Transferred from my "YouTube Most Random" post.

Normally, I don't bother rereading stories that I've already read once, but with this one in particular, I might make an exception, especially with its fully animated scenes. In that sense, Steins;Gate Elite might just be reduced to a borderline VN, and not a true VN. lol Guess VNDB will have some trouble cataloguing it, considering what they said about School Days...

Actually, this seems to be a much more appropriate way of reading the story, considering that when I played Steins;Gate the VN back then, I also played Steins;Gate the anime in the background just to watch the anime played out at the same time (meaning "Skyclad Observer" played during that particular scene instead of the VN's mundane soundtrack). In other words, Steins;Gate Elite basically offered the method I used to read Steins;Gate back then but repackage the method into a more convenient and entertaining form. Nice, nice. LOOKING FORWARD TO SKYCLAD OBSERVER IN THE VN. If it's not there, it's a fail, and "Elite" has no point in existing. That OST is a key ingredient!

After thinking back on Steins;Gate, I have to say I retract what I said about Umineko being my most valued story, and this one definitely surpasses it with its equal balance of great characters, story, music, voice-acting, comedy, and most important of all, mainstream appeal. Umineko is kinda niched because of its mystery genre, but Steins;Gate has appeal in a broader area. Because of its entertainment value in such a wide variety of areas (though its comedy and soundtrack played a larger role, especially with Umineko's music being more orchestral, while Steins;Gate contained more rock or electronic music), I feel like Steins;Gate was able to appeal to a wider audience than Umineko. In other words, Umineko was like Lord of the Rings, and Steins;Gate was more like Star Wars.

And no, the fact that it has choices and multiple endings has nothing to do with it, considering I loved Steins;Gate the anime before even playing the VN. Steins;Gate is just much more digestible and more entertaining that way because it doesn't trouble you with as much infodumping as Umineko, and thus, was easier to be adapted in anime form too. Umineko was definitely more complex (and therefore, harder to adapt), and if you've already read what I said about complex stories, you could easily tell why I prefer Steins;Gate.

Footnote: I don't really like that there's a pre-order bonus. I hate pre-order bonuses in general, because it's a cheap way to exclude your customers from bonus material. It's almost like blackmailing in a way, or unfair coercing. With Steins;Gate Elite, it's basically excluding normal customers from two fandiscs, "Steins;Gate 8-bit", and "Steins;Gate Linear Bounded Phenogram". That latter fandisc is something I wanted to read for a long time, but the so-called "patch" only exists on YouTube in video form instead of a patch that you can apply to a game you buy, so I wasn't too comfortable watching that video. And now you're telling me that I can read it in game form, but I need to pre-order. It's just annoying. I could understand the sentiment, that "if you're that big of a Steins;Gate fan, then you shouldn't have a problem pre-ordering it." The sentiment, I could understand. But the action of coercing you to pre-order? I can't accept that principle. It's dirty and cheap.

But I'll probably have no choice but to pre-order anyway, since I'm a huge Steins;Gate fan. That's the reality, and I just have to accept it.