Honestly i wish this game was on itch.io or microsoft store or even steam to download tbh 😭 I had this game back in 2021 or 2020 and always loved playing it- but i dont have a phone anymore so i cant play it T~T I fr wish this would be a name your own price game on itch.io though- id love to get back into playing this game because this very game is the one that introduced me to interactive stories <3
I can not kid how long it took me to do this game though- i wasnt even halfway through the storyline and it took me weeks to get there ( i was slow + i didnt really have the time to play it) but it was always so fun to play :3
The only thing that ever bugged me about this game was the gems/coins to get certain lines for the story. that part was kinda sad cuz i never could, but i will always love this interactive game cuz it introduced me to the world of interactive games. UwU
It's actually a bit economically unwise to not have this game here (or on Steam, for that matter) be paid. PC players aren't going to spend this much time/money on a mobile game anyway. They will buy a 20-30$ game though. So it's not like you'd be losing revenue if you had this buyable for PC as an .exe, you'd be getting more revenue, more recognition and more respect. You know, those things that are usually very valuable for game developers. But you do you. Not like there aren't other ways to play this game for free.
Are there any options for buying entire routes? I'm loving the game so far, but I've spent $40 just to get about 1/2 way through Julian's route. There are 6 routes. If it costs $80 per route, that is $480 for all six stories. That's a little excessive, even in the world of computer games. I don't have time to spend trying to chase down 10 coins here and 20 coins there. I'd rather pay to unlock whole stories, but I'm having trouble justifying this amount of money to unlock just one path. (I know you can play them without the extra options, but I'm a completist and I want to see everything.... just not sure why it will cost $500 to do so).
The paid choice are not required for get the best end. And you can get coin if login everyday. We already got guide for ends and guide for get cg. I play this game some years now. I agree that could be amazing this be one way purchase, but i believe that this worked pretty well for company, and after many years in this format is hard change, but i would like a version for pc, for downlad and paid too.
WHAATTT??? i have almost of the routes bought w/ coins and haven't spent a real world cent? yikes! i got a lot of coins through heart hunter if you want a free to play option
I wish there was a PC version that could be bough outright. I enjoy the game a lot but I hate getting stuck at a story roadblock because of lack of coins. Give me an option to buy the game and I would absolutely do it.
I have been playing this game for a while now and I was very excited to see this on itch, hence the reason why I thought there was a pc version. I don't understand why people are complaining though, yes I was disappointed but still, I'm pretty sure if the people on here can afford laptops/pcs you can surely afford phones. the game is free, you have 4+ ways to get coins (for free) and that is all DAILY. ranging from getting at least 20-1000+ due to the wheel, tarot visits and ad (optional, you aren't forced to watch ads every 10 seconds.) so before anyone complains about anything maybe open your phone that's probably inches away? thank you.
When i did this it was when all of them were free without keys i spent three day to Finnish them all (male ones) and got the good endings It takes to long otherwise to do to wait and get coins
love the game, dislike how long it takes to get coins. Also PLEASE add a Consul Valerius route, me and a couple hundred people will greatly appreciate it.
i understand that it's an app and so therfore ther's microtransaction everywhere but i would totally spend 20$ for the whole game if that mean i don't have wait a week just to do two chapter
I just had a moment of "Wait, the Arcana's on itch? There's a version of this game that doesn't have predatory microtransactions?!"
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
If someday this otherwise-promising game gets a version where you can just pay ONCE for all of the content and not be coerced into spending money to make the choices they know people will want to make, maybe it'll finally be worth playing.
I wish I could just pay for the game as a whole, and then pay for extra DLCs. Like I wish instead of microtransactions- I could just pay for the whole experience.
