Arcade Spirits (PC)
Arcade Spirits is a dating sim for people passionate about video games. It’s not just the choice of an arcade setting that makes it so either. Littered with direct references to actual games, video game history, and exhibiting some surprisingly deep knowledge about gaming as a whole, it shows that the creators are either deeply invested in gaming themselves or did some quality research to make references to so many different corners of the hobby. It aims to avoid being an insular celebration as well, introducing relevant jargon properly while remembering this game should first and foremost keep its focus on its story and the relationships you can cultivate in this visual novel.
Your time with Arcade Spirits begins as your character picks up a job managing the floor at a local arcade called the Funplex. Taking place in the near future in an alternate timeline where arcades never went out of style, Arcade Spirits can get away with treating what’s become a niche sort of business as something with greater cultural heft, to the point there’s even a rich businessman named Deco Nami you’ll clash with as his franchise aims to push out the competition. In an interesting touch, despite this being a dating game, a good deal of information is decided about your character from the get go. You may be able to name them, pick their gender, and customize their appearance, but some elements are set in stone like coming from a family all too familiar with failure, once working as a lifeguard, and being a person with a penchant for little memetic references even though your personal knowledge of video games is fairly casual. When it comes to more personal details though like how you talk to people and your predominant personality, that will be in your control based on the choices you make throughout the story, and Arcade Spirits even allows you to go for a romanceless route fully focused on the narrative side of things.
While the plot begins with you as a new employee at Funplex, over time your role expands and even gives you reason to leave the arcade for things like going to a local gaming convention to advertise or an arcade cabinet auction held by the delightfully eccentric Hamza. The near future setting does allow the game to introduce some more unusual elements like your phone having an AI assistant named Iris with near human intelligence and the ability to project as a hologram, but a good deal of the story tries to hew to real ideas and familiar concepts. That gaming convention, MAX, is clearly based on the real life PAX convention, characters openly reference real arcade games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dig Dug, and Pole Position, and the characters you meet often play into parts of the gaming hobby that aren’t just retro arcade cabinets. While the repairwoman Naomi leans heavily into retro passion, you also have QueenBee who represents modern eSports and Theo who is more interested in dancing games. While most games of story importance are ones invented by Arcade Spirits, you still see a character like Theo openly reference Dance Dance Revolution and In the Groove because a character who is into dance games would reasonably mention other games of that type even if it’s not his current game of interest. The main dating options are essentially sorted by their nerdy hobby, but then you have the arcade accountant Gavin who doesn’t have much interest in the games and instead leans into the range of personalities on show.
Gavin is the buttoned up type where getting to know him better is about helping him to loosen up some. QueenBee at first comes off as a brash and boisterous type who swears up a storm, but for people interested in such a firecracker you also get to see her more vulnerable and caring side if you pursue her. While you will get to first know the character through their role at the arcade or their interests, as you spend time with them you get to see their more human side and most of them have a personal struggle or some extra depth to make learning about them and eventually romancing them more rewarding. Admittedly, once you learn a certain detail about one of the main love interests, they do perhaps boil down to that one tragic trait a bit too much, although it may be part of the intended appeal in that it’s essentially a “rescue romance” where you want to pull them out of it and make them appreciate life. For the most part, the romances are light and cute with a good deal of truly funny conversations and reply options even if there will be a few inevitable bumps as you get closer to the character, the game making sure there’s more to a relationship even after you both admit your love. While you are making dialogue choices to guide your path through this visual novel, you can’t really say the wrong thing to characters so much as not truly say the right thing in situations. It’s not too hard to pursue whoever interests you, you can pivot as you get to know them early on, and while you are asked to lock in before the main plot starts heading in a new direction for the last few chapters, you’re essentially primed to succeed rather than needing to work to hard to court your character of interest.
Arcade Spirits’s character art does do a good job of making its handful of romantic options appealing and broad. Gavin, QueenBee, and Theo are all almost statuesque, conventionally attractive types, and while this visual novel uses still images for conversations, the range of emotions allows for more reserved and gentle expressions as well as flirtatious ones. Naomi brings a more geeky appeal and Ashley is more silly and cute, and as the game says itself, the scorechaser Percy has a “dad bod”. Your gender won’t impede your ability to date anyone and the game never dips into any adult subjects, only a few reserved references even made to the idea of bedroom antics. However, during what is essentially your big date with each character, the game does let things down a little. Your romantic route will come with some unique interactions as well as images of the character you’re pursuing, but each character gets a specific nighttime beach image that feels like it’s been drawn by a different artist or possibly ran into some other issue. The regular art of the characters is consistent but this beach image breaks the style a bit and makes a few characters look quite different, but it’s a rare misstep in a game where even the small side characters you encounter can have memorable and appealing looks and personalities.
