Sci ADV: Chaos;Head, Steins;Gate, and Robotics;Notes

All done. The true end wasn't exactly amazing, but it didn't turn out shitty like I feared it might. Far, far better than Chaos Head.

Also, what was the point of making A, B, C and D save points?

edited 19th May '13 4:27:18 PM by Arha

So now that you're all done, you can check out all the Steins;Gate side material!

And I don't know about those save points.

And here's something interesting...

edited 19th May '13 5:48:11 PM by tvsgood

Oh? What side material would that be? I might be watching the anime after this.

All in all, Steins Gate reminded me much more of Ever17 than it did Chaos Head. Is this really a sequel? I mean, I spotted a few Chaos Head cameos but that's about it.

It is a sequel. Though Robotics;Notes is where things really start coming together (although moreso in the VN I've heard). And I do recommend watching the anime. Although it does mess up some thing (most notably Mr. Braun's character), it also does some scenes better than the VN, and it brings the whole thing to life rather well. Plus there's an OVA, but I'm not sure how canon it is.

And here's a list of everything I know of in the SciADV series.

Anime it is then.

It doesn't seem any more of a sequel than FSN is a sequel to Tsukihime to me. Though I can't remember who Noah worked for in Chaos Head.

You mean Norose? He was working for two members of the Committee of 300. They're pretty much the main antagonists of the Sci ADV series (although it was a bit complicated in Chaos Head, since everyone was betraying each other).

edited 19th May '13 6:05:20 PM by tvsgood

Hm. My memory of Chaos Head seems to be kind of vague after all this time. Probably doesn't help that I only finished half of it.

You missed a lot of important stuff then.

Probably, but by that point I just hated everyone too much to want to continue.

Well, to each their own. Although I am curious, do you remember where you got up to? Also, just so you know, some of the later stuff does come up in Robotics;Notes and some of the Steins;Gate side material.

I got the endings for the first half of the story and didn't even start the second route.

Oh, so you got the A/AA endings? Good. That's way more than halfway. The B ending is easy to get, you can skip most of the game, just stopping for the delusions. Things only change halfway into chapter 10, and the ending only takes an hour or so to go through. Although you do need your old save file if you haven't deleted it since to get the B ending, you need to have beaten the VN once.

The B ending is also on youtube if you want to see it.

I deleted Chaos Head already. I'll take your word for it. I figured the B route was longer than that.

edited 19th May '13 6:36:30 PM by Arha

Alright then. Since I have nothing better to do right now, I'll post the Youtube links here, and you can look at them if you want to.

• Here are the delusions for the B ending.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fkgAqA2Mz4
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbz5OrteU7Y

• Here is the B ending itself.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_1GwweiI4o
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6KYxNqqsZQ
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz63F4Qn2m4
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QVIaDgItXw
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dckDsz2uR0I
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1pJRWX0j64

edited 19th May '13 6:43:15 PM by tvsgood

Hm, I see.

The Steins Gate anime skips over most of Faris' arc, including some of the actually useful exposition. The arc was rather gutted in general and obviously rushed. Granted that I'm not particularly attached to it, but I don't see why. Too different in tone? They still had two episodes left to fit into the season.

Oh well, I don't particularly care about Faris and Ruka anyway. Amane, Okabe, Kurisu and Moeka were the best characters and with Amane out of the plot it'll be nice to see more of the latter three animated.

I'm going to give Chaos Head another shot. If nothing else, maybe I should just refresh my hatred. It is, after all, one of my top despised visual novels and it would be best to remember why! I can't have Katahane outshine it too badly, can't I?

edited 21st May '13 7:52:01 PM by Arha

Here's something interesting: the bad ending theme from Steins;Gate and the Steins;Gate anime ED are performed by Phantasm, the band from Chaos;Head. Both songs do relate to the events of the series, just like the song from Chaos;Head. This trend does continue with the bad ending song from Robotics;Notes.

Hate Takumi. So bad. This is hard to struggle through. But I will survive! So long as I know how to hate I know I'll stay alive.

...I honestly don't understand what the writers were thinking by making him so incredibly unsympathetic. It doesn't even have any payoff.

Edit: I'm going to write a nice, detailed review after I finish this up.

I lied. I went and wrote it just now.

edited 24th May '13 12:55:13 AM by Arha

Arha, do you hate Shinji too?

Nope. Shinji tried even when things were going horribly. He tried both to help people and to break out of his shell. Takumi doesn't. He's also worse than Shinji about his flaws in the first place.

Shinji was reclusive and quiet and timid, but beneath that he had an actual reason for being screwed up. He worked with his peers, he fought for them, he tried to open up, he could be brave in battle and while he hated being a pilot and largely did it because he was emotionally coerced, he still ended up doing the right thing. Takumi, on the other hand, is antisocial, rude, unkind, cowardly, both paranoid and too trusting, entitled and avoids responsibility. He has to be dragged kicking and screaming into the plot. He's also creepy and despite knowing it keeps thinking girls might be into him.

Come to think of it, he doesn't have a shower in his place.

Also, huh, tvtropes reviews are short.

Sigh. Once again I see the foundation of a good story here, but Takumi and the fact that it doesn't really lead anywhere just ruin my enjoyment.

edited 25th May '13 1:31:47 AM by Arha

So where is the review you've just written then?

I've only tried to grapple with tvtropes review system a few times, and every time it leaves me thinking that if I want to use it, I should stick to games I don't have anything to say about.

I haven't posted it anywhere. I want to finish rereading it before I do anything with the review.

God, the climax with Norose is boring. No wonder I forgot how it went. I would have rooted for Norose if he weren't so horribly boring. So uninvested in either Rimi or Takumi. How is Steins Gate so good and Chaos Head so bad?

Guess I should probably post that review, though since it's largely just me bitching I'm not sure I should really bother. Oh, no wonder they're so short around here. They limit you to 400 words and my review is 552. Not interested in cutting out over a quarter of the review in order to make it fit. Guess I'm not posting it after all, though I'll keep hold of it.

By the way, does anyone know what Okabe is saying at the beginning of the Steins Gate VN? My Japanese sucks so all I can tell is that I think he's talking about the different world lines in the middle of his later game Mayuri filled crash.

edited 25th May '13 7:55:05 PM by Arha

Huh? You mean this stuff?

Yeah, that's it. I didn't get English text for the first two minutes of stuff.

So, it seems that JAST has officially announced that they are releasing the SteinsGate visual novel in the US.

edited 5th Jul '13 11:27:38 PM by tvsgood

So I just finished Chaos;head(I'm assuming I finished ending A and ending AA. Ending A which is just the prologue of the game again, and Ending AA where Rimi didn't realboot the sword, the real Takumi dies, and then credit rolls? It feels like there's supposed to be an epilogue, but isn't or something...)

Holy damn...that was a wild ride. Is there like, any supplementary material that tells us what happens to the characters after?