April 7th, 2020
My Playthrough of Steins; Gate Elite (Nintendo Switch)
Anime Relations: Steins;Gate
Hello everyone! I normally write on a website called RateYourMusic, but since I have really started getting into anime, I thought it was a good idea to make an account here and to share my experiences with people of a more like mind. The purpose of this blog post is to share my thoughts from my playing of the Steins; Gate Elite visual novel since they are not available to be rated and reviewed on this site. I figured that this would be a good idea to do with each and every other visual novel that I play as well. But since this is the first one that I've played, I thought I would experiment with it and see how it goes. I hope to meet some new Steins' Gate fans and to maybe encourage others to play as well. Also WARNING: this post will have loads of SPOILERS.
And without further ado...
Copied over from: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Volgan/my-anime-viewing-diary/
Opening Song: Cosmic Loop *Quite possibly, my favorite intro from any anime, tv show, or movie. After my millionth listen and viewing, I still love it as much as my first time hearing it.
Prologue: It took me about 50 minutes to get through and I have mixed feelings on it. On the one hand, our protagonist is not really likable. Hououin Kyouma is narcissistic, and seems like an exaggerated caricature of a mad scientist and nothing like a real person. And really does he have to go by 2 names? I'm with Mayushii, his "true name" is too hard to remember so I'll be referring to him as "Okarin" like she does. As for Mayushii, while I like her, I don't like that she's drawn to look like an adult, is 16 years old, but seems to act like she's a kid. Why not just make her a 12 year old or something? Regardless, her personality is cute and I think she'll grow on me even though Japan can be too Japan at times for me haha. I can't help but think that the intro would have been more effective from her perspective with her not understanding what is happening while Hououin's rants serve as a sort of exposition.
Some of the translations from the game while they are grammatically correct, are just goofy when read allowed. The funniest one was when Okarin was afraid that they were getting attacked by Electromagnetic waves!! I put it in bold because it was in red in the story and it made me laugh out loud. There were quite a few instances that made me do so. "The Organization" so far seems like the equivalent of "the Illuminati". I really hope we get more of a backstory on it and why our protagonist is so obsessed with it.
Overall, I'd say the prologue has more bad then good, but I am enjoying the atmospheric piano melodies and the cyberpunk music and the artwork is nice too. I like how the story has some stills and then borrows some animations from the show with voice synced sequences. It's a unique way of watching a show and will likely keep me going even if the overall quality doesn't get better. But it picked up towards the end with everyone going missing and the time travel elements starting to get introduced. I also liked the little bits of Japanese culture getting thrown in there about Akihabara that you have the option to read about when pausing the game if you so choose to do.
Edit: This initial review is funny looking back at it. It kind of reminds me of my thoughts on Ahsoka Tano. I hated her in Star Wars the Clone Wars in the movie and in S1, but she became my favorite character by the end. Hououin I didn't feel like he was a character at first, and by Chapter 3, he basically became one of my favorite anime characters ever. I love Okabe Rintaro and I am so glad I pushed my initial doubts aside and let myself fall in love with Stein's Gate.
Chapter 1: I almost wish there was no intro. From the very first second of this chapter I was intrigued. The fourth-wall breaking with the writers being fully self-aware of how over-the-top our self-proclaimed "mad scientist" Hououin Kyouma is, made for some really good jokes as he introduced us to the trio that make up the "Future Gadget Lab" which is somehow meant to overthrow "the Organization" by disrupting "the System". In just one scene we have a very different perspective of the characters. Instead of appearing as a super serious sci-fi mystery about time travel like the intro seemed like it was going for, we have a wittily written story about three outsiders working together to defeat a conspiracy theory. I might have an entirely different perspective of the prologue after reading this chapter because
Besides Hououin himself, the second of the three people in the Future Gadget Lab is Shiina Mayuri, aka Mayushii, aka the girl that calls Hououin "Okarin". In the opening scene of this chapter, Mayushii already grew on me exponentially. She is naive to the work that Okarin does, but she is drawn to him and remains his most loyal friend and Hououin in turn does what he can to protect her. I think the gag of Mayushii calling Hououin "Okarin" with Hououin getting angry and constantly correcting her but with Mayushii not changing it reminds me of Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le fou with the more instances that it happens, the funnier that the gag gets haha.
The third is Hashida Itaru aka "Daru" the super hacka and Okarin's friend from school from the last two years. He spends most of his days on the computer and doesn't seem all that interested in overthrowing "the Organization" like Okarin is. He kind of just tags along and makes funny comments as he continuously watches Okarin either make a fool of himself or surprise us with his genius.
And the fourth major character is "18-year-old" (she's legal weebs can rejoice lol!!!) girl-genius Makise Kurisu. I didn't really have an opinion of her in the intro, but boy howdy I fell in love with her during her lecture on time travel where she proceeded to roast Hououin Kyouma for the majority of the lectures' duration. Every second of that was fascinating from a science aspect but also hilarious from a story aspect. Once she became a Lab Mem, she essentially agreed to deal with Hououin's shenanigans in the name of SCIENCE which I appreciated about her considering how much of an ass he is to her lol!
Overall, chapter 1 took me around 4 hours to complete (hey reading every single message in the @channel forums for John Titor takes a long time) and every second of it was entertaining!
Chapter 2: At this point, I've already embraced Hououin Kyouma's eccentricness which makes choosing how he'll text friends a lot of fun! I tend to make him protective of Mayushii while he's an ass to Kurisu. I also thought it would be fun to have Hououin really buy into Lukako's cross dressing and to encourage him to wear dresses and maid's clothes lol! The story really starts to pick up as John Titor responds to Hououin's emails and he goes on his quest to find the IBN 5100 with the highlight of the chapter being the massive argument Kurisu and Hououin get into which involves Kurisu ruining Hououin's "big exit scene" lol!
But things start to get serious when Hououin actually finds the IBN 5100 and they hack into SERN's database making a pact which Houin, Kurisu aka Hououin's assistant, aka "Christina" lol, and Daru all agree that they won't tell about their findings because SERN has the capability of wiping them from existence. Things are about to go down... It seems like chapters in this game will take me a bit over 4 hours each to complete pending on how often I pause to re-read the tips and take my time enjoying the music and the scene unfolding which was fairly often for chapter 2 so it actually took me closer to 5 hours. And that was because every moment of chapter 2 was awesome and I've fallen in love with Stein's Gate.
Chapter 3: Continuing off of the discovery that SERN is indeed experimenting on humans in order to achieve the possibility of time travel, the first portion of this episode is heavy on scientific theories and discussions on time travel and the problems that faced SERN in their attempts. After a lot of humor being thrown at us in the last episode, things have gotten serious really quick as the Future Gadget Lab has a "Round Table Conference" to discuss what their next move should be. Of course, with a crowd consisting of a ditsy but cute Mayushii, a perverted minded Daru, an arrogant and pompous Hououin in charge, and an easily-irritated Kurisu, things aren't able to stay fully serious for long. So arguments over what to name the phenomenon of sending an email back in time are prone to happen lol!
But then out of nowhere comes a Mayushii scene that wins my heart over with her "Stardust Handshake" that has super sweet atmospheric music to accompany it and Hououin once again continuing to play the role of a big brother to her. It's moments like these that make me laugh at my intro that I wrote because I really do love these characters. Even if they now go by three names. Poor Kurisu I mean Assistant, I mean Christina, I mean Celeb Seventeen lol!
Chapter 4: Chapter 3 got super exciting once we discovered that D-Mails could actually change the past. But shy could only Hououin remember the change? And why couldn't Lukako punch in the correct lottery ticket? Lol! And why did Daru choose something so hard to change,? At least Mayushii's was easy... but it was too recent for the discharge.
That left the fate of Operation Urd in the trustful fingers of Lab Mem No. 5 Moeka who sent the email back to prevent herself from buying her new phone. For as much of an ass Hououin can be, during moments of crisis like these he's an easy character to like as he feels genuine guilt for potentially erasing her from existence. Much to his and my own relief, he didn't. But for some strange reason, Hououin is the only one who can detect the time change. Why does he have this self-proclaimed "Reading Steiner"? These are questions that will keep Hououin and myself up late at night as I continue playing when I should be fast asleep.
Every time a Mayushii "Stardust Handshake" scene occurs, my heart just melts. It's a shame that Hououin was a bit meaner to Mayushii this time and didn't give her the satisfaction of saying that her New Year's prayer when she saw the shooting star for him to get healthy didn't help make him feel better. But these moments are always a nice break from the funny bantering and the awesome and well-thought out sci-fi concepts that this show has.
But then it goes right back into it's usual absurdness when Lukako arrives invited over by Mayushii to be forced into one of her costumes for him to cosplay in. I never expected it to lead into what it does. How it went from bantering and lots of joking over Lukako's femine appearance and Kurisu being in disbelief and being jealous of his beautiful feminine features to Hououin making a stand for Lukako and coming up with a way to actually change his gender from male to female blew me away. This is one of the few times where Hououin was on top and stayed on top throughout an entire argument with Kurisu. I think even she had to of earned some respect for his intellect during this exchange and with his epiphany with sending the D-mail to a pager.
