Root Double (from the director of the Infinity series)

[GundamAce]

Originally Posted by Dusk

Oh man. The Limited Edition has already sold out on Playasia. I've pre-ordered the regular edition (the limited edition was too pricey for me), but I wonder if that version will sell out fast too.

I preordered my LE copy from Amazon back in December when pre-orders first started, but wow, really? I didn't expect it would be THAT popular...

[myopius]

Originally Posted by GundamAce

One of the reviewers on Dengeki who's been keeping up on this game's development played the whole game and finished it. While I avoided the details of the review, his conclusion was that Root Double is, in his opinion, Nakazawa's greatest work yet, and is the best Visual Novel of this year so far.

Now I'm even more excited... there's only about another week to go!

I just read that review completely myself. I can understand wanting to avoid the spoilers so that you go into the story with as few expectations as possible. While the spoilers were all "minor" in the eyes of most, the reviewer's small comments about the characters and brief description of the work's inherent themes were, in retrospect, all things that will probably slightly mess with my expectations once I play.

One thing the reviewer said that I found really cool was

Spoiler for the experience of using the RAM system: no story-related spoilers at all:

how he put a lot of effort into making the right decisions and felt that it was rewarded. What a change from a game like Tsukihime where it felt practically impossible to not get a ton of bad ends.

But from everything he said, it almost sounds like every single aspect of the story was excellent. And to think it'll supposedly take

Spoiler for play time:

>40

hours on average to play (for a native speaker, that is). I also liked how the reviewer said he's never once used the word "masterpiece" in a review before this one.

(Now to wait very patiently for news of a PC port, and I guess observe and confirm the general reception online after this comes out. )

[GundamAce]

Originally Posted by myopius

One thing the reviewer said that I found really cool was

Spoiler for the experience of using the RAM system: no story-related spoilers at all:

how he put a lot of effort into making the right decisions and felt that it was rewarded. What a change from a game like Tsukihime where it felt practically impossible to not get a ton of bad ends.

What exactly do you mean?

Spoiler for Tsukihime:

Are you saying that whenever a Bad Ending choice came up in Tsukihime, it was obvious? Or how a lot of the "logical" choices in Tsukihime led to Bad Endings? I've played Tsukihime myself, and I personally found it a mix- with that one, I basically went with "heroic/nice thing to do" choices, and it usually served me well.

Spoiler for Play time:

That sounds about right for a Nakazawa game. Ever17 took about 40 hours for me, Remember11 about... 30, maybe (not counting Bad Endings), and I/O at 40 hours (48 for all the additional scenes/Bad Endings).

EDIT:

Spoiler for Play Time 2:

Also, this practically confirms my suspicions that there's more than two routes in the game... not that it wasn't obvious from an Infinity player's standpoint.

Also, on Nakazawa's Twitter, he says that now he's done with Root Double, he's looking forward to playing "Robotic;Notes", "Time Travelers" and "Danganronpa 2". He also says he'll resume playing "Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward" (which he's been playing on and off recently, but hasn't been able to play it much due to the finishing touches on Root Double).

[myopius]

Originally Posted by GundamAce

What exactly do you mean?

Spoiler for Tsukihime:

Are you saying that whenever a Bad Ending choice came up in Tsukihime, it was obvious? Or how a lot of the "logical" choices in Tsukihime led to Bad Endings? I've played Tsukihime myself, and I personally found it a mix- with that one, I basically went with "heroic/nice thing to do" choices, and it usually served me well.

Spoiler for Tsukihime:

I just meant that, at least for me, it felt (practically) "impossible" to not repeatedly encounter bad ends, because for various selections, there did not seem to be enough information to know the consequences of a choice.

One example is when Shiki is hiding and waiting to strike at an enemy, you have the option to wait 0-2 times instead of attacking, but you need to wait exactly once to not die. That was actually the first bad end I got (waiting twice). IIRC, another selection, depending on whether you choose to go see Arcueid or stay inside, you die several selections+days later. My friend spent a really long time trying to figure out the cause of that bad end.

If I had to characterize my style of playing, then I'd say I also tried to be heroic, and bridge the emotional distance between Shiki and the other characters, yet I also felt that I needed to exercise caution wherever possible. In any case, it's been a long time since it I played it, and giving Tsukihime as an example of a game that's difficult to avoid bad ends in is just my subjective opinion.

Or were you just asking about Tsukihime because you wanted to indirectly understand what I meant by the word "rewarded"? If so, I just meant that the reviewer felt that

Spoiler for More details which still don't indicate/spoil anything new regarding the game's structure:

the RAM system was a success that helped him feel very engaged, in the sense that the amount of bad ends was proportional to the extent to which he made the right judgments. He said that he did very well with regard to avoiding bad ends, and had the impression that his performance was the result of putting a lot of thought into his choices.

[GundamAce]

Oh, that's what you meant. Yeah, makes sense.

