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Arise: A Simple Story
Embark on an emotional journey of losing the love of one's life. Manipulate time, solve puzzles, reshape surroundings as you push forward into the bittersweet recollections of a past life. This is a story about happiness and hardship, joy and sorrow. A story that all of us will one day experience.
In short, Steam reviewers most often praise “Emotional wordless life story” (54 of 85 reviews) and “Beautiful, emotionally varied visuals” (36); the most common complaint is “Imprecise, frustrating platforming controls” (13). What reviewers agree on ↓
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-28 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
54 of the 85 reviews raise this.
36 of the 85 reviews raise this.
“This is an absolutely beautiful game in every sense: visually, sonically, and narratively. The gameplay is interesting and diverse enough to keep you engaged throughout the game, but where it really shines is in the…”
“Amazing! This game is a pure gem, in the vein of titles such as Flower or Journey. The developers seem to have strong references to flow principles inspired by Jenova Chen’s studio, Thatgamecompany. There also appear to…”
“Picked this game up a while ago, not knowing fully why. Glad I did! The art style and animation are beautiful, it drip feeds the mechanics to you slowly and easily. You are guided well through the environment…”
30 of the 85 reviews raise this.
“This is an absolutely beautiful game in every sense: visually, sonically, and narratively. The gameplay is interesting and diverse enough to keep you engaged throughout the game, but where it really shines is in the…”
“A lovely, very symbolic adventure for two, with the second player not having a direct presence on scene, but rather, controlling... Nature? Time? The world itself? It's hard to explain but it works wonderfully. Highly…”
“Picked this game up a while ago, not knowing fully why. Glad I did! The art style and animation are beautiful, it drip feeds the mechanics to you slowly and easily. You are guided well through the environment…”
28 of the 85 reviews raise this.
“This is an absolutely beautiful game in every sense: visually, sonically, and narratively. The gameplay is interesting and diverse enough to keep you engaged throughout the game, but where it really shines is in the…”
“Picked this game up a while ago, not knowing fully why. Glad I did! The art style and animation are beautiful, it drip feeds the mechanics to you slowly and easily. You are guided well through the environment…”
7 of the 85 reviews raise this.
“Beatiful story, amazing music and easy game play so you can really focus on the story. 10/10 made me wanna cry ;-;”
“If art could be a game, this would be it. It was beautiful through and through, with the perfect balance of light and dark, sorrowful and joyful. There were moments in the game where I felt terrified (not difficult for…”
13 of the 85 reviews raise this · 8 of them still recommend the game.
“I wasn't expecting it to be this good! It's a really sweet little game. Music is perfect, art direction is really pretty and the story is very touching. Gameplay is simple but actually offers enough variety between…”
“Wow, what an emotional game. This is one of the few games in my lifetime that I've ever played that actually got me teary eyed at the end. For a game that has no dialogue, this game tells a compelling and emotional…”
8 of the 85 reviews raise this · 6 of them still recommend the game.
“It's a beautiful story, no doubt about it. I wish the gameplay would be slightly improved, especially in terms of ability to replay it. There is no way to skip the cutscene, restart a level, or once starting a new…”
“Pros: -short in a good way; doesn't feel rushed, the game ends when the story is finished -emotional story that carries the gameplay -appealing visuals and music that aid the storytelling -every section of the game…”
“As a game it's not the best but as an emotional journey it's great. My advice is this: only pick up Arise if the story and atmosphere is really important to you and you can turn a blind eye to annoying controls and…”
5 of the 85 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“Was not prepared! This game made me feel emotion I've never felt before. Truly a combination of love and loss like remembering your most beloved. P.s. the Ice mechanics had me banging my head against a wall”
“I wasn't expecting it to be this good! It's a really sweet little game. Music is perfect, art direction is really pretty and the story is very touching. Gameplay is simple but actually offers enough variety between…”
5 of the 85 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“In the lineage of Journey, this game offers very light platforming where every level presents a new kind of interaction with the environment. Cute, clean, no stability problems. "Safe" might be the best word to describe…”
“between fixed controls and a weak end no I wouldn't”
Counted across 85 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 91.5% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“Arise: A Simple Story is one of those rare games that proves you don’t need dialogue or complex mechanics to tell a powerful story. The entire experience is a quiet, emotional journey through the memories of a man’s life, and it’s told in such a beautiful and thoughtful way that…”
— a player, Steam review · 5 hrs played“I hadn’t heard much about Arise before playing, so I didn’t really know what to expect from the game. However, it only took a few opening shots and the first notes of the soundtrack for me to realize that I was dealing with something special. The game aims for the same emotional…”
— a player, Steam review · 3 hrs played“Lovely game. Simple, but beautiful, sad and touching story about life, pain, love and death. I cried.”
— a player, Steam review · 6 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-10-26.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-10-26). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Adventure, Indie |
| Player tags | Emotional · 3D Platformer · Time Manipulation · Exploration · Cute · Relaxing · Puzzle-Platformer · Local Co-Op · Story Rich · Platformer · Drama · Surreal (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · Co-op · Shared/Split Screen Co-op · Shared/Split Screen · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Steam Trading Cards |
| Languages | English * , French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese - Portugal, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Latin America, Turkish, Polish * |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 34 |
| Official site | https://arise-game.com |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS *: Windows 7 / 8.1 / 10 (64 bit) Processor: Intel Core i3 4340 3.6 GHz or AMD equivalent Memory: 6 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 2 GB or AMD Radeon equivalent DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 6 GB available space Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compliant Additional Notes: Recommended input: Controller