Arcade Spirits is a lovely and underrated dating sim. It's got something of a niche demographic, but anyone interested in this game is almost guaranteed to fit that niche.

Visuals:
Frankly, the art is not the selling point of this game. The background art is perfectly fine and some of the CGs are pretty adorable, but the art takes a bit of time to get used to. It's not awful, but it definitely turned me away from the game at first. Having your character appear in CGs is cute, but it may have been a better idea to provide two or three well-designed characters (one more masculine, one feminine, and one androgynous) to pick from than the blander looking protagonist. The character designs for everyone else are lovely, though. The colours and UI work really well with the arcade theme.

Sound:
Not a shock here, but the sound is fine. The voice acting isn't above and beyond, but it's good. Their emotional range is honestly pretty outstanding for such a low-profile indie game. Sue is the only voice that seemed a bit distracting and out of character to me, but she still was pretty fun. The music was also pretty decent, but I wouldn't go too far out of the way to listen to anything but the main theme. The sound effects, though, are very charming. The beeps and boops all further help build the game's atmosphere in a subtle but noteworthy way.

Technical/Gameplay:
One of the big draws of this game is that it is a personality quiz in addition to a VN. There's 5 traits scored by your decisions, all of equal value: basically, quirky, steady, kindly, and I forget what they called boldness. I like this both in theory and in practice, though there is one issue with it; almost everyone will receive kindly as their top stat because everyone wants to be kind to people. The issue is that choices are often imbalanced; most decisions have the kindly answer as what any normal person would do if they thought about it. Especially in tenser moments, nobody is going to make jokes about the most dire situations. Quirky is also a bit disadvantaged due to the fact the protagonist has naturally quirky dialogue in their every day life and most quirky people act funny in moments where there's nothing on the line. Meanwhile, choices are usually given where this is some sort of weight to your actions. That said, the overall mechanic is lovely.
The game is very easy, and near impossible to fail until the final encounter without trying to. This isn't a bad thing; it encourages you to stay true to yourself on your first run, which is where most of the fun of this game comes from. There's also romance and non-romance routes, and in general the game helps encourage you to do a "personality run" on your first go. The weird exception to this is that one route is secret and requires very specific choices to get on, which was problematic when said secret character was the only one I would have had any romantic interest in; I was trying to stay true to myself, but asking out who I liked required going against my own moral code a bit. Some options are also a bit more aggressive than written, but that's inevitable in a game with so many choices.
There's not much difference between routes, but that's okay! Each tiny decision helps build your character and so many inconsequential ones still have extra dialogue that helps your choices feel impactful. There's enough variation in minor dialogue choices that makes it worth at least two or three runs, though the sheer amount of dialogue makes seeing absolutely everything difficult. There's a lot of love that went into this, and it shows.
I do feel like romance is a little too shoved to the side though. The romantic routes kind of take a back seat the main plot, making the individual character developments less noteworthy. They do a lot with a little, but I feel like they could have given more screentime to that aspect. Moreover, being on any romantic route prevents befriending every character; as with many players, I think that's a terrible design choice. In real life, you should never drop your friendships just because you have a new S/O, so it's frustrating that has to happen if you do it in the game. It seems small, but it betrays a fundamental belief that romance means placing your romantic relationship above your platonic ones, and I can never agree with that.
Anything else is basically a nitpick? I would have liked a CG gallery and I would rather have rollback unlocked from the get-go, and I do feel like the icons for each decision should be hidden by default or easily changeable so I don't have to zoom through the tutorial each time. Not sure I like being flat out unable to pick options that "aren't true to your personality" either. (E.x. even if I'm a generally funny person, I'm not going to make jokes in the serious situations where you're forced into your top personality stats).
Regardless, the personality interpretation feature and very-few-wrong-choices aspects work great and make the game stand out from other VNs.

