Thank you Galdra Studios for sending us a review code!

In Arcadia Fallen you play as Morgan (you can change the name), an apprentice alchemist in a small town called Anemone Valley. The main character can be further customized by changing their body type (androgynous is an option), pronouns and voice. The sexual pandering doesn’t end there! This game promotes LGBTQ+ dating options and even if your character is heterosexual, other characters are not.

Elizabeth runs the alchemy shop and guides Morgan on how to create various elixirs. She’ll also send Morgan on errands to gather ingredients or buy some from the non-binary flower shop owner. I was under the impression that Quinn was a girl until the epilogue used the phrase “their flower shop” instead of a gender specific “her flower shop”.

It doesn’t take long for this peaceful town to be assaulted by demons and it’s up to your character and the friends that they’ll meet to stop the invasion and reverse the damage they have caused. Your party will consist of a knight who upholds justice no matter the cost, a rebellious mage, a timid spirit, an outcast nightwalker, and a scholarly mage who prefers books over people. Each character has a backstory for your character to discover and is bound to clash with other party members. The banter between them as you’re selecting your next destination is mildly amusing. If you missed out on any of it, you can listen to it again from the Banter main menu option.

Like many visual novels, you can make story-altering decisions. Romance dialogue options are also present between your party members. After several flirtatious conversations you’ll be asked if you are interested in a character and if you say yes, the romance dialogue options will disappear for the other party members.

Other than the gender and sexual orientation oddities, Arcadia Fallen is unique with how it lets you define the main character. You can respond to questions angrily, cheerfully, determined, jokingly, nervously, and sad. The ability to define your character’s personality is refreshing. However, towards the end of the game, you only have two routes to choose: sadness or vengeance.

The artwork is well done and the theme song at the beginning is a nice touch. The characters have profile pictures when speaking and they show many emotions as they speak. This game is partially voice acted and what's there is exceptional. In the dialogue is some language (sh*t).

Magic is prevalent throughout this game’s story. Mages were persecuted and many forms of magic are illegal and punishable by death. Morgan has a locket that is used for doing alchemy and sealing demons. The locket consists of four circles that you have to rotate to match the alchemy recipe or mimic the layout of the diagram shown.

The romance route is pretty tame and I didn’t see any more than kissing between my character and love interest (Kaiden). It’s implied that other homosexual couples have gone further than kissing. Violence and death are part of the game’s story. A couple of taverns are visited throughout the story as well.

The story spans seven chapters and it’s really well written. You’ll get about ten hours of game time each play-through. If you can look past the LGBTQ+ propaganda, it’s a fun game.