Spoiler for Remember11 Bad Endings:

Remember11 was better at this, IMO- a normal player in Kokoro's Route will most likely avoid the Annihilation endings because although the game makes you hate Mayuzumi, most people won't be all out harsh on her. You also have the fact that Yomogi subtly gives you survival tips that you'll most likely remember at critical moments, and for Satoru's bad endings, choosing the more logical choices are actually safer.

As a comparison, in Tsukihime's infamous shark ending, it happens because you choose to avoid danger, wheras Satoru's Route rewards you for avoiding danger.

[MidoriHiME]

This news only makes me sad because it will be years and years before I play this game...but who knows, I might cave and buy it if I can find a friend in Japan willing to painfully work through all the dialogue with me...haha

[Dusk]

I've played the demo and I can understand what the reviewer was feeling when he commented on the RAM system. I won't cite any examples for fear of spoiling your game. The following are information previously posted by GundamAce, but coupled with my comments.

Spoiler:

It took a while to understand the consequences of adjusting each character's trust value since it looked complicated at first glance, but after a few trial and error (i.e bad ends), you will come to realise that it's actually pretty simple in its process. The scenario would even warn you if you are heading towards a bad end with your current trust values so that you have a chance to make last minute adjustments. I believe the difficulty is only in trying to get each character's specific epilogue endings (including the player's character), as each decision you make could possibly increase or decrease each character's "affection points" (for lack of a better term), and there are 9 degrees of trust levels. Fortunately, you can see the affected increases or decreases right after the decision. The hardcore VN players will have their work cut out for them, but they will surely be rewarded.

[Dusk]

http://regista.co.jp/gate/rootw/gate.cgi
Above is the link for the official Root Double web questionnaire. If you've played and completed the game, please log in and complete this questionnaire. In order to make a better game in the future, the production team would like to consider the opinions and perhaps incorporate the requests of the players.

For those who participate in the survey, you will get a free Root Double wallpaper as a gift. Limited to one per person.

You need to enter the login ID and password in order to enter the survey page.
Login ID is "root_w".
Password is the last six digits of the bar code of the product.

Contents from your input may be published on the official website, but your name will be omitted.

*Info found on Nakazawa Takumi's twittter.

[GundamAce]

When does it end? I'd like that wallpaper, but I still don't have the game yet, so...

[Dusk]

No idea if there's a dateline. But here's a better look at the wallpaper to whet your appetite.
http://news.dengeki.com/elem/000/000/495/495546/

[GundamAce]

All right, my Root Double copy finally arrived! As usual, I'll talk about the box itself.

The Limited Edition box is very big- bigger than the PSP Infinity Limited Editions and the Xbox 360 Ever17 LE, but smaller than the Code_18 LE. Each side of the box is different, giving it a rather nice appearance.

Inside the box are 3 cases- the game, the soundtrack, and the Drama CD. The game is... well, its the game.

The soundtrack, composed by Takuma Sato, has two disks. The first disk is comprised of in-game OST, 29 separate tracks. The second disk has 14 tracks- 4 are the OP and ED (both short and long versions), while the remaining 10 are music from Beyond*Beyond's Drama CD.

The Drama CD is of Beyond*Beyond, apparently an in-universe Magical Girl show. There's more details on the reverse side of the case cover, but I'll read it later. It contains 2 CDs, and has 6 episodes all together. Not sure if I'm supposed to listen to it before or after the game, but I'll just play it safe and listen to it after.

I'll probably start uploading the OST either today or tomorrow, but for now, here's the full OP:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D47m1DNRXF0

I'd love to start playing now, but I have a few obligations I must attend to first.

[GundamAce]

Okay, opening the game, I can already access the Extras menu. According to the menu, I have the following list:

Endings: 37 (largest yet)
Scene Titles: 464 (WAY more than Remember11, which had 154, and way more than I/O, which had 251)
CGs/Album: 162 (Roughly in between Remember11, which had 116, and I/O, which had 214)
Music: 32 (standard)
Messages (lines read): 55348 (Way more than I/O, which had 37721)
SSS branches: 544 (as these kinds of branches are way different than anything there's been before, I can't really comment on it)
TIPS: 166 (Much less than I/O, which had 256)

Looks like I'm in for one hell of a ride!

[Elvin]

5450 copies sold first week, ouch I think it's been marketed fairly well for a VN. Wonder why there's so little interest @_@

[GundamAce]

Keep in mind that it's facing harsh competition from other big games right now. In particular, it faces direct competition with Robotic;Notes in the console VN area, both being released at roughly the same time.

[Elvin]

Sigh. I at least hope they make back their investment I didn't expect f/sn numbers, but I was at least anticipating it to be in the 5 digits. We won't see our PC port at this rate.

[Dusk]

http://ascii.jp/elem/000/000/703/703104/
Above is an article from Dengeki ASCII titled "Why is Root Double a Masterpiece?"

