Arches (2021)

Originally reviewed on July 16, 2024.

A male anthropomorphic coyote in deep red lighting stares forward with a puzzled inquisitive expression.

It's psychological horror and a slasher flick, but in gay furry visual novel form.

Very good and stunning in multiple ways. While knowledge of Echo isn't technically required for Arches, I'd say it's still emotionally required. The best experience is playing this after Echo. This feels like it completes something, in a way.

In regards to technical polish, Arches is a massive improvement from Echo. The UI feels perfectly minimal and the sprites are used dynamically. Sometimes a sprite will shake to signify a character shivering, or move across the screen to show that the character has walked to another's side, but it stays minimal to prevent itself from feeling cheesy and overused. It never feels like a PNG puppet show, and instead contributes subtly to a more dynamic feeling than Echo. Also, the increase in CG art is always super fun to see. While the style is quite toony for the heavy subject matter, I think it's still pulled together beautifully and stays completely immersive and in-line with the intended vibes and emotions of the scenes.

In regards to writing, the beginning left me a bit apprehensive, with the shift to third-person and a deluge of telling not showing making me a bit worried, the writing absolutely pulled the fuck through about a quarter of the way into the story and stayed solid since. There's no time to breathe once the plot-ball gets rolling, but thankfully this is a relatively short run and so the unrelenting intensity doesn't overstay its welcome, it simply fits with what's happening.

This story felt so deeply real, raw, and personal that I almost felt like I was intruding on someone's mind while reading it. I'm so happy that a gay furry visual novel can also be an intense and honest portrayal of real life and the aftermath of trauma, I'm thankful that there exists furries who take themselves seriously and understand they can make serious furry fandom works like this.

★★★★★