Showing posts with label Laura Shigihara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laura Shigihara. Show all posts

Monday, June 12, 2017

Blog: Thoughts on Rakuen

I was pretty much always going to like Rakuen. I’ve admired Laura Shigihara’s work in video game music for a long time and I was excited when she started work on a game of her own, even though it meant we’d hear less from here for a while. Four years later, Rakuen is out and it’s a beautiful game. It’s an illustration of the space available in games to tell different stories and to tell stories differently. The stories it tells is heart warming and terribly sad and I think as a work it has important things to say about life, love, loss, forgiveness, perseverance, hope and sadness. I think the game is beautiful, and, like in life, you have to take the what you can from the beautiful and happy moments to help you through the hard ones.

Rakuen, a leather bound story and a cursor with a tail 

It is worth your time to play Rakuen. It’s $11 CAD and it will take about 10 hours. As I said, the story told in this game is important. I also think that the story is told in a game this way is also important. Video games are art. They are their own artform alongside books and movies and they let you experience story in a different way than any other medium. Rakuen exposes you to the feelings of its characters and it drives its story

This post will have spoilers for Rakuen and especially for the late game which I think it is important to discuss. As I said, I think you should play this game first. That being said, this game involves a lot of tough topics, including the death of children, both from accident and illness. It’s treated very respectfully, but it's not shied away from, so this may not be the game for you right now.

Things I Liked

Rakuen is a story game. It has puzzles and exploration, but no combat. You play the Boy and His Mom (neither of them get names) as they go around a hospital meeting other people in the ward and then travelling to Morizora's Forest to help them solve their problems.

I’m very lucky to have spent almost no time in hospital, but Rakuen’s hospital segments feel very genuine. It’s scary and strange and the noises are weird and people say a lot of words that don’t make very much sense. When you start out as the Boy everything feels overwhelming, you’re faced with a mysterious and scary visitor in the middle of the night when you can’t really move. Later you get to wander your hospital ward and start meeting people. You start to get a feeling that something’s not right with the hospital, but the people are nice, so it feels like things are on the edge of being ok.

The light in the hospital


Then your mother arrives and suddenly things feel a lot better. Rakuen does such a good job of conveying that sense of fear and unease you get as a child when you’re in a situation that you can’t control, and then the relief when suddenly your family is there and you know you’re safe. The inclusion of the Boy’s Mother really make Rakuen stand out, especially when so many games want to play the orphan card.

Having a hero that’s an orphan helps create a power fantasy because it cuts your hero’s ties to the world and leaves them as a free agent to do what they want/need to do. However I think the inclusion of family makes the story of Rakuen better, more grounded and more interesting. The game does an excellent job of giving you two characters who love each other and who each have a different view of the world, along with different worries and joys.

The hospital scenes of Rakuen could stand on their own as a game. They might need a little support in terms of mechanics, but they are strong. The heart of Rakuen really comes out when the Boy and his Mother travel to Morizora's Forest. In the game Rakuen is a story that Mom and the Boy read together. One of your first quests is to get the book back, and once you do it starts to open up magical doors.

The light in the forest 


The story is about a young warrior who discovers one day that his clan has disappeared while he was out hunting, he eventually learns that they’ve traveled beyond the sea. He then asks Morizora, the forest guardian to grant him a wish to travel after his clan. The guardian grants him the wish once he finishes several quests and then gives him a boat to sail to the land of Rakuen where his clan is. Once they recover the book, the Boy and his Mom decide to go to Morizora and make a wish of their own.

The Boy and his Mom arrive in Morizora’s Forest and the colour hits the game. The music becomes a lot more light and adventury and you feel like you’ve been dropped into an action RPG from the Super Nintendo. As I mentioned there’s no combat, but you don’t miss it. You journey around the world, solving puzzles and helping people out so they can open up the path for you.

Each character you meet in the real world gets a duplicate in the Forest. Your quest becomes to help the other residents of your ward to resolve the problems they’re facing. You help each person first by helping them in the game side of the Forest and then by delving into the darkness of their own minds. Between these two sections for each person, you experience blind hatred and racism in the face of natural disasters, families falling apart under the stress of the death of a family member, domestic violence, abandonment, and dementia.

