4/5 ★ – Ishu's review of Steins;Gate 0.

Spoilers for the visual novel ahead. This is a great Visual Novel. I can safely say this is better than the anime, but that's not to say that the anime isn't worth watching. The anime changes many scenes and how the story progresses. Many changes also make a few scenes better in the anime. As for the visual novel, my main issue with Steins Gate 0 is that, unlike Steins Gate, it never feels like there's a central problem/story that is being followed. In Steins;Gate, the main conflict was Mayuri's death. All of Okabe's struggles along with the struggles of the other characters revolved around her death, making the viewer relate to the pain each character felt. That doesn't quite happen in 0. There are multiple cannon endings in, which each have their own story paths that leads to them. A lot of the endings don't incorporate every character, and some of them feel very generic. I'm not against happy endings, but some of these endings were just extremely forgettable because oh how they leaned to being more uplifting. Maho's ending had a conflict with DURPA that felt like it came out of nowhere and only lasted for a few minutes. When a character was about to die, another character would come in and save the day. There were a few cool moments in there like Amadeus having memories of the Kurisu from the Alpha word line, but moments like that aren't that common. It's really just there to build Maho's character and develop her relationship with Moeka. It turns in more of a slice of life type story until it gets to the end where the aforementioned conflict takes place. It's just not something I'm personally into. Kagiri's ending is sort of the same way however it also feels like a waste of time. A lot of the time is spent looking for the origins of a certain song, but it doesn't really mean anything in the long run as the important event is Kagiri almost getting hit by a truck, which allows her to get her memories back. The VN then established that Kagiri and Mayuri spent a lot of time together, however it doesn't show much of their interactions during the 6 months they stayed together. Kagiri then goes back to the past and forces Mayuri to stay in the current world line. While it was sort of emotional, I didn't really care much for Kagiri as nothing really substantial happens with her besides the reveal that she's Mayuri's daughter. The reason why Steins;Gate's endings were so impactful was because the show spent a lot of time developing these new characters; a whole 4-5 chapters. Each character also has this internal struggle that they have to deal with in their separate endings. What's even more important is that all of these conflicts relate to Mayuri's death just like I said before. For example, Luka has to give up being a girl if she wants Mayuri to live. If you don't send the D-MAIL, you watch how conflicted and depressed she is by Mayuri's death. She starts feeling bad about her identity, and this also builds her relationship with Okabe. S;G 0 doesn't do a great job in developing the newer characters to warrant creating entire endings that revolve around them. However, when it comes to the true ending, DRINE ending, and bad ending, the characters are fine. While the Maho Ending and Kagiri ending weren't that great, the rest were pretty good. I enjoyed how The Promised Rinascimento ending connected with the Vega and Altair ending. It's something that Steins;Gate never did, and it's a good way of incorporating different world lines into the story. The Vega and Altair ending built off of what the player had seen in Steins;Gate. It goes into Okabe's struggles and how he is so reluctant to ruin this world that Kurisu sacrificed herself for. It shows how much he cares for Kurisu and Mayuri, which makes it a pretty sad ending and allows the reader to relate to Okabe more. The Gehenna's Stigma ending was also pretty good. Pretty much everything went wrong, and every character met the worst fate imaginable. It was really well done imo, and it surprised me many times. However Milky Way Crossing is the one ending that has a really big impact on me. After watching Okabe struggle through the Alpha word line and deal with living in a world without Kurisu, he finally decided that it's time to break out of his depression and reach Steins;Gate. This also happens in the Vega and Altair ending; however Milky Way Crossing goes into it a bit more. What really hit me was that fact that Okabe was going to leave the world, and there was risk he wouldn't come back. All of the lab members saying good bye to someone who had been with them for all this time contributed to how depressing this ending was. But what makes this ending even better is that it doesn't tell the reader what happens to Okabe after he uses the time machine to search for Mayuri and Suzuha. It's the perfect way to end the story of someone who has struggled through so many failed word lines and lived in a world where the girl he loved was dead. He leaves the world to protect and save Mayuri, just like Kurisu did. It really is the perfect end to this mad scientist. Getting to the true ending is also much better. You just have to get the Promised Rinascimento ending, and then redo the Vega and Altair ending. Overall, Steins;Gate 0 is a fun read. The game is a lot more engaging than S;G when comparing it to the first half, but the story is just not as satisfying. When building towards the endings, events can feel forgettable, and I found myself having to rewatch some chapters to remember what happened. I still recommend this to anyone who is a fan of Steins;Gate, but don't expect it to match the quality of the original. 4/5 from me.