X live Archetype Arcadia is Kemco’s latest release, this time in the visual novel genre, now in pre-registration

  • Kemco is branching out from their usual fare of RPGs with a new visual novel
  • Archetype Arcadia bills itself as a “voluminous” visual novel with a grim story
  • A game that delves into serious topics of self-harm and more

When it comes to Kemco, I’m very much used to reading their releases and finding a new, fairly obscure JRPG making the jump to mobile in the West. But I was surprised today to find that’s not the case; in fact, there’s something I haven’t seen before from them. Archetype Arcadia is a new visual novel coming to Android that’s currently in pre-registration on Google Play.

Adding to the unusual nature of this release, rather than an imaginative, high-flying fantasy romp, Archetype Arcadia is very much on the darker side of things. Set in a world ravaged by a disease called Peccatomania, you play as Rust, a young man who seeks to save his sister from the affliction and believes he can do so using the full-dive VR game Archetype Arcadia.

Suffice it to say, with themes of self-harm, violence and strong language, this is very much not a game for kids despite the animesque designs. Although it may not appeal to visual novel sceptics, for those hankering for something a bit closer to the usual offerings of the genre, rather than a deconstruction or reconstruction, this should be quite appealing.

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Gaming for er- good?

The visual novel genre tends to get a bit of a bad rap, which is a shame because I think a lot of concepts could benefit from trying not to gamify themselves and instead embrace being more of an interactive narrative. Admittedly, Archetype Arcadia is probably going to be a bit too out there for folks who haven’t played visual novels before but still might be worth checking out.

And if you’re looking for other great story-based releases to give you your fix of the drama, there’s no better place to start than by taking a gander through our list of the top 12 best narrative games to play on mobile!

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