Rakuen shows a child's view of a lot of problems

If that sounds hard to play, that’s because it is. Fortunately, you also have to skip across rocks, water plants, find sticks, serve tea, make friends, sing songs and go to a festival. In this way the game feels true to life, letting you experience both the hard things the Boy has to learn and the joy he gets to have in his fantastic adventure with his Mom.

But some problems are just to make the locals happy

The antagonists of Rakuen are apathy and despair. Each adventure the Boy and his Mom go on help teach them how to retain their spirits during the hard times. By extension you get to learn this as well. This helps the game hold together in the later stages, as you realize that the Boy’s condition is terminal and that this journey has a lot to do with helping him and his mom learn how to say good bye.

They are manifestations of apathy, but Mom can protect you.

In the final story of the game, you learn about the Boy and his Mom. You learn that his Father worked at at nuclear power plant, and during a disaster, lost his life saving others. In the end the Boy has to fight despair, but you take on the role of his Mom. You get to help him see how much he is loved and how good life is even if his has been short. In the end, you succeed and the end of the game has satisfaction, if not happiness.


The story of Rakuen is really powerful, and provides a lot for people to think about. I also think they way the story is told is also powerful and it demonstrates how games are their own genre of art and their own way of telling a story.

The art in the game is also really well crafted. The sprites themselves are big and vibrant, but the mood they convey is also really well constructed. In particular the difference between the working parts of the hospital, the abandoned parts of the hospital, the more natural parts of Morizora’s Forest and the magical parts of the Forest all have a distinct feeling, but still feel like a part of a whole world. I know that a lot of the time developing the game went to working on the art assets and it really shows.

Finally, it almost goes without saying, but the music in Rakuen is both beautiful and appropriate. Shigihara is an excellent composer, there’s a reason we see videos from her so often in my favourites. She really understands how to weave music into a game experience. As I said, the music is beautiful but also has a discordant aspect that helps to reinforce that not all is right in the world.

Also the game is pretty charming

Things I didn’t Like


This is one of those cases where the things I didn't like are not huge, but as with all games there are some things that could be a little different.

I found the ending was a little confused. Now I may have misunderstood, in which case you can ignore this, but as the boy dies his main concern is who is going to be there for his mom. After the credits however we see Mom meeting her other son with his grandma, and I think they use one of the sprites for the Boy for the other son which was confusing.

One of my favourite lines, but also a confusing point.

I initially thought that the Mom was adopting an orphan, but, after some reading, I was reminded that Mom mentioned leaving the Boy's brother with his grandparents. If the brother had been shown as an infant or a toddler I think the game might have made sense as presented, although some reminders in game might have helped.

I liked the idea of her adopting because it ties in well with the themes of the last part of the game. Either way it would be nice to have a little more clarity in how the end of the game ties into the concerns of the Boy and his Mom and the general themes of the game.

I also feel like the last half of the game was a little light on gameplay. There were several scenes where the action played out in cut scenes when it could have been part of the play. Towards the very end I think this may have made sense, but there were a few times where it felt like the team just didn't have time to add another mechanic. As an indie, and 4 years into development, I can't say I blame them.

Things I Noticed


Rakuen’s style is very reminiscent of the Super Nintendo and that really appealed to me. That style is always very nostalgic for me, so that’s another automatic plus for the game in my book. Beyond that however, I think the game pulls some interesting things from the SNES era of games. When you solve a puzzle, the game gives you an audio cue, but in a couple of places where it’s not evident on screen what you just solved, the game pops up a very Final Fantasy “A door opened somewhere nearby” text note. I think it’s worth noting that this is a perfectly valid approach to some game puzzles. Obviously you want the player to understand what the goal of the puzzle is from the puzzle itself, but sometimes that doesn’t fit in with the flow of the game.

I also though the times where the game didn’t do that were really interesting. Especially in the sections of the game dealing with mental health there are times where the game silently changes the space around you. I thought this was interesting because the game is dealing with matters of dementia and brain damage and it puts that forward in your thinking. It’s also illustrative of the way the game uses the environment for storytelling. You learn a lot about the people you’re helping through changes in the world around you.

One of the hardest parts of the game, emotionally. Told significantly through the environment.

I think Rakuen is particularly interesting because it allows us to look at health and illness in a game. We get to see how people handle illness, especially mental illness and how it affects both the people suffering, but also the people around them. It also allows death to be addressed much more directly because there are no combat aspects of the game.

