Rakuen

So, here’s the deal: I want to recommend Rakuen to you all. More often than not, when I come across a notably good Indie RPG, I like to make a rant devoted to praising its better qualities, because such games need whatever advertising they can get, not having the budget for such, nor general media coverage, that games from larger (and almost always less deserving) companies are gifted. And Rakuen is most certainly one of those notably good Indie RPGs, and then some.

But I do a lot of these rants, and while some games have a specific characteristic that I can hone in upon to shine a spotlight of praise, such as Pathfinder: Kingmaker’s perfection of the tabletop-to-video-game format, or Cosmic Star Heroine’s simple fun factor, at other times, I can’t really do that. Not because Rakuen lacks for signature elements of greatness, mind you--I daresay it’s certainly as singular in its positive qualities as any of the other Indie games I’ve hyped up in past rants. Rather, it’s because to share most of Rakuen’s best exclusive traits would be to lessen their weight as you experience the game as a whole. I fear this rant will surely fall short of properly conveying how worthwhile Rakuen is of your time and attention. But it still deserves what little justice I can do it.

If I were to describe Rakuen’s basic premise and style without detail, I’d say it’s a game that’s sort of like what you’d get if you mixed that “Young person goes to a magical land that emotionally and personally mirrors his/her own reality” trope that late 80s and early 90s kids’ movies were so fond of, with Undertale, and made it into the kind of RPG that the people at Roseportal Games think they’re making.

To describe the game by the soul of its matter, however, I’d say that Rakuen is basically a story about the beauty and tragedy of life. Not life in the grand, romantic sense, as you might normally associate with an RPG. Not life in the poetic and/or philosophical sense, as you might think of if you’re familiar with RPGs like Shin Megami Tensei: Persona Q, Nier: Automata, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, or Knights of the Old Republic 2. No, Rakuen is not trying to make great overtures to the act of living, nor unravel the secrets of life’s purpose and truths. Rakuen is a story about the beauty and tragedy of life as we may live it, life in the simple, profound possibilities of average existences, ones which we recognize from some level of personally having witnessed pieces of them. Rakuen’s characters are people you’ve known and talked to. The dilemmas, triumphs, strength, and bravery of Rakuen are those that you or someone close to you may face, or have faced. Rakuen’s lore is a disaster documented, historical.

...that’s as far as I can get. I’ve been sitting at this screen for more hours of my day off than I care to think about, trying to no avail to continue this rant. Every time I try to be eloquent about what Rakuen is, what makes it wonderful, the rant unravels into an unruly, purple-prosy mess. When I try to corral my babble with specific details of Rakuen’s characters and story, my and its purposes both wind up eluding me. I cannot get the words to work with me on this, and that’s frustrating, because words are basically all I’ve got going for me. Calistria knows I ain’t gonna get by on my looks or physical prowess.

But maybe that’s how it should be. Because I can at least verbalize this much: Rakuen is about feeling. Its ambition is to open your heart, to move you, and it succeeds very well in that aim. This is a game of poignance, a study of humanity as a being of connection and emotion. And as such, it is beautiful, and I cannot conceive that there will be a one among you who will not cry at least once during your time with Rakuen.

That’s what my recommendation must come down to, I guess. All I can convey confidently and eloquently, and all that really matters for me to express properly, is that you will feel Rakuen, and it may leave you a better man or woman for having witnessed it.

I can make judgments on its peripherals, I suppose, if you want more details (and I don’t blame you for that wish, given my general failure to describe the game past my own raw, unspecified reaction to it). Graphically-speaking, it gets the job done in conveying the color and whimsy of its fantasy, and is adequate the rest of the time, but it’s an RPG Maker creation, and you can tell it--not a quality that puts me off at all, mind you, and I don’t think it should bother you, either, but there’s no denying its visual simplicity. The character art is basic, but solid. Also, Rakuen shines strongly on its musical front, with many beautiful themes, and also tunes that become beautiful to you in association with the game--the game’s creator, Laura Shigihara, is also its composer, and her talent and classical training shine strongly. Apparently she also was tapped to do some musical work for Deltarune, which, honestly, should tell you everything you need to know about Ms. Shigihara’s musical abilities--I think that when Toby Freaking Fox is coming to you and asking for a tune, that’s a good indication that you know what you’re doing.

What else, what else...oh, battle system. There isn’t one. What challenge Rakuen may pose to the player comes in the form of exploration and puzzles alone. If this is a dealbreaker for you, well, best steer clear of Rakuen. But I’d urge you to reconsider that viewpoint, because you’re avoiding a hell of a great game--and for that matter, you’ll be missing out on some other really exemplary RPGs, too. Embric of Wulfhammer’s Castle, a great emotional RPG in its own right, has, like, less than half a dozen battles in its entirety, and the excellent Torment: Tides of Numenera can basically be played from start to finish without taking part in any more than a single fight. While admittedly 1 of the most easily recognized signatures of the genre, an RPG’s worth is surely greater than the frequency of its combat.

On the gameplay front, I suppose I will point out that the outside-of-battle stuff is sometimes slow-going. It all works as it should, mind, it’s just that Rakuen wasn’t designed for someone who’s especially in a hurry. Which I get, and I can respect on a certain level, but at the same time, I’ve got a LOT of RPGs still on my plate, and the gaming industry isn’t slowing down any time soon, so it’s hard, sometimes, not to feel that a developer who neglects to put a Run button in their game just doesn’t respect that her audience’s time is valuable. For a dedicated gamer--and I think it’s fair to say that the majority of games like Rakuen have an audience of this kind; you don’t see a lot of “casuals” playing story-driven RPG Maker games--the basic feature of a Sprint button is going to ultimately save them hours, even days of wasted time over the course of their lifetime.

Luckily, though, this already minor fault is made all the less significant by a patch that creates a Run button in the game, so it doesn’t end up being a problem to Rakuen. I would certainly recommend making use of this mod; it was a very pleasing addition to the game for me.

I think that’s going to be it. I know this probably isn’t a very good rant, given my reticence to really speak in specific terms, and perhaps it isn’t even a very good recommendation for Rakuen. Nonetheless, I hope you’ll trust the earnestness of my assertions, if not their substance, and given Rakuen an honest chance. Because I think that it’s wonderful.