Almost five years have passed since the publication of Rakuen, a video game in which players assumed the role of a child trying to escape the sad reality of hospitalization by entering the nooks and crannies of a colorful fantasy world. Behind Rakuen, which now lands on Nintendo Switch with the rich Rakuen Deluxe Edition, is Laura Shigihara, developer, composer, singer, and established Twitch streamer who was responsible for, among other things, the Plants vs. Zombies, World of Warcraft, Deltarune and To the Moon.
Shigihara decided to return to the Rakuen universe with a brief spin off, lasting approximately a couple of hours. We assume the curious role of Saitou - the most attentive players have already seen him in a cave in the Morizora forest in Rakuen - transformed into a sword worm and called to live a strange adventure in the depths of a fantasy kingdom totally different from the reality he is passing through. everyday life. Yes, because Saitou-San is actually a Japanese salaryman hospitalized in the same hospital where the adventure of Rakuen's son began.
We tell you all the secrets of the incredible bladeworms in ours review by Mr. Saitou.
a terrible secret
Like many exponents of the genre. Isekai (in the gaming field we could mention the recent Forspoken) Mr. Saitou also begins by showing the sad and empty life of its protagonist. Mr. Saitou (or rather, as we read in the Japanese subtitle of the video game, "Saitou-San") travels back and forth to work on the train, incessantly, and falls asleep exhausted next to a steaming bowl of ramen in an izakaya. . We then see him lying in the station, apparently unconscious; Saitou wakes up in a hospital familiar to those who have experienced the adventure of Rakuen's son.
In this sense, we appreciate the return of elements already seen in the main work of what we hope will become a real series: there are the miniors, birds of various sizes that have the habit of locating themselves in the least suitable places; the caterpillars, to which we will return shortly; they also return Bard without restraints, a musical group already present in Rakuen. We don't want to spoil too many surprises, but suffice it to say that Saitou-San will find himself transformed into a flame worm and relive the anguish of his office life; Only now his boss and all of his colleagues are llamas. worms too.
We really enjoyed theirony by Laura Shigihara and the writing of excellent dialogues, always light and fun; However, in our opinion, what made Rakuen truly unique was Shigihara's ability to tell even very difficult stories by transposing them into the fantasy world of the Morizora forest, without sacrificing complex and painful themes. In this case, Saitou's journey always remains very light and fun, and only at the end Shigihara provokes some very well-placed counterattacks that managed move and to give us a beautiful moral.
A relaxed adventure
Like Rakuen, Mr. Saitou also has the unmistakable aesthetic of products born with RPG Maker XP, and reuses many of the assets already present in the 2017 video game. This is in no way a defect: Mr. Saitou is not sold as a technologically revolutionary product, but rather as a low-budget independent video game capable of entertaining in In a simple and immediate way, with an undoubted focus on the plot and the fun dialogues between surreal and totally crazy characters. In terms of gameplay, Mr. Saitou is very simple and immediate- You explore the caves where llama worms live, perform simple interactions with objects and elements of various types on the stage, solve puzzles that sometimes require a lot of observation.
In some cases, collaboration between the swordworm Saitou and Bud Brandon, his traveling companion, is essential to solving environmental puzzles. Meanwhile they meet surreal and funny characters, reveling in Laura Shigihara's biting irony of corporate life and its mechanics, while mushrooms, sunflowers, math-loving sphinxes, and chattering llama worms keep the player's interest alive throughout Mr. .Saitou. If it is true that sometimes the quote towards Rakuen is taken to the extreme (several puzzles make explicit reference to similar situations in the 2017 video game, but can still be solved even by people who have not played it), however, it is undeniable. that Mr. Saitou continues to stand out for the care he takes in his pixel art and especially for his music, in which he also collaborated Toby Fox, acclaimed author of Undertale and Deltarune. We would like to point out the absence, for the moment, of a Spanish translation.
Conclusions
digital delivery Steam Holygamerz.com 7.0 Readers (2) 4.9 your voteMr. Saitou is a successful spin-off, although it sometimes goes overboard with the quotes and keeps the tone too light compared to Rakuen's powerful and well-written stories. It remains an adventure worth living for fans of the work of Laura Shigihara, a multifaceted talent capable of expressing herself through a variety of media: in this sense, the launch of Rakuen Deluxe Edition on Nintendo Switch in parallel with Mr. Saitou, available on Steam, is an excellent opportunity to enter the Morizora Forest and be captured by the living and vibrant world painted by Shigihara and his small circle of collaborators. We found the narrative arc completed by Saitou-San perfect, whose transformation into a sword worm has profound effects on his life.
PRO
- crazy story
- Flame worms are irresistible
- The music immediately enters your head.
AGAINST
- Sometimes excessive citation
- It doesn't have the same emotional power as Rakuen.
