Steins;Gate Reboots with Less Character

Steins;Gate is probably my favorite visual novel, if I forget the existence of the brilliant Ever17: The Out of Infinity by Kotaro Uchikoshi (Zero Escape, AI: The Somnium Files). I’m genuinely afraid to fully replay them though. I’m sure the twists and turns still hold up like nothing else in interactive fiction. But writing? I expect no consistency.

At least I’ve always been more confident in Steins;Gate when it comes to those chops. The screwball comedy timing is great, even if the jokes may hint at a period piece now. The time travel plot is genuinely fascinating and one of the best I’ve ever experienced. And the love story, quite frankly, remains superb. But all this narrative has always been carried not only by capable storytelling but the visuals as well. Sharp lines, heavy shadows, industrial palettes, lots of grit and some gloss are the third opposition point to the cutesy humor and conspiracy nuttery.

They’re all gone now, and for a good reason. The anime adaptation (and the consequent Elite version of the game) could never work with that linework under TV production constraints, but it still preserved that grit. In the newest Reboot, even grit is no longer the innate quality of the visual style. It’s now a temporary mode of expression the game awkwardly turns to by the force of the story. Everything is sharp and clean: it works fine, but it reminds me of how Makise Kurise’s AI avatar looked in the Steins;Gate 0 midquel. It looked robotic on purpose, now every human gives off the same vibe.

I get what’s going on. Mages have been in deep trouble. They get by thanks in large part to Nintendo letting them revive Famicom Detective Club, where the Live2D-like animation actually works well, and it’d be just inconsiderate not to reuse the same technology on their only property that ever made it big outside the fandom. So the remake makes a lot of sense commercially, and it’s easily the best way to experience Steins;Gate in its original video game for, particularly for those under 30. But I stand by this: generic good will never be better than flawed grit.