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And we swim and we fall, hold my hand through it all

Boy: "Mom, I don't wanna be here anymore."
Mom: "I know dear...but you know what? Now that you're the keeper of the key, you can go anywhere."
Boy: "Can we go together?"
Mom: "Of course."

Rakuen is an Adventure Game, developed by Laura Shigihara in RPG Maker and released for PC through Steam on May 10th, 2017. A sequel titled Mr. Saitou and a port to the Nintendo Switch (which includes Mr. Saitou and the short films) were released on March 23, 2023, and a mobile port is in the works as well.

The game follows the tale of a sick Boy at a hospital, his Mom, and his favorite book, titled Rakuen. Every night, his Mom takes the book and reads him the story of a brave young warrior in a magical land who earns a wish from Morizora, the Guardian of the Forest, by completing all his challenges.

The Boy has been hospitalized for a while now due to his illness, so to cheer him up his Mom finally reveals a family secret: When combined with its key, the book can open the path to the mythical realm from the story. Together the Boy and his Mom enter Morizora's Forest to have a wish granted, only to learn that the Guardian of the Forest has been placed in a deep slumber due to a darkness that has fallen over the land.

Only a special song called "Mori no Kokoro" can lift the darkness and awaken Morizora, but the lyrics and melody can only be learned by heeding the cries of the denizens of the forest. And so the Boy and his Mom embark on a quest to assist the forest inhabitants, each of whom closely resemble his fellow patients at the hospital...


Rakuen provides examples of:

