This one took quite some time for me to get through, which is strange, because I usually finish visual novels much faster than this. I felt that, out of the three main games I’ve played in the series so far (ChäoS;HEAd, Steins;Gate, Robotics;Notes), this third one was the weakest – and this does not mean I didn’t like it! However, I must admit there were some parts where I was a bit bored, and then I shelved the game for a few days or weeks before getting back to it.
The story starts slow, which is fine, that’s how it is in Science Adventure titles, but I think it might be too slow at the beginning… We have to wait quite a lot before it picks up, till about the last third of the plot – but oh boy, it picks up like crazy when you reach that point! I probably would have changed the pacing a little, put some more exciting, action-packed scenes in the first half between the many lengthy, detailed discussions regarding how to build robots. The anime cutscenes were cool, though, and I, for one, liked the 3D character models, as well. The cast was OK, in my opinion (especially Frau, easily the funniest character in the franchise so far, if you ask me), and we even got a few QTE-like gameplay elements just to shake things up a bit. Oh, and I was pleasantly surprised how often they referenced events from the previous entries – as a matter of fact, one of the important side characters is someone we first met in one of them, so this is starting to feel more and more like a universe rather than stand-alone games.
So yeah, all in all I wasn’t disappointed. Maybe just bear in mind that, compared to the gory, much darker ChäoS;HEAd and the tighter, faster paced Steins;Gate, this one is definitely a lighter story (but it still has lots of drama and deep, serious topics, don’t get me wrong). Give it a try if you’re a fan of the series or VNs in general.
The story starts slow, which is fine, that’s how it is in Science Adventure titles, but I think it might be too slow at the beginning… We have to wait quite a lot before it picks up, till about the last third of the plot – but oh boy, it picks up like crazy when you reach that point! I probably would have changed the pacing a little, put some more exciting, action-packed scenes in the first half between the many lengthy, detailed discussions regarding how to build robots. The anime cutscenes were cool, though, and I, for one, liked the 3D character models, as well. The cast was OK, in my opinion (especially Frau, easily the funniest character in the franchise so far, if you ask me), and we even got a few QTE-like gameplay elements just to shake things up a bit. Oh, and I was pleasantly surprised how often they referenced events from the previous entries – as a matter of fact, one of the important side characters is someone we first met in one of them, so this is starting to feel more and more like a universe rather than stand-alone games.
So yeah, all in all I wasn’t disappointed. Maybe just bear in mind that, compared to the gory, much darker ChäoS;HEAd and the tighter, faster paced Steins;Gate, this one is definitely a lighter story (but it still has lots of drama and deep, serious topics, don’t get me wrong). Give it a try if you’re a fan of the series or VNs in general.