In Final Fantasy VII, when Aerith dies you’re left wondering too much about the world because you get to regularly bring your party members back from death in combat, why is this death different than that death. By eliminating combat, as such, we can explore death and illness in Rakuen because those issues become a lot more like they are in the real world. That the game does this without sacrificing the game play elements, the “fun”, shows that there’s not a binary in game versus story in game design.

Things I’d Include in a Game

Rakuen feels like a handcrafted game. It feels like a game that someone has checked every aspect of and that it all falls into tight artistic vision and it feels like you’re being told a story by a single storyteller. I know that’s not a thing that can be included in every game but I think it’s a thing that can make some games really stand out.

For that mater, every game should have Teables, because ... tea and Leebles 

The other thing I’d like to to include in a game is a real world story. A game where you try to save people but can’t is an interesting thing. I think it’s similar to my reading of Illusion of Gaia where Will and Kara are not really saving the world but cast in a much more realistic light. . This isn't for every game, of course, sometimes you just need to shoot demons in the face, but Rakuen is a great example of how to keep your story in your game if that`s what you're looking for.

Final Things

I’m not going to lie to you. I’d have loved it, if Rakuen had been the adventure of a boy and his mom solving all the problems of the people in the hospital and bringing beautiful magic to the world and ending up with everyone cured and happy. Sometimes the game reminds me so powerfully of Secret of Mana that it’s somewhat unreal. But if that’s all it was, it would be a disservice to the story Shigihara and her team told here and a disservice to the medium of games.

There is sadness, but there is joy. You are alone, but there are friends on your journey.

Rakuen is worth your time and worth your money. It’s worth it for the story and it’s worth it for the experience. Finally I think it’s worth it just to support the team creating it. I’ve followed the game’s development over the last four years and while “the artists are good people” isn’t the best reason to support art, when the art is this good, I think they deserve it.


Rakuen is an excellent example of how a game can allow you to experience the lives of others.Games are art, they allow you to experience empathy and story in a way other media don’t and Rakuen is a shining example of a game.

The End

Monday, June 05, 2017

Blog: Video Games of May 2017


I finished Breath of the Wild, and then I had to figure out what people do with their time when they aren't running across Hyrule. Apparently there are ... other games. In the end I played a bunch of stuff and was pretty happy even if there wasn't anything that took up all of the time.

My top five games (by play time) for May were:
  1. Hearthstone - I managed to play quite a bit of Hearthstone in half hour chunks in May. As always I'm enjoying it and possibly even getting very, very slightly better. I think the current state of the game is doing well in the "interesting choice" world of gameplay.

  2. Cities: Skylines - This is a great game and Colossal Order keep making it better. The new Transportation oriented DLC and patch have fixed some of the stuff that bugged me and I've really been enjoying playing again the last little while.

  3. Mario Kart 8 - Between needing something not too heavy to play on the Wii U and the talk of Mario Kart 8 on the switch, I jumped back into Mario Kart. It's been fun and I've actually been improving a bit.

  4. Rakuen - I'm working on a post about Rakuen, but I was really happy that Laura Shigihara's game has finally come out and so I wanted to play it right away. I didn't manage to 100% it so I'll have to play it again at some point, but this is a game that's really worth taking some time to play.

  5. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I finished Breath of the Wild at the very beginning of the month. And then having played for two solid months I needed a break. I managed to play another few minutes later in the month, but I'm definitely going to need some time before I put in another 100 hours. I think I'll wait for the first DLC and see how that goes.





Here's my total play time chart for May:



And here's a chart of how much I've played over the month:



Friday, November 25, 2016

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 151)

In this volume of my Favourite YouTube Videos, we save our bees, celebrate our lab techs and lament the passing of time.

  • First, if you're feeling like you've heard too many sad, weird or creepy Greek myths lately, Dael Kingsmill is here to tell you a touching story about a guy and his bees. Well it's still weird, but what can you do?
  • Next we have a moment of thanks from Periodic Videos for their awesome lab tech Neil
  • Finally, Laura Shigihara plays her cover of Chrono Trigger's Corridor's of Time, The Fall and as usual raises all the hair on my arms with this song.

Friday, October 28, 2016

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 148)

In this volume of my Favourite YouTube Videos,  we code, we paint, we sing and we kick ass (well people do, we watch).

