Road 96 Mile 0 Review: Want to escape like common people
Kaito and Zoe make an unlikely pair; Zoe is the daughter of Petria’s Minister of Oil, while Kaito is the son of lowly workers. Zoe lives in a pristine gated community next door to the country’s leader, Tyrak, while Kaito calls a one bedroom basement apartment in the slums his home. Hell, how they even met in the first place is a mystery! But despite these differences, the two spend their free time together at their secret base, playing video games, listening to music, and making plans for a road trip someday. Unfortunately, Petria has other plans for these besties — will they be able to maintain their friendship no matter what is thrown their way?
That’s for players to find out in Road 96 Mile 0, a prequel to 2021’s Road 96 again developed by Digixart and published by Ravenscourt. Delving deeper into the events that preceded Road 96’s storyline and the lore behind it, Road 96 Mile 0 follows Zoe, one of the characters from Road 96, and Kaito, the protagonist from Lost in Harmony, as they goof off together like good friends should while gearing up for history-altering actions that no child should have to endure. And while understanding the original game is certainly recommended before (or shortly after) diving into Road 96 Mile 0, there’s plenty of enjoyment to be had without playing its predecessor.
Road 96 Mile 0 opens up on best friends Kaito and Zoe enjoying a hang out sesh at their secret base. Unfortunately, their time is cut short, as Kaito has some business to attend to — business he’s not entirely forthcoming about. But the pair soon find themselves hanging out again in no time, traipsing around their usual haunts like the public square near Kaito’s home, a park, and Zoe’s home in the most affluential gated community in the country. Unbeknownst to them, the besties will soon find themselves pulled into a perfect storm — quite literally — and will be forced to make choices that might be at odds with each other. How will the pair cope while keeping their friendship intact?
Road 96 Mile 0 is broken up into two major gameplay styles — exploration and music-runner stages — split between both Kaito’s and Zoe’s perspectives. As Zoe, players will do their best to piece together Petria’s true nature while confronting its traumatic past; as Kaito, players must navigate a far less privileged world in an effort to create a better life. Their thoughts, emotions, and perceptions brought up in the exploration stages conclude rhythmically in the music-runner stages, making for some interesting variety in storytelling and gameplay.
As Road 96 Mile 0 progresses, Kaito and Zoe’s friendship is put to the test, as their differences start to become abundantly clear. Zoe has only known Petria to be a good place to live, while Kaito sees a pathway to a better life in the arms of the resistance forces violently undermining the government. However, there is hope — if players so desire, they can have Zoe see Petria’s past for what it truly is while softening Kaito’s staunch support of the Black Brigades. Of course, the opposite is true in that Zoe can remain loyal to her country and Kaito can head full tilt into the ranks of the resistance. It all depends on the choices players make throughout the game.
Unfortunately, making Kaito and Zoe strongly cast their lots loses its charm very early on. Having played (and loved) the original, I remembered just how important it was to explore every nook and cranny in Petria, and in Road 96 Mile 0 that is still very true, as players will need to interact with their surroundings to instigate opportunities to lean one way or the other. With that being said, those opportunities are largely found in either digging through trash and choosing how to think about a tossed pamphlet or approaching a propaganda poster and deciding to either tear it down, tag it, or fix it up proper. If you want to lean hard one way or another into either philosophy, the bulk of the exploration portions will be spent rummaging through trash and adjusting posters. Literal hours of this.
Where Road 96 Mile 0 truly shines is in its music-running portions. Road 96 players will recognize plenty of familiar tracks with some fresh new 90s additions, like No Brakes by The Offspring. These stages are extremely fun and delightfully reminiscent of games like Sayonara Wild Hearts in structure, story-telling, and quality, so I have absolutely no complaints here. In fact, the music-running stages offer some real challenge to Road 96 Mile 0 that is otherwise missing in the exploration portions. I highly suspect players will be looking forward to these moments the most while playing this surprise prequel.
Road 96 Mile 0 has some frustrating elements (mostly when it comes to slogging through endless poster interactions), but the good definitely outweighs the bad. It has a stellar ability to blend key story-telling moments into impactful music-running levels, a clear sense of character progression and narrative direction, and even its own sense of humor that does indeed land (better if you played the first game). I was personally elated to see the rare combination of an Asian male / White female lead, even pulling my husband aside to point at the screen and go “look, it’s us!” And while I didn’t necessarily enjoy the ending I got, it was still true to each characters’ motives and emotions leading up to that conclusion; knowing what I know now, a better ending is just another playthrough away… I just have to steel myself for the whole poster bit again.
Road 96 Mile 0 takes familiar elements from Road 96 and Lost in Harmony and impressively incorporates them fairly seamlessly. Although I did feel that the exploration portions could have benefitted from some variety in gameplay, the music-running portions definitely picked up the slack. If anything, Road 96 Mile 0 excels in its ability to showcase two best friends struggling against an unfair world while still trying to be regular teenagers. Whether or not they remain friends is for players to decide.
Final Verdict: 3.5/5
Available on: XBox One, XBox Series X|S, PC, Switch, PS4, PS5 (Reviewed); Publisher: Digixart, Ravenscourt; Developer: Digixart; Players: 1; Released: April 4, 2023; MSRP: $12.99
Full disclosure: This review is based on a copy of Road 96 Mile 0 provided by the publisher.
