orthodoxy1095
Banned
Platform: PS3 / PSV (PSTV compatible)
Price: $39.99/£29.99 (physical PS3/PSV) | $39.99/£34.99/€44.99/AU$62.95 (PS3 digital) |$39.99/ £39.99/€44.99/AU$62.95 (PSV digital)
Players: 1
Genre: Visual Novel
Developer: 5pb., Nitroplus
Publisher: PQube
Rating: PEGI: 16 / ESRB: M (PC port rating)
Release Date: June 5th (EU) / August 31st (NA)
Download size: PS3: 5.5GB / PSV: 1.6GB
Set in the year 2010, Steins;Gate is the story of a group of friends, dragged along in the schemes of one Okabe Rintarou, aka Okarin. One day the friends discover that in their tinkering, they have accidentally invented a method of sending messages into the past. More or less, they have a time machine of sorts on their hands. In their "lab" based in Akihabara (Otaku HQ), the group begins to grow larger and their messages grow more frequent. However, the friends are drawn into a world of conspiracy and shifting timelines as they begin to realize that a simple message can change more than they imagined...
This is a story of friendship, betrayal, SERN, John Titor, the IBN 5100, cosplay, cat cafes and of course, time travel.
I can hear the screams already. "It's a Visual Novel! It doesn't really have gameplay! Why do you need a section for this?!" Oh hoho, au contraire! Indeed, most Visual Novels do use a very standard "choice system" as the basis for their gameplay and diverging storylines. However, Steins;Gate is not a standard Visual Novel! The gameplay of Steins;Gate is found on the protagonist's cellphone. How you respond to your cellphone will steer the course of the story and your relationships with the other characters. Answer calls or ignore calls. Receive emails, reply to emails. Some messages will even specific text that can be selected like a hyperlink to reply to. Your response to the messages and calls will determine in what way the plot moves forward!
Screenshots not from PS3/PSV version
Although the two versions are fairly similar, I have separated the reviews according to the version they reviewed.
PSV
- Dealspwn - 10/10
- The Vita Lounge - 5/5
- Digitally Downloaded - 5/5
- God is a Geek - 9.5/10
- Vandal Online - 9.2/10
- Multiplayer.it - 9/10
- Gaming Age - B+
- Playstation Lifestyle - 8/10
- games(TM) - 8/10
- Gamestyle - 8/10
- The Sixth Axis - 7/10
- Pocket Gamer UK - 6/10
- Digitally Downloaded - 5/5
- ZTGD - 9.5/10
- Playstation Official Magazine UK - 90
- Games Master UK - 86
- 3DJuegos - 8.5
- LaPS4 - 80/100
- Metro GameCentral - 8/10
- Edge Magazine - 70
- Should I watch the anime while I wait?
Ehhhhhhhhhhhhh. Probably not. It’s a great, great anime, but it’ll probably be a better experience to play the game and watch the show after. - I feel like we’ve had this thread before already. Has this been released before?
Well yes. There was an English PC port that was released last year (2014). This however is the first console release in the West. It might also be worth noting for interested parties that there is an English iOS version incoming as well. - Will this support cross-save?
It does not seem to. And to preempt questions about cross-buy, it doesn’t seem to have cross-anything, unfortunately. However, that means more trophies! - Oh trophies! Speaking of which, is there a platinum?
Yes there is. Here’s the trophy list in case you’re interested. Obviously, spoiler alert. - Is the OT Title a reference to something or are you so dumb that you couldn’t come up with something?
It’s a reference. I promise. Credit actually goes to WhirlwindMonk:
- Is this game related to those other weird games with semi-colons in the titles?
Yes. This is part of the Science Adventure series which is comprised of Chaos;Head, Steins;Gate, Robotics;Notes, and Chaos;Child. No you do not need to have played the others to play this one. - Does this have an English dub?
Nope. Only Japanese audio is available. - How long will this take me to finish?
Looking at HLTB and VNDB the estimates to complete all endings seems to be somewhere between 30-50 hours. Actual playing time will of course be dependent on your reading speed.
.