I loved the content that I tried, but the game takes freemium to an extreme level. I felt actively disappointed in the choices I was forced to settle for as a F2P player, and the costs to make some premium choices were prohibitive. It’s really a shame.
literally downloaded bluestacks just to play this, because a friend of mine told me they think I'd like it (and they're totally not simping over Nadia) They guess im going for Muriel or Asra. I havent even opened the game yet, but let's see if they're correct
i only found out about this game recently by browsing the google play store and seeing the plethora of positive reviews. i played through the prologue and was really intrigued by the story, characters, and beautiful visuals, but also disheartened by all the premium scenes that require in-game currency to access. in the "free" prologue there are many scenes that are offered as premium without giving you enough starter coins to watch them. it seemed odd to me that even in their initial way to hook you into the game they would include these. i imagine this trend continues throughout the rest of the game in even more brazen fashion.
following the prologue, i wound up checking out some of the game merch through a link in the app, and noticed a note mentioning their kickstarter campaign. i went to find the kickstarter page just to read about the game development and saw that there was also a desktop version that was mentioned. seeing this, i was thrilled to play on a larger screen and got on itch.io looking to purchase the game for around $30-35 for mac/pc, as this would be my preferred method of playing. even if the mobile version content is completely free (sans premium scenes), i would rather pay a reasonable one-time amount to unlock all scenes. unfortunately, i found that nix hydra wasn't able to deliver on a pc version as promised in the kickstarter campaign, despite being more than fully funded.
reading through this thread, it appears that in order to enjoy all the content the game has to offer would cost in the hundreds of dollars. i know it's becoming increasingly popular (thanks, FarmVille) for companies to do a "freemium" model, or micro-transactions, primarily in the mobile game world (but not always.. EA, looking at you). i know games cost money to make, and companies need steady revenue to support their existing games and create new ones, however, this is an extremely unfortunate trend that, as a lifelong gamer, really breaks my heart.
in my life i've owned around 10 consoles - some handheld, some not, in addition to mac/pc. mobile gaming is really sort of a last resort for me, but i understand it is likely the most accessible to everyone. taken directly from the kickstarter page "Nix Hydra is a female-founded mobile game company making magical, colorful, bold products for young women and anyone else traditionally ignored by the gaming industry." i really feel like nix hydra has good intentions and i can tell this game is created with care. however, it doesn't sit right with me that this smaller, female-founded company is taking cues from detested, greedy media-conglomerates like EA. the "freemium" mobile model may be more accessible in some respects, however, it feels kind of.. classist. it's basically saying "yes everyone can enjoy this, but if you have more to spend you'll be able to enjoy it more". and therein lies the rub.
i'm not trying to call out nix hydra because they're doing something unusual (sadly, they are not) but i feel like they can be better than this. again, this game seems to be a labor of love, but after EA and others have left such a bad taste in my mouth from micro-transactions, i can not bring myself to play this game any further. i have family and friends who are genderqueer and would love to play a game like this. however i don't feel comfortable recommending it to them. if there were a one-time payment, full purchase option, i would happily change my mind and be likely share it with others.
Thank you for this. After hearing/seeing all the flack about the freemium/premium associated costs, this has sealed the deal for me. It's not at all worth even playing through the free/prologue pieces at this point, in my opinion. I'd rather not get to know a story/lore/characters if it's just going to nickel/dime me later.
I could bring myself to agree about the intentions, perhaps, being good at one point. But at a certain point, I think that went away, and the greed kicked in. I know more than a handful of small/single (or even three-person) indie devs who haven't had such successful kickstarters, haven't had such a high number of downloads and/or sales, and/or haven't even had as much merch (if any at all) - and yet those devs haven't adopted the freemium model, and are doing just fine making their game/s and are even keeping the promises they've made (even if they take time).
I'm 100% in agreement about it being much better to pay $30-$35 for a full game than the microtransaction/freemium (greed) model. Honestly, I'm even okay with paying that for a mobile game/version, if it was all of it/complete (and didn't still have microtransactions). I'd even be okay with pay more than that for a PC version (also complete, no microtransactions). But there's neither of those options available with this game/company.
Any one of these factors are a red flag, or at least rub me the wrong way. Widely successful kickstarter (more than just funded), tons of downloads, tons of purchases made, tons of moderately-fairly-over -priced merch, unkept promises from the kickstarter, some fulfilled kickstarter promises that were given to non-kickstarter supporters first (or simultaneously), costs/premium costs already in the prologue, advertising/stating/promoting all day/everywhere as "free" despite only some of the prologue being free, premium costs for the rest of the game/storyline. Not just this, but the "nsfw" content that's locked behind a paywall is PG-13, amounting to a booty shot/teasing at most. And if you calculate how much it would be to unlock all the content - it's $500+.
