When hearing ”a work played in the past is getting remade,” there are times you might brace yourself a little. Will the screen just become cleaner, or will it truly be a new experience? Since memories are powerful, you might sometimes feel it would have been better left untouched if the change is halfway. However, the moment I saw the name ”STEINS;GATE RE:BOOT,” the type of expectation was slightly different. This is because instead of ”releasing it once more,” the phrase ”observing it again” is used. It has a ring to it as if stepping into another world line, rather than tracing the past exactly as it was. A work that has continued to be deeply engraved in the memories of many people since its release in 2009 is not just returning, but coming back bringing a new time with it. That sensation exists in this title.

The more a work is loved for a long time, the more a difficult problem exists. That is whether one can be surprised once more even though it is a story they know. While a work whose conclusion is known provides a sense of security, it easily loses freshness on the flip side. However, this time's ”STEINS;GATE RE:BOOT” feels like it prepares a quite interesting answer to that anxiety. Not only is the scenario adjusted based on ”STEINS;GATE ELITE” and reconfigured into a form that can be read through with better tempo, but a new world line and ending scenario have even been added. This is a highly intriguing part. You are supposed to know that incident, yet a development no one has seen yet is waiting beyond it. It feels as though you will get the sensation of having arrived at an unfamiliar scenery before you know it, despite intending to walk on a familiar path.

The impression of a story is, surprisingly, influenced by sound. The way pauses are taken between lines, the way emotions are put in, and the resonance of words that became slightly stronger. Such fine details change characters into living existences. In ”STEINS;GATE RE:BOOT,” the point that the in-game voices are all newly recorded is a highly interesting part. Rather than a simple talk of sound quality being improved, it makes me think that there might be an atmosphere that can be expressed precisely now after piling up time. And the BGM is also comprehensively remade by Takeshi Abo. The music of ”STEINS;GATE” has an impression where quiet daily life and chest-tightening tension were exquisitely mixed together, and I am very curious about how that sensation will be reconstructed.

As a big change this time, the evolution on the visual side cannot be missed either. The point that even characters, backgrounds, and event stills are redrawn from line art is quite large-scale. Moreover, the event stills are increased to about double compared to the Xbox 360 version, and the backgrounds are also increased to about 1.2 times, reportedly. Rather than just the number of sheets increasing, wouldn't it be that the atmosphere of the scene itself comes to be transmitted more finely? When it becomes vivid what a person is looking at and what kind of space they are standing in within the story, the way the player's emotions move changes as well. It might feel like the thing imagined inside your head appears before your eyes with a more concrete shape.

Furthermore, the character expression via E-mote introduced this time also looks extremely interesting. In adventure games up until now, standing pictures were, in a sense, static existences. However, when characters move naturally and even fine changes in expression or breathing can be felt, the sense of distance from the person on the other side of the screen changes all at once. The gaze sways a bit, the expression clouds slightly—just by that small change, emotions beyond the lines can sometimes be transmitted. It seems it will make us feel anew that humans receive emotions through parts other than words even more than they think.

”STEINS;GATE RE:BOOT” does not give the impression of a work that beautifully repainted a past masterpiece. Rather, it feels like it aims for a mysterious experience of ”I am supposed to know it, yet I don't know it.” For people who played it long ago, it seems it will become a time to awaken emotions that lay asleep in the depths of memory, and for people touching it for the first time, it might become a completed form of a story that establishes itself precisely now. The events that were happening on the other side of the screen back then looked as if they ended, but perhaps they actually still continued. It seems it will be a work that makes you think of such things. What is waiting beyond the world line? Before I know it, I already want to take a peek.