When it comes to navigating the romances and plot of Arcade Spirits, everything hinges on moments where a few choices pop up and you pick whichever one you feel is best. Despite the game’s premise, you will never interact with the video games featured nor do you do deeper arcade management, the player at most making some broad choices about how the business is run or figuring out the exact way to solve a specific problem for the arcade. To help you pursue the character you want to end up with, Iris will keep track of a few metrics, one being the relationship progress you have with other characters which is pretty easy to steer your way if you choose to speak with a person at points where you get to pick who you interact with. However, your personality is also an important part of appealing to your dating prospects as well as helping guide the plot to one of a few different climaxes. If you choose to enable it, all your conversational responses and choices will be marked with a symbol representing how it is perceived. There’s Kindly, Gutsy, Quirky, Steady (better thought of as Logically), and the neutral Basically. Basically lets you interact with people without potentially tipping the scales, most of the moments you’re offered choices not covering all of the personality types, and certain characters will lean towards a player who trends towards a similar personality type as them. You don’t need to always go with an answer of one type, but it does making seeing the alternate climaxes easier and usually one that aligns with a character’s own behavior will also be the one most likely to earn points with them. There are parts where you have to lock in and pick an option solely based on how much you’ve tilted your character towards a personality type, a “Basically Only” run impossible for that reason, but it also adds some extra value to the system than just making flirting easier. For the most part, this system feels like its value comes through most during repeat playthroughs as you try to pursue different dates and endings, Arcade Spirits having many of the visual novel staples like being able to save most any time and speed past previously seen text. It also has sporadic voice acting, mostly for moments most meaningful to the relationship like your first meeting or the moments you take things to the next level, but even characters who aren’t a romance option like the flamboyant Hamza really come to life through their effective performances.
THE VERDICT: Arcade Spirits is a well realized quest for love and a love letter to the different corners of video gaming. The romance options cater to different tastes in appearance, personality, and even what nerdy hobby they might have, and even though the game’s setting is a bit futuristic, its references to real video games and more niche parts of gaming give it some appreciated authenticity between the fluffy and fairly positive dating sim aspects. The core story of building up the arcade has its own effective plot points even if you don’t want to date anyone you meet, but there are nice layers to your romance options that are interesting to plumb or just to see arise as the tight knit bunch of characters interacts with each other no matter your path through the plot.
And so, I give Arcade Spirits for PC…
A GOOD rating. Arcade Spirits aimed for my heart with its deep references to video game history and culture, the breadth of the ground it can cover without feeling like it’s being gratuitous with what it’s mentioning exciting for someone like me who knows every corner it is pulling from. I had to temper my rating a bit to avoid letting that bias override the greater substance of the game, but it is a game about video games so having that level of expertise and knowledge from the creators definitely creates a more authentic experience. Even if the references don’t land with someone personally though, Arcade Spirits can still be very funny, have sweet moments, and does put in the legwork to make the relationships you can cultivate feel like they have some substance. The regular story has value before you even consider how it intertwines with your future girlfriend or boyfriend because the work at the arcade is explored and so vital to how you interact with others, and even the characters you don’t romance can still be present and interesting enough to make for an appealing bunch. The choices you make being sorted into categories does remove some potential worries, although the game does tend to push you towards success so you’ll always get the girl or boy if you follow the fairly clear path to success. You can make some slip ups during the plot parts though and it’s not all positivity, Arcade Spirits having more texture than just a feel good love story set in an arcade. The fact it expands outside of the arcade management role at times does it some favors in adding some appreciate variety in terms of what you’re doing and how you see your romantic interests, Arcade Spirits doing fairly well with its concept. It’s likely the creators didn’t want this to be too long a story or too involved, some more chances to deepen relationships would have been nice but possibly strained the structure of a dating sim that is likely aiming for an easygoing audience. A little more time for love and some extra excitement from a somewhat longer story could have lead to a bump up in rating that wouldn’t just be from how much I enjoyed the gaming knowledge on show.
Even if its gaming references aren’t going to wow everyone, Arcade Spirits is still a good dating sim that takes the romances seriously but also has a lot of fun with its concept and dialogue writing. You can build up a relationship that is written genuinely, and while the humor pops up a lot in the story (it perhaps comes on a little too strong at first with things like your new boss having “What would you do in a zombie apocalypse” as an interview question), it is a game about passion. Passion for gaming, passion for your person of choice, and passion for building up the little arcade where its employees and regulars all can worm their way into your heart even if only one will be your date of choice… at least until you do the quick replays that are all appealing and written with enough consideration to see through.