The SciAdv universe just hit a new low
Robotics;Notes DaSH is fan service, cheesecake, junk food or however you like to call it. There is nothing deep or engaging about this game. DaSH is yet another one of those pervy VNs out there masquerading as a SciAdv title. Normally I wouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but DaSH is a glaring exception to the idiom. The game’s box art features an intentional view of Akiho’s legs and ass. Suffice it to say, there will be more where that came from. If you are a fan of either Steins;Gate or Robotics;Notes, DaSH might be worth playing as long as you can stomach (or actually enjoy) the amount of horniness in the game. It’s a shame because the use of sleazy content cheapens the final product and easily makes DaSH the worst Science Adventure game I’ve ever played.
Robotics;Notes DaSH is a direct sequel to Robotics;Notes and features Daru from Steins;Gate as the main protagonist. If you have not played either of these games, stop right here because DaSH is full of spoilers. It also helps if you’ve played either Chaos;Child or Chaos;Head, but those games are more supplementary than necessary readings.
The game begins six months after the events of Robotics;Notes. Kaito is returning to Tanegashima for summer break after starting college on the mainland. He meets up with all the Robotics Club members, including Airi and Nae. After their reunion, Kaito notices a strange burly man approaching the group, who Nae instantly recognizes. Nae introduces the crew to Daru, the same super hacker who helped Okabe Rintaro in Steins;Gate. Daru mysteriously says that he is on the island for business but doesn’t disclose any details. The Robotics Club is wary of Daru’s behavior but Nae insists that he is a good guy.
Tanegashima is holding its annual gun festival and a robotics festival at the same time. The Robotics Club is yet again in peril as there are only two members remaining since the rest of the members have graduated. To revive the club, they plan to participate in the festivities to drum up support and recruit new members. Kaito notices after his six month absence that each member of the cast is dealing with their own problems: Akiho is intentionally avoiding anything with robots. Subaru is burdened with choosing between his personal dreams and his dad’s dreams. Junna still suffers from stage fright. And Frau still struggles with communicating with other people. The gist of the game is about Daru and Kaito resolving each person’s problems to eventually become a stronger team by the end.
*sigh* If only the game played as well as it sounds in writing…
The game plays like the original, but Twipo is now completely optional and not used to unlock the different phases. I do suggest checking Twipo when playing as Daru as he will get messages from the Steins;Gate lab members which is a nice touch. To go through all the phases, the player simply needs to iterate through three series of choices, which is a relief compared to the original game where a walkthrough was more or less mandatory. The perspective is split roughly 30:70 between Kaito and Daru. Playing as Kaito, is like playing a more mature version of himself in Robotics;Notes while playing as Daru is like playing a horny teenager.
Daru’s behavior is absolutely disgusting, especially his attraction to young girls. When he meets Airi and learns of her age, his first remark is: “Legal loli, FTW!”. Let that sink in for a second…… To make things worse, the game CONSTANTLY reminds the player that Daru is 29 years old, has a wife and a 2 year old daughter. It doesn’t help that the common route is vapid nonsense that dwells into Daru’s sexual fantasies like maid outfits, gym shorts and nurses. There is a scene where Daru witnesses a girl and man toss a water balloon to one another until the balloon bursts on the girl and we see a very detailed scene of her in a wet shirt posed in a lewd manner.
Even excluding Daru‘s parts, the majority of the game feels like watching filler episodes in a long running anime. There is no character development except for Junna’s and Subaru’s phases. The writing is verbose and predictable. Attempts at comedy mostly fall flat, but I did chuckle when Junna adopts a new persona and the Robotics Club members panic when they struggle to snap her out of it. And Frau’s path is problematic and relies too heavily on homophobic jokes.
The game is a technical mess. I’ve experienced more than a handful of crashes and blank screens. The majority of the crashes seem to occur during Junna’s and Subaru’s phases. The graphics are worse than the original game. Characters are limited to a few animations, have hands and other body parts that clip through their clothes. And some recycled character models like Mr. Candy and Mitchie look worse than how they are depicted in the Robotics;Notes Elite.
I do want to highlight some positive aspects I took away from DaSH. The intro and credit soundtracks are nice. There is a random pop idol dance number that is surprisingly entertaining. The interaction between Robotics Club members is just as enjoyable as it was before in the previous game. Lingering character relationship arcs are resolved. And the story hints at why and how Daru used an old Russian Satellite as a time machine in Steins;Gate.
Maybe I’m misreading the room and DaSH is exactly what SciAdv fans have been craving, but this game simply is not for me. In fact, I think outside of Steins;Gate, I tolerated the other SciAdv games including Steins;Gate 0. I don’t enjoy the concept of psychic powers, mind control or mass hallucinations because the SciAdv universe starts becoming less like a world of “99% science and 1% fantasy” and more like your average summer Marvel movie. Surprisingly I tolerated the horny bits and the technical issues, but what really broke me was Akiho’s story.
In Akiho’s story, which is canon; the villain easily destroys the rebuilt Gun-Build 2 and our heroes are all about to die. Just then, Daru tells everyone to pray and they magically summon a life-sized Gunvarrel into existence. Gunvarrel defeats the villain and everyone accepts what just happened before their eyes. So much for the years spent planning and designing the Gun-Builds, the combination of engineering and programming required and the number of people involved to build these giant robots. Who cares about all that, when the Robotics Club can simply use the power of hope to summon a magical robot that is infinitesimally better than anyone can build in their lifetimes? This game is so bad that I’m done with Robotics;Notes and in fact I’m done with the entire SciAdv franchise.