Except whatever respect for Hououin would be lost in the timeline because the experiment was a resounding success and no one but Okarin would have memory of it. He even went through extremely drastic measures to find out that the D-mail that changed Lukako's gender was successful which was an all-time low for Hououin and something that made me uncomfortable and saddened me that he never apologized to Lukako considering how he always treated him with kindness before. However, the big change of the episode had to do with Faris whose real name was Akihiba and is a descendant of the family that owns much of the land in Akihabara. But even more importantly, she was responsible for incorporating most of the "moe" (weaboo) culture in the city and she requested to become a Lab Mem to send a D-Mail to her father years in the past which resulted in her becoming a professional Rainett competitor instead of allowing Akihabara to be the weaboo capital of the world that it was before. That was the biggest change the D-mail had done and would have been a fitting end of it wasn't for the bombshell that Suzuha dropped at the end: John Titor could very well be her father. Things are getting super interesting...
Chapter 5: Just when you think Stein's Gate can't possibly be more interesting, we get into a deep discussion on the dangers of the Phonewave (name subject to change) and how it could essentially create black holes and be used as a weapon. But in the midst of this conversation, Kurisu comes up with a brilliant new experiment that is a clever and unique way of implementing time travel: coverting impulses of a person (their memories) into digital data, compressing it, and then sending it back in time to your past self. This was one of the coolest pseudo-science discussions that I have ever seen in a video game or TV show and it blew my mind as Kurisu explained how it would work. The writers for this game really know how to think outside the box and it's refreshing to see a common movie trope such as time travel taken as seriously as Stein's Gate does and having them come up with unique and unconventional ways of sending things to the past. Also, mega props to Kurisu for coming up with the name "Time Leap" for this phenomena. Hell even Hououin was impressed and made no arguments against the name haha
Right after this discussion, we have another classic Okarin and Mayushii scene in which she expresses that she isn't smart enough to be in the lab and Okarin ensures her that her presence is needed to keep the peace between him and Kurisu and because she is so friendly and everyone loves her. He told her she can stay as long as she wants. Then Mayushii starts to ask some philosophical questions to Okarin about how the "Time Leap" would work and what would happen to your past, present, and future bodies. All of this leads up to Mayushio trying to find out if she could go back to elementary school and see her Grandma again who passed away then. Ughhhh my heart!!!
Speaking of my heart, I am in love with Makise Kurisu's character lol! When Hououin caught her using @channel and she tried to hide it and got all emarrassed was so cute! And now she has a new nickname to go with her other collection: "@channeler Chris". Poor Assistant... I mean Christina... I mean Celeb Seventeen... I mean MONGOLIAN SPOT!!!!... I mean Kurisu. But he sadly won't get to tease her with the name since Kurisu was so embarrassed that she made Hououin promise not to tell the others haha!
After some more fun Stein's Gate shenanigans, we have an interesting accusation from Suzuha who claims that Makise is an agent of SERN using Hououin's genius to build a time machine. And even more importantly, Hououin discovers that the CRT televisions are what serve as the lifter for the Phonewave (name subject to change)!!!! This is HUGE because before the Phonewave (name subject to change) would only work at a certain time and they didn't know why. Now we know that it's because it was when Mr. Braun let a CRT TV on downstairs in the shop.
Then comes the discussion on how the Time Leap machine works and whether or not it was morally right for the Future Gadgets Lab to use it and of the ramifications for such a phenomenon taking place. This was one of the most philosophical discussions in Stein's Gate yet with a lot of very interesting pseudo science and legitimate scientific theories being discussed. I can't blame them for deciding against using the Time Leap Machine and allowing the authorities to properly study it. This was a power that could be extremely dangerous to use. And as exciting as experimentation sounds, the risks are too great to attempt. So the main Lab Mems all gather to celebrate their accomplishments with a pizza party when Steins Gate drops it's biggest bombshell: Lab Mem No. 5 Kiryu Moeka was an operative from SERN. I never fully trusted her and didn't like that Okabe was giving her so much information, but I never expected a scene like this to take place with people showing up at the Future Gadgets Lab threatening to apprehend the Lab Mems, and worst of all, for poor Mayushii to die :( This was an intense scene made even more creepy because of the unnatural and creepy whispery way Moeka talks. She weirded me out before, but she was super intimidating. And when she shot Mayushii, I was crushed. So were Okabe, Daru, and Kurisu. But if it wasn't for the Part-Time Warrior Suzuha, our three Lab Mems would have forever been silenced by SERN. Thankfully she was able to catch Moeka off-guard, and turn on the CRT which gave Kurisu enough time to reluctantly Time Leap Hououin back so he could save Mayushii... holy shit this was a great ending. Chapter 6 is going to be epic! I need an emotional break after this one.
Chapter 6: Chapter 6 +Alternate Ending #1: After last episodes' exciting conclusion, we were due for a melancholic and slow-paced intro. Seeing how saddened Mayuri was by the passing of her grandmother as a kid was heartbreaking. Especially because all we've seen from Mayuri is this upbeat and cute *Tuttoru!!!* singing girl that she tells the world to call Mayushii. The fact that Okabe took the time to visit her every day and to look out for her even before she became a Lab Mem makes me like his character even more. We got some insight into where his Mad Scientist persona came from as he and Mayuri used to watch cartoons together as kids and he used it being the bad guy and keeping Mayuri as his hostage as a means of protecting her from the rest of the world and it was super sweet! Part of me wonders if he has some sort of mental disorder that causes him to say the crazy things that he does. But if it's all to make himself seem cool to protect his "alpha male" ego, than he might be the most stubborn character that I've ever seen lol!
This chapter could have an alternate name called the "Kill Mayushi" episode. And that's because Hououin finds himself trapped in a time loop desperately trying to save Mayushii over and over again. At first, it was really upsetting, but then it became comical. Especially the train one. Finally after the 6th try, Okabe asked Kurisu for her help and explained everything to her. And once again Kurisi has solidified herself as #bestgirl. Despite all the grievances Hououin put her through, she didn't doubt him for a minute and helped him to devise a plan to save Mayushii. And she brought up some very important points about the Time Leap too. Long story short, Okabe better not lose his phone.
After he makes the leap and a funny exchange happens with Kurisu (who totally didn't believe him at first) Suzuha overhears their conversation, tries to run away into the satellite which is revealed to be a time machine. After confronting her, Suzuha drops the bombshell that was code name: "John Titor" and she came from 2036 to save the future from SERN. Now the mission changes for the Lab Mems to fix Suzaha's time machine and if possible, find her father. After a long unsuccessful search, the time machine is repaired and Suzuha has a heart-to-heart with Okabe letting him know about the future and how different and sad things are there while implying that once she goes back to 1975 and finds an IBM-5100, the worldline would change and all of the memories of their friendship would go away. So yeah, that was a big oof to the feels. And to make manners worse, Daru reveals to us that the time machine can only go to the past so Suzuha can't come back even if she wanted to which leads to an even sadder version of that heart to heart.
But fear not, we have an adorable light-hearted and brilliant reveal from Mayushii who was able to deduce that Suzuha's father was with them the entire time!!! I was getting ready for her to say Okabe, but then she said Daru and started laying out the facts and I was as blown away as everyone else was. And even though Daru is as awkward and pervy as always, that exchange with Suzuha and him was super sweet and once again was a gut punch to the heart.
So Suzuha leaves and the Future Gadgets Laboratory waits to find a 54-year-old Suzuha in person ready to hand-deliver them an IBN-5100. Except what they find is so much worse. Suzuha wrote a letter 10 years ago. "I failed." It was a dreary letter and it was heartbreaking to listen to and to ultimately realize that she lost her mind and killed herself knowing that she failed her father and the future. After a moment of melancholia, the visual novel gifted me with the first huge choice in the game. Send a D-mail to undo the last few days and pray that past Okabe lets Suzuha go and that they are ready for SERN, or redo the last 2 days again and see if we can work out another plan...
I think I made the right choice. Ironic, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Yet during this time of repeating the same 2 days over and over, Okabe has not once proclaimed himself to be Hououin Kyoma the mad scientist. Instead he just enjoys life and is spending his time forming new memories with his friends which they will all forget. Is this hell worth reliving over and over to save Mayushii and Suzuha's lives? Honestly, I don't know. But in Okabe's shoes, I wouldn't give up on my friends either.
Yet, holy shit I don't know if I'd let myself live a constant loop to preserve them either. He keeps trudging on living the same days over and over again losing his sanity slowly over time and becoming and less and less of a person until finally Suzuha snaps him out of it and convinces him to come with her and go with her into the time machine back to 1975 so they can try to rewrite the past together and save their friends. Or they'll fail like Suzuha did because of they lose their memories. We'll never know because that's how it ends!!!!... I still think I made the right choice, but that's a melancholic and unfulfilling ending. At the very least, it would have been nice to hear what Okabe wrote for each of his Lab Mems in their letters. But I will NOT be considering this to be the true ending...
Chapter 7 +Alternate Ending #2: I went back to my save right before I made my choice and this time, I'm sending that D-mail. I don't like that this decision happens so fast, and I don't like that it entrusts the present-future to past Okabe and I especially don't like the Suzuha leaves 2010 without becoming as close to the Lab Mems as she did, but if it gives us a happy ending where Okabe is happy and Suzuha and Mayushii live, then it's worth it.