A brief summary for those who don't read Japanese.
1) "These days, working people have no time to spend on games. Therefore, time is valuable, and you wouldn't want to play a game for an hour and feel like you've wasted your time because the game was boring. But Root Double was constantly interesting, from the beginning to the end, which is the ideal situation for an AVG that is very hard to achieve. After the introduction/prologue, incidents start happening one after the other, creating a sense of urgency that continues until the end."

tl;dr - "The pacing is very good."

2) A system that fuse with the story completely. The new system allows the player to further empathize with the protagonist. The result is causing the player to feel a sense of urgency during a crisis situation, or feeling emotional during a touching scene.

tl:dr - "The new system is very fresh and different from normal AVG, and still ends up being pleasant."

[GundamAce]

Okay, so I got the "Normal Ending" of Root A. There must be a Good Ending that's yet to be found, but as to how to get it, I'm not entirely sure yet, so I'm debating whether to go find the Good Ending first or start on Root B. Well, anyway, here are my impressions from my first run-through.

Spoiler for Root A (through Normal Ending) review (no spoilers):

Wow... just wow. This has got to be one of the best, if not the best, opening route of all time. I mean it. While the pace of the first in-game hour of the route was slow, but after that, it turned into some of the best pacing I've ever seen. There were new developments that occured back and forth that made every single moment of the game exciting, with virtually no clue to what would happen next. For those who complained about the slow pacing of Ever17, they would love this, as it combines breakneck pacing while still managing to balance character moments. Even more shocking is just how much content they were able to pack in each in-game hour. It took me 15 hours to actually complete this route because of how much content there was in it (though part of it has to do with my Japanese reading speed).

The characters were all likeable to some extent, though I don't feel that I've developed the connection with them that I developed with the Ever17 cast yet, though. My favorite character in this route was Kazami. She seemed very Tsugumi-like, though nowhere near as cold, while still having the parts that made Tsugumi likeable. Jun was probably my second favorite, followed by Yuuri, Watase, Ukita, and Ena. Ena is particularly notable because she feels like a Mayuzumi 2.0. done right- while she's initially argumentative with the team, she can be swayed by reason, cares about others besides herself, and eventually apologizes for her attitude, knowing it was wrong. Again, like Ever17, so far, I don't hate any of the characters in the game.

Mysteries... hoo boy, where do I begin? This route has given me more mysteries than You's Route did! I took notes of all the questions I have, and as of this ending, I've been left with 36 questions, several of them containing the usual WTFckery Nakazawa is known for. There's many theories I've developed, but none that I can say for sure are right, so until I get answers, I'll just have to keep guessing. Either way, it did an excellent job in the mysteries department.

My only real problem was that I felt like the characters didn't get enough development (it feels like there's something missing from them for some reason) and I would have liked to get to know them a bit better. There's also the fact that the area that the characters are confined in is a bit TOO small, so there's a lot of backtracking in the game, but the game skillfully manages to avoid making it repetitive and boring by giving the characters different reasons to backtrack each time, so it works out pretty well.

So Root A (as of the Normal Ending) gets a 9.5/10 from me. Superb pacing, generally likeable cast, intriguing plot, and many mysteries, but I feel like I wanted them to develop the characters more so that I could feel more for them (though part of the fact was that I was spoiled on a few things due to translating various things from the main site). All I can say is this: fantastic, and I hope the Good Ending is even better.

[GundamAce]

I got Root A's Good Ending. Again, wow, an thrilling ending, one that still poses many questions. It put the protagonist in a position I've never seen before in most VNs, really adding to the tension. I had to use a walkthrough to get this ending, though.

I've discovered something interesting. It seems that like the VN Soul Link, there are multiple endings within this route that you can get. To clarify, in Soul Link, there's three girls avaliable in the second chapter, but no matter who you choose, the ending is mostly the same. However, on your first playthrough you can only get one of them, then after you've cleared it once, the other two become avaliable. It's the same case in Root Double: on your first playthrough, you can only get Kazami, but on your second playthrough, Jun and Ena become avaliable. I'm wondering if I should repeat this now or just go on to Root B...

Anyway, this route still retains its 9.5 score. Can't wait to see what's left in store for me!

[GundamAce]

I finished uploading the OST to my Youtube account.

[GundamAce]

Okay, I was officially wrong about the whole "Soul Link-esque" multiple endings thing for Root A. I did it for Jun, and I found out that all it really did was add an additional SSS prompt towards the end of the route, which, when entered correctly, gives an additional scene (and altered a few scenes with Kazami), but the ending was the same. All this really ended up doing was adding yet another mystery to my ever-increasing number of questions (I'm up to 40 now). I'll go and tackle the Ena one next, then it's on to Root B.

EDIT 6/26: Okay, I got my first Bad Ending in Root B. Moral of the story- don't let yourself get biased due to the events of Root A.