  • Ability Required to Proceed: The paths to the later areas of the game are blocked by bamboo and boulders in Morizora's Forest and barricaded wooden doors in the hospital. The Axe is required to chop past the bamboo and the doors while the Pickaxe is needed to break the boulders down.
  • Alternate Self: Several of the characters found around the hospital share more than just the exact same name and personality as the villagers of Morizora's Forest.
    • Employees such as Panky and Jacky and visitors like Danielle, Cora, and Kazuko also have the same general occupation as their fantasy counterparts.
    • Patients and their loved ones share the exact same issues, relationships, and backstories as their counterparts, but the details of the latter are slightly altered to match the fantastical nature of Morizora's Forest. Each time the Boy successfully helps one of the villagers, the result carries over to their real world counterparts in some way.
  • Ambiguously Evil: The Envoys are the source of the negative energy plaguing the forest, but they are neither malicious nor aggressive. These ghostly creatures chase the Boy very slowly during certain scenes, send him back a few steps or to the previous screen when he touches them, and seem to hover in the darker parts of the game, but that's about it.
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different: During the Runebearer segments, you get to play as Leeble Gemma in Winston's segment, little bear Christina in Tony's segment, Kazuko in Kisaburo's segment, Puchi in Sue's segment, and Mom in her own segment.
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Alice and Dean are a couple of Leebles that live next to Winston. During the festival, Alice is trying to ask Dean how was the work that day, but he gets constantly distracted, at one point by the fact that Alice has ears. (For the record, every Leeble has huge triangular ears that are impossible to not notice.)
  • Bilingual Bonus: For whatever reason the Leebles keep asking if the Boy and his mother are some sort of horse since humans aren't native there. Then you find out the old man named Uma (which means "horse" in Japanese) has also been coming here, so the Leebles might have just misunderstood his name as being his species.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Everyone at the hospital is helped, and the Boy makes their lives better with his actions in the fantasy world. Sue still dies, as do Uma and Kisaburo. The Boy wishes to go to Rakuen, and die, by default. His mother promises to be strong, and she goes back to take care of his little brother.
  • Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": There are animals in the fantasy world that look, act and bleat like sheep, but are called Korshals instead of sheep.
  • Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": Cats in the fantasy world are purple, vaguely humanoid creatures.
  • Cooldown Hug: In the climax of the story, Yami's resentment over his dead father and fear over his own impending death becomes so strong that it makes the darkness leak out of Morizora's Forest and into the real world. Realizing that he is the dark manifestation of her son, Mom is able to calm him down and lift the darkness over both the real world and the Forest by singing him the completed "Mori no Kokoro" before offering him a hug.
  • A Day in the Limelight: The process of learning each a part of the "Mori no Kokoro" involves using the book to summon a door that leads to the past of a patient's life. During these segments the game will let you take control of one of the patient's loved ones as the past plays out from their perspective.
  • Death of a Child:
    • In Tony's backstory, his son Benny died while his daughter Christina was watching him. For that reason he refused to speak to Christina, though he kept their music box.
    • Sue is able to see her friend Puchi one last time, but she eventually dies from her illness without reconciling with her father Uma.
    • At the end of the story, the Boy finally earns his wish from Morizora, which is to travel on a fancy boat to Rakuen just like the hero of his favorite story did. It soon becomes clear that Rakuen is the afterlife and the Boy is finally prepared to accept his fate.
  • Despair Event Horizon: For most of the game The Boy maintains a positive attitude despite his illness, but the sudden passing of his friend Sue is what finally breaks his spirit. He gives in to his own negative thoughts and fears and lets Yami, the manifestation of his pessimistic thoughts, take him away.
  • Double Meaning: The lyrics of "Walking Through The Night" can be interpreted as a lullaby the Mom wrote to help the Boy go to sleep. But in the context of the scene it's sung in, the Mom is comforting her dying son, encouraging him to not fear passing on to the afterlife and leaving her behind.
    Close your eyes, it is time for you to tell the world goodnight
    It may be dark inside, but there are still stars shining in the sky
    Close your eyes, I am here and everything will be alright
    I am right here by your side as we go walking through the night
  • Dual-World Gameplay: Interacting with certain objects in the real world world will have effects on the fantasy world. For example, watering a potted plant in the hospital room will cause its corresponding plant in Morizora's Forest to send up a giant vine up to the sky world.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: The theme of the game is that although you ARE helping the people at the hospital a great deal, you can't magically solve all their problems - Kisaburo still has dementia, Tony's son is still dead, etc. Despite this theme, a few characters are able to avoid a bittersweet ending after all they've been through. The credits sequence shows that Gemma woke up from her coma and reunited with Winston. They've been through so much, it's almost like the game just said, "Okay, fine, let them have this." Additionally, Tony is able to reconcile with his estranged daughter Christina, allowing him to be involved with her life once more.
  • Emo Teen: Yami is a cynical, red eyed child wearing a black hoodie and a bandage over one eye who appears whenever the Boy is trying to sleep. He actually represents the Boy's sadness, anger and resentment about being sick and about his father dying.
