Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers

非常非常惊喜的作品，远超预期！ 特别特别喜欢这一部，整体比第一部好太多了，BGM、美术、剧情各方面都特别用心，作者文笔真的提升了好多啊！（第一部我有点玩不下去的一个理由是游戏美术真的很上个世纪的审美…但是这一部保留原有特色同时画技真的提升了好多啊） 游戏里主角担任电竞选手的同时还担任电竞战队领队，除了和队友之间的互动以外，还有一条和最大的竞争对手——某电竞俱乐部的明星选手的感情线，这也是我最喜欢的一条路线，两人前期既相互暗恋又默契的不捅破窗户纸，又都把对方视为最想在比赛上击败的对手。虽然对手哥/姐性格特别特别拧巴还坑了主角但是我还是很吃这款的…即使ta一直是这个游戏最有争议的角色🤣或许ta不是一个完美的攻略对象但还是溺爱了（能看出作者对这条路线也是真的溺爱） 而且可以看出来主角对对手哥真的是真爱了，非常很生理性喜欢那种关系LOL（另外这名对手角色的立绘是可以捏的，包括连名字也可以自定义）不过只推荐开局选和ta的友善线，听说另一个敌对线容易让人有创伤只能说慎选吧我反正是没敢试… 故事整体基调和第一部一样，都是充满了理想主义的追梦故事，但是作者明显对冲突和叙事的把节奏控比第一部更成熟了，制作水准也比上一部高很多，其次题材也比第一部有激情、有趣的多，毕竟哪个爱打电竞游戏的人没幻想过能组建一支自己的电竞战队呢？总之非常推荐！ （如果这个系列还有第三部的话快端上来 很急）

Once again, utterly charming. Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers sets you in a near-future where arcade games are the centre of e-sports and you are an up-and-comer in the scene. You find your way to a local gaming group, and from there, begin an adventure into friendship, romance, and a career path to the top of the scene. It's a guided novel, with choose your own adventure mechanics, optional and togglable romance, and the adventure is as much about making and keeping friends as it is about winning. But why play it? It's relaxing, charming, and genuinely touching. I found myself growing fonder of the characters as the story went on, and relatively satisfied with the plot and its options. I loved the cyberpunk setting, couched in retro brands, and its messy, painted neon aesthetic. Beyond that, it is hard to put a finger on exactly what makes it work, but it does, and it left me with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Also it's queer-positive, and we love that. On the prequel, Arcade Spirits, there are several nods and references to it that are a delight to find, and I would recommend playing that first, but you don't *have* to. There's more than enough indepedent story for the game to work on its own.

Just play the first game instead.

As much as I LOVE Domino, I just can't. After Domino route, the rest of the game are painful since I'm not interest in the story or any characters beside Domino (he make this game worthwhile to me, at least in the first playthrough). And more so since the only ending that I and keep all my teammate together is Hunter's good end. Why can't I have that when I romance my teammate? [spoiler]Coda is not a pleasant one but I can't forgive Hunter and his Iris for what they do to Coda.[/spoiler] It feel like the very exist of the protagonist break the team unless they romance other ppl that not in the team and I don't like it - at all (and I have to add that I don't like this crap since the previous game). There are another huge turn off point to me. I can let it slide with the cameo char, but the protagonist and the rival suppose to be main character, they deserve the quality like the other main cast, not just look like some random cameo char. The coloring quality for them is... hard to acceptable. The BG are pretty. UI need more work to polish. I LOVE the voice acting.

Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers is a queer visual novel/dating sim where you play as a hardcore gamer climbing the ranks of esports and finding friendship and love along the way. It's hard to not compare this game to its sequel, which explored its darker themes in a much more nuanced way and had far more growth among its cast. This game was cute, and it did explore heavy topics like depression, ableism, sexism, and more, but at times it felt preachy, even when I agree with a lot of its politics. The characters, while beautifully diverse, don't feel developed enough for a dating sim, so it's hard to fall for any of them. The pacing slows down a lot in the middle, and that made replaying the game for all of the romance routes a tedious chore. I still liked this game, and the conversations it starts are important, but The New Challengers is unfortunately greatly overshadowed by its much better prequel, and while I would still recommend playing this one, I can't recommend going for the blue ribbon.

Honestly, it is a very good sequel to the first game! I absolutely love that despite the "personality system" being the same, the characters in both games are their own unique people. I did not come across any "personal" issues whatsoever, reactions to specific situations were rather realistic (yes, even first meeting with Jynx (it did say there are no good options btw)) I devoured the extended polybius lore like crazy, it was so good and left me wanting to know even more. Characters from the previous game being mentioned as well made me feel right at home, even the small mentions of whomever the previous mc romanced- it's all way too good. If you are a lover of arcades, fun, depressed boys (Domino my love) and a bit of mystery- this vn is for you! ALSO! The art style for character sprites? Gorgeous. Insane. Divine. Soundtrack? 10/10 Voice acting? 10/10 Hamza? 10/10

Iris subscribe pizza facts.

