The following review contains heavy spoilers for the Steins;Gate visual novel. Please note that this review is based on the content of the first six in-game scenarios.
Steins;Gate: Linear Bounded Phenogram is a Steins;Gate spinoff title that was initially released for Japanese audiences in 2013. At the time, the game was widely praised for its unique structure—in Phenogram, the player does not follow Okabe as the protagonist for the most part, which makes it unique in comparison to other Steins;Gate titles. Through its multi-short-story structure, the reader is given the opportunity to experience several stories that vary in tone and premise, many of which are told from the perspective of characters that are close to Okabe.
Linear Bounded Phenogram is receiving its first official English localization on February 19, 2019, and will be included with all purchases of Steins;Gate Elite on the PlayStation 4 and Steam. The game’s Western publisher, Spike Chunsoft, was gracious enough to provide us with a copy of the game to review ahead of this date.
Two members of our staff will be covering their thoughts on the game in the following review, and each member will give the game a score out of 10 at the end of the article. This score will be added together and divided by 2 in order to provide our ultimate score out of 10. The staff members reviewing this game are Fasty and Yink.
STORY
Yink:
The game’s first route starts in a familiar way, throwing you head first into the action from Okabe’s perspective. This route takes place roughly one year after the events of the original Steins;Gate on a worldline that is not immediately known to the reader. Okabe has assumed the role of “Alpacaman”, a bizarre superhero of his own invention. His costume’s design is inspired by the alpaca video game that many will remember him playing towards the beginning of Steins;Gate.
The route’s title also stems from Okabe’s alpaca video game, but unfortunately, it seems as though it has not been localized correctly. Upon starting the route, the menu UI informs you that the route is titled “Dr. Jekyll Online”. An animation sequence displaying the title at the very end of the route calls it “Dr. Jekyll on lines”. After looking through Spike Chunsoft’s official Linear Bounded Phenogram website, I noticed that the website’s HTML titles it “Dr. Jekyll on the Scan Lines”. I believe the latter to be the most accurate localization, considering the context of the story—Commander Alpaca, an important mentor of Okabe’s in the route, is a character in the video game that exists behind the TV’s “scan lines”. It’s a bit strange to see an inaccurate translation used in the game when a more accurate translation already exists through the game’s website.
Putting that minor quirk aside, the translation of the game reads quite well and is enjoyable. The first route is a lot of fun early on, as it brings back the classic Steins;Gate action that we’ve come to love from the original. Okabe tries to solve problems by time-leaping repeatedly, only to later face the consequences of his actions. The Alpacaman element is a fun spin on the story and makes for some amazing Okabe moments. Additionally, the game does not shy away from using every character at its disposal. The route even gives additional characterization to 4°C, one of the least-involved characters in the original game.
The route does eventually go through a tonal shift, which makes it the perfect introduction to what you’ll be seeing in Linear Bounded Phenogram—light-hearted fanservice and character moments, but also some very good moments of serious plot.
Many of the routes in the game can’t be considered canon because of the worldlines that they take place on, though some can be considered canonical depending on reader interpretation. Regardless of canonicity, the game introduces quite a bit of world building that isn’t contradicted in later Steins;Gate material (some material even acknowledges it), so the stories are also interesting in that regard. In general, I think Linear Bounded Phenogram has some routes that really are worth playing, while others are just okay.
Ultimately, I do think that the game does a great job of giving the player additional character interaction moments with the cast that they’ve come to love.
Fasty:
As mentioned earlier, Phenogram puts you in the perspective of characters other than Okabe for the majority of the game. I agree with Yink in that this provides for some great world building and character development that the main games don’t or can’t provide.
For example, Kurisu’s route puts you in her perspective during one of Okabe’s time leap iterations from the original Steins;Gate. Kurisu, Faris, and side characters related to them benefit from a great deal of development in this route, which managed to completely change my perspective on a certain character. Without going into spoilery details, Kurisu’s route does connect back to Steins;Gate’s story in a certain way, though the canonicity of said connection is ultimately up to the reader’s interpretation.
Unlike the original Steins;Gate, Phenogram’s numerous routes were written by a variety of writers, which allows for quite a bit of varied content.
Writers such as Kotaro Uchikoshi (Zero Escape, the Infinity series) and Vio Shimokura (Steins;Gate Suzuha route, Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi) were invited to write their own routes for the game, while Science Adventure Series writers such as Naotaka Hayashi (Chaos;Head, Steins;Gate, Robotics;Notes) and Tooru Yasumoto (Robotics;Notes DaSH) also contributed a few routes.
While having multiple writers on a project will inevitably lead to differences in writing quality, what I have played thus far has been satisfying and has left me wanting to continue reading.
PRESENTATION
Yink:
Aside from using the Phenogram Viewer to select which route to read, the game’s presentation very similar to the original Steins;Gate visual novel. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the game features art and character sprites by the talented Huke, alongside an atmospheric soundtrack composed by Takeshi Abo.
As is expected from a fan disc, Linear Bounded Phenogram reuses many assets in that regard. However, the game has many presentational surprises up its sleeve, what with original sprites featuring new outfits, and the addition of many new amazing soundtrack pieces. “Gate of Phenogram”, the game’s main theme, is probably the best rendition of “Gate of Steiner” thus far in my opinion. Takeshi Abo even spared the time to give 4°C, one of the most underappreciated Steins;Gate characters, his own theme.
