Way too long.

[mb3]

Its an interesting story, but man is it waaay too long. I think they could have easily cut about 2 hours off the play time if they just cut out all of the, "..." ooohs, and "..." Gah's!, and other "..." quote dot dot dot quote sound bites. "..." Sigh.

[mimizukari]

uh, this isn't long at all. you wanna see long? little busters, 1.3 million+ word script,(clannad is too, but for sake of argument, LB is slightly longer), not to mention all the games LB has. it lasts a loooong time. ther'es also the grisaia trilogy, muv-luv trilogy, etc. steins;gate is a very good sized VN for a weekend read.

[tricosahedron]

I like how long the game is, story-wise. But what I greatly disliked is:

a) The game didn't tell me after the first playthrough that certain additional options are now visible. Now this is not uncommon in VNs, but I still consider it bad game design unless it's just an easter-egg, particularly in a long VN with different routes, like S;G.

b) The game had a red herring character where everything indicated that there's a route for her, when actually there wasn't one. I wanted to complete all side routes before trying to get to the true ending, and this has resulted in a huge waste of my time.
In particular, I didn't expect that two of the endings are Kurisu routes, so I didn't even question that Moeka's route is the fifth one. Every other female lab member has a route, there are choices where it seems you have to choose between her and Kurisu, and Okabe states that he really wants to help her on that world line where she is depicted more human. How am I not supposed to think there's a route for her?
I mean, I'm not mad there's no route for her, I just think the devs should have made it more clear.
Sure, Okabe says at one point that he gives up saving her, but that just led me to believe I made mistakes in earlier chapters.

Now I still consider this VN a master piece, and I don't hold a grudge against the devs if this was their own vision of how the game should be, or if they had to omit a route because of time/cost restraints (if that was the reason?). Also, let's not forget that this VN was written at a time where the video game market was a lot less saturated, and games were more expensive, so everyone had more time to play fewer games.

P.S.: I didn't finish the last 2 routes yet, so if you want to comment on my criticism, please make sure to indicate spoilers. ;)

[Lunos]

Originally posted by Ealdwine:

Just watch the anime. It's literally just a revised and animated version of this.

From what I've seen on Youtube, the anime lacks 2 interesting routes though. One of them is specially.. disturbingly interesting, I guess?
It is brought up in the movie for like a second or two but that's about it. The events that happen on it are quite memorable.

[El Papà]

Hey man!
Compared to Fate/stay night, Steins;Gate is pretty short with an average of 30-40 hours playtime. Fate is about 80 hours long.
Higurashi: When they Cry (with sequel) about 100 hours of playtime.

It's still peanuts compared to people playing Counter Strike for a couple THOUSAND hours.

[mimizukari]

Originally posted by tricosahedron:

I like how long the game is, story-wise. But what I greatly disliked is:

a) The game didn't tell me after the first playthrough that certain additional options are now visible. Now this is not uncommon in VNs, but I still consider it bad game design unless it's just an easter-egg, particularly in a long VN with different routes, like S;G.

b) The game had a red herring character where everything indicated that there's a route for her, when actually there wasn't one. I wanted to complete all side routes before trying to get to the true ending, and this has resulted in a huge waste of my time.
In particular, I didn't expect that two of the endings are Kurisu routes, so I didn't even question that Moeka's route is the fifth one. Every other female lab member has a route, there are choices where it seems you have to choose between her and Kurisu, and Okabe states that he really wants to help her on that world line where she is depicted more human. How am I not supposed to think there's a route for her?
I mean, I'm not mad there's no route for her, I just think the devs should have made it more clear.
Sure, Okabe says at one point that he gives up saving her, but that just led me to believe I made mistakes in earlier chapters.

Now I still consider this VN a master piece, and I don't hold a grudge against the devs if this was their own vision of how the game should be, or if they had to omit a route because of time/cost restraints (if that was the reason?). Also, let's not forget that this VN was written at a time where the video game market was a lot less saturated, and games were more expensive, so everyone had more time to play fewer games.