Then there's the operations/actions of the company that have nothing to do with the game - absolute rudeness to fans and customers, earning strikes against (long-time/hard-earned) youtubers who were doing letsplay videos & (legit) promoting the game (not just passive playing, but were legitimately telling people to go buy/play), some of which resulted in their entire channel getting deleted (a consolation offered to one of them was a keychain from their merch). They also begged/asked for more money while dangling/threatening a lack of development for stories/characters that were assured per their campaign and unrelated/outside promises.
Further still, they currently keep pushing the "we're a mobile company, now" or "many of the people on the team weren't around then" or whatever other agenda/excuse they have for why they're not held to the original promises, subsequent promises, and/or even just reasonable price-structure, etc. This is absolutely abhorrent, and only solidifies the current team's unprofessionalism, unappreciation/disrespect, and greed. Just because the current team is not the one that assured $2/route instead of per chapter doesn't mean that they're incapable of making good on that price-structure. It's essentially the most expensive game to exist at this point, let alone the fact that it's a mobile game? AYKM? And now they're (again) further pushing their mobile game on a PC game platform? It's insulting and almost laughable, since they'll never make a PC game. Even more - they're literally just advertising their in-game stories for their Fictif app on their page - so no game from those will ever be for sale, here, never be on PC, and all are purchased within their app.
So, any one of these factors is a strike, in my book. Let alone all of these factors together? Many of these tactics are greedy, predatory, and absolutely and incredibly hypocritical for an dev company, let alone an 'indie' one. And this combination of factors just compounds upon itself. It legit does the opposite of intention and makes it so I not only don't want to play any game from this company, but I also don't want to support anything that comes from this company. Which is really unfortunate, as an avid gamer and avid indie gamer/supporter/enthusiast.
Everytime i see this game it hurts my heart. I love it. Its exclusionary in its cost. The best choices are expensive. Its practically $10 a chapter. I have no problem spending money on games but not even close to that much. Super sad. I agree with what others have said. Their pricing is predatory and ruins this game completely.
Why are people angry in the comments? I can understand how people could be upset for it originally being for pc or something, but having it as a mobile game benefited both the players and the company more. From seeing this game is the type of thing you play as your daily things to do, like many phone based visual novels that rely on irl time.
And I might be wrong, but the reason they might price routes high is because they were struggling to continue producing other routes, like Portia at one point? I could be wrong, so be aware of that.
Without paying for extra scenes you still get a satisfying play through of any character route. They also hold periods of time with events where you can speed through stories without the cost of keys if i remember right. Whenever you spend money or not it's enjoyable, you can also go on wiki pages for seeing unlockable scenes for free if that's really a problem.
With the game I never felt they were trying to take peoples money, since they would've made the ending (upright or downright) rely on spending money I suppose to unlock extra scenes. The way they handle their prices can always be changed and I'm sure they'll do what benefits both the players and also their company.
I remember playing a game that takes 30 irl days and more to complete, that gives less content than this game during the bits you can play, which also relied on leveling up your characters clothes taking even more time. In my experience of games, the arcana is a great game is what I'm trying to say.
Thank you for the review. Our company is not perfect but we are trying to make The Arcana and Fictif better everyday. We are a small company that is trying to grow. We do listen to customer feedback and we continue to make product changes over time. We appreciate your support.
As the arcana doesn't actually rely on irl time as you mentioned, I don't think mobile has any significant benefits over PC - it's just a different medium. Some people prefer PC for reasons such as a larger screen size that's easier on their eyes. It has taken Nix Hydra 4-5 years to deliver on their kickstarter rewards and they have carefully avoided mentioning (and sometimes edited out mentions of) their failed PC promise - the dodgy attitude and partial reimbursement of higher tier pledges who only wanted a PC version are the reasons people are upset, not that it's on mobile.