After hitting send I just realized something... it says chapter 7!!! That means there's much more story to go and the ending that I saw before was just one of the secret endings. I ventured down a depressing worldline but the real one still has a lot of story left to go. Phew!!! The effects of the D-mail take some time to see, but we find out really quick that Moeka and SERN aren't going to kill Mayushii on the day August 13th, 2010. So Okabe tells everyone to go home and offers to walk Mayushii and Kurisu (whom he called by her actual name which elicitied a super cute reaction from Kurisu btw) home. And to make things even more wholesome, Mayushii could tell something was wrong with Okabe on their walk home and when she asked him, Okabe put on his mad scientist Hououin persona to make her feel safe again. I missed this Okabe and I am so happy to see him back after the dreary melancholic nature of the last few hours of gameplay.
The next day Okabe sees Mr. Braun and finds out about Suzuha's fate in this new worldline. She still died 10 years ago, but she died of illness and not as a failure committing suicide. It was a bittersweet moment, but it was really cute to see the kindness that she brought into Mr. Braun's life. That and seeing the worldline divergence tracker that Suzuha took with her in the time machine and how it changed by 0.4% instilled hope that Suzuha's dream of a changed future in a beta worldline with a divergence of over 1% is still possible. And Okabe will keep fighting for it no matter how long it takes.
After another nice round of light-hearted but as usual, ferocious bantering between Okabe and Kurisu and Kurisu also potentially being jealous that Okabe has been super close and clingy to Mayushii lately, (she definitely is a tsundere like Daru suggested way back lol!);the rounders and SERN come again to take the Time Machine just as they did before. It's the same time as before however an entire day later. And another big change, Suzuha is not there to save the day. But Hououin has a plan. The hole in the floor is big enough that a remote pointed at it would turn the CRT TV on from down stairs and he has future gadget no. 4, the smoke snake at the ready, and was able to make a daring escape...just in time time to see poor Mayushii die yet again.
This time, Okabe doesn't waste a moment once he comes to and he immediately asks Kurisu for help. It takes a while, but he explains the situation and everything that he's gone through and waits for her solution. What she comes up with is for Okabe to figure out what email was caused the IBN 5100 to disappear from the lab in this worldline For some reason, Okabe doesn't seem to remember but it was the one Faris aka Akiba sent that made her a star Rainett player and changed Akihabara forever. Hopefully Okabe realizes this soon and undoes the D-mail even though it goes against his promise to Faris for her helping him. However, sending a D-mail back that far is super risky. What if the changes lead to the Time Leap machine not being made and SERN still being on their trail? Okabe has to be really careful about this if he wants to ensure that he is able to undo Mayushii's death again.
After time leaping again Okabe took a moment to reflect and realized that Faris' unknown D-mail was the key to everything. So he finds out that she had a RaiNet competition and they bump into each other as she is getting chased by rival RAINETT players that were bitter that she beat them. After a daring escape, she tells Okabe that she remembers the original worldline! She remembers the Akihabara that Okabe knows and the Mayqueen Maid Cafe. However, she also said that she doesn't want to erase her D-mail because she used it to save her father's life who passed away 10 years ago. So now we have an awful conundrum which leaves Faris and Okabe with the awful decision of saving Mayushii or Faris' dad. But first, the game has to have Okabe get beaten up by the gang of RaiNet players and nursed back to help by Faris' dad just so when she inevitably makes the decision to say goodbye to him, it hurts us more. Thanks Steins Gate for extra feelz! I did not need them haha. But before that, their conversation did give us some happy closure: Suzuha completed her mission. She delivered the IBN 5100 to Faris' dad like she was supposed to. However, Faris got kidnapped and her father had to sell it to a "French buyer" to get the ransom money.
This leads to the next big decision: send the D-mail which will reset the worldline back and have her father die guaranteeing that Okabe gete his IBN 5100 back or try to find a way to save them both with a carefully written email. Naturally, I attempt to go for the latter and hope it doesn't burn us in the end. Also, Faris is awesome, and I am happy that she trusts Okabe and is really into him, but if I have any say in the matter, Okabe and Kurisu are going to have super smart babies in the future lol! But it is interesting that Faris seems to have a partial "Reading Steiner"
So the answer the question of whether or not it burns us in the end is a bittersweet no. Hououin succeeded in the mission. Mayushii is safe. Faris' dad is safe. And SERN isn't coming for them. But at what cost? "Nothing is free. Everything has a price."
"I'm all alone in this world. My friends will never remember me. The events in my memories never happened."
And to add insult to injury, Faris and Hououin are now a couple and Hououin has no memories of their relationship either. While alternate ending #1 was dreary and unfulfilling, this one was lonely and bittersweet.
Hououin: "I probably won't get my memories back, but I want to fall in love with you all over again."
Faris: "Is it ok if I still love you?"
Me: Is it ok if I clutch my heart and cry a bit?
I am glad that this ending was more fleshed out and gave you that much-needed sense of hope.
Chapter 8 + Alternate Ending #3: Sending the email and going back to the original worldline starts chapter 8. We start out with a hope that Faris will remember something, anything about the other worldline with her father, but sadly, she does not. So Okabe gave her a very sincere apology. But with Faris having the influence on Akihabara again, that means that the IBN-5100 would be back at the shrine... or so we thought.
It was still donated 10 years ago, however Lukako's father was unable to locate it. When he asked Lukako herself, she seems to know more than she lets on about the IBN-5100's disappearance. Since the next big D-mail change was Lukako's gender, he realizes that this would be a sensitive subject and he needs to heed carefully about changing the worldline back.
More importantly, it is still August 14th. Mayuri died the first time on the 13th. She died after the first divergence on the 14th and Okabe reasons that she'll die on the 15th next but he should be ready for anything. He lets events play out and finds out no one comes to the the lab yet but they go after Mayuri and kidnap her at ComiMa via a phone call from Daru. Thank goodness he called. So Okabe time leaps to give himself more time and to figure out a way to undo Lukako's D-mail.
This leads to a humorous and then sad conversation with Kurisu on how to get it done. Followed by a complete disaster when actually trying it on Lukako. Man that was heartbreaking. Poor Okabe for having to go through all of this. And poor Lukako on this worldline who has to deal with her crush Okabe telling her that he thinks of her as a guy. Big oof!
Kurisu offers Okabe more suggestions and the more they talk after Okabe tine leaps, the more he seems to be the rational one while she seems to be the mad scientist. First with her mocking and second with her suggestions which even though were suggested as a last resort, were still very cruel. I am having a hard time deciding whether Hououin or Kurisu is my favorite character in this series at this point. But I swear if none of the game's multiple endings has them dating by the end, I'm going to start a riot.
So after another failed try with Lukako because she offered Okabe an ultimatum of being his girlfriend for two days, Okabe made a tactical retreat to August 11th and asked for Kurisu so they could initiate "Operation Christina" to get Lukako to change her D-mail back... and that fails miserably as well with Hououin of all people aborting the mission by calling Kurisu an "experiment-loving girl" further proving my point that Kurisu is becoming more mad scientist than Hououin and I freaking love it haha. So Hououin still tries to tell Lukako the truth and she cries and waits until the next day to profess her ultimatum again to Okabe. But this time, he brings Kurisu along for "Operation Christian II"... which also is a hilarious failure. So it all leads up to Okabe agreeing to save Mayuri and the world from SERN's influence... by being Lukako's boyfriend for 3 days now. So Hououin needs to get dating advice from his trustworthy assistant Christina which was both super cute and also one of their most hilarious arguments yet. In case I haven't said it enough, I am 100% shipping those two hardcore haha. To repeat myself, if the game doesn't have an ending with Okabe and Kurisu "going to a beautiful beach resort exchanging their first kiss bathed in the light of the setting sun", then I am rioting.
For the date, Hououin took Lukako to a family restaurant. But it wasn't until after Lukako asked Hououin if he remembered how they met. I was not expecting Hououin to be such a wholesome and nice guy to then him-Lukako. What an adorable backstory! The second date doesn't go as well meaning... they don't go at all and Okabe made Lukako cry again. He takes her to ComiMa for the third date (honestly a scary idea considering Mayuri was meant to die later that night) and left early getting the pager number that he needed. But he felt so awful about how he ended things with Lukako, he time leaped to make things right.
And boy, did Hououin Kyouma make things right. It's funny, in the beginning of the series, Okabe's Hououin persona was scaring away people and making others not like him. Now he uses the persona to make them feel comfortable and like it's the good old days. Getting Lukako comfortable and practicing with her sword Samidare was such a heartwarming thing to watch and it got me tearing up. Sorry Kurisu, I think Okabe just moved back into first place for my favorite character again.
Yet, the goodbye was so much worse for my heart. Why Lukako?! Why did you have to let Okabe know that you have memories of when you werw a guy and that you always loved him but that you were hiding your feelings for him? Ughhhh this is breaking my heart!!! Just like Faris, all Lukako wants is to remember the day she had with Okabe. And she can't even have that and it just stabs at the heart. The game gives you the choice to send or not send the email again. This is a no brainer. We need to send it... but I want to see the alternate ending first so I'll wait and see what happens first.
After a long depressing ending that made me feel like I was playing Life Is Strange, something very interesting happened. After Okabe told Kurisu and then Lukako that he chose to let Mayuri die and he would accept the guilt on his own, (until ultimately letting Lukako shoulder the guilt with him) Lukako brought up the idea of her time leaping to the day of Mayuri's death so that she could go with her to ComiMa in cosplay so Mayuri can die with a smile on her face. This is the first time anyone else besides Okabe used the Time Leap machine so it was very interesting to see how it affected Okabe. Essentially, Okabe from the previous worldline is sucked into this new worldline with no memories of the changes that happened. It's actually a really awful thing to realize. However, for this scene, it wasn't. In fact, it was beautiful. Because now, Okabe now gets to treasure these new memories via the photos that was taken of them by Daru without having to watch Mayuri die again. This still isn't the true ending of Stein's Gate, but of the three that I've seen thus far, I am the most ok with how this one played out.
