Platinum Watch #58: Steins;Gate (PS3)

PSN Level 28 - 84%

Since I played Virtues Last Reward for PS Vita a couple of years ago, I have been immensely jealous of the slew of visual novels on consoles in Japan. When one comes to the US on a PlayStation console, I buy it. I was doubly excited when Steins;Gate was announced, having seen the anime and attempting to play the PC fan translated version (didn't enjoy playing on the PC).

The anime was one of my favorites. I "marathoned" the English dub when it came out. Though, before playing through the game, I remembered very little of it. Playing through the game was like experiencing it for the first time again. And it was amazing.

I remember liking the English dub, and since beating the game, I started re-watching it. The voices are great, and the localization is excellent. But I also love the Japanese cast, especially the female leads.

Mixed in throughout the game is a bunch of science terms, and many otaku/2chan memes, many of them parodies of real life media. Luckily, the game provides an excellent index, adding the entry when the word is used. Be sure to read all of them because they can and will be used again in the future dialog. The game seems to cater more toward the otaku fans than I remember the anime doing, or I am just understanding more of the references now.

I think all of the endings were heart wrenching. Getting 80% of the endings(there are about six or seven) is easy. The other 1 or 2 need to follow a specific text thread starting in earlier chapters. Responding to texts is an interesting way to engage the player. but they require you to choose between about 1-3 seemingly random words to respond to. And once you choose the word and write out the new text, I can't see any way to back out to pick a different word and am forced to just send it. I would prefer to preview all responses before picking one because this random replying means you can miss small details about other characters, or the bigger deal, a whole story thread required to get the better endings. I strongly encourage anyone to play through all the endings, using a guide when necessary, to see the true ending. This ending, the same from the anime, is so much more impactful after seeing how much the MC (main character) went through to get there.



After finishing, I am struggling to find more English translated media from this franchise, hoping more will come to america soon.