alias_sqbr (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alias_sqbr) wrote2019-10-05 09:11 am
alias_sqbr) wrote2019-10-05 09:11 am
Entry tags:
The Arcana
For the next few days, phone based freemium dating sim The Arcana allows you to read an arbitrary number of scenes a day for free (normally it's limited unless you pay money)
iOS Android
So I checked it out! And...by the time I got to the end of the prologue decided I didn't like it. But it's not inherently bad, just not my sort of thing.
It's set in a vaguely renaissance Europe-ish fantasy city. It's ethnically diverse with a lot of unremarked queerness. It takes itself pretty seriously and feels like it's trying a bit too hard to be Lush and Evocative without the depth to quite carry it off, but I have a low tolerance for that sort of fantasy. I hate to say "it's very American" like that's an inherent flaw but it's certainly not to my tastes.
Anyway. The protagonist is an apprentice fortune teller and magician, name and pronouns customisable, who finds themselves drawn into a messy situation involving death, romantic angst, political conspiracy etc. The prologue introduces you to six important characters of various genders, and gives some idea of how they're all connected to each other, and then the player chooses whose path to pursue. There's three men, two women, and one he/him using non binary person (who I only found out isn't a cis man from the wiki, which would be fine if he wasn't the only non binary character I've met all game but as it is feels a little lazy)
I had an intense gut feeling that I wouldn't enjoy any of these paths, and looking up spoilers made me go "That's a really interesting and evocative story I have zero interest in reading for some reason". I can't articulate why, unfortunately, but other people seem to enjoy them.
One objective flaw is the payment structure: the story keeps offering interesting/shippy sounding choices that cost "coins" to see, and afaict the only way to get coins is to pay money or do a huge amount of grinding. Note that the sale this weekend does not include coins. I ignored all of the paid choices and the story worked fine, but it was still annoying.
Otherwise the art is nice (including sprites, backgrounds and CGs), the worldbuilding seems mildly interesting, the writing is ok and the music is unobjectionable.
Anyway! This is at best a very qualified rec, but if you want to check it out, now is a good time.
iOS Android
So I checked it out! And...by the time I got to the end of the prologue decided I didn't like it. But it's not inherently bad, just not my sort of thing.
It's set in a vaguely renaissance Europe-ish fantasy city. It's ethnically diverse with a lot of unremarked queerness. It takes itself pretty seriously and feels like it's trying a bit too hard to be Lush and Evocative without the depth to quite carry it off, but I have a low tolerance for that sort of fantasy. I hate to say "it's very American" like that's an inherent flaw but it's certainly not to my tastes.
Anyway. The protagonist is an apprentice fortune teller and magician, name and pronouns customisable, who finds themselves drawn into a messy situation involving death, romantic angst, political conspiracy etc. The prologue introduces you to six important characters of various genders, and gives some idea of how they're all connected to each other, and then the player chooses whose path to pursue. There's three men, two women, and one he/him using non binary person (who I only found out isn't a cis man from the wiki, which would be fine if he wasn't the only non binary character I've met all game but as it is feels a little lazy)
I had an intense gut feeling that I wouldn't enjoy any of these paths, and looking up spoilers made me go "That's a really interesting and evocative story I have zero interest in reading for some reason". I can't articulate why, unfortunately, but other people seem to enjoy them.
One objective flaw is the payment structure: the story keeps offering interesting/shippy sounding choices that cost "coins" to see, and afaict the only way to get coins is to pay money or do a huge amount of grinding. Note that the sale this weekend does not include coins. I ignored all of the paid choices and the story worked fine, but it was still annoying.
Otherwise the art is nice (including sprites, backgrounds and CGs), the worldbuilding seems mildly interesting, the writing is ok and the music is unobjectionable.
Anyway! This is at best a very qualified rec, but if you want to check it out, now is a good time.
no subject
The art is really nice though and I follow a couple of people who cosplay I think Julian and Asra, and they do great at it. But I find their cosplaying more interesting than the actual game. <3
no subject
Yeah some of the ideas are good! We should steal them for our own, better fiction :D