Arches is a beautiful game, but it is a really emotionally draining rollercoaster for sure (had to continue the game a few days later and skip some dialogues on certain moments).
SPOILER AHEAD !! I've never seen a visual novel being able to handle and depict sensitive topics such as mental illness, abuse and drug abuse so well, it's definitely touching and real, but also scarily personal. I'm not lying when I say that if you're mentally or emotionally on a bad spot, please be careful when playing this game. Take your time, go slowly or simply just play it when you're not so sensitive.
Probably the best visual novel I've ever read, and the only one that had actually marked me this much. Cameron and Devon are the most beautiful and realistic relationship I've ever seen in any visual novel, the character development of each as we proceed with the story is amazing. Their frustrations, their feelings, their thoughts, even the paranormal and scary moments are peak, everything is well-paced and placed, never felt anything being forced in order for the story to proceed, and that's actually something really amazing about this project; every scene feels natural and necessary, and personally, I think that's exactly what a visual novel needs in order to bloom onto something meaningful and enjoyable.
This game basically works as the conclussion of the whole Echo universe, but, if you ask me, I totally prefer this over Echo easily. In fact, you don't actually need to play Echo in order to understand what's going on with the main story or the characters. Yes, it is recommended to play Echo first if you want to have more context of the town and it's antagonists and also what happened to the town before the events occurred in Arches, but if you want to go straight-ahead onto Arches you actually can. Don't get me wrong, Echo is really good (even though I don't like it very much), but I found in Arches exactly what I did not in Echo; a well-paced story that didn't drove me nuts trying to understand what was going on with established characters that weren't insufferable morons to each other every single time. Sorry Echo, I just think Arches has a much more better writing, construction and consistency in every single aspect. This is also just my opinion, I absolutely recommend you playing Echo for the full experience and the lore of this amazing universe, but without a single doubt I really recommend you to play Arches first.