Arcaea

Arcaea is a narratival, vertical-scroll rhythm game (VSRG) whose gameplay elements mainly take inspiration from Sound Voltex and CHUNITHM, but with its own twists, namely the arc and sky notes. Initially releasing on both Android and iOS on March 8, 2017, it has also recieved a Nintendo Switch port in 2021.
== Canon ==
The story of Arcaea revolves around a group of girls of various backgrounds who mysterioously end up in the eponymous world of Arcaea, a strange, desolate land of scattered memories in the form of shards of glass, and their individual adventures and turmoils within as each attempt to feign their own meaning out of the land's surrealistic environment.
Amongst the troupe are two main characters, Hikari (who hold memories of bliss and calm) and Tairitsu (who hold memories of strife and chaos), which are prominent in the game's mainline story, often engaging in moments of inter-character scuffles and mystery, up until the release of the final story chapter, titled "Final Verdict", on July 13, 2022.
As the player progresses through various song charts and challenges, mainly through the "Free Play" and "World Mode" sections, they also unlock story logs pertaining to specific moments and thoughts in the story, as well as "Partners", variations of characters that both reward and challenge the player in the form of gauges and hit/missed notes.
== Fandom Overview ==
Upon the game's initial release, and on the years after, it has accrued a fairly large fanbase, mostly of the rhythm gaming community, who are both drawn into the varied, yet overwhelmingly-female cast of characters and its world, often making headcanons and contributing to fanworks related to the game, although part of the policy by lowiro explictly forbids fannish rhythm game charts of its original songs, both commercial and non-commercial, although it hasn't stopped many from visualizing their own takes on such songs, primarily through unofficial programs such as ArcCreate.
On Archive of our Own, there are a total of 131 hosted fanworks, 40 of which are dedicated to the femslash pairing Hikari/Tairitsu.
== Fanwork Examples ==
=== Fan Fiction ===
* Final Memories || With You and the Shattered World Around Us - by Camelian_Fleur (2022-)
* The Flower and the Crow - by tipiq (2022-)
* Alice is Awake - by SandsxSuns (2023); follows the titular character in the real world after finally escaping Arcaea
=== Fan Art ===
* Soliloquy - by Rosie (@realrosielol.bsky.social) (2024)
=== Fan Vids ===
* hikari x tairitsu in a nutshell - by shikuzairo (2021)
* ur-style | meme 【ARCAEA】- by Koribolixie (2022) - animation meme vid revolving around Kou 
* Hikari wants to eat some MORE glass shards - by Noah ・ Duong(楊) (2023)
* 【Arcaea Shitpost】Top 5 Arcaea - by Udonbread (2024)
=== Other ===
=== Meta ===
* The Futility of Arcaea's Worldbuilding [or, How I Found Value in Rhythm Game Stories] - by Novalaxia (2024), a deep-dive into the worldbuilding aspect of the rhythm game, as well as its lore, as it stands
== Archives and Fannish Links ==
=== Fanfiction ===
* Arcaea (video game) tag on Archive of our Own
* Arcaea tag on Wattpad
=== Social Media ===
* Arcaea tag on Newgrounds
* r/Arcaea on Reddit
* Arcaea tag on Tumblr
* Arcaea tags on Twitter/X
* #arcaea_art on BlueSky
=== Wikis ===
* Arcaea Wiki (Wikia/Fandom)
* Arcaea (video game) on TVTropes
=== Other ===
== Meta/Further Reading ==
Category:Fandoms by Source Text
Category:Pages that need more fandom content
Category:Pages that need expansion