Steins;Gate (visual novel)

Steins;Gate (シュタインズ・ゲート, Shutainzu Gēto?) is a Japanese visual novel developed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5pb. 5pb.] and Nitroplus, and was released on October 15, 2009 for the Xbox 360. This is the two companies' second time collaborating together after Chaos;Head. A port to the Windows operating system on the PC was released on August 26, 2010 and a port for Sony's PlayStation Portable handheld game console will be released in June, 2011. The game is described by the development team as a "hypothetical science ADV" (想定科学ADV, Sōtei Kagaku ADV?).[2] The gameplay in Steins;Gate follows a linear plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction.

The story of Steins;Gate takes place in Akihabara and is about a group of friends who have customized their microwave into a device that can send text messages to the past. As they perform different experiments, an organization named SERN who has been doing their own research on time travel tracks them down and now the characters have to find a way to avoid being captured by them. Steins;Gate has been praised for its intertwining storyline and the voice actors have been commended for their portrayal of the characters.

Gameplay
Steins;Gate's gameplay requires little interaction from the player as most of the duration of the game is spent on reading the text that appears on the screen which represents either the dialogue between the various characters or the thoughts of the protagonist. Like many other visual novels, there are specific points in Steins;Gate where the user is given a choice to affect the direction of the game.

For these decision points, Steins;Gate presents the user with the "phone trigger" (フォーントリガー, fōn torigaa?) system which is similar to the "delusional trigger" system that was introduced in Chaos;Head. When the player receives a phone call from somebody, the player can choose to answer or ignore the call. Incoming text messages will have specific words underlined and highlighted in blue, much like a hyperlink on a browser, where the player can select on to reply to the text message. Most phone calls or text messages do not have to be responded to though there are certain points in the game where the player is required to take action. Depending on the player's choices on how to respond to these phone calls and text messages, the plot will progress in a specific direction.

Setting and themes
Steins;Gate is set in the summer of 2010, approximately one year after the events that took place in Chaos;Head,[5] in Akihabara. Physical locales of Akihabara like the Radio Kaikan building can be spotted in the game.[6] According to Chiyomaru Shikura, who headed the planning of Steins;Gate, Akihabara was chosen because it is an easy place for acquiring hardware parts which makes it the ideal place for people interested in inventing and tinkering with things.[7] The notion of time and time traveling are the main themes of the game.[6] [8] The concept of cause and effect is featured prominently in the game as the protagonist travels back in time numerous times to perform different actions in an attempt to alter what has happened in the future.

Main characters
The player assumes the role of Rintarō Okabe (岡部倫太郎, Okabe Rintarō?, voiced by: Mamoru Miyano), the protagonist of Steins;Gate. Rintarō claims to be a mad scientist and often refers to himself under the alias of Kyōma Hōōin (鳳凰院凶真, Hōōin Kyōma?).[6] This is also the name he uses to introduce himself to other people. The main heroine of the game is Kurisu Makise (牧瀬紅莉栖, Makise Kurisu?, voiced by: Asami Imai). Kurisu is an extremely talented neuroscience researcher, having had her research published in the Science academic journal at the young age of 18.[9] Mayuri Shiina (椎名まゆり, Shiina Mayuri?, voiced by: Kana Hanazawa) is a long time childhood friend of Rintarō and is a bit of an airhead. Mayuri enjoys creating cosplay costumes and has a part-time job at a maid cafe.[10] Hashida Itaru (橋田至, Itaru Hashida?, voiced by: Tomokazu Seki) is an experienced hacker in both software and hardware technologies. He is also well-versed in things pertaining to otaku culture.[6]

Suzuha Amane (阿万音鈴羽, Amane Suzuha?, voiced by: Yukari Tamura) works part-time for the landlord of Rintarō's flat and is on a search for her father in Akihabara. She enjoys riding her bicycle and appears to be at odds with Kurisu for unexplained reasons.[11] Ruka Urushibara (漆原るか, Urushibara Ruka?, voiced by: Yū Kobayashi) is a bishōnen who looks strikingly like a girl and even wears the garment of a miko despite being a boy. He is a close friend of Mayuri and is often asked by her to try on her cosplay costumes.[12] Feiris Nyannyan (フェイリス ニャンニャン, Feiris Nyannyan?, voiced by: Haruko Momoi) works at the maid cafe "Mayqueen Nyannyan", the same maid cafe that Mayuri works at, and is the most popular waitress there.[13] Moeka Kiryū (桐生萌郁, Kiryū Moeka?, voiced by: Saori Gotō) is a tall girl that Rintarō bumps into in Akihabara and is on a search for the IBN 5100 personal computer. Moeka is extremely protective of her mobile phone and becomes agitated if someone tries to take it from her hands. She is very shy and prefers to talk to someone by sending them a text message instead of speaking.

