Root Double (from the director of the Infinity series)

[MidoriHiME]

Really? First person I though of was Takeshi

[shadowplay]

Release date 03/29, limited edition comes with Drama CD and OST.

　イエティ「ルートダブル」公式サイト
『関連』 雑誌情報より3/29発売決定、通常版6,800円、初回限定版8,800円。限定版にはサントラとドラマCDを同 梱。

[GundamAce]

Originally Posted by shadowplay

Release date 03/29, limited edition comes with Drama CD and OST.

Really? Awesome! Definitely pre-ordering the limited edition. But if I may ask, where does this info come from? Nakazawa hasn't mentioned it. Was there a leak somewhere? I mean, I know they were supposed to release info on the 30th over there, but it just turned to the 29th in Japan. I know your source says it was on Yeti's site, but I didn't see it there either.

BTW, sorry about not having the sixth part of Nakazawa's interview translated yet. Had to be with my family for most of Thanksgiving week, not to mention I've got projects to work on. On that note, I must regretfully inform you that once again, finals are coming up for me, so I have to suspend work on Never7 until they're done.

But I'll try to have part 6 translated by tomorrow, and on that note, the final part of Nakazawa's interview will be posted tomorrow. I thank all of you for your patience, and I truly am sorry for not having it done yet.

[shadowplay]

It was printed in some japanese magazine

http://www.imagebam.com/image/2dc92a161648643

Btw thanks for all the interview translations.

[GundamAce]

Originally Posted by shadowplay

It was printed in some japanese magazine

http://www.imagebam.com/image/2dc92a161648643

Btw thanks for all the interview translations.

Hmm... interesting. In the cast list at the bottom, they only list 4 characters (obviously for spacing reasons): Watase, Natsuhiko, Kazami, and Yuuri. Could this mean that Kazami and Yuuri will be the most important to the plot? I know I might be overanalyzing it, given how Kazami and Yuuri are both the first heroine listed under each protagonist, but still...

[VDZ]

Originally Posted by GundamAce

BTW, sorry about not having the sixth part of Nakazawa's interview translated yet. Had to be with my family for most of Thanksgiving week, not to mention I've got projects to work on. On that note, I must regretfully inform you that once again, finals are coming up for me, so I have to suspend work on Never7 until they're done.

But I'll try to have part 6 translated by tomorrow, and on that note, the final part of Nakazawa's interview will be posted tomorrow. I thank all of you for your patience, and I truly am sorry for not having it done yet.

Don't worry about it. You're doing us a great service all for free. Don't feel obligated to translate everything really fast when you're too busy to - we should be grateful you're translating all of this for us at all.

[GundamAce]

The release date and Limited Edition bonuses have been confirmed and the final part of Nakazawa's interview is up... and holy c***, it's five pages long. Well... translating this could take a while.

[GundamAce]

Nakazawa Interview Part 6:

Spoiler for Nakazawa Interview:

――Moving to the topic of the characters, tell us about the casting. Were there any parts about this casting that you fussed over?

　It sounds clichéd, but it was having them match the character’s image. When listening to the sample voices, I chose the ones that made me think “they would say it like this, wouldn’t they?”

――Please tell us any impressions you may have remaining after the voice recording sessions.

　It’s not like the script used for the voice recording had the entire story written out on it, but rather excerpts from the parts where the corresponding character was on-screen. So they would skim a scene with their character in it, and we tried to make it confusing to them so that they wouldn't know why the other characters were acting the way they were in those scenes, and so they wouldn't understand why they were being put in those situations. So there were a lot of times we had to explain what was going on in those sections by recording.

　So during recording, it'd be like "Why's this happening?" "Oh, I get it!" Basically, one long Q&A session from beginning to end. I'd like to say that they wanted to understand their character's lines and actions, but perhaps they were simply concerned about what was actually going on (laughs).

――Sounds like you had fun with everyone while recording.

　Seems like the engineers had a lot of fun as well. This game had Watase and Natsuhiko as double protagonists, but to the recording staff, it was like reading several stories at once about the characters. From these various areas, it seemed that they slowly began to understand the truth.

――Did you have any other impressions remaining?

　A lot of veterans participated i this, but naturally, there were scenes taht touched on difficult concepts in them, particularly with the characters explaining their own technical knowledge. They were like the scenes in "Ever17: Out of Infinity" where Sora Akanegasaki explains about LeMU. No matter what, the scenes with the technical terms and difficult expressions kept piling up, but I'm relieved that everyone was able to read through them.

――In the second round of casting interviews, Mitsuhiro Ichiki, who plays Natsuhiko Tenkawa, had quite some fired up comments. How was everyone during recording?

