Root Double: Before Crime * After Days - Xtend Edition

A ridiculously compelling opening that turns into a tragic waste of potential.

Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- is an incredibly surprising visual novel in that it manages to tell a dramatic tale in a way which never comes across as ham-fisted or particularly childish.

Even if a fan of sci-fi and visual novels, Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition will largely fail to click with most. The pacing is way too slow, the characters are not interesting, and the overall plot takes too long to get going. Despite a few redeeming factors, it simply cannot be recommended due to the many failings across the board.

Root Double -Before Crime * After Days is not a bad game, there were many great story moments I had throughout the game and enjoyed while unraveling the mystery. The biggest problem it faces is it hastily changes the tone and storytelling is all over the place. It’s filled with unnecessary long story sequences instead of a straight-forward, suspenseful and thrilling story which is what on the surface Root Double -Before Crime * After Days makes out to be.

Root Double: Before Crime * After Days Xtend Edition is a stellar story full of incredible twists and well-explored themes. It's just a shame that it hits a few bumps as it gets to those moments. Mind-numbing exposition dumps, vague narrative decisions, and some inconsistent pacing sour the experience a fair bit. Even so, there's an incredibly memorable visual novel experience here as long as you've got the patience for some nagging issues.

Root Double: Before Crime * After Days – Xtend Edition is easily the best visual novel I’ve read all year, I love how all four routes come together to reveal new perspectives and truths behind the events which have played out previously, blowing your mind and both answering and creating more questions at the same time. It’s a very long narrative, easily taking over fifty hours to experience all four routes and most of the endings, but the time invested is worth it as the experience is quite something! I personally recommend using an ‘endings guide’ to ensure you pick the right options to see everything the game has to offer, as the SSS mechanic is quite confusing as to what outcome you’ll get, but even if you don’t then the game offers hints on how to avoid the inevitable ‘bad ending’ you arrive at.

Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition is an thought-provoking mystery game. The tense atmosphere and the characters' complexity are some of its strengths, and the unique decisions system is experimental in a rich way for the genre, but avoids becoming inconvenient. Even the repetitive stretches of the story are not enough to weaken the work, which is an excellent addition to the Switch library.

Root Double: Before Crime * After Days Xtend Edition is a visual novel that tells a captivating sci-fi story with lots of mystery and intrigue. Despite some pacing issues and uninteresting sections, I still found myself playing all of the routes through to see what was going on and how the story would end. I like the idea of the SSS system but I think more can be done to make it stand apart more from the typical visual novel choice system.

With a compelling cast, intriguing mysteries, and emotional storytelling, Root Double is a visual novel fans of the genre do not want to miss.

Root Double lets itself down in the way it indulges nonsense like scientific explanations and science fiction when really it wants to be a taut psychological thriller about a group of people caught in a truly desperate situation. Thankfully, when it focuses on what it's best at it's a near-on perfect example of the genre. It can be both bewildering and exhausting, but one thing Root Double will never let you forget is that it is also compelling.