Arcaea

The main gameplay of Arcaea uses three-dimensional chart lanes that are split into two parts: the top lane and the bottom lane. The bottom lane is divided into four and consists of two note types: floor notes and long notes. Floor notes are basic single-tap notes, and long notes require the player to hold them throughout their duration. The top lane has two different note types: arc notes that require the player to hold the note throughout its duration (arcs can vary in direction, including left, right, up, and down), and sky notes, which are floating single-tap notes.

The Nintendo Switch version has an alternative mode with Joy-Con controls. The note types used differ with the selected difficulty: Past, Present, Future, Eternal, or Beyond. The game also presents a difficulty scale from 1 to 12, including "+" variants. Each player has a Potential score that increases based on the user's best performances.

Arcaea began as a single-developer project by Anton Prydatko, inspired by Japanese arcade rhythm games. Prydatko had a background in iOS development at Dischan Media and Rakuten before starting Lowiro in 2016. Despite being founded in the UK, the Lowiro team prominently includes illustrators and musicians in Japan, where the majority of its player base is from, as well as employees in the US and Singapore.

Arcaea includes a variety of music styles in its track library, such as Vocaloid and traditional Eastern music. Many of the musicians involved in Arcaea are Japanese indie or doujin composers. The game also includes songs from professional composers, such as Swedish musician Rasmus Faber. Prydatko stated that the team leaned into creating original songs since the original launch rather than only license from popular media, as was common in rhythm games, to "surprise" players.

Eric Ford of TouchArcade says that it has "an awesome art style combined with very upbeat songs and a nice twist to the traditional rhythm formula". But he also mentioned that some of the gameplay elements could make the game potentially difficult.

Digitally Downloaded's Mike S. praised the game's aesthetic and music, and described its character art as "impeccable", though not memorable compared to other rhythm games. He disliked the game's requirements for unlocking new songs, considering them to be inappropriate for the game's paid release on the Nintendo Switch.