Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers Cheats and Tips

The original Arcade Spirits is a fun time. You can import data from it into The New Challengers to provide a loose template for the sequel’s established canon. Impressively, doing so also means nixing some of the more talkative tutorials designed to introduce first-time players to the world of 20XX.

On the flip side, those talky bits are perfectly tailored for newcomers to get not just the gist of the game’s setting but a genuinely solid feel for it. And, since regardless of whether there’s an imported file the protagonist invariably changes between games, you won’t feel like you’ve missed an integral chapter of your own life for starting here.

Min-Maxing Your Dialogue Choices Won’t Do You Much Good

Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers follows a fairly conventional approach to choice-based video games — dialogue options are coded to one-word descriptions of the sort of tone your character will be voicing to others, enabling you to decide how best to respond to each of the game’s eclectic band of friends and foes. While it may seem like each of Seeker’s buds conforms to a rigid enough archetype to “game” the system and make everyone love you with minimal effort, the developers smartly shake things up a bit.

Just because someone typically reacts positively to, say, kindhearted replies (appropriately marked with the “Kindly” personality trait icon on your screen) doesn’t mean they’re slavishly devoted to it. Grace is a fan of politeness, but she’ll need a heavier hand at times. She’s only human. Domino and Jynx appreciate dark humor, but there are limits. Again, human. Treat each conversation like a real one. Odds are good you’ll do just fine.

Enjoy Your Mistakes

Along similar lines, get used to the likelihood that you’ll make Seeker rub folks the wrong way sometimes. For one thing, replays will let you relive it all armed with the proper foreknowledge to say something more inspirational next time around. More to the point, Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers doesn’t bite hard in this regard. You’re not going to mess up a chat so badly that Rhapsody swears you off and leaves forever.

One of the game’s foremost themes is acceptance. Most of the gang have been through thick and thin together, and Seeker’s arrival will ultimately strengthen those bonds ever further. You’re going to make mistakes, upsetting various characters or (more frequently) simply failing to touch their hearts and brighten their minds as well as you might have. Consider it part of the Arcade Spirits experience.

If Fist of Discomfort 2 Gives You Anxiety, Take Comfort in Turning It Off

The story of this game centers on someone who is quite good at a certain fictional competitive esports game, Fist of Discomfort 2. Multiple times throughout the adventure, The New Challengers’ visual novel trappings are temporarily brushed aside in favor of a rudimentary (though riveting) strategy-centric representation of FoD2, as it’s often abbreviated.

Your job when this happens is to select one of four potential moves eight consecutive times. Seeker is given some notion of what to expect from any given opponent, but the player’s own luck and skill will factor in slightly.

The outcome of the major matches can drastically alter the course of Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers’ storyline. While this is a thrilling prospect to some, it’s a dubious disclaimer for others. The developers were clearly aware of this, as there is an option to disable Fist of Discomfort 2’s gameplay sessions entirely, letting players choose the outcome of each match from a menu. There’s no penalty for this, so do what suits you best. No sweat.