Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers announced as a follow-up to 2019's Arcade Spirits

Ready for a little romance and some classic arcade gaming? Well, Fiction Factory Games and PQube Limited recently announced Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers as a follow-up to the 2019 title Arcade Spirits.

In the previous game you worked in an arcade while trying to find friendship and romance but this time around, you're playing in an arcade so it's all been flipped around. Not only is it giving a different perspective but you will also be able to import decisions made from the original game to shape the world. It's a standalone game though and can be played entirely by itself.

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"In the distant future year 20XX, an alternate timeline where arcades never went away... you're an aspiring gamer searching for esports glory on the Fist of Discomfort 2 Pro Tour. Seeking a partner to play with, you join a team of players who hang out at Good Clean Fun, a combination pizzeria / laundromat / arcade. It's up to you to rally the team, learning more about who they are and how best to support their dreams along the way. Defeat rivals, conquer tournaments, build relationships, and uncover a strange arcade conspiracy as your team walks the road to victory!"

The new game will include six new characters, the ability to date anyone or just focus on building up friendships and these features new to the series:

• A massively expanded character creator – choose body type, hairstyles, accessories, clothing, and more. Your custom character now appears on screen during the whole game!
• Design your own rival! Using the full power of the character creator, craft the one who will stand in your way. Or will perhaps love bloom between these two enemies...?
• Take on the world in Fist of Discomfort 2, a strategy minigame. Your victory or defeat changes the path of your story without ending it! (Minigame is skippable.)
• Rebalanced personality choices, with more variety and more opportunities to talk to every character.

Try out the demo right now on Steam and itch.io. Despite Steam not having a Linux icon, the Linux demo is there. The developer continues using the great open source Ren'Py, so it should all work nicely on Linux. The full game is due out sometime in early 2022.