While the XBox360 may have been receiving a number of big visual novel titles over the last few months to year, 5pb have decided to release one of their bigger titles, Steins;Gate (Which has also seen a release on the iOS, PC, XBox360 and PSP) on the Playstation 3 this May alongside the “fandisc” offshoot series Steins;Gate Hiyoku Renri no Darling. The main edition of Steins;Gate will be released on the 24th May 2012 at a cost of ¥7,140 while the fandisc version will also be released on the same day at a slightly cheaper cost of ¥6,090. For those who desire both versions, you will be able to get both in a package however the cost has yet to be revealed.
About Steins;Gate
The story of Steins;Gate takes place in Akihabara and is about a group of friends who have customized their microwave into a device that can send text messages to the past. As they perform different experiments, an organization named SERN who has been doing their own research on time travel tracks them down and now the characters have to find a way to avoid being captured by them.
About Steins;Gate Hiyoku Renri no Darling
After repeated D-mail experiments, Okarin jumps to a world where 3% shift in world line was to be expected. And before he knew it, Kurisu as well as the rest of the members have been gathered and amidst preparations for a banquet. In this world, a new gadget had been created but the group is facing some troubles. They can’t afford to pay the electricity bill due to running too many experiments. Let’s see what this new gadget can do for us… The concept for this game is a love comedy with some sweet romance scenes and where 99% of the world is science but 1% is composed of … fantasies?!
[Descriptions Sourced from: The Visual Novel Database]
As it is being released on the Playstation 3, there should be no region locking on the disc and playable on any PS3 console. For those who cannot understand Japanese yet want to enjoy the plot of this title, Funimation Entertainment (North America) and Madman Entertainment (Australia and New Zealand) have licensed this series for English distribution and depending on your region – you may be able to watch a legal streaming from the companies official website or (If you are reading this in the future) pick up a copy of it from stores.
I got all excited for a second before I realized that it wouldn’t be in english… T_T
Sorry to get your hopes up :-(,
Unfortunately it is unlikely we will be seeing too many visual releases outside of Japan, despite many suggestions on several game company forums for them to release them (Personally I want Alchemist’s Umineko games). We can still hope though ^_^
that or learn to read japanese xD