Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers is the follow-up to 2019's Arcade Spirits, a visual novel of love and pixels, in which you seek friendship and romance while working in an arcade. Now the tables are turned, as you seek friendship and romance while PLAYING in an arcade!
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While generally and overall, a very solid game, that definitely kept me engaged from beginning to end, I was ultimately expecting just a little bit more from this sequel. The scope was not as big as I was hoping and there was not as many big overarching choices in comparison to the first game. Also, the romances were not as engaging as the original. I romanced Grace but it never felt like we were really romanced at all. But the story is engrossing while building up lingering plot threads from its predecessor and the way it tackles mental health issues was inspiring and done very well. If you were a fan of the original, I highly recommend it. For newcomers, I'd skip it.
The artstyle isn't exactly my thing, but it was quite fun, had great romantic options, a really cool story and I don't know. I had fun. What can I say! Certain moments can be a bit scary, just as a warning.
[re-upload of Steam review]
As someone who loved the first game and its characters to the point of 100% completion, Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers just makes me mad.
For starters, the dating pool is so utterly lacking on the charm their predecessors had it's not even funny; Locksley is easily the best option, but everybody else ranges from "I guess you're cool" to "I am two inches away from filing a restraining order". My first route was going to be Zapper, but 1) I hate how she can't stop saying "awesome", feels like a 12-year-old's idea of what a confident and assertive character is and 2) there's some dialogue with her that makes me think that she's constantly trying to get a good grade at therapy. Venting to me about how she's an "abusive piece of shit" right off the bat on Chapter 1, because she got angry at a friend of hers and said some things she grew to regret, felt extremely out of place. Girl, I barely know you!
Speaking of stilted writing, in come the sections where the writers comment on the gaming industry's blunders. And let me be perfectly clear: I agree with a lot of what is being said. I, too, hate the current battle pass format and the crypto fad that permeated the conversations in the gaming community at the time of this game's release, but I can't help but wonder — wasn't there a more subtle way to say you hated this stuff than making a representative of the evil corp prattle on about how much these things rock and they're all going into the new business model, because that's how you know this corp's evil? And this is just one example — the messaging in a lot of segments like this one (for another, Zapper's rant on war games, or the painfully transparent argument about the Blitzchung incident) is so unsubtle it leaves me thinking that maybe the writers just don't trust the player base to pick up on anything other than that.
The overall tone of the game does not help a thing either. It's not like the writing has changed a lot from the first installment, it's still the same corny nerdy humour we've grown to... tolerate; but where that awkwardness served the first game's better character writing, here it just acts as to accentuate the flaws. As in: I'm already annoyed by several other things, and all the n-th rerun of the pizza bagel joke (which was never that funny to begin with, I'm sorry) is doing for me is making me even more unwilling to talk about this game in good faith.
Other reviews have pointed this out too, but the character creator is lacking at best. It's a step up from the original, that's to be sure, but it's just... ah, damn, I'll just say it, it's ugly. I'm sorry. I understand that its art style has to be more simplified in comparison to the other characters, but the sheer contrast between how I look and how my lovers look was just too distracting for me to handle. The fact I have to look at it all the time, compared to its offscreen presence in the first game, serves to all the more accentuate it. I appreciate it exists, though; I just wish it was better.
Lightning round of smaller complaints: the fact you can instantly redo any FoD match you lose is awkward and removes the supposed narrative weight of a loss; I didn't super like how Jynx was written, though articulating this point admittedly escapes me; and I found those "funny" insults you could throw at Coda in Chapter 1 were just deeply embarrassing, but I guess humour's subjective.
Overall, Arcade Spirits: The New Challenges has the makings of a great sequel, but preachy talking points, awkward customisation, and the same corny writing style that once served to make the first game a good, silly time hold everything down to a saddening degree. I said it was a game that made me mad; writing this frankly ridiculously long Steam review has me finding it also makes me sad. I guess they can't all be winners.
As someone who loved the first game and its characters to the point of 100% completion, Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers just makes me mad.
For starters, the dating pool is so utterly lacking on the charm their predecessors had it's not even funny; Locksley is easily the best option, but everybody else ranges from "I guess you're cool" to "I am two inches away from filing a restraining order". My first route was going to be Zapper, but 1) I hate how she can't stop saying "awesome", feels like a 12-year-old's idea of what a confident and assertive character is and 2) there's some dialogue with her that makes me think that she's constantly trying to get a good grade at therapy. Venting to me about how she's an "abusive piece of shit" right off the bat on Chapter 1, because she got angry at a friend of hers and said some things she grew to regret, felt extremely out of place. Girl, I barely know you!
