History VisualNovel / SteinsGate

On June 5th, 2015, [=PQube=] released JAST's English translation of the visual novel on [=PS3=], Vita and iOS in Europe. This was released in America on August 25, 2015.

The "true sequel", ''VisualNovel/SteinsGateZero'', launched in December 2015, and follows younger versions of the cast. The release of the game was preceded by a re-broadcast of the anime, which ended with a special recut of Episode 23, dubbed Episode 23 Beta, with an alternate ending that ties into the game.

After nearly nine years in Japan, ''[[BizarroEpisode Steins;Gate: My Darling's Embrace]]'' was released on Steam on December 10th, 2019. Unlike the rest of the series, it's a romcom that allows Rintaro to date any of the girls ([[GayOption and Luka]]).

* CatchPhrase:
** Mayuri's "Tuturu~" whenever she greets someone. %%Clarify: also a phone wallpaper sent by Mayuri.
** Okabe always ends off every Chuuni phonecall he gets with the words, "El Psy Kongroo."
* CatSmile: Faris (of course), Mayuri and Suzuha.

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: Okabe slowly gets distracted when describing Luka's feminine traits and ends up talking about the heat and cicadas, but still insists that Luka is a guy after every line.

!!''Steins;Gate'' contains examples of:

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: The real-life CERN is located on the border between France and Switzerland, but the closest airport is not in France, it is in Geneva. So if you want to go to CERN, you should fly to Switzerland. On the other hand, we were never given the exact location of the in-game SERN, it may be different. And the flight that the Rounders took may well be not direct, which makes it somewhat pointless to observe the destination of the plane they took.

* BelievingTheirOwnLies: [[spoiler:Okabe]] has descended into this heavily in the ''Dr.Jekyll Online'' chapter from ''Linear Bounded Phenogram'', where he [[spoiler:donned the Alpaca Man persona as a hero of justice to defend Akihabara from injustice and to right all wrongs]]. He did this to escape the grief of having [[spoiler:Mayuri being deceased in 2010, where Okabe spent the whole year to delude himself as a hero of justice who will defend Akihabara (and Mayuri herself) from all criminal actions]]. It took practically everyone to get [[spoiler: Okabe to wake himself up and accepting Mayuri's passing]].

* BeYourself: Late in the story, after Okabe attempts to take [[spoiler:Lukako]] out on a series of dates and follows advice from a dating manual on how to treat her, but fails spectacularly and makes her cry. He then time-leaps to redo the date with this in mind and thus decides to do the same thing with [[spoiler:Lukako]] that they always did together, [[spoiler:practicing with the Samidare sword]]; this date goes significantly better.

** Okabe getting arrested was a reference to how trigger happy he thinks American police are.

* CovertGroupWithMundaneFront: Who would have thunk the European Organization for Nuclear Research was run by TheIlluminati and the Committee of 300? ... Well, besides [[TheCloudcuckoolanderWasRight Okabe]], we mean.

* {{Determinator}}: [[spoiler: Witnessing Mayuri's death multiple times is not enough to shatter Okabe's hope to save her.]]

** Okabe really puts himself through the wringer, but the GoldenEnding is ultimately a happy one. [[spoiler: Even though no one remembers anything that happened except for Okabe, everyone is alive and well, the BadFuture is averted, Okabe reassembles the lab members, and Kurisu manages to reunite with Okabe and they start their relationship over again. It is also implied that since all people actually have the ability of "Reading Steiner" (Okabe just has a much more advanced form of it) that they could eventually end up remembering the sacrifices he went through over the worldlines.]]

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: Okabe slowly gets distracted when describing Luka's feminine traits and ends up talking about the heat and cicadas, but still insisting that Luka is a guy after every line.

* LivingWithTheVillain: While Okabe worries himself sick about dealing with [[spoiler: Moeka's assault]] he completely overlooks that [[spoiler: his landlord is her boss.]]

* MadnessMantra:

* {{Minimalism}}: The anime has washed out colors, saturated lights, very little music and uses flashy effects sparsely. Combined with the fact there are less than a dozen relevant characters, it all gives it a very quiet atmosphere, even during dramatic or violent scenes.

* NGOSuperpower: SERN has all the traits and trappings of the trope (far-reaching power, killer commandos, wants to conquer the world etc.), ironically without actually being one: it's based on CERN which IS a (multinational) governmental organization... and has practically nothing in common with SERN apart from its character as a research-oriented organization.

* PoorCommunicationKills: It takes Okabe ''ages'' to think of telling anyone else about what's going on once things start to go bad. And he never even tries to tell some people, at all, even when they'd logically have a huge amount to contribute and plenty of incentive to do so. Admittedly, he's nearly out of his mind with panic at this point - once he calms down and realizes he needs help, he makes a lot more progress towards fixing things, although the [[TraumaCongaLine psychological damage]] has already been done.

