Arcadian Atlas Review for Steam

Arcadian Atlas, developed by Twin Otter Studios and published by Serenity Forge, is a passion project of an RPG that offers a nostalgia trip back to the golden era of tactical role-playing games. 

Story

Arcadian Atlas weaves a tale of civil war, betrayal, and ancient magics. The story revolves around the relationship between Vashti and Desmond, two soldiers caught in the crossfire between loyalty and friendship.

The story’s central conflict, between Queen Venezia and her step-daughter Princess Lucretia, is ambiguous. Lucretia accuses Venezia of poisoning her father, the king, in an attempt to take the crown. But the story also suggests that Venezia is innocent. If that’s true, then Lucretia starts a civil war in her country for no reason. While the game tries to portray Lucretia as the honorable cause, as I played, I just had a sense that there was no one I wanted to root for.

I also found myself ambivalent about the motivations for why Desmond and Vashti wound up fighting against each other. Maybe the story designers didn’t plan enough time to develop the character, but everyone in the game makes a lot of choices very fast. I couldn’t help but get the feeling that if anyone in the game had taken a moment to actually listen to anyone else, then none of the subsequent story would have happened. I understand that the story is of two lovers who are pulled apart by the civil war, but for a relationship that is supposed to be as deep as Vashti and Desmond have, they sure do abandon it at the first sign of trouble.

Gameplay 

Gameplay in Arcadian Atlas is…familiar. Like very familiar. As in, I 100% did not need the tutorial at the beginning of the game because I could tap into recovered memories of being eighteen and playing Final Fantasy Tactics on my Gameboy Advance.

Players enter preset battlefields that are connected to story cutscenes. Before each battle, players position their units, strategizing about the best combination of classes and positioning for each battle.

There are four base character classes: Cavaliers (knights), Warmancers (magicians), Rangers (archers, and Apothecaries (healers). While the game claims to offer a wide range of strategic options, after the first few battles, it is pretty obvious that the whole game favors ranged weapons, either Rangers, Warmancers or even Apothecaries who can fling poison and exploding flasks. Cavaliers have almost no movement ability, meaning they are always arriving late to the fight, while archers have already decimated half the opposing forces. 

The overpowered nature of the ranged classes means there isn’t much strategy in the game.

Players will mostly have to account for positioning their characters where they can actually do their job. Because the camera angle cannot be adjusted, if a character goes behind a tree or is placed in between two other characters, it can be hard to select them on their turn.

I don’t know if anyone else has had this problem, but I’ve encountered a freezing glitch twice now. While cycling through the turn-based battle, I’ve had enemy characters be unable to choose their actions, effectively freezing the game because turns cannot move forward anymore.

Thankfully, I learned to save early and often from FF Tactics, and I applied that to Arcadian Atlas. Save before every battle, save after every trip to the item shop, save just because you can’t remember the last time you saved.

Overall

7/10

I really wanted to like this game, but the overall balancing issues, story needs, and user interface shortcomings prevented Arcadian Atlas from reaching its full potential. Still, it is definitely an enjoyable way to spend 10 – 15 hours for anyone who likes TRPGs.

Arcadian Atlas is available for PC via Steam.

Related: Reviews by Michelle Jones

Michelle Jones

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I'm a completionist gamer who just needs to find that one last object and clear that final dungeon. I love all video games, from open world sandboxes on a console to a mindless match three on my phone. In addition to gaming and writing, I am a graduate student working on a thesis about the ancient Icelandic Sagas. Feel free to ask me anything about Vikings.

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