Arcadia Fallen Review (karolina.ktoto)
This game is a funny mix of Disney cartoons and a fairy tale for adults with references to our real-life problems. And it is a good mix despite some pretty obvious issues which I also describe here.
This game made me think about different things, about good and evil, about corruption in our world and my own role in the world, my plans and my decisions. At the same time, I really enjoyed characters interactions, story setting, and graphics. At one moment I could smile reading some sarcastic jokes from Michael, on the other moment I found myself deeply in thoughts.
I was thinking about Michael's struggles, Ann's plans, and Victoria's loyalty to the current system. I tried to analyze everything and compared to our real life. And that is a great result. That is how all plot-first games (books, movies and so on) should work. They should create sense and give you some food for thought. Arcadia Fallen achieves this goal perfectly.
Another best thing here is the protagonist. MC is alive and not just a boring shadow without a face and detailed background like it often happens in visual novels. You can select appearance for MC as well as personality. And while appearance customization is very limited, the personality-building system in this game works fine. In each dialog, you can decide how to communicate with other characters and which emotion to express. As a result, you can make your MC a grumpy and annoyed person or cheerful and happy, or cowardly and shy. For me, it is a great thing as I am tired of seeing boring MCs who only blush or say just basic stuff in critical or romantic situations. Here you see a real person trying their best to solve the problems.
Your MC is also not chosen or someone special. In fact, the protagonist is involved in the plot events by accident and has to grow both personally and professionally to deal with everything. And it is awesome. For me, at least.
Other characters are great, too. But among available love interests, it is Michael and Kaiden I find the most interesting. Female characters are good and they have their demons to fight but... I don't know. While I was in dispute with Ann's approach to her study or Victoria`s criticism, I didn't feel anything for either of them. Elizabeth, Kim, or Ronan are most interesting to me even though they appear from time to time only.
Also, romances here are cute but rather short. Just some talks, a kiss and here we are, forever in love! Sorry, but it is boring and strange for a game that that tries to be serious from time to time and brings up hard topics to discuss. Ending is also short and fast but it could be worse, so I don't complain here.
But as for the romances...
Developers!!! Please fix them in your next games. Give us a chance to fully enjoy the nice romantic story added to the great adventure plot instead of showing just a few cute scenes in between. Please. I know this is difficult as other VN also have issues here, but I think we all read such stories not only to see some kisses but to enjoy the full development of characters and their feelings.
Another main issue in this game is... well, the plot. It is good and all, but it has some logic holes. For example, the whole game you hear that you can't stop demons and restore the seal as you don't have enough magic energy. But in the end, you managed to do everything without having too much power. For some reason, Mime's energy is enough to do the trick, but in the beginning, Ann said that Mime and MC wouldn't be able to solve the problem on their own. Yes, in the end, we have a new spell but the game didn't show how MC used it. It is just happens and that is it. Boring and even childish approach, if you ask me.
Also, the developers didn't tell us about Mime's background and the bond between Michael and Kim. It is possible to guess everything but I don't think it is a good thing to just ignore Mime's memory issues like they never exist in the plot.
To conclude, I like the game. And hope, the developers will make more games like this. I know there will be Arcadia Fallen 2 realesed soon but I don't think I buy it as its plot is concentrated on a school of magic and its students which feels like another cute story for teenagers. I am more interested in to know about Michael's and Victoria (or someone else's) attempts to fight the system. Or survive in it, depending on plot development