An addictive mobile rhythm game that is probably the closest most people are going to be able to get to playing sound voltex. The artcore aesthetic is pretty lit too.

The one big thing people mention about Arcaea is the extremely slow and grindy gacha-style progression. You start out with hardly any songs and unlocking songs in world mode is a very slow process, especially early on when your support characters are at a low level.

In a way I kind of don't mind this tho? At least in the context of a mobile game. The fact that the switch version has this same progression system is reprehensible but on android/iOS it feels less out of place. The small playlist you have at first encourages you to get truly attached to and familiar with the songs (which you'll definitely need to do to pass them on future difficulty) and each new song that's unlocked feels like a genuinely big and exciting event. A good game to play in short bursts like during work breaks due to the great soundtrack and engaging gameplay.

This game really surprised me. When I first tried it out, I expected it to be a fun little distraction to scratch my rhythm game itch for a couple of weeks and then I'd be done with it. However, several years on and it's probably my all time favourite game in the genre.

Arcaea plays like a touchscreen cross between Chunithm and Sound Voltex, using a second note highway above your regular one in a way that is fairly analogous to Chunithm's infra-red sensor or SDVX's effects knobs.

Unlocking songs can be pretty slow at first, using an energy system to traverse through a boardgame-like set of tiles - not dissimilar to Chunithm's maps. However, once you're getting onto level 9 and 9+ songs you'll find yourself wanting to play the same songs often enough that the initial slow progession isn't a problem. Eventually, you'll level up your character to a point where moving through this mode is a lot faster.

There are more than enough free songs to decide on whether or not you want to put some money down for more. Song packs are around £5 at a time, usually having around 5-6 songs in them. Value-wise that's probably an okay price, but there's always at least one dud song per pack that you probably won't want to play much more of after you clear it. There's also a selection of songs that you can buy individually for £1 each.

I think the best praise I can give Arcaea is when I get rare access to an arcade that has a good selection of imported Japanese rhythm games I don't feel the need to spend hours on end playing, as Arcaea had left me plenty satisfied for my otoge fix and I didn't need to binge on Konami's arcade offerings while I had the chance. This mobile rhythm game, to me at least, feels just as good as what you can play in the arcades.

I really, really liked this one when I first started playing. The game is fun, has a nice aesthetic and there quite a few songs that match my tastes.

Unfortunately unlocking new songs and characters in World Mode became a bit too tedious and I kinda lost interest after a while.

Still a great game that I will get back to from time to time!

it's one of those games i just never really fully put the time into learning but i always seem to play it whenever i have nothing else to do which is strange.
it'll probably be the only mobile rhythm game i'll ever play because it's just got a certain charm that other mobile rhythm games don't have, and i think that is passion. i can open the app and within 3 clicks im already in a song, they know what i want! also another great testament to this is thumb vs index finger playing. i think in the long run, trying to cater to all crowds tends to be more of a chore and costs more to develop, having to spend more time thinking about charting for 2 groups, the scrubby casual player who just plays with thumbs and try hards who whip out their tablet and use their index fingers and play at home, which seems to be the most optimal way to play and also happen to be the ones who spend the most money on the game and who they will cater to. every single chart i've played (highest is like 10+) has always had me in mind, the casual thumb player and i really appreciate that, no chart feels like a cop out. i think it proves to be one of the least predatory for your attention (but maybe for your money) mobile rhythm games that i'm honestly willing to spend money just to play new songs. it's the perfect game to play on a 30 minute train ride to work every other day and i love seeing my improvement over time, a great way to stimulate the brain for an eventless train ride, never feeling obliged to complete "dailies". i'm definitely not good at this game and i can barely pass 10+'s but just realising how far i've come without dedicating my life or that much energy into the game, to me is satisfying. i'm sure i could substitute this for any other rhythm game but i love the music, the collabs, the charting, the mechanics, the fact that i can play with just my thumbs, not have to try too hard to have fun and not to mention constant updates and new songs. you do unforunately have to sink money into this game if you want to get the most out of it, but that's not to say it's not worth it. i think a good game deserves money! i would easily spend 50+ for a game like this, hell i spend more on dj max and arguable i enjoy this way more and has more mileage having only spend around $15 aud, and that is surely to increase over time. i didn't play the story or anything so i wont comment, also don't really care about it but hey if you're into that stuff then have fun with it.
my favourite mobile rhythm game, possibly the best in the biz.

Arcaea kind of came to me at a random time. Simply curious about the inclusion of Umineko songs and a -45 song I liked, I ended up spending some of the most intense amount of hours in a game for the first time in years. I usually don’t spend much time on competitive/self growth kinds of games because I can never feel satisfied with my skills and progression, and rarely find the time and motivation to stay. But somehow, Arcaea clicked.

