After
roughly thirty hours of intense reading and button-mashing, I am finally done
with Steins;Gate. I am somehow
relieved that the whole thing is over at long last, but that is not my dominant
feeling about that game. No; my dominant feeling is disappointment.
That’s
right, disappointment. Steins;Gate
basically failed to live up to my expectations and transformed over time into
something that I didn’t quite enjoy. Of course, you could blame me for having expectations
in the first place, but here’s the thing: the game itself planted these expectations in me. The truth is that I had no
preconceived idea about Steins;Gate
before I started playing it; however, after being fed the delicious data-laden
four exposition chapters, my expectations regarding the narrative went off the
roof. I pictured a convoluted storyline with branching paths completing each
other à la 999, rife with plot twists
and dramatic time paradoxes, all peppered with mind-bending concepts and dripping
with irony and dark humour.
Worse by the ending
What I
got instead was a cliché light novel with a strong romantic flavour and a touch
of harem. When I complained about the mundanity of Suzuha and Okabe’s blooming
love story in the “Irreversible Reboot” ending, little did I know that this was
actually the template for five of the
game’s six endings. I was absolutely livid when I realized that, and after
having cleared these five romantic endings in a row, I was literally frothing
at the mouth. Had I written a post at that moment, it would have been the most
scathing harangue of them all; fortunately, the uncovering of the so-called
“True Ending” somehow saved the day and soothed my foul mood. That’s not to say
that said “True Ending” is a deeply satisfying outcome that managed to redeem
the whole game in my eyes, but it certainly fared much better than its five
counterparts. At least, it didn’t turn out to be a harem ending of sorts; I
think a piece of my soul would have died if it had been the case. Anyway, let’s
take a closer look at these ill-fitted romantic endings:
—6/Isolated Jamais Vu: This ending
occurs at the end of the 7th chapter if you choose not to send the
D-Mail, regardless of how many True Ending flags you triggered before. It pairs
Okabe with Faris and is by far the most unpolished ending of the bunch, leaving
gaping plot holes in its trail. For one thing, it actually takes place on a yet
another Attractor Field, although the game never tells you that clearly.
According to the Steins;Gate wiki,
this is supposed to be Attractor Field Omega, an attractor field in which the
SERN threat may still be lurking around if the presence of the divergence meter
is to be believed. The changes occurring in this worldline are quite drastic,
since Okabe finds himself being your average student instead of the chuunibyou patient he used to be and not
knowing Daru and Mayuri at all. That is all nice and well, and I certainly
appreciate the harshness of this outcome, but there is a problem: we are not
told how this result was obtained. We
only know that Faris sent a certain D-mail that was supposed to save her
father, but the actual content of that mail is not shown to us; instead, we
only get to witness the radical consequences of its sending. Do you seriously
expect me to swallow this and be happy with it, game? Sorry, but that won’t
happen. I won’t let you get away with such complacency, and I deem that ending
the crappiest of the bunch. Next!
—5/Irreversible
Reboot: This ending occurs at the end of the 6th chapter if you
choose not to send the D-Mail, regardless of how many True Ending flags you
triggered before. I criticized it in my last post, but in hindsight, it is
actually my second favourite ending after the True Ending. It is poignant and
laced with angst, and it gives a greater understanding of Suzuha’s character.
Of course, it is not satisfactory either, since we’re left with no idea if
Okabe and Suzuha’s risky trip to 1975 bears fruit (and to my dismay, the others
endings don’t allude to this point at all).
—4/Lind
of Corruption and Rebirth: This ending occurs at the end of the 8th
chapter if you choose not to send the D-Mail, regardless of how many True
Ending flags you triggered before. It takes place on Attractor Field Alpha and
pairs Okabe with female Lukako. Honestly, this ending is a complete joke. We
have to face the horrible truth here: Lukako’s absurd sex change was
implemented in the game for the sole purpose of allowing Okabe to have a
romance with Lukako without treading into Boy’s Love territory. Sure, the
writers tried to integrate that element into the narrative by making it affect
the worldlines, but the result is utterly laughable: it turns out that female
Lukako broke the IBN 5100 because she was sweeping the storehouse where it was
kept, while male Lukako only swept the courtyard and thus left the computer
intact. So, same body, voice and clothing from male to female, but different
sweeping patterns? Allow me to grin sarcastically at that point.
