Info about Touhou Artificial Dream in Arcadia:

Official game description:
Sumireko Usami is not a normal high-schooler at all. She is so abnormal that even the fantasy land of Gensokyo considers her an anomaly. Truth is, she can visit Gensokyo in her dreams!  
A new incident has occurred, and Gensokyo has a clone problem
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Artificial Dream in Arcadia is a first person dungeon crawler where the player, as Sumireko, has to navigate tricky mazes and capture a party of the strongest Touhou characters to assist them in turn-based battles. Go all over Gensokyo and beyond, to solve an incident which seems a little too convenient for Sumireko, seeing as she's the only person in Gensokyo who has a tool to control this infestation of clones: her newly-bought smartphone.
A large selection of your favorite Touhou characters
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Clones are roaming the lands! They are known as Sleepers and take the shape of established Touhou characters, and as such, almost every Touhou character is represented and playable. Sumireko's phone is equipped with a special app that allows her to capture Sleepers by beating them in a round of Danmaku.  
If you win, you can add them to your party, or turn them into useful items! You can also fuse multiple Sleepers together to make something new entirely.  
Adding Sleepers to your party will increase battery usage. If your phone runs out of battery charge, you will lose access to Sleepers and your Map, so always come prepared!  
A set of desktop wallpapers is included with the game. You can find them in \\Touhou Artificial Dream in Arcadia\\wallpapers.

Release date: Sep 22, 2023

Categories: First-Person Dungeon Crawler, Turn-based Combat, Character Collection, Fusion System, Bullet Hell, Grid-based Combat, Retro, Japanese Mythology

Feature scans:
- Steam Deck: score 55; verdict: Tinkering Required; summary: The analysis of user feedback for the Steam Deck experience reveals several critical issues. The most prominent problems include significant battery drain, which affects gameplay duration and usability, and UI/UX issues such as unreadable text and map accessibility problems. Additionally, there are concerns about gameplay mechanics, particularly the reliance on battery life for essential functions. However, there is also positive feedback regarding the excellent controller support, which enhances the gaming experience.

- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price:
  - Community fair range: $9.99
  - Reasoning: The evidence shows that users consistently mention the game is worth its full price tag of $10 USD. Several reviews highlight that the game is worth the price even when purchased at full price, indicating a strong sentiment that the game's value meets or exceeds its cost. The repeated mentions of the game being worth the price, even at full price, suggest that the community considers the fair base-game price range to be around the current price of $9.99.
- Playtime Metrics:
  - Game completion: 70.0h
  - Story completion: 50.0h
  - Session length: N/A
  - Endgame: 10.0h
  - Reasoning: The evidence provides multiple accounts of playtime hours required to complete the game and its various components. Players report spending around 70 hours to complete the main story and additional hours for post-game content and 100% completion. This information helps estimate the typical playtime hours for different aspects of the game.
- Time-to-fun:
  - Summary: The game is generally fun and addictive from the start, with a well-paced progression and engaging combat. However, some aspects like repetitive combat and maze-like maps can become tedious over time.
  - Stance: Fun immediately
  - Anchor: Unlocking new mechanics and powerups
  - Time to anchor: 1h 0m
  - Friction: maze-like maps; repetitive combat; high encounter rate
  - Unlock drivers: new mechanics; special powerups; progression through dungeons
  - Conditions: engaging combat; interesting story; well-paced dungeon crawling; recruiting and fusing youkai
- Player Archetypes:
  - Completionist Strategist (buy)
    - Motivation: Mastery and completion of all game aspects.
    - Playstyle: Methodical and strategic, focusing on mapping, collecting, and optimizing.
    - Experience: veteran
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: SMT fan; Touhou fan; dungeon crawler enthusiast
    - Reference games: Shin Megami Tensei I/II; Touhou Project
  - Genre Enthusiast Newcomer (buy)
    - Motivation: Exploration of new game worlds and enjoyment of the genre.
    - Playstyle: Exploratory and open-minded, willing to try new things within the genre.
    - Experience: newcomer
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: new to Touhou; SMT fan; genre enthusiast
    - Reference games: Shin Megami Tensei; Touhou Project
  - Efficiency-Focused Player (buy)
    - Motivation: Efficient progression and enjoyment without excessive grinding.
    - Playstyle: Strategic and time-conscious, focusing on optimal use of game mechanics.
    - Experience: familiar
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: strategy gamer; time-conscious player
    - Reference games: Shin Megami Tensei; Touhou Project
  - Casual Explorer (sale)
    - Motivation: Enjoyment of a relaxed and accessible gaming experience.
    - Playstyle: Casual and exploratory, preferring easier and more accessible gameplay options.
    - Experience: mixed
    - Purchase stance: sale
    - Labels: casual gamer; relaxed player
    - Reference games: Shin Megami Tensei; Touhou Project


