''Root Letter'', stylized as ''√Letter'', is a 2016

visual novel A visual novel (VN) is a form of digital interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustratio ...

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

video game developed and published by

Kadokawa Games Kadokawa may refer to: *Kadokawa Corporation, the holding company of the Kadokawa Group **Kadokawa Content Gate and Kadokawa Mobile, both former names for BookWalker **Kadokawa Future Publishing, a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation and the publis ...

for

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

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, Android, and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

. It is the first entry in the ''Kadokawa Game Mystery'' brand, and was followed by '' Root Film'' in 2020. ''Root Letter: Last Answer'', a revamp of the game with additional content, including live-action sequences, was released on August 30 and September 3, 2019 for Europe and North America with an initial release in Asia in December 2018. A live-action American feature film adaptation of the game was announced in 2018 as a co-production between US-based AMMO Entertainment and Japan-based Ammo Inc. The film entered production in September 2019, and was released on September 1, 2022.

Gameplay

The game plays as an

. In the game, the player must figure out what happened to the character of Aya, a girl who mysteriously vanished after receiving a particular letter. The gameplay is split into two distinct parts: the adventure part, where the player interrogates characters who knew Aya in order to find more information about her, and the simulation parts, where the player reads through past letters from Aya and selects - out-of-universe - their contents, thereby influencing the later portions of the game.

Story

''Root Letter'' is set in

Matsue is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Shimane Prefecture, Japan, located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. , the city had an estimated population of 196,748 in 91287 households and a population density of 340 persons per km². The total area of ...

Shimane Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Shimane Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-least populous prefecture of Japan at 665,205 (February 1, 2021) and has a ge ...

, where the protagonist arrives in search of Fumino Aya, a

pen pal Pen pals (or penfriends, penpals, pen-pals) are people who regularly write to each other, particularly via postal mail. Pen pals are usually strangers whose relationship is based primarily, or even solely, on their exchange of letters. Occasion ...

friend from high school who had disappeared for 15 years. After he finds a letter dedicated to him from her that was never sent, he sets out to interrogate her classmates as he wonders if everything Aya had told him had been a lie. The game contains multiple endings based on the player's choices throughout the game.

Development and release

The game was announced in November 2015, for both the Japanese and international market. It was introduced as the first title in a line of

adventure video game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an Interactive storytelling, interactive story, driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus ...

s by

, the ''Kadokawa Game Mystery'' series. Each entry in the series is planned to contain the same "fictional actresses" playing different roles across different titles. Key staff from

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

's ''

LovePlus is a dating sim developed and published by Konami for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It was released in Japan in 2009. Several updates and sequels have followed, including one for iOS in 2011. It has not been released outside Japan ...

'' series of

dating sim Dating sims, also known as dating simulation games, are a video game subgenre of simulation games with romantic elements. While resembling the visual novel genre in presentation, true dating sims utilize an additional statistical and time manage ...

games contributed to the game, including character designer Mino Taro, and producer Akari Uchida. ''Root Letter'' was released for the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation Vita by Kadokawa Games on 16 June 2016 in Japan, and by PQube on 28 October 2016 in Europe and 1 November 2016 in North America. It was also released for

in Japan on 31 March 2017 and internationally on 7 July 2017, and for Android and

in Japan on 25 August 2017. A sequel, '' Root Film'', was announced to be in development in 2018. It was later announced that the game would be released on July 30, 2020 in Japan, with a worldwide release date set for 2021. A

live-action Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games or ...

video project based on the original game is additionally planned to be produced by

Perfect World Pictures Perfect World Pictures (PWPIC) is a Chinese entertainment company. Founded in 2008, it engages in the production, distribution and marketing of film and television content, content related advertising, merchandising business, and talent managemen ...

. In August 2018, a new version of the game, ''Root Letter: Last Answer'' was announced. The game is a live-action remake that allows the player to either use the animated or live-action scenes/photos for the game's graphics. It includes new scenarios that take place after the game's various endings. It was released in Japan on December 20 for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and Nintendo Switch, while it was released in other parts of the world on September 2, 2019 without having a Vita release.

Reception

''Root Letter'' received "generally favorable" reviews for PlayStation Vita, and "mixed or average" reviews for PlayStation 4, according to the

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Sales

During its opening week in Japan, 8,907 copies were sold, of which 4,855 were of the PlayStation Vita version, and 4,052 of the PlayStation 4 version. The two versions were, respectively, the eleventh and fourteenth best selling games of that week in Japan. Despite the game not appearing on the weekly

Media Create is a Japanese company that gathers and analyzes data from the digital entertainment industry, specifically focusing on the Japanese console gaming market. Business operations include publishing, market research and consulting. It is a popular w ...

charts again in Japan, worldwide sales passed 200,000 copies sold by January 2017, making it a commercial success. By July 2017, another 100,000 copies had been sold, bringing total worldwide sales to 300,000, and by February 2018 it had passed 400,000 copies sold. As of April 2022, the total number of series shipments and digital sales had surpassed 500,000 units. Geraint Evans, the head of marketing of PQube, called their ''Root Letter'' sales "phenomenal", with the vast majority sold on the PlayStation Vita.

Legacy

A sequel, '' Root Film'', was released in Japan in 2020, and in North America in March 2021. The game is not a direct sequel, but a thematic one.

Film adaptation

An American feature film adaptation of the game was announced in November 2018 by Los Angeles-based film production company Akatsuki Entertainment. The film, produced and financed by Akatsuki Entertainment, is directed by

Sonja O'Hara Sonja O'Hara (born Sonja Kristiansen) is an Emmy-nominated Canadian writer, director and actress who is represented by Verve and Gotham Group. She is originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and resides in Los Angeles, California. Her digit ...

, written by David Ebeltoft, produced by Annmarie Sairrino, Moeko Suzuki, and Kat McPhee, and starring Danny Ramirez, Keana Marie, and

Lydia Hearst Lydia Marie Hearst-Shaw (born September 19, 1984) is an American fashion model, actress, socialite, and lifestyle blogger. She is a great-granddaughter of newspaper publisher and politician William Randolph Hearst and a daughter of the author an ...

, began shooting in

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...

on September 16, 2019. In June 2021, the film's rights were transferred from Akatsuki Inc. to producer Annmarie Sairrino's AMMO Entertainment and Moeko Suzuki's Ammo Inc. production companies. The film was subsequently acquired for release in the United States by distributor Entertainment Squad, which also provides foreign sales and offered the film rights at the

2022 Toronto International Film Festival The 47th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 8 to 18, 2022. The 2022 festival was staged primarily in-person; a small selection of films were offered on the Digital TIFF Bell Lightbox platform, but this represente ...

. The film was released on September 1, 2022, and is envisioned as a gritty re-imagining of the game's core story of a protagonist in search of a former pen pal who disappears under mysterious circumstances. The trailer for the film was released on August 3, 2022.

References

External links

* * * * {{IMDb title, 9347732 2016 video games Adventure games Android (operating system) games High school-themed video games IOS games Kadokawa Corporation franchises Mystery video games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation Vita games PQube games Single-player video games Video games developed in Japan Video games featuring female protagonists Video games set in Japan Visual novels Windows games