P.S.: I didn't finish the last 2 routes yet, so if you want to comment on my criticism, please make sure to indicate spoilers. ;)

there is a route for moeka... on the drama CD's. okabe is tossed into a worldline where the only one he can rely on is Moeka.
there might be a subbed version somewhere, maybe even youtube.

[tricosahedron]

Hey, many thanks for the info, I'll see if I can find a way to listen to a subbed version! ^_^

[VOLIN RABBAH]

Don`t do that, the anime is full of plot holes that don`t exist in the visual novel and all characters are bland compared to their vn counterparts

[VOLIN RABBAH]

Also, the anime has a more generic art style, but that`s more subjective.

[VOLIN RABBAH]

Originally posted by tricosahedron:

I like how long the game is, story-wise. But what I greatly disliked is:

a) The game didn't tell me after the first playthrough that certain additional options are now visible. Now this is not uncommon in VNs, but I still consider it bad game design unless it's just an easter-egg, particularly in a long VN with different routes, like S;G.

b) The game had a red herring character where everything indicated that there's a route for her, when actually there wasn't one. I wanted to complete all side routes before trying to get to the true ending, and this has resulted in a huge waste of my time.
In particular, I didn't expect that two of the endings are Kurisu routes, so I didn't even question that Moeka's route is the fifth one. Every other female lab member has a route, there are choices where it seems you have to choose between her and Kurisu, and Okabe states that he really wants to help her on that world line where she is depicted more human. How am I not supposed to think there's a route for her?
I mean, I'm not mad there's no route for her, I just think the devs should have made it more clear.
Sure, Okabe says at one point that he gives up saving her, but that just led me to believe I made mistakes in earlier chapters.

Now I still consider this VN a master piece, and I don't hold a grudge against the devs if this was their own vision of how the game should be, or if they had to omit a route because of time/cost restraints (if that was the reason?). Also, let's not forget that this VN was written at a time where the video game market was a lot less saturated, and games were more expensive, so everyone had more time to play fewer games.

P.S.: I didn't finish the last 2 routes yet, so if you want to comment on my criticism, please make sure to indicate spoilers. ;)

The writers went as far as saying that they would never give her a happy ending, they seem not to be very found of Moeka. They also said they would have liked to add a route for her, but things would probably not end well for her, lol.

[VOLIN RABBAH]

Like other people siad here, Steins;Gate isn`t even slow for VN standards. They might just not be your thing then, and it`s ok. Maybe you would like to try more gameplay based VNs, like Dangaronpa.

[inappropriately_gendered_fungus]

Originally posted by El Papà:

Hey man!
Compared to Fate/stay night, Steins;Gate is pretty short with an average of 30-40 hours playtime. Fate is about 80 hours long.
Higurashi: When they Cry (with sequel) about 100 hours of playtime.

It's still peanuts compared to people playing Counter Strike for a couple THOUSAND hours.

Jeez. I've tried reading a bit of Fate/Stay Night (Realta Nua), but it feels long. Is that 100 hours for the whole thing or is that just per route?

[El Papà]

Originally posted by fungusdude4:

Originally posted by El Papà:

Hey man!
Compared to Fate/stay night, Steins;Gate is pretty short with an average of 30-40 hours playtime. Fate is about 80 hours long.
Higurashi: When they Cry (with sequel) about 100 hours of playtime.

It's still peanuts compared to people playing Counter Strike for a couple THOUSAND hours.

Jeez. I've tried reading a bit of Fate/Stay Night (Realta Nua), but it feels long. Is that 100 hours for the whole thing or is that just per route?

It can take you 100 hours for all routes together.

[畸零]

everyone is different

[Spacesuit Spiff]

Moeka does get some love in one of SG0s endings, thankfully

[Nanashi]

Funnily enough as I get closer to the end I feel like it is way too short D: I want it to last longer :( Although that might just drag out the story and make the experience worse I guess. >.<