I played 8 hours of the Steins;Gate VN and it started out really interesting but after a while it just became aggravating to no end.
Like holy moly does this VN hate women. It feels like it was written by a fucking pick-up artist.
Mayuri is an immature, borderline infantile 16-year-old girl and Rintaro treats her like shit. He constantly puts her down, dismisses what she says and uses food she buys (which she cares about a lot) for whatever he wants at the moment. There was that one scene where he literally made her cry by eating some of the food she just bought.
And the consequences? Nada. Next scene she’s back to “Okarin :D”. Throughout my entire playtime there was not a moment of consideration for how Rintaro’s treatment of her would affect her in the long-term. No matter what he says and does, she loves him and forgives everything basically immediately.
Kurisu is almost even more infuriating, she’s leagues more competent and capable than Rintaro is yet he constantly puts her down, calls her nicknames she doesn’t like, literally molests her the very first time they meet and what is her reaction? The most generic tsundere behavior I’ve ever seen. At one point he literally shouts at her to the point of tears and again, exactly zero consequences. She falls in love with him because I assume this was written by a redpill dude who believes that the more you treat women like shit the more they will want to have sex with you.
It’s incredible. Not one, not a single moment of consequences in EIGHT HOURS. If you want a protagonist who’s an asshole, fine, but show that you acknowledge that what he’s doing is bad. Don’t fucking reward him for it. Fucking Rick & Morty manages to do this.
It’s just baffling to me that it has so many glowing reviews, especially cause the “mystery” sucks ass. After reading the synopsis there are exactly 0 plot twists, it’s all exactly what it seems like on the surface. Yes, there is a secret organization. Yes, it is time travel. Everything is the most obvious explanation you could think of. Who lives and who dies is decided by who the protagonist wants to fuck the most.
I’m super disappointed because I was really intrigued by the first chapter and how the plot shaped up to be. But then the trashy behavior of the protagonist just kept going, and all the other characters just kept putting up with it. And like, if it has not been adressed at all in the first 8 hours I have no reason to believe it ever will be. Fuck this shit.
Edit: Also shoutout to the future dystopia being a communist regime which abolished railroads. :yea:
Edit 2: Oh I forgot to mention how Rintaro and Daru keep Kurisu in line by blatantly sexually harassing her and making her uncomfortable until she folds, and this is framed as a clever tactic.
Oh god, Steins;Gate. Honestly, the thing that’s always stuck with me about it is that I watched it with my anime club around the time I was trying to figure out my gender, and there’s a scene in episode 10 where
CW sexual assault
The MC just grabs someone’s crotch to effectively “check” what gender they are
and that was about as uncomfortable as you’re probably thinking it was. I do not remember most of what happened, but I have no trouble believing everything you’ve described.
I saw the anime waaaaay back in the day and loved it. Rintaro was soooo cool, Kurisu was soooo hot and Mayuri was the cutest! The anime was so much fun, the plot was epic, the time travel was soo clever, the secret organization and everything was sooo fucking sinister, and it had such deeeeep themes and characters.
As you might’ve guessed, I was a teenager and this was one of my first anime.
Looking back at it now, I can definitely see how your review of the VN (which I haven’t played) is probably very accurate. Most of these VNs, LNs, manga and anime appeal only to teens. You gotta find stuff that’s aimed at people who’re older, I guess.
What makes the VN format uniquely suited to high intensity misogyny :yea:
Read The House of Fata Morgana if you’re looking for good progressive visual novels, it’s honestly one of my favorites. Although I will admit it’s kinda weird teenage drama and torture porn for the first few arcs but otherwise they make some really good decisions.
There is maybe a little bit abuse apologetics, but it’s not sexual abuse apologetics and even then it still goes out of it’s way to make you understand that the character is in the wrong for being abusive even to the level these characters are doing so while you end up a little sympathetic for their feelings you certainly understand that wow they’re all kinda fucked a little aren’t they.
I’m playing this rn, on chapter 3 rn
I actually kinda liked the weird teenage drama, the 2nd chapter really sucked tho
And the abuse apologia in chapter 3 so far is indeed kinda uncomfortable, but I agree ideologically as it highlights that italians are the worst
