Arcadia Fallen II Review

Arcadia Fallen II is the second game in the Arcadia Fallen series, following the first game released in 2021. It is set seven years after the events of the first game, and upon creating your character, you are able to choose what events occurred in the first game if you played it (it also does not affect any of the main story and is down to the player’s own preference). If not? Well, you don’t have to worry, as you can skip that option and just carry on with character creation.

Your character (who is named Ren by default) can be male, female, or non-binary, and you can choose to have a more androgynous appearance if you so desire. Creating your character is a simple process, and you can mainly change the colour of your skin, eyes, and clothes. However, you can also edit this whenever you want in the start menu.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk a little about the story. I have to admit that I never played the first in this visual novel series, but it has been designed so you don’t need to know what happened in that title, as this has a separate storyline.

From my understanding, the first Arcadia Fallen has you play as an alchemist. However, in this one, you are a student at the Seven Winds Academy, where you’ll first meet your lifelong friends on the carriage ride in your childhood: Soren and Nina. Soren, an excitable pink-haired boy with a love for music, comes from a magical family, and because of that, he knows a great deal about the different magic types: Nature magic (communing with plants, and one that most mages of that aptitude are born with), Illusion (performers), Mender (doctors), and Tinker (mechanics and inventors).

While Soren is excited, Nina offers a different outlook, as she was taken by the Demon Hunters to the academy due to coming from a non-magical family. Naturally, she’s distraught and didn’t want to go there, but with the assistance of the pair of you, she becomes much more confident and joins the Illusion track as a talented dancer — despite that not being her passion. Depending on your choice in character creation, you can choose which discipline you want to specialise in and who you would prefer as your roommate.

In my case, I stuck with the name of Ren, chose the Illusion track, and became Soren’s roommate. Several years have passed since your arrival at Seven Winds, and after not paying attention in class, you are met with our first question from Professor Tornkvist of the Mender class about the moon cycles. Regardless of your answer, you’ll still have to endure detention, as that’s what happens when you sleep in class.

Unsurprisingly, I’d rather my character not care about grades, so I chose for them to prefer reading fiction late into the night rather than studying. Depending on your choice, these could influence future dialogue and choice options in the future, which was a good touch. Likewise, when interacting with other characters, you can decide more on your personality. Are you sarcastic? Diplomatic? Maybe a bit of both.

As this is a magical school, it should come as no surprise that everyone is trying to get the best grades possible so they can choose where to go when they graduate. There are a host of cities your fellow students will compete to get to, as mages are treated differently depending on the area. For example, in the city of Taruna, Nina’s home, they’re treated terribly. So, it comes as no surprise that no one wants to go there. Everywhere else has more opportunities, and with everyone’s grades being visible on their wrists? It’s a constant reminder of the pressures that every student faces.

While there is a lot of world-building in this section, it works well. After all, you could skip the explanation, but I really liked the amount of work that went into this fantastical world, especially as I’d never played the previous game.

Of course, you would be forgiven for thinking that Arcadia Fallen II is all about your school life. Truthfully, there’s a lot more to it than that. After all, detention is but the mere catalyst to meeting your two new allies: Puk, a non-binary rebel from an aristocratic family who solely thinks of themself, and Kim, a Nature mage who is also an incredibly rare Spirit mage, allowing him to commune with demons who somehow nearly destroyed Puk’s cousin Julian’s tie. With these outcasts, you all accidentally find a secret room in the Academy, where a tiny dragon named Ragnar has been living.

Ragnar makes a deal with the group, and with it, the plot really begins. His father, a former Archivist, had been culled and Ragnar wanted to know more about his kind. The only way to do that is to get into the Restricted Section of the library, but first, Puk insists on a deal that they help him get into Tornkvist’s office to find the answers on their next test. They agree and soon their plan is set into motion.

Except, no plan goes accordingly. In this case, the group discover that they’re being set up to fail, and that the public outside is unhappy with the “spoiled” behaviour of the mages at the Academy. Despite their hard work, no one outside believes it, and there’s a lot of pressure set on them all to fail. Soon, their plans expand into something far bigger than they imagined.

Pressure only grows when our antagonist, Sullivan, an alchemist from Taruna, arrives to monitor the school and find an alternative energy source that isn’t just magical crystals. Soon, she finds herself at odds with the staff, specifically Professor Hyben, Kim’s mentor and a fellow Spirit mage. As everything spirals out of control, there are more allies introduced, such as Hannah (the school prefect) and Elias (the heartthrob mender and Tornkvist’s apprentice). Of course, there are also the school rivals, such as Catherine (the daughter of a noble) and her group of friends, including Puk’s cousin Julian, and her roommate, Regitze.

As the story progresses, you’ll use Ragnar’s chaos magic to sneak around the school at night, and it’s here that we learn more about the puzzles that Arcadia Fallen II uses. In this case, Ragnar travels with you all through the pipes, and you need to join them up to get to your destination. Depending on the route, you’ll be able to eavesdrop on conversations, and as the puzzles get more difficult, you’ll need to fix broken pipes by placing one of your party members in areas to help connect things. Of course, if you get stuck, you can always get a hint to unveil the route, although you’ll still have to figure out how they connect.

Overall, I really enjoyed Arcadia Fallen II, and it’s made me want to play the previous instalment to get a better understanding of other characters (such as Professor Hofland). All the characters were interesting, and I appreciated how you could go through an entire game without romancing any of the other party members. Romance was purely optional, and the main focus was establishing your character’s own personality. The puzzles weren’t too challenging, and I loved the vibrant art, animation, music, and voice acting.