Mages Inc. Bridges the Gap Between Anime and Visual Novels with Steins;Gate Elite

-GeekyGamerGirl 87-

There’s nothing better than after a long day crawling up with your favorite book and getting lost in a good story. As I am a huge anime fanatic, I have always been a huge visual novel fan, from the first visual novel I read. I always looked at them as an upgrade to a manga. In the beginning visual novels seem to only be available to me on Steam, but recently they have made a big transition over to consoles such as the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. Therefore, I was excited when Mages Inc. and Spike Chunsoft Co. Ltd. Offered us here at thedailygamepad.com a free review copy of Steins;Gate Elite for Nintendo Switch. I had reviewed many of their novels in the past, and as I am a fan of the anime adaptation of their novel. I was happy to get my hands-on Steins;Gate Elite for the Nintendo Switch, because now I would be able to carry the novel with me.

However, I was certainly surprised by this adaptation of the novel. This is not your traditional visual novel. In fact, Mages Inc. has done what I have only seen in one other visual novel I read, but they have done it a lot better. They have actually managed to take the visual novel and animate it. Therefore, at least for me, this is the very first animated visual novel. So, if you are an anime fan you are in luck. However, before I go into my review further, I would like to thank Mages Inc. and Spike Chunsoft Co. LTD for providing thedailygamepad.com with a free review copy of Steins;Gate Elite.

Steins;Gate Elite takes the story of Steins;Gate and retells it; but this time the novel is animated. So essential you are watching an anime, just with a little more depth to its story. For those who are familiar with the story of Steins;Gate this is just another retelling of it. If you have not read the first novel in this science-fiction novel. I will give you a brief synopsis of what the story is.  Like my other reviews, I like to keep the review as spoiler free as I can. I do this as a sign of respect for the writers of the novel and to ensure that the novel is not spoiled for others.

For those who have not had to pleasure of experiencing Steins;Gate, Steins;Gate is a science fiction novel. The story revolves around our protagonist 18-year-old Okabe Rintaro, a young man who appears to be a bit socially awkward. As he doesn’t like his actual given name and likes to think that his true name is Hououin Kyouma and that he is a mad scientist being hunted by a secret organization, that apparently no one else even knows about. Rintaro…eh I mean Hououin Kyouma spends his time in his lab with his childhood friend 16-year-old Shiina Mayuri. A cosplaying enthusiast who is loveable, kind and sweet and calls Hououin Kyouma the nickname Okarin, that she has called him since they were kids, and the resident hacker Itaru Hashida or Daru; whom has known Okabe since they were in high school. They make all types of inventions in their lab. Most are failures, but they happen to make one that does not fail. The invention known as the phonewave (name pending) has the ability to send messages back to the past. However, they get a little over their heads and a series of events occur.

That’s as much of the story that I can provide for you without giving away too much of the story because there are a lot of other things that do occur in the story. However, if you are a fan of science fiction you are going to enjoy this story.

As I stated before this adaptation of the novel offers a new feature. Essentially this is a visual novel. However, it does add some animated features. So instead of the static pictures that were in previous novels, this allows for the characters to move around a little more freely in a sense as if you were watching an anime.  I like to call it more of an animated visual novel.  Therefore, those who are into animes having more storyline this blends the two perfectly.

Another thing that I saw in the novel that was odd is that it mentions that it does have an Auto Mode. In order to turn the novel onto auto mode, you need to press the Y button. I would have liked for this to be displayed in one of the corners. I was only able to find the auto mode because I went to the help tab in the system menu and it shows you the button controls, again there are a lot of button controls to remember. You can access the help menu through the system menu by using the plus button. To make the visual novel better and flow more like an anime, I adjusted the speed of the text and then let it go into auto mode, and it made it feel like I was watching the anime.

The game does still have the backlog feature. The backlog feature is good if you want to go back to read what you have currently read. However, any other previous readings will no longer be there, in some of their other visual novels you were able to go back so far, but with this one, the backlog resets with each play session. Therefore, if you are one of those that tend to forget what you read type people, you are going to want to make use of the games 48 different save slots.

The game does still have the tips list feature, which I enjoyed in the other novels I read. Again, the tips list is pretty much an in-game dictionary that you can access via the system menu. This allows you to look at words that you don’t know what the meaning of them are. It can help provide more context to the story for those who may not know be familiar with certain words mean, including some of the slang that is being used in the novel.

Another cool thing that is offered with Steins;Gate Elite  –at least with the Nintendo switch version— is the 8-bit version of Steins;Gate known as 8-Bit Adv Steins;Gate. Again, this is exclusive to the Nintendo switch in which you play an 8-bit version of Steins;Gate. I thought this was really excellent and a cute exclusive. I will recommend playing it after you have read the visual novel as it does have some spoilers in it, and also there is no saving feature in the game. Therefore, make sure you have enough time to play it all the way through, or at least don’t close out the game on the switch if you want to pick up the game where you left off.

Overall, I can say that I do highly recommend Steins;Gate Elite. I really love the direction the developers have taken the story and the novel. I hope that Mages Inc continues to create more novels like this in the future. The time for the animated visual novel is here, and Mages Inc. is doing a great job of it. The novel does go for $59.99 USD, but does include a free item with purchase. For Nintendo Switch it is the 8-Bit Adv Steins;Gate. For PlayStation 4 and Steam you get a free copy of Steins;Gate: Linear Bounded Phenogram which offers a new perspective of each of the characters in the story. If you would like to purchase Steins;Gate Elite you can pick it up on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, or Steam.