Recent reviews by Enorovan

Best SciADV OSTs with C;C, but this selection is TINY.

Well it's a part of the C;C OST which is in my SciADV top 3 but really, I'm "reviewing" that to not have the notification every time. I wish it had a bit more late-game songs but it is so easy to find an OST nowadays that it's cool they threw us that for free with the game to begin with.

It's a Science Adventure game so I'll always recommend it but... This is really average. Not only the game itself is barely inspired and is uninteresting routes for the most part, the localization and the publishing has issues. Don't mind the fact that a character present in this very game has been cut from STEINS;GATE ELITE which is quite problematic. This same character is in STEINS;GATE: My Darling's Embrace, true, but at least this other fandisk is more inspired, cohesive, has a good localization and is not bundled with STEINS;GATE ELITE.
Much like I said in my STEINS;GATE ELITE review, "I recommend to get it on sale, because it is frankly hardly worth the full price, even with STEINS;GATE ELITE bundled with it." I personally liked the first and the last route, had some surprises here and there for the others but that's it.

If STEINS;GATE ELITE and this was your entry point in "The STEINS;GATE Series", or, more accurately, the Science Adventure Series, I recommend you to wishlist ROBOTICS;NOTES ELITE, which is the entry taking place after STEINS;GATE in the read-order. You can also buy CHAOS;CHILD and STEINS;GATE 0 right now to continue the journey after ROBOTICS;NOTES ELITE (in that order yes, because overarching themes are transitional, and chronologically following a series isn't always the way to go). Please consider wishlisting ROBOTICS;NOTES DaSH too, as, after reading this game I've been reviewing, you'll know what "DaSH" stands for. Also before those other entries that might seem obscure to you, be sure to read the CHAOS;HEAD fan translation, as it A) makes STEINS;GATE even woker in my opinion, B) is literally required to understand all the subsequent entries

Don't mind the low number of hours, as I had just finished reading it in Japanese when it surprised-released.

Go for it. There's not much more to say. It's fluff, it's SoL STEINS;GATE that adds characterization, despite its semi-canon nature (you'll understand when you'll start it), and the localization is, as far as I've checked, surprisingly good. You can clearly see how Spike Chunsoft put work into this, changing the logo, editing a lot of CGs and the OPs, which was not that common with earlier localizations. The art and the musics are, of course, on par with the original STEINS;GATE, and a lot of assets were added, as well as a mail list that helps you to 100% the game, which I heavily recommend you to do.

Hoping for this to sell, being the first real Spike Chunsoft localization (because Elite was still mostly the original VN, and Phenogram was treated as a DLC), for the Science Adventure Series.

Speaking of which, I recommend you to play the fan translation of CHAOS;HEAD, to wishlist the soon to be localized ROBOTICS;NOTES ELITE and to buy CHAOS;CHILD. (I don't think I need to tell you about STEINS;GATE 0). This was a great year for this series, and while the ROBOTICS;NOTES sub-series is coming, let's hope for the success of every game released so far, so that we may get CHAOS;CHILD's canon sequel, CHAOS;CHILD LOVE CHU CHU, and/or even better, CHAOS;HEAD NOAH and CHAOS;HEAD LOVE CHU CHU.

On this note, I guess I have to say it, El Psy Kongroo.

I recommend to get it on sale, because it is frankly hardly worth the full price, even with STEINS;GATE: Linear Bounded Phenogram bundled with it. I'd recommend it fully if this was the only version available on Steam, because it's still 95% similar to the STEINS;GATE I know, but it isn't so I'm more nuanced. It still does things I appreciate over the original, but I can't really advocate for it more than that. It sadly cuts some things from OG that are relevant to the fandisk it's bundled with, so if that's a turn-off for you, maybe just buy OG and try your luck with Linear Bounded Phenogram becoming buyable through other means (when the Darling fandisk will release too, maybe?). Or just buy both if you can.

