Genre: Adventure Mystery Visual Novel
Developer: Yeti, Regista
Publisher: Sekai Project
Release Date: Apr, 27 2016
Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition is a visual novel from Yeti and Regista and published by Sekai Project. In all, there are five routes, or roots, in the game: (A)fter, (B)efore, (C)urrent, (D)ouble, and Xtend Episode. However, in accordance to Sekai Project’s request concerning streaming and let’s plays, I will only be discussing Root A and B. I understand I probably don’t have to do that since this is a review, however, due to the love Sekai Project has shown TDM, I want to show them the respect they deserve.
To begin with, the game has a very unique feature I don’t think I’ve seen in any other VN, and that is the Senses Sympathy System. In other words, they don’t use choices in the game, but the SSS instead. The way it works is at key points, or Decision Points as the game calls them, a symbol will appear in the upper right. It is color coded with three different colors signifying the severity of the situation, and they are Blue (Normal), Yellow (Danger), Red (Possible Death). Clicking it will bring up the SSS screen as seen in the image above. Once on the screen, you can use the sliders of the characters directly and indirectly involved in the situation (including yourself) and adjust how emotionally invested you are in them.
To better explain it I will use the following scenario: You and your lover are trapped in a room by a fire. If you adjust your bar to be lower than hers it would basically translate into you putting her in greater importance than yourself. This can be translated into several things. An example of this would be if you both had an idea on how to get out the situation, you would defer to hers.
Moving onto the graphics and audio I must say I absolutely love the designs of all the characters and backgrounds. They are all really well drawn and are very crisp. I especially love the emotional reactions of characters and how it is shown on their appearance. Now that being said, there are 156 CG’s plus 14 video clips to collect in the game. The videos are mostly the credits and openings of the roots. There are also 176 tips, or bits of information about world in the game both fiction and nonfiction in origin. Finally there are 34 music tracks to discover through the game as well. There is also the Playing Log, which shows you what you have collected in total. All of these can be accessed in the Extra menu which you can reach from the main menu of the game. With that all out the way we can move onto the story of Root After and Before.
I know it’s strange that the After comes first, but it does make sense as you play. The core of the story in After revolves around the Captain of the Sirius Rescue Squad, Watase Kasasagi. The events of the Root start off with a bang, quite literally, as mysterious explosions rock LABO, a nuclear research facility located in Rokumei city. Sirius is called in to handle the situation. Once there, things go from bad to worse and they are sealed in with the remaining survivors as a Case-N is declared. Shortly after this Watase loses his memory. He is discovered by two of squadmates Tachibana and Jun. They then proceed to look for survivors and AD, which helps block radiation. Through searching the facility it quickly becomes apparent things are not quite what they seem. Can you find the truth before everyone dies, or even escape the ever increasing danger lurking in the facility? Play Root A and find out for yourself.
Root Before starts off several days before the events of After, but ties in intimately with it. It flows slowly at the start, going through the daily lives of Natsuhiko and Mashiro as they go to school and come home to Yuri who can not leave the house. Every night Natsuhiko experiences a glimpse of the future of what happens in the events of early Root A. This ultimately allows him to start piecing together the terrorist plot that happens at the start of A. Throughout B you learn of the reasons why some characters from A are at Labo to begin with.
Unfortunately, I can’t go into any good detail about the other Roots, however I can tell you a few things concerning them. From first launch of the game you only have Access to Root A and B, however, by completing all the endings you can unlock root Current. Once you play through Current you can unlock Double. Same goes for Xtend episode, which can only be done after Double. I can also say the way they link all the roots together is amazingly well done. How they each bring a piece of the puzzle to the table and combine everything together to explain things is really well written as well.
BoxCatHero gives Root Double a Drastik Measure of 9.9 out of 10 (99).
Pros:
- Great Story
- Beautiful Artwork
- Interesting Characters
- Lots to Collect
- Very well written
Cons:
- Have to unlock all endings to get a new Root