　Mr. Ichiki was very passionate about Root Double. He's what I'd call "The Number One Demon of Questions" (laughs). He was very intense, and was the one who took the most retakes on his own volition. Everyone took independent retakes at times, to which I thought "it's fine, but you don't have have to", but when I heard the retakes, I would think "This one is certainly better." Everyone put a lot of energy into it.

――Currently, Shingaki is giving an enthusiastic performance as Kariya Matou from "Fate/Zero". In his interview, he said that "This old man does his best for her [Salou's] sake." (laughs).

　Salou and Watase have a strange relation based around him trying to save her and her running away (laughs). Mr. Shingaki did a good performance.

――This time, there are a lot of female characters, so will there be endings for each girl?

　No, but as the story progresses, you can change the friendship levels between you and the characters mid-route. In other words, each character has their own private episode.

You pass the time with various characters, and as you grow to understand them, you can focus on specific ones, and as for the times when you split up into separate characters, which one of them will act?――Due to that accumulation, the degree to how much of that character's truth self, the other side of their inner heart, that you will see will change. The ending itself won't change, but in the Epilogue, a special episode will be added for said heroine. So I think it'll be fun to see those episodes and to talk with each of the characters.

――Is that related to the "innovated system" that you've included this time.
Yes, it is. That fusion of the system and scenario is something that is "exclusive to this game's story."

[GundamAce]

Just wanted to show that we're not the only ones excited for Root Double.

http://visualnovelaer.wordpress.com/...%cf%89-290312/

What's more, Takumi Nakazawa actually linked this post in this twitter. So he is keeping an eye on the English speaking fans... that's good.

I wonder if Japanese fans think we're crazy or something for trying to read something that's already complicated enough in their own language?

All the stuff about the Senses Sympathy System and the RAM System will be explained in the next two parts of the interview that I'm translating.

According to this, the Drama CD will actually be important to the backstory... kinda reminds me of I/O's Drama CD, "Damsel Overbrowse" (which, while not essential to the plot, did fill in a blank left by the original story).

[GundamAce]

Root Double will be featured at the next Comiket. At the booth will be:

1. A Root Double blanket.

2. Root Double tote bag.

3. The Root Double Prelude CD. It will contain the short version of the opening, "Double Bible", and also includes the Drama CD that will be in the Limited Edition.

[GundamAce]

Nakazawa Interview Part 7:

Spoiler for Nakazawa Interview:

――Please tell us the details of the new, innovative systems equipped to Root Double.

　First, I'll explain about the first system, but the truth is that there's already an in-game snapshot of that system that's been released. The branches in the path of whether the characters will be saved or not, whether they'll live or die, are influenced by each character's impressions of each other, which, naturally, causes many branches. However, this is not the usual "choices" system... but it does create branches in the scenario.

――With no choice system, how will there divergences?

　It'll be through the influence of the "Senses (Sensation) Sympathy System." To be precise, it's a system that allows the player to decide the protagonist's various "senses". To put it more systematically, it's a way to visualize how much sympathy you have for the trapped nine character's feelings.
(TN: I cut a few of the lines out because they were just of Nakazawa explaining what "Senses Sympathy System" meant in Japanese (the system's name is in English).

――So is it related to those nine's enneagrams?

　Yes. For this game, we adopted the concept of the enneagram.(*1) This is a personality assessment system that sorts people's personalities into nine personalities, which, in this case, each of the nine people trapped in LABO correspond to (*2). There are nine points on the enneagram, with each person being assigned to one. And in-game, the enneagram is shown by itself, but in addition to that, it's a radar chart-like graph that can input data. How far will the player's sympathy towards each personality go? That is what the inputting data in the graph will show.

(TN: The asteriks explained about the enneagrams and which character had each enneagram. As I had already translated those earlier, I didn't see the need to translate the info twice.)

――The gamer themself inputs the data into the graph?

That's right. If you bring down those character's values, then naturally, you will express "the antipathy you hold for that character" as well as negative emotions and opinions towards them. On the contrary, if you raise those values, then you'll have sympathy for the character, along with the same emotions for them, liking them, understanding them, expressing approving opinions towards them... that's the general idea. That kind of thing is split up between the nine characters. The protagonists are also amongst this nine, so therefore, it is something you yourself decide. What this means is that in this case, it will decide whether or not you have confidence in your own insights and opinions.

――Can you input it at any time?

　Not from beginning to end, no. When a branch is approaching, the graph will light up as an indication to the user that it's possible to input values. It's to give a feeling of, "A branch is coming up soon, so please tell us your feelings." As the gamer is reading the story, as they think about what to do, they input the data into the graph. And when you reach a branch point, the story will branch according to the numbers in the graph.

