Review cover Steins;Gate 0 (PlayStation 4)
Official GBAtemp Review

Product Information:

  • Release Date (NA): November 29, 2016
  • Release Date (EU): November 25, 2016
  • Release Date (JP): December 10, 2015
  • Publisher: PQube
  • Developer: 5pb.
  • Genres: Visual Novel
  • Also For: Computer, PlayStation Vita

Game Features:

Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative
The sequel to one of the most well-regarded visual novels of all time. Does this game live up to the series' legacy?

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As a precaution, those who have not played the original Steins;Gate visual novel should turn back now. Describing the events and contents of 0 requires divulging at least some minor spoilers for the first game. Those who have watched the anime or completed the true ending for Steins;Gate can continue on without worry as there will be no major spoilers for Steins;Gate 0.

Starting from Zero

Steins;Gate is a sci-fi time travel visual novel, which tells the story of a group of friends as they discover how to send messages through time, and later, uncover a massive conspiracy set to take place in the future, while also dealing with the mental turmoil of continually repeating the same events over and over again. In the “True Ending” of the game, main character Rintaro Okabe manages to keep the world from plunging into disaster and reaches the Steins Gate world-line, where everything turns out alright. Steins;Gate 0, however, takes place in the timeline where Okabe is too mentally scarred to continue time travelling, and gives up, causing the events of World War 3 to occur within less than a decade. Needless to say, the story is much darker here than before.

Zero’s plot is loosely based upon the Epigraph Trilogy of books, using its characters and initial story, though it quickly diverges from the novels. The game starts off immediately after Okabe’s failed trip to save Kurisu, as he ascertains that manipulating time something that cannot be done, and that he’s finished with being tormented by trying to achieve the impossible. The tone of absolute despair is emotional and gripping; returning fans know the outcome of the story already, as this is a midquel of sorts, but the journey and trials that all the characters have to endure will engross readers and make them want to see just what happens throughout the story.

Despite being complex, as is the nature of most time travel tales, Steins;Gate 0 manages to keep its narrative from contradicting itself, while also setting a good storytelling pace that ensures players will stay interested in what’s going on. The light-hearted segues between more dramatic moments are a nice way of relieving the tension, but it never lets you forget the overarching story and the looming threat of World War 3.

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Okabe’s conflict between having knowledge of past timelines that haven’t occurred and don’t match up with reality, and trying to live with the guilt of his actions is heart-wrenching to read, and allows for some really great moments of character-building. A big part of the game is Okabe discarding his chuunibyou persona and dealing with legitimate depression, which is pretty heavy stuff.

The story also introduces plenty of new and interesting characters, who for the most part, play off of Okabe’s personality really well. They all have unique motivations and defining characteristics, which adds to an already lovable cast even further. It’s easy to get invested with all of the individuals involved, and you really want to root for them through the despair. The story doesn’t take place entirely through Okabe’s point of view this time, letting you see the world from the point of view of others, which really helps to explain certain elements, as well as giving well-needed insight to some of the other cast. Daru and Suzuha’s father-daughter bonding moments together are a prime example of this.

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Much like the first game, your phone is paramount to determining how the story will turn out. Zero offers five different endings, not including the final “True Ending”, which can only be obtained if you finished the game previously with two of the other specific endings. Choosing who to talk to and who to ignore will affect which of the six paths you will end up on. With the introduction of the new RINE app, texting is now easier, and you no longer have to constantly monitor for new messages, as simply responding to someone will play out that entire discussion line. Additionally, there is the Amadeus System which lets Okabe talk to the Makise Kurisu A.I., which can influence the ending, too. Zero’s plot also delves a little into the morality of humans creating “life” that can think and feel on its own, which is quite an interesting subject. It’s never blatant as to which things you need to do in order to get a specific route, though, so using a spoiler-free guide is recommended.

Most of the lines of dialogue are spoken, and while there is no English dub option available, the Japanese voice cast does an outstanding job. Mamoru Miyano, Okabe’s voice actor, is wonderful at conveying strong emotion with his performance. The rest of the actors from Steins;Gate reprise their characters once more, and they all do well in their respective roles. Series illustrator Huke returns as well, bringing the visual novel to life with his artwork. The game looks fantastic from a visual standpoint, with smooth character animations and both vibrant, striking backgrounds and dark, foreboding scenery. The soundtrack has some impressive pieces, such as the title song “Amadeus” by familiar singer Itou Kanako, and I would be remiss in not mentioning the vocal remix of “Gate of Steiner”, the series’ main theme. The new ambient background pieces are nice and fit the mood well, especially “Believe me - zero-”.

