ArtificialEnt

I started playing the Arcana today

At first I just started rambling in messenger to my twin, but also they probably don't care, so I felt a little guilty for all the spam-- but then I realized! Rambling about whatever's on my mind is exactly what a blog is for! So congratulations, y'all get to see my random thoughts, and maybe I'll actually get to chat about whatever new thing catches my eye instead of getting a mildly confused "good for you" from my sib. :)

• The player can choose they/them pronouns! Hooray! Nobody ever misgenders me! I also really appreciate that the game uses they/them for *all* characters the player hasn't been introduced to, which is a nice touch that makes they/them options for the player seem less out of place to me-- I'm not the only person using they/them

• Speaking of which, I love how queer it is! Julian and Lucio, at the very least, are quite clearly either gay or bi, even without the player being in the picture! And personally, I still read Muriel as nonbinary

• ...Nadia, you don't actually have any idea what you're doing, do you?

• Julian is a Dramatic Bitch and I love him so much???

• PORTIA. I mean I'm pretty sure I'm some variant of either aromantic or asexual at this point, but I would genuinely date Portia. She's the perfect mix of sweet and kind, but also practical and prone to irritation, like a regular-ass person? 

• Like I love Julian and Nadia and what little I've seen of Muriel, but they're all either so indirect or so lacking in self-confidence that they would drive me absolutely bonkers if I spent much time around them

• And Asra is wonderful, but also kinda shady? And pretty clearly established as the only/most important person in the apprentice's life, to start with, which is doable but also a lot of pressure. I'd rather be really good friends.

• I wish fewer of the really interesting options were hidden behind a paywall-- but on the other hand, that is what makes a paywall effective, and plenty of interesting things seem to happen either way

• There is actually! A plot! A complicated, *necessary* plot that isn't just treated as an afterthought, enough to hold my interest despite the focus on romance

• Being a second-gen witch myself, tarot-inspired games always tend to annoy me with how inaccurate and clickbaity the relation to actual tarot is, but this one seems to be... surprisingly on point? Pretty accurate, both in the usual meanings of cards and how readings work? It's kind of fascinating to me, because the readings in the story seem to work like actual tarot divination for me when assisted by spiritual/divine inspiration (except tailored to the story, obviously), while the tarot reading minigame seems to work pretty much like actual tarot when I'm just doing a reading for myself. Though I'm not sure how well it works virtually, the physical artifacts and true randomness inherent in them is kind of a big factor for me.

• Still, it's close enough not to bug me

• Okay Julian, I know you're *saying* it's a curse, but also you are an extremely dramatic, masochistic, but devoted doctor, so uh I would not be surprised if you literally asked Asra to put that spell on you so you could heal people better, and then proceeded to mope about it as your terrible curse you have to bear for the rest of eternity

• Asra is so supportive! 

• It's like he realizes just how much the apprentice is implied to depend on him for guidance, and doesn't want them to be completely reliant on him! And so he doesn't really give advice unless asked for it, and encourages them to try things and trust themself, and even when he is asked for advice, he always tries to make the apprentice feel confident in their own judgement instead of just saying "this is what you should do"

All in all, good game so far! I wish I could play in longer bursts, as a general rule, because otherwise I doubt that I'm ever going to get through it with my ADHD self, but yeah. Good game.