That the content costs money is not the issue anybody has with this game. The issue is that the cost is well beyond what similar content is priced at in other games, and soars into the realm of unaffordable or extreme costs for the average consumer compared to almost literally any other game I can think of, excluding gacha games which are intended to be predatory.
Regarding changing their prices - this will not happen, as there has been uproar over the pricing scheme since launch and Nix Hydra appears to be satisfied with their absurd costs. Even the 5 star top positive reviews mention the price point as a negative, whether or not it's reflected in their rating.
Other visual novels rarely cost more than $60-$120 for a COMPLETE GAME, with no missing paid content aside from unrelated DLCs or costumes. The Arcana costs around this PER ROUTE. I can't understand and am not privy to their financial decisions, but this is not reasonable or justified on the consumer end.
And if you have to miss most of the CGs and romantic content to play for free (viewing them on a wiki instead can be considered akin to piracy - this is not a valid solution for customers that they should be considering while pricing out their game), well then, it's a pretty awful free to play experience.
You're welcome to enjoy the game - I also had no problem with the actual game's contents, and thought they were quite good...when you're not having to abruptly cut heartfelt moments short because you can't afford a paid choice. But just because worse pricing schemes exist, doesn't mean this one is good.
Interesting that you created an itch.io page when you have no intention of providing a PC version, or even a single-payment mobile version, even though that was one of the original promises of your kickstarter (which I backed as a result). Probably because it'd be harder to bilk your fans for thousands of dollars worth of microtransactions that way.
You are correct that the company did not deliver a PC version of the game that the original management team promised many years ago. The company is now a mobile games company. We did fulfill all of our other Kickstarter commitments. If you did not receive your other rewards, please email us at arcana@nixhydragames.com and give us your Backer number. We will fulfill it ASAP. Thank you.
Kinda disingenuous to focus on the PC version when most people's complaints center around predatory microtransactions. Once upon a time you guys swore up and down that each route on mobile would be priced at $1.99 max. And before you say, "Our game is worth more than that", then perhaps try to figure out what sort of single-pay price point would allow you to keep running your business. I've bought VNs for $60+ before, I'd be willing to shell out money for this game. But people don't realize that your game is going to end up costing them a lot if they actually want to experience all of it. And if you genuinely need to use your current awful pricing model (which crosscyote already went into detail on) then maybe it's time to take stock of some financial decisions.
To anyone checking this page and thinking that this game sounds pretty cool: Just don't bother. I'm sorry. It sucks. But it's not worth all the hoops you need to jump through to enjoy it. Thankfully there are a growing number of inclusive dating sims that aren't trying to take advantage of you. Go play one of those.
Many of the current employees were not at the company when the Kickstarter campaign started so we have no insight or history to your post. We do want to clarify a few things: 1) The game is free to play with the endings not being determined whether you spend money. 2) We do offer several ways to earn coins for free in the game and we keep growing the list. 3) We gave our Kickstarter backers the prologue, Julian, Asra and Nadia's routes with all premium choices unlocked. If you did not receive this reward, send us your KS backer number and we will reward it to you. 4) We understand the pricing model is very different across all mobile games. We respect the different pricing models and we test new ways. It looks like The Arcana is not the game for you and we respect your opinion.
We respect your viewpoint and we always look for ways to improve our game, which we have done over time. We have worked on The Arcana for approximately four years now and we are still expanding the content. One can play our game for free and the endings of each character route are not determined by whether one pays us money. We have expanded the ways we offer free coins and including special weekends with infinity keys and coin sales. We feel our high ratings in the app store reflect the overall high quality of our product and the time and money we have invested in The Arcana. We know our game is not for everyone, but we continue to improve every year and we respect everyone's opinions whether they like or don't like The Arcana. Thank you.