''VisualNovel/RoboticsNotes'', the {{sequel}} to ''Steins;Gate'', was released on the UsefulNotes/XBox360 and [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 PS3]] in June 2012. An [[TheAnimeOfTheGame anime adaptation]] began airing in the Creator/{{noitaminA}} block in October of the same year.

** [[MagicalParticleAccelerator SERN]] and [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer IBN]] play an important part in the plot. However, there's also [[Website/{{Google}} Deluoode]], [[Website/YouTube MewTube]], [[VisualNovel/{{CLANNAD}} CLADANDAN]], [[Music/AKB48 KBA84]], [[{{Doujinshi}} Comima]] and "Wiki Wiki" for Website/TheOtherWiki.

* UpdatedRerelease: ''Steins;Gate Elite'', kind of, is a new version of the first game for the UsefulNotes/PSVita, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch. ''Elite'' is rather unusual as far as updated re-releases go in the sense that it's actually a RecursiveAdaptation, in that it's essentially a visual novel version of the ''anime'', following the anime's general plot, with new animated scenes for the game-only routes.

* HeroesWantRedHeads: [[spoiler:Kurisu is Okabe's love interest and "most important person" in the route that leads to Chapter 11 and the Epilogue (aka the canon route). Essentially, she's the canon love interest.]] Although in the original visual novel, she was a brunette.

** [[spoiler: The latter half of the series deconstructs SetRightWhatOnceWasWrong by showing that undoing the alterations caused by time travel may reverse the bad things they caused, but it also negates all the good things, forcing you to let go of the gifts you got from time travel. And even if you go through all the trouble of reversing one disaster, that doesn't mean that others can't happen...]]

** In Luka's ending, [[spoiler:she and Okabe are happy together, but Mayuri is dead. The group stays together. But this does have a divergence numbers that lead to SERN ruling the world, so it's more of a downer ending.]]
** In Mayuri's ending, [[spoiler:Kurisu dies and a lot of Okabe's relationships are lost. This also has a divergence number that will lead to the worldline where SERN rules everything, so it's more of a downer ending.]]

* {{Chuunibyou}}: Rintarou is a self-proclaimed mad scientist and villain, and will often partake in strange mannerisms such as talking to himself via cell phone and laughing maniacally in order to keep up this persona.[[spoiler:And while it's all in his head and he is forced to end his antics in the face of his trauma, returning to his Kyoma Hououin persona is the only way he finds the courage to do the impossible and save the world. His embarassing Chuunibyou antics end up being his greatest strenght.]]

* {{Chuunibyou}}: Rintarou is a self-proclaimed mad scientist and villain, and will often partake in strange mannerisms such as talking to himself via cell phone and laughing maniacally in order to keep up this persona.[[Spoiler:And while it's all in his head and he is forced to end his antics in the face of his trauma, returning to his Kyoma Hououin persona is the only way he finds the courage to do the impossible and save the world. His embarassing Chuunibyou antics end up being his greatest strenght.]]

* {{Chuunibyou}}: Rintarou is a self-proclaimed mad scientist and villain, and will often partake in strange mannerisms such as talking to himself via cell phone and laughing maniacally in order to keep up this persona.

** Daru's dialogue is occasionally peppered with references to various anime and video games, and before the group manages to settle on D-Mail as the name of their time machine, some of the names they come up with reference ''Anime/TheGirlWhoLeaptThroughTime'' and ''Film/BackToTheFuture''. His usual response to Okabe's more outlandish demands is even "[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable But I refuse!]]".

** The name "D-Mail" was thought up after Mayuri came up with "[[Film/BackToTheFuture Delorean]] Mail".
** In the visual novel, Kurisu mentions as one of the impossibilities of time travel the sheer amount of energy it would take to move at light speeds would almost certainly be at least [[Film/BackToTheFuture 1.21 gigawatts]].

* WholePlotReference: Suzuha's route in ''My Darling's Embrace'' is one to ''Film/BackToTheFuture Part I''.

A two-act stage play adaptation, ''Living ADV [Steins;Gate]'', ran from October 12 to 20, 2013, at the Zepp Diver City hall in Tokyo. While Act 1 is common across all runs, Act 2 varied by day (one VN ending per day); the full play (with the True Ending) can be watched with English subs [[https://youtu.be/G_PnGR2Iqc8 here.]]

* OffModel: One of Mayuri's poses has her elbows go down to her waist.

* AlternateCharacterReading: Invoked with Okabe's name for the time machine e-mails, "Nostalgia Drive". It's written "time-travelling journey for nostalgia" (時を越えた郷愁への旅). Similarly, "Shining Finger" is written as "Shiatsu Master of Flashing Lights" (閃光の指圧師). Of course, both of these are LostInTranslation.