Story
The story of Steins;Gate begins on July 28, 2010, in Akihabara, with Rintarō Okabe and Mayuri Shiina heading towards the Radio Kaikan building. Inside the building, Rintarō finds the body of Kurisu Makise with a pool of blood in a room. He leaves the building with Mayuri in a panic and sends a text message to Hashida Itaru about the incident when all the people around him suddenly vanish. They reappear moments later but no one around him seems to have experienced the same phenomena that he did.[16]

Rintarō and Hashida Itaru runs into the same Kurisu from the Radio Kaikan building later.[17] Rintarō explains what he has gone through and Hashida then mentions that he received a text message similar to what Rintarō described one week ago.[18] Upon further investigation, they realize that their customized microwave can be used to send text messages to the past<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-famitsu-preview_5-4">[6] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-18">[19] and names these messages "D mail" (Dメール, D mēru?). The characters later discover that SERN, an organization that has been researching time travel for some time, has actually succeeded in sending humans into the past although they seem to have all resulted in the test subjects' deaths. Kurisu later enhances the microwave with the ability to send one's memories back in time, effectively allowing one to travel back in time.

SERN finds out about Rintarō and his friends because of the first D mail he accidentally sent out on July 28 and sends a team to retrieve the device. During this operation, Mayuri is killed by SERN's unit. Rintarō travels back in time numerous times to try to save Mayuri but this proves to be futile as Mayuri ends up dying even in scenarios where they manage to avoid SERN's men. After much effort, Rintarō regains possession of the IBN 5100 PC that they lost earlier and with it Hashida can now crack into SERN's systems and delete the evidence of Rintarō's original D mail. However, Rintarō realizes that doing so would put him on the world line that he originally was on July 28 which is the one where he found Kurisu's body at the Radio Kaikan building. This means that he would have to sacrifice either Mayuri or Kurisu to save the other. Kurisu and Rintarō eventually decide on saving Mayuri<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-19">[20] and Rintarō deletes the evidence of his D mail from SERN's database.

Some time later, Suzuha Amane arrives on a time machine from 2036 and asks Rintarō to go back in time with her to July 28 to save Kurisu from her fate in an attempt to change the future that has been destroyed by World War 3.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-20">[21] However, this operation ends in a disaster as Rintarō ends up killing Kurisu by mistake.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-21">[22] This failure is revealed to have been part of the operation in a video D mail from the Rintarō of 2025. As Kurisu was not saved, Rintarō and Hashida spent the rest of their lives working on enhancing the D mail's capabilities as well as a time machine so that they could tell the current Rintarō to go save Kurisu.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-22">[23] If Rintarō had just saved Kurisu, a time paradox would have occurred. The Rintarō of 2025 tells the current Rintarō to go back again and create a scene where it seems as if Kurisu died to fool the original Rintarō of July 28 to send his D mail, which ultimately triggered all the events up to this point.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-23">[24]

Rintarō and Suzuha return a second time but as the props that Rintarō brought for the operation did not seem to be functioning properly, he protects Kurisu by provoking her attacker and Rintarō is stabbed instead. Rintarō uses his stun gun on Kurisu and the attacker escapes in fear. Rintarō lays Kurisu in his pool of blood just as she seemed when he first saw her body on July 28. Suzuha and Rintarō both travel back to Rintarō's current time holding on to the hope that the future has changed. In the final scene of the game, Rintarō and Kurisu reunite by chance in the streets of Akihabara.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-24">[25]

Development
Steins;Gate is the second collaborative work between 5pb. and Nitroplus after Chaos;Head.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5pb-teaser-opening_1-1">[2] The game was created with the concept of "99% science (reality) and 1% fantasy" in mind.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-25">[26] The planning for Steins;Gate was headed by Chiyomaru Shikura of 5pb.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-famitsu-review_7-2">[8] The characters were designed by Huke whereas the gadgets were designed by Sh@rp.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-famitsu-review_7-3">[8] Naotaka Hayashi of 5pb. wrote the scenario with assistance from Vio Shimokura of Nitroplus. Tatsuya Matsuhara from 5pb. was the producer and Tosō Pehara from Nitroplus was the art director.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-famitsu-review_7-4">[8] The music was composed by Takeshi Abo of 5pb. and Toshimichi Isoe of Zizz Studio.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-famitsu-review_7-5">[8] Shikura, Hayashi, Matsuhara, Abo, and Isoe had all previously worked on Chaos;Head.