PQube has done a good job in terms of localization. I was a bit wary of how it would turn out, but I never noticed any glaring errors with their writing.

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There are plenty of plot twists and surprising moments to be had in Steins;Gate 0, and while I can’t say that I enjoyed this more than Steins;Gate, Steins;Gate 0 still does a fantastic job of bridging together what occurs between the years from the beta timeline up until World War 3’s events, while telling a strong narrative that is much darker in comparison to the first game.

Verdict

What We Liked ...
  • Engaging story
  • Interesting characters
  • Solid pacing
What We Didn't Like ...
  • Reused art from Steins;Gate can look slightly awkward when onscreen next to 0's new artwork
8
Gameplay
The slight changes to the gameplay, such as the new RINE cell phone system, are welcome improvements to the established formula. The 5 possible "routes" that you can get are all very interesting and help tell a more cohesive and intertwined story overall, compared to the previous game. It's a visual novel, so there's not much gameplay to be had, but the story and choices are what matter here, and the game implements that well.
9
Presentation
Everything about Steins;Gate 0's presentation is top notch. It has beautiful character illustrations, a fantastic story, and a fitting soundtrack. The text is easy on the eyes and pleasant to read.
8
Lasting Appeal
With the game requiring you to play it enough times to get all six endings, you'll have a lot of text to go through. While players will go through the story at differing speeds, there is definitely enough content here to justify a purchase.
9.1
out of 10

Overall

While it doesn't outclass its predecessor, Steins;Gate 0 is an excellent game, and a is a worthy addition to one of the best visual novel series ever written.
Better then Yokai Watch 2 - I like that.
Sorry I'm late boys, was putting out the flames in the other review.

Steins;Gate 0, still better than yo kai watch 2...

Would the 6 endings really be worth multiple playthroughs though? Has the reviewer seen them all? Is it just a simple scene at the end?
 
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Sorry I'm late boys, was putting out the flames in the other review.

Steins;Gate 0, still better than yo kai watch 2...

Would the 6 endings really be worth multiple playthroughs though? Has the reviewer seen them all? Is it just a simple scene at the end?
Why yes, a masterpiece is clearly better than Yo Kai Watch, I'm very glad you agree. You seem to be still upset over this fact, more than a month later.

They're all widely different from each other, and are more than just the simple "endings" that the first Steins Gate had. its definitely worth the extra playthroughs. And I certainly did complete all 6 of them.
 
Why yes, a masterpiece is clearly better than Yo Kai Watch, I'm very glad you agree. You seem to be still upset over this fact, more than a month later.

They're all widely different from each other, and are more than just the simple "endings" that the first Steins Gate had. its definitely worth the extra playthroughs. And I certainly did complete all 6 of them.

Thank you for that input, you have further helped me in my desire to purchase this game. However why is a "masterpiece" only deserving of a 9.1/10. Your review and score does not make sense anymore.
 
Thank you for that input, you have further helped me in my desire to purchase this game. However why is a "masterpiece" only deserving of a 9.1/10. Your review and score does not make sense anymore.
Oh, but where in my review did I use the word masterpiece? Not a once. A 10/10 is not something I believe in, so of course I won't be giving games perfect scores, even if my personal opinion outside of the review reflects that I think it's a stellar game that any visual novel enthusiast must play.
 
Oh, but where in my review did I use the word masterpiece? Not a once. A 10/10 is not something I believe in, so of course I won't be giving games perfect scores, even if my personal opinion outside of the review reflects that I think it's a stellar game that any visual novel enthusiast must play.
You literally just called it a masterpiece. If you don't think that something can be 10/10 then you are doing something wrong. Why is there even a rating system if you don't have anything to compare it with at that level. What a joke. With your statement your review should essentially be considered 9.1/∞. Look at that score now, this game seems like it really sucks, good job on your 10/10 masterpiece GOTY. Good luck with your future reviews, I'll be there too :)
 
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You literally just called it a masterpiece. If you don't think that something can be 10/10 then you are doing something wrong. Why is there even a rating system if you don't have anything to compare it with at that level. What a joke. With your statement your review should essentially be considered 9.1/∞. Look at that score now, this game seems like it really sucks, good job on your 10/10 masterpiece GOTY. Good luck with your future reviews, I'll be there too :)
In a comment, you dunce, do you have no reading comprehension? And fantastic, your comments that always add nothing to the critique will be further ignored. Perfection is something one strives for, but never attains.
 
