History YMMV / Arcaea

* LesYay: Many fans love to pair Hikari and Tairitsu together as a couple, and not even all the things that happen in ''Black Fate'' and ''Final Verdict'' had managed to discourage people from this. Helped by the first ending in [[spoiler:"Silent Answer" has them finally becoming friends together.]]

** Alice stands out as far as side stories go. On top of [[spoiler:having to face the AwfulTruth that her "brother" Tenniel was a fake and he was just hiding it just to not make her feel bad, her reason of death is even worse. Turns out she was a terminally ill girl who was was accompanied by her brother Cedric. Even worse, they last saw each other four days before her death. In the end, neither of them didn't get to say goodbye.]] It's notable because unlike [[spoiler:Tairitsu and Vita's reason of death, it's a perfectly realistic way to die.]]

** Alice stands out as far as side stories go. On top of [[spoiler:having to face the AwfulTruth that her "brother" Tenniel was a fake and he was just hiding it just to not make her feel bad, her reason of death is even worse. Turns out she was a terminally ill girl who spend her last four days of life enjoying her time with her brother Cedric.]] It's notable because unlike [[spoiler:Tairitsu and Vita's reason of death, it's a perfectly realistic way to die.]]

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: ''Arcaea'' is rated as a 4+ before being raised to 12+ post-Final Verdict on the app store, and does seem like an innocent-looking and aesthetically elegant rhythm game at first glance. However, the game's story is incredibly dark and might border on {{Utsuge}} levels at times, and some of the charts are so immensely difficult that anyone at the age of 12 or below will have trouble playing or comprehending them, meaning that this game is really intended for people at least 16 years old or higher. The Switch port tend to fall this more often due to the platform being more "family-friendly" than mobile phones which fall on the [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids exact opposite]] of this trope.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: ''Arcaea'' is rated as a 4+ before being raised to 12+ post-Final Verdict on the app store, and does seem like an innocent-looking and aesthetically elegant rhythm game at first glance. However, the game's story is incredibly dark and might border on {{Utsuge}} levels at times, and some of the charts are so immensely difficult that anyone at the age of 12 or below will have trouble playing or comprehending them, meaning that this game is really intended for people at least 16 years old or higher.

* EvilIsSexy:
** Tempest Tairitsu is significantly more violent and sadistic than her usual variants, and wears a revealing outfit that exposes her cleavage and thighs instead of her previous ElegantGothicLolita dress.
** Less of being "evil" as she is "ruthlessly indifferent", but [[spoiler:Fatalis Hikari is considered by fans as this. Alongside a similarly revealing dress as Tempest Tairitsu, her bust is also shown to be larger than her counterpart.]]

* {{Fanon}}: A considerable amount of players consider Alice and Cedric's last name to be Liddell.

* Fanon: A considerable amount of players consider Alice and Cedric's last name to be Liddell.

* MemeticMolester: Insight becomes this shortly after her introduction because of her [[spoiler:StalkerWithoutACrush tendencies towards Maya and seemingly knowing everything about her. It reaches the point where [[https://twitter.com/ToasterKoishi/status/1708165539707945252 Toaster]] himself made a tweet to make fun of it.]]

* TaintedByThePreview: The announcement of the Nintendo Switch port was met with backlash from much of the playerbase, due to much of said playerbase consisting of those who don't own consoles due to them being too expensive for their or their families' income. Further displeasure was leveled at the announcement featuring an (initially-)exclusive song pack, i.e. "I'm not spending $300 on a console I don't have and $40 on this edition of the game just to play a handful of songs"; others complained that this port was taking time and resources away from development of the existing mobile versions. [[AmericansHateTingle Most of these complaints come from Southeast Asian players]], while Western players saw this as a reasonably-priced package and the exclusives to be understandable to help it stand out from the mobile version. These complaints have largely died down since, but the mobile version is still preferred by most players.

* TaintedByThePreview: The announcement of the Nintendo Switch port was met with backlash from much of the playerbase, due to much of said playerbase consisting of those who don't own consoles due to them being too expensive for their or their families' income. Further displeasure was leveled at the announcement featuring an (initially-)exclusive song pack, i.e. "I'm not spending $300 on a console I don't have and $40 on this edition of the game just to play a handful of songs." [[AmericansHateTingle Most of these complaints come from Southeast Asian players]], while Western players saw this as a reasonably-priced package and the exclusives to be understandable to help it stand out from the mobile version. These complaints have largely died down since, but the mobile version is still preferred by most players.

