Game: Radiant Tale -Fanfare!-
Genre: Adventure, Visual Novel
System: Nintendo Switch
Developer | Publisher: Idea Factory | Aksys games
Age Rating: EU 12+ | US T
Price: UK £44.99 | EU € 49,99 | US $49.99
Release date: June 27th, 2024
Review code used, with many thanks to Reef Entertainment.
The travelling circus group is back, to give us one final performance in Radiant Tale -Fanfare!-. In the original game, we met Tifalia—an ordinary girl working at Liber, her aunt’s tavern. Tifalia is roped into working as a producer for a failing circus group, that wants to give it one final shot at a grand performance. In this group, she meets the most peculiar people and travels to all kinds of places. Quickly the crew becomes a tight-knit group.
After their first successful tour, they are asked to go on a second and final tour, to save the future king’s health. They all (reluctantly) agree and on this journey, Tifalia comes into her own as a producer and falls in love.
The Stars of the Show
Since this is a fan-disk to Radiant Tale for which you can find my review here. the order you play the routes in doesn’t matter. There is no overarching plot in this game, so nothing can be spoiled. That said, if you want a refresher on the original game I would suggest doing the If Story first. They explain the whole journey of the original game in a short summary. However I didn’t follow my own advice and dove right into the After Stories.
Zafora
Zafora is the sentinel (which is essentially the ruler) of Cultura. The city Cultura is tied to the element of wind and is famous for its labyrinth. He succeeded in the position after getting rid of his uncle Balto, who put everyone in the village under a “curse” through a special perfume. Zafora had and still has a sharp tongue and can be quite critical. But beneath all that he has an amazingly kind heart.
This was a frustrating after story but it was also very sweet. In the original game, Zafora asked Tifalia to come to live with him in Cultura after making her wait a whole year for him. The After Story of Radiant Tale -Fanfare!- picks up a while after her move. In this time she has become Zafora’s secretary and tries to manage his schedule as well as his communication skills to his employees. Their relationship however is still at an impasse so to speak. Zafora remains tried and true to his tsundere character. Tifalia wants to help more in every aspect of Zafora’s life. Hopefully, she will get her wish at the end.
I was kind of disappointed that this route was a small continuation of the original game especially on the romantic aspect. But I was not disappointed about the ending. I wanted Zafora’s route to last longer and his ending made me smile and feel warm and fuzzy. Which always gets extra points from me.
Paschalia
From the moment you see Paschalia it is clear that he has a connection to a water spirit. In the original game, he has a severe illness. This is eventually cured by him and Tifalia completing Leve’s (the water goddess of Oriens) trial. In the end, they decide to live at Liber (her aunt’s tavern/inn).
His overarching afterstory in Radiant Tale -Fanfare!- was about him finding a real purpose and working together with Tifalia to achieve a better world. While on the search for Paschalia’s purpose, they stumble upon a unique opportunity and he has to decide what he wants.
I liked this route, it had a good mix of the romance that I like and it had a good story and plot. I wasn’t much of a fan of Paschalia in the original game but in Fanfare he was so much more fun. Paschalia was really holding back in the original game and was stopping Tifalia’s advances, thinking he was not worthy of her. There was none of that attitude now, he is an absolute simp for her and tends to be jealous quickly.
Ion
Ion is the fighter of the group, that is immediately clear when we meet him. He has an intimidating appearance, with his red eyes, eyepatch, and warrior-like clothing. But despite his appearance, he has a gentle heart and is amazingly kind. The original game mostly took place in Ferus. Here Ion has to face his fighting past and reveals he has a scar that allows a certain ring to mind control him into doing anything the owner wants. Everything goes downhill quickly though as his old friend Avi, from Ferus, gets a hold of this ring and starts controlling Ion. Tifalia, together with the troupe, manages to control the scar through love and friendship and defeat Avi. In the end, Ion and Tifalia start living together at Liber and Ion spends his days working as the personal bodyguard of Prince Colivus.
Ion’s After Story in Radiant Tale -Fanfare!- has a bit of the same theme as some of the other routes, it is again about him finding his purpose in everyday life, but this time, he and Tifalia are figuring out how they can work together on a grander scale. Their adventure takes them back to Ferus, but alas, things aren’t quite going as planned there. Ion must face his past once again to create the life that he wants.
In the end, I felt good about his route. I liked the continuation of the original story, but there was a slight lack of romance for me. With this route, I got the impression that either, the writers didn’t know what to write for Ion’s After Story, so they just went back to the original game. Or that they have planned this all along and it is just the continuation of the original game. The last chapter was really romantic and sappy and that made the route great for me. Also, I just love Ion, he gets shy quickly and deeply respects Tifalia. He would be the perfect romantic partner.
Ralida
Okay so, bear with me here, because I didn’t understand Ralida’s route from the original game that well. Ralida, better known as Radie was introduced as Tifalia’s talking pink fluffy fey beast. Quickly though, we found out he can also turn into a man, Ralida, which was unknown to Tifalia as well. His favourite thing to do was drinking at all hours of the day. But he will always put Tifalia first.
Sorry in advance about the long recap, it is necessary… In the original game, we found out Ralida transforms into a human, Tifalia quickly falls for him and struggles with the romantic feelings she has. We learn about his complicated past as well; he was a sort of doll created by the earth spirit Cerius to hold powerful magic so Cerius could understand human emotions. When Tifalia was little Ralida came to live with her and her parents, but after coming back from a research trip her parents caught a dragon’s curse. Ralida tried reviving them with his powers but was only able to put them in a sort of coma. Ralida’s powers bring Tifalia’s parents back to life, but Ralida loses his powers, memories, and emotions. Tifalia, with the help of the troupe, tries to bring Ralida’s old self back through magic and in the end, romance blossoms between Ralida and Tifalia.