—3/Stardust
Sky: This ending occurs at the 10th chapter if you triggered none of
the True Ending flags beforehand. It takes place on the recovered Beta Attractor
Field and pairs Okabe with good ol’ Mayuri, but also implies the death of
Kurisu. This is an unremarkable ending for the most part and seems to have been
put in the game solely to inflate the number of available outcomes.
—2/Paradox
Meltdown: A tad harder to obtain, this ending occurs at the 10th
chapter if you triggered up to five True Ending flags. Taking place on both the
Alpha and Beta Attractor Fields, it is a very emotional ending that shows Okabe
admitting his crush on Kurisu and mourning the fact that he has to sacrifice
her to save both Mayuri and the future. It is also mostly superfluous, since it
turns out to be a truncated version of the True Ending.
Although
endings 4 to 6 offer interesting developments as well as revelatory insights
into some of the characters’ psyche, they have the major flaw of shifting the
focus from the eradication of the SERN menace to the pursuit of Okabe’s
newfound romantic interests. Well, excuse me, but I don’t care one bit about
Okabe’s carnal urges and fickle love stories. What I care about is to know
whether the SERN threat has been circumvented for good, which is not answered
in a conclusive way in any of these three endings. Worldlines have been manipulated
so thoroughly that it could be the
case, but we don’t know for sure,
which is deeply frustrating. As for endings 2 and 3, they do solve the SERN
issue by shifting back to the original Beta Attractor Field, but they are far
from being satisfying either. If you look at it closely, they are actually the
same exact ending in terms of actual events, the only difference between them
being Okabe’s romantic focus: “Stardust Sky” shows him content with his
decision to save Mayuri and brushing off Kurisu’s death, while “Paradox
Meltdown” extensively shows his despair at losing his beloved Kurisu. At any
rate, they both turn out to be a trifle boring and they fail to elicit the deep
relief that a return to Attractor Field Beta should be expected to provide.
True Ending, where art thou?
To feel
that much-awaited relief, you have to wait for the unfolding of the fabled and
highly elusive “True Ending”. Titled “Open the Steins Gate”, it is by far the
most complete and satisfying of the bunch: it ties together loose elements that
appeared at the very beginning of the story and wraps things up in a clever and
delightful way. Too bad this masterful narrative was not the template for all
of Steins;Gate’s endings, really.
That delicious dish of a True Ending is only ever-so-slightly spoiled by the
cliché concept that supports it, namely the existence of a worldline
independent from any attractor field where the future could be shaped according
to one’s own free will. Hum, haven’t I seen this before in, like, a million
J-RPGs? Oh, well.
I
finally used an FAQ to navigate my way to this ending—and boy, don’t I regret
it. The requirements for the unlocking of “Open the Steins Gate” are
ridiculously arcane, and I’m pretty sure that I would have given up on the game
long before triggering them. Here’s the deal: you must build a relationship
with Kurisu that will prove intense and enduring enough to motivate future
Okabe on worldline Beta to dive again into time-travel research and find a way
to set things rights after Kurisu’s death. This is done by exchanging a series
of emails with Kurisu over the course of the game’s ten chapters, and the true
ending flags are triggered by answering specific words in her emails—or, in one
case, by not answering them. Aside
from the fact that exchanging a couple of emails seems a trifle too superficial
a way to strengthen a love bond, even in these digital times, these flags
present a stinging problem: although they make perfect sense in the context of
the True Ending, it is virtually impossible to guess what they are before
uncovering said True Ending. You could spend dozens of hours trying to figure
out which emails are relevant between Mayuri’s, Faris’, Lukako’s and Kurisu’s
and trying every single possible combination of answers before unearthing the
True Ending—that is, if you don’t get bored to death and jump ship long before.