  • Fantastic Racism: There are some tensions between the Kanko Leeble tribe and the striped Ilbo Leeble tribe, as while the two are fine trading with each other relations beyond being friends are strongly frowned upon. This is shown as a reflection of the real life racism Korean/Japanese couples face, as it's what Winston (a Korean man in real life, and a Kanko in the fantasy world) and Gemma (a Japanese woman in real life, and an Ilbo in the other world) had to struggle with prior to Gemma's coma.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • When you first visit Morizora and his helpers explain to you that you need to help your fellow patients to awaken him, the examples they give are "A man whose connection with his wife has been severed" and "A woman who prepares to lose that which is the most dear to her". Obviously the first one refers to Winston and Gemma, but only at the end of the game is it made clear that the second example is about the Boy's mother herself, soon to lose the son she loves.
    • When you meet Sue's self in Morizora's Forest her sprite is semi-transparent implying Sue is close to death.
  • Friendship Song: Sue's song is dedicated to thanking her best friend Puchi for being there for her through the tough times in her life.
  • Heroic BSoD: The Boy suffers this after Sue dies, despite his efforts in trying to help her. Yami, revealed to be his cynical alter ego, takes his place for the rest of the game, and the Boy doesn't return until Mom is able to bring him back using the completed "Mori no Kokoro".
  • Implausible Deniability: It's revealed that the mother believes that her son will get better. Yami and the Boy reveal that they overheard the doctors saying that he's not getting better, even as Mom protests that it's not true. It's justified since the Boy has cancer, she just lost her husband to a nuclear accident, and she is trying to be strong for her family. The final stage of the game is about the mother reassuring the Boy that she can still be strong if he dies, that he doesn't need to try to protect her by fighting to live, and that she can let him go.
  • Invisible to Normals: Aside from the Boy, Mom, and Uma, nobody in the hospital seems to notice all the fancy blue doors leading into Morizora's forest. On the flip side, the Leebles become alarmed when the Boy and Mom suddenly poof into existence because they can't see the magical door they just walked through.
  • Insert Song:
    • The "Mori no Kokoro" are fully voiced songs of strong emotional value that are needed to wake up Morizora.
      • "Lights", "The Lonely Tree", and "Walking Through The Night" are all performed by Laura Shigihara.
      • "My Little Girl" is sung by Andy Hull.
      • "Yours" is performed by Dale North.
    • "Build A Little World With Me", sung by Laura Shigihara, plays when the Boy dreams about having fun with Sue in all her little marble worlds and wakes up to learn that she passed away that night.
  • Leit Motif: Parts of certain songs in the soundtrack are strategically snuck into other songs.
    • The chorus of "Jump" is heard in part of "Welcome to the Forest."
    • A more somber and creepier version of Tony's music box theme, "My Little Girl," can be heard in Tony's house.
    • Sue's "Tiny Planets" theme is played sped up when you've helped certain characters. A slowed down version also plays in the western side of the forest.
    • Tiny Planets, in turn, contains part of "Build a little world with me."
  • Littlest Cancer Patient: The Boy is suffering from a chronic illness, but he still has enough energy to go on an adventure in the magical world of Morizora's Forest. We later learn that this illness is cancer, the Boy knows the doctors' prognosis isn't looking good, and he is actually upset about being ill. The ending has him come to terms with his fate while being assured that his Mom will remain strong without him.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • Rakuen itself means "Paradise" and is typically treated like one in the Boy's story. Fitting considering it's actually the afterlife rather than some mythical Utopia.
    • Everyone you meet in the hospital typically has a Leeble with the exact same name as them in the story world that represents them and often has similar problems.
    • Yami's name means "darkness" or "shadow", fitting his Emo Teen appearance and attitude and how he's most often seen at night when all the lights are out. It also foreshadows how he's the dark manifestations of the Boy himself.
    • The song needed to wake up Morizora, "Mori no Kokoro", means "heart of the forest" in Japanese. Learning each part of the song involves bringing each character closure after using the power of the book to learn their innermost fears, regrets, and failures.
  • Never Say "Die": Despite all the deaths in the story, the words "die" and "passed away" are never uttered a single time. The two biggest context clues that point towards their fates are that they're never seen or heard from again, and that all of the deceased appear on Morizora's magical boat headed towards Rakuen at the end of the story. Averted toward the end when Mom confronts Yami!Boy, whose mentions of his father's demise and his impending death are explicit.
  • No Name Given: The Boy goes unnamed for the whole game. Same for his mother and father, who are simply referred to as Mom and Dad in their dialogue boxes.
  • Parental Abandonment:
    • Sue's father left her family due to a gambling addiction. He is currently the homeless man known as Uma, and despite camping out in the abandoned part of the hospital he never once pays her a visit out of shame for his past actions.
    • Kisaburo due to dementia no longer recognizes his wife and grown children. They convince their mom to put him in a hospital.
    • Though he doesn't admit it until the end, the Boy is hurt that his father chose to stay at the nuclear plant and give up his life to prevent a meltdown rather than evacuating when he was given the chance to leave.
  • Parental Love Song: Tony's song is all about how proud he is of his daughter while Mom's song reassures the Boy that she'll always be by his side.
  • Permanently Missable Content: The patient lounge can be decorated with all sorts of dolls, furniture, and pets that can be found throughout the journey. Most of these collectibles can be obtained at any time, but a few of them are hidden in areas that are only accessible during certain parts of the story:
    • Ogee the Cat can be found in the master bed room closet in Tony's memory. Grab it before you complete the memory and obtain the second part of the "Mori no Kokoro" or it will be gone for good.
    • Saffron the Goldfish, the Panky Doll, and Ao Boshi Matsuri CD can only be obtained during the Star Night festival. Once the festival ends and day rolls over, they will be unobtainable for the rest of the game.
