Steins;Gate 0 Review Discussion

[Fred the Barber]

http://fuwanovel.net/reviews/2016/11/29/steinsgate-0/

It's amazing. Why are you even reading this? You should be reading Steins;Gate 0 right now.

[fun2novel]

Btw, Fred, "Going to the system menu in-game actually causes the game to shrink a little and the menu to appear on the left margin with a nice animation." Was already done in Chaos;Child and it did it first.

[Fred the Barber]

6 minutes ago, fun2novel said:

Btw, Fred, "Going to the system menu in-game actually causes the game to shrink a little and the menu to appear on the left margin with a nice animation." Was already done in Chaos;Child and it did it first.

It's new to me

Anyway, there's no time for goofing around like this. I must scour the internet for Maho fanart.

[Soulless Watcher]

God I have no idea if it is because I'm a huge Steins;Gate fanboy (it is essentially what started my descent into otaku culture) or if it has just been too long since I have read a good meaty story driven VN, but Steins;Gate 0 has me by the fucking balls. I'm completely enthralled by every bit I have read so far and I love the phone choice mechanic. The only thing that kinda threw me off is some of the tips, do we really need an in depth explanation of Apps, DNA, Deja vu, Einstein, or UFO? 

[Fred the Barber]

21 minutes ago, Soulless Watcher said:

The only thing that kinda threw me off is some of the tips, do we really need an in depth explanation of Apps, DNA, Deja vu, Einstein, or UFO? 

Obviously those are all completely necessary, Duh*.

*An expression used to show that a statement is self-evident and obvious. Has been in common use for hundreds of years.

[Soulless Watcher]

31 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

Obviously those are all completely necessary, Duh*.

*An expression used to show that a statement is self-evident and obvious. Has been in common use for hundreds of years.

I just got to that part, fuck I thought you were joking.

Edited November 30, 2016 by Soulless Watcher

[Eclipsed]

i've been on a massive weeb drought & decline over the past few months but HOLY FK S;G ZERO IS FINALLY HERRRRRRRRRR!@$$%#

[Decay]

I'm not really convinced "is a story sequel" is a valid con. It's something worth taking note of, but it's certainly not a negative.  Good review though.

[Fred the Barber]

11 minutes ago, Decay said:

I'm not really convinced "is a story sequel" is a valid con. It's something worth taking note of, but it's certainly not a negative.  Good review though.

Fair. FWIW, it's not like I'm docking it a lot of meaningful mental points - it's now one of three games I've given a 10/10 on VNDB (along with the original Steins;Gate... and Little Busters!, don't judge me).

[Dergonu]

5 hours ago, Decay said:

I'm not really convinced "is a story sequel" is a valid con. It's something worth taking note of, but it's certainly not a negative.  Good review though.

Fairly certain the people who marketed the game specifically said you need absolutely no knowledge of the first one to play the second one. (Don't have the source sadly, but it was posted somewhere on this forum before the release.)

If it actually does require prior knowledge of the first game, then they just straight up lied. Gotta say, that qualifies as a con in that regard at least.

 

Ah, and great review Fred. You made my wallet angry though, as I wasn't planning on buying this for now, but after reading this I have to

[Nosebleed]

I have a dream that one day psvita games will also get a pc release... 

[WinterfuryZX]

1 hour ago, Dergonu said:

 

If it actually does require prior knowledge of the first game, then they just straight up lied. Gotta say, that qualifies as a con in that regard at least.

Sure it does, it's starts before the beginning of SG true end sequence, straight into the story.

Edited November 30, 2016 by WinterfuryZX

[Decay]

2 hours ago, Dergonu said:

Fairly certain the people who marketed the game specifically said you need absolutely no knowledge of the first one to play the second one. (Don't have the source sadly, but it was posted somewhere on this forum before the release.)

If it actually does require prior knowledge of the first game, then they just straight up lied. Gotta say, that qualifies as a con in that regard at least.

 

Ah, and great review Fred. You made my wallet angry though, as I wasn't planning on buying this for now, but after reading this I have to

I read through the few S;G0 threads here and there wasn't any mention of that.

[Dergonu]

31 minutes ago, Decay said:

I read through the few S;G0 threads here and there wasn't any mention of that.

If I remember correctly, it was in an article written by the people behind the game / the localization team.

[Decay]

Eh, it's a very common marketing tactic to downplay the significance of the predecessor when promoting a sequel. Or perhaps they meant that it was okay to just watch the anime instead of reading the original VN? That much seems true.

[Dergonu]

1 hour ago, Decay said:

Eh, it's a very common marketing tactic to downplay the significance of the predecessor when promoting a sequel. Or perhaps they meant that it was okay to just watch the anime instead of reading the original VN? That much seems true.