"Reused art from Steins;Gate can look slightly awkward when onscreen next to 0's new artwork"
Do you have any screenshot of this? I haven't played either games (since I don't have a Vita), and I'm just curious about this comment.
(Loved the anime!)
 
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In a comment, you dunce, do you have no reading comprehension? And fantastic, your comments that always add nothing to the critique will be further ignored. Perfection is something one strives for, but never attains.

Lololol you are truly delusional. Then my infinity statement stands.

And in your comment you said the game was a masterpiece did you already forget this? Are you that dense?

These are your gaming journalists people. Someone too scared to give a 10/10. Why even have a scale then if you can't say something is 10/10. You're a joke dude.
 
"Reused art from Steins;Gate can look slightly awkward when onscreen next to 0's new artwork"
Do you have any screenshot of this? I haven't played either games (since I don't have a Vita), and I'm just curious about this comment.
(Loved the anime!)
Awh! I really should have gotten a picture of such an instance, my bad. I ended up using press-shots supplied by the publisher, and I can't find an instance of it happening in any of those screens. It only happened three or four times throughout the whole game, and I don't have a save file near any of the times I recall it going on. If I come across one, I'll post it here. It's nothing too jarring, but the way that the artist's style has improved since 2009 can look just slightly out of place when they're together.
 
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Lololol you are truly delusional. Then my infinity statement stands.

And in your comment you said the game was a masterpiece did you already forget this? Are you that dense?

These are your gaming journalists people. Someone too scared to give a 10/10. Why even have a scale then if you can't say something is 10/10. You're a joke dude.
What's your problem? 10/10 is for some a "nothing could improve this, it's perfect" score. Chary likes visual novel games, and personally thinks this is a stellar game. Even calls it a masterpiece in a comment. As a reviewer, with a slightly less biased view, she don't want to call it a masterpiece.
And the infinity statement does not work at all. 10/10 is still a fixed point what a perfect game would be. 9.9/10 would be pretty damn near perfect, but not perfect.

Besides, what a reviewer grades a game doesn't mean jack in itself. You have to read the review, see what's positive and negative in the reviewer's eyes. How does that correlate with your own views.
Even better if you've read plenty of reviews and know the taste of the reviewer, and how it all reflects on your own thoughts.

I don't have an example when it comes to gaming reviews, but music: TheNeedleDrop. I love watching his reviews, I love hearing his thoughts on tracks and song structure and lyrics. And I know that, if he loves an album, I probably won't like it. And if he hates an album, I might like it.
 
I want to own something that can play this.
Shit, how did I avoid all platforms.
And sure this doesn't work well on wine, so I wouldn't do as with Steins;Gate.
I suppose I will have to get a PS4 Pro. (Or windows?)
 
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What's your problem? 10/10 is for some a "nothing could improve this, it's perfect" score. Chary likes visual novel games, and personally thinks this is a stellar game. Even calls it a masterpiece in a comment. As a reviewer, with a slightly less biased view, she don't want to call it a masterpiece.
And the infinity statement does not work at all. 10/10 is still a fixed point what a perfect game would be. 9.9/10 would be pretty damn near perfect, but not perfect.

Besides, what a reviewer grades a game doesn't mean jack in itself. You have to read the review, see what's positive and negative in the reviewer's eyes. How does that correlate with your own views.
Even better if you've read plenty of reviews and know the taste of the reviewer, and how it all reflects on your own thoughts.

I don't have an example when it comes to gaming reviews, but music: TheNeedleDrop. I love watching his reviews, I love hearing his thoughts on tracks and song structure and lyrics. And I know that, if he loves an album, I probably won't like it. And if he hates an album, I might like it.

Masterpiece definition: an artist's or craftsman's BEST piece of work.
Best in the case of reviewing is 10/10.

If the review score doesn't mean jack, as you put it, it should not be there then. If we are to just pay attention to the content of the review and not the score or the summary, then there should not be a score, as you are putting it, and GBAtemp should delete the scoring system entirely. The issue here is most people just read the bottom portion of the review because they don't want to waste time on reviewing it. Sure she did not say "masterpiece" in the review, but she did make a direct comparison in the comment, implying that she did in fact think that this game is a masterpiece.

