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?