Genre:VN.
Developer/publisher: Otomate.
Platform: Switch.
Release date: 2022-05-26.
Okay the WoF team also known for the recent variable barricade
have come up with a new otome game... about a circus troupe.
Now don't get me wrong but it finally seems they have embraced their inner clown!
if you have played WoF, Reine or other games they worked on they've been known
to be creative with their systems luckily they've toned down their BS.
The artwork is exceptionally pretty and some prerelease info confirmed
it won't be a virche and will be light-hearted! so its mostly a good time.
I won't be posting too many CG's in this part, everything that is shown is common route only.
If you're gonna get this game... enjoy it for what it is, not for what it is not.
Pro's
- Interesting story and worldbuilding.
- Unique self-contained routes.
- Art, its beautiful.
- Music is lovely and fits the tone of scenes, though one track did annoy me.
Con's
- The common route is quite long.
- Sometimes problems come up that are resolved almost instantly.
- It feels like the general plot/world was from a rejected RPG game.
- There should've been a Lian route/end.
- Ye olde idea factory sound effects are back! missed em from old otomate titles
or compile heart games? hahah recycle factory is at it again to haunt us! /s
Story; I went in relatively blind and aside of knowing about the circus theme
I had a hard time figuring out wtf was going on till it was explained, Tifalia joined
some circus troupe and got to meet her mates. There's some monsters around that feed on
negative emotions as well as a down-trodden prince who is stuck in the body of a child
whom also seems to have shut off his emotions so the troupe gets ordered to put on a show for him.
TL;DR: The troupe works to try & make people happy as well as help out prince Colivus
overcome his emo phase while mostly unaware of a bunch of political intrigue going on.
Unfortunately they find out they can't actually perform that well YET so they still have a ways to go
LMAO I can't help but be reminded of Kimiyuki cuz these guys don't seem to have any idea
of what they're doing so its up to Tifalia to help them out. Their shows end up being
retellings of folklore, they travel across the country like an actual circus troupe to perform in
the various cities(and bloom pretty flowers). Each of the guys have their own strengths so we see
a bit of everything really. Anyway that's all i'll write here about the story
I think I have already said way too much.
The general vibe of the game reminded me of WoF... and it was pretty light-hearted
nothing too dark or dreary. The heroine Tifalia is cute but she doesn't have a sprite
or voice acting unlike most of the WoF teams heroines which is a let down
cuz I think it would've made her stand out more in the story since she is pretty important to it.
Also while this game has a circus theme, it kind of leaned towards theatrical troupe as well
but it is still a circus cuz they were trying to play out a story with tricks and magic.
Maybe my idea of a circus is just a bit old fashioned...? this is a fantasy setting after all!
The UI(user interface) its okay but not my thing, the text is very small and like I said the heroine
did not have a sprite, I honestly really wish she had one outside of POV from the guy.
The music was good it matched the general vibes of the game, it stood out more
than some other otome games so maybe that says something.
The system is just the usual choices and some map selection stuff, nothing special!
Art is by Kagero and Miko... pretty gorgeous! I think most of it is by Kagero but I know
for certain that Miko worked on Ion and some of the subchara like Rian.
Seiyuu cast is... fairly unknown to me aside of Umehara but I have heard
the others SOMEWHERE before just not a lot. Also Aaron Wei i'm hearing you!
Radiant Tale seems like a good time if you want to explore a fantasy setting that doesn't get
too dark! there is an underlying plot beneath it all as well as some political intrigue
so even though it seems all nice and easy-going there's some guys pulling strings.
Aside of the main love interest there are also a lot of side characters
and one of them catched my eye but alas Rian is a side chara's with no route.ðŸ˜
The prologue/common route is pretty long, while it serves as an introduction and is good at
setting it all up including developing the heroine, I did get a little bored
because it did seem to keep going on and on. The prologue is long and then you
have your common route which is were you get characters flags to decide the route but honestly
aside from some banter here and there its kinda like older otome games, you can get a feel of
everyones personality and see what they're like but the plot had varying levels
of being interesting still its not too bad its just a bit long!
So while it is a light-hearted game, Radiant Tale takes a while to get going,
it has a good amount of wordbuilding and sets things up for the individual route.
In terms of romance there isn't that much of it in the common part... thankfully there's some
cute scenes here and there so its not like they forgot but most of it is in the personal route.
Radiant Tale might be cute but it isn't short&sweet. I'm not sure how else
to describe it as... honestly as I got near the end of the common route I started thinking
how while the story is nice it felt like it was scraps from some rejected plot for an rpg....
considering idea factory's history this is not at all surprising! the WoF team was
probably stressed with the daunting task of making another game so they
looked for scraps for some ideas at the headquarters. Nvm this is turning into a shitpost.
That aside I don't think this game is bad or anything but it might be nice if you're in the mood
for something slower paced yet with easy-going vibes as they all work toward a goal.
In terms of characters, I think its gonna be a hit or miss maybe some might surprise you
when you're actually on their route some will just have a terrible first impression.
At first Zafora didn't quite click with me but the further I got into the common route
the more I got interested and actually wanted to do his route! so I saved him for later
sadly I didn't really like him that more over the others, oh well can't like everything.
As for Ion his route didn't do it for me either but I didn't dislike his character... my favorite
was Paschalia, his route just did everything right for me and after it he was my best boi.
Lately I just tend to really like the cheesy stuff like coughTalesofArisecough.
Radie wasn't bad either but at times it made me wish I was going for Lian instead.
Also because I did Ion first I could not believe people were saying this is such a cute
and happy game which it isn't atleast not all the time. Zafora's route made me appreciate
what happened in Ion's a little more though so there's that! Unfortunately while I do like Vilio
his route suffers from the true end effect, not only do we have to sit through the common route again
it is also a combined version of all the routes thus far and it was twice as long as all the others.
Well... with this Radiant Tale finally turned into the clown fiesta you wanted it to be no?
I think this made the game seem extremely disjointed only to be tried
to put together with glue which actually worked? still it suffers from some commonly
found problems like most routes not even touching upon the real story.
As for play order... for first play I just went for someone that seemed interesting which was Ion...
You have to do all routes to unlock Vilio so my play order ended up being:
Ion > Paschalia > Radie > Zafora > Vilio.
Basically just pick whoever interests you except maybe Ion cuz his route hits a bit different
Radie has some revelations about Tifalia so somewhere in the middle or before Vilio is good.
TBH it really doesn't matter in what order you play, cuz of how the final route works.
I do think the WoF team knew what they were doing and I can see things
from some of their other games in here. So while there might be some downsides
this was still quite nice, a cute fantasy setting otome game with a bit of volume!
Honestly if you prefer longer otome games that take their time, a proactive heroine
and like worldbuilding with some light political intrigue then I can recommend it cuz there is
some pay off, the cast was lovely too but if you have a short attention span then its better to pass!
7,5/10
Anyway character rambles/cg's after the jump, due to the games length I won't be writing too much
and whatever is there in the bimbo route babbles is just what I thought was note worthy. If you don't want spoilers back out now the routes are best enjoyed when you don't know what happens!
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