I spent a lot of time complaining, but Root Letter is actually really good. While the awkward attempts of inserting video game mechanics into the story are exactly that, the story and art are so well-crafted it’s easy to forget the times when you’re bumbling around with the magnifying glass or linguistically challenged Max Mode sequences.

It's an engaging and compelling narrative with more twists in the tail than we could count, and it's the visual novel side of things which supports that with a set of robust features and mechanics. You'll be able to scan scenes for clues and people to talk to via a cursor, while an inventory allows you to tailor a conversation to a specific piece of evidence. Meanwhile, investigations give you the chance to get to the bottom of a certain point in a case and Max Mode varies your responses to people of interest on an increasingly ludicrous scale.