Speaking of stilted writing, in come the sections where the writers comment on the gaming industry's blunders. And let me be perfectly clear: I agree with a lot of what is being said. I, too, hate the current battle pass format and the crypto fad that permeated the conversations in the gaming community at the time of this game's release, but I can't help but wonder — wasn't there a more subtle way to say you hated this stuff than making a representative of the evil corp prattle on about how much these things rock and they're all going into the new business model, because that's how you know this corp's evil? And this is just one example — the messaging in a lot of segments like this one (for another, Zapper's rant on war games, or the painfully transparent argument about the Blitzchung incident) is so unsubtle it leaves me thinking that maybe the writers just don't trust the player base to pick up on anything other than that.
The overall tone of the game does not help a thing either. It's not like the writing has changed a lot from the first installment, it's still the same corny nerdy humour we've grown to... tolerate; but where that awkwardness served the first game's better character writing, here it just acts as to accentuate the flaws. As in: I'm already annoyed by several other things, and all the n-th rerun of the pizza bagel joke (which was never that funny to begin with, I'm sorry) is doing for me is making me even more unwilling to talk about this game in good faith.
Other reviews have pointed this out too, but the character creator is lacking at best. It's a step up from the original, that's to be sure, but it's just... ah, damn, I'll just say it, it's ugly. I'm sorry. I understand that its art style has to be more simplified in comparison to the other characters, but the sheer contrast between how I look and how my lovers look was just too distracting for me to handle. The fact I have to look at it all the time, compared to its offscreen presence in the first game, serves to all the more accentuate it. I appreciate it exists, though; I just wish it was better.
Lightning round of smaller complaints: the fact you can instantly redo any FoD match you lose is awkward and removes the supposed narrative weight of a loss; I didn't super like how Jynx was written, though articulating this point admittedly escapes me; and I found those "funny" insults you could throw at Coda in Chapter 1 were just deeply embarrassing, but I guess humour's subjective.
Overall, Arcade Spirits: The New Challenges has the makings of a great sequel, but preachy talking points, awkward customisation, and the same corny writing style that once served to make the first game a good, silly time hold everything down to a saddening degree. I said it was a game that made me mad; writing this frankly ridiculously long Steam review has me finding it also makes me sad. I guess they can't all be winners.
a solid follow-up to a solid first game, with a lot more to say about its themes in its characters and world! only through one route thus far, but excited to see where the series goes if they follow up on this!
also congratulations to fiction factory games for finding the visual novel equivalent of an ominous empty room with a save point and a vending machine, which is apparently a character casually reminding you where to find the game's cw list before launching you into your next scene
also congratulations to fiction factory games for finding the visual novel equivalent of an ominous empty room with a save point and a vending machine, which is apparently a character casually reminding you where to find the game's cw list before launching you into your next scene
this game blows
https://www.backloggd.com/u/HuFe/list/gay-visual-novels-ranked-bara/
It is “objectively” better than the first game
This time the storyline is that you are a pro-gamer, you are super good at a League of Legends parody so you look for a team in a weird place that works as an arcade, pizzeria, and laundromat at the same time. And they created a somewhat enjoyable minigame inside the main game to portray the matches, it’s pretty darn cool. Another thing they added is a rival: you can fully customize them using the character creation, and they can serve several roles depending on your choices (Friendly rivalry, deep hate, and/or act as a 7th romantic option). The characters and story and main storyline is a bit more compelling, I got invested in the life of more characters than in the first game. The character designs have also improved significantly. They already looked good in the first game, but this time they are so gorgeous that you stare at them even if they don’t do anything for you sexually. And speaking of that…
Subjective Complaint 1: I’m not attracted to any of these people
None of the main characters were even close to sparking something romantic in me. To be honest, if your game doesn’t have a guy with a full beard, it’s going to be tricky to hook me in. One thing that slightly bothers me is that the statistics favour femininity over masculinity. In the first game, there’s 4 girls and 3 boys to choose from, and all of them fit their assigned gender (Except Theo). This time is a bit more diverse. There’s 3 femme girls, 1 neutral presenting non-binary (Very good representation by the way), 1 neutral presenting boy, and 1 masculine presenting boy. Therefore, if you are attracted to masculine men like me, your only option is Locksley, and I don’t like Locksley very much. His mouth is weird, and his voice and vibe are annoying, he doesn’t feel like a real person to me. I ended up picking him (I almost picked one of the girls to be honest), I gave it an honest try, but I didn’t feel like I got to know him that well, it felt off. I wish I could form a throuple with the owners of the pizza place, but I don’t think the game offers that option (I love that they act as a single character with a heart split in two as their icon). Anyway, my point is that statistically there’s more women characters to choose from than men, and the characters tend to be more feminine than masculine too, which is like a bias on the developers’ part, not saying that it’s a bad thing, but it makes it harder to enjoy the game for me. And where are the butch lesbians? Think about them too! Masculine people unite!
