New game in franchise contains stories from novels, drama CDs

The official website of 5pb. Games' Steins;Gate 0 project began streaming a video on Wednesday announcing the November 19 release date for the PS3/PS4/PS Vita game in Japan.

Text: This is a story of the future I couldn't save.

Text: November 2010, the beta timeline.

Text: The timeline where, after enduring so much suffering and sorrow, protagonist Rintarō Okabe gives up on rescuing "her."

Text: Rintarō Okabe finds himself deep in despair. His friends worry about him.

Text: What happened to the girl? A story of "zero" that welcomes and portrays new characters.

Text: Yes, even now, she is there.



MAGES. head Chiyomaru Shikura announced the Steins;Gate 0 project in March. The game will include stories from three of the Steins;Gate novels, as well as from some drama CDs. An anime adaptation of Steins;Gate 0 has also been green-lit. 5pb. had streamed a teaser video for Steins;Gate 0 when the project was announced.

Chiyomaru Shikura is in charge of planning, and provided the original concept for the game. Tatsuya Matsubara will produce the game, huke will once again provide the character designs, and Takeshi Abe will compose the music. Naotaka Hayashi, Toru Yasumoto, Masashi Takimoto, and Tsukasa Tsuchiya are writing the scenario.

[Warning: This summary contains spoilers for the Steins;Gate game and anime. Please highlight the white space to read.]

[ The story of the game and the anime take place in the beta world line, where Okabe could not save his precious person, Kurisu, on July 28, and ended up returning alone. However, the trailer for the game notes that Okabe does not know that Kurisu is in fact still there. ]

The original Steins;Gate game released on Xbox 360 in 2009, and the game was later ported to the PC, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita. The game was also released on smartphones. The game inspired a fan disc spin-off titled Steins;Gate Hiyoku Renri no Darling in 2011, which was released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita, as well as on smartphones. JAST USA published the original game in North America for the PC last year, while PQube will publish the game in North America and Europe for the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita in May.

The original game inspired a television anime in 2011, as well as an original film serving as an epilogue to the TV series in 2013. Funimation Entertainment has licensed both the television series and film.