Steins;Gate 0

Steins;Gate 0
European cover art, featuring (clockwise from top left) Maho, Rintaro, Kurisu, and Kagari
Developer(s)	5pb. Nitroplus
Publisher(s)	JP: 5pb. WW: PQube
Producer(s)	Tatsuya Matsubara
Artist(s)	Huke
Writer(s)	Chiyomaru Shikura Naotaka Hayashi Toru Yasumoto Masaki Takimoto Tsukasa Tsuchiya
Composer(s)	Takeshi Abo
Series	Science Adventure
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One
Release	PlayStation 3 JP: December 10, 2015 PlayStation 4, PS Vita JP: December 10, 2015 EU: November 25, 2016 NA: November 29, 2016 Microsoft Windows JP: August 26, 2016 Xbox One JP: February 22, 2017
Genre(s)	Visual novel
Mode(s)	Single-player

Steins;Gate 0^{[lower-alpha 1]} is a visual novel video game developed by 5pb. and Nitroplus. It is part of the Science Adventure series, and is a sequel to the 2009 game Steins;Gate. It was released by 5pb. in Japan for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in December 2015, Microsoft Windows in August 2016, and Xbox One in February 2017, and by PQube in North America and Europe for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in November 2016. An anime adaptation, a prequel manga and a novelization are planned.

The story is seen from several characters' viewpoints, mainly the university student Rintaro Okabe, the time traveler Suzuha Amane, and the neuroscientist Maho Hiyajo. After meeting Maho and her co-worker Alexis Leskinen, Okabe becomes a tester for the artificial intelligence (AI) system Amadeus. The player reads the text and dialogue that comprise the story, and affects the direction of the plot by choosing whether to answer phone calls from the Amadeus; early in the game, the story splits into two main branches, which in turn branch into the game's different endings.

The game was planned by Chiyomaru Shikura, using Steins;Gate audio dramas and light novels as a base for one of the routes; it is not a straight adaptation of them, however, and features a new scenario. The music was composed by Takeshi Abo, who made notes of his first impressions of the emotional flow while reading the story, using these to create music with a good relation to the game's worldview. The English localization was a large project, taking place over the course of five months; it was done with the intention to avoid Westernizing the game too much due to the importance the Japanese setting and culture hold in the game, while still striving to keep it accessible for Western players. The game was well received by critics, who enjoyed the story, visuals and audio; it was however criticized for being padded with extraneous scenes, and the player choice system was met with mixed opinions, some finding it too simple and some too complex.

Gameplay

The player reads the narrative in the text box, and can interact with characters by replying to messages on their in-game phone with text or stickers.

Steins;Gate 0 is a visual novel, where the player reads through the story in the form of passages of text and dialogue, accompanied by character sprites and background art.^[1] The story consists of multiple branches, which lead to different endings. As opposed to the original Steins;Gate's single route that runs from start to finish with multiple branch points throughout, Steins;Gate 0 features one branch point near the beginning of the game, where the story splits into two major story branches, which in turn branch again into the different endings; there are in total two main story paths, along with four side stories. The direction of the story is determined based on whether or not the player chooses to answer calls from the artificial intelligence Amadeus, which the player character Rintaro Okabe can communicate with through his cell phone.^[2] In addition to Okabe, the player also takes the roles of other characters, mostly Suzuha Amane and Maho Hiyajo.^[3]

The player can also use Okabe's phone to interact with his friends through the messaging app RINE:^[4] at some points, the game shows a notification indicating that Okabe has received a message, and the player can choose between different messages to send back – either text messages or stickers^[3][5] – temporarily locking the game into a conversation with the other character that changes depending on the player's reply.^[1][5] Unlike the Amadeus calls, the RINE messages do not affect the branching of the story.^[3]

Plot

The games takes place at the end of the original Steins;Gate, set in the Beta worldline. After failing to prevent the death of Kurisu Makise after inadvertently killing her himself, Rintaro Okabe falls into depression and refuses to travel into the past any further to once again try to save Kurisu and prevent World War 3 from occurring. Several months later, Rintaro meets Maho Hiyajo, a neuroscientist who worked alongside Kurisu in America. Upon learning that Rintaro was allegedly friends with Kurisu (although not in their current world line), Maho and her professor, Alexis Leskinen, make him a tester for their Amadeus program, in which they have created an artificial intelligence from the original Kurisu's memories from before she came to Japan. As Rintaro interacts with Amadeus Kurisu and gets to know Maho, he once again starts to experience shifts in worldlines outside of his control.^[6]