Things are all the more confusing as this flag system is only used for the True
Ending and it corollary, the truncated “Paradox Meltdown”, while the other four
endings use a branching path system. Maybe this is common practice in the realm
of Visual Novels, but it is quite confusing for a beginner like me. 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors, which is the
closest thing to a VN I’ve played before Steins;Gate,
used a branching path system and stuck to it; as a result, it was much more
satisfying to navigate and the uncovering of the various endings was much
smoother. There was a flag of sorts to unearth, granted, but it was only a
single occurrence and it made perfect sense in the context of the narrative, so
guessing what this flag was and recovering it was piece of cake. On the other
hand, the lack of cohesiveness of Steins;Gate’s
ending requirements and the arcane quality of its flag system forces you to
rely on trial-and-errors—or FAQs as a last resort—which is anything but
fulfilling.
And all that’s in between
Endings
aside, Steins;Gate's narrative suffers from a
couple of blatant flaws. It fortunately avoided major plot holes, but that is
only a small relief compared to the disappointment brought by these flaws,
which go as such:
—Ad hoc
overdose: Steins;Gate relies way too
much on ad hoc to get out of narrative binds. Okabe is stuck because he doesn’t
know the contents of Faris’ D-mail and has absolutely no way to recover them?
No problem! Just let Faris gain Reading Steiner out of the blue and remember
all of a sudden events from other worldlines, even though it was previously
established that only Okabe had this ability—and even though it creates more
problems than it solves, problems that I will cover in a couple of lines. No
one can figure out the identity of Suzuha’s father? No problem! Just transform
dumb-as-a-brick Mayuri into Conan Edogawa long enough to solve the matter, and—case
closed! Yeah, right. And no, making Okabe
comment on the fact that Mayuri can be “surprisingly perceptive at times” doesn’t
add a shred of believability to that most unlikely turn of events. There is
also the infamous Lukako affair that I mentioned in my first post, along with
plenty of other minor occurrences that I won’t detail here to avoid boring
everybody to death—including myself.
Such cheap narrative tricks are infuriating and shouldn’t be used in a
storyline that presented itself from the onset as based on scientific concepts
and ruled by strict determinism.
—Missed
identification to narrator: Protagonist-based first person narration is
supposed to help one relate to the narrator and somehow identify to them. It
fails spectacularly in the case of Steins;Gate,
and it does so for one simple reason: Okabe is an absolute MORON. There is no way I can relate and identify to
a character that cannot put two and two together on a regular basis and sprouts crap such as “Twenty years from now is such a long
time, I don’t want to sacrifice my friends’ precious memories right now. Let’s
rather sacrifice the future of the whole humanity, yoo-hoo!” I know that the
latest theories in neuroscience claim that the parts of the brain involved in
decision-making are not fully developed until age 25, but such a
lack of common sense and twisted sense of priorities is just ridiculous. As a
whole, most of Okabe’s decisions are totally at odds with what any sensible
person would decide in the same circumstances—and let’s not even talk about his propensity to get horny in the most inappropriate situations. Hum, could
you forget your privates and think a little more about the fate of the world
instead, you stupid and unrelatable main character? Jeez, I so hate being stuck
in your brain.
—Lack of
attention to details: Like most Vita games, Steins;Gate
has a very obvious “budget” quality. That’s okay per se: it is the Vita style,
and it is kind of endearing, actually. However, it is not okay when the lack of
polish goes as far as to undermine the narrative. There are numerous times when
the pictures on screen blatantly contradict the text, which is simply
unacceptable in a visual novel. I’ll limit myself to one single example: in
endings 2 and 3 after the return to the Beta Attractor Field, Okabe mourns the
fact that Kurisu’s upgrades to the PhoneWave are gone and that the machine is
back to its prior state. Yet what do we see on screen? Heck, you guessed it:
the PhoneWave with all the upgrades added by Kurisu. Way to ruin the moment and
destroy its emotional impact, game! This mistake is hardly forgivable,
especially since the game does
feature pictures of the original PhoneWave; it’s not like the developers needed
to create a specific picture for that scene. This is simply carelessness,
carelessness that spoils the immersion.
