How the game's narrative can make you interpret things in different ways, what are the messages you get from the game by the end. This post contains heavy spoilers & is meant for people who finished Rakuen or those who want to see it's value/message without playing it.
Warning: Heavy Spoilers!
Rakuen's story follows the boy (name isn't given) in his journey in two worlds. Being a small child with terminal illness, being based on actual real-life event, and being narrated in this the way. I think the whole game isn't something that happened to the boy, but things the boy imagining happened.
Or maybe, the whole story is what his mother told his brother about his latest moments.
From the viewpoint of the main character, we meet many characters... Both real and magical, they all suffered something in their past that still follows them till this day.
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Hospital Residents Stories
Through the magical world, the boy gets to know the problem his neighbors were facing.
Winston who visited his comatose wife everyday was struggling with guilt. In the magical forest, the boy meets her, and Gemma only wished to let her husband know that he isn't the reason she became lost conscious. Their story is a heart breaking story where their parents refused to let them marry because he's Korean and she's Japanese.
Tony the old man hated people but inside he was lonely, he also treasured a broken music box even though it couldn't play anything any more. That music box was one he bought for his daughter who he loved so much but avoided her after her younger brother died. Both him and his daughter felt they are the reason of his son's death and both thought the other hated them for it.
Kisaburo who loved his wife so much started to lose his mind and couldn't recognize her anymore, and was digging the ground around the hospital without explaining himself. Only the boy seems to understand Kisaburo words for some reason. In his story, Kisaburo wanted to tell his wife Kazoku something but she's in front of him and thinks she's a stranger. Finally we see was planting the flower he and kazoku loved, he couldn't recognize her anymore, the only thing he could do is to make her know he still loved her by planting them.
Uma is a mysterious old man who knows about the magical book/forest. Like the boy he travels between both worlds and it's hard to know if he's a good or a bad guy. In his past he abandoned his wife and daughter and gambled their money to debt. He felt so guilty that couldn't meet his daughter when she needed him the most.
Sue is became closest friend of the boy, after every story arc he gets a piece of marble and gives them to her. She has a marble collections she calls planets and she was very sad because she moved and left her friend behind. In her story we're shown that her friend was a female dog she promised to stay with but couldn't keep the promise. She's also sad because her father left her but she doesn't blame him... Oh, and her father is Uma!!
Idealism vs Pessimism
The game shows this theme in form of the boy's idealism despite being ill and seeing the suffering of everyone around him, and Yami who gives everything that happen to the boy a negative meaning.
This is more fitting as it's implied that Yami is the manifestation of the boy's dark feelings, and he might even be the boy's true self (this will make the one we play with through the game a persona he created to cope with pain.)
The Strong/Broken Mother
Through the game as you play with the boy, his mother follows him and guides him... She's always smiling and always have solutions to any problem they face. She loves to make puns (and explain them somethimes) and it's good to hear every line of dialog from her.
That all falls apart by the last section of the game, as it turns that she has lost her husband and she knows deep down that he son is dying. She smiles and denies that fact, and I think she wants to have her son's wish granted, so he can be healthy again.
Rakuen is Paradise
That's the meaning of the word in Japanese, it was also the wish of the boy... I played the game thinking that his wish was to be cured or for the people to be happy or something, but I was wrong!! He wishes to go to the paradise/heaven.
The last scene in the game is heartbreaking.You see, the boy, lost his hair due to cancer bidding his mother farewell Then he goes to Rakuen, along with Sue, Uma and Kisaburo. The three of them were implied to have died before him.
The latest chapter is less about saving the boy, and is more about making the boys mother accept that she'll lose someone else of the family, and that's okay. She did what she could, and she have to be strong. After all, she's his "Hero."
What are your thoughts?
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- All images are screenshots from the game. Used here only for review purposes.