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Honestly i wish this game was on itch.io or microsoft store or even steam to download tbh 😭 I had this game back in 2021 or 2020 and always loved playing it- but i dont have a phone anymore so i cant play it T~T I fr wish this would be a name your own price game on itch.io though- id love to get back into playing this game because this very game is the one that introduced me to interactive stories <3
I can not kid how long it took me to do this game though- i wasnt even halfway through the storyline and it took me weeks to get there ( i was slow + i didnt really have the time to play it) but it was always so fun to play :3
The only thing that ever bugged me about this game was the gems/coins to get certain lines for the story. that part was kinda sad cuz i never could, but i will always love this interactive game cuz it introduced me to the world of interactive games. UwU
It's actually a bit economically unwise to not have this game here (or on Steam, for that matter) be paid. PC players aren't going to spend this much time/money on a mobile game anyway. They will buy a 20-30$ game though. So it's not like you'd be losing revenue if you had this buyable for PC as an .exe, you'd be getting more revenue, more recognition and more respect. You know, those things that are usually very valuable for game developers. But you do you. Not like there aren't other ways to play this game for free.
I loved this game back in 2018 and re-discovered it only very recently. ^^
Are there any options for buying entire routes? I'm loving the game so far, but I've spent $40 just to get about 1/2 way through Julian's route. There are 6 routes. If it costs $80 per route, that is $480 for all six stories. That's a little excessive, even in the world of computer games. I don't have time to spend trying to chase down 10 coins here and 20 coins there. I'd rather pay to unlock whole stories, but I'm having trouble justifying this amount of money to unlock just one path. (I know you can play them without the extra options, but I'm a completist and I want to see everything.... just not sure why it will cost $500 to do so).
Second this. I'll buy it as a game but not as a weird microtransaction thing.
The paid choice are not required for get the best end. And you can get coin if login everyday. We already got guide for ends and guide for get cg. I play this game some years now. I agree that could be amazing this be one way purchase, but i believe that this worked pretty well for company, and after many years in this format is hard change, but i would like a version for pc, for downlad and paid too.
WHAATTT??? i have almost of the routes bought w/ coins and haven't spent a real world cent? yikes! i got a lot of coins through heart hunter if you want a free to play option
I wish there was a PC version that could be bough outright. I enjoy the game a lot but I hate getting stuck at a story roadblock because of lack of coins. Give me an option to buy the game and I would absolutely do it.
Used to play this, it's a really sweet game but I absolutely hate the waiting time between multiple chapters.
I played this a long time ago, got it from the play store. I loved Nadia's route, beautifully written.-
I have been playing this game for a while now and I was very excited to see this on itch, hence the reason why I thought there was a pc version. I don't understand why people are complaining though, yes I was disappointed but still, I'm pretty sure if the people on here can afford laptops/pcs you can surely afford phones. the game is free, you have 4+ ways to get coins (for free) and that is all DAILY. ranging from getting at least 20-1000+ due to the wheel, tarot visits and ad (optional, you aren't forced to watch ads every 10 seconds.) so before anyone complains about anything maybe open your phone that's probably inches away? thank you.
i got a laptop because of a gift, i'm actually poor lol. too bad there is no pc version. :(
When i did this it was when all of them were free without keys i spent three day to Finnish them all (male ones) and got the good endings It takes to long otherwise to do to wait and get coins
Why no windows release?
love the game, dislike how long it takes to get coins. Also PLEASE add a Consul Valerius route, me and a couple hundred people will greatly appreciate it.
i understand that it's an app and so therfore ther's microtransaction everywhere but i would totally spend 20$ for the whole game if that mean i don't have wait a week just to do two chapter
I just had a moment of "Wait, the Arcana's on itch? There's a version of this game that doesn't have predatory microtransactions?!"
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
If someday this otherwise-promising game gets a version where you can just pay ONCE for all of the content and not be coerced into spending money to make the choices they know people will want to make, maybe it'll finally be worth playing.
I wish I could just pay for the game as a whole, and then pay for extra DLCs. Like I wish instead of microtransactions- I could just pay for the whole experience.
I'd love to be able to just purchase the game as a whole instead of saving up on coins and keys for over a year.
One of my favorite visual novels, can't describe how much I fell for Nadia, she's my goddess
I loved the content that I tried, but the game takes freemium to an extreme level. I felt actively disappointed in the choices I was forced to settle for as a F2P player, and the costs to make some premium choices were prohibitive. It’s really a shame.
