Ludography
Robotics;Notes cover

2012 · 5pb. · Adventure · Visual novel

Robotics;Notes

Robotics;Notes is a Japanese visual novel developed and published by 5pb.. It is the third game in 5pb.'s Science Adventure series and is described as an "Augmented Science Adventure". Robotics;Notes takes place in Tanegashima in the year 2019 and revolves around robotics.

Released
28 June 2012
Platforms
PlayStation 3Xbox 360
Genres
AdventureVisual novel
Developers
5pb.
Publishers
5pb.
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
First personText
Themes
Science fiction

About

Robotics;Notes is a visual novel video game developed by 5pb. It is the third main game in the Science Adventure series, following Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate, and is described by the developers as an "Augmented Science Adventure". The game was originally released by 5pb. in Japan on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2012; the enhanced version Robotics;Notes Elite was released for PlayStation Vita in 2014, and for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in 2019. An English version of Robotics;Notes Elite was released by Spike Chunsoft in 2020 for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.

Six manga have been produced, and an anime adaptation by Production I.G aired in Fuji TV's Noitamina slot between October 2012 and March 2013. The anime has been licensed by Funimation in North America. Robotics;Notes DaSH, a sequel to the game, was released in 2019.

Keywords

  • robots
  • high school

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Robotics;Notes is a science fiction visual novel in which the player follows the perspective of multiple characters, mainly Kaito Yashio. Its gameplay requires little player interaction as much of the game's duration is spent on reading the text that appears on the screen, which represents the story's narrative and dialogue. The text is accompanied by 3D animated character models, which represent whom Kaito or Akiho is talking to, and background art. Throughout the game, the player encounters CG artwork at certain points in the story, which take the place of the background art and character models.

Unlike the previous entries in the Science Adventure series, Robotics;Notes follows an almost entirely linear narrative, consisting of twelve chapters referred to as 'phases'. Depending on the decisions made at certain points during the game, the player can choose to skip some phases entirely.

Story

Robotics;Notes is set in 2019 on Tanegashima, an island to the south of Kyūshū in southern Japan. The game's theme is robots and the question "What would happen if you really tried to make a giant robot?"

In Robotics;Notes, the player assumes the role of Kaito Yashio, someone who enjoys fighting games. He is in his school's robot club along with his childhood friend Akiho Senomiya. The story begins when Akiho decides to build a robot based on the Gunvarrel animated series she is a fan of, and she recruits Kaito to aid her. With the robot club short on members and on the verge of closure, Kaito heads out to try and recruit more members, eventually securing the support of professional robot battler Subaru Hidaka, karate practitioner Junna Daitoku, and the world renowned programmer Frau Kojiro.

Development

The planning and original concept and basic story of Robotics;Notes was headed by Shikura. Naotaka Hayashi is the scenario writer for the game and Tatsuya Matsubara the producer. The character designs are done by Tomonori Fukuda and the mechanical designs are done by Makoto Ishiwata. The composer of the game is Takeshi Abo.

Shikura had been working on the game as early as July 2010. The team received development support from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and according to Shikura, this allowed the game's sciences and themes to better reflect reality. Nitroplus also provided assistance with the game. Robotics;Notes features 3D visuals, and the development team were aiming for high quality 3D models like Catherine and Idolmaster 2.

Reception

Famitsu gave the PlayStation Vita port Robotics;Notes Elite a review score of 30/40. Japanese pre-orders for the original release of the game were over 80,000, a large increase over the preorders for Steins;Gate, the previous game in the series. Neither Famitsu nor Media Create revealed sales numbers for the DaSH and Elite HD bundles for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch as part of their weekly sales charts, although Media Create listed both as ranking higher than the Nintendo Switch stand-alone version of DaSH, which sold 2,834 physical copies. Martin from the English Science Adventure news site Kiri Kiri Basara rated Robotics;Notes Elite an 8/10 for its "nearly flawless" story, but noted poor structure and various localization and technical issues in the English release, recommending a fan patch to improve the experience on the Windows release.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
PlayStation 328 June 2012Japan
Xbox 36028 June 2012Japan

Editions and related releases

Expanded editions
Robotics;Notes Elite

Games like this

Collections2 collections

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.