Root Film is a visual novel and a spiritual sequel to Root Letter. It tells a completely new and unrelated story. It follows Max Yagumo, who is a newbie director. The game feels like a step up from Root Letter, which while it was still solid, had some rough patches in its story and presentation. This game instead feels more polished with some fantastic art direction. The backgrounds and environments look beautiful with their own unique aesthetic. The character models are more striking with their cartoonish aesthetic but can feel somewhat out of place in certain scenes as they stick out so much.
The game is a visual novel so there is limited gameplay. It’s mostly reading, and the story is supposed to be its hook. You progress the story by going through different areas and then exhausting most of the dialogue options. The game is split into various chapters and each chapter has its own mystery that adds to the overarching mystery of the story. Max will find clues, and these are vital as there will be a section at the end where an interrogation type scene will play out. You will then need to select the correct clue to unravel the mystery, and this is quite exciting and fun.
Thankfully the story is good enough to hook you pretty much instantly. Max is on the verge of obtaining a breakout role but first, he needs to solve the ten-year old mystery of the cursed film. Due to the “cursed” footage, a project had been shelved ten yeas ago and Max’s new role relies on him solving this mystery. It is intriguing from the beginning and the way the story approaches the mystery to naturally unravel it grabs your attention.
The game has dual protagonists, each with their own set of events. Although Max has most of the focus, Riho is an aspiring actress that encounters her own set of mysteries. The pair does feel like they force their way into things, given that they’re not the police and shouldn’t have any authority to get the information that they need to solve the mysteries.
Most of the chapters are short which manes that each chapter does not fluff around. It gets straight into quickly presenting the setting, having the mystery happen, and then the characters go about gathering all the blues for their climactic showdown. Despite the fast pacing, there is enough set up and context to hook you in, as you also try to figure out what had happened based on the clues.
There are seven chapters to the game and every chapter has a self-contained mystery, that will eventually link to the overarching mystery. The downside with the fast pacing in each chapter is that whenever new characters appear, you will suspect them immediately, whether that they will be the murderer or that they will be the victim. Once it happens, the mystery isn’t so much as to who did it, but more so on how they did it and their motivations. So at least in that aspect, the game still delivers the thrill and anticipation.
With the two protagonists, you will have your suspicions in how their stories are linked together. Your guesses will probably be correct but again, the anticipation will be to see how the game expands on that link. Despite the earlier chapters feeling irrelevant, they do eventually link, even in a small way, to the grand scheme of things. The final few chapters dramatically raise the stakes. It is an interesting ride all the way to the finish and while there are a few areas where the story can be improved upon, especially with the big revelation at the end, it still delivered a good and satisfying conclusion.
While it is dependent on your reading speed, this is a short game by visual novel standards. It’ll take only around eight to ten hours to complete. Even during that short time, you would have grown to love the characters and their individual quirks. The humor is on point, coming in at the right moments, and doesn’t rely on cheap fan service to do the job. The disappointing part is that you would have wished the game could have continued for a bit longer, with a few more mysteries. Even a longer epilogue would have been great. Once the final culprit has been revealed, and their motivations laid bare, the game ends there. The end credits have a short montage and that’s it.
If you’ve played Root Letter, then a lot of the music in this game will feel familiar. In fact, it is too familiar given that the tuns were so iconic to that game that you can’t help but remember events from that game instead when it’s being played in certain games in Root Film. While it is great that PQube localizes these sorts of games, they continue with their usual typos, especially later in the story. It’s like they either lose interest or most likely, ran out of time, to properly proofread. It can be distracting especially when it’s during the most important parts of the story.
Overall, Root Film is a stellar visual novel. Root Letter was fine, it was a bit clunky and rough in many places. Root Film on the other hand polishes it up and gives us a focused story, higher quality artwork, and a good gameplay loop that doesn’t make it feel like it has too much fluff. The fast pacing works in its favor and working out the mysteries is fun. The overarching plot has its ridiculous moments, but the combination of its humor, charm, and strong storytelling makes this a great visual novel to try, even if you haven’t played the first game.
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