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[Robotics;Notes] 「 Phase 13 」– An extension of the Visual Novel's True End


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Over the last few years I created quite a few pieces of rather ambitious fancontent. Amongst those were a Visual Novel adaptation of "The Distant Valhalla" (a Light Novel to Steins;Gate), an animation of "Slumbering Fools" (a drama CD to Chaos;Child) and another animation to "Delusion of Zero" (a short story to Chaos;Head). All of which was official side content that we fortunately received a translation of.

With the recent release of Robotics;Notes Elite I realized it was the only mainline entry in the SciADV franchise I haven't yet "covered", so to speak. So I looked into ways of creating an animation to the side content we had, but gave up rather soon. Partially this was due to the 3D character models that just make an animation more difficult compared to the simple sprite images used in the previous titles. But on the other hand, we also don't really have translated side content that's suitable for an animation.

So in the end I decided to write up something on my own. Part of that decision also came from me realizing I only ever "remixed" existing content that has already been created by other artists. Never did I create something that I came up with entirely myself, and that I poured my own creativity into. That's why I wanted to give it a shot just once in my life and wrote up Phase 13 – an extension of the Visual Novel's True End.

So is this about a fanfic? Yes, definitely. Please turn away if you're already prejudiced – I don't need you here.

For the ones still remaining I'll give a short explanation of what you can and what you cannot expect from Phase 13. If you want to skip straight to the blurb and actual story contents see the end of this post.

 

As for what I believe you can expect:

— Relevance to Science Adventure —

Even though this is original content, it doesn't come up with a totally random premise. The plot is supposed to fill the missing gap to a certain piece of official side content that you're better off not knowing anything about for now. You could certainly see it as some sort of "midquel" between two other SciADV stories.

Due to that, this story strives to remain consistent to the relevant side content and heavily interconnects with its plot strings. While doing so, it also paves the way for the events occurring in Robotics;Notes DaSH. To understand the plot you only need to know the original Robotics;Notes though – preferably the Visual Novel, but the anime is sufficient as well.

— Consistent terminology —

SciADV releases have been plagued by inconsistent terms and expressions depending on the translator or agency. Thankfully we have a group of dedicated fans at Committee of Zero who released fan patches that keep up a community-accepted consistency. Phase 13 follows that consistency, so its terminology corresponds to all other SciADV games. If you're coming from an anime only background or read the game without a patch don't worry — there's an "integrated" glossary.

— Long story and properly stylized release —

This whole story contains about 10k words, giving it the approximate length of one Phase (one "Chapter") of the Visual Novel. I released it as a more pretty-looking HTML release, that I published on my GitHub Pages account. Due to that I could make use of the whole plethora of CSS-style rules and created a rather unique visual representation. The entire website is also responsive and adjusts to any screen size – no matter if it's a smartphone, a tablet or a desktop.

 

As for what you cannot expect:

— Exact same writing style —

It's still fan content, and as such not written by a professional scenario writer like Hayashi Naotaka. Therefore I'm not gonna be as bold to claim I perfectly nailed the original writing style. One significant change compared to the Visual Novel is that Phase 13 is written in past tense, as it's a lot more suitable for literature. Another one might be it's less dialogue focused as I wanted to focus on the characters thoughts and feelings as well.

— Consistency with untranslated side content —

I'm not one of those lucky people who know Japanese. Therefore it might be the events of Phase 13 are rendered inconsistent by yet untranslated side-content. There is actually a certain 250 pages strong Light Novel that might cause problems in that regard. If you finish Phase 13 and look around for a bit I'm sure you'll figure out which Light Novel I'm referring to – I'll refrain from mentioning it due to spoiler reasons.

 

What is left up to you:

— Judgement —

The whole story has received multiple editing passes, and I've rewritten and truncated more than a few parts after I was finished. I also consulted various people credited below while writing. However, that doesn't automatically guarantee a well-written plot. Whether it turned out as a faithful extension of the Visual Novel's True End or as just another poorly developed fanfic is something you have to judge for yourself.

So let's finally come to an end with this wall of text. I'm not sure how many of you actually read through all of it, but if you're still interested you can find the entirety of Phase 13 below :^)

 

Blurb and Link:

Right after the faithful events at the Osaki Launch Complex, the enfeebled body of Senomiya Misaki found its way to the abandoned airport hangar one last time. Arriving at the very same place that almost ten years ago gave birth to her unyielding desires, and steadfast convictions.

Just next to her were two persons, that long since became the most important people in her life: Senomiya Akiho and Yashio Kaito – both anxiously awaiting the moment her eyes were about to open. Still unaware of a hidden truth that neither Kimijima's reports nor his words ever revealed. Something, that more than a decade ago caused hopes to flourish, and dreams to rise.

https://ghostinthesteiner.github.io/Phase%2013.1.html

 

Credits:

Enorovan#1283: Primarily: Fact checking and consistency assistance. Also provided a CG the Committee of Zero translated but that ended up unused in the patch

SinicalGeek#9001: Editing assistance (for wordings that required a native speaker)

Zakamutt#8430: Editing assistance (and "helpful" autism)

Commando.PAX#7605: Proofreading (for an early draft and an almost completed version)

Janirf#7218: Proofreading (for an early draft)

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