　Incidentally, even if the graph starts glowing when a branch is approaching, you're not required to input anything. If you think the current numbers are fine as they are, then we don't mind if you leave it as it is. If you just want to input, go ahead, but it's fine for people to go on ahead and read the scenario without doing anything. Those who want to input merely have to press a button to magnify the graph and enter input mode. Those who don't want to input just do nothing and continue to just read the story without interruption. As a matter of fact, from the standpoint of trying to clear the story, there's no need to input at every branch. It's fine to only input when you feel it is necessary. Though it would be too extreme to say you can advance by never inputting once. Well, if you never input once, you'll certainly run into a Bad Ending on the way.

――Certainly, this is quite the innovative system.



To give a concrete example, in this snapshot, Kazami is proposing a search method. "The Captain and I will look here together. Moribe will be on standby." If you want to object or approve Kazami's plan, then all you have to do is either raise or increase Kazami's value. There will be a branch depending on whether your value of Kazami is high or low. However, if Watase has a different opinion, then... "No, you're hurt, Kazami, so shouldn't Jun and I search while you stay here on standby?" In this case, the conditions become "Between Kazami and Watase, who has the higher value?" If they're the same, your opinion will become uncertain, and if both are low, both parties will reject it――in that case, several characters will start quarreling.

　Furthermore, as the story advances, it becomes very complex, so whether to raise the character's values high or whether to balance them makes it steadily become like a more analogous sensation. Therefore, the branch conditions might become completely hard to pick out. But it's our intention to give gamers who want a sensuous gameplay to some extent a large width of established conditions. For example, by being able to input values from 0-9, if Kazami's value is higher than 6, then Jun's value can't be more than 3. If you think "This character said some clearly suspicious things", then by all means, please lower their value.

　If you go on reading with out heed and accept the "supicious" character's opinions, it could lead to a Bad Ending.


(Before branch)


(Branch A)


(Branch B)
――Sounds quite difficult, judging by this conversation.

　Agreed. At the start, there's a high possibility you'll get a Bad Ending. That's because there are many sections that have branches that can lead to Bad Endings. So I'd like to think that after a bit of trial and error, people will get the hang of it. When they do, I think they'll be clearly able to see the guidelines, such as "this person should be high, while they should be low." For example, if they get a Bad Ending, they should be able to realize the cause and what values they should input.

――Do you plan to implement a hint function?

　It's our intention to prepare various hint-like systems. In cases where they reach a Bad Ending, we're thinking of having something that informs the gamer of what went wrong and stressing the importance of each branch.

　To give a better explanation concerning the latter, there will be three kinds of branches: "Blue Branches", "Yellow Branches", and "Red Branches". When a branch is coming soon, the Senses Graph's color will change to blue, yellow, or red to inform the gamer. Blue Branches are merely times where you can change impressions towards characters, and don't make a large change to the story. However, the accumulation of these points may cause changes in the second half, so for those careful people who want to properly input points, we think it's all right if you increase the value of your favorite character.





　Yellow branches are those for, whether you move left or right, can determine if you accept someone's opinions, and can cause greate changes in the story, so it's best to be a little cautious. Plus, if you want to see the story branch a bit, it's best to give it a little thought.



　Red Branches are very dangerous branches, so if you make a mistake here, it's a Bad Ending. Think about them very carefully. If you don't think about it and just blindly rush in, the probability that you'll get a Bad Ending immediately is very high.



――Is there a time limit to the Senses Sympathy System?

　There is no real time time limit, no. The only time limit so to speak of is you pass a branch while reading and don't do anything.

――Perhaps there's some conditions regarding if all nine character's values can be raised or lowered...?

　Maybe. Among them, there are some scenes where you have to make difficult decisions. Oh, I forgot to mention this, but it's not like you can change all nine character's values each time there's a branch. When a branch is approaching, all can to do is imput the values for "the character that is related to those conditions". So you can't input values for characters who are unrelated to the branch. For example, in the case of "whose opinion will you pick: Kazami or Jun's?", you can't input anyone outside of Kazami and Jun.“ So the answer to the question you asked is that it's rare, but you can only do it under extremely complex circumstances.

　Currently, we are still in the middle of balancing them out, so that it'll be reasonable and understandable after the branch "why are these the conditions?" If it's simply too difficult, then all we'll have are some strange conditions that lead to branches. But we're trying not to do that by establishing reasonable circumstances that will lead the readers to reasonable branches and results. When you arrive at those branches, there will be hints given in various forms, such as the characters saying some clearly strange things after making a mistake, and if they wonder what they should do with the balance of characters, if they continue to read, they'll understand one way or another.