In Radiant Tale -Fanfare!- we get to see the connection between Ralida and Tifalia blossom. They are both working at Liber and meet up with Tifalia’s parents once a month. But something is gnawing at Tifalia. She wants to find her ultimate goal in life. So, when there is word of a CIRCUS renewal, she accepts the opportunity. And of course, Ralida supports her every step of the way.
Oh boy, this man is my weakness. Even in the first game, I knew right away that he would be my favourite. The After Story of Radiant Tale -Fanfare!- didn’t change that at all, I am totally smitten with him and would immediately date him in real life. Although this After Story revolves more around Tifalia and her goals in life, Ralida is the supportive man in every way. I think their entire journey was a nice balance between his storyline and Tifalia’s. Such a great route to play, even just to see Ralida in action again.
Vilio
Vilio is a Fey beast as well, he is a dragon. And the Master Dragon at that. It’s rare to see a dragon in the normal world since the dragons all live on a secret island. Vilio is good-natured and is just trying to learn everything about the world. In the original game, Vilio had a few childish tendencies and you could clearly tell that everything in the human world was new to him, which made sense because he had never seen the human world before. But in Radiant Tale Vilio grows into a more mature man who above all wants to make sure he makes Tifalia happy.
As Master Dragon Vilio is tasked with purifying the human world of Fiends. This means he has to devour all the fiends he finds and purify them but devouring too many of them makes him sick. Eventually, we learn the fate of the Master Dragon. After devouring as many fiends as he can, he goes into an eternal slumber. In this time Tifalia slowly grows romantic feelings for Vilio and wants to be his Dragon bride. So that she can support him. Eventually, Vilio is forced to turn Tifalia into his Dragon bride and gives some of his powers to Tifalia in the process. The final chapter in their story was about releasing all the evil feelings Vilio had eaten from his body and filling it with happy feelings. Making him live longer again.
In their After Story in Radiant Tale -Fanfare!-, Tifalia and Vilio come back to Arthreir. They have been on a tour with CIRCUS, but Tifalia’s magic was running rampant. Not wanting to endanger their other troupe members, they decide to quit CIRCUS and start on another journey to get Tifalia’s magic under control.
I was so impressed with Vilio in his After Story. He matured a lot and he was so caring of Tifalia and her needs. I found myself looking forward to their private interactions to experience Vilio again. What I also loved to see in this route, is that it had an entirely different plot or story than all the other After Stories. Mainly of course because Tifalia had dragon powers and she had to learn to live with those. It was nice to see a wrap-up of the overarching plot of Radiant Tale.
System
We get three stories we can play, After Story, Interlude and If Story.
The After Story takes place a while after the Happy Endings of the original game. We see all previous LI’s make a comeback. The After Story contains 4 chapters and a few CGs.
The Interlude are short stories that take place within the main story, this is some extra information from the LI’s that we haven’t seen before.
The If Story takes place after the end of the Common route in the original game. The If Story also has a few stories involving our favourite side characters. Definitely fun additions to the game.
Visuals and Sound
The Radiant Tale games have THE best visuals I have seen so far, in my opinion. There are so many details in the character design, CGs (Computer Graphics) and especially in the user interface of the game. And this fan disk did not let me down. But one point of small criticism is that the user interface of the game was copied one-on-one from the original game. This was a good opportunity to create a new UI fitting Radiant Tale -Fanfare!- in the Radiant Tale style.
The BGM brought me back to the cosy world of Radiant Tale and I was content listening to it. But again the same note as with the visuals, there was not much new about it. The opening song though, they have really done well with that one. It fits the circus theme well for some reason and it is super catchy after listening to it a few times. It is called “Wakudoki Sensation!”, with vocals by ikasumicco and arranged by Keita Miyoshi.
Overall Thoughts
Tifalia really comes into her own more in these After Stories, she is not just the silent girl that lets the guys decide everything anymore. She finds her voice in Radiant Tale -Fanfare!-, and I loved to see it. She even gets sassy at times or takes the initiative in the relationship because she wants attention, I’m looking at you Zafora. Go get it girl!
Now, I played the original Radiant Tale about a year ago. And I didn’t play it again before playing this fan disk. Some routes did a great job recapping the events of the original game. But some routes did not explain much about what happened. This made it difficult for me to catch up on previous characters or storylines. This means you have to play the original game in order to understand Radiant Tale -Fanfare!-. In my case, this didn’t bother me too much, but it would have been a nice addition had they added all the information that you needed to know. This makes for better storytelling on a grander scale.
The big “issue” I had with this game was not about the stories or the plots because I really enjoyed the content they gave us. But with the length of the game in comparison to the price. Every After Story had a maximum playtime of 2,5 hours with 4 chapters. The Interlude were all also short stories, and the If Story wasn’t as long as I expected either. They could have added so much more content to the After Stories. I think for the playtime you get; the price is just too high. If I look at other Otome’s, whether it is an original game or a fan disk, they all have a much longer playing time. So, either lower the price or add more content to the game.
Conclusion
Radiant Tale -Fanfare!- is a tough one to give a verdict on. I enjoyed playing the game and liked all the stories it provided us with. But it is difficult to say yes or no based on the price. If you loved and enjoyed the original Radiant Tale or would just like to add the fan disk to the collection, then yeah, I would say go for it. You won’t be disappointed. I should mention, that I fall into the first category, I loved and enjoyed the original. But if you did not love the original game to begin with, then I would advise passing this one because it is a bit too short.
Final verdict: I like it
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