It’s
time to wrap this up, folks. Although I adored Steins;Gate at first, my love sadly grew cold as chapters and endings went by. That
game had some incredible potential and could have been a masterclass
mind-bender; instead, the writers decided to play it easy and to indulge into some
romantic meanderings. Well, be it. I don’t buy it, and Steins;Gate will remain a major disappointment as far as I’m
concerned. That won’t deter me from playing more visual novels, though—and very
soon at that, because I need compensation. I need a fresh mouth washer to clean
my palate of the bitter taste left by Steins;Gate,
and that mouth washer is going to be none other than Danganronpa. I hope it will perform its duty well and give birth to
a stellar review! For now, thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!
God, I felt the exact same way. I was expecting something closer to 999, VLR, you know, something that wasn't vapid and instead I got this romantic dribble I had to force myself thorugh. I'm sure other girls (and I guess guys for this matter) will girls enjoy this horse shit but if it's so critically acclaimed because it's a romantic happy ending, gag me with a spoon.
ReplyDeleteGreat review, I was angered and disappointed as well!
Thank you for the kind words! :)
DeleteAlthough I've mostly gotten over my disappointment, Steins;Gate remains a dirty blotch in my Vita resume and the only Vita game I ever disliked so far. I have nothing against romantic material and romance in games per se, mind you, but they wasted a perfectly good story in the case of Steins;Gate. The time travel theme could have generated a mind-boggling story a la 999 or VLR, indeed, but instead it was only used as a narrative background, which is a shame.
It was also annoying that Steins;Gate was depicted in reviews as this magnificent narrative feast while it is really nothing more that a romantic light novel, and a cliche one at that. Had I known beforehand about the romantic content of the game, I would have either avoided it or prepared myself for the romance-to-come and would thus have avoided disappointment, so more accurate reviews would have been most welcome! Oh, well.
No se hablar mucho ingles (i can`t speak enlish plz XD)
ReplyDeletehonestamente, estoy dividido entre dos opiniones, por una parte, estoy de acuerdo con muchas de las cosas que dijiste, y por el otro, esas cosas con las que estoy de acuerdo contigo no son suficientes para cambiar mi opinion al respecto: para mi, Steins;Gate es genial y no me defraudo, pero a pesar de todo, tienes razon, es malo que una historia tan rica como la de Steins;Gate tenga Harem metido, y que los finales no se complementen (pero oye, qe incluso eso tiene explicacion) y es curioso, a mi me gusto el sistema de juego y la manera de complementar las rutas de 999, pero la historia no me gusto en lo absoluto, pero de todos modos, aunque creo que muchas cosas de las que dices no estan siendo enfocadas desde el punto de vista correcto, me has convencido de algo: Tengo que jugar de nuevo 999, porque aunque creo que Steins;Gate es mejor(aun con el Harem y todo) creo que dejarle paso a 999 con su historia psicodelica y rara (broma)es una buena idea, porque al final, ambas me encantaron y ambas tienen sus cosas malas... muy malas
¡Bienvenido! :) No se preocupe, Google Translate está aquí para ayudar. También tengo vagas nociones de español y podía entender la mayor parte de su comentario.
DeleteUn año después de jugar Steins;Gate, mi opinión de que no ha cambiado mucho. Todavía pienso que es una pérdida de una buena historia y podría haber sido así, mucho mejor. Yo estaba pensando en la compra de la secuela de un segundo, pero finalmente di por vencido. Yo no quiero ser quemado otra vez por esa franquicia, no, gracias.
