Oh boy, was I not ready for Rakuen. Rakuen, created by To The Moon composer Laura Shigihara, is similarly an adventure game developed via RPG Maker software with a strong narrative focus. It concerns an unnamed boy currently undergoing treatment at a hospital who is regularly visited by his mother, and spends his time talking to a lonely boy called Yami who visits his ward after dark and reading his favorite book, Rakuen. It's eventually revealed that the book has a mystical power which allows those of a pure heart to step into the alternative world depicted in the story.

The game isn't quite as linear as To The Moon, however. Both the hospital wards and the Secret of Mana-ish Looble Village of the alternative world operate as hubs, with new areas becoming unlocked over time or through finding new items and puzzle-solving. Your goal is to awaken the giant spirit Morizora by completing a song, each verse of which belongs to four other patients at the hospital. By helping them deal with their respective illnesses, learning about their pasts, and helping them to realize their hopes and dreams, the player acquires their verses and gets one step closer to reawakening Morizora and earning their heart's wish.

The game has something of a dreamlike quality that doesn't quite translate to a cut-and-dry explanation of its progression. Along with the creepy "envoy" spirits that lead to a few spooky Silent Hill moments, there are times where you find yourself in areas of the hospital that shouldn't exist, or in the past lives of certain characters. There are puzzles to solve, usually of the type where you need a passcode or the right key item to proceed, but the game does all it can to ensure that you aren't left too long in the dark. The protagonist's mom is a constant presence for much of the game, and is always ready for a hint if you're unsure where to go next (there's an in-game journal for this too) or are missing whatever you need to solve the immediate conundrum. Like many narrative-focused adventure games, it's more interested in telling you its story than letting you get stuck on diabolical mindteasers or wandering around clueless of where to go next. There's a few collectible side-quests to distract you from time to time and the hubs take some exploring to see in full, but it's largely focused on spinning a yarn and taking you along for the ride.

I hesitate to say too much more about the story and where it goes, but I will warn folk that this one is a weepie. Laura Shigihara clearly took a few pointers from the poignant To The Moon, beyond the capacity of the modest RPGMaker software as a delivery method for affecting stories, and there are times when the game is downright devastating. The game's sincere enough in its tales of compassion and bravery that these downer moments feel earned, rather than nakedly manipulative of the emotions, and there's enough levity - I really like the game's writing, and how the mom character is a big ol' pun-dropping dork - that you're not constantly wading through sadness molasses to get to the next bit of story, but the times when they hit... well, they hit.

Overall, I really enjoyed Rakuen. I made the mistake of underestimating To The Moon when I originally played it because of how it looked and how easily it could've mishandled its sensitive themes of autism and neurodegenerative disease, and Rakuen's in the same boat in a lot of respects. It has some heavy themes and cruel surprises, but is otherwise so wholesome and optimistic that it rarely feels like it's drowning in its own misery. I thought it was exceptionally well-handled, both in terms of its themes and in terms of its puzzle design, writing, and the visual and audio (lots of original songs with real singers) aspects of its presentation. The one complaint I have - and it's really petty in any context, but this is just who I am - is that you can permanently miss a particular collectible and lose out on the last few achievements. It shouldn't matter, but it does; a design flaw as irritating and detrimental as a typo at the worst moment or an unexpected crash when you haven't saved in a while (though I fortunately didn't suffer either of those in Rakuen). Besides that, it's a stellar and quite substantial adventure game perfect for anyone looking to get suplexed through a table emotionally.

Rating: 4 out of 5.