YMMV / Rakuen

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • There's a high possibility that the game is a story that the mother is telling her dying child, so that he can pass on peacefully and know that he was the hero. But was it to comfort the boy, or his mother?
  • The boy doesn't mention his little brother much during a good portion of the game; his mother takes more concern. Is it because he's too little, or because he doesn't want to think about what his younger brother might be going through, having a dead father and a dying older sibling?
• Captain Obvious Reveal:
  • The reveal that the boy lost his hair to chemotherapy can come across like this given how the hat just happens to cover most of where his hair would be, but you still can't see any hair sticking out implying he's bald, and since no one mentions why he's in the hospital and he seems healthy enough otherwise it's easy to guess he's The Littlest Cancer Patient. Plus you can look at the boy's prescriptions on the table as early as the beginning of the game, and a quick Google search on the medicines can spoil his condition before you even leave his room.
  • On a similar note is the one regarding Yami not being a real person given how initially only the boy is ever allowed to interact with them and they have a Meaningful Name that's a bit too on the nose for both their personality and appearance.
• Genius Bonus: The medications listed on the treatment plan in the Boy's room are Pemetrexed Disodium and Carboplatin. Those working in the healthcare field may recognize these as part of a chemotherapy regimen with the notorious possible side effect of making your hair fall out.
• Realism-Induced Horror: As we find out, a nuclear meltdown has happened, all but stated to be Fukushima. The workers at the plant die while completing a shutdown, and the hospital loses supplies, patients and space to flooding.
• Spiritual Successor: The game has been compared to To the Moon, an RPG Maker game that Rakuen's creator Laura Shigihara has composed songs for. While they go about it using different methods, both games are ultimately silly but heartfelt stories about granting the final requests of dying patients by experiencing their memories with the help of an alternate dream-like world.
• The Woobie: There is a Long List, not helped by the Fukushima meltdown happening during the game:
  • First is the boy who is in the hospital because he has a form of cancer. As revealed towards the end, the doctors know that he's not recovering and then he loses his father who saves the city from a nuclear meltdown. Despite this, he puts on a Stepford Smiler facade around everyone except his mother, as his body slowly succumbs to illness and he helps everyone in the fantasy world.
  • In the meantime the boy's mother is his guide throughout the fantasy world, and tries to help him along. She just lost her husband, and her son dies at the end of the game. All she can do is keep going, for her other child's sake, the boy's little brother.
  • Sue is a sweet little girl whose father hasn't come to visit her, and collects marbles. It's because he's a homeless gambling addict. Everyone in the hospital is saddened when she dies, including the boy.