Spike Chunsoft has revealed that its visual novel adventure Steins;Gate Elite will be making its way to the west on Nintendo Switch on 19th February 2019.
A remastered version of 2009's Steins;Gate, which sadly never saw a release on a Nintendo platform, Steins;Gate Elite is set to feature animated scenes from the anime adaptation along with the usual new tweaks and graphical updates. As you can see in the trailer above, the Switch version will also include an exclusive 8-bit adventure mode.
The game follows a group of young, tech-savvy “lab members” who discover the means of changing the past via e-mail using a modified microwave - as you do. Their experiments in pushing the boundaries of time begin to spiral out of control as they become entangled in a conspiracy surrounding SERN, the organisation behind the Large Hadron Collider, and John Titor, who claims to be from a dystopian future.
Steins;Gate Elite actually released in Japan just last week, managing to grab a fourth-place spot in the Japanese gaming charts on Switch, and second place on PS4. You can take a look at a feature list and some screenshots below.
Key Features
- Fully Animated Adventure – Indulge in all the beautiful animation from the STEINS;GATE anime, plus newly created sequences for certain endings.
- A New Way to Time Leap – Experience the world of STEINS;GATE with this remastered, ultimate version that features newly animated sequences for certain endings.
- Branching Storylines – Every choice you make has its own consequence, shifting the world line closer or farther from reaching 1% divergence, and providing a multitude of endings.
Are you intrigued by this one? Will you be giving it a go when it launches early next year? Let us know below.
Comments 40
Question: What is a visual novel exactly?
Is it purely text based with a few images and you have a few choices to make, or is it more like an anime with interaction?
Tuturu!
Can confirm Steins;Gate is bloody great. Might prefer the anime to the VN since it cuts a lot of the chaff, but I'm very much looking forward to this hybrid version
@Kappatea El psy kongroo
@Rhaoulos It really depends. A 'pure' visual novel is basically that, yeah, a book with music and pictures and occasional animation, and extremely light on gameplay. But then there's stuff that blends in a significant amount of actual gameplay like Danganronpa, Phoenix Wright and Zero Escape.
Steins;Gate is definitely the former type, but S;G Elite swaps the static images for effectively the entire anime run (plus new scenes from the anime studio for the routes that were never adapted previously)
Steins;Gate is one of the best Sci-fi stories I've ever enjoyed. And trust me, I love the genre! I am so happy this is coming to the Switch with an official localization. So few visual novels get translations and even fewer are on a platform other than PC.
This will be a day 1 for me. Gonna pre-order it!
@Rhaoulos You pretty much answered it. It's a mainly text with with series of decisions to make. But the idea with Steins Gate is that there's a time travel mechanic where you can send an object into the past to change the present that can change outcomes and even undo bad decisions you make. From what I understand though, Steins Gate Elite adds a whole bunch of new stuff that wasn't in the original, such as animated scenes from the anime, and a retro mode that makes the game look like The Portopia Serial Murder Case, one of the very first visual novels made for the Famicom and MSX.
Looking forward to this! With Steins; Gate 0 anime coming to a close in a couple of weeks, I will be looking for my next time leap fix!
Happy to hear this. Visual novels are great to play portably for me and would love to see more.
I em mad scientist.
ITS SO COOOOORU!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYvhhMjW32k
@Rhaoulos from Wikipedia:
A visual novel (ビジュアルノベル) is an interactive game genre, which originated in Japan, featuring text-based story with narrative style of literature and interactivity aided by static or sprite-based visuals, most often using anime-style art or occasionally live-action stills (and sometimes video footage). As the name might suggest, they resemble mixed-media novels.
Now, we need a visual novel on Switch which is a galge!
Love Plus port, maybe?
el psy congroo
Highly recommend this game. Personally going to wait for a drop in price, as I’ve played Steins;Gate already on Vita 3 years back.
Watched the anime, I'm very interested in this game.
After playing through Danganronpa, I've acquired a taste for these sort of games, so I'm anticipating this one.
I wonder where those Danganronpa switch ports have gotten to though?
Steins;Gate rules, but I already own it. I have no need for this. I hope I can get the 8-bit bonus game on its own somehow though...
Glad this is coming to the switch I hope with the vita officially stopping we will start getting a lot of visual novels coming to the switch
I like visual novels and I'm hearing good praise for this game, so I may have to check it out. And the anime, apparently... didn't even know one existed for it.
As others have said, Steins;Gate is superb time-travel sci-fi. Don't sleep on this if you're new to it.
If you've seen the series, which is fantastic, then my advice is to steer clear of this visual novel because it will be an incredibly tedious way to relive it. But if you haven't seen the series before, it will probably be quite fun.
@MeloMan The anime is absolutely outstanding.
@SepticLemon @Raylax
Thanks both for the complete answers. You really piqued my interest.
@Yasume @Heavyarms55 Do do dooo! Love that plot, great anime.
Is this game based solely on Steins;Gate? Or is content from zero in it too?
@BlueMage From the looks of it, it's just an expanded version of the first game with new scenarios, animated scenes, and new decision route that makes the game look retro.
My guess is that they're going to release Zero separately, if it does come to the Switch.
@imgrowinglegs From what I read, the retro part of the trailer is a new decision tree that caused by changing time. I love the Portopia look!
@Beatley82 I'll agree, the anime almost acts as one HUGE spoiler for the game. Thankfully, the PS3 version that I own has a fast forward function on it, which from what I heard was added in later as an update. Hopefully this version won't be too tedious and slow.
Nintendo Life is an
airhead.
@Rhaoulos yeah it's strictly text with the gameplay being picking branching decisions. This is one of the better visual novels out there, if not the best. I've played a decent chunk and this is at the top for sure.
@Rhaoulos Interestly, I found out that Spike Chunsoft were the publishers of the Steam, and now the upcoming Switch, Elite, version. Spike Chunsoft are in fact the same company that developed Portopia Murder Cases, the very first Visual novel game. I now get why there's a retro mode in the game, not to mention it must be an honour for 5pb, the developers, to get their visual novel published by the company that made the first visual novel.
This visual novel is great and i recommend even to people who aren't into visual novels but still enjoy a good read.
I feel like the type of person that watches the anime first
then play the games later.
Did someone say
Danganroapa!?!?
@SepticLemon ah, ok cool. Thanks!
I never played a visual novel before. Looking forward to this.
@gortsi the organization is on to us
Will the switch version get the parobola mode? If not then I'll stick with PC.
This news just made my day.
@SepticLemon interesante
@imgrowinglegs Someone would probably be willing to give you their download code through a trade or something.
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