[Review] Steins;Gate (PS3, Vita, PS TV Compatibile)

Price= $30
Available on Amazon

This review will be a bit different than a traditional video game review. Steins;Gate is a visual novel with very little commonly accepted gameplay, as in moving a character around on screen and other traditional mechanics. It's a reason why I will be placing more emphasis on the story and characters, and less on the gameplay itself.

Another disclaimer, I made sure the footage is used in this review is from the beginning of the game. If there are clips from later on in the game, I've made sure they're side conversations that don't foreshadow any of the many twists this game has in store, so don't worry about reading the dialogue boxes.

Rintarou Okabe is a self-titled mad scientist and general jerk. Mayurii or Mayushii is ditzy insane sometimes a genius, but usually an idiot? Kurisu Makise is the love interest tsundere genius scientist. And Itaru "Daru" Hashida is the resident computer guy. There are a lot more people than this, and many more who are essential to the plot, but these are main group.

We have Luka, and Faris, and Suzuha, and Moeka, and you get it, lots of characters, but characters you don't truly learn about until the second half of the game. Plot wise everyone has a place and a purpose, and the plot is the main group have discovered how to send messages into the past.

After Okabe accidentally sends himself an email, he finds himself in a different worldline. One where Kurisu is not murdered, and a satellite that was parked on the roof is now crashed into the building instead. The main Scooby Doo group band together and start their investigation/experimentation.

The butterfly effect comes into place, where the group makes small changes that have an effect in their timeline, and soon other worldlines. It's an intriguing enough story and I can see why that's the easy hook to bring people in.

The game does a good job of immersing the player with information with the in-game dictionary. This is where players can learn about real world and fictional scientific backgrounds, and plenty of humor. In-jokes galore on anime, video games, and nerd culture.

This is one of the defining features the game has over the show. It allows the player to explore and read up on the world building in a quick and usually entertaining way. Steins;Gate wouldn't work as well as it does if it wasn't grounded through the dictionary. The game does go out of its way to ease the player into this world, whereas the show is always in such a breakneck pace and can't contain itself. 

While the science hook is fun and all, eventually the game turns to the heart of the story, being Okabe and the characters. And this is where the real quality comes out, but not before a tsunami of exposition. There is so much exposition that there is little room for intended gameplay.

I've heard of some people not even knowing they had the ability to check their phone at any given time, barring important plot cutscenes, of course. And yes, not answering anyone's emails and phone calls leads to an ending, which thankfully you don't need to worry about. All important decisions require the phone and how you respond to text messages. There are even intended points in the game where the player is expected to not answer texts or phone calls.

In terms of story, I will give Steins;Gate this, the slow opening is needed. Much of what happens in the second half of the story is delivered as well as it is, because the game spends enough time preparing for it. You really ease into the sort of games and lazy days of eccentric college kids, and then all of a sudden the plot is turned on its head.

I originally wasn't feeling the slow nature of the story. It takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 45 minutes until the time travel shenanigans is hinted at with Okabe's text. Compared to the show, every thirty minutes of screen time can be anywhere from an hour to two hours of game time. If you think the show takes a long time to get going, the game will be even longer. The one upside is the player is eased into the world in a much better fashion than the show, who runs at breakneck speed to cover production costs.

Now a major issue present with the game is how it doesn't tell players their own agency. The game will actually continue even if the player chooses nothing, giving the most common ending to the series. I have heard in a recent interview that they wanted that particular ending to be less vague, and be something of a more concrete ending. It still works either way.

The game's branching path is decided through Okabe's cellphone. Here is where the player can make calls and respond to emails at any time during the game, but the player will most likely not know that because the game never tells them that. In fact, I had to learn the button layout myself by experimenting, which caused some early non-important game dialogue to speed past. By pressing square, the first option is the backlog to read past text, so it was only a minor inconvenience. I would have liked a dedicated rewind button instead.

When hearing a call or an email notification, pressing the triangle button will bring up the phone. This is where Steins;Gate has all the action take place, and once understanding this system, it is a lot of fun and complements the story well. If anyone has ever seen the show, they'll know how important a cellphone is, which makes immersion seamless between the two mediums.

A huge issue I ran into was the fact there is no backspace button when texting. I looked everywhere. I pressed all the buttons, looked in the manual, and even looked online and found nothing about this issue. In any given text, you'll have at least two or more options to respond, but the player doesn't know what those particular responses will be until they click and see the message. At this point, it is impossible to back out and see what the other option may be, so the player is forced to send a message they may not want to send.

The workaround I found for this is to save before responding, so I can load that particular save quickly if I don't like that particular option. It's a pain, and I don't know why this wasn't more of a complaint.

Is it a big issue? It will cause you to lose out on certain trophies for particular responses.

Personally, I would have preferred specific points to automatically bring up the phone and have the player make a decision. Yes, that does happen, but the current system is a little tricky when replaying Steins;Gate to see each branching path and attempting a perfect True path. And if anyone is interested at what that True path is, it's the show. The show takes the correct decisions and introduces watchers to a perfect run.

A perfect run or a guide to any of the other endings takes some planning. Again, everything is decided through Okabe's texts, but some branches will only happen if Okabe doesn't respond at all to phone calls or texts. Do yourself a favor and use a guide, although I'll recommend a guide on a second playthrough. All the possible endings are good. There's no real awful one used to punish the player.

The stock ending, which means if you never use the phone at all, is the ending I used to determine the initial run time of Steins;Gate. Additional endings add additional chapters, but usually it's only ever one chapter ending.