I don't know; this game does have some nice attributes, but in the end, the negative things just outweigh them, unfortunately. The good: the characters have fun sprites, the worldbuilding is fun, the NPCs are fascinating, and there is plenty of stuff to unlock. The voice acting was usually very nice, and the music could be nice too. I also appreciate the option to skip the mini-game, as I find it just boring. Theoretically, the game is also highly replayable—if you wish to see the various romantic options and such. Though...this is kind of where it goes downhill. I do like some of the friends of the protagonist, but I feel like the friendships are super rushed—when we first meet them, we are strangers, and yet somehow we become the team manager immediately. While I do appreciate the characters having flaws (MC included), it often felt half-assed. Conflicts were immediately solved by talking once. That's not how this works, especially not if the character who is in an argument is super dramatic and then magically ends up being calm about the whole ordeal after talking with MC once. I also got annoyed by being repeatedly asked if I wanted to pursue x person. Because in my run I romanced the rival—which is one of the cooler parts of the game, as you can customize them. Though I have to admit that the customizable main character artistically sort of clashes not only color palette-wise with the team members but also stylistically. The MC and rival look nearly identical due to limited options, and the art is very flat while the other sprites are very shiny. I do understand that the devs wanted to give the players more options, but the colors were so ugly and the choices of accessories, clothes, and hair so random that I kind of wished they just gave us fewer options but those of higher quality. The story pacing is really annoying—convos are often convoluted with opinions and arguments (that I agree with, but the devs clearly wanted to 'educate' their players on these matters, so it felt like the characters were just used for their platform often times). Other times they just randomly skip over parts that could have been interesting to explore. The game tries to do a lot, and there are a lot of plotlines that feel extremely random and overwhelming at the beginning of the game. I wish I could kind of just pick and choose what to see, because I admit I sometimes just clicked through dialogue because it got annoying to see the same point repeated five times. I also find it so random that some dialogues are fully voiced and others not. Not only that, but I wish the devs would have just committed to one thing or the other: either voicing everything or just giving the characters filler words from time to time. Now onto the problematic stuff: there are moments where your MC is forced to be an a**hole which I find really annoying—especially when presented with a 'choice.' Also, another character's attempted self-exit is used for MC's 'character growth,' which I absolutely HATED. I do understand that witnessing something like that is life-altering, but in this game it felt like that was the only purpose of that character. We never get the chance to talk with that character personally again—check in on them or anything—which leaves a very sour taste in my mouth. The ending also felt very stupid. But that happens when you have five random plotlines going on and try to connect them. So all in all, this often felt like dragging along, which is a shame since clearly a lot of work went into this.

A great sequel to Arcade Spirits, The New Challengers is charming, fun, and heartfelt. A love letter to games and those who play them.

some guy on discord got mad at me for saying I dont like jews so he unironiucally bought and gifted me this game as a some kind of vengeance, well at least it had trading cards, usually I get skeptical the when a game has the LGBTQ+ tag displayed proudly, and I was right, the game isnt that bad, kinda fun, but the character designs are so damn unappealing, the only one that looked remotely interesting was Grace and Zapper, the writing is just western far-leftist humour that I can't help but cringe at sometimes >Conclusion: this game is literally how Synthetic Man views modern games, 4.5/10 I wish I said I was gay so maybe that soyman would gift me nier automata as a vengeance ⠄⠄⠄⠄⢠⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣯⢻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣆⠄⠄⠄ ⠄⠄⣼⢀⣿⣿⣿⣿⣏⡏⠄⠹⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⢻⣿⣿⣿⣿⡆⠄⠄ ⠄⠄⡟⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄⠄⠄⠈⠻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣇⢻⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄⠄ ⠄⢰⠃⣿⣿⠿⣿⣿⣿⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠙⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄⢿⣿⣿⣿⡄⠄ ⠄⢸⢠⣿⣿⣧⡙⣿⣿⡆⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠈⠛⢿⣿⣿⡇⠸⣿⡿⣸⡇⠄ ⠄⠈⡆⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⡙⠳⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⢀⣠⣤⣀⣈⠙⠃⠄⠿⢇⣿⡇⠄ ⠄⠄⡇⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⣠⣶⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣆⡀⣼⣿⡇⠄ ⠄⠄⢹⡘⣿⣿⣿⢿⣷⡀⠄⢀⣴⣾⣟⠉⠉⠉⠉⣽⣿⣿⣿⣿⠇⢹⣿⠃⠄ ⠄⠄⠄⢷⡘⢿⣿⣎⢻⣷⠰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⣀⣀⣴⣿⣿⣿⠟⢫⡾⢸⡟⠄. ⠄⠄⠄⠄⠻⣦⡙⠿⣧⠙⢷⠙⠻⠿⢿⡿⠿⠿⠛⠋⠉⠄⠂⠘⠁⠞⠄⠄⠄ ⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠈⠙⠑⣠⣤⣴⡖⠄⠿⣋⣉⣉⡁⠄⢾⣦⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