Root Film’s Director Discusses Its Root Letter Connections and Improvements

Root Film director Hifumi Kouno gave an interview discussing the new installment in the series. In it, he talked about if the game will have any connections to the previous game, Root Letter and how the game has been improved from the last one. [Thanks, Bahamut!]

Here are the highlights:

• The game is titled Root Film, because the end goal of the protagonist and the other two directors is to become the chosen TV series director and filmography is part of the process to get to that goal. Traditional film is better than digital cinematography, in terms of color effects, and this is another important meaning behind choosing the word “film.” Finally, film is a very important element in this game’s plot, but no details were given in order to avoid spoilers.
• When Kouno took over the helm of director from Root Letter director and Kadokawa Games president Yoshimi Yasuda, Yasuda instructed Kouno not to limit himself too much based on the previous game, and write and direct based on what he wanted to do. Kouno said that he’s improved upon all the issues that players brought up in Root Letter in Root Film.
• The game isn’t really related to Root Letter at all, but the three famous female voice actresses who played major roles in last game are back voicing different characters. This is going to be a series constant moving forward. Additionally, the game’s protagonist is nicknamed Max, like the protagonist of Root Letter, but he is a completely different person with his own background. Kouno acknowledged that Max in Root Letter wasn’t the most likable character, so he took steps to distance this character a little bit.
• Kouno said that the text adventure portion of Root Film had some fatal flaws, which have been addressed. First, the main character was too unlikable and was constantly always by himself, meaning that there were a lot of monologues. This limited the writing. That’s why the protagonist has more “partner” characters to talk to this time around.

Root Film will release for the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in Japan on July 30, 2020. The game’s third trailer and theme song were recently released.