If this was your entry point in "The STEINS;GATE Series", or, more accurately, the Science Adventure Series, I recommend you to wishlist ROBOTICS;NOTES ELITE, which is the entry taking place after STEINS;GATE in the read-order. You can also buy CHAOS;CHILD and STEINS;GATE 0 right now to continue the journey after ROBOTICS;NOTES ELITE (in that order yes, because overarching themes are transitional, and chronologically following a series isn't always the way to go). Please consider wishlisting ROBOTICS;NOTES DaSH too, which is the latest entry in the series. Also before those other entries that might seem obscure to you, be sure to read the CHAOS;HEAD fan translation, as it A) makes STEINS;GATE even woker in my opinion, B) is literally required to understand all the subsequent entries, I trust your super hacka skills to find it.

Okay so, after taking my time thinking about what I thought of Chaos;Child, I'm finally writing this review.
For a bit of context, as many others, I discovered the Science Adventure Series through Steins;Gate's Anime.
At the beginning I was barely interested by the rest of SciADV. Boy was I wrong.
Chaos;Child didn't only meet my expectations, but also surpassed those.
Compelling characters, good rhythm, powerful moments, really interesting delusion trigger system improvement, good references, clever science, well-thought message to the reader... It has everything you'd want for a 60 hours long story. That, but it also adds on the over arching plot of the SciADV franchise, and helps you understand some of Steins;Gate (0)'s science a bit more.
If you read it, there will be a before and an after Chaos;Child. That's why I can only recommend you to do so, for all the reasons above; as well as the fact that it may also increase our chances to see more SciADV titles such as Robotics;Notes Elite, which has the best girl Akiho in it, so you definitely want to read all these games now.

Now, please, enter the Chaos World, and do not forget, Those Eyes are God's Eyes.

Alright, this time, I will properly review STEINS;GATE, which I recommend, of course, I will recommend any Science Adventure game until I die; because I hear a lot of praises: "best VN ever", "objectively best SciADV entry", "a Time Travel story perfectly original and without any flaws in its mechanics", "those a great use of its medium" and so on, and so on. This review will probably look like it's too critical, but I believe there is a need to put into light how the popularity of an adaptation doesn't fix the inherent flaws of the game. Also, it can be considered as me trying to bring back a bit of balance to the Force, as I do think sometimes STEINS;GATE gets praised too much for things that are/should be the norm, or even for things it didn't do. DISCLAIMER: If the spoiler tags don't indicate a label, it's that they spoil STEINS;GATE and only that.


First and foremost, like everyone, my opinion evolved on STEINS;GATE, as I consumed more and more Visual Novels, especially from its parent series. While my tolerance on the flaws I'm going to enumerate are my own, I expect the readers to acknowledge that even if this doesn't lower their enjoyment of the package, the flaws are present.

Let's just go rapidly over what I like. I like the way the main cast (Okabe, Mayuri, Daru, Kurisu, and Suzuha) and the "antagonists" are pictured individually. They are great characters without a doubt. I also like the story, as in, the conspiracy element, the plot twists and all, and how STEINS;GATE stays true to the "lone observer" idea, by never having another narrator than Okabe. I like the Science Fiction side, of course, even though I'll have more things to say about that later on. I don't need to explain why I like all that, if you've read/when you'll read, you'll understand. It is a Science Adventure game after all, which means good character, good plot and good Science Fiction.

Now onto the issues. This part will be longer than the things I like obviously, as I need to push arguments.

Issue n°1: The Science
I often see STEINS;GATE praised on how it is "so realistic and original", especially when compared to its pairs. People are familiar with the concepts of Time Travel, Relativity, Black Holes, etc... obviously even more so than any trope of Science Fiction the other Science Adventure entries use. This gets quite problematic in discussions, because of course if you are familiar with something, you'll be biased and find it more realistic. But then I have to argue that compressing your brain as if you were using some zip tool, with all of that happening in a black hole is not more realistic than (CHAOS;HEAD) having ones brain analyze and modify what ones eyes are observing differently than what was expected, by any means. These comparisons only get more and more hysterical when you consider that (CHAOS;HEAD+STEINS;GATE) the patent used for half of STEINS;GATE's science comes directly from CHAOS;HEAD. Also, the world line theory isn't some new extremely woke concept the writer found. The writer got HEAVILY inspired by some other stories, and this isn't a new scientific concept by any means. An acquaintance is screaming "Thrice Upon a Time" in the distance.

