Steins;Gate (visual novel)/Overview

Steins;Gate (シュタインズ・ゲート, Shutainzu Gēto) is a Japanese visual novel developed by 5pb. and Nitroplus. It 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 adventure game" (想定科学ADV, Sōtei Kagaku ADV). 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. A manga adaptation of the story illustrated by Sarachi Yomi began serialization in Media Factory's Monthly Comic Alive magazine on September 26, 2009. A second manga series illustrated by Kenji Mizuta began serialization in Mag Garden's Monthly_Comic_Blade Monthly Comic Blade on December 28, 2009. An anime adaptation began airing on April 6, 2011.