  • First, we have the extras to Numberphile and Computerphile's visit to Pixar. The original video was interesting, but I was especially interested in this one because it focuses on academias relation to industry, engineers (and computer scientists) relation to artists and software's relation to the real word.
  • Next, Mary Doodles draws a triceratops eating lunch.  Because, of course.
  • Finally, Laura Shigihara, sings "Stronger than You" from Stephen Universe and stands all the hair up on our arms (well my arms anyway). I ... should probably watch that show at some point.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 134)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we think about sex, wander a mountain and then fly off into the sky.

Friday, January 15, 2016

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 118)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, it's time to feel the music.

  • First, it takes fourteen instances of Mr. Smooth McGroove to cover "The One Who Bares Fangs at God" from Xenogears.
  • Next in the further vein of video game music to make the hair stand up on your (well, my) arms, Caitlin and Vaughan cover Time's Scar from Chrono Cross
  • Finally, Slamacow produced a video to Laura Shigihara's "From the Ground Up" which tells a beautiful story about love, life and rebirth.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 115)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we go to school, learn some chemistry and get our axe ready for dancing.

  • First, Laura Shigihara is ready for her first day of high school, singing the theme she wrote for the game High School Story.
  • Next, we get a chance to watch 500 videos of Periodic Videos ... or at least to celebrate them.
  • Finally, we get to listen to an instrumental piece created by the one and only Brentalfloss.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos(Volume 113)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we mash, we rant and we sooth!

  • First, Pomplamoose mashes their way into our hearts playing with Tupac, Lorde, Beck and themselves all at the same time.
  • Next, Emma Blackery has some strong words to sing about one of Google's many failures to make us like using Google products ... or let us use to Google products that we like ... or just put the freaking videos in the subboxes ... ... ... (For the record this was the one where they forced everyone to sign up for Google+ to use YouTube, which managed to single-handedly double the number of YouTube accounts everyone needed and to this day freaks me out about once a quarter by logging me into that OTHER account...). Issues ... what issues?
  • Finally, Laura Shigihara and Britaney Gaither calm things down with "Kaze no Toori Michi" from My Neighbour Totoro. Giant, furry forest spirits help make everything better. (As do awesome artists.)

Friday, August 14, 2015

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 97)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we find the future we live in, live gloriously in the past through music and go a long, long time ago to a place far, far away where things were better.

 
  • First, on Computerphile, Professor Brailsford, talks about the history of computing in the 1960s and 70s and how this crazy UNIX came to exist and make life better.
  • Next, Laura Shigihara and Meine Meinung take your breath away covering music from Chrono Cross / Radical Dreamers. It may just be my nostalgia talking but as they play the bridge where it references Chrono Trigger, the hair on my arms stands up every time.
  • Finally,  Belated Media once asked What if Episode One was good, like, really good? Well now he's asking about Episode Two. And seriously, how great would it be to watch this movie!?

Friday, July 03, 2015

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 93)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we geek out about stuff! (I know right, what a surprise!)

  • It's Comic-Con time, at least it was back in 2013 when I favourited these two videos from tested.com. First we have Adam and Jamie's panel from SDCC (hosted by Wil Wheaton) where they talk for an hour about what keeps them interested and what they want to do.
  • Next Adam talks to Will and Norm on Still Untiled about how SDCC 2013 was for them all.
  • Finally, not from tested but still super cool, Laura Shigihara sings the "Lament of the Highborne" from World of Warcraft.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 65)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we are strong like trees, get things done and rock out in the forrest!

  • First off Laura Shigihara shows off why she's an awesome video game composer.
    • Don't forget to check out the trailer for her new game Rakuen!
  • Next from Weekend Confirmed, which feels way back in the day, Brendon Chung answers some questions about how (and why) to get things and discusses beginning at the end. 
  • Finally, Watsky is Strong as an O-A-K.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 63)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we get music on a tea tin, posters made on three continents and the nerdfighteriest variety show.

  • First, Laura Shigihara, gives us the Oolong cover of Schala's Theme from Chrono Trigger.
    • Also check out the trailer for the game she's making! I'm excited!
  • Next John Green takes a look at how the creation of a cool thing involved a lot of internet leg work and how copyright law's relation to that creation is complicated.
  • Finally someone let John and Hank on the stage at Carnegie Hall. I guess there might be something interesting to watch in that (although I won't lie to you this video is 2 and a half hours long). Also the Mountain Goats show up and some guy named Neil something or other...

