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FranchiseN/AGenrePSTVYesPhysical EnglishYes – EU/NAThe world of visual novels has been a fairly recent revelation for me. Thanks to an intriguing trailer, my first experience was with DanganRonpa: Trigger Happy Havoc – which gently eased me into the genre with its murder-mystery story and numerous gameplay elements. It wasn’t until 2015’s Steins;Gate that I really got to grips with a ‘pure’ visual novel that required little interaction, yet that game ended up becoming one of my favourite games on the handheld.Fast forward to this year and Root Letter‘s trailers presented it as a mix between the two – some of the gameplay elements of Danganronpa with the choice-based narrative of Steins;Gate which led to my interest being piqued. I’m pleased to say that by-and-large, Root Letter is a great game – but it’s let down by a number issues that stop it from reaching the dazzling heights of its contemporaries.You’re immediately dropped straight into the story as a character who uses the nickname of ‘Max’ (relating to his tendency to go ‘to the max’ with things).
Uncover the mystery of your missing penpal in Root Letter: Last Answer on Nintendo Switch from PQube Games. Read the review here.
While rummaging though his belongings he finds some letters from his old pen-pal Aya Fumino whom he abruptly stopped corresponding with 15 years ago. Among the documents is – mysteriously – an extra undated letter which he never read at the time, which reveals that she killed someone and must atone for her sins.
This kicks Max into action to visit the town she grew up in to discover who she killed and where she went.Once there, you discover that Aya died 25 years ago – 10 years before you supposedly received the letters from her – and no-one knows anything about the pen-pal who Max describes.It’s a very loose thread, but it provides enough motivation to pull you in and keep the mystery going throughout the early chapters. Max uses the letters Aya wrote to him – many of which mentioned her friends by nicknames such a ‘Shorty’ or ‘Four-Eyes’ – to track down her classmates who are now 15 years older and question them on her whereabouts and unravel the mystery.The game plays like a mix of a point ‘n’ click adventure and a classic visual novel. You’re given a number of options for interacting with the environment – you can use the ‘ask’ command to talk to anyone around you; the ‘check’ command to click on and trigger items in the area or the ‘think’ command to give you hints about what to do next. You’ll often be given multiple conversation topics when talking to other characters, but there’s always a correct choice to make and other options simply add small bits of superfluous dialogue.In general, the game’s chapters follow the same cycle – you’ll read an old letter from Aya that describes a classmate; you’ll use what you know to find out where they are now; then you’ll gather evidence to prove they are the person from the letter and then grill them on what they know about Aya. To begin with, you’ll head across Matsue talking to other characters who will give you clues to gather important items, which in turn will lead you to further locations and characters to interact with.Once enough information has been gathered, you’ll enter interrogation mode, during which Max will attempt to get the classmate to confess they’re the person from Aya’s letters.
This involves listening to their denials and rebutting with facts – a certain sentence or piece of evidence at the right time to show they’re lying, until they break down and reveal key information to you about Aya’s whereabouts. It’s an effective system – highly reminiscent of the class trials from DanganRonpa, that often got me thinking about where the conversation was heading next.Sadly certain features during interrogation don’t work as well as others – the game also features a mechanic named ‘Max Mode’ where four options will cycle on screen and you have to choose the most appropriate to rebut the statement of a classmate.
These are often impossible to figure out and merely rely on guess-work until the correct answer is chosen and ended up being a frustrating mechanic that I wish hadn’t existed (thankfully, there’s no punishment for picking the wrong choice).Despite this, the structure of gather evidence - question suspect kept me hooked and the interrogations remained particularly thrilling (in part thanks to the amazing soundtrack) throughout the game, meaning I stayed engaged until I reached the conclusion.Where the game is let down is in the writing, in more ways that one. The classmates who you are hunting down – described in Aya’s letters by broad nicknames relating to character traits – are often rapidly identified in the story yet the game attempts to mask their changes in obvious ways. For example, when the game introduces the character of ‘Fatty’ my immediate thought was “I bet he’s not fat anymore”, yet the game labored this point until Max finally made the connection many conversations later.Max is also an inherently unlikable character and never develops or matures. While someone like Okabe from Steins;Gate starts out as a jerk but grows as the game goes on, Max remains immature throughout. At points he practically blackmails certain characters, as well as regularly stalking them and accosting their relatives to get what he wants. While it could’ve been presented as his clear love for his long-lost penpal, he comes across as a mean-spirited jerk.
Thankfully, the game’s supporting cast come across much better and are a quirky group of characters that elevate the game beyond Max’s annoyances.In addition, I found the game’s endings particularly weak, which is a massive shame as I felt the journey getting there was extremely memorable. There are five endings in total which generally follow the same series of events but then splinter off in extremely different tangents – including a particularly bonkers Corpse Party-esque ending involving a curse. In order to make these wildly different endings work, a fairly broad set of events had to take place and it feels like not enough thought was put into making everything make sense – one ending ties up all of the loose ends a lot better than others and feels like the ‘true’ ending, while others ignore many important story threads before concluding.In terms of visual presentation, Root Letter is a seriously impressive title, packed full of gorgeously drawn character portraits and beautiful vistas. The game is set in Matsue, a picturesque area of rural Japan that sets a relaxed, laid-back tone for the game – I found the setting was one of my favourite things about the title and it made me yearn to explore the rolling hills and secluded castles of the country on my own.