Chapter 9 + Alternate Ending #4: The call was made to Lukako's mom's pager and the gender reversal was undone. The worldline changed. Lukako didn't remember anything from the previous worldline and as female Lukako said, male Lukako would lie about his true feelings for Okabe which is really sad. But more to the point, Okabe got Lukako's father to look for the IBN-5100 again... and this time it was stolen! With two D-mails left to erase, this means that Kiryu Moeka's is priority No. 1 and it needs to be cancelled.
But the big issue, how will Okabe get Moeka's phone from her to send the D-mail? A bigger twist happens that adds an interesting wrinkle to everything. For some reason, after changing Lukako back to a male, on this worldline, Moeka commits suicide! But it still doesn't stop Mayushii from dying either. So Okabe has to time leap back before Moeka kills herself to get the phone. This is still a very risky thing to do and I hope he continues to get Kurisu's help with this. Also, I am curious if Mokea used the IBN 5100 to hack SERN and if that's why she chose to kill herself. Perhaps she felt guilty for working for them and betraying Okabe?
So Okabe does get Kurisu's help... after breaking into Moeka's house and finding a broken and mentally unstable version of her muttering crazily and clinging onto her phone. And once again I am adding a point to Kurisu's mad scientist character traits placing her just about equal to Hououin for suggesting that Okabe kill Moeke in order to get her phone. Naturally, Okabe couldn't, but he appreciated Kurisu's ferocity on the subject nonetheless. He even said that he loved how isn't a hypocrite and that she stands by her convictions. And he actually did use the word "love". So... #MaKabe is happening!!!
After Okabe's unorthodox but surprisingly effective interrogation, he was able to find out that the IBN 5100 was placed in the same coin locker that Lukako put the IBN 5100 in when she broke it on the female Lukako worldline. Very bizarre coincidence. So Hououin time leaps and tries to get to it before FB can. But it triggers an alarm and is caught by the police. So he comes up with an even more interesting plan. He encourages Moeke to come with him to stake out the locker so she could meet FB as she picks out the IBN 5100. Sometimes, Hououin too surprises me with his brilliant ideas. After a long chase filled with a bunch of time leaps, we find out that Okabe's land lord Tennouji is connected with SERN somehow because he held onto the computer until the Rounders showed up to pick the computer up and transport it on an airplane to France.
And after confronting (Tennouji) Mr. Braun, we find out that his name Ferdinand Braun make the initials F.B. and he has been a Rounder for SERN this entire time and he had to so he could protect his daughter. Okabe gave the speech of a lifetime telling Mr. Braun off and letting him know that Suzuha came from the future to stop SERN and would be disappointed in him for working for them. It was a powerful speech that ultimately led to Mr. Braun committing suicide. And even more creepily, Mr. Braun's daughter shows up, kills Moeke, and then vows to kill Okabe in 15 years. So the game offers us another choice. It seems obvious to send a D-mail now, but once again, I am curious to see what would happen if I didn't.
Best decision ever! This not only still leads to me sending the D-mail right after, but I found out a creepy easter egg about Mr. Braun's daughter Nae. She was from the future and time leaped 15 years in 48 hour increments so she could kill Moeka whom she blamed for killing her father. She also is the one who is destined to kill Okabe 15 years in the future like Suzuha said he would die. Super creepy.
But with the sending of one D-mail all of this is erased and Okabe finally returns to the worldline where the IBN 5100 is back in his possession. Now his Sir Supa Hacka can crack into SERN delete the D-mails and then Okabe can go back and cancel the original D-mails so that the worldline will go back to the first one and Mayuri can live... so before the lottery ticket email, what was the first one... noooo... why?!!!! It was the D-mail that saved Kurisu's life on this worldline.
Son of a bitch! Why did that thought never occur to me? Kurisu is considered the "Mother of Time Travel" according to Suzuha in the future. If she never got a chance to build time machines because she was killed, it stands to reason that SERN wouldn't come after Okabe and kill Mayushii because they never would have made the Time Leap machine without her... ugh I am going to hate chapter 10 so much...
Chapter 10: "Who do I let die?" If only I knew Okabe.
Option 1: Do what we set out to do: save Mayuri by erasing the email that saved waifu Kurisu's life. Kurisu even gave us a glint of hope that Okabe might not be changing realities of every person on each worldline but merely be switching worldlines himself while Kurisu's live consciousness might continue on in that current world. We have no idea if it's true, but we can hope.
Option 2: Let Mayuri die and SERN takes over unless we stop them. This option doesn't have a lot of upside to it and makes the reverting of the other Lab Mems D-mails essentially a waste of time and it just added extra heartbreak and sorrow for Okabe for no reason.
The choice appears simple, when you really think about it, but I really don't want to kill Kurisu. I got some hope when Okabe visited Mayushii at her grandmother's grave and she told her grandma about her dreaming of all of the times that she died. In that same conversation, she said that she thought that she was a "burden" to the Lab Mems and apologized for it and Okabe made sure that she knew how special Mayushii is to him.
On the flip side, Okabe came clean to Kurisu about everything including his Hououin Kyoma persona. It was a sincere heart to heart and she once again continues to be the one friend he can trust to give him the best advice through all of the hardship he's had to face.
This entire last chapter destroyed me. At first, I was glad that Okabe told Mayuri the truth, but when she ran up to Kurisu and told her not to "disappear" for her, I lost it. My eyes were watering through most of this episode as I clutched my heart from many of the things Mayushi and Kurisu was saying, but then the tears really started to flow as the choice was decided for me. You can't work as hard as you did to save Mayushii and then let her die in the end. I just wish that there was some way to save Kurisu too. She was such a great character and I loved her last banter with Okabe and I like to think that she actually did use the Time Leap machine just so she could sew Okabe's lab coat together but forgot to back a towel haha.
I honestly don't know what ending I prefer, but this one felt like it had a good amount of closure. And Mayuri remembering Kurisu's words to her on the Beta worldline about finding happiness allowed me to have at least one tearful smile before calling it a wrap on Steins Gate. This has to be the ending from the TV series. It is the most complete and makes the most sense. But dear lord was it heartbreaking. 4 endings and all 4 of them were depressing in their own ways. However, there are two other alternate endings that I have yet to discover. I'm really hoping that one of them is the happy one with Kurisu that I desperately want and that the other is one in which SERN gets their way and they officially become the overlords of time and are unstoppable. But for now, I have to be satisfied with the 4 depressing endings that I did discover and much like Life Is Strange, enjoy the ride and cherish the memories made along the way even if things get undone because of a decision that had to be made.
Alternate Ending #5 (I still need to replay and find this. But considering how much I like Kurisu, I like to think that this will be the "happiest" depressing ending of Steins' Gate that I will find. At least I hope so. I deserve one happy ending with Okabe getting the #bestgirl right?
Alternate Ending #6 aka "the True Ending" (I am going to play all of Steins' Gate Zero first before besting this ending because it apparently adds to the impact of the story. Does anyone else agree with this? I found this from this Steam Post: https://steamcommunity.com/app/412830/discussions/0/144512526673739445/)
Characters: A+ *I love the world of Stein's Gate. Every character has their quirks that gets you to like them and they all have their own levels of tolerance that they're willing to put up with Hououin's shenanigans which means some are more than willing to tick him off and start arguments, while others ignore him or are fascinated by his bizarreness. But characters like "girl genius" Kurisu, or "super hacka" Daru, or "Costume designer *Tutturu!!!! Mayushii, or "Part-Time Warrior" Suzuha, or "Shining Finger/Mail Demon" Moeka, and "nyan nyan maid cafe girl" Faris all have their own sets of quirks and oddities that gives this visual novel so much life even though the majority of the events that are occurring are random shenanigans.
Final Verdict: 10/10 Anyone that took the time to read everything that I wrote would know how much love for Steins; Gate that I have. This game was my introduction into visual novels (I started playing this before Doki Doki Literature Club but it took me a long time to finish this game and 40+ hours of my life were devoted to this) and most importantly, it blew me away how a cliche sci-fi trope such as time travel can have so many unique applications that makes the story as fresh as it is.
I initially complained about the intro of this game, but once I got into the nitty grittiness of the story line, I fell in love with every character in Steins Gate. I love the bantering. I love the scientific and philosophical discussions. I love the Otaku culture and its satire. I love that this game gives you alternate endings even though none of them are happy ones. I LOVE the music. And I love how much this game made me care. Literally the only two video games that affected me so much that I ended up crying and being genuinely depressed coming into work the next day are Mass Effect 3 (Playing Mass Effect 3 and I Need a Hug Right Now... :() and Steins Gate Elite.
As I write this on my phone during my lunch break at work, I realize that I am behaving as a real-life Okabe because I am contemplating replaying all of Steins Gate just so I can find alternate endings 5 and 6 in the hopes that one of them is a happy one. (I did that with Mass Effect 3 as well. I replayed the ending of Mass Effect 2 and all of 3 to get the result I wanted haha) Steins Gate Elite is an incredible game that was worth every penny and then some. Even if the 25 episode anime series is perfectly executed, I won't help but be disappointed in it because of the amount of content from this story line that will have to have been cut to ensure that it would work. I will try my best to objective in my rating and my review, but for now, just know that I am now obsessed with Stein's Gate and may even be changing my ringtone from Kavinsky & Lovefoxxx Nightcall (from Drive) to the one that Hououin Kyouma uses.