Development

Steins;Gate 0 was planned by Chiyomaru Shikura and produced by Tatsuya Matsubara, and features character designs by Huke. The scenario was worked on by Naotaka Hayashi, Toru Yasumoto, Masaki Takimoto, and Tsukasa Tsuchiya,^[7] and makes use of the Epigraph Trilogy^{[lower-alpha 2]} series of light novels and Steins;Gate drama CDs as a base for one of the routes. It is however not a straight adaptation; it also features new scenarios, and the developers describe it as a "legitimate numbered sequel".^[6][8]

The music was composed by Takeshi Abo. His process for composing the music consisted of him reading the game's story, to get an as full as possible understanding of the setting and the character personalities. He considered his first impressions of the game's emotional flow and events to be very important: he would write them down together with the kind of music he would want to use for each scene, and keep them in mind when composing the music. He said that this approach, while taking longer than if he had just designated songs to various places in the game, made for higher quality music with a better relation to the game's worldview.^[9]

Localization

The English localization was led by Adam Lensenmayer, who was the sole translator for the project;^[10][11] this was to ensure consistency in the feeling of the story and in the characters' voices.^[11] The localization was done over the course of five months, something Lensenmayer noted as a big project. It was also a challenging one: its use of real-world science meant that the localization team had to research subjects like artificial intelligence, cognitive science and time travel theories to ensure that everything was phrased correctly. Another challenge was that Steins;Gate 0 was written specifically for a Japanese audience, who might understand certain things that Western players would not, although Lensenmayer said that this was a smaller problem than it had been with the first Steins;Gate, due to Steins;Gate 0's more serious tone and lesser focus on otaku and internet culture, and its built-in dictionary which explains obscure concepts.^[10]

Lensenmayer wrote the localized text with a general audience in mind, intending for it to be accessible regardless of the player's knowledge of the game's setting,^[10] while working towards creating something that people who have played the first Steins;Gate would enjoy.^[12] The localization team wanted to avoid overt Westernization of the game, because of the importance the Japanese setting and culture held in the story, and strived to achieve a level of Westernization similar to the first Steins;Gate's localization. Lensenmayer said that some parts were difficult to localize, tempting the team to replace them with other, similar content, but that they tried to avoid this whenever they could. Aspects of Japanese culture that were deemed too obscure to Western players were handled the same way as in Steins;Gate: for example, the Japanese term senpai was left intact, with short explanatory dialogue added. One thing that took up a lot of time was localizing the character Mayuri's dialogue due to her way of speaking: Lensenmayer described her as acting "spacey", but not "stupid or ditzy", and said that there is a nuance of caring and awareness to her speech that does not come across in a direct translation. She was seen as a very important character, so conveying her personality accurately was given high priority.^[10]

Release

The game was announced in March 2015.^[13] It was originally scheduled to be released in Japan on November 19, 2015, but was delayed and released on December 10, 2015 for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.^[14] Japanese first-print copies of the PlayStation 4 version included a digital PlayStation 4 copy of the first Steins;Gate.^[15] The PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita versions of Steins;Gate 0 were released by PQube in Europe on November 25, 2016 and in North America on November 29.^[16] They are available in an "Amadeus Edition" that includes a soundtrack disc, an artbook, a pin badge, and a plush toy,^[17] and in a limited edition that includes just the game and the artbook.^[18] A Microsoft Windows version was released in Japan on August 26, 2016 after being delayed from its planned release date of June 24,^[19][20] and an Xbox One version was released digitally in Japan on February 22, 2017.^[21]

Steins;Gate 0-themed merchandise has been released, including shoes, business card cases, watches,^[22] T-shirts, hoodies,^[23] and laptop bags.^[24] The Steins;Gate 0 Sound Tracks album was released in 2016 by 5pb. and Media Factory.^[25] An anime adaptation of the game is in production, as part of the "Steins;Gate World Line 2017–2018 Project".^[26] This project also includes a prequel manga by Taka Himeno, which will be serialized by Kadokawa Shoten in Young Ace starting on August 4, 2017, in the September 2017 issue,^[26][27] and a novelization of the game, to be published by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko.^[26]

