Media: The Arcana, a Fantasy Dating Sim [Status: Ongoing?]
Review By: Me (I have not yet played through all that is available)
Representation: Queer
Spoilers: N/A
CW: Plague, impermanent death
Review:
Apprentice to a powerful mage named Asra, you are called upon by the empress Nadia to investigate the murder of count Lucio and track down the number one suspect, a plague doctor named Julian. You also befriend Nadia's servant, Portia, and a mysterious figure who would rather be left alone named Muriel.
Things are, of course, not as straight forward as they may first seem.
I have only played through a couple of routes as of now, but here's what I can tell you about the game. 1) Every character has a "good" and "bad" ending, although morality is not often so clearly defined. 2) There are options only unlockable via in-game currency but they will not affect which endings you can get. You simply get to be a bit more intimate with the character you are pursuing. Nothing too explicit though.
The reason it belongs on this list is two-fold. 1) You can choose your own pronouns, she/her, he/him or they/them. 2) Many of the characters are implied to have had past relationships with each other and some routes allow the characters not currently being courted to date each other at the end, effectively making everyone pansexual.
It's a fun game, the art is gorgeous and I'm a sucker for fantasy so this gets 5 stars from me. No ads either if you'll believe it, and you can still more or less get the full experience without spending a penny. You will have to wait a bit as chapters require keys to unlock and those replenish slowly over time. It's also very slow, earning in-game currency without paying, but not impossible. And all in all, these things don't take away from the experience so much that you can't enjoy the game anymore so I think it's worth it.
This game is free but contains in-game purchases and is available on both Apple and Android I'd assume.
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