Characters:
I honestly love the characters in this game. The protagonist isn't great, but they do have more personality than most dating sim protags at least. That said, the "family curse" and portrayal of depression feel a little ingenuine? Their sarcasm and wit makes them a bit more bearable, though. The drawbacks of the main character are hidden behind a lovely, colourful cast of NPCs. I love that the minor characters like the coffee shop owners, Francine, the ghost monsters, etc. all stand out just as much as those with more screen time. The main characters have such lovely arcs and real struggles, all while remaining fun and entertaining. They're just amazing. My personal favorites are Ashley, Juniper, Iris, and Gavin, but everyone else is enjoyable too.

Writing:
The dialogue in this game is great. The core of this game's writing is in a quirky, fun tone with lots of semi-retro gaming and pop culture references. Sometimes those references really date a game, but they are carried out in such a silly manner that the writing is still poppy and enjoyable for those out of the loop. The more tense moments are also well written, and every line feels very polished and well thought-out while still keeping the overall mode outrageous and silly. The more realistic setting doesn't make the world feel any less fantastic, so fans of more standard visual novels can enjoy this too.

Plot:
While you can romance plenty of characters, by far most of the writing focuses on one overarching narrative. The plot is very cheesy, but that doesn't mean it's bad; despite the gushiness of sorts the story is genuinely heartwarming. Admittedly I found one major plot twist is very easy to see coming, but the rising and falling tension is well crafted with some genuinely surprising moments sprinkled in. The pacing is perfect, with a great balance of comedy and emotional moments. The finale is pretty fun, too. The side-plot with a certain game and post-credits sequel hooks do pump me up for another game, so I'll be pretty sad if it never comes to be.

I don't regret my purchase of this in the slightest, and I do hope it eventually gets enough love to help fund a sequel. Please buy this game. I need that Arcade Spirits 2: Electric Boogaloo.


OH ALSO I FORGOT TO MENTION GOOD LGBT REPRESENTATION THANKS I LOVE YOU ALL
(Seriously though, they found that perfect balance of highlighting the struggles while not making the characters be all about their identity. It's pretty rad.)