Issue n°2: The Use of the Medium
One of the reasons why I like the Science Adventure series so much is because each type of game has a take on the branching system that is extremely original while still being able to get used to brain the reader. My issue with STEINS;GATE is that it is very intrusive for barely any reasons, which as the effect of opening emails sighing, or worse, putting the True End triggers in a forest of mails, with them being as hidden as a leaf in a single tree. Not only that but when we consider the other routes, sure for most of them the branching is quite direct, which makes the mechanic useless again, they are quite objectively bad. The side routes are lacking any character moments because all of the characterization is done in the other routes, and their canonicity is null which is KIND OF IRONIC considering that it's a Time Travel story. And it's even more infuriating when you look at the wonderful job CHAOS;HEAD NoAH did on these three issues. For people that can't picture it, just imagine CHAOS;CHILD, with mostly better heroine routes and not having to skip for a decade before actually branching. I'll just add here to not make another issue that if I can give STEINS;GATE ELITE some credits, it'd be about reducing the number of mails while keeping the relevant ones, and the cut in Chapter 8 was IMO not as bad as some say (if it didn't cut a side character entirely) because it was getting LONG.

Issue n°3: The Plotholes and the Deus Ex Machina.
For a story that is so praised for having no open doors and a perfectly clean science, oh boy, I recommend you to take a look at quite literally, the True End. When in difficulty, it just goes "welp, I don't know how to explain it, the exception becomes the rule!". Also, this will allow me to say that, even though STEINS;GATE 0 is a sequel and sequels are always bad TM, it was ENTIRELY NEEDED for the absolute ???? moment in the True End which has a "tutorial_to_win_aimed_at_the_MC.mp4" resolution. I have literally nothing else to say, this is speaking for itself.

Issue n°4: Character interactions and the side characters.
This is an essay in three parts (don't run it's not actually an essay but it's in three parts.)
4.1: The Okabe-Kurisu romance . I cannot stress enough how that thing is rushed, poorly written (without looking at side materials that actually make it good), and also almost bear a dangerous message. Specifically "hmm yes I'll be with you to lower your pain except not, also when you scream at me for no reason you remind me of my violent father which I have a complex with. And when you compare it to literally any other Science Adventure romance or even strong relationship it gets even worse.
4.2: It's too Okabe dependant. I get that you could say that this is also a consequence of "the lone observer" thing, but I still do believe that they had ways to not centralize that much and not have the group moments be literal running gags while having Okabe one on one-ing the rest of the time. Because it feels disingenuous to have such a group of precious comrades, à la ROBOTICS;NOTES ELITE, but then have the interactions be too one on one à la CHAOS;HEAD NoAH. It's sitting on two chairs and it makes the interactions feel fake.
4.3: The side characters. They have their arcs, you barely know them before those arcs, you barely see them again after those arcs. It feels too laddery/eroge-ish, which is a shame really. I'd have redeemed True End for its science mistakes if only it at least consolidated a bond between the characters. I get that reverting back was inevitable, but that doesn't mean S;G couldn't have been 10 hours longer and having Okabe work his relations back. Like he factually does in the epilogue.

All in all yeah, STEINS;GATE is a really great Visual Novel. Yeah it got a good anime adaptation which was funded by the VNs and CHAOS;HEAD NoAH's success, which was an easier fit than literally any other Science Adventure entry because of how linear it is (which is a consequence of my second point). But all of that doesn't mean it's perfect, and certainly doesn't mean it's perfect to me.