Found it:

Quote

One thing I’m often asked is how accessible it is to those who never played the original? I think missing out on this because you’ve not seen the anime or played the original is a mistake – the story really works on its own.

A post from the translator of the game, apperantly.

It does seem like I didn't scroll down though, and there is this part to it:

Quote

The first Steins;Gate is now a seven year old game, and when the writers created Zero they were well aware that many players wouldn’t have beaten it. Steins;Gate Zero takes place in a world line where many of the events in the first game never happened, and it very quickly becomes its own story. While it’s a direct sequel, it assumes the player has no knowledge of most of what happened in the original, beyond the basic outlines of the plot.

So, although they do say it is a sequel, they claim you do not need knowledge of the previous story. Though, it was a bit less direct than I remembered.

[WinterfuryZX]

Lol that's bullshit, there are some pov switches through the game, in one of them a Mayuri's coosplay friend has flashbacks from parallel wordlines and keeps seeing her

 

diyng

Edited November 30, 2016 by WinterfuryZX

[Eclipsed]

So much sequel-marketing-con discussion, why would anyone ever be in the position to consider playing S;G0 before S;G in the first place 

unless some weird 'o ya 0 must come firsst#$'

[Nandemonai]

Fuck you, Fuwa, for not letting me quote a quote.  Now I have to manually copy/paste this in order to respond to it:

The first Steins;Gate is now a seven year old game, and when the writers created Zero they were well aware that many players wouldn’t have beaten it. Steins;Gate Zero takes place in a world line where many of the events in the first game never happened, and it very quickly becomes its own story.

While it’s a direct sequel, it assumes the player has no knowledge of most of what happened in the original, beyond the basic outlines of the plot.

So if you read carefully, this statement says that you can play Steins;Gate 0 without being lost if you haven't played the original.  This is probably true; you might be a little lost here and there, but if they were careful it shouldn't be too bad.  Note, however, what this does not say.  It does not say that this game doesn't spoil the original Steins;Gate, or that playing S;G0 first won't diminish your experience of the original S;G.  Instead, it says that if you don't care about spoiling S;G (which has been out for a while) you can play Zero without a problem.

[Decay]

So, I actually read the first few hours of this. It dumps you in right after the events of the first game without explaining anything to you or bothering to introduce the existing characters. And everything that's happening is motivated by or directly related to the events of the first game. Terms like "SERN Rounder" are thrown around and you're expected to know their significance. The only explanations offered are the brief snippets from the in-game encyclopedia which are entirely inadequate for anything other than reminding forgetful fans of the first game. 

Basically, if you go into S;G0 without playing the first game, you will be completely and utterly baffled by the first few hours. Perhaps as things go on you'll be able to get a handle on what happened in the past and what's happening in the current story, but it's something you'll have to work at piecing together. And it's also something that will hamper your enjoyment of S;G0, while completely spoiling the first game in the process.

Again, though, I don't think this is necessarily a negative. On the contrary, often times sequels that try to be new-player-friendly end up losing something by loosening their connection to their predecessors. I think such a strong connection to the previous game can actually be seen as a positive. And for a game review, I don't think something like "a translator giving incorrect information on a message board" should be a factor, but that's more due to my personal review philosophy of trying to review games on their own merits, not taking such outside factors into account. 

Edited November 30, 2016 by Decay

[Fred the Barber]

I should probably have qualified when I listed it being a sequel as a con, but I thought it would be understood: it's obviously a con if you thought maybe you'd just play this game without playing the one before. I don't consider something being a sequel, in and of itself, to be a negative.

As far as those earlier quotations, I think they're bogus, but similarly, that's not something I would (or did) fault the game for, just a point of criticism against the person who said it, who probably was a little too defensive in answering the question.

[douggle]

On 11/29/2016 at 6:12 PM, Soulless Watcher said:

God I have no idea if it is because I'm a huge Steins;Gate fanboy (it is essentially what started my descent into otaku culture) or if it has just been too long since I have read a good meaty story driven VN, but Steins;Gate 0 has me by the fucking balls. I'm completely enthralled by every bit I have read so far and I love the phone choice mechanic. The only thing that kinda threw me off is some of the tips, do we really need an in depth explanation of Apps, DNA, Deja vu, Einstein, or UFO? 

I was completely enthralled from start to finish, I really enjoyed SG;0 overall I d rate it a 9 easily 

[Nandemonai]

5 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

I should probably have qualified when I listed it being a sequel as a con, but I thought it would be understood: it's obviously a con if you thought maybe you'd just play this game without playing the one before.

Your point is perfectly valid - it sounds like, despite what some people involved in the translation said, people that haven't played Steins;Gate would be completely lost trying to stumble through S;G0 - so I think really the only issue is that the wording could have been tweaked a bit more.  Rather than listing "Definitely a sequel" as a con, it might have been better worded as "Does not stand alone" or something similar.