Arcade Spirits is a fairly short and simple VN that does not overstay its welcome. It has a straightforward influence and stats system that plays a role in molding the story. I have only gone through once, but I suspect that things play out moslty the same with other choices. I am sure there will be some differences, but all in all, pretty similar is my guess, save for who the player decides to try to date (because it does have quite a bit of "dating sim" in it).

I got this one in the big itch.io Racial Justice and Equality bundle. I went into this not really expecting much but came away pleasantly surprised. I feel like this has more heart than many other bigger productions and it shows in the final game. While a lot of the writing is predictable and somewhat formulaic, it somehow works and, at the end, I genuinely cheered when I passed the final dialog check. I can't put my finger on exactly what it is, but it is really nice not to have some of the weirdly stilted dialog and narration one finds in other japanese VNs (maybe a translation thing?). Otherwise, it has some good artwork and music and even is partially voice acted. The characters, while a bit stereotypical, are generally likable and interesting enough. I particularly liked some of the silly pun names and references.

All in all, nice VN!