* AmericansHateTingle: The Nintendo Switch version gathered a lot of controversy from the moment it was announced, mainly amongst ''Arcaea''[='=]s pre-existing plurality [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff foreign userbase]] in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, etc.). Many ''Arcaea'' players from that part of the world do not have game consoles due to the high cost of them relative to domestic wages and cost-of-living, not helped by game consoles typically [[NoExportForYou not being released in those countries]], meaning that one has to deal with import-induced price markups, so not only did this lead to cries of "why do I need to fork over 39.99 USD when the mobile version is free and which lets me pick and choose what to pay for" ([[ValuesDissonance as opposed to the Western idea of]] "I don't want to pay for my game in pieces, that's some predatory bullshit"), the inclusion of initially-VersionExclusiveContent drew ire from Southeast Asian players who didn't want to have to get a 300 USD console just for one specific DLC pack (although these Switch-exclusive songs would later be ported to the mobile versions). Sure, the game isn't exactly a smash hit in the West either, but at least over there, it was released to a somewhat warmer reception as opposed to outright backlash due to the stigma that mobile games have in more developed countries and gamers in countries like the United States being in better economic situations to afford game consoles.

** One of the songs in the ''VideoGame/{{CHUNITHM}}'' collaboration is named "World Vanquisher". Normally this would just be another song, but [[spoiler:the final Main Story pack introduces "World Ender" and the FinalBoss "Testify", with "Testify" being composed by the same one who composed "World Vanquisher". The story eventually ends with the world of Arcaea being destroyed by Hikari.]]

** One of the songs in the ''VideoGame/{{CHUNITHM}}'' collaboration is named "World Vanquisher". Normally this would just be another song, but [[spoiler:the final Main Story pack introduces "World Ender" and the FinalBoss "Testify", with "Testify" being composed by the same one who composed "World Vanquisher". The story eventually ends with the world of Arcaea being destroyed.]]

** During June 28 and July 19, there was an unexpected 2-part collaboration between ''Arcaea'' and ''[[VideoGame/CytusII Cytus II]]''. This is notable since Rayark has ''never'' been considered a viable option for an Arcaea collab prior.

** The 3.8.6 update on September 29, 2021 introduced an unexpected crossover: 2 tracks from ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry''!

** Unlocking map 2-3 requires the player to complete a challenge on the song "Singularity", where Luna appears, mouths [[MemeticMutation "If you can"]], and you pass if you complete the next 20 seconds with less than a target number of misses dependent on Eto's level (the higher-leveled she is, the more misses are allowed). The requirements to reach this challenge [[DynamicDifficulty depend on the player's Potential]]: If it's less than 5.00, you can unlock it on any difficulty, and if it's at least 5.00 and less than 10.00 you can unlock it on Present or Future. Pity the fool who attempts to reach this challenge with 10.00 Potential or greater, as that locks the challenge exclusively to Future difficulty, which is rated a 10+, making it one of the hardest songs in the game outside of the four level 11 songs and which a 10.00 Potential player (who isn't "sandbagging"[[note]]playing poorly on purpose to trick a game's rating system into lowering their rating[[/note]] or "smurfing"[[note]]experienced player creating an alternate account with fresh stats[[/note]]) has virtually no chance of clearing. Somewhat mitigated in the Switch port; since the game keeps separate performance profiles for Joy-Con and Touch modes, one could simply play exclusively in one mode until they unlock "Singularity" (and by extension Eto, since Singularity is on the same map as her and further up the map), and then attempt the challenge with the other mode with that mode's profile at 0.00 PTT at any difficulty they want.

** Maya's experience is even worse than Alice's and is an all-around depressing read. [[spoiler:her home planet was destroyed and she was killed, and after that she was suddenly hit by all sorts of horrible voices and memories that gradually destroy her sanity until she's a wreck and just wants to end it all.]] Remove the fantastic elements in that story, and you'll get [[RealismInducedHorror a realistic portrayal of a girl dealing with depression]].