This is the will of Steins Gate.
El Psy Kongroo.
And without further ado...
Copied over from: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Volgan/my-anime-viewing-diary/
Opening Song: Cosmic Loop *Quite possibly, my favorite intro from any anime, tv show, or movie. After my millionth listen and viewing, I still love it as much as my first time hearing it.
Prologue: It took me about 50 minutes to get through and I have mixed feelings on it. On the one hand, our protagonist is not really likable. Hououin Kyouma is narcissistic, and seems like an exaggerated caricature of a mad scientist and nothing like a real person. And really does he have to go by 2 names? I'm with Mayushii, his "true name" is too hard to remember so I'll be referring to him as "Okarin" like she does. As for Mayushii, while I like her, I don't like that she's drawn to look like an adult, is 16 years old, but seems to act like she's a kid. Why not just make her a 12 year old or something? Regardless, her personality is cute and I think she'll grow on me even though Japan can be too Japan at times for me haha. I can't help but think that the intro would have been more effective from her perspective with her not understanding what is happening while Hououin's rants serve as a sort of exposition.
Some of the translations from the game while they are grammatically correct, are just goofy when read allowed. The funniest one was when Okarin was afraid that they were getting attacked by Electromagnetic waves!! I put it in bold because it was in red in the story and it made me laugh out loud. There were quite a few instances that made me do so. "The Organization" so far seems like the equivalent of "the Illuminati". I really hope we get more of a backstory on it and why our protagonist is so obsessed with it.
Overall, I'd say the prologue has more bad then good, but I am enjoying the atmospheric piano melodies and the cyberpunk music and the artwork is nice too. I like how the story has some stills and then borrows some animations from the show with voice synced sequences. It's a unique way of watching a show and will likely keep me going even if the overall quality doesn't get better. But it picked up towards the end with everyone going missing and the time travel elements starting to get introduced. I also liked the little bits of Japanese culture getting thrown in there about Akihabara that you have the option to read about when pausing the game if you so choose to do.
Edit: This initial review is funny looking back at it. It kind of reminds me of my thoughts on Ahsoka Tano. I hated her in Star Wars the Clone Wars in the movie and in S1, but she became my favorite character by the end. Hououin I didn't feel like he was a character at first, and by Chapter 3, he basically became one of my favorite anime characters ever. I love Okabe Rintaro and I am so glad I pushed my initial doubts aside and let myself fall in love with Stein's Gate.
Chapter 1: I almost wish there was no intro. From the very first second of this chapter I was intrigued. The fourth-wall breaking with the writers being fully self-aware of how over-the-top our self-proclaimed "mad scientist" Hououin Kyouma is, made for some really good jokes as he introduced us to the trio that make up the "Future Gadget Lab" which is somehow meant to overthrow "the Organization" by disrupting "the System". In just one scene we have a very different perspective of the characters. Instead of appearing as a super serious sci-fi mystery about time travel like the intro seemed like it was going for, we have a wittily written story about three outsiders working together to defeat a conspiracy theory. I might have an entirely different perspective of the prologue after reading this chapter because
Besides Hououin himself, the second of the three people in the Future Gadget Lab is Shiina Mayuri, aka Mayushii, aka the girl that calls Hououin "Okarin". In the opening scene of this chapter, Mayushii already grew on me exponentially. She is naive to the work that Okarin does, but she is drawn to him and remains his most loyal friend and Hououin in turn does what he can to protect her. I think the gag of Mayushii calling Hououin "Okarin" with Hououin getting angry and constantly correcting her but with Mayushii not changing it reminds me of Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le fou with the more instances that it happens, the funnier that the gag gets haha.
The third is Hashida Itaru aka "Daru" the super hacka and Okarin's friend from school from the last two years. He spends most of his days on the computer and doesn't seem all that interested in overthrowing "the Organization" like Okarin is. He kind of just tags along and makes funny comments as he continuously watches Okarin either make a fool of himself or surprise us with his genius.
And the fourth major character is "18-year-old" (she's legal weebs can rejoice lol!!!) girl-genius Makise Kurisu. I didn't really have an opinion of her in the intro, but boy howdy I fell in love with her during her lecture on time travel where she proceeded to roast Hououin Kyouma for the majority of the lectures' duration. Every second of that was fascinating from a science aspect but also hilarious from a story aspect. Once she became a Lab Mem, she essentially agreed to deal with Hououin's shenanigans in the name of SCIENCE which I appreciated about her considering how much of an ass he is to her lol!
Overall, chapter 1 took me around 4 hours to complete (hey reading every single message in the @channel forums for John Titor takes a long time) and every second of it was entertaining!
Chapter 2: At this point, I've already embraced Hououin Kyouma's eccentricness which makes choosing how he'll text friends a lot of fun! I tend to make him protective of Mayushii while he's an ass to Kurisu. I also thought it would be fun to have Hououin really buy into Lukako's cross dressing and to encourage him to wear dresses and maid's clothes lol! The story really starts to pick up as John Titor responds to Hououin's emails and he goes on his quest to find the IBN 5100 with the highlight of the chapter being the massive argument Kurisu and Hououin get into which involves Kurisu ruining Hououin's "big exit scene" lol!
But things start to get serious when Hououin actually finds the IBN 5100 and they hack into SERN's database making a pact which Houin, Kurisu aka Hououin's assistant, aka "Christina" lol, and Daru all agree that they won't tell about their findings because SERN has the capability of wiping them from existence. Things are about to go down... It seems like chapters in this game will take me a bit over 4 hours each to complete pending on how often I pause to re-read the tips and take my time enjoying the music and the scene unfolding which was fairly often for chapter 2 so it actually took me closer to 5 hours. And that was because every moment of chapter 2 was awesome and I've fallen in love with Stein's Gate.
Chapter 3: Continuing off of the discovery that SERN is indeed experimenting on humans in order to achieve the possibility of time travel, the first portion of this episode is heavy on scientific theories and discussions on time travel and the problems that faced SERN in their attempts. After a lot of humor being thrown at us in the last episode, things have gotten serious really quick as the Future Gadget Lab has a "Round Table Conference" to discuss what their next move should be. Of course, with a crowd consisting of a ditsy but cute Mayushii, a perverted minded Daru, an arrogant and pompous Hououin in charge, and an easily-irritated Kurisu, things aren't able to stay fully serious for long. So arguments over what to name the phenomenon of sending an email back in time are prone to happen lol!
But then out of nowhere comes a Mayushii scene that wins my heart over with her "Stardust Handshake" that has super sweet atmospheric music to accompany it and Hououin once again continuing to play the role of a big brother to her. It's moments like these that make me laugh at my intro that I wrote because I really do love these characters. Even if they now go by three names. Poor Kurisu I mean Assistant, I mean Christina, I mean Celeb Seventeen lol!
Chapter 4: Chapter 3 got super exciting once we discovered that D-Mails could actually change the past. But shy could only Hououin remember the change? And why couldn't Lukako punch in the correct lottery ticket? Lol! And why did Daru choose something so hard to change,? At least Mayushii's was easy... but it was too recent for the discharge.
That left the fate of Operation Urd in the trustful fingers of Lab Mem No. 5 Moeka who sent the email back to prevent herself from buying her new phone. For as much of an ass Hououin can be, during moments of crisis like these he's an easy character to like as he feels genuine guilt for potentially erasing her from existence. Much to his and my own relief, he didn't. But for some strange reason, Hououin is the only one who can detect the time change. Why does he have this self-proclaimed "Reading Steiner"? These are questions that will keep Hououin and myself up late at night as I continue playing when I should be fast asleep.
Every time a Mayushii "Stardust Handshake" scene occurs, my heart just melts. It's a shame that Hououin was a bit meaner to Mayushii this time and didn't give her the satisfaction of saying that her New Year's prayer when she saw the shooting star for him to get healthy didn't help make him feel better. But these moments are always a nice break from the funny bantering and the awesome and well-thought out sci-fi concepts that this show has.
But then it goes right back into it's usual absurdness when Lukako arrives invited over by Mayushii to be forced into one of her costumes for him to cosplay in. I never expected it to lead into what it does. How it went from bantering and lots of joking over Lukako's femine appearance and Kurisu being in disbelief and being jealous of his beautiful feminine features to Hououin making a stand for Lukako and coming up with a way to actually change his gender from male to female blew me away. This is one of the few times where Hououin was on top and stayed on top throughout an entire argument with Kurisu. I think even she had to of earned some respect for his intellect during this exchange and with his epiphany with sending the D-mail to a pager.
Except whatever respect for Hououin would be lost in the timeline because the experiment was a resounding success and no one but Okarin would have memory of it. He even went through extremely drastic measures to find out that the D-mail that changed Lukako's gender was successful which was an all-time low for Hououin and something that made me uncomfortable and saddened me that he never apologized to Lukako considering how he always treated him with kindness before. However, the big change of the episode had to do with Faris whose real name was Akihiba and is a descendant of the family that owns much of the land in Akihabara. But even more importantly, she was responsible for incorporating most of the "moe" (weaboo) culture in the city and she requested to become a Lab Mem to send a D-Mail to her father years in the past which resulted in her becoming a professional Rainett competitor instead of allowing Akihabara to be the weaboo capital of the world that it was before. That was the biggest change the D-mail had done and would have been a fitting end of it wasn't for the bombshell that Suzuha dropped at the end: John Titor could very well be her father. Things are getting super interesting...
