STEINS;GATE: Linear Bounded Phenogram Reviews

Peak game. Tutturu ♪ :)

Criminally underrated.

Linear Bounded Phenogram is a waste of a cool idea. The game consists of a couple of short stories, narrated by different characters from the main cast and all take place in different worldlines. You can split these routes into two general categories. The first one includes serious stories that are related to the events in the original Steins;Gate and try to give some additional insight into the characters. The second group is where the wacky, bizarre and silly routes go. The serious stories take place in one of the main 'arcs' from the original and, due to being narrated by someone other than Okabe, they give new information that we couldn't have learned by reading only the original Steins;Gate. The issue is, most of the time the new lore undermines the impact of those events. Some questions were better left unanswered. The comedic routes can go in quite wacky directions due to being separate worldlines, however, they suffer from having only one joke that is stretched too long. Their only saving grace is showing some amusing character interactions. One specific criticism I have is towards Daru's character. He was always a perv that just barely avoided being completely cringe, but in one of the routes his actions crossed a line that really soured my experience. I don't remember him doing anything quite like that in the original story and I wish things stayed that way here as well.