　It may seem a bit difficult, but we think it'll be an enjoyable gaming experience to be able to influence one's general feelings towards the characters.

――So this is the first of these systems.

　Yes. By means of the Senses Sympathy System, the story branches, and it influences the heroine events, as well as the Good Endings and Bad Endings. This is a system that influences the first half of the game.

Quite the interesting system.

[MidoriHiME]

It sounds like a cool system, but difficult, and with so many Bad Endings available, I feel like this game's going to be impossible without a walkthrough

[GundamAce]

Originally Posted by MidoriHiME

It sounds like a cool system, but difficult, and with so many Bad Endings available, I feel like this game's going to be impossible without a walkthrough

Well, after I/O, Nakazawa having a new system or two up his sleeve doesn't surprise me.

For those of you who don't know, I/O had a new system called the "Defrag System", which was sort of a "route unlocking system". What it did was track how much of a route you had completed. If you hadn't completed another route first, you wouldn't be able to see the full ending of the route, just a "cut-off" ending that was basically a cliffhanger to the real ending of the route. But if you had completed a certain route before that route, the Defrag System would detect this, and allow you to see the full ending. Once you saw the full endings of the first four routes, you would unlock the fifth route. However, if you got a Bad Ending in one of the routes after you completed that route, the Defrag System would take away your "route complete" status, which means that it could cause you to get a Bad Ending in another route.

What's more, it also functioned as a "scene unlocking system". There are many scenes you actually can't see when you play a route for the first time in I/O, because they contain spoilers for later routes. In order to show this, the Defrag System marked incomplete scenes and crossed out scenes that you couldn't access yet. Once you had acheived the requirements to see those scenes, the crossed out scenes would disappear, and you could go watch that scene (and those scenes, naturally, were essential for 100% completion, not to mention some contained new TIPS and CGs).

Overall, once you figured out how it worked, it wasn't that bad, but it was confusing initially.

[myopius]

Thanks to GundamAce for translating the recent interview (and everything else).

Well, I'm a bit psyched now. Ever17 had funny parts and emotional parts, while Remember11 felt like it had more in the way of clever prose, but both of them really packed a lot of personality into subtle word choices, which helped me care about the characters. So I appreciated reading the seiyuu say how they really liked the Captain, along with Nakazawa commenting on it, because if you asked me before what I really liked about Kuranari Takeshi, I would have said something really close to what Nakazawa said there about Watase. I find that to be a good sign.

[GundamAce]

For the next 24 hours, on the Yeti main site, there are special "Christmas" voice clips avaliable for all the characters, like they were for Halloween. If you want to give them a listen, now's the time!

Oh, and sorry for not translating the rest of the interview yet. I'll try to get around to it soon.

[ramengud]

New Promo Video
http://www.siliconera.com/2011/12/30...aces-in-march/

[GundamAce]

Looks f***ing awesome. I didn't think it was even possible for me to be more excited for this game than I already was, but once again, Nakazawa and his team have proven me wrong. The OP sounds great as well. Sure, it's no "LeMU", but it's very catchy. Right now (and I am totally being serious when I say this), I feel this game definitely has the potential to be better than Ever17.

[GundamAce]

More Root Double stuff from Dengeki: they're now posting profiles of each character, two pages long. The first page contains comments on the character by Nakazawa and Tsukishima, while the second page contains character sketches and comments by Mikeou and eco*.

[GundamAce]

Nakazawa's announced another update soon. In it will be the ability to listen to 10 sample tracks from Root Double (the composer is still secret) and the first episode of the Beyond*Beyond Drama CD that was released at Comiket.

[GundamAce]

*Sigh*... Okay, there's a lot of new stuff today. Let's begin with the shorter things:

-10 Sample BGM tracks are avaliable to listen on the website. They are:

1. Peacemaker/Thema of Yuuri
2. Individualist/Thema of Louise
3. LABO: Security Lv. 2
4. Extrasensory Perception
5. Pose the Question in this World
6. Close to the Truth
7. The Truth is Revealed
8. The Brave Decision
9. Memento Mori
10. Double Bible (Inst. Arrange)

I'll upload them onto Youtube later.

Next, we have some new characters for Beyond*Beyond, as well as the first episode (25 minutes long). The website reveals that there will be three episodes.

Finally, we have 4 new CGs and scenes from Route A. They are:

9. The Start of the Massacre
11. The Slaughter Continues
12. Who's The Culprit...?
13. The Undiscovered Ninth Person