Just a heads up for people who might be interested but don't know much about the series:
Steins;Gate 0 is a sequel, not a prequel.
Steins;Gate Elite is mostly a slightly pared down version of Steins;Gate, but with the static sprites/backgrounds/CGs replaced with clips from the anime adaptation. A lot of the interactivity revolves around the phone mechanic; in Elite, phone calls are answered automatically, image attachments for certain text chains don't exist, etc. Additionally, Elite doesn't restore one of the character routes that was heavily truncated in the anime adaptation, opting instead to shorten that route in-game to match; to their credit, they did commission new animation for the bad/alternate endings as the anime stuck to the 'true' path, and also fixes some of the biggest characterization butchering of the anime, which also required new animation. I'd still recommend the original Steins;Gate over Elite, but unfortunately Linear Bounded Phenogram - a fandisc collection of various non-canon stories by a plethora of authors - is only available to owners of Elite, unless you claimed it in the first few minutes it was up on Steam.
EDIT: You'll probably also want to look into the Committee of Zero patches for these games. While the accuracy of their Chaos;Head retranslation project has been the subject of some dispute, most of their Steins;Gate stuff focuses on terminology consistency, typo fixes or translating untranslated text, and fixing the godawful font/kerning/line-break choices that've been made (see the before and after for Steins;Gate).
EDIT2: If I'm gonna put up walls of text I suppose this is the least I can do.
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This is correct, but I didn't want to confuse new people even more. I'd still rather call it a sequel because
it's definitely meant to be read after the original game; even if you could make a case for slotting it in at the branching point, that still requires knowledge of pretty much the entire game.
from the reader's point of view, pretty close to everything in 0 takes place chronologically during or after the events of the original game.
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Maybe still worth it to get 0 and maybe even base STEINS;GATE, but probably avoid Elite as that is basically STEINS;GATE with the anime integrated into it.
FEGuy's post above seems to explain it well.
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Chaos VNs were good to get at very beginning because the bundle itself had 50% discount on it at the time noah was finally allowed on Steam. If these sales are a sign, evetually there should be a better deal. Yeah, that Muv Luv bundle was great, I hope for more of that kind of thing.
I was pretty happy with the sales STEINS;GATE was already going on usually, but I was bascially waiting for a moment like this.
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Robotics;Notes is definitely worthwhile, just don't go into it expecting it to be as gripping as Steins;Gate. Despite the fact that the game has a higher final body count than S;G it still feels much more lighthearted throughout, and perhaps it's because the stakes only get so high at the end that there's never really as much tension despite the potential outcome.
Also, not sure exactly which ones you've seen the anime adaptations for, but Robotics;Notes features a minor character from S;G as part of its supporting cast, and R;N DaSH splits its perspective between the original Robotics;Notes protagonist and a major character from Steins;Gate, so while they're mostly standalone games it might help to brush up on at least the OG Steins;Gate first.
It is a shame that all the franchise stuff besides the Chaos games are at historical lows - even Anonymous;Code is half-off, and it's only been out for a year - but they've dropped low before and likely will drop lower again.
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ended up grabbing bundle with elite since getting Linear Bounded Phenogram seperately... would have cost more lol(no additional 10% discount and costs same as elite >>)
picked up the robotics notes 2 game bundle(same new HL discount % as Steins Gate!) as well(although sequels reviews aren't promising... if I will be diving into them I will get it all(praying the Chaos games get a high discount to)
edit:YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world also on a new HL discount(80% off!)... picked it up, missed it on first glance of stuff from MAGES
RIP wallet... at least I incidentally missed a few meals the past week... maybe my body knew this was coming.
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The bundle with Elite is complete-the-set, so you would still get the 10% discount afterwards.
And no, Linear Bounded Phenogram is not sold separately. It has its own steam page, but sells the same package as on Elite's page (regardless where you buy, you get both).
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Nice! I haven't watched it, but heard about it. I haven't watched most of the anime listed earlier except Naruto, and believe it or not, I rewatched Naruto entirely for the first time in 10 years and now I'm watching Naruto Shippuden. Other than that I only wanted to watch it, but always left it off. Always had a problem between choosing to play video games and dedicate time to anime.
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Gaming for me is a lot of fun even to this day. I have been a gamer for 25 years. Never has it lost its spark and am constantly being surprised by some things. Anime I feel exhausted after watching long sessions, so maybe 2-4 episodes/day is enough for me.
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In case you dont know already, elite and steins gate has the same story, with some difference on some details (like some optional story content (for steins gate) and animations (for elite))
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already bought original stories ages ago. i want Linear Bounded Phenogram but its stuck behind elite, for this price maybe. Thank you for sharing!
would have been cool if the other spike stuff went on sale. I recently finished somnium files and enjoyed it, already bought nirvanA so hoping to start that soon! (and danganronpa v3 at some point)
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I think base + 0 for me; haven't played a VN in a while.
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THERE ARE STEINS;GATE GAMES?? WHAT???
Edit: Oh nvm, it's only visual novels.. those are hardly categorizable as "video games" tbh
Man what a letdown
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I mean.. Steins;Gate was originally a visual novel and then adapted into an anime. I know many people are only familiar with the anime, but that was completely based on the visual novel, so it probably shouldn't be that surprising. There are plenty of other anime that have done the same thing. Fate/Stay Night and Clannad being some of the other big ones
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Oh, I see. I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for clearing that up!
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There's two different games referred to as 'Steins;Gate 8-bit' or something similar.
The PC-88 style one never got an official localization, but some of the people behind what would eventually become the official localization for the Steins;Gate VN also did an unofficial patch for it, which others have cleaned up over time. Since it's technically an officially-published game and not a fanwork, linking to it here would probably constitute piracy.
The other one was closer to a Famicom/NES-style title, and in fact my understanding is that it's actually a FC ROM packed into an emulator. This was officially released in English with Steins;Gate Elite on the Switch (PS4 and Steam versions of Elite came with Linear Bounded Phenogram instead; Phenogram was later ported to the Switch in Japan, but not internationally). To play this you need to buy Elite on the Switch, buy the download code from someone who bought the physical version of Elite on the Switch, or, again, resort to piracy.
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Oh nice, these are among very few anime VNs I've been curious about.
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I did love Steins;Gate. Played it on my Vita. This sale also features some other related titles like the Chaos games and Robotics;Notes as well.
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Well as a fan of (mostly) the whole Science Adventure Series, which Steins;Gate is part of, I feel I have to state that the whole publisher has a sale and big discount on all their games:
https://store.steampowered.com/developer/SPIKECHUNSOFT/sale/mages2024
So not only Steins;Gate but also Chaos;Head, Robotic;Notes and Anonymous;Code.
Sadly Spike Chunsoft has their hands in those titles (see also Danganronpa) which is why they put facepalming price-tags on those games. But with this sale we can get really good VN games for normal/low money. So grab it to enjoy the whole series (as they are somehow related with each other ;) )
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Full bundle with re-released vesrion
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/2710/STEINSGATE_SERIES_BUNDLE/ 82% off
or original stories only
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/7054/STEINSGATE__STEINSGATE_0/ 82% off
For those who interested it is good offer.
Also some side stories https://store.steampowered.com/app/970560/STEINSGATE_My_Darlings_Embrace/ 80% off.
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