I tried this a few years back. Was pretty interesting I guess, definitely not worth that price point though.
literally downloaded bluestacks just to play this, because a friend of mine told me they think I'd like it (and they're totally not simping over Nadia)
They guess im going for Muriel or Asra. I havent even opened the game yet, but let's see if they're correct
We hope you enjoy it! Thank you for trying our app.
Good luck spending hundreds of dollars on this game 🤣
i only found out about this game recently by browsing the google play store and seeing the plethora of positive reviews. i played through the prologue and was really intrigued by the story, characters, and beautiful visuals, but also disheartened by all the premium scenes that require in-game currency to access. in the "free" prologue there are many scenes that are offered as premium without giving you enough starter coins to watch them. it seemed odd to me that even in their initial way to hook you into the game they would include these. i imagine this trend continues throughout the rest of the game in even more brazen fashion.
following the prologue, i wound up checking out some of the game merch through a link in the app, and noticed a note mentioning their kickstarter campaign. i went to find the kickstarter page just to read about the game development and saw that there was also a desktop version that was mentioned. seeing this, i was thrilled to play on a larger screen and got on itch.io looking to purchase the game for around $30-35 for mac/pc, as this would be my preferred method of playing. even if the mobile version content is completely free (sans premium scenes), i would rather pay a reasonable one-time amount to unlock all scenes. unfortunately, i found that nix hydra wasn't able to deliver on a pc version as promised in the kickstarter campaign, despite being more than fully funded.
reading through this thread, it appears that in order to enjoy all the content the game has to offer would cost in the hundreds of dollars. i know it's becoming increasingly popular (thanks, FarmVille) for companies to do a "freemium" model, or micro-transactions, primarily in the mobile game world (but not always.. EA, looking at you). i know games cost money to make, and companies need steady revenue to support their existing games and create new ones, however, this is an extremely unfortunate trend that, as a lifelong gamer, really breaks my heart.
in my life i've owned around 10 consoles - some handheld, some not, in addition to mac/pc. mobile gaming is really sort of a last resort for me, but i understand it is likely the most accessible to everyone. taken directly from the kickstarter page "Nix Hydra is a female-founded mobile game company making magical, colorful, bold products for young women and anyone else traditionally ignored by the gaming industry." i really feel like nix hydra has good intentions and i can tell this game is created with care. however, it doesn't sit right with me that this smaller, female-founded company is taking cues from detested, greedy media-conglomerates like EA. the "freemium" mobile model may be more accessible in some respects, however, it feels kind of.. classist. it's basically saying "yes everyone can enjoy this, but if you have more to spend you'll be able to enjoy it more". and therein lies the rub.
i'm not trying to call out nix hydra because they're doing something unusual (sadly, they are not) but i feel like they can be better than this. again, this game seems to be a labor of love, but after EA and others have left such a bad taste in my mouth from micro-transactions, i can not bring myself to play this game any further. i have family and friends who are genderqueer and would love to play a game like this. however i don't feel comfortable recommending it to them. if there were a one-time payment, full purchase option, i would happily change my mind and be likely share it with others.
Thank you for this. After hearing/seeing all the flack about the freemium/premium associated costs, this has sealed the deal for me. It's not at all worth even playing through the free/prologue pieces at this point, in my opinion. I'd rather not get to know a story/lore/characters if it's just going to nickel/dime me later.
I could bring myself to agree about the intentions, perhaps, being good at one point. But at a certain point, I think that went away, and the greed kicked in. I know more than a handful of small/single (or even three-person) indie devs who haven't had such successful kickstarters, haven't had such a high number of downloads and/or sales, and/or haven't even had as much merch (if any at all) - and yet those devs haven't adopted the freemium model, and are doing just fine making their game/s and are even keeping the promises they've made (even if they take time).
I'm 100% in agreement about it being much better to pay $30-$35 for a full game than the microtransaction/freemium (greed) model. Honestly, I'm even okay with paying that for a mobile game/version, if it was all of it/complete (and didn't still have microtransactions). I'd even be okay with pay more than that for a PC version (also complete, no microtransactions). But there's neither of those options available with this game/company.
