Steins Gate Elite for the PS4 is an updated and remastered version of the original Steins Gate for the PS3 which was released on October 2009. It was created as a way to evolve the visual novel genre by combining animated cutscenes and interactive gameplay in place of static backgrounds as the series creators felt that the genre was becoming stagnant.
(Animated cutscenes while not new to visual novels the ps1 had some visual novels that did had animated cutscenes like Yarudora. But are Japan only keep in mind)
As in the science adventure series, Stiens Gate Elite fully embraces its otaku nature. There are many pop culture references that are fictionalized for the game. The main theme is time travel and what you would do with it. Like in the original game, it focuses on the power to change time and what you do with it.
(Visual Novels with the interactivity of Comic Party and Little Busters and the full animation of Yarudora are quite intriguing. Science Adventure games do admittedly follow a formula like other visual novels choose action and do mostly nothing but read thats it and nothing else.)
(Visual novels of the 90s while Japanese animation has came a long way with things as digital cel drawn mixed with hand drawn, it was quite fluid but here its choppy from time to time.)
The story follows Rintaro Okabe, Daru and Mayrui members of the lab team creating all sorts of inventions with no practical use. Their latest invention is a microwave that could be controlled by a cellphone which turns out to be a time machine. Okabe believes that a group called SERN, controlled by the committee of 300 is out to kill him due to the nature of his inventions. Okabe is intent on stopping SERN and decides to create total chaos and anarchy to stop them.
(I really have nothing nice to say at all about Mayuri. )
The musical score, sound effects and audio quality are superb. The voice acting is excellent and its entirely in Japanese so none of the English dub is used from the anime series.
(Mayuri is by far one of the most useless and cancerous characters in a visual novel and liking her is like liking Jeremy Meeks or Charles Manson.)
New animated scenes by White Fox was created for story routes outside of the main story. You can even choose which subtitles you like to have whether it's in English or Japanese. However, there were some negative effects from the reused animation as characters who appeared in one scene in the anime and in one location appeared in the other in the game and it looks quite choppy. As a result of the use of the scenes from the anime certain parts of the game are recycled. The art style as I have mentioned in both the PS3 and the anime reviews, is very impressive and well-drawn.
(I actually rather buy multiple copies of Steins Gate on the ps3,ps4 and import my darlings embrace instead of watching a live action adaptation which is definitely going to be having cancerous identity politics RESETTHECLOCKERA instead of 2chan/Futabachan)
The controls are really easy to learn and the user interface is really well designed. The categories and definitions of each term you learn is very informative and easy to understand. The user interface was updated to blend seamlessly with the animation.
(Fun fact did you know Alpacaman is based off the infamous seaman on the Sega Dreamcast)
The interactivity of the game is greatly reduced, you can’t change the wallpaper nor the ringtone like in the original. You could scroll through @channel posts similar to Chaos Child but that’s as much interactivity as you could get during gameplay besides sending d-mails at certain points.
(So what would guys rather stab yourself "in minecraft" from hearing Mayuri talk or wait for a localization for anything Mages Inc creates like Muv-Luv or Memories Off and these are stuff outside of Science Adventure games.)
There are multiple save slots more so than the PS3 because of the enhanced power of the PS4. It isalso really easy to get 100 percent in the game because the slow pace and the amount of save slots that you have. It includes a code for Linear Program which was an exclusive to Japan. Like in the original Steins Gate, story plots being developed and dropped midway with characters appearing in and out of the story. Some things were never fully explained like Moeka’s past and how she ended up as a member of SERN. There aren’t any trophies for linear unbound program so you’re going to have to purchase the original version on the PS3.
(Fanboying over a idol in Japan isn't any different at all to simping over some e-thot on twitch and i can't feel sorry at all for that guy who tried to kill himself "in minecraft" over his favorite e-idol retiring.)
This game was very interesting and thoroughly enjoyable. It gets 5 out of 5 stars.
It’s a step in the right direction to merge fully animated cutscenes and interactive gameplay as Anonymous Code accomplished using this method. Science Adventure fans from new to old will enjoy this game very much. Mages Inc deserve some support from their fans. Steins Gate 0 and the Robotics Notes games as well are going to be reviewed sometime soon.