Arches is 2021 Psychological Horror Furry Visual Novel developed in Ren'Py by the Echo Project
group. It is the official sequel to Echo itself (in so far as the multiple different timelines go)note , following paranormal investigator Devon Ortega and his boyfriend Cameron Wilson.
Unlike the previous installments such as Echo and The Smoke Room (hell, even Adastra (2018)) there is no sole POV protagonist; rather, both halves of the couple share the narrative space. This story is every bit about the horrors of Echo as the traumas and insecurities of the couple, and how they might heal from it (or not).
Arches provides examples of:
- Art Shift: The sole sprite artist is Paintfox, which goes for a more cartoony style as opposed to the more realistic or Disney-esque sprite designs of the previous installments. This by no means dims the horror.
- Bittersweet Ending: Brian is dead, Echo is uninhabited, Cam, Dev and Artie all survive with Artie recovering from his brain injury and with a bright future ahead of him, but their experiences in Echo changed them forever, both are suffering panic attacks, and Cameron develops schizophrenia. They struggle for years with the the drug treatment and their side effects which puts a strain in their relationship, and even 3 years later the negative symptoms linger, he seemingly giving up on his passion for music, Artie is scared of Cameron's psychic powers and Cameron decides that for Artie's good he will avoid him. Yet, there are still other upsides, while Cameron stopped seeing Artie, Dev and Artie have a long stable friendship ahead of them, Cam and Dev get married, and Dev comes to the conclusion that whether there is a life after death or it's just the end it doesn't matter, because either way he and Cam will always be together.
- Four-Fingered Hands: Going along with the new art style, the characters are drawn with four-fingered hand-paws whereas the characters in Echo were drawn with five.
- Linear Visual Novel: It has a sole route, also in deep contrast to all other visual novels by the Echo Project.
- Istanbul (Not Constantinople): As per usual for the series. Here we're given Deseret (possibly Utah or Colorado) and Southland (Australia).
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's a driving point of the story whether Cameron really is a psychic, just mentally ill or the latter with Echo making him the former.
- Rotating Protagonist: The story is told from the third-person, constantly switching between Cameron and Devon's P.O.V. with Arturo joining the rotation later.
