There's been some hot discussion by Ethan Gach's article from Kotaku surrounding Arcadian Atlas in regards to how it flounders. Based on his, four hours of playtime. And I can't help but disagree. Since I feel if we focus too much on flaws, especially one that has been released recently, it may warp the perception of the title as a whole to newcomers. In an effort to give a more well-rounded view. I’m going to highlight the good stuff along with mixed feelings. Not refuting the Kotaku article, but in my own manner to cook up a slice of my pie for others to dig through. One look at Arcadian Atlas(AA) and you can see the clear resemblance to the inspiration it wears on its sleeves. Final Fantasy Tactics(FFT). As someone who loves FFT, hearing about an indie RPG attempting to reach similar heights as that one caught my eye. And I’ve been watching their development closely over the years. However, I should preface this, I won’t make any comparisons to the FFT, since I feel not everyone has played the title. So I’ll try and judge the game for what it is rather than what it aspires to.

First, I believe developers find difficulty, to create a title where you have a clear inspiration while not retreading familiar ground. For better or worse, other titles walk the road most traveled too closely while some merely use it as a base and go off in their direction. AA I think takes the middle ground while striving to develop their own identity in a low fantasy medieval story in homage to the classics of old, such as Yasumi Matsuno’s works.

You control two protagonists Vashti and Desmond. Two lovers caught up in a civil war that threatens to shake the very foundation of the continent. I found the story to be mature, holding nothing back during the war and hitting nuances I don’t see that often regarding choices, emotions, duty, and more. Lore-wise. The added compendium is appreciative of giving background on the world, important characters, and events. Where the writing delves into a nice balance between seriousness with humor at times to lessen the gravity of affairs here. It is well placed. These strengths splinter down to the cast which I’m surprised to see how small they’re, but allow our cast both main and villains to shine. The protagonists are not overpowered at all or hateable from the get-go. There is careful precision to keep them within the realm of believability without sending me into a volcano of overriding my suspension of disbelief.

A good amount of class variety here being 12 different classes and all of them have multiple skill trees to specialize in. I was able to have a raccoon archer, ronin, sorcerer, inquisitor, and shaman available. Each had their strengths and weaknesses, but for the most part, they all felt strong enough to tide me over against my enemies. The gameplay starts with some mandatory battles early on before granting you the ability to move around the world map and accept contracts. Think of these like sidequests for money and gear rewards. There is even an exclusive side quest chain here I found to be amusing so I recommend players finish these off if they require money or seek the unique side quest chain. Decent tunes to go along as you combat your way through various maps. The sax in particular I didn’t get tired of hearing. Considering how short the game is to compete. Well to be fair, not too short. My times were within 11 to 13 hours. Which I feel is just right for the length. Didn’t want to go through 40+ hour campaigns where the pace moves at a snail’s pace. Here the pace was quick and didn’t take long to reach the heart of the matter for plot beats. Before I move on, I should say my times should not be taken as definitive. It could be an outlier, considering the developers have been noted to say "roughly takes them 25-30 hours to beat." Didn’t experience any bugs or crashes either. This helps tremendously since battles can be completed within ten minutes +/- on average. At least on normal difficulty.

I did have some mixed feelings here. Not a positive or a negative, but for the sake of transparency I'll note them down. I wish the compendium would be updated periodically to show new changes to a character's background. This would grant more importance to the compendium while adding context when needed. Not much room to experiment with classes due to how experience is calculated. Bit non-traditional, which I enjoy. But here every time you finish a battle you gain a level that coincidentally grants you skill points to allocate. I like the removal of grinding, although this doesn’t allow much room to go beyond the base and advanced classes and experiment since there are no repeatable filler battles to test them out. Sure I could use contracts, but those are limited within each chapter. Could’ve used more objectives besides defeating all units. There are more than a handful of uncommon ones here: Travel to this tile, escort, etc. Though these are few and far between the regular. Some spice would’ve been nice to goals here to not make objectives too repetitive back to eliminating every foe. Also, I think some more flashbacks to the villain would’ve been welcome as a more show/don’t tell approach to flesh them out more and perhaps to a lesser extent our protagonists. Lastly, I believe contracts could be made more interesting beyond killing everyone. Grant us rare units instead of filler ones, give us more side quest chains, expand on the world with lore/characters, etc. I could say more, but those are minor nitpicks not worth mentioning and the developers of Twin Otter are already working hard to fix them in hot fixes and patches.

Overall, Arcadian Atlas displays a serviceable amount of gameplay and classes. Delving into interesting scenes during the civil war without holding your hand throughout. All while delivering a bug-free (at least for me) and crash-free experience that doesn’t seek long hours to complete. I can’t help but appreciate the close attempt to conceive their take from looking up to FFT. And for that, I respect it and look forward to the future when this title is cleaned up of some imperfections. I admire the attempt to construct their own identity while balancing enough nostalgia. Solid content here, for the story to carry me to the very end. Sure it has some flaws, but they don't deter my overall experience as a whole. Been in the works for seven-years with a Kickstarter budget and a four man dev team. And the result is not hot garbage! Instead, think of it like a cool new menu item to eat through for those curious. A good Indie Jrpg I recommend for those testing the waters for indies and Jrpg’s alike. And I implore anyone who reads this review to carefully research beforehand to see if its the right one for them. Rely on different sources, see what different authors had to say, any commonality, any differences etc. In an effort to see the bigger picture. My point isn’t to send everyone to buy AA and support indies Although I would love it if you did. But to think carefully about what one person says with little to no experience versus what someone who has seen everything or as much as they can has to say. Especially when the rating among critics has garnered a wide range of scores. Making it difficult to see whether a title is good or not.

7/10