Probably more fitting for the 'niche backlog' thread, but since it wasnt chosen this month I'll put my thoughts here on Steins;Gate.
Finished it completely this time; I got the platinum. A lot of my first playthrough thoughts remain. Suzuha's cool, Daru is a real bro's bro and the rest of the characters are varying levels of annoying... at least through the first half of the game. The back half got me to care about two others as well: Faris and Kurisu (Christina). The arc with Faris was mostly unearned, but still compelling. The back-and-forth with Christina, in retrospect, seems more natural than I originally thought. Though it still is a bit unbelievable that she would have put up with any of it initially.
The actually 'science-y' part was *ehh*. Time travel stories are always going to have a little bit of "hand waving" away of problems and I dont think this story was too out in left field.
Mechanically, the route that you have to take to get the "true ending"...I dont know how anyone sussed that out sans guide. A bunch of random answers to skippable emails doesnt seem like the best way to get your whole story across. However, I think they did a decent job of tying things together.
I guess my biggest problem with the game was that I actively disliked the characterization of the protagonist. Sure, by the end, his motivations were clear, and he even became sympathetic in his plight. But early on, he's a delusional jerk. I believe this wasnt poor writing, but he was *intended* to be a jerk, referring to himself as "the insane mad scientist Hououin Kyouma" repeatedly, replete with 'evil laughter.' It just make me want to tell him

off. It stifled my ability to care for him or his quest.
Perhaps if I went into the game knowing it was played for comedic effect, I could have relaxed a little and took it for the gag it;s meant to be. I've actually watched a bit of the anime, and it comes off a little better without the intensely serious ineer monologue and the knowledge, that *he* knows he's playing a character, not being serious.
I doubt I'd recommend it to others. Maybe I'd say watch the anime, but I cant even fully support that because they changed the way the characters are drawn and thus Kurisu and Daru look weird (though the english VA for Daru is a hit tonally). In skip/rent/buy parlance I'd say barely rent. Maybe I'd give 6/10 because by the end, there *were* characters I cared about and the music grew on me.
But I doubt I'll be one of the acolytes proclaim this as one of the better VNs on the Vita in particular or among VNs in general. I might watch the "0" anime though (if there is one).