Arco Steam Charts & Stats

Awesome combat, beautiful pixel art, great story. What else could you ask for!

wow this game is amazing. amazing story and love this version of gameplay

Lost count of the times this game left me emotionally wrecked. Fantastic gameplay, great pacing in terms of both the story and new mechanics. Kept me on my toes and excited for the next challenge through to the very end.

Arco is an absolutely AMAZING game. If you find any part of its description interesting, you will certainly like this game. If knowing that is enough for you to get this game, good, you absolutely should, but I'll also write a more detailed review below for those who are interested, going over some key points about this game: GAMEPLAY (Fighting) Easily one of the stand-out features of Arco, to me, is the battle system. I'm a pretty big fan of turn-based combat, so I've seen when it gets low, and DAMN does Arco go high. The step-by-step planning almost gives it the feel of something like Yomi Hustle, as you make an effort to read spacing and timing while navigating up to three party members in fights that can quickly become a frenzy of positioning and planning. Battles are challenging in ways that are tough, but never unfair, and the ability to reset a failed fight allows you to make mistakes (which you will make often) and quickly go for a round 2. The abilities of the main party are simple to understand while allowing for high strategic variability, letting you craft your personal playstyle with the kit you have. As of writing, I've played through this game twice and the characters have had wildly different approaches to combat each time. All in all, it's a system with a low barrier to entry but a high ceiling, and one that feels great to master. GAMEPLAY (Adventure) The adventure part of the game is nothing to sleep on, either. Discovering and engaging with many locations feels like discovering them, and the way that interactable elements are implemented makes you feel like you're really digging through every area. Not to mention, there are a ton of small choices in this game that don't impact the larger story but do matter in the experience you have, that matter in what you find or your reaction to finding things. While the game never makes you feel like you have some massive impact on the world around you, it does make every individual adventure through the world... well, feel like an adventure! STORY I think Arco's story is great, but it can feel a little underbaked or simplistic at some moments. I won't get into spoilers, because I absolutely think it's worth going through, but there are some pretty major questions that go unanswered, and the last Act feels less like you're playing catch and more like you're watching the ball fall off a cliff: I enjoy watching the ball go that fast, but I kind of liked being able to throw it. Regardless, the main characters are all fun, and no part of the story felt laborious or annoying to sit through. My first playthrough was about 7 hours long, and the story kept me engaged the whole time. MUSIC The phrase "this game has great music" is often said, but Arco's OST really stands out -- not JUST because it's good music, which it is, but also because it's fitting and interesting at every point it's used. With 53 tracks, you are almost constantly hearing new tunes that do a great job of matching the environment and the scenario. There's one scene in particular that uses a vocal track so well that it makes your heart sink. To me, this game's music is on the level of the Supergiant suite of games (Hades/Pyre/Transistor/Bastion) -- and if you know them, you should know that that is a huge compliment. ART Arco's style is an absolute beacon of how good pixel art can be. Environments and portraits are beautifully made while overworld displays are kept distinct and readable. This trend continues throughout the game: the parts that can be beautiful are beautiful, and the parts that need to be understood are easily understandable. What really blows me away is the sheer number of backgrounds -- the store page boasts that there are "200+ locations" and I'm pretty sure that each and every one of them has a unique background despite a significant amount of the game taking place in plains or desert. The game doesn't use locational consistency as a reason to skimp out on background features, but instead displays to you a variety of details and locations. It's incredibly well done. TL;DR: This game is great and you should play it.

really nice! the characters are charming, the story is gripping and the combat is really exciting!! I loved seeing emoticons in the dialogue :) and the choices I made felt really important for the story. Overall great!

Pixel-art plan & execute style tactics game. Challenging with great accessibility options.

Ultimately, I think the narrative falls a bit short of the expectations that it's excellent opening set up, but the incredible art, imaginative world, and the incredibly fresh and inventive turn based combat structure really draw you in until the end. Definitely worth picking up if you're looking for an interesting rpg to sink your teeth into

Cool game, really simple and good dark story. Wish it had a bit of a more complex gameplay specially at the end but really can't complain. Bet they will expand in a second part if one ever comes out. Artwork is beautiful, good music and environment. Highly recommended for a good weekend!

I'm going to be honest. I am an absolute sucker for games that explore cultures I'm not familiar with. Arco was always going to be at least a bit of a hit with me, just by virtue of showing me something I don't usually get to see. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3497013937 Arco is an action-adventure RPG. Set in an alternate (but not too alternate) fantasy version of the old west, Arco follows a series of indigenous protagonists as they embark on quests, battle monsters, and confront the changing reality of their world. And I love it. Unabashedly, unashamedly, I love it. The very first quest of the game follows an indigenous child named Teco. He and his family have journeyed from their homeland to repeat the pilgrimages their ancestors have always traditionally made. However, once they arrive at their sacred tree, they find it's been occupied by colonisers, making it impossible for them to get there. Throughout the quest, the player is shown how Teco and his family have adapted to the colonisation of their land, how they've maintained their traditions, and how what we understand to be the inevitability of colonisation is not inevitable. If anything, we're presented with a world in which the past continues to live alongside the future, and where identity remains deeply meaningful, even as the world seeks to destroy it. This is a game about colonialism that not only takes the perspective of the colonised, but ensures their voices and perspectives resonate. This isn't a horror game or a tragedy. This is an adventure in a changing, fantastic world, and I cannot express enough how much I love it for that. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3497014165 Where the game truly excels, however, is in how the message of its story resonates in its mechanics. Arco's combat system is a turn-based tactical system, with players having a variety of abilities and items that they can use to defeat enemies. Each character's abilities are different, giving each storyline a very different feel and strategy, ensuring that the combats never feel stale. However, it's the game's guilt system that makes the combat truly interesting and unique. Throughout the story sections of the game, the player is confronted with decisions. Depending on the choices they make, their character may feel more or less guilt. Rather than being solely a character-informing feature, though, guilt manifests in combat, with malevolent spirits hounding the player throughout combat, forcing them to take actions they might not otherwise have done, or to move more quickly than is necessarily wise. Trauma itself becomes a mechanic in Arco. It's highly effective, both at making the player consider their actions more carefully, and at reinforcing the overall story. This is a game where the past informs the future, where time and consequences blend together, and where we are the product of the decisions we've made. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3497013719 Arco is unlike any RPG I've played, both in terms of its setting, and in how it works the setting into the very mechanics of the game. It is a gorgeous, glorious testament to the power of storytelling and what video games can be as narrative tools. Most importantly, though, it is an example of reframing the story. This is an indigenous story, framing indigenous peoples as the arbiters of their own destinies within a changing world. It reclaims the western for those too often framed as the faceless villains, and it's wonderful for it. [quote] If you enjoyed this review, check out [url=https://www.jannekeparrish.com/game/] more of my reviews [/url] and [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44626948-Loons/] my curator page. [/url] Thanks for reading! [/quote]

I've played this game twice so far and I'm itching to play it a third time. This game is near perfect for me. The combat is nothing like I've seen before but is incredibly satisfying, challenging without being frustrating. It's refreshing as heck to experience something based on Mesoamerican cultures (not sure whether the Tuag are inspired by IRL Tuareg peoples, it's cool either way), accentuated by the lovely environment art. The writing does a great job of balancing fun and misery; everyone feels like they fit in this world and everyone feels believable. Itzae and Chio are both particularly charming :D If you're even a little bit interested in this game, I 1000% recommend getting it!