Arcaea

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Video game fandom
NameArcaea
Developer(s)lowiro
Release dateMarch 8, 2017; May 2021
Platform(s)Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch
Genre(s)Rhythm Game
External link(s)Official Website

Official English-language Twitter/X

Official Youtube Channel
See alsoPhigros, vivid/statis
Related articles on Fanlore.

Arcaea is a narratival, vertical-scroll rhythm game (VSRG) whose gameplay elements mainly take inspiration from Sound Voltex and CHUNITHM, but with its own twists, namely the arc and sky notes. Initially releasing on both Android and iOS on March 8, 2017, it has also recieved a Nintendo Switch port in 2021.

Canon

The story of Arcaea revolves around a group of girls of various backgrounds who mysterioously end up in the eponymous world of Arcaea, a strange, desolate land of scattered memories in the form of shards of glass, and their individual adventures and turmoils within as each attempt to feign their own meaning out of the land's surrealistic environment.

Amongst the troupe are two main characters, Hikari (who hold memories of bliss and calm) and Tairitsu (who hold memories of strife and chaos), which are prominent in the game's mainline story, often engaging in moments of inter-character scuffles and mystery, up until the release of the final story chapter, titled "Final Verdict", on July 13, 2022.

As the player progresses through various song charts and challenges, mainly through the "Free Play" and "World Mode" sections, they also unlock story logs pertaining to specific moments and thoughts in the story, as well as "Partners", variations of characters that both reward and challenge the player in the form of gauges and hit/missed notes.

Fandom Overview

Upon the game's initial release, and on the years after, it has accrued a fairly large fanbase, mostly of the rhythm gaming community, who are both drawn into the varied, yet overwhelmingly-female cast of characters and its world, often making headcanons and contributing to fanworks related to the game, although part of the policy by lowiro explictly forbids fannish rhythm game charts of its original songs, both commercial and non-commercial, although it hasn't stopped many from visualizing their own takes on such songs, primarily through unofficial programs such as ArcCreate.

On Archive of our Own, there are a total of 131 hosted fanworks, 40 of which are dedicated to the femslash pairing Hikari/Tairitsu.

Fanwork Examples

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Meta

Archives and Fannish Links

Fanfiction

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Meta/Further Reading