Chapter 5: Just when you think Stein's Gate can't possibly be more interesting, we get into a deep discussion on the dangers of the Phonewave (name subject to change) and how it could essentially create black holes and be used as a weapon. But in the midst of this conversation, Kurisu comes up with a brilliant new experiment that is a clever and unique way of implementing time travel: coverting impulses of a person (their memories) into digital data, compressing it, and then sending it back in time to your past self. This was one of the coolest pseudo-science discussions that I have ever seen in a video game or TV show and it blew my mind as Kurisu explained how it would work. The writers for this game really know how to think outside the box and it's refreshing to see a common movie trope such as time travel taken as seriously as Stein's Gate does and having them come up with unique and unconventional ways of sending things to the past. Also, mega props to Kurisu for coming up with the name "Time Leap" for this phenomena. Hell even Hououin was impressed and made no arguments against the name haha
Right after this discussion, we have another classic Okarin and Mayushii scene in which she expresses that she isn't smart enough to be in the lab and Okarin ensures her that her presence is needed to keep the peace between him and Kurisu and because she is so friendly and everyone loves her. He told her she can stay as long as she wants. Then Mayushii starts to ask some philosophical questions to Okarin about how the "Time Leap" would work and what would happen to your past, present, and future bodies. All of this leads up to Mayushio trying to find out if she could go back to elementary school and see her Grandma again who passed away then. Ughhhh my heart!!!
Speaking of my heart, I am in love with Makise Kurisu's character lol! When Hououin caught her using @channel and she tried to hide it and got all emarrassed was so cute! And now she has a new nickname to go with her other collection: "@channeler Chris". Poor Assistant... I mean Christina... I mean Celeb Seventeen... I mean MONGOLIAN SPOT!!!!... I mean Kurisu. But he sadly won't get to tease her with the name since Kurisu was so embarrassed that she made Hououin promise not to tell the others haha!
After some more fun Stein's Gate shenanigans, we have an interesting accusation from Suzuha who claims that Makise is an agent of SERN using Hououin's genius to build a time machine. And even more importantly, Hououin discovers that the CRT televisions are what serve as the lifter for the Phonewave (name subject to change)!!!! This is HUGE because before the Phonewave (name subject to change) would only work at a certain time and they didn't know why. Now we know that it's because it was when Mr. Braun let a CRT TV on downstairs in the shop.
Then comes the discussion on how the Time Leap machine works and whether or not it was morally right for the Future Gadgets Lab to use it and of the ramifications for such a phenomenon taking place. This was one of the most philosophical discussions in Stein's Gate yet with a lot of very interesting pseudo science and legitimate scientific theories being discussed. I can't blame them for deciding against using the Time Leap Machine and allowing the authorities to properly study it. This was a power that could be extremely dangerous to use. And as exciting as experimentation sounds, the risks are too great to attempt. So the main Lab Mems all gather to celebrate their accomplishments with a pizza party when Steins Gate drops it's biggest bombshell: Lab Mem No. 5 Kiryu Moeka was an operative from SERN. I never fully trusted her and didn't like that Okabe was giving her so much information, but I never expected a scene like this to take place with people showing up at the Future Gadgets Lab threatening to apprehend the Lab Mems, and worst of all, for poor Mayushii to die :( This was an intense scene made even more creepy because of the unnatural and creepy whispery way Moeka talks. She weirded me out before, but she was super intimidating. And when she shot Mayushii, I was crushed. So were Okabe, Daru, and Kurisu. But if it wasn't for the Part-Time Warrior Suzuha, our three Lab Mems would have forever been silenced by SERN. Thankfully she was able to catch Moeka off-guard, and turn on the CRT which gave Kurisu enough time to reluctantly Time Leap Hououin back so he could save Mayushii... holy shit this was a great ending. Chapter 6 is going to be epic! I need an emotional break after this one.
Chapter 6: Chapter 6 +Alternate Ending #1: After last episodes' exciting conclusion, we were due for a melancholic and slow-paced intro. Seeing how saddened Mayuri was by the passing of her grandmother as a kid was heartbreaking. Especially because all we've seen from Mayuri is this upbeat and cute *Tuttoru!!!* singing girl that she tells the world to call Mayushii. The fact that Okabe took the time to visit her every day and to look out for her even before she became a Lab Mem makes me like his character even more. We got some insight into where his Mad Scientist persona came from as he and Mayuri used to watch cartoons together as kids and he used it being the bad guy and keeping Mayuri as his hostage as a means of protecting her from the rest of the world and it was super sweet! Part of me wonders if he has some sort of mental disorder that causes him to say the crazy things that he does. But if it's all to make himself seem cool to protect his "alpha male" ego, than he might be the most stubborn character that I've ever seen lol!
This chapter could have an alternate name called the "Kill Mayushi" episode. And that's because Hououin finds himself trapped in a time loop desperately trying to save Mayushii over and over again. At first, it was really upsetting, but then it became comical. Especially the train one. Finally after the 6th try, Okabe asked Kurisu for her help and explained everything to her. And once again Kurisi has solidified herself as #bestgirl. Despite all the grievances Hououin put her through, she didn't doubt him for a minute and helped him to devise a plan to save Mayushii. And she brought up some very important points about the Time Leap too. Long story short, Okabe better not lose his phone.
After he makes the leap and a funny exchange happens with Kurisu (who totally didn't believe him at first) Suzuha overhears their conversation, tries to run away into the satellite which is revealed to be a time machine. After confronting her, Suzuha drops the bombshell that was code name: "John Titor" and she came from 2036 to save the future from SERN. Now the mission changes for the Lab Mems to fix Suzaha's time machine and if possible, find her father. After a long unsuccessful search, the time machine is repaired and Suzuha has a heart-to-heart with Okabe letting him know about the future and how different and sad things are there while implying that once she goes back to 1975 and finds an IBM-5100, the worldline would change and all of the memories of their friendship would go away. So yeah, that was a big oof to the feels. And to make manners worse, Daru reveals to us that the time machine can only go to the past so Suzuha can't come back even if she wanted to which leads to an even sadder version of that heart to heart.
But fear not, we have an adorable light-hearted and brilliant reveal from Mayushii who was able to deduce that Suzuha's father was with them the entire time!!! I was getting ready for her to say Okabe, but then she said Daru and started laying out the facts and I was as blown away as everyone else was. And even though Daru is as awkward and pervy as always, that exchange with Suzuha and him was super sweet and once again was a gut punch to the heart.
So Suzuha leaves and the Future Gadgets Laboratory waits to find a 54-year-old Suzuha in person ready to hand-deliver them an IBN-5100. Except what they find is so much worse. Suzuha wrote a letter 10 years ago. "I failed." It was a dreary letter and it was heartbreaking to listen to and to ultimately realize that she lost her mind and killed herself knowing that she failed her father and the future. After a moment of melancholia, the visual novel gifted me with the first huge choice in the game. Send a D-mail to undo the last few days and pray that past Okabe lets Suzuha go and that they are ready for SERN, or redo the last 2 days again and see if we can work out another plan...
I think I made the right choice. Ironic, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Yet during this time of repeating the same 2 days over and over, Okabe has not once proclaimed himself to be Hououin Kyoma the mad scientist. Instead he just enjoys life and is spending his time forming new memories with his friends which they will all forget. Is this hell worth reliving over and over to save Mayushii and Suzuha's lives? Honestly, I don't know. But in Okabe's shoes, I wouldn't give up on my friends either.
Yet, holy shit I don't know if I'd let myself live a constant loop to preserve them either. He keeps trudging on living the same days over and over again losing his sanity slowly over time and becoming and less and less of a person until finally Suzuha snaps him out of it and convinces him to come with her and go with her into the time machine back to 1975 so they can try to rewrite the past together and save their friends. Or they'll fail like Suzuha did because of they lose their memories. We'll never know because that's how it ends!!!!... I still think I made the right choice, but that's a melancholic and unfulfilling ending. At the very least, it would have been nice to hear what Okabe wrote for each of his Lab Mems in their letters. But I will NOT be considering this to be the true ending...
Chapter 7 +Alternate Ending #2: I went back to my save right before I made my choice and this time, I'm sending that D-mail. I don't like that this decision happens so fast, and I don't like that it entrusts the present-future to past Okabe and I especially don't like the Suzuha leaves 2010 without becoming as close to the Lab Mems as she did, but if it gives us a happy ending where Okabe is happy and Suzuha and Mayushii live, then it's worth it.
After hitting send I just realized something... it says chapter 7!!! That means there's much more story to go and the ending that I saw before was just one of the secret endings. I ventured down a depressing worldline but the real one still has a lot of story left to go. Phew!!! The effects of the D-mail take some time to see, but we find out really quick that Moeka and SERN aren't going to kill Mayushii on the day August 13th, 2010. So Okabe tells everyone to go home and offers to walk Mayushii and Kurisu (whom he called by her actual name which elicitied a super cute reaction from Kurisu btw) home. And to make things even more wholesome, Mayushii could tell something was wrong with Okabe on their walk home and when she asked him, Okabe put on his mad scientist Hououin persona to make her feel safe again. I missed this Okabe and I am so happy to see him back after the dreary melancholic nature of the last few hours of gameplay.