Reception

Steins;Gate 0 was well received by critics,^[28][29] and was the best-reviewed PlayStation Vita game of 2016 on Metacritic.^[32] Kotaku included it on a list of the best Japan-only video games of 2015,^[33] and it was the runner-up for RPGFan's Best Adventure/Visual Novel of 2016 award, behind Firewatch, with the publication saying that it rivals the first Steins;Gate. It was also the runner-up for their Reader's Choice award in the same category, behind Zero Time Dilemma by six votes.^[34] Critics called it a worthy follow-up to Steins;Gate, but thought that players should experience the original game or its anime adaptation beforehand.^[3][4][33]

Critics generally liked the story.^[3][4][35] Famitsu's reviewers particularly liked its atmosphere,^[35] and Dennis Carden of Destructoid thought the way it continues the story of Steins;Gate makes it nearly "mandatory" for people who liked the original Steins;Gate.^[4] RPGFan's Rob Rogan liked the overall story, calling it "exciting, somber, heart-wrenching, and thought-provoking", but said that it felt "artificially lengthened" through scenes that do not serve a clear purpose in the plot;^[3] Robert Fenner, also writing for RPGFan, agreed, saying that Okabe's dilemma of wanting to speak to the Amadeus Kurisu but finding it painful is a good premise, but that the game would have been better had it been a fifth as long.^[31] Jordan Helm at Hardcore Gamer similarly noted that Okabe's conversations with Amadeus Kurisu were among the highlights of the game, but that character-focused scenes often felt like "padding".^[1] Carden enjoyed how the game, despite its generally darker tone than Steins;Gate's, still included moments of levity, saying that it made him "laugh just as much as it made [him] want to cry".^[4]

Carden thought most new characters were good additions and felt fully realized, but that some seemingly only existed for the sake of the plot.^[4] Rogan said that Okabe's character development since the original game made him a more interesting character,^[3] and Fenner thought that Okabe's characterization was the high point of the game, calling his self-hatred and impostor syndrome a believable depiction of high-functioning depression.^[31] Both Carden and Rogan enjoyed the use of multiple viewpoints in the story, saying that they give characters more depth and believability, and give the player a greater understanding of them.^[3][4]

Critics were mixed in their opinions on the gameplay, some considering it too complex and some too simple.^[3][4][31] Carden criticized the difficulty in reaching the different endings without following a guide, and how it sometimes is unclear what the effects of some player choices will be;^[4] Fenner did however find it fun and compelling to use knowledge from one playthrough to go back and make different choices while aiming for another ending.^[31] Rogan disliked how the player choice system was simpler than the one in Steins;Gate, calling it a step back for the series,^[3] and Helm thought that the player choices lacked the tension and regret of the original game's.^[1] Fenner appreciated how the RINE system improved upon the text messages from the previous game, allowing the player to see what exact message they would send prior to sending it while simultaneously automatically saving the game.^[31] Carden, Rogan and Helm appreciated the Tips system, considering it a helpful way to make sure that players understand concepts and terms discussed in the game.^[1][3][4]

The art direction, presentation and audio was well received,^[1][3][4] with Carden calling the visuals "utterly impressive",^[4] Rogan describing the character art as "sharp and charming" despite its limited amount of frames per character,^[3] and Helm saying that the series' aesthetic breathes life into the scenes.^[1] Rogan praised the background art, saying that the large amount of detail adds personality to the scenes without being distracting, and the music, which he said is perfectly matched to each scene's tone.^[3] Helm liked how the game uses several contextual sprites for characters rather than just a few static ones, and praised the attention to detail in Okabe's sprites, with their visual signs of mental fatigue.^[1]

Sales

The game sold 100,000 copies on its first day of release in Japan, bringing total sales for the Steins;Gate games above one million copies sold.^[36] By the end of its debut week, 85,547 retail copies had been sold; the PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 versions were the sixth, seventh and nineteenth best selling games of the week in Japan with 38,746, 38,156 and 8,645 copies sold, respectively.^[37] The PlayStation Vita version was the best selling game for the platform in the United Kingdom during its European debut week,^[38] and still appeared on Chart-Track's weekly PlayStation Vita top-twenty charts until June 2017;^[39][40] the PlayStation 4 version did not chart at all in the United Kingdom during its debut, however.^[41] According to Shikura, the Xbox One version was not expected to sell very many copies.^[42]

Notes

References

External links

• Official website
• "Steins;Gate 0". The Visual Novel Database.