idk bruh this tutorial is kinda mid

I can't unfortunately share my thoughts on this story with my friends as much as I want to, so a Steam review will have to do I suppose. The pleasures of being the only fan of something in a group.

Steins;Gate is a perfect story, and the best story I have ever consumed. I mean sure, you could make some arguments against that, but as far as pacing and plot being addressed goes, I found Steins;Gate to be a complete experience that loops back to every single mystery/question you can think of. I'm not a big visual novel fan (and no, I don't include games like Danganronpa or Your Turn To Die in this statement), and initially Steins;Gate held to that belief... It was slow, and on my first time playing four years ago, I put it down. There was something cool there, but I just couldn't be bothered to keep my attention on it. My random decision four years later to pick the story back up was probably the best decision I've ever made.

While I made it through the first few chapters very slowly, I did find more appreciation in the characters this time around and simply just played for shorter periods. One newfound appreciation I came out with was the actual theoretical studies of time travel being used in the story and how it never broke its own rules. But then, Chapter 5 happened, and everything changed.

All of a sudden, the story featured large bouts of action, the moral dilemmas of time travel, and the time travel itself truly came to the forefront; no more theoretical, we were in the practical aspect now. I almost immediately found myself missing those more peaceful times of the characters working together and applying real world logic to such a silly concept (a phone plus a microwave), but also had a very strong appreciation for how the game had set the unease in with Okabe receiving the odd threatening texts from sources he could not identify and some of the game's grander mysteries or reasoning for why things happened the way they do (convergence be damned).

Chapter 5 is where everything comes crumbling down, and we see Okabe desperately struggle to fix what happens. However, following its own rules (something Steins;Gate does perfectly -- it never leans into fictitious concepts too much and doesn't contradict itself), nothing can be changed. It's a really tragic chapter that sets up the rest of the story, as Okabe must now take from his friends in ways he most certainly doesn't want to, and this is where the wonder of visual novels hit me... The concept of multiple routes seems silly, but in Steins;Gate's case, it led to some of the most gut-wrenching scenes and disturbing content the story could ever provide. It was haunting, asking real questions about what would happen if we as a species could actually travel to the past. It made me think for a moment about what I would do if I went to the past with Steins;Gate logic, and it actually made me reconsider all those times I'd wished for the past to return.

I can't quite put properly into words how I felt towards the end. Getting that true ending was a real kick in my ass, and at first I felt a weird disconnect because some of the extra scenes happen in earlier chapters... But what really hit was that it almost immediately lost that disconnect and had me swung right back into the story. I was no longer feeling odd, but instead hit with way more exposition than I could have ever expected, some of the most tender and warm moments in the story immediately followed by straight up depression, and then ultimately some happiness.

To finish Steins;Gate today was a really bittersweet experience. It will never leave my head for as long as I live, as the perfectly executed story it is. While I have to admit it is slower to start, you have to be patient... Trust the writers to cook because believe me, they absolutely do. I honestly feel like even now with this review I'm doing it a disservice with my dysfunctional ass writing that seems kind of disjointed in my point-making. I will never have a game or story feel this way for me ever again. Thanks Steins;Gate.