Archetype Arcadia Reviews

pretty good tbh

I enjoyed my time with Archetype Arcadia. It's not a game without flaws, but beneath the promise of an engaging sci-fi narrative lies some pretty great character writing and memorable plot developments. Archetype Arcadia really shines when it comes to its mystery, sci-fi and character-driven moments. On the contrary many of the battle segments are plagued by a litany of cliches common in shonen anime, but if you can overlook some conveniences required for the plot to swim along it's not so bad. At the very least Rust is a commendable and likeable enough protagonist, and the supporting characters are all memorable in their own ways. I'm a very fast reader and it took me ~25 hours to reach the end of the visual novel. That's probably more like 40-50 hours for someone who reads at a normal pace. Overall, 7 colas out of 10!

Not only have I wasted 24$ on this game, I also wasted an entire day hoping that, somehow, this plot would eventually make sense. However, the further along I got, the worse it became, culminating in Chapter 8 when the entire plot is broken down. I bought this game because an entirely different visual novel had a post about this and I was really hoping for more of that world... but instead I got a world written by someone who fails to understand even the most basic of Biological, Scientific, or Sociological Principles. Below is a spoiler for the entire plot, because only by explaining the entire plot can I possibly put into words how poorly written this entire Visual Novel has been. [spoiler]It is (insert year here) For more than a dozen cycles, the "Humans" (They call themselves "Humans" but so are the ones on Earth so I'm gonna call them Synths) have watched the same experiment performed innumerable times: This society is powered by harvesting the infinite energy generated from the rolling grave of Vaas Montenegro, who tried explaining Insanity to them, had an aneurysm when they failed to understand, and then became a Perpetual Motion Engine when he died and the lesson was not learned by anyone. These absolute Sociopaths seek to rebirth their 'God' (Collective Unconscious) by self-experimenting except they made that illegal. What they didn't make illegal was to make clones of themselves, drop them on a barren planet, and treat them like Lab Rats... Specifically, Lab Rats subjected to the exact same experiment dozens of times that have all ended the exact same way: The Extinction of Humanity. Do they ever learn from this in any meaningful way? Fuck no, find a new planet and do it all over again in the exact same way! After all, these Humans are inferior to us because they have 'Admiration for the Inconsequential'. You know, the ability to discuss any topic that isn't work, the ability to appreciate Art, or the basic functioning Empathy required to look at a corpse and think 'That person deserves better than to be chewed on by random vultures'. Small reminder that in our timeline, Humans prevailed over Neanderthals because we have that thing called Empathy, one of the most basic pillars of any functioning society? The ability to look five feet in front of you and say "That is a Human, I should endeavor not to hurt them because like me, they are capable of feeling pain." and also "That is a human, if we collaborate on a task, we can get said task done in much less time with much less difficulty." I'm ripping on the Synths, but they literally have knowledge pumped into their heads, so maybe some of it is legitimate ignorance. Anyway, follow the Adventures of Rust, every Eastern Visual Novel Protagonist Ever except he isn't overpowered and he has white hair. So, shy of ecchi, power of friendship, mashes the Mercy option like he was using an auto-clicker, and immunity to the consequences or regret of spamming said Mercy button no matter how stupid it is to do so or how hard it actually bites him. Watch as he stumbles into 20 Game-Overs because You, the Player, are using logic the author does not approve of, or you clicked the wrong button. Also watch as the actual collapse of the scenario is undone with a Patch Rollback. The Bringer of the Apocalypse is right at your door? Everyone except the main party has gone Certifiably Insane? All of it is undone in a few minutes for everyone except Rust and The Player, who had to sit through half an hour of angst only for it to mean absolutely nothing because the Plot demanded it be completely nullified. Now watch his Dead Sister invoke the power of FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC by inviting everyone into a singular guild completely free of any and all negative influences, trolls, or anything else bad and become the Collective Unsciousness the Synths have been working towards. How do they respond? "Fuck it, humans win, we're leaving. We could take the girl by force and then kill off the rest of Humanity because we know exactly where the bunkers are that keep the species on life support, and we could probably wipe them out with a few precision bombardments or a planet-killing weapon that we as a star-spanning empire with Zero Empathy would logically have at this point... but they won, so we should go." Oh, and the final kicker? Literally everyone who wasn't 'Die when they are Killed IRL' has come out of their pods almost completely rejuvenated. The Super Incel you meet at the beginning, that dies like three chapters in? He's fine, and no longer an Incel. The humans who have been in their lifepods for centuries, after having fled the actual collapse of civilization as we know it, who wouldn't probably wouldn't even be capable of getting out of their pods due to muscle atrophy? They're farming now! There's only one character in the entire world who can't get out of their pod and Fortnite Dance over basic understandings of biology, and of course she's a Romance Option.[/spoiler] The worst sin however, is that they make debates of the best drink and decide unanimously that it's Cola, while completely ignoring the existence of Hot Chocolate. 0/10 Exterminatus the whole planet and try again.