The next day Okabe sees Mr. Braun and finds out about Suzuha's fate in this new worldline. She still died 10 years ago, but she died of illness and not as a failure committing suicide. It was a bittersweet moment, but it was really cute to see the kindness that she brought into Mr. Braun's life. That and seeing the worldline divergence tracker that Suzuha took with her in the time machine and how it changed by 0.4% instilled hope that Suzuha's dream of a changed future in a beta worldline with a divergence of over 1% is still possible. And Okabe will keep fighting for it no matter how long it takes.
After another nice round of light-hearted but as usual, ferocious bantering between Okabe and Kurisu and Kurisu also potentially being jealous that Okabe has been super close and clingy to Mayushii lately, (she definitely is a tsundere like Daru suggested way back lol!);the rounders and SERN come again to take the Time Machine just as they did before. It's the same time as before however an entire day later. And another big change, Suzuha is not there to save the day. But Hououin has a plan. The hole in the floor is big enough that a remote pointed at it would turn the CRT TV on from down stairs and he has future gadget no. 4, the smoke snake at the ready, and was able to make a daring escape...just in time time to see poor Mayushii die yet again.
This time, Okabe doesn't waste a moment once he comes to and he immediately asks Kurisu for help. It takes a while, but he explains the situation and everything that he's gone through and waits for her solution. What she comes up with is for Okabe to figure out what email was caused the IBN 5100 to disappear from the lab in this worldline For some reason, Okabe doesn't seem to remember but it was the one Faris aka Akiba sent that made her a star Rainett player and changed Akihabara forever. Hopefully Okabe realizes this soon and undoes the D-mail even though it goes against his promise to Faris for her helping him. However, sending a D-mail back that far is super risky. What if the changes lead to the Time Leap machine not being made and SERN still being on their trail? Okabe has to be really careful about this if he wants to ensure that he is able to undo Mayushii's death again.
After time leaping again Okabe took a moment to reflect and realized that Faris' unknown D-mail was the key to everything. So he finds out that she had a RaiNet competition and they bump into each other as she is getting chased by rival RAINETT players that were bitter that she beat them. After a daring escape, she tells Okabe that she remembers the original worldline! She remembers the Akihabara that Okabe knows and the Mayqueen Maid Cafe. However, she also said that she doesn't want to erase her D-mail because she used it to save her father's life who passed away 10 years ago. So now we have an awful conundrum which leaves Faris and Okabe with the awful decision of saving Mayushii or Faris' dad. But first, the game has to have Okabe get beaten up by the gang of RaiNet players and nursed back to help by Faris' dad just so when she inevitably makes the decision to say goodbye to him, it hurts us more. Thanks Steins Gate for extra feelz! I did not need them haha. But before that, their conversation did give us some happy closure: Suzuha completed her mission. She delivered the IBN 5100 to Faris' dad like she was supposed to. However, Faris got kidnapped and her father had to sell it to a "French buyer" to get the ransom money.
This leads to the next big decision: send the D-mail which will reset the worldline back and have her father die guaranteeing that Okabe gete his IBN 5100 back or try to find a way to save them both with a carefully written email. Naturally, I attempt to go for the latter and hope it doesn't burn us in the end. Also, Faris is awesome, and I am happy that she trusts Okabe and is really into him, but if I have any say in the matter, Okabe and Kurisu are going to have super smart babies in the future lol! But it is interesting that Faris seems to have a partial "Reading Steiner"
So the answer the question of whether or not it burns us in the end is a bittersweet no. Hououin succeeded in the mission. Mayushii is safe. Faris' dad is safe. And SERN isn't coming for them. But at what cost? "Nothing is free. Everything has a price."
"I'm all alone in this world. My friends will never remember me. The events in my memories never happened."
And to add insult to injury, Faris and Hououin are now a couple and Hououin has no memories of their relationship either. While alternate ending #1 was dreary and unfulfilling, this one was lonely and bittersweet.
Hououin: "I probably won't get my memories back, but I want to fall in love with you all over again."
Faris: "Is it ok if I still love you?"
Me: Is it ok if I clutch my heart and cry a bit?
I am glad that this ending was more fleshed out and gave you that much-needed sense of hope.
Chapter 8 + Alternate Ending #3: Sending the email and going back to the original worldline starts chapter 8. We start out with a hope that Faris will remember something, anything about the other worldline with her father, but sadly, she does not. So Okabe gave her a very sincere apology. But with Faris having the influence on Akihabara again, that means that the IBN-5100 would be back at the shrine... or so we thought.
It was still donated 10 years ago, however Lukako's father was unable to locate it. When he asked Lukako herself, she seems to know more than she lets on about the IBN-5100's disappearance. Since the next big D-mail change was Lukako's gender, he realizes that this would be a sensitive subject and he needs to heed carefully about changing the worldline back.
More importantly, it is still August 14th. Mayuri died the first time on the 13th. She died after the first divergence on the 14th and Okabe reasons that she'll die on the 15th next but he should be ready for anything. He lets events play out and finds out no one comes to the the lab yet but they go after Mayuri and kidnap her at ComiMa via a phone call from Daru. Thank goodness he called. So Okabe time leaps to give himself more time and to figure out a way to undo Lukako's D-mail.
This leads to a humorous and then sad conversation with Kurisu on how to get it done. Followed by a complete disaster when actually trying it on Lukako. Man that was heartbreaking. Poor Okabe for having to go through all of this. And poor Lukako on this worldline who has to deal with her crush Okabe telling her that he thinks of her as a guy. Big oof!
Kurisu offers Okabe more suggestions and the more they talk after Okabe tine leaps, the more he seems to be the rational one while she seems to be the mad scientist. First with her mocking and second with her suggestions which even though were suggested as a last resort, were still very cruel. I am having a hard time deciding whether Hououin or Kurisu is my favorite character in this series at this point. But I swear if none of the game's multiple endings has them dating by the end, I'm going to start a riot.
So after another failed try with Lukako because she offered Okabe an ultimatum of being his girlfriend for two days, Okabe made a tactical retreat to August 11th and asked for Kurisu so they could initiate "Operation Christina" to get Lukako to change her D-mail back... and that fails miserably as well with Hououin of all people aborting the mission by calling Kurisu an "experiment-loving girl" further proving my point that Kurisu is becoming more mad scientist than Hououin and I freaking love it haha. So Hououin still tries to tell Lukako the truth and she cries and waits until the next day to profess her ultimatum again to Okabe. But this time, he brings Kurisu along for "Operation Christian II"... which also is a hilarious failure. So it all leads up to Okabe agreeing to save Mayuri and the world from SERN's influence... by being Lukako's boyfriend for 3 days now. So Hououin needs to get dating advice from his trustworthy assistant Christina which was both super cute and also one of their most hilarious arguments yet. In case I haven't said it enough, I am 100% shipping those two hardcore haha. To repeat myself, if the game doesn't have an ending with Okabe and Kurisu "going to a beautiful beach resort exchanging their first kiss bathed in the light of the setting sun", then I am rioting.
For the date, Hououin took Lukako to a family restaurant. But it wasn't until after Lukako asked Hououin if he remembered how they met. I was not expecting Hououin to be such a wholesome and nice guy to then him-Lukako. What an adorable backstory! The second date doesn't go as well meaning... they don't go at all and Okabe made Lukako cry again. He takes her to ComiMa for the third date (honestly a scary idea considering Mayuri was meant to die later that night) and left early getting the pager number that he needed. But he felt so awful about how he ended things with Lukako, he time leaped to make things right.
And boy, did Hououin Kyouma make things right. It's funny, in the beginning of the series, Okabe's Hououin persona was scaring away people and making others not like him. Now he uses the persona to make them feel comfortable and like it's the good old days. Getting Lukako comfortable and practicing with her sword Samidare was such a heartwarming thing to watch and it got me tearing up. Sorry Kurisu, I think Okabe just moved back into first place for my favorite character again.
Yet, the goodbye was so much worse for my heart. Why Lukako?! Why did you have to let Okabe know that you have memories of when you werw a guy and that you always loved him but that you were hiding your feelings for him? Ughhhh this is breaking my heart!!! Just like Faris, all Lukako wants is to remember the day she had with Okabe. And she can't even have that and it just stabs at the heart. The game gives you the choice to send or not send the email again. This is a no brainer. We need to send it... but I want to see the alternate ending first so I'll wait and see what happens first.
After a long depressing ending that made me feel like I was playing Life Is Strange, something very interesting happened. After Okabe told Kurisu and then Lukako that he chose to let Mayuri die and he would accept the guilt on his own, (until ultimately letting Lukako shoulder the guilt with him) Lukako brought up the idea of her time leaping to the day of Mayuri's death so that she could go with her to ComiMa in cosplay so Mayuri can die with a smile on her face. This is the first time anyone else besides Okabe used the Time Leap machine so it was very interesting to see how it affected Okabe. Essentially, Okabe from the previous worldline is sucked into this new worldline with no memories of the changes that happened. It's actually a really awful thing to realize. However, for this scene, it wasn't. In fact, it was beautiful. Because now, Okabe now gets to treasure these new memories via the photos that was taken of them by Daru without having to watch Mayuri die again. This still isn't the true ending of Stein's Gate, but of the three that I've seen thus far, I am the most ok with how this one played out.