Subjective Complaint 2: Character Creation is still disappointing
It’s slightly better than the one in the original game, but I was still unable to create anything that left me satisfied. This time they allow you to be fat, but this only changes the torso and legs, and the default face is skinny. Therefore, even if they give you the option (And I love the option), it’s basically unusable because the head-body combination looks really off. And the matter of masculinity persists, when you try to make a boy character, they don’t give you the option to make them stand straight, and they still have no beards on offer, and the face is more feminine this time, so they end up looking non-binary at best. Give me a beard option at least!
Other observations
I think there’s a bit of a contradiction in the setting, because in one hand there’s characters saying “it’s good that the videogame crash didn’t happen, otherwise video games would be considered for boys only” but then you also see some stigma associated with games, and some gender barriers as well. However, I still think it makes sense. It’s a world in which e-sport competitions are mainstream, and half of the players are women, but even if that was the case in our own world, those forms of discrimination would still exist, and it allows the writers to create narratives addressing those issues.
It is “objectively” better than the first game
This time the storyline is that you are a pro-gamer, you are super good at a League of Legends parody so you look for a team in a weird place that works as an arcade, pizzeria, and laundromat at the same time. And they created a somewhat enjoyable minigame inside the main game to portray the matches, it’s pretty darn cool. Another thing they added is a rival: you can fully customize them using the character creation, and they can serve several roles depending on your choices (Friendly rivalry, deep hate, and/or act as a 7th romantic option). The characters and story and main storyline is a bit more compelling, I got invested in the life of more characters than in the first game. The character designs have also improved significantly. They already looked good in the first game, but this time they are so gorgeous that you stare at them even if they don’t do anything for you sexually. And speaking of that…
Subjective Complaint 1: I’m not attracted to any of these people
None of the main characters were even close to sparking something romantic in me. To be honest, if your game doesn’t have a guy with a full beard, it’s going to be tricky to hook me in. One thing that slightly bothers me is that the statistics favour femininity over masculinity. In the first game, there’s 4 girls and 3 boys to choose from, and all of them fit their assigned gender (Except Theo). This time is a bit more diverse. There’s 3 femme girls, 1 neutral presenting non-binary (Very good representation by the way), 1 neutral presenting boy, and 1 masculine presenting boy. Therefore, if you are attracted to masculine men like me, your only option is Locksley, and I don’t like Locksley very much. His mouth is weird, and his voice and vibe are annoying, he doesn’t feel like a real person to me. I ended up picking him (I almost picked one of the girls to be honest), I gave it an honest try, but I didn’t feel like I got to know him that well, it felt off. I wish I could form a throuple with the owners of the pizza place, but I don’t think the game offers that option (I love that they act as a single character with a heart split in two as their icon). Anyway, my point is that statistically there’s more women characters to choose from than men, and the characters tend to be more feminine than masculine too, which is like a bias on the developers’ part, not saying that it’s a bad thing, but it makes it harder to enjoy the game for me. And where are the butch lesbians? Think about them too! Masculine people unite!
Subjective Complaint 2: Character Creation is still disappointing
It’s slightly better than the one in the original game, but I was still unable to create anything that left me satisfied. This time they allow you to be fat, but this only changes the torso and legs, and the default face is skinny. Therefore, even if they give you the option (And I love the option), it’s basically unusable because the head-body combination looks really off. And the matter of masculinity persists, when you try to make a boy character, they don’t give you the option to make them stand straight, and they still have no beards on offer, and the face is more feminine this time, so they end up looking non-binary at best. Give me a beard option at least!
Other observations
I think there’s a bit of a contradiction in the setting, because in one hand there’s characters saying “it’s good that the videogame crash didn’t happen, otherwise video games would be considered for boys only” but then you also see some stigma associated with games, and some gender barriers as well. However, I still think it makes sense. It’s a world in which e-sport competitions are mainstream, and half of the players are women, but even if that was the case in our own world, those forms of discrimination would still exist, and it allows the writers to create narratives addressing those issues.