Interview: Robotics;Notes Elite and DaSH Producer Tatsuya Matsubara

The western world is about to see a lot more Science Adventure visual novel titles, with the upcoming English release of Robotics;Notes Elite and Robotics;Notes DaSH in October. Robotics;Notes Elite is an enhanced version of the original Robotics;Notes visual novel, which got adapted into a television anime in 2012, while Robotics;Notes DaSH tells the sequel story. Both titles will come to PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC in October.

ANN's Richard Eisenbeis had the opportunity to ask some questions to the game's producer Tatsuya Matsubara ahead of the release.

Where does Robotics;Notes Elite fit in the Science Adventure timeline? (What year does it take place in and how long after Steins;Gate is it?)

It's the year 2019 within the Science Adventure series timeline. Roughly ten years after the events of Steins;Gate, which was set in 2010.

How involved are the Chaos;HEAd and Steins;Gate characters with the plot of Robotics;Notes? How about in Robotics;Notes DaSH?

All the character have moved forward into each of their own futures.

One of them, Nae Tennouji, has started work at JAXA, so she is heavily involved.

The other characters aren't directly involved, but you can view what they're up to on SNS as they've become somewhat famous.

However, in DaSH, Daru from Steins;Gate makes an appearance, acting as a huge turning point for the story.

How serious of a game is DaSH compared to Robotics;Notes?

The first part of the story takes place in a peaceful world, so it has a nice, summer vacation feel. However, once a certain man awakens, the story veers in a very serious direction.

What is the central theme of Robotics;Notes?

The central themes of Robotics;Notes are youthful dreams and the growth of young men and women. The story features an ensemble cast and incorporates robots and AR. This technology is relevant to the time the story is set in.

The other Science Adventure games use 2D backgrounds and 2D character sprites. Only Robotics;Notes and Dash use 3D character models, why is this and what are the strong and weak points that come from this?

The visual novel genre of game has existed since the 80s on PC, and overall, has not evolved too much.

We wanted to challenge ourselves this time around by incorporating 3D characters to widen the scope of how characters are portrayed.

I think we were able to better display the emotions of each character, though I will say development costs did increase a bit.

If you've seen the Robotics;Notes anime, why should you play the game?

An anime has only a limited amount of time; it's very hard to show every branching point in the story so some things must be removed.

Fans of the anime can greatly benefit by seeing every distinct branching point through playing the game.

If you are going to play one Science Adventure game before Robotics;Notes Elite, which one will best prepare you for the events of Robotics;Notes and why? (Chaos;HEAd, Steins;Gate, Chaos;Child, etc.?)

If you're going to play Elite, you should play Steins;Gate. If you're going to play DaSH, you should play Chaos;Child.

There are direct correlations between the titles, but also, there are certain appearances of characters and particular technology that when you see them can make you smile.

Both Robotics;Notes and DaSH are games with various routes through the story in addition to the “true ending.” How do these various routes exist if the Steins;Gate worldline is a singular unique timeline? Are these dreams? Or are they events from worldlines where either Kurisu or Mayuri is dead?

In terms of the worldline, there is only one, but each of the endings are "if-then" style depending on the choices made by the main character, aka the player. Since the events of Robotics;Notes follow the events of Steins;Gate, the decisions made in Robotics;Notes have no effect on what has already happened in Steins;Gate.

Who is your favorite Science Adventure character and why?

There are so many great characters from every title that I can't really pick, but... As far as whose future I'm curious about... I'd go with Maho from Steins;Gate 0. She has lots of potential so I hope she makes an appearance in the future.

Is there any chance of making a Robotics;Notes DaSH anime?

We'd love for all our games to be anime series. Right now, nothing is set in stone, but with everyone's support I foresee a worldline in which it will become an anime.

While Nae appears in Robotics;Notes and Daru in Robotics;Notes Dash, are we ever going to get a full crossover game with all the Chaos;HEAd/Child, Steins;Gate, and Robotics;Notes characters?

Since the characters are from different years, their age gap is a major setback... However, if we were to take the Super Robot Wars approach, we could solve that issue and make this happen someday.