** Maya's experience is even worse than Alice's and is an all-around depressing read. [[spoiler:her home planet was destroyed and she was killed, and after that she was suddenly hit by all sorts of horrible voices and memories that gradually destroy her sanity until she's a wreck and just wants to end it all.]] Even worse, remove the fantastic elements in that story, and you'll get a realistic portrayal of a girl dealing with depression.

** Alice stands out as far as side stories go. On top of [[spoiler:having to face the AwfulTruth that her "brother" Tenniel was a fake and he was just hiding it just to not make her feel bad, her reason of death is even worse. Turns out she was a terminally ill girl who spend her last four days of life enjoying her time with her brother Cedric.]] It's notable because unlike [[spoiler:Tairitsu and Vita's reason of death, it's a perfectly realistic way to die.]]

*** Also an example of ItsEasySoItSucks: The Switch version has none of the Beyond charts other than for "Tempestissimo". This is despite the update that introduced Beyond chapter being introduced about 11 months prior to the Switch version's initial release.

* AmericansHateTingle: The Nintendo Switch version gathered a lot of controversy from the moment it was announced, mainly amongst ''Arcaea''[='=]s pre-existing plurality [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff foreign userbase]] in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, etc.). Many ''Arcaea'' players from that part of the world do not have game consoles due to the high cost of them relative to domestic wages and cost-of-living, not helped by game consoles typically [[NoExportForYou not being released in those countries]], meaning that one has to deal with import-induced price markups, so not only did this lead to cries of "why do I need to fork over 39.99 USD when the mobile version is free and which lets me pick and choose what to pay for" ([[ValuesDissonance as opposed to the Western idea of]] "I don't want to pay for my game in pieces, that's some predatory bullshit"), the inclusion of initially-VersionExclusiveContent drew ire from Southeast Asian players who didn't want to have to get a 300 USD console just for one specific DLC pack (although these Switch-exclusive songs would later be ported to the mobile versions). Sure, the game isn't exactly a smash hit in the West either, but at least over there, it was released to a somewhat warmer reception as opposed to outright backlash due to the stigma that mobile games have in more developed countries and gamers in countries like the United States being in better economic situations to afford game consoles. To most Western gamers, paying 39.99 USD for a game with most of its content available is more palatable than getting the base game for free or a very low cost and having to buy the bulk of the content in piecemeal DLC packs.

* AmericansHateTingle: The Nintendo Switch version gathered a lot of controversy from the moment it was announced, mainly amongst ''Arcaea''[='=]s pre-existing plurality [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff foreign userbase]] in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, etc.). Many ''Arcaea'' players from that part of the world do not have game consoles due to the high cost of them relative to domestic wages and cost-of-living, not helped by game consoles typically [[NoExportForYou not being released in those countries]], meaning that one has to deal with import-induced price markups, so not only did this lead to cries of "why do I need to fork over 39.99 USD when the mobile version is free and which lets me pick and choose what to pay for" ([[ValuesDissonance as opposed to the Western idea of]] "I don't want to pay for my game in pieces, that's some predatory bullshit"), the inclusion of initially-VersionExclusiveContent drew ire from Southeast Asian players who didn't want to have to get a 300 USD console just for one specific DLC pack (although these Switch-exclusive songs would later be ported to the mobile versions). Sure, the game isn't exactly a smash hit in the West either, but at least over there, it was released to a somewhat warmer reception as opposed to outright backlash due to the stigma that mobile games have in more developed countries and gamers in countries like the United States being in better economic situations to afford game consoles.

