Arena Circus Demo

Fantasy worlds are great for people who enjoy escaping reality, at least if they are well aware of the fact that they are running from it. Hence, whether it’s a good book, a sci-fi movie or a World of Warcraft marathon, all forms of relaxation are welcome, especially if the end result is to let yourself get lost in a different world with other rules than our own.

Arena Circus is a visual novel that presents you with a strange fantasy scenario in which people are no longer the apex predator on the planet. Instead, there are humanoid creatures called Reavers that have a lot more strength and intelligence than humans, which is why they decide to keep the population under control and even use them as personal assistants in various fighting arenas.

The game allows you to pick a character at the beginning, which is uncharted territory for most visual novels out there. Hence, you can either be the human or the Reaver in one of these interesting relationships. Speaking of which, the whole “Arena” part of the name refers to the combat between Reaver and human teams, combat that takes place for the public’s amusement.

Regardless of whether you play the role of the human or the Reaver, the story is not linear, meaning that it allows you to make choices every now and again. Obviously, these choices affect your relationships and the direction of the plot, although you shouldn’t expect too much variety either. Romance enters the picture as well, and you are free to follow your heart in this regard as well.

As for the technical details, the game is quite simple in most regards, but the artwork is pretty detailed and nicely designed. The characters look a bit weird in some scenes, especially when it comes to posture and facial expressions, but everything else seems to be into place. In fact, the backgrounds can be very engaging and atmospheric.

Even if Arena Circus is a bit unusual and not very well thought out, the game still has the power to keep you engaged for an hour or two. Multiple characters and branching decision trees mean that you can easily enjoy the game more than once without it getting repetitive.