Steins Gate Key Visual

[Nikita Desjardins]

Sothis official visual novel sequel actually takes part just before the "true ending" in the prequel where Okabe has undone everything, back in the beta timeline. Kurisu has been murdered and he is so depressed and traumatised that he refuses to try one last time in reaching Steins Gate where World War III never happens.

Without spoiling too much, Okabe meets Kurisu's former research team Maho and Professor Leskinin and learns about their project "Amadeus" - a system allows the brain to be scanned so that memories can be backed up and restored as an AI. When the team learns Okabe was once Kurisu's friend, they invite him to be part of their research where Kurisu has been "resurrected" with this system and the story picks up from there.

Lots of familiar backgrounds and characters but of course, with new material comes new characters too. As before Steins;gate remains different from other visual novels where choices are disguised as replies to messages. Now it's been updated as a parody to Japan's LINE smartphone app which is similar to Whatsapp but features stickers. Japan has to have their own version of everything after all.

Most of the new characters are well fleshed out but Kagari, an adopted victim of the time travel war (who also has an uncanny resemblance to Kurisu) is probably the weakest new character because she doesn't get much of a role. One or two of the endings were quite bad but the story in-between is really good - both the sci-fi and character development part.

While the first game is known for how well it explains the 11 different time travel hypothesis, here we have a lot about AI and the problems we face creating a human like computer such as how they only follow commands - if you told it to pick up a box and someone wrote "this isn't a box" the AI could pick up the writing and end up not picking up the box.

On the presentation side, the soundtrack isn't very memorable as the prequel. I still enjoy listening to the prequel's lab theme song and the title screen's piano score but nothing really stands out in this game. No new ring tones either.

Most of the artwork by huke looks amazing despite his signature of dark, gloomy looking colours and heavy lines with a printed texture on them. However, some of the event illustrations where most of the effort is put into in visual novels look a little rushed this time round. Backgrounds based on real locations such as Sunshine Street, Ikebukuro and Akihabara are also very detailed and great to look at.

In the end, Steins;gate 0 feels more of an expansion pack but despite saying that, if you enjoyed the nasty struggles of the prequel then you will enjoy this too. The direction is still amazingly well done which will keep you reading on and the sci-fi part can be quite thought provoking despite the sad scenarios.

Nae is a very timid and reserved girl who prefers to keep out of Rintaro Okabe's way as his Hououin Kyouma persona frightens her. She is shown to not like him very much, calling him a weirdo due to his tendency to give people nicknames, and especially dislikes him calling her father "Mister Braun", She is good friends with Mayuri Shiina and Suzuha Amane though and thinks of them as her older sisters, often exchanging a friendly "Tutturu" with Mayuri, and hanging around with Suzuha when she is working in the CRT TV store.

She loves her father very much and often feels like she's imposing on him, even going so far as to learn cookery from Mayuri and Kurisu for his sake. She is deeply depressed following his suicide, though she blames Okabe and Moeka Kiryu for his death and kills the latter before wounding the former (see below).

Nae is shown to be a very friendly and open person who is almost always in a good mood. She quickly befriends the Robot Research Club and behaves in a very pleasant, polite manner. Despite her professional appearance, Nae has also displayed a peppy, playful side as well, often striking flamboyant poses and goofing around with the club members. Her personality overall is nearly identical to Akiho's, and the two get along really well as a result of this.

In World Line Divergence 0.523307% in the visual novel, Kurisu noticed Nae running away after her father's suicide, which implied that Nae had witnessed the event. Okabe, Kurisu and Moeka went to the latter's apartment to cancel the next D-mail, but before Okabe could send it, Nae showed up at the apartment to kill Moeka and warn Okabe that she would kill him in 15 years. If the player chose to delay the D-mail, Okabe decides to time-leap to before his confrontation with Yugo, and he instead stages it so that he can chase Nae and interrogate her about her cryptic warning. As Okabe realizes that Nae had time-leaped from 2025, she stabs him in his elbow and gradually jabs fingers in his wound during their conversation.