Friday, May 17, 2013

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 31)

This volume of my favourite YouTube videos is pretty wide ranging including some video game music, some intelligent thinking about movies and some thoughts on YouTube itself.


  • First in this volume we have a video of an original song "Guild Ho" from Dodger. The video feels a bit rough to me, but I especially love the enthusiasm in this.
  • The second is a cover of "Terra's Theme" from Final Fantasy VI by Laura Shigihara and GBritaney. This is haunting and beautiful and really worth a listen.
  • Next is an incredible video from Belated Media, in which he breaks down and rebuilds Star Wars Episode 1. I think his analysis is right on and that the movie he describes would have been significantly better (and not in the way that two hours of staring at a star field might also have been better, I mean significantly).
  • Next Mr. Charlie McDonnall does a very cool real-life time attack of the landmarks of London. Cool video and good memories.
  • Finally SMPFilms does his best to figure out what a YouTuber actually does.

Monday, April 08, 2013

Blog: Favorite YouTube Videos (Volume 29)

In this volume of my favorite YouTube videos, we take in some music, sit in all the chairs and help someone move.


  • The first video is a cover of the song, Rouge Message, from Kiki's Delivery Service, by Laura Shigihara and LonLonJP. I was going to say that Kiki's was one of my favorite Studio Ghibli movies, but honestly all Studio Ghibli movies are my favourites. Either way Laura and LonLon put together a very nice song here.
  • The second video is another from George Watsky (surprised ain't cha). I don't even need to tell you that the rap is great and the video for this one is a  completely engrossing time lapsed drawing.
  • Next up is another Watsky,  just throwin' down.
  • Now John Green takes us on a visit to the nicest hotel room in the world on the vlogbrothers. It's armoisome.
  • Finally we help Charlie move house, because we're nice like that.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Blog: Favorite YouTube Videos (Volume 27)

This volume of my Favorite YouTube Videos is a grab bag, but one that seems to have some pretty deep thoughts attached to it.


  • The first video in this volume is Laura Shigihara's Cube Land. I like the song, but while re-watching it before posting, I was also struck by how much the video tells a story about dealing with depression. That's in my mind at least, Laura's description goes a different direction and you might see something different, but it's worth watching the video as well as listening to the song.
  • Next up, you know you pets do this. You know it, the Mean Kitties are just worse at hiding it.
  • The next video requires you to remember that time when Honey Badgers were the meme du jour on the Internet. If you're not sure why, John Green will help you to understand in this vlogbrother's video.
  • If you think I post a lot of George Watsky, that might be because I do. The guy is prolific and honestly I like a lot of what he does. Here we see him do a one-taker of another of his tracks.
  • Finally I have Hank Green's response to Frezned's response to his graphic* about how insignificant we are on the astronomic scale.

* Sadly I'm having a hard time finding the graphic, Google is assuming things and Hank accidentally blew his tumblr up one day.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Favorite YouTube Videos (Volume 21)

This volume of my favorite YouTube videos contains some thoughtfulness, some music, some video games and some laughs.
  • The first video in this volume is from Corning, and (this might shock you) it's about glass. On the one hand it's a pretty standard corporate puff piece about how awesome they'll make your future, but I was mostly interested in it because it's a pretty good illustration (in my opinion) of how our technology should work for us over the next 20 years. I favorited this one because I thought the concepts were really interesting.
  • The next video is by vlogger/designer Karen Kavett. These are her reflections on her time at RISD as she graduates. It's a cool, well produced video with a lot of heart and interesting reflections on her time as a student. It's nice to see someone who's education went so well and was so in line with where they wanted their life to go. 
  • The third video in this volume is composer/pianist Laura Shigihara playing an improvised arraignment of music from Secret of Mana. It's a very restful piece and Secret of Mana's music always makes the hair on my arms stand up.
  • The next video is a recording of a panel from the Calgary Comic Expo 2011, featuring the voices of the childhood of anyone of my generation, Rob Paulsen, Maurice LaMarche and Jess Harnell. I was lucky enough to attend this panel and I thoroughly enjoyed it and am glad the chance exists to relive it through YouTube.
  • The final video for this volume is another video song from Pomplamoose, their original song River Shiver. 

The Video Games I Played - February 2024

This is the second new monthly games post . I'm not feeling very settled in what anything means. The book posts have some basic stats...