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Enjoyable and engaging gameplay (weight 0.6): The gameplay is frequently described as fun, challenging, and engaging, with an addictive gameplay loop and enjoyable RPG elements. Players appreciate the freedom in gameplay and the lack of frustration.
- High-quality dungeon crawling (weight 0.47): The game is praised for its dungeon crawling experience, described as enjoyable, well-paced, and amazing. It is considered a must-play for dungeon crawler fans, with excellent dungeon exploration and mapping.
- Comprehensive Touhou character inclusion (weight 0.46): The game includes a wide range of Touhou characters, appealing to fans of the series. It features almost all Touhou characters, including specific ones like Flan, Momiji, and Koakuma, providing plenty of fan service.
- Excellent music and soundtrack (weight 0.41): The music and soundtrack are highly praised, described as great, excellent, and well-crafted. The OST is considered amazing and varied, contributing significantly to the game's appeal.
- Outstanding art style (weight 0.41): The game features beautiful and high-quality art, including amazing pixel art and gorgeous visuals. The artistic design is frequently highlighted as a strong point.
- Classic SMT elements (weight 0.34): The game incorporates classic Shin Megami Tensei (SMT) elements, making it enjoyable for fans of the series. It is described as a solid old-school SMT-style dungeon crawler with addicting and challenging elements.
- Unique blend of SMT and Touhou (weight 0.31): The game uniquely blends elements from both the SMT and Touhou series, making it enjoyable for fans of both. This combination is well-received and considered interesting and fun.
- Reasonable difficulty (weight 0.29): The game's difficulty is considered reasonable and well-balanced, providing enough challenge to keep players engaged without being overly frustrating.
- Challenging combat (weight 0.24): The combat is described as challenging but fair, with interesting boss fights. The gameplay provides a reasonable challenge that keeps players engaged.
- Accessible to new players (weight 0.24): The game is enjoyable for those unfamiliar with Touhou and MegaTen, making it accessible to a broader audience. It is also enjoyable for fans, showing respect for both fandoms.
- Highly praised SMT-like game (weight 0.22): The game is considered one of the best SMT-like games released in decades, even surpassing mainline SMT games from the past decade. It is highly recommended for fans of classic SMT and DRPG games.
- Engaging story and setting (weight 0.21): The game offers an engaging story and setting, with a great world and characters. The narrative is described as tense and well-crafted.
- Characters with personality (weight 0.21): The game features a variety of characters that are full of personality and well-portrayed. The diverse and interesting characters add depth to the game.
- Well-designed content (weight 0.18): The game features well-designed bosses and excellent maze design. The content is praised for its quality and variety.
- Challenging dungeon design (weight 0.18): The dungeon design is challenging and engaging, with various gimmicks that add depth to the gameplay. The dungeons are well-received for their complexity and variety.
- Customizable difficulty settings (weight 0.17): The game offers multiple difficulty settings and optional gameplay changes, allowing players to customize their experience to their preferences.

Common complaints:
- Story lacks depth and satisfaction (weight 0.44): The game's story is frequently criticized for being minimal, unsatisfying, and repetitive. Players find the plot sparse and lacking meaningful dialogue or development.
- Dungeon gimmicks frustrate players (weight 0.43): Some dungeon gimmicks are found to be annoying, frustrating, and tedious. Players also mention that some final dungeons have particularly tedious gimmicks.
- Translation errors and typos (weight 0.37): There are numerous reports of translation errors and typos, particularly in the Japanese and Chinese translations. These issues can affect the overall experience.
- Fusion system disappoints (weight 0.25): The fusion system is considered the weakest part of the game, with players finding it limited, not very useful, and lacking interesting choices. It is also noted to be confusing.
- Maze designs overly complex (weight 0.24): Some maze designs are criticized for being overly complex and abstract, making navigation difficult and less enjoyable.
- Difficulty spikes in later stages (weight 0.21): Players note significant difficulty spikes towards the end of the game, with later maps becoming imbalanced and overly challenging.
- Battery system is punishing (weight 0.17): The battery system is criticized for being punishing and intrusive, affecting the overall gameplay experience negatively.
- SP skills are undertuned (weight 0.14): SP skills are considered massively undertuned and not very impactful, with many skills being outright useless.
- Combat feels slow (weight 0.1): The combat system is described as slow, drawn out, and unengaging, detracting from the overall enjoyment.
- Save system issues (weight 0.09): There are issues with the save system, including limited save locations, which can be frustrating for players.
- No minimap or overworld map (weight 0.09): The absence of a minimap or overworld map is a notable issue, making navigation more difficult.
- Menu system needs improvement (weight 0.09): The menu system is criticized for lacking functions and various previews, needing overall improvement.
- Soundtrack is hit or miss (weight 0.09): The soundtrack is noted to be inconsistent, with some tracks being grating and not well-received.