Any one of these factors are a red flag, or at least rub me the wrong way. Widely successful kickstarter (more than just funded), tons of downloads, tons of purchases made, tons of moderately-fairly-over -priced merch, unkept promises from the kickstarter, some fulfilled kickstarter promises that were given to non-kickstarter supporters first (or simultaneously), costs/premium costs already in the prologue, advertising/stating/promoting all day/everywhere as "free" despite only some of the prologue being free, premium costs for the rest of the game/storyline. Not just this, but the "nsfw" content that's locked behind a paywall is PG-13, amounting to a booty shot/teasing at most. And if you calculate how much it would be to unlock all the content - it's $500+.
Then there's the operations/actions of the company that have nothing to do with the game - absolute rudeness to fans and customers, earning strikes against (long-time/hard-earned) youtubers who were doing letsplay videos & (legit) promoting the game (not just passive playing, but were legitimately telling people to go buy/play), some of which resulted in their entire channel getting deleted (a consolation offered to one of them was a keychain from their merch). They also begged/asked for more money while dangling/threatening a lack of development for stories/characters that were assured per their campaign and unrelated/outside promises.
Further still, they currently keep pushing the "we're a mobile company, now" or "many of the people on the team weren't around then" or whatever other agenda/excuse they have for why they're not held to the original promises, subsequent promises, and/or even just reasonable price-structure, etc. This is absolutely abhorrent, and only solidifies the current team's unprofessionalism, unappreciation/disrespect, and greed. Just because the current team is not the one that assured $2/route instead of per chapter doesn't mean that they're incapable of making good on that price-structure. It's essentially the most expensive game to exist at this point, let alone the fact that it's a mobile game? AYKM? And now they're (again) further pushing their mobile game on a PC game platform? It's insulting and almost laughable, since they'll never make a PC game. Even more - they're literally just advertising their in-game stories for their Fictif app on their page - so no game from those will ever be for sale, here, never be on PC, and all are purchased within their app.
So, any one of these factors is a strike, in my book. Let alone all of these factors together? Many of these tactics are greedy, predatory, and absolutely and incredibly hypocritical for an dev company, let alone an 'indie' one. And this combination of factors just compounds upon itself. It legit does the opposite of intention and makes it so I not only don't want to play any game from this company, but I also don't want to support anything that comes from this company. Which is really unfortunate, as an avid gamer and avid indie gamer/supporter/enthusiast.
Everytime i see this game it hurts my heart. I love it. Its exclusionary in its cost. The best choices are expensive. Its practically $10 a chapter. I have no problem spending money on games but not even close to that much. Super sad. I agree with what others have said. Their pricing is predatory and ruins this game completely.
I love this! But still, I hope there will be a version for PC!
Why are people angry in the comments? I can understand how people could be upset for it originally being for pc or something, but having it as a mobile game benefited both the players and the company more. From seeing this game is the type of thing you play as your daily things to do, like many phone based visual novels that rely on irl time.
And I might be wrong, but the reason they might price routes high is because they were struggling to continue producing other routes, like Portia at one point? I could be wrong, so be aware of that.
Without paying for extra scenes you still get a satisfying play through of any character route. They also hold periods of time with events where you can speed through stories without the cost of keys if i remember right. Whenever you spend money or not it's enjoyable, you can also go on wiki pages for seeing unlockable scenes for free if that's really a problem.
With the game I never felt they were trying to take peoples money, since they would've made the ending (upright or downright) rely on spending money I suppose to unlock extra scenes. The way they handle their prices can always be changed and I'm sure they'll do what benefits both the players and also their company.
I remember playing a game that takes 30 irl days and more to complete, that gives less content than this game during the bits you can play, which also relied on leveling up your characters clothes taking even more time. In my experience of games, the arcana is a great game is what I'm trying to say.
:b
Thank you for the review. Our company is not perfect but we are trying to make The Arcana and Fictif better everyday. We are a small company that is trying to grow. We do listen to customer feedback and we continue to make product changes over time. We appreciate your support.
