(Mirrored from Steam)
When I was gifted an 8 GB visual novel all of a sudden, I wasn't sure what to think. I've only played pure visual novels maybe twice or so in the past, those being rather short in comparison to all the well-known titles out there. Seeing the word salad title and an artstyle that I wasn't so keen on at first, in truth I was partially expecting some weird dating sim mechanics despite the descriptions purely since I decided to go in completely blind.
And boy, after going in around half an hour or so, were my first impressions wrong.
What I got was a pretty engaging story with some interesting characters that also continued to fit the mood of danger that Root Double's all about. As the events progressed, I started warming up to the plot, intrigued by whatever was going to happen next and finding the choice selection system a little interesting to say the least.
Usually I see amnesia as a lazy plot device, and lots of things seemed out of place at first, such as the characters (where the poster girl rubbed me the wrong way, being the archetype of the well-dressed, frail girl), but soon I found that the game was genuinely fooling me into suspending my belief non-stop. From moments that are flat-out unexplainable to curiosities the game presents, the first act of the game ends up being a rollercoaster of rising "bad feelings" that raises the stakes and somehow feels like you're getting further and further away to getting any answers, but nonetheless keeps you pushing on with a protagonist that you're desperately rooting for. Perhaps most people remember the story the most for this segment, and it wouldn't be an understatement to say that the mood of the story here is entirely different from the rest, being a series of decisions between life-or-death and trust.
But then, that story suddenly ends. With all the correct decisions you've made, now you have to complete the second point-of-view with the second act that has a completely different tone shift from what you just got out of, being a slice of life with elements that seem far-too-cliche for the genre. While it may be off-putting for some, this story is also integral, and at the very least offers a break from the oppressive action seen before by bringing in characters you've seen before and chasing a mystery that sets the events of the game into motion. Not to mention that the secondary protagonist has his own demons to encounter, and since this part of the game functions as a lead-up to the current point in time, characters re-appear and some holes get filled in as a result. Because of this, the reader starts seeing things differently having obtained new knowledge, and impressions on characters start to change constantly. First you may be wary of a character in the first act, only to warm up to them, but on the other hand, characters that you trust are now testing that bond to you as the reader. When things really pick up, shifting away from the slice-of-life break, the events all converge into the main and final stretch of the story where it all comes together.
When I mentioned that the game fools you, this is where everything is revealed, showing that all along, the seemingly strange events, characters, and so on all have valid reasons to their existence, causing Chekhov's gun, boomerang, and whatever weapon you want to keep becoming a factor that's more apparent when you go back and re-read prior segments of the story. You have several crowning emotional and awesome moments, though unfortunately the final act is a bit of an exposition dump.
It was great to finally unravel the mystery at last, but to interject, this is where the game ends up feeling slightly different and its little flaws are more apparent. In the very first act, you're making near-constant use of the game's choice system, and while choices are in high volume due to how it's a rather tension-ridden, action-packed story, the overall use of this system is used far less in the second (for a fair reason) and only used for major moments in the final. This is due to the second half having less direct mystery and settling loose ends before the proper major issue in the story is tackled by the cast, but it's why the first part of the game feels entirely different now that you've gone everything only to end up learning all the motivations behind the characters. Unfortunately, some may see this as slow, and personally, I admit this feels kind of lazy when a major point of the tension in the story was that it wasn't the nuclear radiation or the fires that were "the danger". I also have general other nitpicks, the biggest one involving the most critical turning point in the story that finally lets the cast members face towards escaping the facility. I was hoping here would be the point that has some real crisis or confrontation, but it was rather smoothed over thanks to a major plot point by the second protagonist, absolving the problem that came up at that moment rather immediately, followed by what was a massive leap in resolving that scene.
Despite all that, I'd say the story came together really well, removing all the burning questions I had in my mind and coming up with some rather amazing twists and more emotional moments (not gonna lie I nearly teared up several times). It's hard to explain when this review is already trying its best to spoil as little as possible, but again, part of Root Double's charm for me was convincing me that the characters would be rather basic, that it wasn't hiding anything behind the curtains, and that I'd be in for a very simple resolution. After you've made all the right choices, and after several climatic points in the final stretch of the story, you earn your true ending and see a rather complete and wonderful conclusion in my eyes.
My only other complaints aside from some story nitpicks, I was rather neutral to one character and ended up never liking another, but I genuinely enjoyed the characterization of the rest of the cast otherwise. Also, to properly enjoy the true ending of the game, 100% completion was practically required in all the previous routes, which wasn't clear to me at first and was kind of annoying to go back and grind to (use those Z and R keyboard buttons!), but even so, once I got them, they provided really good closure and only empowered me to watch the ending one last time again. Otherwise, the visuals and SFX in Root Double were just fine and did their job (albeit with some derpy-looking scenes), though many of the voice actors committed to rather good performances that empowered scenes where it really mattered; I found out that against my expectations that some of the VAs are rather popular as well (Watase's doesn't seem to scream properly though lol). Lastly, some people complain about the BGM being boring, though to me I think many of the tracks were wonderfully done, and many of them fit SO WELL with the setting given a scene. In fact, I swear that some of the music seems reminiscent of 999 (and there's quite a few unused tracks I ripped that are pretty chill too).
Anyway, that's as vague as I decided to write the review without spoiling moments. I genuinely enjoyed Root Double all and all, and the fact that the whole title actually has meaning now is only a testament to how much the game explains all it has going on. It has awesome twists and characters that I may as well remember down the line, though not everyone may be a fan of the final pacing. You could wait for a sale if you're uncertain, but at least to me, even if I got it as a gift, it's worth the price for a pretty good story with loads of content. YMMV, but as someone who's been thirsting for a good tale, I can highly recommend this along with its flaws. 85/100
When I was gifted an 8 GB visual novel all of a sudden, I wasn't sure what to think. I've only played pure visual novels maybe twice or so in the past, those being rather short in comparison to all the well-known titles out there. Seeing the word salad title and an artstyle that I wasn't so keen on at first, in truth I was partially expecting some weird dating sim mechanics despite the descriptions purely since I decided to go in completely blind.
