Arcane Trigger Review

Our magician is surrounded by a gang of sword-wielding foes in dark cloaks, almost looking like black mages. She runs away, and we see her in bed with her sleeping cap on and her black cat glaring at her. She looks out of the window and seems to have a great idea. We are shown a gun displayed on the wall; when she confronts the foes again, the outcome is going to be different.

You begin the game by choosing who you want to play from three options. Magician Lilia (she has the long blue hair) has the perk that the first bullet in the magazine gains an extra three penetration, and she has 12 shots. Inquisitor Catherine will only fire bullets from the first row, and the sixth one gains seven penetration. She only has six shots, but she has a special summon, Falcon, that will attack the enemy to make up for that. Finally, Archmage Henry has a minigun where unloaded bullets have a 75% chance of firing; because of that, he has the chance to fire 27 shots.

Each of the three characters has four different elements that the bullets they use fall under. Lilia has Fire, Ice, Rock, and Wind; Catherine has Fire, Light, Ice, and Wind; and Henry uses Lightning, Wind, Rock, and Fire. For each element type, there are 23 bullets, along with over 20 spells you can use to fight off the waves of enemies. You can see all the different ones you have discovered by checking out the collection on the home menu.

On this menu, you can also purchase runes that will make cards to add to your deck. Some allow you to deal a large amount of damage, some give you shields to protect yourself from attacks, while others strengthen you based on how much shield you have. These can be purchased with the pieces you earn from defeating enemies. It’s nice that you keep upgrading your character after every run to hopefully make the next one a little easier.

Walk outside your house, and the enemies are there; how considerate of them to save you travel time… Though the game takes place on only one screen, and you aren’t going to any other location, after a while, it can feel monotonous, especially if you are playing for a long period. Arcane Trigger is turn-based; your character never moves. They stand still, and once you have taken your turn, the enemy is always advancing towards you. Once all the enemies are defeated, you get a choice of three rewards. My first choices were Trident, Scorching Tome, and Harvest.

Arcane Trigger has beautiful pixelated visuals and vibrant colours, so at least the one area you are fighting in looks great. Along with the environment, the attacks look cool and are incredibly satisfying to use. Since you are standing near water, you will see a reflection, and it looks like the water is slightly moving. It isn’t totally still, just like the clouds in the sky move, and all the characters are animated rather than frozen in place. To go along with the bright visuals, the music is upbeat with electric guitars and a great bassline that sounds like someone strumming.

When you start battling the enemies, you will see the type of bullet you will be using for your first shot. As the wave progresses, you will be able to swap the order around to switch up what you are attacking with. When ready, click on the fire button in the bottom right-hand corner and watch the barrage of bullets. When you successfully defeat the enemies, you will gain energy that is used to forge new bullets from the four options shown.

If you don’t like the order your bullets are in, you can swap their position by using the Transposition Charm. There is a cooldown period, so you can’t keep spamming this; you can only swap so many times. To successfully complete your run, you need to survive until Wave 15. The current wave you are on is shown at the top of the screen to give you an idea of how much longer you have to go.

There is no controller support for this game; it is meant to be played using a mouse, though if you do have a Steam Deck, you can use the right touchpad to move your cursor around the screen if you want to play away from your computer. The mouse controls are incredibly simple, as you may assume, as you are just clicking on the option you want.

There is some strategy involved with Arcane Trigger, a lot of it depending on the different relics you have and the type of bullet you are using. As you learn which ammo is the strongest and which character suits your playstyle best, you may feel overwhelmed. I like using Catherine as my character because of her attacking Falcon; that bird can deal a lot of damage! The game also has a continue option in case you need to stop playing or just want to take a break.

Arcane Trigger is an interesting twist on the typical deckbuilding titles you may have played. There are times when the English translation is a little unclear, so you will just need to try things out yourself and see how they work. It doesn’t break the game; it just gets a little confusing. I loved the artwork shown here and found it to be one of those addictive titles that keeps pulling you in for one more try, then suddenly an hour has passed. My biggest issue is that you never leave that initial screen; you never get to explore the world around you, so it can feel like you are never making progress.