Arcadia Fallen II Review
Tinkering and Illusions 201
Developer Galdra Studios returned to its magic fantasy setting of Arcadia Fallen with Arcadia Fallen II. Acting on the decision and conversational definition of role-playing, the game follows the visual novel gameplay of its predecessor with a new story set in an empire’s magic academy as it gets caught up in political shifting tides. It has a solid story that is worth the ten to a dozen hours it takes to get through, with some interesting examinations of the difficulty of reconciling magic and government politics, though players looking for much more interactivity than a visual novel with minor puzzle elements won’t find it here.
Arcadia Fallen II is set seven years after the events of the previous game and follows a new player protagonist studying at the Seven Winds Academy, where those identified with magical ability are sent, with their grades determining their future. Customisation is fairly straightforward and mostly aesthetic; the main choice that impacts certain events and conversations is which of the three available majors they select. The game starts as they make their initial way to the academy before skipping ahead to their final year. While it contains a variety of references to the first game, including letting players choose key events and decisions to carry over, players can readily jump in here and treat it as a standalone experience. Players can readily get to grips with the story and setting without any knowledge coming in, and the references have plenty of context to connect them.
Students learning magic is a ripe recipe for hijinks.
The game’s story is the main draw, and it delivers well on that front. It is a bit slow at the start as the students are more worried about grading issues, but once the outside influences hit the school, things quickly escalate as political strife and secrets soon upturn everything the students have come to know. All of the main characters get their own welcome arcs dealing with either their pasts and/or future hopes and dreams, giving the cast many opportunities to grow and come into their own in their own individual ways. The way events play out leave many parts of the future for the world uncertain, but it wraps up its own chapter nicely and in a very satisfying way.
During story events, players are able to role-play their character by selecting one of three responses that correspond to a particular emotion or attitude, such as diplomatic or angry, with additional options to collect more information (or potentially romance one of five characters) and more binary decisions at important moments. It definitely helps put players in the role of their character, and subsequent lines offer appreciable reactions to those responses. Even though the player character is heavily involved and their actions are crucial to the story, it rarely feels like the player themselves has a huge amount of agency in how things turn out. It’s clear that the player’s choices impact various moments, but it doesn’t feel like they change the overall direction of events. Saying that, the game also keeps track of choices players make, however minor, which it uses to make some great little callbacks throughout.
The main gameplay outside of story events consists of pathfinding puzzles with rotating nodes.
Arcadia Fallen II is divided into twelve chapters, each of which consists of a series of mandatory events, plus additional optional ones, with the game making it clear when it’s ready to advance to the next key moment. Outside of conversational choices, the game includes a couple of click and select puzzles, but the bulk of the interaction comes from pathfinding puzzles where players need to rotate the various icons and insert characters to form a path to the goal. The puzzles themselves are reasonably fun to figure out, but serve as little more than a brief diversion before the next set of narrative events.
The voice acting is another positive element, with an experienced cast doing a strong job with the script and helping the game’s narrative delivery. It isn’t fully voiced all of the way through, but all of the scenes of substance are. The script doesn’t necessarily invite audio thrills, but the performances help bring the cast members to life and add fun to the banter and quiet emotion where appropriate. Meanwhile, the art style is vibrant and distinct, and generally pleasing to look at, even if they will find themselves cycling through the same locations time and again. Similar to the audio, the game doesn’t expect any grandeur from its visuals, rather letting events speak for themselves.
It certainly isn’t a title that will gain universal appeal, but it very much finds its home in its niche and will offer those looking for an easy-to-jump-into yet strong narrative will find Arcadia Fallen II is adept at scratching that itch. While it may not be the most thrilling tale at the start and has limited ways to engage with it, there are plenty of fun moments to enjoy from the cast, and the story ultimately satisfies.
Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.
Engaging story
Strong cast
Feels like it lacks a bit of player agency
Not really enough to the puzzles
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