The mecha anime. However, the whole scene is marred by the fact that Kaito places something akin to a Snapchat-filter cat suit on her for the first twenty minutes of dialogue. No explanation is given for this other than that Kaito just “felt like putting it on.” Not only does it seem odd for his character to do so, being described as “not caring about anything other than video games,” but also stands as an absolutely tasteless way to launch a story. Kaito himself is introduced as something of a professional gamer, excelling in a fighting game called Kill Ballad, which is where the only actual gameplay in the Robotics;Notes series is found. About once in every three hours of playtime (not very often), Kaito will participate in a round of Kill Ballad, which is presented to the player by an image of an enemy mecha coming towards them as they execute something similar to a quick time event, tapping in the on-screen inputs as fast as possible. The only other instance of any real gameplay is a search-and-find where the player is tasked with heading to different in-game locations to look for the veiled outline of a power sign through an AR filter. These tasks specifically struck me as a huge annoyance, since my objectives were so unclear and unfairly hidden that they felt like nothing but a waste of my time that is meant to pad out the game. These are the only gameplay elements you'll find in Robotics;Notes, since there are no optional dialogue choices or branching narrative routes. You are guided by hand from one end of a slow and uncompelling story beat to the other, and that might be Robotics;Notes biggest failing.

For a visual novel, the Robotics;Notes games are severely lacking in the aesthetics and visual department. ELITE is the bigger offender in this respect, with most of the character designs feeling dull and samey and the character animation looking downright lazy. Dialogue occurs via a 3D model of a character speaking while cycling through a handful of pre-scripted animations, which feel uninspired and off-putting when paired with dialogue descriptors. It's not rare for action in a scene to be described one way while something completely different is happening visually. All-in-all, the Robotics;Notes games feel like an incomplete, dragged-out mess of a story with very little payoff in its ending. It has very few gameplay elements, and none of them are fun. This isn't a game you would pick up to enjoy the gameplay though. It's something you'd want to play to experience its story, which is an exercise in patience in and of itself, since I was more than five hours in before the plot picked up in any way at all for me. I had a hard time forcing myself through this one, and can't suggest that you sacrifice $60 to do the same to yourself.