It also provides the perfect setting for the mystery to take place – there’s a real sense of this being a small-town community that would hide a secret from the world.Characters are equally vivid, brought to life by Mino Taro’s unique style. There’s a innocence to his portrayal of the main characters that’s particularly enhanced during the cutscenes at the end of an interrogation, showing them changing from the initial blank portraits in Max’s mind; to the teenagers they were when they knew Aya before maturing into the adults they are today. It’s a shame that character portraits don’t animate at all, but in general visuals are top-notch and the direction throughout is just superb.There’s a romantic element to unraveling a decades-old mystery that’s brought out by the setting and character art, but is most prevalent in the beautiful soundtrack. While a couple of tracks were a little overused for my liking, the OST is just full of fitting pieces – peaceful at times; tense at others, but always incredible to listen to.ConclusionOverall, Root letter is a solid game with some issues that stop it from reaching greatness, but in spite of any criticisms I may have about the game, it’s still something that I really enjoyed playing and would easily recommend to fans of the genre or even just someone looking to break into the genre with an intriguing, beautiful adventure.8.0/10.
15-years is a long time to go without speaking to someone. It’s one thing when you used to see them on a regular basis, but when you discover an unopened letter from a pen-pal from a decade and a half ago, it’s probably worth shrugging your shoulders and chucking it to one side. That is, unless you are Takayuki, Root Letter’s protagonist, a man obsessed with the past and a woman he never truly knew.
When clearing out a pile of old things during his preparation for a new job, Takayuki stumbles across a collection of 10 letters from his pen-pal Aya, a young and attractive schoolgirl. In reading through the nonsensical teenage drivel, Takayuki finds an unopened letter and curiosity gets the better of him. Instead of more mundane replies it simply reads “I killed someone I must atone for my sins, We won’t speak again, farewell”. Instead of keeping the past in the past and assuming Aya is a bit nuts, Takayuki takes it upon himself to travel to her hometown to discover what on Earth she is on about.
This is my main problem with what is otherwise interesting and entertaining ‘detective’ visual novel. Takayuki’s motive is a nonentity. I found it near on impossible to truly get engaged in the story when he was willing to drop everything and travel to another city for an indefinite amount of time in order to find more information about a woman he never met. It screams desperation and insanity. This theory is confirmed when his interactions are literally shoving a photo under the nose of every stranger in Matsue asking them if they know or have seen Aya Fumino. It reminded me of that Family Guy cutaway about Liam Neeson running around asking about his family.
While Takayuki is a one dimensional character, it’s the supporting cast of Root Letter and unravelling story that kept me coming back. Without going into spoilers, talking to different locals and schoolchildren opens up differing stories about what happened, meaning Takayuki must channel his inner Sherlock Holmes to discover the truth. The result is an onion of a narrative that keeps twisting and turning just as you think you’re starting to get the bottom of the mystery - it has ghosts, baseball, a house-fire, late night drinking and intimidation.
You might think that intimidation is a surprising addition to the visual novel genre, but how Root Letterallows you to talk to people makes you feel like you’re playing the proverbial ‘bad cop’. These intimidation scenes come in what are essentially the game’s boss battles at the end of each chapter. Face to face with the person you’ve spent the past hour searching for collecting clues and information you start the investigation and have to carve the correct path through questioning or showing the culprit clues. With five attempts before the you have to restart, it genuinely makes you feel like a badass. You don’t want to go straight for the throat or the suspect will run away. Instead, you lull them into a false sense of security before their guard is down enough to ask them what they know.
While refreshing to get more of a choice in dialogue, it was disappointing that investigations as well as Max Mode - a mode where you choose a compliment or insult - only have one correct choice. It felt unnecessary to give you so many dialogue options, yet when it came to it, only one was allowed to be used.
Choice does come in the ability to roam the city for clues. Unlike some more linear visual novels, Root Letter gives players the freedom to return to locations previously visited in order to extract more clues or find new people. Though this rarely happens without prompts, there are times when you’ll return to an environment and discover a hidden newspaper, pamphlet or accessory, key to allowing you to progress.
Root Letter feels like a visual novel plus with its focus on choice and freedom being as foregrounded as the story itself. Well written and beautifully presented, you’ll struggle to find a story more engaging. It’s a shame there wasn’t more choice or alternative approaches to investigations but at the end of the day, if you’re playing a game of this genre, you’ll be playing it for their story, not your own.
Root Letter (Reviewed on PlayStation Vita)
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This game is good, with a few negatives.
A fantastic and mysterious thriller-lite. Though the protagonist has non-existent motives and the ‘choice’ isn’t really choice at all, the supporting cast and story arc make this difficult to put down.
This game was supplied by the publisher or relevant PR company for the purposes of review
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