Arco

This game is a triumph. At its core, Arco tells a tale about revenge and the fallout from pursuing it. Taking place in a stand in for Mesoamerica, you’ll experience the stories of the four protagonists as they resist the colonization of their homeland. The subject matter is grim - death, especially at a high scale, is pretty common and the game doesn’t shy away from its depiction of it. Despite that, it’s surprisingly witty and funny, and made me laugh on numerous occasions. The dialogue is lean and brisk, but is enough to color the motivations of the characters. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Arco is its narrative. This isn’t apparent but this is very much a choice-driven game where you’re given options in almost every interaction you have with other characters, altering the story. Decide to take a sidequest where you have to kill someone? Oops, that person is important to another character that you haven’t met yet so you’re locked out of their sidequest. Your choices are categorized as low or high guilt, and your guilt manifests in the gameplay as ghosts that move in real time. Remove Enter the Breach from the confines of grids and you have the basic gameplay of Arco. During your turn, you’ll select commands for your characters with the knowledge of what the enemies will do. Once you select your commands, everyone will perform their actions simultaneously. It’s a brilliant balancing act of dodging attacks, retaliating, and/or eliminating enemies before they even get a chance to do anything. It’s also pretty difficult. I died countless times and restarted even more times to try and avoid damage. Luckily, the time to restart combat encounters is instant so it never drags. Like I mentioned before, guilt manifests in the gameplay as ghosts that move in real time, and by real time I mean they keep moving as you try to plan out your moves. This forces you to make faster decisions. However, I found this frustrating especially when you’re controlling multiple characters. You can luckily turn this off if you want to, but it also makes the game easier. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the beautiful music in Arco. This is not a game that you should play on mute. It’s melancholic, exciting, and evocative. Character sprites are simple and tiny, which contrasts greatly with the detailed and large backgrounds. Perhaps this is the developer’s way of subtly saying that we’re just a small part of the world? In any case, it’s unique and works pretty well. Just get this if you’re still on the fence. This is a fun and lean game that respects the player’s time, tells a great story, and has replay value to boot. I can’t really find any fault with it.

i really, really enjoyed this game. lovely and vivid pixel art, fantastic characters, amazing soundtrack, really snappy and fluid combat: this game has so much substance and personality, i find myself thinking about it long after i've finished playing it.

PEAK PEAK PEAK

No me ha gustado. La parte de historia es un coñazo y una parte demasiado grande del juego como para que se pueda permitir tal cosa.

Um JOGAÇO!

stop having the whole screen/camera follow the cursor with every micromovement. what the heck is wrong with game devs of the past decade? who are you people? thumbs up because steam review system sucks.

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