Rainbow Dreams Review (English Original Visual Novel)

Epic Works is a pretty unique phenomenon in the EVN scene: an African studio, developing games openly inspired by Type-Moon's visual novels and other classic chuunige. Their first release, Episicava, was something of a glorious trainwreck, launching with multiple technical problems and borderline-unbearable, edgy storytelling replicating most of the worst tropes of the chuuni game subgenre. The follow-ups included an unholy abomination of a nukige known as Analistica Academy, and a clunky and inconsistently written, but occasionally appealing RPG VN The Adventurer’s Tale. None of them proved genuinely impressive, but each showed some forms of progress, particularly in the visual department, which by the time of The Adventurer’s Tale’s release got both appealing and consistent in style and quality.

                As unhealthy curiosity is one of the driving forces behind my blogging endeavours, I couldn’t stop myself from being attracted by the studio’s latest Kickstarter campaign, aimed at creating another chuunige-style VN in the Episicava universe (although with no direct connection to the latter’s main plot). Despite my disappointment with their debut titles, I was very interested whether this new project, Rainbow Dreams, would represent an improvement for the studio and correct the massive issues with the tone and writing quality those earlier games suffered from. And despite apparent development issues and heavy delays, resulting in a January 2020 Steam release (7 months after the initial goal), I’m happy to say that while not all problems were remedied to an appropriate degree, when it comes to the sheer entertainment factor, Rainbow Dreams is a major step in the right direction.

As usual, the Epic Works newest protagonist is not exactly balanced, but at least his attitude is a lot more bearable than that of his predecessors

 

The story of Rainbow Dreams is the most straightforward power and romantic fantasy imaginable: an immensely talented, but troubled teen, Luka, is suddenly approached by a girl claiming to be the god of his universe. Nearly as soon as they meet, she reveals that the protagonist is her soulmate and fellow god, created by an accident millennia ago, and that she left the heavens to become his partner. And while you can’t go much higher when it goes to power levels and convenience for the main character, there’s also a problem: while the goddess, Myra, is benevolent and don’t waste time showing her power by changing the protagonist’s life for the better, the most powerful of her servants, Lara, hate the mortal races and will do anything to eliminate him and keep her influence over the goddess. To prevent that from happening, Luka will have to open his heart, learn to use his newfound powers and understand the link that binds his and Myra’s souls together.

                The fact the story is straightforward doesn’t mean that its execution was done without hiccups, mostly drawing from the fact the game was too short for some of its ideas to be fully fleshed out. This means that some of the secondary story elements and characters show up and they aren’t utilized in a meaningful way or don’t get explored beyond the bare minimum. The most striking example is the witch that shows for literally one scene, subtly aiding the protagonist and leaving him with a vague warning that doesn’t match anything happening later in the story. These problems make the universe of Rainbow Dreams feel a lot less robust than that of Epicisava and underline the general impression that the game was downscaled from the team's original ambitions. There’s also the issue of “meaningful choices” promised in the Kickstarter campaign, which also very likely got scrapped during the development process: the three choices that made it to the game are so pointless that it would seriously be better off being a kinetic novel.

As many lines in this game will show you, the quality control it received was not exactly “fine(/i)”

 

Characters are a mixed bag: while the main couple has some things going for them, the supporting cast differentiates between paper-thin and obnoxious, with pretty much two exceptions. The protagonist, Luka, represents a similar misanthropic, overconfident asshole archetype as the Episicava's MC, but thankfully toned down to bearable levels: as jaded and arrogant as he might be, he cares a lot about those close to him and avoids pointless violence. He also warms up to Myra pretty quickly, masking his thoughts  with a nasty attitude, but never truly ignoring her feelings and taking things around him with proper consideration. Myra herself poses for a spoiled, naïve princess that left her divine realm on a reckless adventure, but shows a lot more depth when the perspective switches to her, or when the stakes get high. Both of these could become truly compelling characters if the game took more time developing them and its writing was more consistent, but they’re serviceable nonetheless and their bickering makes for some fun slice-of-life moments. Whether the cartoonishly-vile villain, Lara, works for you is probably up to personal taste, but I found her at least properly menacing – an insane demigod terrorizing the mortal races by manipulating the goddess is a pretty compelling idea, even if the “mad” part is showed in the game a lot more than brilliant scheming. Also, most of her screentime is connected with another decent character – demon Cardea, who combines an aloof, carefree Façade with a lot of wit and battle prowess gathered over her centuries-long life.

                Those that are familiar with Epic Works games will probably know that they’re not free of some weird, questionable elements and in this respect, I have a few, probably most important warnings for those interested in buying Rainbow Dreams. While the game suffers from an unpolished script, with fairly frequent typos and often awkward English, some storytelling choices also made me scratch my head. Maybe the most glaring one is Trica, Luka’s best friend who half-jokingly flirts with him in every interaction, spewing heavy-handed gay "jokes" and receiving similarly uncomfortable (that is, borderline-bigoted) responses. Whether you’re sensitive to such stuff might decide whether you’re going to have an enjoyable time with this VN in general. Thankfully, the actual romance subplot between Luka and Myra is much more balanced, with a decent amount of agency and respect on both sides. This also extends to the game’s two sex scenes, which are pretty vanilla and strongly connected to the romance progression, rather than showing up as random fanservice (also unlike Episicava, where at least one scene was a pretty awful insert, pointlessly disrespecting one of that game’s strongest female characters).

The game’s fighting sequences aren’t necessarily thrilling, but they also never overstate their welcome or show up without a proper reason

 

Rainbow Dream’s biggest strength, however, lies in its visuals – the general artstyle is gorgeous and while most of the story is showed through sprites, the CGs that are present have enough variants and look good enough to create a relatively dynamic experience. The weakest part of it all is probably fighting scenes, which mostly rely on a small set of frequently-reused illustrations, but they aren’t an as big part of the experience as they’re in an average chuunige, and the flow of the battles (as it is presented through text) is pretty unique each time. The music is pretty upbeat most of the time, matching the relatively lighthearted tone of the story, although it can get intense in the dramatic moments – none of it is particularly memorable, but it does its job.

                In summary, Rainbow Dreams is a serviceable VN – it does not rise to excellence in any department and has a good number of issues big and small, but also manages to be just enjoyable enough to justify its existence. With 5-6 hours of content and already mentioned lack of polish, one could argue whether it’s worth the $10 price tag, but I’d have no issues to recommend giving it a chance when it goes on sale. And despite not being that impressed with it, I’d still be happy to see it get some recognition and encourage Epic Works to continue working on their VN formula and their skills as developers – more diversity is never a bad thing and the chuunige niche in EVNs is distinctly underdeveloped. Whether the relative lack of interest for their latest releases prevents that, only time will tell…

 
Final Rating: 2,5/5
 
Pros:
+ High-quality visuals
+ Fun, straightforward main plot
 
Cons:
– Unpolished script
– Underdeveloped/forgotten story threads
– Weird/questionable moments
– Choices are not just meaningless, but pointless


VNDB Page
Buy Rainbow Dreams on Steam or Itch.io