Jugar 999 de nuevo sería una buena idea, así como jugar sus dos secuelas! ^__^
Welcome! :) Don't worry, Google Translate is here to help. I also have vague notions of Spanish and could understand most of your comment.
One year after playing Steins;Gate, my opinion of it has not changed much. I still think it's a waste of a good story and could have been so, so much better. I was pondering purchasing the sequel for a second but finally gave up. I don't wanna be burnt again by that franchise, no thanks.
Replaying 999 would indeed be a good idea, as well as playing its two sequels! ^__^
Even though I like S;G, all flaws described are true
ReplyDeleteIt truly bothered me that most reviews glosed over that game's flaws and described the story as amazing and near-perfect. Although Steins;Gate's aggregate score is higher than Chaos;Child's one by a good ten points, I firmly think that Chaos;Child is infinitely superior to Steins;Gate, both in terms of story and gameplay.
DeleteWell I agree with many of these points, I also find the romantic elements a little off putting. However I disagree that faris and mayuri storyline are "ad-hoc". Throughout steins;gate, Steins;gate 0 and the movie it has always been implied that everyone has reading Steiner and this is not Okabe specific ability (what happened in 2000 maybe made it stronger). My understanding is that Okabe's memory is "the truth" of his personal history, while everyone else's memory is reconstructed based on worldine. However even with the reconstruction people still remember "the truth" as dreams etc, and can recall "the truth" given enough hints. With Mayuri I think you are categorizing people's intelligence without taking into account what they care about. Mayuri did not understand time travel or what not partially due to her never caring at all. But she cares a lot about people around her and actually uses her brain then. This is consistent throughout (she finds Suzuha's dad, immediately notices sth is wrong with Okabe after time leap. Notice in steins;gate 0 she at first defend Okabe inaction due to she seeing his pains -- no other person has understood the toll and despair of time travel as much, but 30 years later in dystopia she is all in for forcing Okabe to try to reach steins;Gate, possibly due to WW3 materialize and much more people around her suffering). Regarding being stuck in Okabe's head, I think for some reason I always played it with 3rd person perspective. I can see a normal human only caring about their friends at first and somehow the brain deceive them into feeling a propheted danger isn't real (Okabe did care about WW3 happening after he time leap into future and saw it first hand. Given what is happening with corona I think this is extremely accurate reflection of reality of human psych). I can sympathize with Okabe's break downs and emotional tolls and not wanting to shoulder the weight of the whole world. If you don't see Okabe as a hero but as an everyday Chunibyou kid who was forced into this situation the story might make more sense. Regarding alternative endings, don't take them seriously, I think they are to begin with intended to be head-canon what-ifs. There is in fact only 1 canon story that is the true ending.
ReplyDeleteWelcome, and thank you for that meaty and interesting comment. :)
DeleteI agree with everything you wrote, especially the point regarding Mayuri's more emotional intelligence and Okabe's very human reactions. Obviously, what I wrote reflected my feelings at the time and not some universal truth about the game; and let's face it, I was venting more than a little bit. :P I expected a highly scientific 'huis clos' type of narrative, and I got a light novel instead; my ranting reflects that frustration, that 'I didn't sign up for this' feeling.
Regarding Faris' and Mayuri's storylines, they may not be ad hoc in the greater context of the Steins;Gate lore; but at the time, I was only dealing with the original Steins;Gate, and it did feel like a totally ad hoc arrangement with the narrative to get out of a bind. Not to mention that it was very clumsily brought up, with no clever hints or foreshadowing.
