The video game adaptation that blew away expectations

Arcane is the TV adaptation of the popular MMO PC game League of Legends. Even if you don’t play League, you most likely have heard of it and know that the game contains many, many champions. Something you might not know if you don’t play this game is that there is a lot of lore hidden within each champion and region they come from.

With such lore-heavy content shoved away to hide in the darkness, Riot Games turned to animation. Season one of Arcane focuses on the steampunk realm of Piltover and its under-supported underground counterpart Zaun. It centers around the story of League champions Jinx, and Vi, and touches on many others. We get a look at a city that is run by the upper class and expanding its technological control over its neighboring territories, and their lower-class civilization that is forgotten by the general public and pushed around by the top side. Throughout the nine-episode season, viewers see a plethora of issues between the upper side and the underworld as well as a breakdown between the groups themselves. We get to see the childhood trauma that transformed Powder into Jinx, and how Violet was forced to grow up after the death of her guardian and friends.

To avoid any spoilers, I worry about putting anything more about the plot besides general descriptions. The main thing that this post is focused on is the animation and execution of a video game story into enjoyable media for anyone. The animation style allows for the characters on screen to show a large array of emotions that allows for more to be said through the actions of the characters rather than having to translate the feeling into the dialog. The vast landscapes that were painted demonstrated the gap between the two cities as well as the character design.

The animation style caught the attention of a lot of people who had never played League of Legends and made them want to watch Arcane. You can watch this series if you have been playing League since its first launch, if you are just getting into the game, or even if you have never touched the game. No matter which category you fall into, you will be able to fully enjoy this show. You don’t need any prior knowledge about any of the champions that appear within Arcane. If you do happen to know about the lore, there are easter eggs hidden within the show that is fun to notice, but they do not affect the understanding of the storyline. Arcane has seen mainstream success on Netflix and a second season is now being begged for by fans. This kind of success has never been seen before with animation adaptations of video games; whenever something similar has been attempted in the past, they have been too closed off to new fans. Other attempts needed viewers to already be familiar with the basics such as the world and main characters, thus restricting who could watch, follow, and enjoy the show. Arcane cuts all of that out and focuses on telling a brand new story to all of the watchers and makes sure to give the viewers everything they need to stay with the story.

With the massive success Riot Games has had with Arcane, do you think that other companies will take note and try to copy this strategy or do you think this is something that only Arcane can achieve?