Half of Robotics;Notes is a slice of life story about teenagers on a rural island messing around at their school club where they're trying to accomplish the monumental task of building a working giant robot, and the other half is a conspiracy thriller about a shadowy organisation supposedly trying to kill billions of people.
Whether or not this story works for you is likely going to come down to how well you think these two halves mesh together, and while they're an odd combination, I think there's something special in the result.
You might have guessed from the title that this is a story in the Japanese mecha genre, but I'd argue it's more about mecha fandom than mecha itself. Every character has their own relationship to giant robots that is explored in detail, from heroine Akiho growing up on Super Robot anime, to rival Subaru's fascination with the Real Robot side of things, or shy martial artist Jun's fear of robots based on a traumatic childhood incident, and they each inform the casts perspective on mecha in unique ways as they come together to make a giant robot.
Something that makes Robotics;Notes different is in its structure. Whereas most visual novels either have a single route or multiple diverging routes with different endings, Robotics;Notes has multiple character endings that follow on directly from one another instead of being different branching routes. While this does mean the player can accidentally play these endings out of order and mess with the flow of the story, I think this approach creates a more cohesive narrative overall, as by the time you reach the true ending, most members of the robotics club have gone through their own character development and resolved their character arcs in a single timeline, instead of it happening in a different narrative branch that might not occur on the path to a true ending.
While almost every character gets their time to shine, there is one character who unfortunately misses out, as all the character endings only revolve around the female cast. This means that Subaru, who in my opinion is one of the more interesting characters, doesn't get a completely satisfying character arc until the inferior sequel, Robotics;Notes DaSH.
Graphics wise, Robotics;Notes is somewhat unique among visual novels in that it opts to use 3D models instead of 2D portraits or the more recent Live-2D animations. The 3D models look quite good, and animate well, making for a more dynamic look than static 2D images, but it does leave the game feeling like it has a lack of a distinct art style compared to its cousin Steins;Gate, which had beautifully drawn 2D portraits with a unique look to them. You still see the characters in 2D during CG's, but they have a fairly generic look in order to match their 3D models. In addition, presumably because the 3D models were more expensive or took longer to produce, only a small handful of characters outside of the main cast can appear outside of CG scenes, meaning often the main cast will be talking to thin air as the game couldn't justify giving a 3D model to more minor characters like the protagonist Kaito's parents, where I think they likely would have had at least one portrait drawn for their appearances in a 2D visual novel.
Overall, Robotics;Notes is a very slow paced story, both in its laid back slice of life half, and it's slow burn conspiracy thriller half, but I think that only enhances both sides of this unique pairing. The slice of life elements benefit from a pacing that allows the player plenty of time to get attached to these characters, and helps convey the stillness of rural life on the island of Tanegashima, while the conspiracy thriller elements are enhanced by the background sense of dread that bigger forces are at play behind the scenes, and our protagonist could be silenced at any time for what he has discovered. It also means that whenever a big plot development does happen, it feels monumental in comparison to the relaxed daily life the characters experience. I wouldn't blame anyone for not being on board with its pacing, but I think if you stick with it, it's ultimately a rewarding experience.
Whether or not this story works for you is likely going to come down to how well you think these two halves mesh together, and while they're an odd combination, I think there's something special in the result.
You might have guessed from the title that this is a story in the Japanese mecha genre, but I'd argue it's more about mecha fandom than mecha itself. Every character has their own relationship to giant robots that is explored in detail, from heroine Akiho growing up on Super Robot anime, to rival Subaru's fascination with the Real Robot side of things, or shy martial artist Jun's fear of robots based on a traumatic childhood incident, and they each inform the casts perspective on mecha in unique ways as they come together to make a giant robot.
Something that makes Robotics;Notes different is in its structure. Whereas most visual novels either have a single route or multiple diverging routes with different endings, Robotics;Notes has multiple character endings that follow on directly from one another instead of being different branching routes. While this does mean the player can accidentally play these endings out of order and mess with the flow of the story, I think this approach creates a more cohesive narrative overall, as by the time you reach the true ending, most members of the robotics club have gone through their own character development and resolved their character arcs in a single timeline, instead of it happening in a different narrative branch that might not occur on the path to a true ending.
While almost every character gets their time to shine, there is one character who unfortunately misses out, as all the character endings only revolve around the female cast. This means that Subaru, who in my opinion is one of the more interesting characters, doesn't get a completely satisfying character arc until the inferior sequel, Robotics;Notes DaSH.
Graphics wise, Robotics;Notes is somewhat unique among visual novels in that it opts to use 3D models instead of 2D portraits or the more recent Live-2D animations. The 3D models look quite good, and animate well, making for a more dynamic look than static 2D images, but it does leave the game feeling like it has a lack of a distinct art style compared to its cousin Steins;Gate, which had beautifully drawn 2D portraits with a unique look to them. You still see the characters in 2D during CG's, but they have a fairly generic look in order to match their 3D models. In addition, presumably because the 3D models were more expensive or took longer to produce, only a small handful of characters outside of the main cast can appear outside of CG scenes, meaning often the main cast will be talking to thin air as the game couldn't justify giving a 3D model to more minor characters like the protagonist Kaito's parents, where I think they likely would have had at least one portrait drawn for their appearances in a 2D visual novel.
Overall, Robotics;Notes is a very slow paced story, both in its laid back slice of life half, and it's slow burn conspiracy thriller half, but I think that only enhances both sides of this unique pairing. The slice of life elements benefit from a pacing that allows the player plenty of time to get attached to these characters, and helps convey the stillness of rural life on the island of Tanegashima, while the conspiracy thriller elements are enhanced by the background sense of dread that bigger forces are at play behind the scenes, and our protagonist could be silenced at any time for what he has discovered. It also means that whenever a big plot development does happen, it feels monumental in comparison to the relaxed daily life the characters experience. I wouldn't blame anyone for not being on board with its pacing, but I think if you stick with it, it's ultimately a rewarding experience.