It’s always a little awkward reviewing fandisks. It feels like I’ve been invited over to watch a boxset but I arrived late and everyone else is halfway through it. I’ve gotta try and figure out the plot and character motivations, even though most of the setup has already happened. Though in the case of Radiant Tale -Fanfare!-, most of it is set after the story end. So it was like trying to piece together a TV show from your friends’ conversations afterwards.
Still, it did a reasonable enough job of setting the scene. I’ve reviewed a few of this type of game before. They aren’t really my thing, but it’s one of those titles that I can see appealing to fans of the genre. If you’re a fan of visual novels – specifically Otome ones – then you’ll find lots to love here. If you’ve already played Radiant Tale, then it’s indispensable. It’s a large serving of extra content. You should already know if you’re onboard with it and my old man-esque quibbling won’t matter too much.
Send In The Clowns
Let me do a quick plot recap of Radiant Tale as I understand it. Our heroine, Tifalia, begins by working as a waitress in a pub, but her life changes when she bumps into a dragon, Vilio. He drags her into CIRCUS, an act that travels around the world banishing bad feelings with the final hope of reviving the crown prince, whose heart has been frozen. I’m simplifying, but it feels like a plot with a lot going for it. They travel to different cities, all of which feel quite different, and meet interesting characters along the way. Not to mention the different flavours of magic.
Radiant Tale -Fanfare!- adds to story in three different ways. Firstly there’s the ‘IF’ segment. This takes place after the normal end of the main game and offers up two new love interests. I went with romancing Jinnia, the flamboyant ringmaster. I liked the character, but wasn’t too enthused with the writing. There was no driving conflict other than ‘main character is painfully shy’. She saw him without his shirt on and her brain broke. There’s a whole lot of telling without showing – a common visual novel issue – and this segment ramped it up to the max.
Lovey-Dovey
Radiant Tale -Fanfare!-‘s ‘AFTER’ sections do a bit better in that regard. These take place after the Happy endings of all the main character romances. It’s nice to see a relationship evolve past the getting together stage, and it adds nice twists to the main plot. The story involving Vilio, the dragon, was a favourite. Tifalia becomes his mate and gains long life as a result. A big part of the story is her coming to terms with the fact that all her friends will die. It added some much needed depth to the romantic proceedings, and put some weight behind the writing. The third segment, ‘INTERLUDES’, are short stories that take place during the main plot. These are okay, but too short to dwell on here.
Outside of the writing, there are some technical strengths. It looks gorgeous for one, with both the character art and the background art being a knockout. There’s a strong sense of a fleshed out world here, which the art contributes to. Its main limitation is the gameplay. There isn’t any. Par for the course for a visual novel, I suppose, but offering nothing but the odd binary choice every now and then is maddening to me. At this point, you might as well cut out the choice and just make it a book. It blocked me from properly getting into it.
Radiant Tale -Fanfare!- – Food For Fans
What might help is not making it immediately obvious which choice is the right one. When you choose the right one, a little flashy effect plays. Given that you can save before every choice, picking the right one is a given. Again – why even have a choice at that point? Are you trying to make sure I’m still awake, Radiant Tale -Fanfare!-? Well, I mostly was. As grumpy as I’ve sounded in this review, there were definitely scenes that melted my frosty heart.
I think it’s nice to play one of these games where it doesn’t take a sharp left-turn into creepy-ville. The characters all get along and what conflict there is comes from outside. It’s usually quite interesting conflict too, like a perfume that makes people crazy. While I’m not about to break out my wallet to play the original game, Radiant Tale -Fanfare!- captured my interest. Given it’s absolutely not aimed at me, that’s quite a feat. For fans of the original, you’re in for quite a treat.
