This is worth every penny

Hooooooooooo boy, where to start with Rakuen?
First off, I want to start this by saying that I played Rakuen at a relatively tough time in my life. One that left me slightly emotionally unsatble, but I think that helped me really come to understand the meaning behind this masterpiece of a game.

I've been a fan of Laura Shigihara for a while now, but mostly because of her singing. When I heard that she was makiing a game, I hopped right on the criminally small hype train and rode that baby all the way to Emotional Breakdown Station, which is a cheezy way of saying that I cried. A lot. This game left me a blithering mess for hours afterward, so be warned.

Now, let's get into the nitty gritty.

The Story
If you're looking for a good story, then you've found it. Rakuen is a story about a young boy in a hospital, so you know it's gonna be sad. It's quite a bit longer than the game that most people compare it to To The Moon by about double the length, rounding out to about 10 hours of heavily story based gameplay.

The story takes place (mostly) in the imagination of a young boy, and is split up into segments based on the person of focus. Everyone in the hospital has their own story, and each is more touching than the last. You explore a fantasy land of Too-Damn-Cute™ characters and areas, while learning the ins and outs of each patient at the hospital, all of which have their own fantasy counterparts.

Every segment is sad in its own right, but all together they make a perfect flurry packed with enough emotion to last a lifetime.

The Gameplay
The gameplay in and of itself isn't compicated. RPG Maker iso perspective. Classic indie story title stuff. What makes it so enticing though, is the puzzles. While not being complicated, the puzzles have this perfect little quirk to them, that just makes them fun to solve. I don't know if it was the characters you interact with, or what but every little step in those puzzles was just a joy to solve. They all have life to them, and each one is specifically tailored to the character arc it's placed in. All of them make perfect sense in the world that they're built in, and that's something we haven't see very often in recent times, heck even To The Moon's puzzles didn't make full sense in why they were there (more specifically, the puzzles to go down a memory level).

The Music
I said before that I like Laura's music, and I'll say it again. I like Laura Shigihara's music. I primarily know this from her appearances in Kan Gao's music in all of Freebird's games, but she's absolutely outdone herself with an entirely original soundtrack for Rakuen. Each track perfectly fits the area it was used in and designed for, and while I found some of the songs to be a little hard to listen to outright, most didn't have that problem.

If you enjoyed the music as much as I did, you can get it on bandcamp here[laurashigihara.bandcamp.com] or on steam here: http://node2.projectplanet.cn/@store.steampowered.com/app/572910/


Rant
I played this game in a very emotional state. My dog and best friend of the past eleven years had just died not two weeks prior, and that helped me really click with this game. I'm glad that I played it when I did, and I think it'll really help for me to look back on it and reflect later on in life.

Honestly, I sat there sobbing for at least two hours over this ♥♥♥♥♥♥' game. It hit me like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥' truck.

/rant

I made this review with the assumtion that most people here will have at least heard of To The Moon, but in case you haven't, you can find it here: http://node2.projectplanet.cn/@store.steampowered.com/app/206440/

or you can find its sequel here (coming soon, to theaters near you): http://node2.projectplanet.cn/@store.steampowered.com/app/337340/

and hey, if you want, you can even read my review on it here.