Steins;Gate is a Japanese visual novel developed by 5pb. and Nitroplus, and was released on October 15, 2009 for the Xbox 360.The gameplay in Steins;Gate follows a non-linear plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction.
The story of Steins;Gate takes place in Akihabara and is about a group of friends who have customized their microwave into a device that can send text messages to the past. As they perform different experiments, an organization named SERN who has been doing their own research on time travel tracks them down and now the characters have to find a way to avoid being captured by them. Steins;Gate has been praised for its intertwining storyline and the voice actors have been commended for their portrayal of the characters. A manga adaptation of the story illustrated by Sarachi Yomi began serialization in Media Factory's Monthly Comic Alive magazine on September 26, 2009
Story
Steins;Gate takes place in the Akihabara district of Tokyo. On July 28, 2010, Rintarō Okabe and his friend Mayuri Shīna head towards the Radio Kaikan building for a conference, where Rintarō finds a girl named Kurisu Makise lying in a pool of blood. As Rintarō sends a text message about the incident to his friend, Itaru "Daru" Hashida, he experiences a strange phenomenon and the people around him disappear, with no-one else noticing anything had changed. After later running into Kurisu, who is strangely alive and well, and discovering the message he had sent to Itaru had arrived a week before he sent it, Rintarō soon deduces that the 'Mobile Microwave' he and his friends had been developing is, in fact, a time machine capable of sending text messages to the past. He and his friends soon learn that SERN, an organization that has been researching time travel for some time, has actually succeeded in sending humans into the past although they seem to have all resulted in the test subjects' deaths. Rintarō begins experimenting with "D-Mails" , which begin to cause major differences in the timeline. Kurisu also manages to create a device to send a person's memories through the microwave, allowing that person to effectively leap into the past.
However, SERN learn of the time machine and send a group to retrieve it, killing Mayuri in the process. Using Kurisu's time leap machine, Rintarō travels back in time numerous times to try to save Mayuri, but to no avail. As Rintarō reaches wit's end, he is approached by Suzuha Amane, a girl from a future ruled by SERN due to their possession of a time machine, who tells him that he needs to return to a Beta world line in which Mayuri won't die. By undoing the effects of the D-Mails that caused shifts in the time line, Rintarō regains possession of an IBN 5100 PC that they lost earlier, allowing them to crack into SERN's systems and delete the evidence of Rintarō's original D-Mail. However, Rintarō realizes that by doing so, he would have to return to a world line in which Kurisu is dead. After realizing their feelings for each other, Kurisu tells Rintarō to save Mayuri. Reluctantly, Rintarō agrees and deletes the evidence of his D-Mail from SERN's database, returning him to the Beta world line.
Some time later, Suzuha appears before Rintarō, having arrived in a time machine from the future. She tells Rintarō that the only way to prevent World War III in the future is to prevent Kurisu's death at the hands of her father, Dr. Nakabachi, who stole her time travel theory to present to SERN. However, this operation ends in a disaster as Rintarō ends up killing Kurisu himself by mistake. After this failure, Rintarō receives a message from his future self, telling him that the way to save Kurisu without altering the events that led to him developing a time machine is to fool his past self into believing Kurisu had been killed. Returning to the past again, Rintarō puts his own life in danger in order to save Kurisu's life, prevent Nakabachi from successfully escaping with the time travel theory, and fool his past self, setting him on his journey through time. Returning to a world line safe from the threat of SERN, Rintarō and Kurisu manage to reunite by chance in the streets of Akihabara.
Main characters
- Rintarō Okabe:
- The player assumes the role of Rintarō Okabe, the protagonist of Steins;Gate. Rintarō is a self-proclaimed mad scientist and often refers to himself under the alias of Kyōma Hōōin which is also the name he uses to introduce himself to other people. Mayuri and Daru refer to him by the nickname Okarin , a portmanteau of his surname and given name. He is the founder of what he calls the "Future Gadget Laboratory" in Akihabara where he spends most of his time.
- Kurisu Makise
Kurisu is the main female protagonist of the game. She is a neuroscience researcher at an American university, and can speak and read English well. Having had her research published in the academic journal Sciency at the young age of 18, Kurisu is extremely talented. She skipped a grade in the American school system.
- Mayuri Shiina
- Mayuri is a long time childhood friend of Rintarō and is a bit of an airhead. Mayuri enjoys creating cosplay costumes and has a part-time job at a maid cafe called "Mayqueen Nyannyan".
- Moeka Kiryū
- Moeka is a tall girl who Rintarō bumps into in Akihabara and is on a search for the IBN 5100 personal computer. Moeka is extremely protective of her mobile phone and becomes agitated if someone tries to take it from her hands
