Easily one of the most enthralling games I've played in a long while. Family trees haven't been something I've really thought about as working as a puzzle game, but wow does this game deliver! It's an incredibly rewarding experience to build up your arsenal of clues while slowly mapping out the family, and discovering the *numerous* bits of drama along the way. You'll have to play detective in interpreting the evidence, taking notes and highlighting key info (for which the game provides a very helpful in-game notepad), and filling in the tree yourself by names and photos. The game verifies entries in batches and allows you to tackle whichever part of the tree first, so there's very minimal prodding to push you in the "right" direction. This of course makes the actual solving you do yourself much more satisfying, though there is a hint system available to use (w/out penalty). The progression system for these hints still encourages you to put the pieces together on your own, and for the handful of times I did need a hint to progress, it was a result of me clearly missing a detail, rather than the game feeling unfair.
After part one, the second part "Rootreemania", naturally ramps up the difficulty, but never in a way that feels excessive. There's a lot from part one you may need to recontextualize, while being even more precise in your search for new info, as more red herrings and dead ends appear along the way. I did end up using the hint system a fair bit more than in the first part, but again, much of it was more me missing a detail or search term, rather than the game wanting something arbitrary. I didn't find the narrative as investing as the first part, and I do think some of the novelty wore off as I worked through it, but Roottreemania is wholly worth going through if you desire more after part one.
A definite recommend for anyone who enjoys detective games, and maybe note taking as well!
