User:Maxwell1998/sandbox

Rakuen (Video game)
Rakuen is a two-dimensional indie, roleplaying, adventure video game that has the feel and looks of a game from the 16 bit era. It is a sprite-based exploration game, in which text boxes serve as the primary conduit for communication. The name Rakuen is translated from Japanese as "pleasure garden." The game is currently available for PC on Mac OS X and Windows. The game has an estimated run time of around 10-12 hours. It has also been noted that the game is completely free of combat.

Plot
A boy is laid up in a hospital ward and is visited by his mother everyday. The mother brings a book with her to read to him, the name of the book is Rakuen. It is a story about a magical land that is inhabited by a creature that grants wishes known as the Guardian of the Forest. The mother reveals a secret to the boy that the book's world is real and they can visit it together. The boy asks his mom if they can visit the storybook world so he can ask the Guardian of the Forest to grant him one wish. In order to receive the wish, the boy must complete a set of challengesThe boy's main task is to collect pieces of music for new friends that he makes throughout the game, placing music at the center of the story. As the boy is exploring through the game he comes across an entrance to a parallel fantasy, one that is intimately connected to the real world. He meets really strange characters during his endeavor, (a grumpy onion and a pretentious rose, just to name a few). The boy also undertakes quests on behalf of the hospital patients and their fantasy-world avatars. Some of those quests include searching for lost items, collecting needful items, and figuring out logic puzzles while following basic instructions. The rewards earned from these quests is that your new friends achieve happiness, as in you feel rewarded for the end of their distress.

Moral
The boy and his patients try to make sense of a world of cancer diagnoses, of children killed in accidents and adults robbed of their reason. These topics are shown through the environment of a hospital ward and the fantasy of a candy-cane world.

Reception
Polygon rated the game a 9.5/10

Metacritic gave the game a Metascore of 84/100 and users rated the game an 8.3/10

Awards/Recognition
Rakuen received an Honorable Mention for "Excellence in Narrative" from the 2018 Independent Games Festival

Rock Paper Shotgun named it one of the Best PC games of 2017

Gamestar rated the game an 87/100, earning a gold-award and receiving a blue star award for "Best Story"

Polygon named it to its "Best Games of 2017" list