Arco was one of the bigger indies in 2024 that I heard a lot of great talk about, but I held out for a while before I decided to try it out, knowing that it’s a genre of game I don’t usually go for. Regardless, I was very interested in its setting, story, and its pixel art style. Arco is a turn-based strategy game set in a fantastical version of early colonial Mesoamerica and tells three intertwined stories about revenge. The partially-turn-based combat can be unforgiving and at times repetitive, but the music and storytelling are impactful and captivating.
The story starts in the perspective of Tecolotl, a boy traveling with his tribe to visit a sacred tree. He sneaks off and finds himself in danger after encountering some strange, aggressive strangers. However, Arco continues by telling its story via several different characters, letting you take control of each of them at different points of the game. You are introduced to the setting a little bit at a time, as each of the characters’ perspectives give a glimpse of what their community is like and what their struggles are. Unfortunately, in all the stories, you’re not given much time to enjoy getting to know the people and place before violence shakes up their entire world. In all the cases, you find out that the ones to blame are the Red Company, which kickstarts simultaneous journeys to find this infamous Red Company, infiltrate their base, and kill them all.
Arco’s gorgeous pixel-art style is used both in creating grandiose landscapes and showing character’s personalities and cultures. It’s one of those games that manages to tell a lot through minute but creatively crafted pixel animations. I loved the look of it throughout, including the cutscenes, but I can’t help but wonder what it would’ve looked like if they used the cover art’s more paint-like style to animate some of those cutscenes. Despite being drawn in by the art style, Arco’s music is without a doubt what really makes the game shine. The emotional and pensive acoustic melodies, rock-heavy fight music, and of course, the heart-wrenching ballads sung in Spanish. The beautiful, tragic lyrics of these songs are used to carry important story moments and make transitions from one chapter to the next.
At first, it seems that Arco operates as a regular turn-based strategy RPG, in which you can use your turn to move, attack, dodge, or use any of your abilities. I don’t play turn-based RPGs that much, but I do at least appreciate that this style of gameplay allows you to think through your turn thoroughly, considering every possibility with each of your characters. However, early on, you are presented with a time-limit caveat to this. There are “ghosts” that appear on the battlefield at times, the frequency and amount based on how many of cruel actions you take in the game. Narratively, I think this is really unique and creative - your own decisions haunt you to the point that they interfere with your actions. However, in practice, it’s incredibly annoying. This is a strategy game that gives you a lot to plan and consider on the battlefield, including what actions the enemies will make. This involves reading small text and moving your cursor around different obstacles. Avoiding the ghosts in real-time means that you have to make decisions very quickly, and often move around in unideal ways to avoid them. At some point, I found myself wanting to quit the game due to this one mechanic. Thankfully, I found that you can turn it off in the settings. I enjoyed the game much more after I did this, and I felt like battles were still sufficiently challenging - I often had to retry or walk away from a battle until I increased my skills. It’s tough but satisfying to win a battle against multiple enemies, using the abilities of your characters in collaborative ways with each other. Switching up the character you play as after you invested skills in them can feel disorienting, but it turns out to be fine, as the time you invested in them will still pay off in the future. Also, even though I turned off the ghosts feature, I did my best not to “accumulate” more ghosts regardless by avoiding violent decisions when not necessary.
Although Arco is set in a fantastical version of the world, it’s clearly based on indigenous Mesoamerican peoples when they were invaded by European settlers. Arco’s story is one revolving around senseless violence, warring peoples, and a clash of ideologies. It tells a tragic but beautiful story about the toll that violence and trauma can take on a person’s soul. You get to experience the story of three main characters, all with different motivations and from different cultures or tribes. They are affected by these events in different ways, but eventually united in their cause. For them, fighting back is essential for survival - but discovering the line between killing for self-protection and killing on the path to revenge is blurry, depending on how you choose to play. The primary enemies you encounter are the Red Army, armed with powerful firearms, but at times you’ll also end up fighting other tribes, strange creatures, and terrifying monsters. I considered switching the language of the game from English to Spanish for authenticity, but understanding the time and setting, I realized that wouldn’t make sense either. Nobody here would be speaking Spanish, yet – they would be speaking their varying indigenous languages. Only the colonial invaders would be speaking Spanish. Anyway, Arco’s story isn’t all grim – there’s moments of goofiness, silly creatures, and joy in community as well. I enjoyed these a lot and tried to do most of the side quests for this reason.
Arco was a challenge for me to finally complete - I took a few weeks off from playing it before coming back to it with more motivation. The game can feel a bit drawn out and repetitive at times, making it hard to see the big picture at first within all the separate stories, but when it does come together, it is very satisfying and emotionally heavy. I appreciate the game’s freedom and accessibility in allowing the player to tinker with its difficulty settings, and for that reason, I would still recommend it to fans of turn-based RPGs and newcomers alike. If the Mesoamerican setting and the themes of anti-colonialism draws your interest, it’s a worthwhile adventure. If nothing else, I recommend at least checking out Arco’s stellar soundtrack on Bandcamp.
Arco is available on PC, iOS, and Switch
Played on: PC (Steam Deck)
Finished: 1/20/2025
Playtime: 18 hrs
Comments