Steins;Gate Elite

Steins;Gate Elite is a classic visual novel adventure game. It is a complex remake of the very popular and acclaimed game Steins;Gate. It replaces two-dimensional illustrations and character portraits with animated segments from the anime series Steins;Gate that adapted the original story and was released in 2011. Steins;Gate Elite was developed by 5pb. This developer is well known by the fans of the visual novels and Japanese Otaku-oriented pop culture. 5pb developed many console games, only a handful of which were made available in the Western markets.

Original Steins;Gate debuted in 2009. It was the second entry in the series of science-fiction adventure games (the first one was Chaos;Head form 2008). Later, the series expanded with titles like Robotics;Note, Chaos;Child and Occultic;Nine. All games in the series are loosely connected and they take place in modern Japan. Their story revolves around the technological progress and science experiments. They are also based on urban legends and conspiracy theories.

Plot

The protagonist of Steins;Gate Elite is Okabe Rintaro, a first-year student of the Tokyo University. Together with his friend from the university and a female childhood friend, he founded something called the “Future Gadget Laboratory”. In a rented apartment, they are attempting to create a functional electric device that would bring them some profits. In order to better assume the role of an inventor, Okabe is always wearing a white coat, he uses an irritating nickname and he speaks in a weird way. One day, a new gadget begins to behave in a weird manner and it changes the surrounding reality. What’s more, Okabe finds a lead on a conspiracy related to the invention, he witnesses a brutal murder, and he sees some paranormal events. All of that starts a chain of events that will change the life of Okabe and his closest friends.

Mechanics

Steins;Gate Elite is a typical Japanese visual novel. This means that, during the majority of the time, the players are reading and listening to the dialogues of the characters while having little impact on the situation. From time to time, it is possible to use the cellphone of the protagonist and call one of the characters or send a message. During the most important parts of the story, the players can make decisions that can lead to different endings. The game features a big dictionary with descriptions of all terms, scientific theories and characters appearing in the game.

Technical aspects

The developers of Steins;Gate Elite used basically each second of the anime adaptation of Steins;Gate from 2011 that was created by WhiteFox studios. The creators of the anime series also created new content that represents the alternative endings of the game. During the game, the players can watch fully animated story sequences, which are intertwined with more static fragments (similar to classic two-dimensional visual novels).

Last updated on August 21, 2018