Still, I think I may have been a tad unfair with the original Steins;Gate; and you may be happy to learn that I somewhat changed my mind about the series. I played Steins;Gate 0 and wrote a very positive review about it, which I invite you to read if you didn't do it already:
https://thatextralevel.blogspot.com/2019/03/steinsgate-0-better-game.html
I know this is an old post but I just finished the game and wanted to ask you about some things about your post. Im Japanese so my English might not be the best and the way things came off in the game might be different do to the translation. In your post I see you repeatedly talk about how the game wasted it's potential but do you think that's do to the execution of both the romance and the time travel/story content or because they were forced together? I'll admit, I'm not as picky(not in a bad way) or not as critical compared to you, so certain plot holes, common tropes etc might not bug me as much(even though I mostly agree with the things you say in your post) but the problems didn't bother me that much. It may be do to the fact that I'm more used to the Japanese culture but that isn't an excuse to the problems. What I do think is an excuse first of all this is an old game. Not saying that this game was the one that started the "anime tropes" because that's certainly not the case but at least the game was made before the "anime tropes" got hammered to death. So I think the way you talked about the anime tropes wasn't fair.(though that doesn't redeem the characters them selves) The second thing I want to say is that the reason for the anime tropes, romance element's etc were do to the fact that the creators wanted the game to appeal to a larger audience ,not the fact that there were lazy(or at least I think) I think that the romance element and the time travel might have not worked well together but I think the romance element was enhanced by the time travel element due to the fact that if these character's were in a dating sim alone the character's would be cardboard. And if the you took the game and cut the romance part off, it might have strengthed the story but it would appeal to a smaller audience. Especially do to the fact that non romantic visual novels aren't that popular (in my mind) In the end I'm not redeeming the game, just justifying it's decision but even though there's a ton of plot holes, eye rolling moments, and cringing moments, the presentation (great voice acting, unique art style good sound track) scientific explanations, funny humor, an insight on Japanese culture (otaku culture) I enjoyed the game quite bit. I wonder how you feel about the game now after you played many more visual novels and hope you answer my question I wrote at the start. P.S do you have a list of your game recommendations? I've read some of your reviews but I don't know how some games compare to other games, even if I know your opinion on that certain game.
ReplyDeleteWelcome, and thank you for taking the time to comment. ^^
DeleteTo answer your question: yes, I totally do think the waste of potential is due to the unhappy mix of romance and sci-fi. Those are two of the hardest genres to get right; so when you mash them together, you can expect a loss of substance on one side — or both. On the other hand, Steins;Gate's true route featuring Kurisu is really well handled; in my opinion, it should have been the only romance present in the game. The other romantic routes are half-baked and cheapen both Okabe's character and the story as a whole.
My opinion of the series changed somewhat after I played Steins;Gate 0. That sequel basically solves all my issues with the original Steins;Gate, and offers a much more pleasant experience. I wrote a very positive review about it, which I encourage you to read if you didn't already at https://thatextralevel.blogspot.com/2019/03/steinsgate-0-better-game.html
Slandering Steins;Gate for using anime tropes was indeed totally unfair, and I'll gladly admit it.:D The issue is not the use of anime tropes per se, but rather the fact that I don't fancy them; so of course you're right in pointoing out that the anime tropes are justified by the developer's desire to aim for a larger audience. Overall, I can safely claim that I don't quite aim for fairness in my posts; they are collections of reactions to a game rather than journalistic reviews. 95% of my posts are positive, 5% are negative — but all are passionate. ^^
As a result, I wouldn't dare to offer a list of game recommendations. A game that's a cult classic of mine may be just average for the next gamer — and vice versa. I could only deliver a list of my favourite titles in a given RPG subgenre, to use at one's discretion. ^^
Thank you for your reply. I've read your 0 review but haven't played it yet but judging from your review I think I'll enjoy it. I'm sorry for asking for a list. I see the reason you would not want to make one. Keep up with the passionate reviews😉
DeleteThank you for the kind words! That really made my day. ^_^
DeleteDon't feel bad about asking for a list of recommendations; one can never be wrong in asking. :) In lieu of such a list, I can tell you about the 3 RPGs that touched me the deepest when I played them: Terranigma on the SNES, Link's Awakening on the Game Boy, and Avalon Code on the DS. I have incredibly vivid memories of my runs of these games, and they left an indelible imprint on my gamer's soul.
Take care, and happy gaming to you! ^_^