Steins;Gate - PlayStation Vita

Before picking it up, all I knew about Steins;Gate was that it is a visual novel, it involves time travel, and it has a dreamy art style, particularly marked by those haunting swirls of colors for eyes. I honestly expected that it would just be a neat science fiction story that I would enjoy, finish and quickly put away. Yeah, I was totally wrong about that. Steins;Gate is a truly engaging and vivid story with huge emotional impact for me. It absolutely exceeded my expectations in every way, and I still want to see more of this universe.Starting with the basics, the music, the voice acting, the art style, the Japanese internet slang and the attention to detail are all really something. It is a nonlinear story that makes great use of foreshadowing, it is self-aware but not in your face, it honors moments of both humor and tragedy. I was surprised many times and enjoyed trying to make sense of the many mysteries of Steins;Gate as they are revealed. I loved the entire cast, even Okabe despite finding him quite annoying at the start. The VN affords you the opportunity to learn more about who these people truly are in great detail.I've played many games on my Vita, and Steins;Gate stands up there with Persona 4 Golden on pure addictive quality to me. I've lost sleep, at times because I had to know what happens next, and at times because I was too haunted to close my eyes. I was so absorbed I even accidentally drained my Vita until it entered forced standby mode. (Thankfully, it turns out the Vita remembers exactly where you left off!) I also filled almost all 96 game save slots and took over 160 screenshots by the time I finished the game completely (including all of the endings), which is quite crazy, even for me!Keep in mind, this game is a visual novel and thus there is a lot of reading to do. All the voice acting is in Japanese, and a lot of the translated text is peppered with Japanese slang and anime references. I really enjoyed this, and there is a comprehensive in-game dictionary to keep you on track too. Still, for some people, this might feel like extra work getting in the way of their enjoyment of the story. If that's the case for you, you might want to take a look at the subbed or dubbed anime adaptation instead.All in all, I highly recommend experiencing Steins;Gate. I'm glad to see that the Vita port is gaining popularity as it's a great platform for stories like this one. I hope whoever is the proper license holder will take notice of its positive reception such that we can see translated versions of the other Science Adventure VNs (especially Steins;Gate 0!) in the future.

I get the impression that Steins;Gate is a very niche game. Not only is it a visual novel, but the art style and story are so bizarre that it's difficult to look past. There are many elements of the game that are interesting, such as the use of the cell phone for texting, much like Catherine, the PS3 puzzle game. The art style doesn't particularly speak to me, although I do think it's cool that it is very different from traditional styles. The characters in Steins;Gate are really strange to the point of being obnoxious at times (for example, there's a girl who says "tuturu" after sentences at random and talks about herself in the 3rd person, there's a supporting character who is obsessed with weird and pervy otaku stuff, and the protagonist is a paranoid guy who thinks he's a genius and is kind of creepy at times), but I think that some people will really enjoy that.Over all, the game really has a lot of unique points that gives it its own personality, which is very distinct and interesting. However, it was a major turn-off for me. The story itself had a lot of really good points, but the over-all weirdness of the characters and art style was too much for me.

I'm just gonna get this off my chest because this is possibly one of the most mind-blowing visual novels I have ever played. I haven't enjoyed an adventure this much since finishing Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, another visual novel/game that deals with time travel elements.Steins;Gate is a science fiction visual novel developed by 5pb and originally released in 2009. The story revolves around a group of young scientists who accidentally discovers that one of the gadgets they built has a hidden function that allows them to send small messages to the past by the way of email. Through discovering this function, a whole adventure takes place that dives in deep into the inner workings of time travel, its complications, and its dangers.The game is played through the eyes of the protagonist, Rintaro Okabe (or Hououin Kyouma, as he likes to call himself), a self proclaimed mad scientist who hopes to one day bring chaos into the world. He is joined by his ditzy and lovable childhood friend, Mayuri, genius science girl, Kurisu, who he meets at the beginning of the game, his right-hand man, Daru, who is a "super hacker", as well as other memorable characters who are sure to tug at your heartstrings.Storywise, this game has it masterfully done. The imagination put into this game is astounding. Its science fiction elements, comedic elements, mystery elements, and thriller elements combined with its lovable cast of characters all blend very well together and are very nicely written. I didn't think there was ever a dull moment in this game as I found myself addicted to its twists and turns and wanting more as the story progressed. At moments when I thought the story would be over, it surprises me with even more mind blowing content. While this game has six possible endings that you can get, its final "true" ending is absolutely out of this world and I found myself at the edge of my seat the entire time.This game is also visually and musically appealing. It has a nice collection of art and a nice soundtrack pieces that really capture the thrilling and emotional moments of the story. It has a simple interface that's easy to use and it also has an easy-to-access glossary for definitions of words and references that you might not get. These factors make visual novels superior to regular novels in my opinion.I recommend first time players play through this blindly the first run and then seek a guide online for the pathways to its other endings, with the "true" ending being the last one you should get.Overall, I give this game a 5 out of 5. Not only do I recommend everyone to pick this up, it should be framed and put on top of a pedestal for being possibly one of the best visual novels of all time.

I watched the show and loved it so when heard the game was coming to the west; I was excited. I thought it was going to be an adventure game like from telltale but you(the player) have almost no control besides certain parts. The characters dont move at all and only have 3 or 4 facial expressions and there is only a handful of backgrounds so it can get kinda boring. There is no English voice acting which disappointed me. The story is good but it would have been better as a book or manga or something.