Karifean's Blog of Visual Novels

Another VN I've been anxiously awaiting the release day of.

Root Double focuses on an unfortunate incident at a nuclear facility where after the reactor goes into critical condition the rescue crew as well as some survivors are locked inside as the area is closed off with bulkheads to prevent a meltdown fallout.

Before even starting the game you're given the option of choosing between two routes (that pun): Root A(fter) or Root B(efore). Root A takes place during the incident itself while Root B focuses more on the backstory that led to the incident.

I've heard that while you can go either way, the general recommendation is to start with Root A, so I did. Surprisingly enough, it throws you right into the action with little explanation or context. But that actually turns out to be just perfect, because a few minutes into the story, the protagonist, Captain Watase Kasasagi, finds himself suffering from amnesia so you get to experience the story directly through him and as he learns what's going on so are you.

But before we can really get started, there's something important to address: the rather unique way the branching system works in this game. You don't get choices in any conventional way, instead you have to work with the so-called "Senses Sympathy System". Put simply, it allows you to set how much important a character's well-being or judgment is to you in a specific situation.

Simple example: shortly after awakening, the protagonist hears a survivor's scream. His first instinct is to rush in and help them as quickly as possible. However, the rescue worker implores you to stand back, calm down and let them handle the situation. If you set the Sense Sympathy for the protagonist higher than the rescue worker's that means you trust the protagonist's intuition more than the rescue worker's warning and then, well, this happens:

Turns out letting an amnesiac with no sense of danger act on his own volition is not the best choice. As you can see, the bad endings are really nice in telling you how you screwed up; but if you'd rather figure out the game for yourself instead you can turn off the hints.

Senses Sympathy is also used for smaller things without much consequence, like determining whose side you take in an argument. You only get the option of setting it when it's actually relevant, so it's really a pretty nifty and interesting way to do choices.

Just in case you don't know basic English, the game's encyclopedia system has got you covered.

I'm not gonna go deep into the story and setting, mainly because I haven't had much more than the bare minimum of exposition so far and the game presents its setting better than I ever could by just dryly describing it. One of the more interesting things is that telepathy is a scientific thing in this world, and I'm pretty sure I've already seen it be used...

It's stuff like this that really makes this game feel reminiscent of the Infinity and Zero Escape series =P

Anyways, so we're walking around the facilities, looking for survivors and anti-radiation medication, when all of a sudden

we come across this little scene. Can't say I expected this. And since we're in a closed circle, the one responsible for this is still somewhere nearby.

Cue opening movie.

So after this first chapter, my completion progress looks as follows:

Going from what I've heard I expect this novel to be in about the 50 hour range. As of now I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the rest of it! Will it be able to top Ever17, my current favorite escape-type visual novel? We shall see.