Gameplay feedback:
- Dungeon crawler gameplay focus (weight 0.39): The game heavily features dungeon crawler mechanics, with first-person exploration, maze-like layouts, and turn-based combat. Players navigate through complex dungeons with party-based grid mechanics.
- Classic SMT-style mechanics (weight 0.35): The game incorporates traditional Shin Megami Tensei gameplay elements, blending dungeon crawling with bullet hell segments. It retains the classic SMT system while introducing new mechanics.
- Fusion system for skills (weight 0.34): The game includes a fusion system that allows players to combine skills and customize characters. This system is linear and affects character abilities and weaknesses.
- Turn-based combat mechanics (weight 0.32): Combat is turn-based, focusing on exploiting enemy weaknesses. This traditional combat system is central to the gameplay.
- Retro-style graphics and music (weight 0.31): The game has a retro RPG feel with 1990s-style graphics and music. The visuals and soundtrack contribute to the nostalgic atmosphere.
- Danmaku mini-games (weight 0.3): Bullet hell segments are integrated into the gameplay, including danmaku hijacking and mini-games. These segments are used for character recruitment and capturing enemies.
- Map features and aids (weight 0.28): The game includes features like a mini-map and auto-battle options. Map visibility and aids are affected by mechanics like the battery system.
- Character recruitment and fusion (weight 0.27): The game features a character recruitment system, allowing players to recruit and fuse characters. This system is tied to the fusion mechanics and skill transfer.
- Exploration and battles (weight 0.22): Players engage in dungeon exploration with constraints and item management. The exploration is intertwined with combat and dungeon crawling.
- Unique dungeon mechanics (weight 0.17): Dungeons have unique mechanics and various quirks. Players encounter hard dungeon layouts and workshop dungeons.
- Strategic boss fights (weight 0.14): Boss fights require strategic preparation and exploitation of weaknesses. These encounters are challenging and require careful planning.
- Party building mechanics (weight 0.14): Players can build and customize their party composition. This includes managing party members and their skills.
- High difficulty level (weight 0.14): The game features a high difficulty level with scaling challenges. Players need to adapt to the increasing difficulty as they progress.
- Post-game content and New Game+ (weight 0.13): The game offers post-game content and a New Game+ option. This extends the gameplay and provides additional challenges.
- Touhou Project elements (weight 0.09): The game includes Touhou Project characters and elements. This blend adds a unique flavor to the gameplay.
- Combat animations and fun (weight 0.09): The game features fun combat with engaging animations. The combat system is designed to be enjoyable and visually appealing.
- Multiple endings (weight 0.09): The game offers multiple endings based on player actions. This adds replayability and encourages different playthroughs.

Performance notes:
- Long battery life on Steam Deck (weight 0.06): The game offers an impressive 9 hours of gameplay on a single charge when played on a Steam Deck.
- Dedicated PC build for game (weight 0.06): Some players have chosen to build a separate PC specifically to play this game, indicating high system requirements or a desire for optimal performance.

