Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition (v1.0)

A nuclear meltdown turns the sealed research complex of LABO into a claustrophobic disaster zone where fire, radiation, and panic are equally lethal. Set in 2030, this anime-style visual novel follows rescue captain Watase Kasasagi after an explosion leaves him trapped underground with survivors—and without his memories. A second storyline follows student Natsuhiko Tenkawa in the days leading up to the catastrophe, gradually reframing everything the player thinks they know. The mood is tense and cerebral, balancing emergency-response drama with conspiracy, psychological suspense, and the constant fear that someone inside the facility cannot be trusted.

Reading dialogue and investigating the survivors’ situation form the foundation, but Root Double avoids the usual visual-novel choice menus. Its Senses Sympathy System asks players to assign emotional values to characters and situations, effectively deciding who Watase trusts, fears, sympathizes with, or doubts. Those judgments steer scenes, alliances, route splits, and potentially fatal outcomes, so a careless emotional read can lead the cast toward disaster. Progress requires revisiting chapters, testing different relationship values, uncovering multiple endings, and eventually connecting the perspectives of both protagonists into a larger explanation.

What makes the experience memorable is how its branching works: decisions feel less like selecting obvious moral responses and more like inhabiting an uncertain, amnesiac protagonist’s instincts. LABO is a deliberately confined setting, yet the mystery gains scope as each route reveals new information, contradictions, and motivations behind the accident. Character portraits, dramatic sound design, and lengthy, dialogue-heavy scenes give it the feel of a serious science-fiction anime, while the survival stakes keep its exposition from becoming purely academic. Fans of Zero Escape, Ever17, or story-focused visual novels with dense twists find plenty to unravel here, though players wanting fast action or simple route guidance may need patience with its slow-burn pacing and experimental choice system.