After 46 hours I finally completed Robotics;Notes, and what a journey it was.
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I truly do not understand why this entry seems to be held in lower regard compared to the rest of the series. The plot in my eyes is very consistent (save for one annoyance which I will talk on later), the cast of characters is very likeable, the character writing as a whole is fantastic and IMO better than every other SciADV entry up to this point for me, and it explores some rarely touched on themes that interest me a good deal.
You could perhaps say it starts slow, but so too does Steins;Gate. Though I would agree that this is perhaps a bit slower I don't think it's by a huge amount, and the main mystery is constantly developing in the background. As I said before, I think the area in which this title most obviously shines is in it's character development.
We see our apathetic protagonist go from watching Akiho work her tail off alone to forming a strong sense of comraderie with the Robotics Club, we see Frau (kind of) grow out of her shut-in lifestyle and the understandable things that caused it, the dynamic between Juuna and her grandfather is very touching and well executed and both change quite significantly from their "arc", and we also see Subaru's father grow to accept his dream and Subaru himself as he warms up to the club. I would say that Akiho and Nae are slight letdowns, but the overall cast is very well-handled.
Most of the other entries do not flesh out the entire cast to the degree that R;N does, they tend to focus more on protagonist. While this is not an inherently bad style of narrative structure, I do think that successfully fleshing out a larger cast is more impressive from a writing standpoint and deserves it's flowers.
It also touches on some interesting things. I like how Kaito views his progress up the KB leaderboard as a sort of metaphor for wanting to surpass Misa-nee in general, and I love how the story ends on a positive note in this regard. It is also just nice to see competitive gaming represented in something for once, many times you have gamer protagonists but rarely are they a top player at whatever it is they do. In this respect the novel presents a positive message; that no hurdle is too big to overcome, and that if you put your heart and soul into it you can scale any wall.
Furthermore I find the aforementioned predictive nature of the way in which information networks can be used to construct false realities very poignant. This story was written in 2012. While smartphones existed at the time, they had not yet become ubiquitous to the extent that they are now. We now see how most information is drowned out in a sea of false narratives and fragmentations, and essentially the Committee's entire plot is based around the use of these misinformation tactics.
I think this is a very interesting message, one that is very ahead of it's time. While the whole "Is what your eyes perceive truly real?" is a running thematic throughout the series, I do not believe that it is done in quite the same fashion that it is in Chaos;Head for instance here. In R;N silent weapons are utilised to quite literally construct an artificial reality that cannot be seen through, whereas in Chaos;Head we never see how it affects the common person, it's largely only ever used on targets of interest.
I view silent weapons as almost something as a metaphor for how easily narratives and power structures can be shifted by the concerted efforts of just a few powerful individuals. The game showcases the paradigm of how social media and the nature being always connected to the internet via PokeCom(which is essentially just a smartphone) can be used to whisk common people off into artificially constructed realities. It's very well done and hauntingly accurate.
The group dynamic is of course incredible, I adored that scene where the Robotics Club got up in a huddle and psyched themselves up before the final showdown. Although I'm not much of a mecha person, this novel convinced me to watch some Gundam for the first time in part because of how much the robots grew on me. ROBO-ONE was a lot of fun, and I am bit sad that we did not get to see Subaru and Kaito go to the tourney that was hosted in America.
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If there's one thing though that bothers me a bit, it's that it feels like the brainwashing aspect is not very well explained. Most of the plot points seem rather tied up, but I don't quite get how Kimijima Kou has Misaki wrapped around his finger. This is a man who attempts to murder two of her closest family members, and she kills him in turn. Okay sure, I can understand how she'd be guilty over that.
But I don't think it makes sense for a character who's portrayed as this lofty unobtainable ideal throughout the game to be manipulated into killing 5 billion people over it. I know it is stated that Kou has some sort of special ability in this respect but it is not really ever elaborated on. This is a pretty sizeable issue in my opinion, not game ruining but it makes it stack up somewhat unfavourably at least from a scientific standpoint compared to the other entries.
As for session-specific screenshots...
he's just like me fr
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Sawada getting the call in at the last second after we found that Nae's infiltration had been foiled was so hype.
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I truly adored this game, very well done. 9/10, love how KB is interwoven into the narrative and the rural setting especially. God bless the Chuo Tanegashima Robotics Club!
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