ROBOTICS;NOTES DaSH

First of all, didn't [i]really[/i] know what this was, decided that it would be a safe bet to read R;N DaSH based on the release date. Even though every SciAdv title has a great amount of funny bits mixed into the darker themed dramatic plots, it's been a while since I read a straight-up comedy SciAdv spinoff. So this was refreshing. A lot of stuff is a "My Darling's Embrace"-vibe crossover involving the Robotics;Notes cast and DaSH chilling in a festival setting and exchanging tons of goofy dialogue lines and unserious encounters, all in that slice of life pace we get used to while reading R;N Elite. While the focus on slapstick comedy, cliche situations and overall "anime beach episode" mood is similar to My Darling's Embrace, some routes really hit the mark and turned out to be much more than just wholesome ridiculous stuff. So in order to give credit to high highs and warn about the spinoff's low lows, I decided to give the phases (routes) my personal ratings based on how I felt reading them. [b]FESTIVAL PHASE #1/#2[/b] (the introduction prior to the point where the story branches out into Character routes) Pretty shallow substance-wise, mostly relaxed festival mood and fanservice that set the expectations for the remaining routes to be kinda low, though to be fair the dialogue always delivered anyway. If all of the routes were substantially as much of a nothingburger as the common route, I'd get bored, but as I mentioned, some developments in the subsequent phases surprised me and dispelled all my doubts and worries. [b]PHASE AIRI[/b] - just an easy B tier for me: simply not a big fan of this trope, it wasn't bad per se, but I didn't care too much about either the premise or the dialogue personally, tbh. Not much to really say here, a lot of cliches in the novel and this one got dragged out for way too long for my taste. [b]PHASE FRAU[/b] - i love the @channel slang and all the characters "from the same planet" as DaSH put it, so this was enjoyable for me throughout the entire thing. Ridiculous plot, high quality dialogue, some feelz. I gave it an A. [b]PHASE SUBARU[/b] - didn't expect much to be honest, but what do you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ know, suddenly I'm in tears mid-read. The way the absolutely beautifully written emotional conversations were delivered, the brilliant voice acting, the way the human feelings felt genuine and transferred all the inner struggles through the screen. Man. Favorite route for me, perhaps just hits close to home. Obviously a biased S rating, the hilarious parts were great as well. [b]PHASE JUNNA[/b] - very slow and the plot isn't that interesting, but the dialogue once again shines throughout, and towards the end the action also gets pretty fun. Even with the same "filler beach episode" vibes, the phase delivered lots of smiles, sweet vibes and then ended with a blast. A tier with a minus (for stupid overforced cliche "confidence-building" training routine) [b]PHASE NAE[/b] - good change of pace: action packed, more serious tone, overall aight, not the craziest plot twists and some questionable developments even, but bearable since the faster pace doesn't let the narrative dry out too much and it doesn't end up dragging out for longer than it should imo. The rating would be around B. [b]PHASE AKIHO[/b] was straight up painful to read most of the time, the display of Kai having npc rizz and Aki suddenly being an introvert who doesn't share what's on her mind and is suddenly all quiet and self-contained until the very end?.. They just decided to give the characters the most uncharacteristic characteristics ever out of nowhere, with the punchline and plot twist being - you guessed it, them deciding to stop being utterly, hopelessly regarded and finally overcoming invisible obstacles they built for themselves... I mean, jeez, the ending still delivered, I guess?.. But they didn't have to make everything leading up to it [i]this[/i] insufferably cringe and frustrating to read. D for making the characters act in an unspeakable awkward manner out of nowhere, A for the ending that could've happened even if the route wasn't as much of a pain in the ass to read. Felt completely unnecessary to strip the brains, charisma and other distinguishing features away from the characters just to stall out the big euphoric reunion for this long. The ending overall was hype, they wrote some action sequences in a serious tone, R;N Elite final battle style, while mixing in emotionally charged dialogue and flashing out every character involved. Great way to give everybody more time to shine after the individual character routes had been completed. Even though I'm fulfilled - man, I'll miss Tanegashima. Crimson Phoenix's rambling on twipo and wholesome YANABAYASHI_URUKA always responding and being adorable and naive, other lab mems twipo interactions (no Lightning-Fast Neidhardt or KatsuoHana tweeps though? Smh. Wall punch), the amount of references and throwbacks increasing throughout the game - love it. The [i]crossover[/i] label pays off. Since the game was released in 2019, I always wondered: does playing this game after SciAdv #4 and #5 matter? Does the chronology matter? - well, not really, there are some minor references, but generally after SG & SG0 & R;N Elite you should be good to go, the other stuff is super vague, you'll get it if you know what DaSH is talking about, but there won't be name-drops, so it should be fine even if you don't. Also, beware of a sudden game CraSH waiting for you in the wild, I had to force skip half of a route once after I had one. Nothing too devastating, but I would still recommend keeping that in mind and saving often.