Radiant Tale

Genre: Visual Novel

Players: 1

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Review:

Radiant Tale is a Visual Novel released on Nintendo Switch in 2023. This game, set in a medieval fantasy world, follows the story of a young woman working in a tavern whose life is changed when she meets, and is soon after recruited by, a group of magical young men, fae, who work for the kingdom as a travelling circus troupe with the goal of bringing happiness to the people of the land, which they hope will in turn remove a curse placed upon the prince.

It’s an unusual premise, to be sure, and honestly it’s one that I think may have a bit too much going on, requiring players to not only get to know its characters, but also the world, its important people and recent history, its various magical elements and how they work… all for a story that’s basically just about a group of disparate personalities joining together to put on a good show, something that I feel like Jack Jeanne managed to do in the same year with more grace and without all the fantasy elements piled on top.

It doesn’t help that this group seems to be stuffed full of archetypes. You have the enthusiastic but oblivious guy, the eccentric self-important nobleman, the sensitive effeminate guy, the quiet stoic, the insensitive jerk, the animal mascot, and then of course there’s the player character, the sole female character in the group, who’s all heart and no confidence. Given that this is one of those “otome” games with some light dating elements in it, it’s disappointing that I found myself liking none of these characters.

However, don’t be mistaken, this Visual Novel is extremely light on interaction, and you’ll only be making choices every rare once in a while that impact your character’s relationship with the others. The rest of the time you’ll just be reading the story, and that story is… well, it didn’t do much for me. It didn’t help that it had some absurdly slow pacing that made it feel like it took forever for anything to happen. This game’s story reputedly takes roughly 16 hours to complete, and the way it drags everything out, I believe it.

It’s a shame because the presentation is overall pretty good. This game uses some truly gorgeous hand-drawn anime-style static 2D artwork for its characters and backgrounds, all backed by an instrumental soundtrack that’s decent but not anything I would deem truly exceptional.

I’m sorry to come across so negative here. Nothing that Radiant Tale does is exceptionally bad, and overall it’s an above-average Visual Novel… but that’s it. Given how others have gushed over this game, I was expecting better. Fans of the genre still might enjoy it, but I definitely wouldn’t put it among the greats of the genre.

tl;dr – Radiant Tale is a Visual Novel set in a medieval fantasy world, where players take the role of a young waitress who is recruited by a travelling circus troupe with the goal of bringing happiness to the people of the land. Unfortunately, poor pacing and formulaic characters make this a game that doesn’t do much to stand out in the genre other than its superb character designs. And given the loose plot similarities here to Jack Jeanne, a much better game, I recommend players try that one instead.

Grade: C+

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