Chapter 9 + Alternate Ending #4: The call was made to Lukako's mom's pager and the gender reversal was undone. The worldline changed. Lukako didn't remember anything from the previous worldline and as female Lukako said, male Lukako would lie about his true feelings for Okabe which is really sad. But more to the point, Okabe got Lukako's father to look for the IBN-5100 again... and this time it was stolen! With two D-mails left to erase, this means that Kiryu Moeka's is priority No. 1 and it needs to be cancelled.
But the big issue, how will Okabe get Moeka's phone from her to send the D-mail? A bigger twist happens that adds an interesting wrinkle to everything. For some reason, after changing Lukako back to a male, on this worldline, Moeka commits suicide! But it still doesn't stop Mayushii from dying either. So Okabe has to time leap back before Moeka kills herself to get the phone. This is still a very risky thing to do and I hope he continues to get Kurisu's help with this. Also, I am curious if Mokea used the IBN 5100 to hack SERN and if that's why she chose to kill herself. Perhaps she felt guilty for working for them and betraying Okabe?
So Okabe does get Kurisu's help... after breaking into Moeka's house and finding a broken and mentally unstable version of her muttering crazily and clinging onto her phone. And once again I am adding a point to Kurisu's mad scientist character traits placing her just about equal to Hououin for suggesting that Okabe kill Moeke in order to get her phone. Naturally, Okabe couldn't, but he appreciated Kurisu's ferocity on the subject nonetheless. He even said that he loved how isn't a hypocrite and that she stands by her convictions. And he actually did use the word "love". So... #MaKabe is happening!!!
After Okabe's unorthodox but surprisingly effective interrogation, he was able to find out that the IBN 5100 was placed in the same coin locker that Lukako put the IBN 5100 in when she broke it on the female Lukako worldline. Very bizarre coincidence. So Hououin time leaps and tries to get to it before FB can. But it triggers an alarm and is caught by the police. So he comes up with an even more interesting plan. He encourages Moeke to come with him to stake out the locker so she could meet FB as she picks out the IBN 5100. Sometimes, Hououin too surprises me with his brilliant ideas. After a long chase filled with a bunch of time leaps, we find out that Okabe's land lord Tennouji is connected with SERN somehow because he held onto the computer until the Rounders showed up to pick the computer up and transport it on an airplane to France.
And after confronting (Tennouji) Mr. Braun, we find out that his name Ferdinand Braun make the initials F.B. and he has been a Rounder for SERN this entire time and he had to so he could protect his daughter. Okabe gave the speech of a lifetime telling Mr. Braun off and letting him know that Suzuha came from the future to stop SERN and would be disappointed in him for working for them. It was a powerful speech that ultimately led to Mr. Braun committing suicide. And even more creepily, Mr. Braun's daughter shows up, kills Moeke, and then vows to kill Okabe in 15 years. So the game offers us another choice. It seems obvious to send a D-mail now, but once again, I am curious to see what would happen if I didn't.
Best decision ever! This not only still leads to me sending the D-mail right after, but I found out a creepy easter egg about Mr. Braun's daughter Nae. She was from the future and time leaped 15 years in 48 hour increments so she could kill Moeka whom she blamed for killing her father. She also is the one who is destined to kill Okabe 15 years in the future like Suzuha said he would die. Super creepy.
But with the sending of one D-mail all of this is erased and Okabe finally returns to the worldline where the IBN 5100 is back in his possession. Now his Sir Supa Hacka can crack into SERN delete the D-mails and then Okabe can go back and cancel the original D-mails so that the worldline will go back to the first one and Mayuri can live... so before the lottery ticket email, what was the first one... noooo... why?!!!! It was the D-mail that saved Kurisu's life on this worldline.
Son of a bitch! Why did that thought never occur to me? Kurisu is considered the "Mother of Time Travel" according to Suzuha in the future. If she never got a chance to build time machines because she was killed, it stands to reason that SERN wouldn't come after Okabe and kill Mayushii because they never would have made the Time Leap machine without her... ugh I am going to hate chapter 10 so much...
Chapter 10: "Who do I let die?" If only I knew Okabe.
Option 1: Do what we set out to do: save Mayuri by erasing the email that saved waifu Kurisu's life. Kurisu even gave us a glint of hope that Okabe might not be changing realities of every person on each worldline but merely be switching worldlines himself while Kurisu's live consciousness might continue on in that current world. We have no idea if it's true, but we can hope.
Option 2: Let Mayuri die and SERN takes over unless we stop them. This option doesn't have a lot of upside to it and makes the reverting of the other Lab Mems D-mails essentially a waste of time and it just added extra heartbreak and sorrow for Okabe for no reason.
The choice appears simple, when you really think about it, but I really don't want to kill Kurisu. I got some hope when Okabe visited Mayushii at her grandmother's grave and she told her grandma about her dreaming of all of the times that she died. In that same conversation, she said that she thought that she was a "burden" to the Lab Mems and apologized for it and Okabe made sure that she knew how special Mayushii is to him.
On the flip side, Okabe came clean to Kurisu about everything including his Hououin Kyoma persona. It was a sincere heart to heart and she once again continues to be the one friend he can trust to give him the best advice through all of the hardship he's had to face.
This entire last chapter destroyed me. At first, I was glad that Okabe told Mayuri the truth, but when she ran up to Kurisu and told her not to "disappear" for her, I lost it. My eyes were watering through most of this episode as I clutched my heart from many of the things Mayushi and Kurisu was saying, but then the tears really started to flow as the choice was decided for me. You can't work as hard as you did to save Mayushii and then let her die in the end. I just wish that there was some way to save Kurisu too. She was such a great character and I loved her last banter with Okabe and I like to think that she actually did use the Time Leap machine just so she could sew Okabe's lab coat together but forgot to back a towel haha.
I honestly don't know what ending I prefer, but this one felt like it had a good amount of closure. And Mayuri remembering Kurisu's words to her on the Beta worldline about finding happiness allowed me to have at least one tearful smile before calling it a wrap on Steins Gate. This has to be the ending from the TV series. It is the most complete and makes the most sense. But dear lord was it heartbreaking. 4 endings and all 4 of them were depressing in their own ways. However, there are two other alternate endings that I have yet to discover. I'm really hoping that one of them is the happy one with Kurisu that I desperately want and that the other is one in which SERN gets their way and they officially become the overlords of time and are unstoppable. But for now, I have to be satisfied with the 4 depressing endings that I did discover and much like Life Is Strange, enjoy the ride and cherish the memories made along the way even if things get undone because of a decision that had to be made.
Alternate Ending #5 (I still need to replay and find this. But considering how much I like Kurisu, I like to think that this will be the "happiest" depressing ending of Steins' Gate that I will find. At least I hope so. I deserve one happy ending with Okabe getting the #bestgirl right?
Alternate Ending #6 aka "the True Ending" (I am going to play all of Steins' Gate Zero first before besting this ending because it apparently adds to the impact of the story. Does anyone else agree with this? I found this from this Steam Post: https://steamcommunity.com/app/412830/discussions/0/144512526673739445/)
Characters: A+ *I love the world of Stein's Gate. Every character has their quirks that gets you to like them and they all have their own levels of tolerance that they're willing to put up with Hououin's shenanigans which means some are more than willing to tick him off and start arguments, while others ignore him or are fascinated by his bizarreness. But characters like "girl genius" Kurisu, or "super hacka" Daru, or "Costume designer *Tutturu!!!! Mayushii, or "Part-Time Warrior" Suzuha, or "Shining Finger/Mail Demon" Moeka, and "nyan nyan maid cafe girl" Faris all have their own sets of quirks and oddities that gives this visual novel so much life even though the majority of the events that are occurring are random shenanigans.
Final Verdict: 10/10 Anyone that took the time to read everything that I wrote would know how much love for Steins; Gate that I have. This game was my introduction into visual novels (I started playing this before Doki Doki Literature Club but it took me a long time to finish this game and 40+ hours of my life were devoted to this) and most importantly, it blew me away how a cliche sci-fi trope such as time travel can have so many unique applications that makes the story as fresh as it is.
I initially complained about the intro of this game, but once I got into the nitty grittiness of the story line, I fell in love with every character in Steins Gate. I love the bantering. I love the scientific and philosophical discussions. I love the Otaku culture and its satire. I love that this game gives you alternate endings even though none of them are happy ones. I LOVE the music. And I love how much this game made me care. Literally the only two video games that affected me so much that I ended up crying and being genuinely depressed coming into work the next day are Mass Effect 3 (Playing Mass Effect 3 and I Need a Hug Right Now... :() and Steins Gate Elite.
As I write this on my phone during my lunch break at work, I realize that I am behaving as a real-life Okabe because I am contemplating replaying all of Steins Gate just so I can find alternate endings 5 and 6 in the hopes that one of them is a happy one. (I did that with Mass Effect 3 as well. I replayed the ending of Mass Effect 2 and all of 3 to get the result I wanted haha) Steins Gate Elite is an incredible game that was worth every penny and then some. Even if the 25 episode anime series is perfectly executed, I won't help but be disappointed in it because of the amount of content from this story line that will have to have been cut to ensure that it would work. I will try my best to objective in my rating and my review, but for now, just know that I am now obsessed with Stein's Gate and may even be changing my ringtone from Kavinsky & Lovefoxxx Nightcall (from Drive) to the one that Hououin Kyouma uses.
This is the will of Steins Gate.
El Psy Kongroo.
Posted by Lab_Mem_Num001 | Apr 7, 2020 4:52 AM | 0 comments