Steins Gate Elite Guide

[Waneta]

Redis not recommended for those without good knowledge of Japanese.

Yellow requires some Japanese to play but may be playable through guides.

Green requires little to no Japanese knowledge to enjoy.

Shinobido 2 is an action adventure game which is heavy on tutorial and plot. As it is Japanese only I would not recommend it for non-Japanese speakers. There is a Western release but it can go for quite a high price.

Shiren has absolutely no English support and not only is it very text heavy with you requiring to follow clues from NPCs to advance, but it also uses a large amount of kanji making it inaccessible for new learners of the language. I only recommend if you are advanced.

This is a gorgeous puzzle platformer in the style of The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince. The platforming is simple enough of course even though there is no English support here but there are a few puzzles in Japanese which will require you to look at a guide.

This title actually comes with full English voice acting which will help you out with the story, however everything written (subtitles, quest information, controls etc) is in kanji which can make things hard to navigate. Definitely doable but you may need to stop to check translations from time to time.

Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 Venus has no English support, though it is of course still easy enough to get to grips with a few games of volleyball or pool sports. Still things like equipping new costumes and discovering all the hidden modes might still be a little difficult.

If you have played other Digimon games before and are familiar with how the battle system works this title would be quite accessible for non-Japanese speakers. The main battle menus are in English but everything else is Japanese. It is half Visual Novel so you will miss out on the story, but the main gameplay is manageable enough. Guides will certainly help you with where to go next. There is a really nice JP collectors edition with the most beautiful gaming artbook I have ever seen.

Dragon Quest Heroes II does not have any English language support but the musou style gameplay is easy enough to get to grips with in Japanese. There are a lot of options for customizing weapons and characters but goals are marked with big flags on the map and should be easy to muddle your way through without any language.

This a cute Terraria style game. There is no English on the cart but there is a language support patch which is free to download it gives full English support and does not require Japanese PSN to download.

The Global Edition of Demon Gaze has full English support, making it completely playable in English. Please remember though that for English it has to be the edition that clearly states Global Edition on the front and the spine. The regular edition offers no support.

This is a simply block crash game (think pong where you break blocks) where completing each level unlocks anime girls in hello kitty based attire drawn by various artists.It starts off pretty slow but gets very hard later on. But is very easy to get to grips with even without Japanese.

Lumines Electronic Symphony has only partial English support however all the important parts such as the main menus and trophies are in English. As a music rhythm game it is perfectly easy to play without any knowledge of Japanese.

Rayman Origins has no English support but it also has almost no text anyway. It is not really different from its Western counterparts, but it is pretty cheap here in Japan and a fun time worth picking up.

Voice acting, subs, menus, trophies, everything except the piracy notice is in full English in Silent Hill: Book of Memories as long as your system is set to English. With the English version being so pricey this is a great option, and also has so sweet alternate cover art.

Skull Girls 2nd Encore has full support in several languages and you can adjust both subs and dubs in the options. In Japan there was a release of both this version and a special collectors edition with a small art book and soundtrack.

Uncharted Golden Abyss is one of those classic Vita titles, and the Japanese version comes with full English support. Again no different from the Western releases but if you like variant covers or live in Japan it is worth picking up.

I've had my Vita for about 18 months and have massively enjoyed my time with it. I've got everything from P4G, Ys Memories of Celceta and Toukiden Kawami to Gravity Rush, Dragon's Crown and Tearaway - but I've yet to try a Visual Novel. As a total newbie to the genre I'm looking for something that's a) standalone - because I won't have played any previous titles in the series, and b) accessible - because I'm new to this. I was tempted by Steins Gate 0 which a lot of review sites have rated highly, but I don't know if it's vitally important to have played the original Steins Gate or watched the Anime (because I haven't). Any advice greatly received!

As a general rule, for somebody starting out, I'd recommend one of the more accessible - and least like visual novel - games. Most visual novels basically amount to reading a book with very occasional options being given to you. Generally, that's not like a Fighting Fantasy or Choose Your Own Adventure novel where you're constantly making decisions and changing outcomes. These are usually a fixed novel that you're reading and very occasionally choosing something. It's like getting trophies for reading a book.

1. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - it's kind of accessible because the story is really compelling, and the more traditional visual novel sections are periodically broken up by having to investigate crimes and then take part in a courtroom trial. These parts of the game are more interactive than most visual novels will ever get. The story in both Danganronpa games is super-interesting and the characters are great too. I recently reviewed them both on PS4 but the same rules apply for the Vita versions.

2. 999/Virtue's Last Reward/Zero Time Dilemma - This is a weird one in that while Virtue's Last Reward is a sequel to 999, and Zero Time Dilemma is a sequel to Virtue's Last Reward, the bewildering time line manipulation going on in the series means that I, personally, don't think it matters so much which order you play them in. 999 is the most traditional virtual novel game, and ZTD is the least traditional. VLR is a middle ground. Again, super-interesting, super-convoluted, super-complicated story. There's some puzzle solving elements in some of the games (ZTD being the easiest and least frustrating in my experience).

If you know what you're getting into and you're perfectly happy abandoning all traditional forms of gaming and all you want is a visual novel to read, then I'd still recommend the games I did because they're great, but I'd also throw Steins;Gate into the mix which is a fantastic time travel story, and the recent Psycho Pass visual novel, Mandatory Happiness, tells a pretty interesting story, particularly for fans of the franchise.

Thanks to you both for giving your time to come back to me with some really helpful advice. It's largely because I enjoyed P4G so much that I thought I was ready for a VN. I think I'll start out with Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls looks fun and I'll put that on my list too. I like the look of Zero Time Dilemma but I'll see how I get on with Danganronpa and if I like it, maybe I'll pick up the first two parts when they're released as a bundle. Thanks again.

As @johncalmc mentions the term visual novel is a strange one, Danganronpa has a lot of text, but mixed up with a variety of actual gameplay. The story is great as well, I will be playing that after finishing p4g myself!

@Curlynob Ultra Despair Girls IS a lot of fun. I prefer it to the first Danganronpa, actually. Ostensibly it plays like a third person shooter/VN hybrid, but many of the shooting segments actually have puzzle elements to them.

As to Zero Escape: it absolutely matters in what order you play the games. You'll miss big story twists in VLR if you don't play 999 first, and ZTD won't make a lick of sense if you don't play both of the previous games first.

@Curlynob I picked up Steins Gate for 5.79 in the Easter sale. I'm about 9 hours in and it's one of the worst for banging on and on about the same stuff. Apparently the characters are super clever, but then talk for a million years avoiding the most obvious conclusions.

It's a good read and I'm quite interested in quantum theory but the game gets lost in its own nonsense on numerous occasions. Fortunately I've realised it has multiple endings prior to posting this comment so have just saved at the start of chapter 3. Worth 5.79 but there's no way I would buy the sequel for the pre sale digital 45 asking price, that's a complete rip off.

I wish more text came up on screen at once and the slow speed the voice actors sometimes deliver the lines is way annoying. I'm a pretty quick reader so I'm hitting X literally all the time and missing the dialog. But yes it's a much better read now.

I love the genre and the hybrids like Danganronpa and modern Persona. I can't wait for Danganronpa V3! Has anyone played Root Letter? It's cheap to buy at the moment and its been on my radar for a while.

Ive come to the conclusion that visual novels are a great companion if you already like a series or characters involved. Ive watched the psycho pass anime and enjoyed it, I could read between the lines and understood the world working through the novel. Steins gate was a different experience as Ive never seen the anime, so what was displayed in the visual side of the genre didnt really portray the world well. Now Ive done some homework playing steins gate a few nights ago was more enjoyable.

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