Prior to the game's announcement, a teaser site was featured on 5pb.'s website that simply referred to the game as Project S;G and stating that it was going to be a collaboration between 5pb. and Nitroplus.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-26">[27] This was not the first time that a second collaborative project between 5pb. and Nitroplus was mentioned as Nitroplus's website had hinted at this on its 10th anniversary website.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-27">[28] Matsuhara, who was also the producer for Chaos;Head, had previously stated that the game would be centred around Akihabara and that the project with Nitroplus would be the second part in a series around the theme "Science Novels (科学ノベル, Kagaku Noberu?)".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-28">[29] On June 12, 2009, the countdown expired and the name Steins;Gate was revealed.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5pb-teaser-opening_1-2">[2]

Matsuhara, who was the one originally thought of the concept of the phone trigger system, stated that they initially wanted to incorporate the player's own mobile phone into the system. However, the idea was abandoned due to concerns of clashing with Japan's privacy laws.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-dengeki-interview-pg3_29-0">[30] When asked if the phone trigger system would be used in a possible sequel to the game, Hayashi stated that he hoped this would not be the case and recalled saying "who thought of this system!" while writing the contents of the text messages.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-dengeki-interview-pg3_29-1">[30] While Shitakura did not directly contribute to the script itself, Hayashi stated that Shitakura helped with the overall plot and provided assistance with the second half of the story. In particular, Shitakura helped a lot on the time traveling aspects of the story.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-dengeki-interview-pg1_30-0">[31] Hayashi stated that while he did not want the script to repeat the same text over and over again, it was ultimately unavoidable due to the player having to travel back in time so he tried to place emphasis on the overall tempo of the plot's development and how the plot unfolded.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-dengeki-interview-pg1_30-1">[31] With regards to the theme of time traveling, Hayashi had felt that it seemed like a topic that was overdone and expressed concern over it when he first heard the idea from Shikura.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-dengeki-interview-pg1_30-2">[31]

Kana Hanazawa stated that she was happy to have been selected to be in Steins;Gate as she felt that it was not common to be able to play a part in a serious game. She also thought that the game gives the player more of a thrilling sensation rather than a frightening one and it entices the player to continue reading.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-31">[32]

Release history
Steins;Gate was first declared gold on September 18, 2009<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-32">[33] with a demo of the game being made available a few weeks later on the Xbox Live Marketplace on October 7, 2009<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-demo-announcement_33-0">[34] for Xbox Live Gold members and then publicly on October 14, 2009.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-34">[35] The demo allows the player to play through the prologue and the game's first chapter.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-demo-announcement_33-1">[34] Steins;Gate was released in both limited and regular editions on October 15, 2009. The limited edition contained the game itself, a toy named "Future Gadget #3 Lie Detector" from the game and a small hardcover artbook that includes various illustrations and background information about the game's universe as well as comments from the staff members.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-xbox.com_0-2">[1] A Windows port of the game was released on August 26, 2010,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-35">[36] the port will include additional CGs.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-36">[37] A PlayStation Portable port of the game will be released in June, 2011.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-famitsu-psp_37-0">[38] The game will include elements from the downloadable contents of the Xbox 360 version as well as a new opening movie, a new opening theme and a new ending theme.

Music
Steins;Gate has four main theme songs, the opening theme "Sky Clad Observer" (スカイクラッドの観測者, Sukai Kuraddo no Kansokusha?), the first ending theme "Another Heaven", the second ending theme "Unmei no Farfalla" (運命のファルファッラ, Unmei no Farufarra?)", and the insert song "Technovision". The third song is sung by Yui Sakakibara while the other ones are sung by Kanako Itō. Itō's "Technovision" was included in her "Stargate" album which was released on August 26, 2009.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-50">[51] "Sky Clad Observer" was composed by Chiyomura Shikura and "Another Heaven" was composed by Yoshihiro Suda.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5pb-opening_51-0">[52] The "Sky Clad Observer" single was released on October 28, 2009.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5pb-opening_51-1">[52] Sakakibara's "Umei no Farufarra" was composed by Tatsuhi Hayashi and the single was be released on November 25, 2009.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-52">[53] A soundtrack of the game was released on February 3, 2010 on two discs in a bundle of three that includes recorders of the Internet radio show.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5pb-ost_43-2">[44] All the background music of the game was included as well as shortened versions of the vocal tracks.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5pb-ost_43-3">[44] The piano score for one of the tracks, "Gate of Steiner", was also included in the soundtrack.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5pb-ost_43-4">[44]