Arcade Spirits is a Romantic Comedy Visual Novel that takes place in a world where the big Videogame Crash of 1983, also known as the Atari Shock, that basically brought the Gaming market down to its knees in 1983 to 1985. At the time of Atari Shock there was an overflow of games of rather poor quality that released so close to each other, like the infamous E.T the Extraterrestrial game for the Atari 2600. This catastrophic event never happened in the world of Arcade Spirits and the arcade business is still booming in the year 20XX. Sometimes I wish that was the case in real life (though the Arcade scene is still sort of strong in Japan).
Game On!!
You play as a young adult who has been recently let go of their job as a lifeguard and now has to deal with finding a new job after a long time of failure, misfortune and compromises. You find a new job at an arcade thanks to the help of an app that your best friend tells you about, and from there it’s up to you to find your happiness by making various choices that can range from Quirky, Gutsy, Steady, Kindly or Basically that can influence the responses of the various characters you meet in the game. There are also no real wrong choices to be made here since all of these choices are part of your own story in this game.
You can customize your name (default name being Ari Cader), pronouns and appearance, though the customization options are a tad bit limited. During your job, you will meet a few people that you can start a romance with. You can choose out of three guys and four girls and all of these choices are available regardless of the pronoun or gender you choose. It opens up a lot of options and it’s really inclusive for people of the LGBTQ community.
That to me is really amazing, as it means I can romance my favourite girl without having to pick the male option and there is also an option to not have romance at all for those who just want to befriend the various characters. I fully appreciate this approach a lot.
Quarter Up!
The story is really well written with its twists and turns, and I really love the very quirky and likeable characters a lot. My personal favourites being Ashley, who works as the Funplex mascot Pinky the Funplex Flamingo who comes across as friendly, aspiring to be a great cosplayer to seek a form of self-expression; Percy who is a retro game aficionado who focuses his efforts on getting the highest score of 3.75 million points on a specific game and wanting to reach for the world record for it; and QueenBee who is a fierce competitive gamer, associated with a popular esports team who aims for the top in Fists of Discomfort, and she also has a bit of a potty mouth all things considered.
The story also hits on various themes such as: passion, hard work, and gender identity as a few examples, and I honestly feel that is really tastefully done.
When it comes to the art, I think it is really well done. The character artwork looks really nice and the backgrounds also look vibrant. That fits with the aesthetic a lot. Though I do have to say it’s odd that some character artwork lacks the shading that the main cast has. Aside from that, I have zero complaints on that front.
On the topic of sound: the soundtrack is also really ambient and fits perfectly with the game. The voice acting is also really well done with well-known voice actors like Stephanie Sheh and Danielle McRae as well as having familiar content creators like Graham Stark from LoadingReadyRun, LilyPichu and Price Johnson who does content for StumptGamers.
In Conclusion
Arcade Spirits is a very delightful Visual Novel to play especially if you are as passionate about gaming as I am. The writers and developers show a whole lot of passion for the gaming medium and also handle hard themes really well. That is something I really admire and enjoy seeing in a game that basically is about finding hope, video games, and having passion for what you do.
I definitely have had a lot of fun working at the Funplex in-game and getting to know the various fun and quirky characters. So my rating for Arcade Spirits is.
Final Verdict: I liked it a lot!