Topic: Steins;Gate

During the summer, I decided that I wanted to play something new on my Vita and so I fired up Steins;Gate which has been in my backlog for quite some time now. What I didn't know beforehand was just how invested in this game I was going to be and that it would become one of my favourite games of all time, along with other Vita series such as Persona, Trails of Cold Steel and Danganronpa.

I've actually written down my thoughts for that game at Pure Xbox, so I'm just going to paste them here in case people are interested in playing it as well:

"Been playing Steins;Gate on PS Vita lately and after four hours of playing it, the game finally clicked with me today. The whole plot revolves around time travel, which is not a concept that's uncommon in video games. However, the thing that makes it special in this game is that the writing makes the story feel very grounded. The characters go to seminars about time travel and the people who talk at the seminars bring up theories about time travel, which I assume are actual theories because they talk about them in such details using terms from physics. So when the time travel aspect actually occurs, it becomes a very cool thing due to how grounded the story is. It actually feels like it could happen in real life. If they didn't do all of this at the start of the game, then it wouldn't have felt as special."

"Just finished Steins;Gate on PS Vita after roughly 40 hours of playtime and reaching all endings. I also managed to get my Platinum trophy #36.

This is one of the best games I've ever played. It's been a very long time since a new franchise has managed to resonate so much with me. The franchises that I hold near and dear to me are Persona, Trails of Cold Steel and Danganronpa, but now Steins;Gate is also up there among those series.

The first thing that I loved about this game is all the unique and memorable characters. At first I could barely remember their names because they were in Japanese but after 40 hours I pretty much remember all of them. This is the primary reason for why this game resonated with me because I simply adore getting to know high school anime characters over the period of the game. You can probably see why based on the pattern of my favourite games as mentioned above. Persona, Trails of Cold Steel and Danganronpa all fit this bill.

The second thing that I loved is the unique story and the excellent writing. All the characters have such memorable personalities and this is reflected in their dialogues. Like how the protagonist is the "mad scientist" with a made-up name, laughs maniacally and so on. Or how his childhood friend always enters a room by saying "Tutturu", calls the protagonist by a nickname and always wants her bananas or chicken. It all just feels so natural, like I've always been a part of their lives. The level of immersion is just incredible and the fact that I've been playing this game for 40 hours for the past two weeks without it feeling like that much time has passed just goes to show how invested I've been in this game.

Overall, I simply adored this game and I genuinely cannot wait to play the other two titles. This is now a new favourite franchise of mine and it feels great to feel excited about another franchise once again. In the meantime, I'm just going to sit down and enjoy listening to the game's absolutely stellar soundtrack.

As a Vita owner who absolutely loves the Persona, Trails of Cold Steel and Danganronpa games, Steins;Gate gets my full recommendation as one of the best games on the Vita along with those three series. I think it's hard to come by a physical copy for a cheap price these days, but according to the PS Store (EU), both Steins;Gate and Steins;Gate 0 are available digitally for €20, which is a steal if you ask me. So if you've been looking for a phenomenal game to play on the Vita, Steins;Gate is highly recommended. It has an easy Platinum trophy as well if you're using a guide.

On a side note, apparently Steins;Gate Elite isn't as good as the original game since it uses scenes from the anime, which means a lot of content has been cut out. The original game isn't available on the Switch, so if you have a Vita then you have access to the best version of the game.

@LtSarge I have Steins;Gate on the Vita but have only played the first couple of hours. I loved the anime when I watched it so I’ll probably wait a bit for the anime to be slightly more distant in my memory before going back to the VN.

@nessisonett It's funny because most people I know actually know about Steins;Gate because they watched the anime. I tend to avoid anime based on games (kinda like the Danganronpa anime) because they trim down so much of the original script in order to make the plot fit in the episode format. But yeah, I think it's a good idea to wait a bit before playing it so that it will feel fresh again.

Have you checked out the other Steins;Gate titles?

@LtSarge I’ve not played the other titles yet but I think Steins;Gate is different from other video game adaptations because it’s widely considered one of the greatest anime shows of all time. Often, adaptations can feel redundant and such (Persona) but the nature of Steins;Gate means that they had to create their own interpretation of the narrative and weave the many threads together.

@nessisonett Ah I see. Well maybe I'll give it a watch one of these days just to see how different it is compared to the game. I definitely want to experience the story again, but maybe I'll wait a while just like you.

Have not seen the anime, but loved the game.