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Rakuen is a small JRPG about a young boy in a hospital, who is led to a fantasy world by his children's book Rakuen about Morizora's Forest. With his mother, he wants to ask Morizora, the guardian of the forest, for a wish. On their adventure, he travels back and forth between the two worlds, helping the patients and visitors of the hospital: Gemma, a woman who has been in a coma for a long time and whose husband Winston never leaves her side. Tony, a grumpy old man with a broken music box that he protects with his life, and whose family is torn apart. Kisaburo, a man who is losing his mind and often sneaks out of the hospital to dig in the ground. And Sue, a little girl who has a large marble collection, but has never been able to say goodbye to her best friend.
The game is divided into five sections and in each one you help one of the patients in the hospital. The characters are all thought out with a lot of love and it's a wonderful experience to have their story told in the hospital and the fantasy world in different ways because each character also exists as a magical being in Morizora's forest. This makes a point of why I think the story is so incredibly beautifully crafted. All of them have something that is bothering them during their stay in the hospital and those situations can often occur in daily life, which is why you can put yourself in their situations really well. This has led to the fact that I often started crying and for a few minutes I was not able to continue the game. Especially because now and then you could only realize and process certain details and story connections of the characters later. Even though the game is incredibly emotional, there were moments when I laughed as well because situations and dialogues were just hilarious, but still fit into the world. The only thing that bothered me about the characters and the story was that certain things were not developed enough in my opinion. For example, Sue's story was relatively short compared to the others, raised an unanswered question, and consisted mostly of cutscenes. This was very rarely the case, but there could have been a bit more depth.
The adventure is designed in such a way that you not only travel between the two worlds, but often have to solve puzzles as well. The puzzles are relatively easy, but still require more thought from time to time. You often have to explore your beautiful surrounding to get clues and progress. Additionally, not only do you find important items for the story, but also pets and other items that you can collect for a community room in the hospital to fill over time.
As already mentioned, Morizora's forest is fantastically designed. The world really looks like a small forest with the most diverse creatures you can only dream of: the Leebles, various plants, bears, sirens and more. The atmosphere is often very relaxing and it's just fun to walk around the areas and look at everything. Whereby a point of criticism would be that I would have liked an option to run faster. Every now and then it was a bit annoying to run back and forth between places at snail's pace. But back to the atmosphere: The game also takes place in the hospital and in retrospective memories and I'll be honest, some sections were creepy from time to time. The game is definitely not a horror game, but darkness and loud clock ticking for example can create tension. A lot is also brought out by the music in the game and I love the music in this game. Laura Shigihara not only created the game, but also composed the music and sang the songs. Especially the songs that are meant for the individual characters are so incredibly touching and even made my crying worse.
In summary, I can recommend Rakuen to anyone who likes small RPGs, puzzles and emotional stories. Especially the emotional aspect is something to be prepared for. I can assure you that if you buy the game, you should also buy a box of tissues. Rakuen is a game where I wish I could forget everything and play it again without any knowledge. Laura Shigihara has definitely created a small masterpiece with Rakuen.