  • Punny Name: NO HOLDS BARD!!! is name of the rock band formed by the rebellious Sunflower, Lil' Budz, and Kreyg. Get it? Barred? Don't worry, they'll spell it out for you.
  • Reprise Medley: After all songs of the "Mori no Kokoro" have been collected, everyone comes together to sing their individual song in harmony with Mom, who has failed to assure Yami that everything will be alright and had broken down crying while trying to sing her part of the song by herself.
  • Rewatch Bonus: Replaying the game knowing that Yami is the Boy's innermost thoughts rather than a separate character puts his demeanor in a different light. Despite his unshakable optimism, the Boy has to wrestle with many negative thoughts such as resentment over those around him passing away one by one and thinking his illness makes him too weak to be a hero or deserve a wish from Morizora.
  • Scatterbrained Senior: Kisaburo is an old man suffering from delirium caused by the the tumors that metastasized to his brain. He thinks he's at his job rather than a hospital, never recognizes his wife when she visits, and much to the ire of the hospital staff, has been sneaking out to dig up buckets of dirt and dump it all in a back room. Completing his quest reveals that he was trying to use his fleeting moments of clarity to build a small flower garden as a token of his love for his wife before the disease claimed his life.
  • Shout-Out:
    • One of the paintings in Monsieur Bud's mansion is of him observing two people dancing inside of a lighthouse.
    • A recurring NPC seen in Morizora's Forest is a singing sunflower. Creator Laura Shigihara's first big break was composing the music for the game, as well as voicing the Sunflower.
    • As a more general RPG reference the frog the Boy finds and hopes to keep as a pet is named Glenn. The Boy's mother also mentions during one of her dialogues that she used to play a videogame where the characters traveled through various time periods.
    • There is also the obvious parallel between Gemma & Winston and Romeo & Juliet.
  • Silly Love Songs: Gemma's and Kisaburo's songs are both songs directed at how much they love their spouses, even if separated by a coma or failing memories, respectively.
  • Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Tony is a Grumpy Old Man who snaps at everyone who enters his room, while his Morizora's Forest counterpart is a cranky old bear who tramples the Leebles' vegetable gardens whenever he goes on a rampage. Both complain that nobody from their family ever visits them. The process of getting his part of the "Mori no Kokoro" reveals that when his son Benny died in an accident while under the watch of his daughter Christina, Tony stopped talking to Christina out of grief. She grew up assuming he hated her, when in reality Tony blamed himself for Benny's death but had no idea how to deal with his emotions.
  • Stepford Smiler:
    • The Boy is a Cheerful Child who is always wearing a smile on his face despite his condition, but deep down inside he is mourning his recently deceased father. He is also frustrated by the progression of his cancer because he overheard the doctor say that it was only getting worse.
    • The Boy's mother visits the hospital regularly to cheer him up, but her persistent smile hides constant worry and turmoil over making sure his brother is safe with her mother, her recently deceased husband, the Boy's worsening condition, and eventually having to let the Boy go when he desires to go to Rakuen.
  • Sugar Bowl: In contrast to the dull, gray confines of the hospital, Morizora's Forest is a beautiful, colorful world full of welcoming creatures and little danger. The most the inhabitants usually have to worry about is a grouchy bear ruining their vegetable gardens, the Envoy causing mischief around the village, and a mysterious culprit eating all the food from the sky mansion's fridge.
  • Supporting Protagonist: At least for the final section of the story. Much of the endgame is actually dedicated to the Mom coming to terms with the Boy's inevitable demise, relegating the Son to this role. Throughout the entire game, the Mom is a constant Number Two, and during the last act, she's the playable character. Struggling through her Son's illness fills the backbone of the story and leads up to the ending.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: Talking to Danielle in the cafeteria about Sue right before the ending of the game reveals that the real Sue was somehow able to reunite with Puchi at the hospital before her death, with Danielle stating that she's never seen Sue so happy, other than when she was spending time with the Boy.
  • Tragic Keepsake: Tony's most prized possession is a broken music box that used to play the tune of a lullaby he'd sing to his daughter Christina. The two haven't spoken to each other ever since the accident that claimed his son Benny's life, but the quest to fix the music box leads to you helping him reconcile with her.
  • Trauma Inn: The ability to sleep in the Leeble Village Inn is evocative of this but since the game lacks combat and thus no stats to replenish it serves no gameplay purpose.
  • Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Downplayed. In the fantasy world Kisaburo's counterpart is a goofy fishman creature, while his wife Kazuko's counterpart is an elegant lady whose only inhuman features are colorful hair and fins on the side of her head. Could also be an example of Humanoid Female Animal.
  • Wham Line:
    • Immediately after the bombshell that is Sue's death as listed below, Yami visits the Boy once again, and what he tells him is the first sign about his true identity.
      Yami: They all leave eventually.
    • Not the line itself, but who says it: the Boy asking why his father left him, why he chose to leave.
    • The Boy's wish: he asks to go to Rakuen, to the afterlife, rather than for his cancer to be cured.
    • Throughout Gemma and Winston's section early in the game, you stumble across a number of newspaper clippings about a catastrophe and people being exposed to radiation, all a few days after March 11, the day of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
  • Wham Shot:
    • Sue's empty hospital bed, following her Dying Dream of visiting her marble worlds.
    • Yami turning into an envoy, and vanishing with the Boy.
    • The last shot before the credits: the Boy taking his hat off, revealing he lost his hair from chemotherapy.

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