Look, we know everyone’s itching for the next grim and gory shooter to come out, but every now and then the sensory overload of guns & guts gets even us – and Arcadian Days seems to be the perfect antidote for that. It’s refreshing to see that some developers look beyond the typical playstyles we’ve grown so accustomed to, when the next branching skill tree RPG is on the horizon any day of the year.
This one seems to be a relaxing adventure with a decidedly soft and slow approach, cutting through all the noise and letting you just wander and explore a beautiful world. No grind, no reflexes required – just a meditative journey to get yourself immersed in. The reveal highlights the way Arcadian Days embraces a completely different philosophy, really akin to games like Stardew Valley mixed with a little Breath of the Wild (when you’re not fighting Ganondorf, that is).
If you’re thinking “hey, this is just another farming sim!”, you couldn’t be more wrong though. It’s about playing at your own rhythm, and it doesn’t matter if that’s discovery, world interaction or just standing there and looking at the beautiful scenery.
Stop Conquering, Start Wandering
As much as most players love having a little checklist to grind through, Arcadian Days seems to not worry about those things at all. You won’t find traditional questlines, but be thrust in a wide open world from the get-go, with paths to follow, secrets to un-secret and wholesome characters to meet. No villain, no doomsday clock breathing down your neck, just a world that exists, waiting for you to immerse yourself in it. And before you know it, it’s 3AM and your wive is mad at you for coming to bed late. I guess some things do stay the same regardless of genre after all.
This gameplay freedom is a breath of fresh air in an industry filled with bombastic, cinematic masterpieces. This isn’t another chosen-one story, it’s simpler, smaller and perhaps a little bit more relatable. It might sound a little radical, what with 2025 being filled to the brim with blockbusters already – but there’s only so many of these games we can take and we certainly welcome a game that doesn’t remind us how apocalyptic our real world feels nowadays. Maybe this is a different kind of escape – one that doesn’t involve some form of power fantasy.
Probably Not Your Average Twitch Trend
We agree – Arcadian Days is probably not going to dominate the Twitch charts anytime soon, nor will the majority of gamers have it on their radar to begin with. There’s not going to be headline press conferences or a huge booth on the next Gamescom-esque event already marked in most people’s calendar. We’d also argue, that this probably wasn’t the intention of the developer. This is an indie game through and through and these games don’t always hit the same notes as these AAA titles do. They’re brave, ready for experimentation and encapsulate what it actually MEANS to be a video game.
It’s an early access tittle that is already making waves in its niche and if developer Larkspur delivers on what they’re set out to do with Arcadian Days, this little game could be one of those titles that people talk about decades from now. Not as a childhood memory, not as the best title they’ve played in years – but as an escapist fantasy, a place of respite and contemplation that might be just the perfect way to counteract a bad day at the office – and God knows, we all have those every now and then.
