The Roottrees are Dead

You really have to divide the rating for this game into two main categories; gameplay and story. Gameplay wise, I mostly really enjoyed this. It was pitched to me as a genealogy sim, and as someone who does a lot of family history in my spare time, that was right up my alley. It was fun and satisfying to search the web, finding even the smallest clues, and fill in the family tree. Towards the end of Roottreemania it did start to get rather tedious, and the charm did eventually wear off. Overall though the gameplay loop wasn't bad at all. But then we get to the story, and things start to fall apart. The title and intro promise intrigue, mystery, and maybe even murder? It's all a lot more mundane than that. The titular deaths of the Roottrees is little more than a footnote, and doesn't change the story whatsoever. The game dangles more interesting potential plots at you in the form of online conspiracy theories, and then does absolutely nothing with them. The big plot twist of the main game is not only easy to guess early on, it also doesn't make any sense? The story at large doesn't stand up to scrutiny and character decisions and motivations don't read like real people, just two dimensional plot contrivances to allow for moral grandstanding. It also doesn't make much sense logistically. [spoiler]How do you even go about erasing a kid in a well known family, who was in the public eye and even a part of the company branding? As for the baby, why not just have the two of them get married? 16/17 is not even impossibly young to get married in 2026, let alone in the 1920/30s. Even babies conceived out of wedlock were usually considered legitimate as long as the parents married before the baby was born. Look at any historical records and you'll find it's not uncommon to see babies born "prematurely" at about 6-7 months after the wedding.[/spoiler] The entire conclusion just feels bitter, which is ramped up in Roottreemania as you're tasked to find even more potential family members through lines of possible infidelity. It all comes across as rather vindictive, trying to ruin a family. Do they deserve it? I don't know. We never learn enough about each of them specifically and the one's drawing the bulk of our hirer's rage are all dead. What's the point? And a word on trusts, from someone who works with them quite a bit (though not in a legal capacity so I'm not an expert), they don't really work like this. Denoting vague beneficiaries like "my children" (without naming them) or in this case, simply, "blood relatives," can be grounds to contest the trust. It's not nearly so cut and dry. How is it even supposed to be working? If they're still finding relatives then how has the player character been paid? Wouldn't they need to redistribute each share? Why is the trust still in effect some 25 years after the death of the trustor? The time table of a trust after the death of the trustmaker is usually less than 2 years, allowing for time to get affairs in order, pay any outstanding debts, and distribute to beneficiaries. Is there ever an end point? We're clearly still adding brand new members to the family. And another logistical thing, why does no one in this family other than the president work in the family company? [spoiler]There's a whole how to do about Elias's succession because he was apparently too controlling and greedy to step down, so all of his children started their own careers and couldn't take over. Oh but, why oh why were none of them working there anyway? He was the president, sure, but they have no other upper management? No vice president, no one being trained to take over? You're just asking for trouble by handing the company over to someone who has no idea how to run it, thrice![/spoiler] Anyway, the more I think about all of this, the less it makes sense. Oh well.