Robotic Notes is a visual novel that is part of the science adventure series. It takes place right after Chaos Child but it can be played in any order like any of the science adventure games. This review is for the original PS3 version that was not available outside Japan until late 2020. The story focuses on members of the Robotics Club who are working to create a real-life robot while the Committee of 300 is planning to take over the world. The game is set in Tanegashima, an Island south of Kyushu in the southern areas of Japan. It is also much more straightforward than any other Science Adventure visual novel and depending on what choice you make, you can be able to skip entire scenarios entirely.
The atmosphere is much more optimistic in comparison to the other science adventure games. The main theme is what would you do if you have a giant robot? The characters are well tropey and well generic. Kaito as in the anime, is totally focused on Gunvarell and the only way you can get him to do anything is to beat him at it. Nae from Steins Gate also appear in the game. Unlike some Science Adventure games, this uses 3D backgrounds and graphics and it looks absolutely brilliant. The art direction as well very detailed and nice and vibrant and the background designs were quite appealing.
The control system was straightforward and very easy to follow. The menu is in English which is very helpful and the user interface was really well made and fits the aesthetics. The voice acting was pretty good and the musical score and audio quality was quite good. Each of the in-game terminology both fictional and non-fictional were well categorized and very easy to understand.
In some sections, you can use the pokecom trigger which is similar to the phone trigger system in Steins Gate. The pokecom has many applications. Twipo, which is based of Twitter, is where Kaito can reply to various characters during the story and it could affect the outcome of the game. Iru-o, is an augmented reality app which is used to examine the environment and it was very interesting mechanic for the series and it added more needed interactivity.
Just like in the other SciAdv game there is the usual fanservice some of which is questionable. Gunvarrel mode qte was pretty straight forward button mashing but it was boring and it should have been a full fledge fighting game section. There are many save slots which is perfect given the number of routes there are in the game.
The story takes some time to really get going which is a pretty common issue in the Science Adventure series. There was a good amount of replay value.
This game was much better than the anime adaptation.
It gets 4 out of 5 stars.
I plan on reviewing the latest Science Adventure game Robotics Notes Dash on the PS4 as it has been released in the west not too long ago. I also intend on covering Steins Gate Zero and Occulting Nine and eventually Anonymous Code.