With Steins;Gate RE:BOOT bringing back Hououin Kyouma and the gang with new voice work, new art, and more, series producer Naotoki Matsubara and writer Naotaka Hayashi sat down with Famitsu to discuss just how much has changed under the hood. Turns out it’s a lot more than fans probably expected, starting with an idea that didn’t make the cut for being too silly for the gloomy sci-fi series.
“At first, for new route ideas we jokingly thought of ‘how about a harem ending?’,” recounted Hayashi during the Famitsu issue 1960 interview, laughing. “But it was scrapped immediately because it would ruin the atmosphere.” Though, for anyone who wanted something more lighthearted, there’s already the My Darling’s Embrace romance spin-off that canonically happens in the Δ World Line.
Once the jokes are out of the way, the team went back to something that has been highly requested by fans for a long time — a closure for Moeka. That idea actually has been made into a drama CD in 2010, titled Hyde of the Dark Dimension; nevertheless, they realized that it’s a good idea to be added into Steins;Gate RE:BOOT, “We had actually made the γ World Line story for a drama CD, but since it hadn’t been adapted into other media and has become hard to get, we decided, ‘We have to put this in!'”
But it’s not just a retelling of the self-contained, ‘what if’ spin-off. The scenario in Steins;Gate RE:BOOT is a full-fledged ending for Moeka Kiryu which branched from the main plot. “We needed to bring Okabe and Moeka’s story to a conclusion that continues beyond that point, so we substantially rebuilt the scenario,” explained Hayashi. “As a result, it turned out to be significantly harder-hitting and intense than the drama CD.”
Moeka’s γ World Line isn’t the only thing getting expanded in Steins;Gate RE:BOOT. Between a total visual overhaul and now native multi-language support, Matsubara said the workload ended up matching a brand-new game rather than a simple remake. “I wanted to make a ‘Steins;Gate you’ve never seen’ even for customers who had already played it before,” he said, noting that the team rebuilt event stills and their timing from scratch instead of reusing the originals.
The spotlight in terms of gameplay is the addition of the Observer mechanic, a flowchart system that lets players view possible World Lines. Although the team admitted that it took a lot of effort to implement the system, they still decided to go ahead with the idea to help players reach all endings. “The original Steins;Gate, is a fairly difficult game without a guide. We lowered the difficulty for Elite by making branch points visible, but for RE:BOOT, we wanted to bring the satisfying challenge from the original version. That said, we included Observer as a hint feature that lets players clear the game using just the information within the game itself,” continued Matsubara. “I hope this allows players to reexperience the hardship and despair Okabe went through as he redid the World Line over and over.”
Both Hayashi and Matsubara also explained their reasoning for basing Steins;Gate RE:BOOT on the Elite version instead of the 2009 original. “Elite, being based on the anime, has a refined sense of pacing, so we used that as a foundation while adding supplementary text to fill in the gaps,” said Hayashi, while Matsubara noted that it lets him sneak in moments he likes from the anime, like the lab rooftop or the laundromat scenes. “We also put in some subtle adjustments to reflect the characters as they have evolved over the past 17 years, aligning them with their ‘2026 character personas.'” For example, Kurisu’s harsh personality toward Okabe has been toned down, as well as Mayuri’s ‘tempo’ to better fit the anime version.
What hasn’t changed, though, is its underground geeky tone. Respecting the original concept that Hayashi and huke made, the team ‘scrutinized’ every single line in Steins;Gate RE:BOOT script to make sure that no internet memes and slang from after 2010 is referenced in the remake.
Makise Kurisu’s voice actor Asami Imai backed up that point of view in her own segment. “Fans often tell me, ‘I wish I could erase my memory and play it all over again,’ but now — with the passage of time — I believe this is the perfect opportunity to experience the game with a fresh perspective,” she said. “Even for those who already know the story, I think the performances driven by the cast’s deep understanding of the material, honed over 17 years, make this a truly worthwhile experience,” she said, adding that she hopes anime-only fans and younger gamers unfamiliar with visual novels give the remake a shot too.
Steins;Gate RE:BOOT is now out on PC via Steam, with the Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X versions to follow on October 29. For more news and interviews, keep an eye on GameObserver.
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