And boy, after going in around half an hour or so, were my first impressions wrong.
What I got was a pretty engaging story with some interesting characters that also continued to fit the mood of danger that Root Double's all about. As the events progressed, I started warming up to the plot, intrigued by whatever was going to happen next and finding the choice selection system a little interesting to say the least.
Usually I see amnesia as a lazy plot device, and lots of things seemed out of place at first, such as the characters (where the poster girl rubbed me the wrong way, being the archetype of the well-dressed, frail girl), but soon I found that the game was genuinely fooling me into suspending my belief non-stop. From moments that are flat-out unexplainable to curiosities the game presents, the first act of the game ends up being a rollercoaster of rising "bad feelings" that raises the stakes and somehow feels like you're getting further and further away to getting any answers, but nonetheless keeps you pushing on with a protagonist that you're desperately rooting for. Perhaps most people remember the story the most for this segment, and it wouldn't be an understatement to say that the mood of the story here is entirely different from the rest, being a series of decisions between life-or-death and trust.
But then, that story suddenly ends. With all the correct decisions you've made, now you have to complete the second point-of-view with the second act that has a completely different tone shift from what you just got out of, being a slice of life with elements that seem far-too-cliche for the genre. While it may be off-putting for some, this story is also integral, and at the very least offers a break from the oppressive action seen before by bringing in characters you've seen before and chasing a mystery that sets the events of the game into motion. Not to mention that the secondary protagonist has his own demons to encounter, and since this part of the game functions as a lead-up to the current point in time, characters re-appear and some holes get filled in as a result. Because of this, the reader starts seeing things differently having obtained new knowledge, and impressions on characters start to change constantly. First you may be wary of a character in the first act, only to warm up to them, but on the other hand, characters that you trust are now testing that bond to you as the reader. When things really pick up, shifting away from the slice-of-life break, the events all converge into the main and final stretch of the story where it all comes together.
When I mentioned that the game fools you, this is where everything is revealed, showing that all along, the seemingly strange events, characters, and so on all have valid reasons to their existence, causing Chekhov's gun, boomerang, and whatever weapon you want to keep becoming a factor that's more apparent when you go back and re-read prior segments of the story. You have several crowning emotional and awesome moments, though unfortunately the final act is a bit of an exposition dump.
It was great to finally unravel the mystery at last, but to interject, this is where the game ends up feeling slightly different and its little flaws are more apparent. In the very first act, you're making near-constant use of the game's choice system, and while choices are in high volume due to how it's a rather tension-ridden, action-packed story, the overall use of this system is used far less in the second (for a fair reason) and only used for major moments in the final. This is due to the second half having less direct mystery and settling loose ends before the proper major issue in the story is tackled by the cast, but it's why the first part of the game feels entirely different now that you've gone everything only to end up learning all the motivations behind the characters. Unfortunately, some may see this as slow, and personally, I admit this feels kind of lazy when a major point of the tension in the story was that it wasn't the nuclear radiation or the fires that were "the danger". I also have general other nitpicks, the biggest one involving the most critical turning point in the story that finally lets the cast members face towards escaping the facility. I was hoping here would be the point that has some real crisis or confrontation, but it was rather smoothed over thanks to a major plot point by the second protagonist, absolving the problem that came up at that moment rather immediately, followed by what was a massive leap in resolving that scene.
Despite all that, I'd say the story came together really well, removing all the burning questions I had in my mind and coming up with some rather amazing twists and more emotional moments (not gonna lie I nearly teared up several times). It's hard to explain when this review is already trying its best to spoil as little as possible, but again, part of Root Double's charm for me was convincing me that the characters would be rather basic, that it wasn't hiding anything behind the curtains, and that I'd be in for a very simple resolution. After you've made all the right choices, and after several climatic points in the final stretch of the story, you earn your true ending and see a rather complete and wonderful conclusion in my eyes.
My only other complaints aside from some story nitpicks, I was rather neutral to one character and ended up never liking another, but I genuinely enjoyed the characterization of the rest of the cast otherwise. Also, to properly enjoy the true ending of the game, 100% completion was practically required in all the previous routes, which wasn't clear to me at first and was kind of annoying to go back and grind to (use those Z and R keyboard buttons!), but even so, once I got them, they provided really good closure and only empowered me to watch the ending one last time again. Otherwise, the visuals and SFX in Root Double were just fine and did their job (albeit with some derpy-looking scenes), though many of the voice actors committed to rather good performances that empowered scenes where it really mattered; I found out that against my expectations that some of the VAs are rather popular as well (Watase's doesn't seem to scream properly though lol). Lastly, some people complain about the BGM being boring, though to me I think many of the tracks were wonderfully done, and many of them fit SO WELL with the setting given a scene. In fact, I swear that some of the music seems reminiscent of 999 (and there's quite a few unused tracks I ripped that are pretty chill too).
Anyway, that's as vague as I decided to write the review without spoiling moments. I genuinely enjoyed Root Double all and all, and the fact that the whole title actually has meaning now is only a testament to how much the game explains all it has going on. It has awesome twists and characters that I may as well remember down the line, though not everyone may be a fan of the final pacing. You could wait for a sale if you're uncertain, but at least to me, even if I got it as a gift, it's worth the price for a pretty good story with loads of content. YMMV, but as someone who's been thirsting for a good tale, I can highly recommend this along with its flaws. 85/100