Traumatized by her father's suicide, she blamed the incident on Moeka for not stopping Yugo, and Okabe for, essentially, finding the IBN in this world-line. She joined the Rounders at some point in time, and brutally tortured and killed Okabe in 2025. Using the Future Gadget Lab's time-leap machine that SERN had locked up for 15 years, she time leaped over 2000 times, possibly double, to reach 2010 and exact her revenge against those who "killed daddy".

When Okabe asks how she'll re-live the next 15 years, Nae tells him that "There's nothing for me there...", then proceeds to search for Moeka. Okabe later speculates that she would simply repeat her time-leaping and act of vengeance until she'd lose sight of why she was time-leaping in the first place.

It is notable that the anime shows a different set of events for the same world line. Yugo takes Okabe, Moeka and Kurisu to an empty construction lot, so Nae does not directly witness her father's suicide and presumably does not go down a similar path of vengeance like in the visual novel.

In an unspecified Alpha World Line, Okabe and Mayuri attempt to flee SERN's attack by using the subways before SERN shuts them down. However, Nae follows them and attempts to hug Mayuri after catching up to her on the platform, pushing Mayuri in front of a speeding train and killing her. Nae is traumatised by this event and it's unknown what happens to her. Unlike in World Line Divergence 0.523307%, Nae's actions here seem to be unintentional.

At some point during the 10 year gap between Steins;Gate and Robotics;Notes, Nae moved from Akihabara to Tanegashima and was hired by JAXA. Nae is shown to be unaccustomed to Tanegashima events so it is implied she only very recently transferred to the island.

Steins;Gate 0 is fantastic, but the anime for it is very well done and tells the same story, so honestly I find it a bit hard to recommend the visual novel since there is no player agency and the format doesn't really add anything. Same thing applies to the original Steins;Gate for that matter.

Played the first steins gate this year, and it has become my favourite story in any medium I have ever experienced. Absolutely fell in love with it, and only realized a few days ago that this had come out on Switch. Absolutely beyond excited, cannot wait!

@HeroponRiki Can't comment on how the Steins;Gate 0 anime compares to the game as I haven't watched it yet (or finished the game) but, in my opinion, the original Steins;Gate anime, while really well done, is a much inferior way to experience the story than playing the original (or Elite). They did about as good a job as they could have to cram it all into a season of anime, but I much prefer the slower pacing and extra detail that you get from the games, plus all the other endings that are all really well done.

@HeroponRiki your a bit off about that, the games have more information in them including more on the connections to other parts of the science adventure series: Chaos;Child/Head & Robotic;Notes as well as the overall villainous organization behind the events the entire series: Committee of 300/The Hidden Hand.

@Aurumonado The VN is much better. They did well in trying to adapt a story that basically requires you to go through each ending to fully understand everything, but there was also content that just did not make it through that was a significant experience. Overall, the VNs for both anime are much better because they provide a lot more depth when it comes to characters and plot details. Even so, the first anime is fantastic and 0's adaption is up there as well, but it's definitely worth going through the VNs because it's just a whole new experience, really.

Kinda off-topic but... did you know that Nintendo and Mages (formerly 5pb, developer and publisher of the Steins;Gate series) are co-developing a Famicom Detective Club remake, set for a 2020 launch??

@Aurumonado I was really let down by the SG0 anime. The original anime is one of my absolute favourites (and my entry point into the series) - played SG0 after watching that and was equally in love with it. The SG0 anime on the other hand... yeah, kinda didn't stick the landing. A few too many corners cut, a fair bit too much plot sacrificed at the alter of insert generic fanservice trope here.

ymmv but for me one of the strengths of the SG anime was the cut a lot of the typical visual novel 'waifu' / fanservice guff, whereas the SG0 anime just indulged in it with both hands with some exceptionally dodgy contrived scenes

Nice review man. Like, SO much more than nice. I guess you really are into this one eh? I'm a casual fan of the steins gate anime, honestly, I remember it was nice, but I dont' remember it all that well, was nice reading this.

This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.

There's always the anime, of course, but the largely passive experience of watching an anime is somewhat different from the more active engagement that comes with playing an interactive incarnation -- even if said interactive incarnation's opportunities for interaction are relatively minimal. It is a visual novel, after all.

3a8082e126