Best way to experience the "Steins;Gate" series

[EX_Wang]

I have seen all manner of media for this, anime, games and the like. I remember watching a brief explanation of the premise and being interested but what is the best way to experience this series?

 

[PaleFolklore]

A cup of your favorite coffee, tea, or hot cocoa, a cozy blanket, a bit of chilly weather or gentle rain, and a comfortable spot to relax — all while enjoying it on a nice TV or monitor — might be the perfect way to go.

Or — if by your question, you're asking what'd be the best place to start — just watch the 2011 anime. Full-stop, no interruptions.

 

[NemissaFotia]

Read the VN with the Committee of Zero patch.

I'd say steer clear of Steins;Gate Elite. It's a remake that uses scenes from the anime and the art style of that. I personally think the original art style is incredible so taking that away takes out a lot of the experience.

The anime is fine but you can tell they were really struggling to cut it down to a 26 episode anime.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Read the VN with the Committee of Zero patch.

I'd say steer clear of Steins;Gate Elite. It's a remake that uses scenes from the anime and the art style of that. I personally think the original art style is incredible so taking that away takes out a lot of the experience.

The anime is fine but you can tell they were really struggling to cut it down to a 26 episode anime.

Thoughts on the Vita games? I wanted to play those instead of the PC variants. Whats your opinion on that?

 

[Kyyo]

If you enjoy reading stuff, read the visual novel. If not, there's no problem, just watch the anime. Besides they struggled adapting the visual novel into a 26-episode anime, the anime is still perfectly enjoyable. One of my all-time favorites. Perfect pacing, man, seriously. Have a good time playing/watching it!

 

[NemissaFotia]

Thoughts on the Vita games? I wanted to play those instead of the PC variants. Whats your opinion on that?

Basically identical and a perfectly good way to play them. The PC patch fixes up some grammatical issues with the script, has a different font and adds karaoke subs to the opening and ending. The only real major difference is that the patch adds the cosplay DLC from the original Japanese PC version which is fun but not exactly essential.

 

[PrismRed]

Read the VN with the Committee of Zero patch.

I'd say steer clear of Steins;Gate Elite. It's a remake that uses scenes from the anime and the art style of that. I personally think the original art style is incredible so taking that away takes out a lot of the experience.

The anime is fine but you can tell they were really struggling to cut it down to a 26 episode anime.

This, but play blind for the first 2 playthroughs. Then you're free to look up a guide.

 

[CardcaptorEd2019]

Lots of people praise the anime for how good it was so if you want to it's ok watch the anime. Lots of people like the anime for good reason.

With that being said, me and it seems like others on here agree on getting the visual novel. I pretty much played through the visual novel and I enjoyed it so I watched the anime afterwards. I personally felt like the anime was going a bit quick over certain things that were in the visual novel such as Kurisus lectures. Also, I believe the anime didn't adapt the other routes in the game with the other lab members which are worth checking out. My favorite route with the other lab members was with Suzuha, because of what Okabe goes through in that route.