The Arcana: A Mystic Romance Review — The Perfect Game for Pride Month

Mobile games are one of the largest markets in the gaming community today, in large part due to their accessibility. Popular ones include Candy Crush, Pokémon GO, and Clash of Titans. These are games you can play on your phone, iPad or other tablet device without needing to purchase an expensive system like you would for a console-based game.

Of course, mobile games become controversial when you start to include them as part of the gaming community. There are plenty of people who think they shouldn’t count as real gaming, brushing them off as largely casual puzzle games.

But as mobile phone technology has evolved, so have mobile games. Older games for consoles like the Xbox and PlayStation 2 are even getting mobile phone ports, proving that phones can sometimes take the place of traditional consoles. We’ve come a long way from Snake on the good old Nokia “brick.”

The Arcana: A Mystic Romance is a fantastic example of what mobile games have to offer. Billing itself as an “LGBT-friendly game” where “you choose your pronouns — then romance to your heart’s content!” — it’s the perfect game to play during Pride Month or all year long.

Story

After a brief character creator where you can choose your name and gender, you’re introduced as a magical prodigy in your world. You are an apprentice left largely to your own devices by your mentor. Equipped with a particularly insightful tarot deck, you take off on an adventure to discover who you are and why this world feels so very strange.

Wasn’t there a plague a few years ago? Why did it vanish? How did the Count disappear? And what did you and your friends have to do with it? In fact, why can’t you remember anything past a few years ago?

Story-rich at its core, the Arcana offers you multiple story paths to navigate from the outset. Selecting a character allows you to transport yourself through the game’s plot through the perspective of your chosen character as well as your own.

Make no mistake, you are the core driver of the story. You aren’t just sitting in the passenger seat while your companion takes you along. But your companion helps steer the story. Have you ever wondered how different a story might be if the main character had a different best friend or love interest? That’s The Arcana.