Arcadia Fallen Review (Jackdaw Mask)
The artstyle here really reminds me of the world ends with you huh. Well that aside, its fairly small budget VN so there aren't really ton of reactivity to little choices, the main thing that matters is the "these choices in fluence how character's story proceeds" and "this choice unlocks new personality dialog option" choices. It does have nice benefit of feeling more like you are setting up for narrative(whether it goes to more happy or tragic direction) rather than trying to figure out the "right" choice, even if practically its pretty much same.
Anyway, chapter 1 felt bit awkward in writing, but I think the game does get smoother fast once character introductions are done and characters themselves are fun. Banter is also fun. Either way, the alchemy recipes don't come up much in choices so for most part its minigame to get extra backstory from your teacher and game is otherwise mostly linear VN with small branching. "Romance how you want" really just refers to there being no gender locking in romances and that you have multiple romance dialogs to choose from and set tone which is nice for roleplaying.
Hmm oh and I do think the more bittersweet ending choice falls bit on flat. It does have nice teaser on what might be next story in setting(I assume based on maybe other choices? Maybe?), but while it does have small foreshadowing earlier in one of Victoria's dialogs, its kinda "Why would you choose to risk your friend to do this especially when there isn't much of sympathy given to them earlier". I also feel like lot of the dream sequences are oddly brief and feel kinda show don't tell in some ways, though not meaning the game being fairly art light. Either way, enjoyable game that feels lengthy enough despite being short.