Root Letter is a Mystery Visual Novel first released for PSVita in 2016. It follows the pen-pal of a girl named "Aya Fumino" as he investigates her disappearance 15 years ago.
I first heard about this Visual Novel when it was released. It was popular upon release and I thought the title "√Letter" was clever. I avoided any talk about the story back then. Years later, I saw it with some attractive sale and bought it. It stayed in my backlog since then.
I started reading the story three days ago. I'm 3-hours in and I'm enjoying the story so far. The mystery kept me intrigued and I kept going back and forth through a couple of theories. The protagonist's personality isn't bad to follow and the character cast is strong.
Slow Days in Matsue
The setting is based on Japan's Shimane Prefecture. The protagonist visits Matsue City, the hometown of his missing pen pal Aya Fumino. He finds a letter from her from 15 years ago, that she 'killed someone' so he uses his vacation to find out what happened to her.
He finds a vacant lot at her address and all the people he asked kept saying that a girl by that name died 25 years ago. Things weren't adding up to him.
The protagonist learns about Aya's friends from her letters, and he continues investigating to find out more about the girl who was exchanging letters with him. If she even existed at all.
Learning about Aya's friends and how they all changed in 15 years since her last letter is the core of the story from what I can tell. I've met a few of them so far but only investigated the first two. It's great to see the effect Aya (or the person who used her name) had on them.
The story is pretty funny at times, and I thought the protagonist was stupid on a few occasions. Aya nicknamed all of her friends in her letters. (The protagonist is nicknamed Max.) Some of them had 'unfortunate' nicknames. I laughed as the protagonist called one girl by her embarrassing nickname in public!
While some of the story beats feel too convenient like how the protagonist got the specific cat charm he wanted, I felt the story was realistic for the most part.
Immersive Presentation
The art of this VN is beautiful. The art style is semi-realistic and the colors are soft. It was easy to get immersed in the world, and the backgrounds enhance that immersion.
Every named character is illustrated in an array of memorable expressions, and I loved how human they all felt. Sometimes, the Visual Novel will present closer shots like when Four-eyes takes care of the cat and when
The presentation style is good for a visual novel, and I could see that Root Letter was created with a handheld in mind. (PS Vita.) I love how the loudness of the screams is conveyed through the text.
Always to the Max
Root Letter is a typical Visual Novel with minimal gameplay. The story is pretty linear. While there are a lot of choices involved, most of the time, there's only one correct decision that the story won't proceed until you find. The gameplay cycle reminds me of the Ace Attorney series.
Most of the Visual Novel's navigation is by going to the next place in the map. Talking to people or presenting an item to them if they're around, and Thinking for hints. I found what I'm supposed to do quickly most of the time, but when I'm stuck, the hints weren't that much helpful.
One thing I liked is that the Check option is easy to find points on the screen where you can click. No pixel-hunting is needed in Root Letter.
The investigation segment is the climax of each chapter. It's the only time in which choosing wrong is punished, though the gameplay doesn't change much, but the options are many and the hints for what to do next are subtle sometimes. It's the most enjoyable part of each chapter so far.
One notable aspect of the Investigation is Max Mode. Occasionally, the protagonist will go aggressive with the person he interacts with and break their composure.
The Visual Novel represents this by a gauge divided into different levels of aggression. Pressing the button will make the protagonist declare something at the current aggression level. At first, all I had to do was wait until the gauge filled up, but soon the gauge started filling up irregularly and the correct answer wasn't always the most aggressive one. I thought the developers were clever by introducing this mechanic.
Letter From 1999
I'm enjoying the story so far and would love to see how it ends. According to Visual Novel Database, Root Letter should have multiple ending, so I look forward to know more. I'm especially interested in knowing more about the Chatty friend with the embarrassing nickname.
It's been a while since I read some Visual Novel, and I'm glad to finally read Root Letter.
What do you think?
* First image is taken from Here. All other images are screenshots of the game taken by me.
* The Supporters 