Arcade Spirits is a lovely and underrated dating sim. It's got something of a niche demographic, but anyone interested in this game is almost guaranteed to fit that niche. Visuals: Frankly, the art is not the selling point of this game. The background art is perfectly fine and some of the CGs are pretty adorable, but the art takes a bit of time to get used to. It's not awful, but it definitely turned me away from the game at first. Having your character appear in CGs is cute, but it may have been a better idea to provide two or three well-designed characters (one more masculine, one feminine, and one androgynous) to pick from than the blander looking protagonist. The character designs for everyone else are lovely, though. The colours and UI work really well with the arcade theme. Sound: Not a shock here, but the sound is fine. The voice acting isn't above and beyond, but it's good. Their emotional range is honestly pretty outstanding for such a low-profile indie game. Sue is the only voice that seemed a bit distracting and out of character to me, but she still was pretty fun. The music was also pretty decent, but I wouldn't go too far out of the way to listen to anything but the main theme. The sound effects, though, are very charming. The beeps and boops all further help build the game's atmosphere in a subtle but noteworthy way. Technical/Gameplay: One of the big draws of this game is that it is a personality quiz in addition to a VN. There's 5 traits scored by your decisions, all of equal value: basically, quirky, steady, kindly, and I forget what they called boldness. I like this both in theory and in practice, though there is one issue with it; almost everyone will receive kindly as their top stat because everyone wants to be kind to people. The issue is that choices are often imbalanced; most decisions have the kindly answer as what any normal person would do if they thought about it. Especially in tenser moments, nobody is going to make jokes about the most dire situations. Quirky is also a bit disadvantaged due to the fact the protagonist has naturally quirky dialogue in their every day life and most quirky people act funny in moments where there's nothing on the line. Meanwhile, choices are usually given where this is some sort of weight to your actions. That said, the overall mechanic is lovely. The game is very easy, and near impossible to fail until the final encounter without trying to. This isn't a bad thing; it encourages you to stay true to yourself on your first run, which is where most of the fun of this game comes from. There's also romance and non-romance routes, and in general the game helps encourage you to do a "personality run" on your first go. The weird exception to this is that one route is secret and requires very specific choices to get on, which was problematic when said secret character was the only one I would have had any romantic interest in; I was trying to stay true to myself, but asking out who I liked required going against my own moral code a bit. Some options are also a bit more aggressive than written, but that's inevitable in a game with so many choices. There's not much difference between routes, but that's okay! Each tiny decision helps build your character and so many inconsequential ones still have extra dialogue that helps your choices feel impactful. There's enough variation in minor dialogue choices that makes it worth at least two or three runs, though the sheer amount of dialogue makes seeing absolutely everything difficult. There's a lot of love that went into this, and it shows. I do feel like romance is a little too shoved to the side though. The romantic routes kind of take a back seat the main plot, making the individual character developments less noteworthy. They do a lot with a little, but I feel like they could have given more screentime to that aspect. Moreover, being on any romantic route prevents befriending every character; as with many players, I think that's a terrible design choice. In real life, you should never drop your friendships just because you have a new S/O, so it's frustrating that has to happen if you do it in the game. It seems small, but it betrays a fundamental belief that romance means placing your romantic relationship above your platonic ones, and I can never agree with that. Anything else is basically a nitpick? I would have liked a CG gallery and I would rather have rollback unlocked from the get-go, and I do feel like the icons for each decision should be hidden by default or easily changeable so I don't have to zoom through the tutorial each time. Not sure I like being flat out unable to pick options that "aren't true to your personality" either. (E.x. even if I'm a generally funny person, I'm not going to make jokes in the serious situations where you're forced into your top personality stats). Regardless, the personality interpretation feature and very-few-wrong-choices aspects work great and make the game stand out from other VNs. Characters: I honestly love the characters in this game. The protagonist isn't great, but they do have more personality than most dating sim protags at least. That said, the "family curse" and portrayal of depression feel a little ingenuine? Their sarcasm and wit makes them a bit more bearable, though. The drawbacks of the main character are hidden behind a lovely, colourful cast of NPCs. I love that the minor characters like the coffee shop owners, Francine, the ghost monsters, etc. all stand out just as much as those with more screen time. The main characters have such lovely arcs and real struggles, all while remaining fun and entertaining. They're just amazing. My personal favorites are Ashley, Juniper, Iris, and Gavin, but everyone else is enjoyable too. Writing: The dialogue in this game is great. The core of this game's writing is in a quirky, fun tone with lots of semi-retro gaming and pop culture references. Sometimes those references really date a game, but they are carried out in such a silly manner that the writing is still poppy and enjoyable for those out of the loop. The more tense moments are also well written, and every line feels very polished and well thought-out while still keeping the overall mode outrageous and silly. The more realistic setting doesn't make the world feel any less fantastic, so fans of more standard visual novels can enjoy this too. Plot: While you can romance plenty of characters, by far most of the writing focuses on one overarching narrative. The plot is very cheesy, but that doesn't mean it's bad; despite the gushiness of sorts the story is genuinely heartwarming. Admittedly I found one major plot twist is very easy to see coming, but the rising and falling tension is well crafted with some genuinely surprising moments sprinkled in. The pacing is perfect, with a great balance of comedy and emotional moments. The finale is pretty fun, too. The side-plot with a certain game and post-credits sequel hooks do pump me up for another game, so I'll be pretty sad if it never comes to be. I don't regret my purchase of this in the slightest, and I do hope it eventually gets enough love to help fund a sequel. Please buy this game. I need that Arcade Spirits 2: Electric Boogaloo. OH ALSO I FORGOT TO MENTION GOOD LGBT REPRESENTATION THANKS I LOVE YOU ALL (Seriously though, they found that perfect balance of highlighting the struggles while not making the characters be all about their identity. It's pretty rad.)