Now I'm not a big fan of the show. I don't hate it, but I don't love it. The show inspires very little feeling from me. Since the show is an adaptation of the visual novel on PC, it's easy to liken the visual novel to a book, and base impressions of the adaptations from there.

The game has more exposition than the exposition-heavy show, except because of the platform that information is being conveyed is different, it flows in a more digestible manner. It's much easier to be on the outside looking in on the characters through the game, knowing how ridiculous and out of their league they are, whereas the show is more intellectually-insulting. Characters and plot points have more time to breathe in the game, and that gives it a more humble feel to the overall story.

Another mental shortcut the game has over the show is how is relies on the player's imagination to fill in the characters. One issue I had in the show was how the characters were portrayed. I wouldn't put that on the dub, the dub was great, but the actual representation of the characters was flawed. The game doesn't have to deal with that problem, because the player chooses the inner voices and actions of the characters, and that will always be a more positive light.

My first playthrough ran me over 18 hours. From what I've gathered, it's a little longer than other visual novels, and that means plenty of story and plot branches for players to explore on subsequent replays. The "stock" common ending most players will get puts replaying the game into the lore, so don't worry at all about an initial blind first run.

There are six endings in total, and while I would have preferred more wild branching paths, the focus on Okabe's personal relationships does make a lot of sense. Yes, a lot of the endings are romantically decided, but the main core themes are about Okabe and his friends, so I felt they fit well enough.

What high mark I can give Steins;Gate is that there are no "bad" endings. Even the stock one is probably it's most downer and dark ending, but it's still a good ending, as in it's positive in the end. There is no ending which serves more as a punishment to the player. The writers did a good job in making each ending unique and satisfying, even if as a player you feel there should be more. You're right, there should be, go play some more, but you'll never feel ripped off.

When playing, I originally moved on to an additional chapter and missed the stock ending. I was more of a hands-on player with my phone, so that was natural I suppose. Let your playstyle decide your first ending, and then start work on the other ends. 

Steins;Gate is a lot of game to go through, and much of the enjoyment is how players relate to the core cast. The beginning of the game, just like the show, is slow. This is a little more acceptable given the game's presentation, as the player's imagination smooths the pacing itself. Once the game picks up speed and understanding, it is fun to try and adjust the past and future for multiple outcomes, and to see the butterfly effect in action.

It takes time. It took me 14 hours before I liked all of the cast, and by the 18th hour I loved them. Steins;Gate leaves a ton of character development in the second half or last third of the game, but the payoff is worth it. 

So let's get to the elephant in the room, game or show? I have to go with the visual novel in being superior in most ways. The show goes by too fast. Within the first three episodes, I found myself having to constantly fill who the characters are, what's their deal, what they do, and what's going on from my experience with the game.

The visual novel doesn't change conceptually from the show, but like I mentioned before, it gives more breathing room for exposition and allows the player to read and find out about the world. I can understand the fan love where it comes to the game. In fact, I wish the publisher would have brought in the English cast, who I found to be one of the best parts of the show.

The show is smarter than I originally thought. Once I played the game and saw the limitations a show would have, I saw all the corners they had to cut to cram as much story in as possible. There are sections where I recognized three or four story points or beats merged into one for the sake of time. Maybe I'll give it another shot in the future; right now I'll give the edge to the visual novel. Everything the show does, the game does better. 

Ultimately, I would recommend Stein;Gate as a purchase.

Now we come to how to play the game. Steins;Gate is available on PS3 and Vita, and is also PS TV compatible. For all PS TV owners, don't worry, I never heard or saw any screen touch features, and even if there are the options menu can turn them off. If I had to make a decision, the Vita version is more suited for visual novels, given the sleep and suspend feature. Again, PS TV owners can put their device in suspend to mimic sleep.

I have also heard that a PC release is on the horizon at the time of this review, so if it's on Steam, definitely pick it up. 

So much of the game is like enjoying a good book, and given the reading required, it's better to be able to put it down and pick it up at whim. If certain players out there enjoy visual novels on their console and TV, I say go for it. That's how I played it. You already know if that setup works for you. And even if you're interested, but don't have access to a Vita, there is no reason to not pick up a PS3 copy.

One final distinctive feature of the Vita version of Steins;Gate is that the game is an Amazon exclusive. They must be big Steins;Gate fans or something. If anything, this was a marketing move by the publisher, knowing it was a niche game and having Amazon foot a small, but helpful bill. I assume this keeps physical printings at a low and healthy margin, although this is me throwing at the dartboard.

The real reason I want to bring up the Amazon exclusivity is based on potential price drops and sales. In a regular wide-release, there would be multiple avenues for third-party sellers and secondhand sales to give consumers the best deal possible. Price discrepancies between retailers is the consumer's hidden treasure. I've found games sold at $40 at most stores to be less than $20 at a Best Buy. I've seen $30 games at $10 pre-owned at Gamestop. Amazon third-party resellers have a huge variance as well.

As of the time of this post, there is no difference between buying new from Amazon and a third-party retailer, which means I really have to base my recommendation on the full $40 price tag. Good news, that is no longer the price. Amazon lists Steins;Gate for less than $30, with $30 being the MSRP. I would still recommend Steins;Gate, even at full price. The production is sharp, the visuals distinctive, and the game has a ton of content.

Steins;Gate fans and visual novel fans can rest easy in picking up the game whenever they want. For anyone who is a little unsure, know that this is the definitive way to experience Steins;Gate.

Pick it up!