As the arcana doesn't actually rely on irl time as you mentioned, I don't think mobile has any significant benefits over PC - it's just a different medium. Some people prefer PC for reasons such as a larger screen size that's easier on their eyes. It has taken Nix Hydra 4-5 years to deliver on their kickstarter rewards and they have carefully avoided mentioning (and sometimes edited out mentions of) their failed PC promise - the dodgy attitude and partial reimbursement of higher tier pledges who only wanted a PC version are the reasons people are upset, not that it's on mobile.
That the content costs money is not the issue anybody has with this game. The issue is that the cost is well beyond what similar content is priced at in other games, and soars into the realm of unaffordable or extreme costs for the average consumer compared to almost literally any other game I can think of, excluding gacha games which are intended to be predatory.
Regarding changing their prices - this will not happen, as there has been uproar over the pricing scheme since launch and Nix Hydra appears to be satisfied with their absurd costs. Even the 5 star top positive reviews mention the price point as a negative, whether or not it's reflected in their rating.
Other visual novels rarely cost more than $60-$120 for a COMPLETE GAME, with no missing paid content aside from unrelated DLCs or costumes. The Arcana costs around this PER ROUTE. I can't understand and am not privy to their financial decisions, but this is not reasonable or justified on the consumer end.
And if you have to miss most of the CGs and romantic content to play for free (viewing them on a wiki instead can be considered akin to piracy - this is not a valid solution for customers that they should be considering while pricing out their game), well then, it's a pretty awful free to play experience.
You're welcome to enjoy the game - I also had no problem with the actual game's contents, and thought they were quite good...when you're not having to abruptly cut heartfelt moments short because you can't afford a paid choice. But just because worse pricing schemes exist, doesn't mean this one is good.
Interesting that you created an itch.io page when you have no intention of providing a PC version, or even a single-payment mobile version, even though that was one of the original promises of your kickstarter (which I backed as a result). Probably because it'd be harder to bilk your fans for thousands of dollars worth of microtransactions that way.
Hi Nebty,
You are correct that the company did not deliver a PC version of the game that the original management team promised many years ago. The company is now a mobile games company. We did fulfill all of our other Kickstarter commitments. If you did not receive your other rewards, please email us at arcana@nixhydragames.com and give us your Backer number. We will fulfill it ASAP. Thank you.
Hi Nix Hydra Games,
Kinda disingenuous to focus on the PC version when most people's complaints center around predatory microtransactions. Once upon a time you guys swore up and down that each route on mobile would be priced at $1.99 max. And before you say, "Our game is worth more than that", then perhaps try to figure out what sort of single-pay price point would allow you to keep running your business. I've bought VNs for $60+ before, I'd be willing to shell out money for this game. But people don't realize that your game is going to end up costing them a lot if they actually want to experience all of it. And if you genuinely need to use your current awful pricing model (which crosscyote already went into detail on) then maybe it's time to take stock of some financial decisions.
To anyone checking this page and thinking that this game sounds pretty cool: Just don't bother. I'm sorry. It sucks. But it's not worth all the hoops you need to jump through to enjoy it. Thankfully there are a growing number of inclusive dating sims that aren't trying to take advantage of you. Go play one of those.
Hi Nebty,
Many of the current employees were not at the company when the Kickstarter campaign started so we have no insight or history to your post. We do want to clarify a few things: 1) The game is free to play with the endings not being determined whether you spend money. 2) We do offer several ways to earn coins for free in the game and we keep growing the list. 3) We gave our Kickstarter backers the prologue, Julian, Asra and Nadia's routes with all premium choices unlocked. If you did not receive this reward, send us your KS backer number and we will reward it to you. 4) We understand the pricing model is very different across all mobile games. We respect the different pricing models and we test new ways. It looks like The Arcana is not the game for you and we respect your opinion.
Hi Crosscyote,
We respect your viewpoint and we always look for ways to improve our game, which we have done over time. We have worked on The Arcana for approximately four years now and we are still expanding the content. One can play our game for free and the endings of each character route are not determined by whether one pays us money. We have expanded the ways we offer free coins and including special weekends with infinity keys and coin sales. We feel our high ratings in the app store reflect the overall high quality of our product and the time and money we have invested in The Arcana. We know our game is not for everyone, but we continue to improve every year and we respect everyone's opinions whether they like or don't like The Arcana. Thank you.