* AmericansHateTingle:
** The game (which is a British-Japanese product[[note]]lowiro's offices are located in London and Tokyo, although some of their key staff are remote in other parts of the world, such as Toaster who is from the United States and Nitro who is from Singapore[[/note]]), despite its success in Japan and [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Southeast Asia]] (to the point where its official Discord server is one of the most active servers for mobile rhythm games), isn't particularly notable in the American rhythm game community. Playing the game on mobile (a platform already looked at with contempt from "hardcore" gaming communities in America) isn't particularly pleasant for most players and most American rhythm game players balk at the idea of buying a tablet mainly for rhythm games, instead preferring arcade rhythm games (especially dance games) like the ''VideoGame/{{BEMANI}}'' series which has far more recognition amongst American rhythm game players due to its longevity and most people in the community being well into adulthood; even the ones who don't have access to arcade games instead prefer to get their fix through console or PC rhythm games, including simulators like ''VideoGame/{{osu}}'' and ''VideoGame/StepMania''.
** The Nintendo Switch version gathered a lot of controversy from the moment it was announced, mainly amongst ''Arcaea''[='=]s pre-existing plurality [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff foreign userbase]] in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, etc.). Many ''Arcaea'' players from that part of the world do not have game consoles due to the high cost of them relative to domestic wages and cost-of-living, not helped by game consoles typically [[NoExportForYou not being released in those countries]], meaning that one has to deal with import-induced price markups, so not only did this lead to cries of "why do I need to fork over 39.99 USD when the mobile version is free and which lets me pick and choose what to pay for" ([[ValuesDissonance as opposed to the Western idea of]] "I don't want to pay for my game in pieces, that's some predatory bullshit"), the inclusion of initially-VersionExclusiveContent drew ire from Southeast Asian players who didn't want to have to get a 300 USD console just for one specific DLC pack (although these Switch-exclusive songs would later be ported to the mobile versions). Sure, the game isn't exactly a smash hit in the West either, but at least over there, it was released to a somewhat warmer reception as opposed to outright backlash due to the stigma that mobile games have in more developed countries and gamers in countries like the United States being in better economic situations to afford game consoles.

** The game (which is a British-Japanese product[[note]]lowiro's offices are located in London and Tokyo, although some of their key staff are remote in other parts of the world, such as Toaster who is from the United States and Nitro who is from Singapore[[/note]]), despite its success in Japan and [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Southeast Asia]] (to the point where its official Discord server is one of the most active servers for mobile rhythm games), isn't particularly notable in the American rhythm game community. Playing the game on mobile (a platform already looked at with contempt from "hardcore" gaming communities in America) isn't particularly pleasant for most players and most American rhythm game players balk at the idea of buying a tablet mainly for rhythm games, instead preferring arcade rhythm games (especially dance games) like the ''VideoGame/{{BEMANI}}'' series which has far more recognition amongst American rhythm game players due to its longevity and most people in the community being well into adulthood.

** The game (which is a British-Japanese product[[note]]lowiro's offices are located in London and Tokyo, although some of their key staff are remote in other parts of the world, such as Toaster who is from the United States and Nitro who is from Singapore[[/note]]), despite its success in Japan and [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Southeast Asia]] (to the point where its official Discord server is one of the most active servers for mobile rhythm games), isn't particularly notable in the American rhythm game community, or at least the part of it where the average age is at least 25 years old. Playing the game on mobile (a platform already looked at with contempt from "hardcore" gaming communities in America) isn't particularly pleasant for most players and most American rhythm game players balk at the idea of buying a tablet mainly for rhythm games, instead preferring arcade rhythm games (especially dance games) like the ''VideoGame/{{BEMANI}}'' series which has far more recognition amongst American rhythm game players due to its longevity and most people in the community being well into adulthood.

* AmericansHateTingle: The Nintendo Switch version gathered a lot of controversy from the moment it was announced, mainly amongst ''Arcaea''[='=]s pre-existing plurality [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff foreign userbase]] in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, etc.). Many ''Arcaea'' players from that part of the world do not have game consoles due to the high cost of them relative to domestic wages and cost-of-living, not helped by game consoles typically [[NoExportForYou not being released in those countries]], meaning that one has to deal with import-induced price markups, so not only did this lead to cries of "why do I need to fork over 39.99 USD when the mobile version is free and which lets me pick and choose what to pay for" ([[ValuesDissonance as opposed to the Western idea of]] "I don't want to pay for my game in pieces, that's some predatory bullshit"), the inclusion of initially-VersionExclusiveContent drew ire from Southeast Asian players who didn't want to have to get a 300 USD console just for one specific DLC pack (although these Switch-exclusive songs would later be ported to the mobile versions). Sure, the game isn't exactly a smash hit in the West either, but at least over there, it was released to a somewhat warmer reception as opposed to outright backlash due to the stigma that mobile games have in more developed countries and gamers in countries like the United States being in better economic situations to afford game consoles.