Recommendations:
- Recommended for Touhou and SMT fans (weight 0.7): The game is highly recommended for fans of the Touhou Project and Shin Megami Tensei (SMT) series. It is also suggested for those who enjoy dungeon crawlers and classic RPG games.
- Highly recommended game (weight 0.11): The game is highly recommended to anyone who wants to try it out. It is suggested as a high-quality game worth experiencing.
- Recommended for classic RPG fans (weight 0.11): The game is recommended for fans of classic RPGs and jRPGs. It is suggested for those who enjoy traditional RPG gameplay and aesthetics.
- Recommended for DRPG and Oriental fans (weight 0.11): The game is recommended for fans of dungeon RPGs (DRPG) and those interested in Oriental themes. It is suggested as a good choice for understanding old DRPG styles.
- High quality-to-price ratio (weight 0.07): The game offers a high quality-to-price ratio, meaning it provides excellent value for its cost. This indicates that the game is well-regarded in terms of its content and price.
- Worth the price (weight 0.06): The game is considered worth the price, indicating a good value for the cost. This suggests that players feel they are getting their money's worth.
- Recommended for casual and hardcore players (weight 0.06): The game is recommended for both casual and hardcore players. This indicates that the game has a broad appeal and can be enjoyed by a wide range of players.
- Modernized SMT experience (weight 0.06): The game is recommended for those looking for a modernized Shin Megami Tensei (SMT) experience. This indicates that the game offers a contemporary take on classic SMT gameplay.
- Recommended for nostalgia seekers (weight 0.06): The game is recommended for those seeking nostalgia from classic games. It is suggested for players who enjoy retro gameplay and aesthetics.
- Recommended for curious players (weight 0.06): The game is recommended for those curious about either the Touhou or SMT franchises. This suggests that the game is a good introduction to these series.
- Recommended for SMT-styled crawler fans (weight 0.06): The game is recommended for fans of SMT-styled dungeon crawlers. This suggests that the game will appeal to those who enjoy the specific style of gameplay found in SMT games.
- Use Steam guides for puzzles (weight 0.06): It is recommended to use Steam guides for solving puzzles in the game. This suggests that some puzzles may be challenging and require additional help.
- Recommended despite personal preferences (weight 0.06): The game is recommended even if it may not align with personal preferences. This indicates that the game has qualities that can be appreciated by a wide audience.

Other player notes:
No miscpoints

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.18): Players experience frustration due to various gameplay mechanics and design choices. Key issues include complex and tedious dungeon designs, poorly managed inventory systems, and cumbersome UI elements. Additionally, the game's difficulty spikes, repetitive backtracking, and translation errors contribute to the overall frustration.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.17): Players enjoy the game's challenging and strategic gameplay, which includes tactical party management and well-balanced dungeon difficulty. The game's nostalgic elements, such as the Magnetite system and classic SMT feel, along with its polished combat and varied dungeon environments, contribute to a highly engaging experience.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.16): Players find satisfaction in the game's high-quality RPG elements, including its strategic gameplay, team building mechanics, and balanced difficulty. The game's extensive content, engaging story, and good value for money also contribute to a fulfilling experience.
- Joy (weight 0.1): Players experience joy from the game's fun and engaging gameplay, beautiful art, and excellent soundtrack. The blend of classic and new elements, along with the enjoyable character development and strategic combat, creates a delightful gaming experience.
- Enthusiasm (weight 0.08): Players are enthusiastic about the game's engaging story, characters, and challenging dungeons. The game's high quality and value for money make it a standout experience for fans of turn-based RPGs.
- Disappointment (weight 0.06): Players feel disappointed due to issues with the fusion system, repetitive gameplay elements, and lack of meaningful story. The high difficulty and discomfort level, along with translation quality issues, also contribute to this disappointment.
- Appreciation (weight 0.06): Players appreciate the developer's effort and passion, as well as the game's mechanics and art. The game's faithful homage to classic SMT elements and its appeal to fans of the series are also highly valued.
- Excitement (weight 0.05): Players are excited about the game's mechanics and design, which include enjoyable RPG-dungeon crawling experiences and surprising depth. The game's extensive content, excellent art, and engaging dungeon design contribute to this excitement.
- Happy (weight 0.04): Players are happy with the game's overall quality, charm, and value for money. The developer's responsiveness to feedback and the game's enjoyable gameplay mechanics contribute to this happiness.
- Gratitude (weight 0.02): Players feel gratitude towards the developer for their work on the game and its localization. The effort put into releasing the game and making it accessible to a wider audience is highly appreciated.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.02): Players experience nostalgia due to the game's classic SMT elements and retro style. The pixel art and similarities to earlier Shin Megami Tensei games evoke a sense of nostalgia.
- Surprise (weight 0.02): Players are surprised by the game's high quality, including its well-done art, music, and design. The strength of the final boss and the variety of music also contribute to this sense of surprise.
- Frustrated (weight 0.02): Players feel frustrated due to shallow battles and dungeons, as well as issues with unique abilities. Map visibility problems and limited save locations also add to this frustration.
- Admiration (weight 0.01): Players admire the game's mechanics and immersion, impressed by its overall quality. The game's ability to captivate and engage players is highly regarded.
- Excited (weight 0.01): Players are excited because the game exceeds the quality of early Megami Tensei games. The game's ability to surpass expectations and deliver a superior experience is thrilling.}