Steins;Gate RE:BOOT Review: El Psy Kong-reboot | GameObserver Recommends

One of the most classic and beloved visual novels returns in an all-new version, featuring redesigned art, new voice lines, and a new route to complete and ending to obtain. Steins;Gate is an epic story of time travel, mad science, and just how far one man will go to save the people he loves. As Steins; Gate RE:BOOT, the game receives a modern update while still retaining (for the most part) the same classic story that has captivated fans since its initial release.

Steins;Gate tells the story of Rintaro Okabe HOUOUIN KYOUMA, a grandiose chaos-loving mad scientist running a ragtag gadget lab in 2010s Akihabara. After an attempt to create a phone-powered microwave results in a bizarre “time machine” that can send e-mails to the past, Okabe finds himself and his friends targeted by a massive conspiracy deliberately hurtling the world towards a dystopia only a few decades away. With the help of the PhoneWave (name subject to change) and his bizarre cadre of loyal lab members – including a “super hacka,” a teenage genius, a shrine maiden, a catgirl maid, and more – can Okabe outwit the Organization and save the world from its dystopian future?

I’m just going to start out by saying that I love Steins;Gate. It’s one of my favorite visual novels and probably in my top three Best of All Time list. I’ve played the original visual novel as well as several of the sequel/spinoff titles, watched the anime, thrown a themed party with green jelly and Dr. Pepper… you name it. This is a piece of media that I truly love and genuinely feel it deserves its reputation as one of the best visual novels out there.

When it comes to story, Steins;Gate is a 10/10. It tells a fairly “hard” science fiction tale while still being accessible for less science/tech-savvy players – in particular thanks to the extremely thorough TIPS system, which provides handy definitions and context for many key terms. It balances fascinating science fiction elements, such as an examination of different “types” of time travel and how they can affect the past and future, with engaging character writing. Even in its most technological explanation-rich moments, the heart of the game never stops being the relationships between the members of the Future Gadget Laboratory. The Science Adventure Series, of which Steins;Gate is a part, is really, REALLY good at telling found family stories and this game is no exception.

Okabe THE MAD SCIENTIST, HOUOUIN KYOUMA is one of those protagonists who could wind up extremely annoying in the hands of a lesser writer – but here, it’s not the case. He’s utterly delusional at times, but he also has an enormous heart and a fierce devotion to his chosen family that never wavers. He’s awkward, fairly emotionally unaware, and not always the most sensitive, but he’s also the kind of guy you just can’t help but love. His arc is really a brilliant one; seeing Okabe go from a man who grandiosely declares that he’s going to change the world to a man who slowly realizes he actually CAN do such a thing is really moving.

And let’s not forget the side characters too. Steins;Gate would not be as great as it is without the kindness of Mayuri Shiina, the hidden sweet side of Kurisu Makise, the adorable bizarreness of Suzuha Amane, and the selflessness of Luka Urushibara. Without spoiling anything, the scene where Luke sacrifices their personal dream in exchange for humanity’s future makes me tear up every time.

However, I also have to consider Steins;Gate RE:BOOT as… well, just that. How does it hold up as a re-imagining of this classic visual novel? The answer is a bit of a mixed bag. The updated art, redone voice lines and new music – including remixed versions of some classic tracks from the series history – are extremely solid. A few characters look weird at points (I’m not a huge fan of Daru’s redesign in particular) but in general, the game looks and runs great. There are some really solid new CGs and background images as well.

The UI is really solid – they re-established the ability to properly take out your phone mid-conversation and react/reply to emails from other characters after mostly gutting that in the previous version Steins;Gate Elite. The look of the vintage phone is really great, with plenty of fun wallpaper and ringtone options (including the ability to obtain more wallpapers by responding to messages correctly). I particularly love the “Observer” flowchart screen that lets you see which world line you are on and its divergence point (an important element of the game’s plot) and exactly which scenes take place on which line.

Regarding the new content, the biggest addition is a new route centered on a dark alternate world where things went QUITE differently. I like the new route a lot: it sees Okabe’s character go in some pretty unique directions that manage to be both fun and emotionally devastating. Yes, both at the same time, somehow. The route focuses heavily on Moeka Kiryu, a character who felt a bit neglected in the original and was definitely a really good choice to add because it gave Moeka even more depth as a character. Best of all, the route centers around the Gamma Attractor Field world state, which has been brought up many times (particularly in side content) but has not often been explored in detail. As a longtime Steins;Gate fan, the events of this new world had me going “holy crap” and “wait WHAT” out loud more than once.

I do personally wish that we could have gotten even more of the other Steins;Gate side content and alternate world lines and such in this version of the game too. The new route draws inspiration from a drama CD, and it is one of several that were produced for the series along with light novels, manga, and more. Materials like drama CDs are not always the easiest to access, especially for Western fans, and I always love when they get brought into the main story like this. Don’t get me wrong – I absolutely loved everything new that we did get. But every bit of the Steins;Gate story is so good, I just wanted to see even more! I know this might make me greedy, but I will take every bit of Steins;Gate I can get. There is also a pre-order bonus, Octet of Shifting Space, which is a text adventure now available for the first time in English!

I am also personally not a fan of the choice to (mostly) use the cut-down Steins;Gate Elite script. Elite, the first remake of Steins;Gate, trimmed down some of the script so that it could more closely match the anime, and as a result some of the less plot-focused character building scenes were cut. Many of these scenes were not restored in RE:BOOT, and I feel that this is a loss because the character interactions and relationships are really the core of this game’s story. In particular, the character Faris feels a bit short-changed because a chunk of her initial route is absent, and it’s definitely noticeable. Her scenes weren’t massively important to the plot, but they were fun and great for her character, and I did miss them.

Ultimately, my feeling about Steins;Gate RE:BOOT is this: if you’ve never played it before, or have only seen the anime, this is a great way to experience it, and I would definitely recommend it. The music, art, UI, and new Gamma worldline route make it absolutely worth it for new players. If you’ve already played the game, it’s still an incredibly fun experience, but you will be re-playing through a lot of the same stuff with not as many new additions as there could have potentially been.

However, Steins;Gate is still one of the greatest visual novels in existence, and I do hope that its rebooted version introduces even more fans to it and to the broader Science Adventure series. Visual novels are finally starting to have their day in the West, and the success of the original Steins;Gate was a huge part of what ultimately allowed that to happen, so it is fun to see the game get a shiny new makeover even if it may not have every new addition I’d have wanted. But I have hope – perhaps RE:BOOT could just be the beginning of several new Steins;Gate or Science Adventure spinoffs/sequels? Is this the beginning steps of wherever the SciAdv series is headed after the major shakeup that was Anonymous;Code? Maybe this is, as Houin Kyouma would say, the choice of Steins;Gate! EL PSY KONGROO!

Kate reviewed Steins;Gate RE:BOOT on PC with a provided review code. This review is based on the version of the game that was available at the time of writing, and our score will not be changed.