Steins;Gate 0

The original Steins;Gate is not only a great VN game, it is an excellent piece of fiction. Steins;Gate is the best time travel story I have ever experienced. It features a phenomenal cast, wonderful chemistry between its eccentric characters and rigorously sticks with its time travel logic. The story is detailed and complex, yet comprehensible at the same time. The game does a great job explaining how wordlines and time travel work in its mythos. The True End of Steins;Gate is a brilliant conclusion and features our protagonists after many many failures finally mastering the rules of time and space to reach a worldline of peace and happiness.

Steins;Gate 0 on the other hand, has major issues. It is a much more difficult piece of work to comprehend. There are hanging plot threads, multiple red herrings and a conclusion that will leave some fans of Steins;Gate utterly confused and/or disappointed. The game heavily relies on conjecture and circumstantial evidence to fill in missing gaps in the story. Most fans of the original game will need to resort to online forums and resources to fully understand what goes on in Steins;Gate 0.

S;G 0 is neither a prequel nor is it a sequel. It is best described as a middle chapter during the True End route for the original Steins;Gate. S;G 0 is an alternate timeline where Okabe Rintaro gives up on time travel completely after realizing that he was the one responsible for killing his love, Makise Kurisu. This Rintaro strives to live a normal college student life. He joins a tennis club, goes on group dates and socializes with other students. One day he attends a seminar lectured by the spunky youthful scientist, Hiyajo Maho. Maho is an older colleague of Kurisu and has created an AI called Amadeus that is powered by an individual’s memories. It so happens that Maho has taken a snapshot of Kurisu’s memories before she went to Japan and is killed. Maho introduces Rintaro to Amadeus [Kurisu]. He is surprised to see that his interactions with the AI [Kurisu] is uncannily accurate compared with the real Kurisu. Rintaro in a playful jest then asks [Kurisu] if humans are capable of building a time-machine and is stunned by the AI’s reply.

S;G 0 plays very similar to its predecessor with some subtle improvements. Instead of communicating via email, Rintaro and his friends communicate using RINE (based on the real communications app LINE). RINE allows for group conversations and the use of stickers. It’s a minor gripe but some of the sticker designs feel like fan-service and don’t quite fit with the mood of the story. The other improvement is the shift in perspectives. While you will be playing as Rintaro most of the time, the perspective will shift occasionally to other characters like Suzaha and Maho. The perspective shift makes for a nice palate cleanse and allows for further development of these characters.

The biggest issue with S;G 0 is a lack of clear causality between worldline divergences. Rintaro is subjected to the divergences seemingly at random. The original game made it crystal clear why there are divergences because Okabe and friends directly influence them when using their time traveling device. In S;G 0 on the first playthrough, it’s a complete mystery how choosing whether or not to answer a call suddenly changes timelines. As with the original Steins;Gate, I highly recommend consulting a walkthrough after reaching an ending to see the bigger picture and start putting the pieces together.

Another issue with S;G 0 is the lack of a consistent antagonist. The original game only had SERN as the opposing entity. In S;G 0, there are multiple organizations fighting over the time machine technology. The introduction of competing antagonists adds significant complexity and confusion to the story. It often becomes unclear who the opposition is whenever the timeline shifts. This is another case where consulting a walkthrough is necessary to figure out how to reach all the separate endings but also comprehend how each timeline relates to each opposing organization.

S;G 0 heavily relies on the original cast to do most of the heavy narrative lifting. With the exception of Maho, the new characters in the game are lackluster. The roles of these new characters are muddled and pointless. There is one character whose only significant plot role is to help identify a secret code and then is promptly forgotten. There is another character who shares the same ability as Rintaro and can perceive shifts in worldlines but their character arc is completely abandoned halfway through the story. Fortunately the existing lab members: Faris, Luka and Daru play more important roles in S;G 0. It is a delight to see these characters develop and not always resort to their archetypal stereotypes like in the original game.

Maho is the shining highlight of S;G 0. While Maho might initially seem like a Kurisu stand-in, her character is exceptionally interesting due to her inferiority complex and her relationship with Kurisu. She is older than Kurisu, not as pretty as Kurisu, nor as smart as Kurisu, yet loved Kurisu as one of her few friends. Maho, while a brilliant scientist in her own right, considers herself an underdog. She constantly strives to better herself and prove that she can accomplish the impossible. Maho delivers the best lines and monologues in the entire game and dare I say it, exceeds Kurisu’s performance in the original Steins;Gate. While Kurisu is revered and idolized to a god-like degree in S;G 0, Maho by comparison feels extraordinarily and refreshingly human.

Steins;Gate 0 is a difficult game to review because it is more of a companion piece than a standalone game. Fans of the original Steins;Gate will voraciously consume this game regardless of reviews, while players who did not enjoy the original game will not have a sudden change of heart playing S;G 0. As for fans of the Steins;Gate anime, I recommend watching the Steins;Gate 0 anime instead and/or waiting for Steins;Gate 0 Elite to release before jumping in. Due to the nature of being a middle chapter, players will know how S;G 0 will end. The only reason to play S;G 0 is learning the journey of how our heroes got there. S;G 0 is not the unqualified success of the original, it has major issues with its plot and most of the new characters. The answers are all there, but they require more work and effort to acquire. The best thing that I can say about Steins;Gate 0 is it is more Steins;Gate and if you have enjoyed the original game, you will enjoy Steins;Gate 0.