The vocal themes are definitely noteworthy—The opening song is performed by Ayane, who is one of the rarer Science Adventure vocalists (She is best known for her vocals on Steins;Gate: Load Region of Deja-Vu’s ending song). Phenogram also features Zwei’s first Steins;Gate-related song, and in 2018, they would go on to sing the first ending theme for the Steins;Gate 0 anime. Finally, the illustrious Kanako Itou provided the vocals for one of Phenogram’s ending songs.
From a technical standpoint, I noticed two issues with the visual presentation. When playing at non-standard resolutions in fullscreen mode, the character sprites are scaled in a strange way which makes them appear to be quite pixelated. To fix this, one can simply play in windowed mode at a standard resolution.
Another issue I noticed was the lack of word wrapping for phone mail, a bug which was also present in the original visual novel. This bug can make mail difficult to read, and I hope that the issue can be addressed in the future.
Fasty:
I’m a huge fan of Phenogram’s title screen, its visual appearance and route selection system are very unique in comparison to the title screens of other Steins;Gate titles. Phenogram also adds a new “Mail List” to the Extras menu, which allows you to reread mail received during routes to see if you’re missing any mail. This addition is very useful for completion purposes, especially for those who are looking to 100% the game.
The translation of CGs and backgrounds has always been an iffy subject when it comes to official SciADV localizations. Chaos;Child’s official localization seemed to have received the short end of the stick when it released in 2017 on consoles—some CGs and backgrounds appeared to be machine translated to either save time, money, or both. Many inconsequential CGs (such as the magazine cover shown below) were even left untranslated. I’m of the opinion that in the localization process, every instance of Japanese text should be localized if possible—not doing so leaves English readers with a product that’s inferior, even if only slightly so.
Phenogram takes a step in the right direction. The above Phenogram CG, which is similar visually to one in Chaos;Child’s official release, is translated. Additionally, I’ve noticed that other CGs, important and minor, are translated as well. These translations read coherently, and I think I can confidently say that they haven’t been machine translated.
Unfortunately, there are still some CGs and backgrounds that remain untranslated. I hope that in the future, efforts will be made to go the extra mile and cover all instances of untranslated text.
To those of our eagle-eyed readers who noticed spelling issues in one of the CGs on Phenogram’s official English website, we can confirm that those issues have been fixed in the latest version of the game.
GAMEPLAY
Yink:
Aside from the route selection screen, the gameplay is identical to the original Steins;Gate visual novel. Phenogram uses the same user interface as the original game, so fans coming from the first game should feel right at home.
Instead of choosing your route by replying to mail in different ways, you select the route to play from the title screen. The mail function is still present and allows for some nice optional character interactions, similar to the original visual novel. Personally, I’m a fan of this change—it’s nice to be able to reply to mail with the answer that you think works best without having to think about which reply is the correct one.
Fasty:
There’s not much to say on this front, but I’d like to once again reiterate how nice the route selection menu is. Coming from Steins;Gate’s convoluted method of reaching routes through the mail system, being able to select what route you want to read from the main menu through a visually appealing menu is a nice touch.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Fasty:
Linear Bounded Phenogram is a interesting foray into the world of Steins;Gate, and it’s a title that I would certainly recommend to those that enjoyed Steins;Gate/Steins;Gate Elite’s story and characters. The content and context it adds through its routes are typically far from inconsequential in my opinion, and it’s worth experiencing for the variety of possible scenarios that it introduces.
The game’s visual presentation definitely has a Steins;Gate feel to it that I quite liked. Some instances of Japanese text in CGs and backgrounds are untranslated, which is unfortunate from a localization perspective. However, I don’t want to gloss over the fact that many CGs and backgrounds were translated. The effort put into the visual localization for this release is a step up from what we’ve seen in prior SciADV releases such as Chaos;Child, and I hope that future releases will see even greater levels of effort. Spike Chunsoft has also made it clear that they’re listening to feedback—a notable spelling issue present in a pre-release screenshot was duly addressed after fans pointed it out.
Yink:
I’m really thankful to Spike Chunsoft for giving the Western Science Adventure fandom a chance to read Linear Bounded Phenogram. While it’s not necessarily essential to the original story in any way, it develops the world of Steins;Gate and Science Adventure very nicely. Several routes in Phenogram surpass the original game’s routes by far, and in my opinion, they’re great examples of how the routes should have been handled in the original game. However, I do think that some routes really only serve as comedic relief and add little in terms of characterization.
In conclusion, Linear Bounded Phenogram is a solid fan disc that I would recommend to fans looking for more interesting Steins;Gate content. I never imagined that this game would be officially localized, so I’m excited to see what the future has in store for Science Adventure fans.
Final Score:
8/10
Yink: 7/10
Fasty: 9/10
Linear Bounded Phenogram is a good complement to Steins;Gate’s story, and does a great job of expanding and developing side characters. Its gameplay, story, and presentation are superb for the most part, sometimes even surpassing the other Steins;Gate titles. Despite some localization issues, this release is satisfactory—fans of Steins;Gate should definitely check it out.
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