sci;adv game with robots? yes please
frau best girl
frau best girl
absolute masterpiece.
10/10 would die for Aki
10/10 would die for Aki
Power of friendship >>>>>>>>>
I miss the cast a lot
I miss the cast a lot
Man if this had better pacing it honestly could've been my favourite visual novel. The cast is absolutely stellar and a lot of the content when the cast isn't fucking around is excellent, but there's a large amount of fucking around. Definitely play with CoZ's patch that fixes the poor excuse of a translation and adds mouse support.
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.
The game's a pretty chill time but also there's a lot of care taken to build up a convincing universe and really lovable characters. The gameplay triggers aren't annoying at all and definitely bolster the experience, and though the final fight was cheesy, I still enjoyed every part of it.
Also you get to save the world with your gamer powers. So that's pretty cool too.
Fantastic VN from the Sci;Adv series and I loved this way more than Chaos;Head.
Also you get to save the world with your gamer powers. So that's pretty cool too.
Fantastic VN from the Sci;Adv series and I loved this way more than Chaos;Head.
It's like the Megabots real life giant robot duel but the results are actually not disappointing
Robotics; Notes is at first a chill, slow burn slice of life of various characters joining a dream in building a robot. Exploring various ideas of what robots are, and what they can mean for people. With a cast of quirky and likable misfits, and a passive protagonist who has to step up and acknowledge that time is moving forward without him.
The more grand and mysterious plot points are threaded throughout, but the game keeps some sense of grounded science and engineering, even when it goes full conspiracy nut.
The more grand and mysterious plot points are threaded throughout, but the game keeps some sense of grounded science and engineering, even when it goes full conspiracy nut.