Steins;Gate 0

Steins;Gate 0
Cover art, featuring four of the game's characters. Left to right: Mahō, Rintarō, and Kurisu. Bottom: Kagari.
Genre	Science fiction, mystery
Game
Steins;Gate 0
Developer	5pb., Nitroplus
Publisher	5pb.
Genre	Visual novel
Platform	PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita
Released	PS3, PS4, and PS Vita JP December 10, 2015
Light Novel
Steins;Gate: Heijikyokusen no Epigraph Steins;Gate: Eigoukaiki no Pandora Steins;Gate: Mugen Enten no Arutaeru
Anime
Steins;Gate 0
Released	TBA

Steins;Gate 0 (シュタインズ・ゲート ゼロ, Shutainzu Gēto Zero) is a Japanese visual novel developed by 5pb. and Nitroplus and released for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita on December 10, 2015. Marketed as a "true sequel" rather than a "fan disc", Steins;Gate 0 is a midquel to Steins;Gate. An anime adaptation of the visual novel has been greenlit.^[1]

The game was first was announced in March 2015.^[2] It was originally scheduled to be released in Japan on November 19, 2015 but the release date was later moved to December 10, 2015.^[3] The game sold 100,000 copies on its first day of release, bringing total Steins Gate visual novel sales to more than one million copies sold.^[4]

Gameplay

The RINE trigger system as used by the player to interact with another character. The player can send stickers, based on in-game characters, as demonstrated above to reply to a message.

As a visual novel game, minimal interaction is required by the player and most of the time spent is on reading the text representing dialogue between characters or the thoughts of the protagonist.

For the decision points, Steins;Gate 0 has a different system from the "phone trigger" (フォーントリガー, fōn torigā) system introduced in the original Steins;Gate. In Steins;Gate 0, The RINE trigger (RINEトリガー, rain torigā) system is used where the player can exchange messages real-time with the characters of the game via the RINE app installed on the player's in-game smartphone. The player is notified through an indication found on the upper left corner of the screen upon receiving a new message. Depending on the message, the character of the game will react differently. The player also has the option to send stickers.^[5]

Plot and Themes

Steins;Gate 0 is based on a light novel trilogy called the Epigraph Trilogy consisting of Steins;Gate: Epigraph of the Closed Curve, Steins;Gate: Pandora of Eternal Return, and Steins;Gate: Altair at the Apoapsis of Infinity.^[6]

Story

The story follows after Rintaro Okabe returns to the Beta timeline where Kurisu Makise is fated to die. He failed in his attempt to save Kurisu, only to accidentally kill her instead. The protagonist later suffers from serious Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and tries to cope with his failure to save Kurisu. He later meets Maho Hiyajo, a neuroscientist working on a program called "Amadeus" which allows the copy and digital recreation of a person's brain into an Artificial Intelligence avatar of said person. He is later surprised that Hiyajo managed to create an AI copy of Kurisu using Amadeus, before the latter's death.^[6]

References

External links

• Official website (Japanese)