Overall, Root Film is an engaging visual novel, but as a film buff, it was doubly great experience. For anyone that falls into the Venn diagram between these two types of media, this comes recommended!

Root Film does a great job at holding your attention throughout the 15-20 hours you’ll spend with it. The truth behind the film project from ten years ago is an intriguing one to uncover and you’ll discover plenty of dark secrets along the way. Despite being a game with lots of death in it, it also manages to be a love letter to the Shimane region in Japan. The endearing characters you meet will also help keep the game feeling light despite some of its intense subject matter.

Root Film, like Root Letter before it, is a high quality visual novel with an intriguing mystery at its core. There's not much gameplay here but the writing moves at a good pace with great artwork and strong, likeable characters.

While Root Film doesn’t quite meet the standard of its excellent predecessor, Root Letter, it’s still a thoroughly entertaining visual novel, especially for those who are into murder mysteries. It isn’t afraid to dip its toes into some pretty serious topics, and does so in a respectful manner, but it also employs a bit of humour to lighten the mood when necessary. Forgive its localisation issues, and you have a fine way to step into the shoes of an investigator for just over a dozen of hours.

The writing is a bit of a letdown. The character interactions are solid, and seeing their interplay is a delight. There’s also an impressive level of detail paid to the minutiae of film-making that we rarely see. Unfortunately, this level of care doesn’t touch all corners of the experience. The character's connection to the primary narrative is tenuous. Outside of the very first mystery, the protagonist's motivations for remaining involved in these murders don’t feel warranted. This is especially problematic when it comes to Rintaro’s chapters, which comprise the brunt of the game’s 15 or so hours. The writing is able to somewhat successfully sidestep this problem, through sheer force of intrigue, but it’s not wholly successful. The lack of agency doesn’t help either, as there's almost nothing for the player to do other than sit and read. This makes the experience feel barren, even by visual novel standards. This passivity allows for it to be the kind of experience you can do other things while playing, though the lack of a dub may leave some people feeling left out.

While not reaching its full potential, Balan Wonderworld is a grand and well designed adventure, which runs superbly on PS5. It’s perfect for family co-op play. [Issue#1, p.88]