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REVIEW: Steins;Gate BD+DVD 2

Cue storm of die-hard Steins;Gate fans insisting that the overall grade be bumped to nothing less than an A+.

A- seems a fair grade for this set. Overall the entire show is about a B+, but this half is clearly superior to the first. I liked the final few episodes which ramped up the tension and tied everything together, but I especially loved Miyano's voice work as Okabe; he knocked the role out of the park.

I enjoyed this a lot, but in the end I was annoyed that everything that the show had be building to was simply pushed aside. In the end, it just spoiler[became a romance,] and spoiler[SERN] really didn't matter at all.

Although slow & a little meandering, I thought the first 12 episodes were rather effective in laying down the premise & characters. They may not be the most exciting of the series, but I appreciate the effort behind them.

Honestly, the only episodes I thought flat-out stunk were the two Feris & Ruka centred arcs in the second half. Up until that point I’d completely forgotten Steins;Gate was a visual novel, then all of a sudden we’re treated to some ‘win the girl’s heart & beat her path’ scenarios. They just felt really jarring in contrast to the rest of the show, & the overall conclusion to Ruka’s story was a little insulting & poorly thought out. I actually wish those two were written out of the series entirely, as both their arcs felt tacked onto the main story. They were ultimately harem padding, with only somewhat superficial connections to the time travel plot, & the show could have carried on perfectly well without them with only a few adjustments. You might be able to pull it off in a VN, but an anime adaptation doesn’t translate as well.

That seems to be a deliberate move, one which Robotics;Notes is also attempting right now. They both create huge over-encompassing conspiracies, only to narrow down the focus to the viewpoints of some seemingly insignificant characters. The whole ‘organisation’ thing was always meant to be this huge overbearing presence that Okabe could never defeat, only escape from its line of sight. I’m actually glad the series did just that; it allowed a much stronger character focus & prevented the show from devolving into a messy ‘stop the man!’ tale. There are enough shows like that, & I don’t think Steins;Gate could have pulled it off. Put too many eggs in one basket, & you ending with the nonsensical garbage that was Chaos;Head. I’m so glad Nitroplus learned from their mistakes after that mess!

Honestly, the only episodes I thought flat-out stunk were the two Feris & Ruka centred arcs in the second half.[...] They just felt really jarring in contrast to the rest of the show, & the overall conclusion to Ruka’s story was a little insulting & poorly thought out. I actually wish those two were written out of the series entirely, as both their arcs felt tacked onto the main story.

In the game you had to take part in both Ruka and Feyris' stories no matter what. You couldn't reach the end if you wanted to. The same thing goes for Robotics;Notes too.

So its not Nitroplus's fault at all. All there is to blame is Madhouse. In fact I truly believe Nitroplus gave the ports of Chaos;Head a different name (Chaos;Head Noah) just so someone could make a new anime and have a new name already.

I don't remember needing to go through all the other routes in Steins;Gate to get the true ending. I remember getting one of the endings before using a walkthrough to power through the game and finish it (skipping some of the heroine routes in the process).

Same thing with R;N - you can totally skip routes and continue with the "true route."

Noah was the name given to the 360 port 5pb brought over who also worked on the original. It had another scenario if I remember correctly that wasn't in the PC version.