Robotics;Notes is a dang good visual novel and a fantastic entry in the Science Adventure series. I had so much fun playing this one, despite it being a lot slower and not as crazy compared to Steins;Gate, Chaos;Head, and Chaos;Child. It's much more focused on the characters, robot technology, and a cool mystery aspect, so the constant roller-coaster of confusion from absolute insane events is completely absent here. And that's fine! This is a great change of pace compared to the other entries, and it accomplishes everything it sets out to do.
In this entry, we follow two childhood friends, Kaito and Akiho, as they grow their robotics club up a bit to build giant robots before they graduate. Along the way, Kaito gets interested in a conspiracy through a bunch of reports that are only found through AR geo-tags placed around their home island that can be seen with a camera app. He goes after the reports while also gaming it up on a mobile fighting game and rarely actually helping out with robot building. He will always pilot though! True mecha anime protagonist vibes.
Then there's Akiho, who is obsessed with robots, mecha anime, and building the OG club members' robot. She wants to enter the big robot expo so bad that we see her and Kaito rely more and more on others to accomplish her goals. Kaito always follows Akiho and whatever she sets out to accomplish if her ideas are within reason. Not to mention they stick together a lot because they deal with similar "attacks" that they suffer from a childhood event that permanently affected them.
The rest of the club members, Junna, Subaru, and Frau, are all very interesting and fun in their own ways. We also get introduced to an AI character that sticks with us for a bulk of the story. All club members, including the AI character, are also weird in their own ways and have very interesting circumstances. It is genuinely fun to watch all of these goofy characters grow and change throughout the course of this long story, as they all get an opportunity to have their stories told. Not to mention that their actions have huge impacts in achieving the ending of the story. In other Science Adventure titles, you usually see all the other characters as nothing but supporting characters where some have routes. Here, they use their experiences through the story to work alongside the main characters to get to the ending of the story, and it's really satisfying seeing all of that come together.
This visual novel uses a lot from Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate as the story eventually ramps up in the wild final chapters. I really recommend reading through those visual novels first before this one. This visual novel also does some things differently. You get to interact with many characters on "Twitter," use the camera app for geotags, and read through the mysterious conspiracy reports on your PokeCom (mobile device/phone). Characters are rendered as 3D models in this one, which is... different, but honestly not bad at all. A bit jarring, but not bad. It's nice that the Science Adventure titles are always trying to do things differently, so these are all positives for me.
Honestly, my only complaints are that the pacing can really be a pain at times despite the payoffs here and there, that there isn't really an epilogue to tie everything up for a conclusion (yes, there is a sequel, but still), and that the route system is absolutely horrific here. Everything else is honestly fine, but it is stupidly easy to get lost mid-game on how to advance into the character route chapters in their proper order. You can 100% jump into chapters out of order, and it's based on who you respond to on "Twitter" at a specific moment in the game. It's completely stupid and a huge problem for those who don't want to use a guide. I recommend the use of a guide with this title to get the most out of interactions with other characters that require certain responses, and to also go about the game the correct way.
Robotics;Notes is a relatively chill entry in a series of titles that's full of craziness in so many ways, but it pulls it off pretty well. It was a lot of fun to go through despite the issues I stated, and it's awesome to connect events and such from previous entries to this one in meaningful ways rather than just references. I definitely recommend this title to those who are currently reading the Science Adventure series, but I cannot recommend this title to those who haven't started the series with Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate. I look forward to jumping into DasH soon!
In this entry, we follow two childhood friends, Kaito and Akiho, as they grow their robotics club up a bit to build giant robots before they graduate. Along the way, Kaito gets interested in a conspiracy through a bunch of reports that are only found through AR geo-tags placed around their home island that can be seen with a camera app. He goes after the reports while also gaming it up on a mobile fighting game and rarely actually helping out with robot building. He will always pilot though! True mecha anime protagonist vibes.
Then there's Akiho, who is obsessed with robots, mecha anime, and building the OG club members' robot. She wants to enter the big robot expo so bad that we see her and Kaito rely more and more on others to accomplish her goals. Kaito always follows Akiho and whatever she sets out to accomplish if her ideas are within reason. Not to mention they stick together a lot because they deal with similar "attacks" that they suffer from a childhood event that permanently affected them.
The rest of the club members, Junna, Subaru, and Frau, are all very interesting and fun in their own ways. We also get introduced to an AI character that sticks with us for a bulk of the story. All club members, including the AI character, are also weird in their own ways and have very interesting circumstances. It is genuinely fun to watch all of these goofy characters grow and change throughout the course of this long story, as they all get an opportunity to have their stories told. Not to mention that their actions have huge impacts in achieving the ending of the story. In other Science Adventure titles, you usually see all the other characters as nothing but supporting characters where some have routes. Here, they use their experiences through the story to work alongside the main characters to get to the ending of the story, and it's really satisfying seeing all of that come together.
This visual novel uses a lot from Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate as the story eventually ramps up in the wild final chapters. I really recommend reading through those visual novels first before this one. This visual novel also does some things differently. You get to interact with many characters on "Twitter," use the camera app for geotags, and read through the mysterious conspiracy reports on your PokeCom (mobile device/phone). Characters are rendered as 3D models in this one, which is... different, but honestly not bad at all. A bit jarring, but not bad. It's nice that the Science Adventure titles are always trying to do things differently, so these are all positives for me.
Honestly, my only complaints are that the pacing can really be a pain at times despite the payoffs here and there, that there isn't really an epilogue to tie everything up for a conclusion (yes, there is a sequel, but still), and that the route system is absolutely horrific here. Everything else is honestly fine, but it is stupidly easy to get lost mid-game on how to advance into the character route chapters in their proper order. You can 100% jump into chapters out of order, and it's based on who you respond to on "Twitter" at a specific moment in the game. It's completely stupid and a huge problem for those who don't want to use a guide. I recommend the use of a guide with this title to get the most out of interactions with other characters that require certain responses, and to also go about the game the correct way.
Robotics;Notes is a relatively chill entry in a series of titles that's full of craziness in so many ways, but it pulls it off pretty well. It was a lot of fun to go through despite the issues I stated, and it's awesome to connect events and such from previous entries to this one in meaningful ways rather than just references. I definitely recommend this title to those who are currently reading the Science Adventure series, but I cannot recommend this title to those who haven't started the series with Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate. I look forward to jumping into DasH soon!