Early on it seems like a relatively unimpressive game with complicated mechanics to understand, but the more time you invest in it and the more you dive deep into it, you end up finding out so much more. The game is filled with love, and if you give it time, it can give the love you give it back to you tenfold. At a time in my life of relative emptiness, lack of motivation and ambitions, I somehow chucked through some of the hardest songs in the game, and managed to grasp exactly how to progress at the game. Through pure force of habit of playing daily, mostly, but also by taking the time to look up strategies and ways to improve. But clearly there’s more to the gameplay itself that made me stay: The game’s presentation, looks, sounds and visuals helped, but what I particularly adored was how it used the game medium to tell a story through gameplay and immersion rather than with words alone. There’s those things in the game called anomalies where by unlocking special requirements, such as using a special character on a specific song, you get to see the song change or have the song switch to hard mode… And move on to a completely different new track fluidly through the game. The songs and the visuals tell the story, rather than using words, in ways that are impossible in other mediums. Of course, those anomalies generally switch to some of the hardest tracks in the game, and are locked out in hard mode - too many lost notes, and you’ll lose. Only once you’ve mastered the track or played it enough will you be deemed worthy to unlock it and progress through the story.

And in that light I find deliverance.

It’s those moments that made me want to fight through and experience those challenges hand-on, with my own strength and skills. And for the first time in many moons, whenever I reached an objective or milestone in the game, I felt proud of myself, and proud of my accomplishments, and my efforts finally felt worthwhile. I got to see how I progressed and got better at the game daily at an insane pace. During the launch of the final update of the game’s story, the entire community got together to solve the riddles imposed by the developers, and solved a giant ingame ARG just to see the game to its end. It was kind of a surreal experience, and seeing it all unfold live was magical. The game kept surprising us with incredible and ambitious chart designs and songs. And the game ends on those words in the epilogue:

“You've chosen life, then choose to live.
Live in this world. See this world. Feel it and truly accept every last moment.
With this sentiment, she chooses to hold firm.”

Words that resonated with me at a time of need, and that will live on forever within me. I jumped in this game for some familiar elements, and I stayed to find out more about myself, and discovered moments that ended up being some of my strongest in the media, and discovered some of my most favorite music and artists of all time. I found out more about myself, and got to feel proud of myself when I felt so alone and useless. Those are all really personal feelings, and I don’t think many people will get an experience as intimate and life changing as my own, especially considering the scale of this little game.

I may be alone, I may be the only one to find joy in those little things, but after all, isn’t that what art is all about?

gameplay is good!! and then you realise you have to grind for

- free songs
- difficulties of said free songs
- EXTRA difficulties of said free songs
- Beyond difficulties of songs YOU ALREADY PAID FOR
- Characters YOU ALSO PAID FOR

I thought I'd check out the new switch version of this. I tend to like these complete versions of mobile rhythm games, without the hassle of paying microtransactions or trudging through an awful progression system - oh wait.

Arcaea Switch is a $40 game with the progresion system of a F2P one. That's basically what it boils down to. You start with 50 of the 150~ songs and to unlock any more, along with the support characters and so on, you need to progress through the world mode, which starts of slow for the first set of worlds, requiring about 5 song plays per getting a new song. Ok, could be worse, sure, and it'll get quicker as you level up support units for sure, right?

And then you get to the next set of worlds and unlocks take 3 times as long. And you still only have like 75 songs. And your character is probably maxed out. Oh, and the game still has the pointless decision to have like 5 different currencies you can earn in different modes that would have previously been stamina gated, but now just feels like it's wasting your time.

It's a shame because the gameplay itself is pretty good. The core gimmick, the Arcs, which are basically hold notes above the normal play field, im not huge on themselves, but when combined with notes that go under and around it, it can result in this contortionist finger play which is really fun.

Sadly, on a core gameplay level, it does also have some visibility issues. There's a colour blind mode, but it only effects arcs, and not the normal, light blue notes on white-ish background for half the tracks. I can get by, but having visibility issues at al in a rhythm game like this, which you cant adjust at all, is a huge no go.

Frankly though, it is the progression of the switch version that really kills it for me. The songs are good but you'll be replaying them like 8 times each if you want to unlock all the content, and that's assuming it doesnt get even slower later on.

There's just no need for it. I have played Mobile Rhythm games with progression systems less obnoxious, and it's a huge damper on the game as a whole. Doesnt help that there's basically a 20 second unskippable cutscene to actually show you your megre progress in getting to the stuff you spent $40 on.

Its a shame as the gameplay is good, there's some fun original songs, and the story seems fairly interesting, with a good aesthetic throughout.

But i've just come to the conclusion that it's just not worth it. There's enough good rhythm games that dont make jump through so many damn hoops to actually play the songs, which is at the end of the day, what really matters.