I agree with you and the reason for the comment section is to provoke opinions about reviews and people's views, good or bad.
 
To be quite fair, I tried to keep my more biased opinion separate from the review, not to mention, the "masterpiece" comment in question was more of a snarky dig at the above commenter's constant spamming moreso than anything else.
 
I want to own something that can play this.
Shit, how did I avoid all platforms.
And sure this doesn't work well on wine, so I wouldn't do as with Steins;Gate.
I suppose I will have to get a PS4 Pro. (Or windows?)
The Windows version of SG0 is currently only in Japanese. Hopefully it gets a steam port in English though. A vita TV is fairly cheap, and can play the game, if you don't want to wait it out.
 
If the review score doesn't mean jack, as you put it, it should not be there then. If we are to just pay attention to the content of the review and not the score or the summary, then there should not be a score, as you are putting it, and GBAtemp should delete the scoring system entirely. The issue here is most people just read the bottom portion of the review because they don't want to waste time on reviewing it.

Sorry, I expressed myself the wrong way. I meant to say that the review score doesn't mean jack "without proper context". Just as you say, many people just scrolls down to the score, and if they like a game they'll scream bloody murder if it gets any less than 11/10. And the same goes the other way, if the reader doesn't like the game, they'll demand that the game get a score lower than 2/10.
 
Sorry, I expressed myself the wrong way. I meant to say that the review score doesn't mean jack "without proper context". Just as you say, many people just scrolls down to the score, and if they like a game they'll scream bloody murder if it gets any less than 11/10. And the same goes the other way, if the reader doesn't like the game, they'll demand that the game get a score lower than 2/10.

Exactly why the scoring system should go away ;/

just let people read.
 
Exactly why the scoring system should go away ;/

just let people read.
I do think the scoring system serves a purpose. I like what the gaming magazine here in Sweden recently did when they changed their design: They have reviews without scores and pro's and con's, until the very end where they list every score. So they're separating the reviews and the scores enough to not influence the texts.
 
I do think the scoring system serves a purpose. I like what the gaming magazine here in Sweden recently did when they changed their design: They have reviews without scores and pro's and con's, until the very end where they list every score. So they're separating the reviews and the scores enough to not influence the texts.

That's literally what we are doing here is it not?
 
I can't wait for this. I've even heard from some people that its even better than the original, which is one of my all time favorites. I'm glad to see that everyone is loving it.
 
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REST IN PEACE WAIFU Kurisu u will be remembered i love stiens gate it is a sugoii anime its a must watch nice review BTW
 
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Having finished the game, I'm gonna have to disagree somewhat on the 'interesting' characters; of the new characters we're introduced to in the first chapter, Kaede does literally nothing of note for the entire game, and Fubuki's only use is to illustrate a plot point that's dropped before it's ever really explored. They don't necessarily detract from the story, but they're kind of superfluous when there are other areas that really needed fleshing out.

It seems 3.61 FW is required. :(
It is, but people have already ripped most of the assets and applied them to the Japanese Vita release, and there's a text-only (no CGs, which could be an issue) patch floating around for the PC release.
 
to be honest I was was aware of what I was about to read, but boy was it good and also unpredictable at times.
Steins;Gate 0 truly is a legit "prequel" that every Steins;Gate fan has to read at some point.
 
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This game is for PS3 as well I just figured that out. You should add that to the "Also for" because I looked at that and thought it wasn't for PS3.
 
This game is for PS3 as well I just figured that out. You should add that to the "Also for" because I looked at that and thought it wasn't for PS3.
Afaik this is only for the untranslated Japanese version. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong though.
 
Wow great timing for me to get back into steins; gate watched the anime again to prep myself up and now i'm gonna go grab the pc version of zero. I say great timing cause of the unofficial translation patch for PS3 & PC is out from RikuKH3 like version 8 or something like that of the translations a week or two ago. lucky me.
 
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Bumped to the top for anime watchers? I've played the VN when it came out, and I'm watching the anime currently, gotta say, they're doing a great job so far, even incorporating some stuff from the audio dramas in there. It may be too early to say, but I think the anime may even end up being better than the VN if they do it right.
 
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Review cover
Product Information:
  • Release Date (NA): November 29, 2016
  • Release Date (EU): November 25, 2016
  • Release Date (JP): December 10, 2015
  • Publisher: PQube
  • Developer: 5pb.
  • Genres: Visual Novel
  • Also For: Computer, PlayStation Vita
Game Features:
Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative

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