“This probably doesn’t need a sequel, but I’ll gladly power through it” - Me, obliviously, as I finished Steins;Gate (the original). Boy, did I not know how right and how wrong I was at that time.

First and foremost, it is imperative to understand that Steins;Gate 0 is not a true sequel - it's more like a substory within the original story that "explains" some of the events towards the end of the original story that made it a great ending. I unfortunately did not realize this until the veryyy end, which made me upset and certainly tarnished my view of this "sequel".

At the end of the day though, this was just completely unnecessary (SPOILERS ahead - skip to final sentence if you haven’t seen it yet). We did not need an explanation for Mayuri's actions on that rooftop that day. The idea in the 1st season was that she simply wanted what was best for Okabe, and at that time it was saving Kurisu and therefore, she encouraged and supported him to time travel and make things right. We absolutely did not need to know that she originally held Okabe back and she herself had to time travel in order to encourage him. Like why? In essence, the entire story revolves around this and it's dumb, and I mean the entire Zero story. revolves. around. this. one. insignificant. unnecessary. moment. in. the. original. It’s just ridiculous!

Not to mention that we really didn't need to ship Mayuri & Okabe, like at all. Now we have 2 world lines where Okabe is with Kurisu in 1 and Mayuri in the other? Nah fam. Not only is it messed up and an extreme flaw for any story, but now you’re making me choose between Mayuri & Kurisu and that is just pure evil.

I'm giving this a 72% (much higher than it deserves) solely because it was great to see the characters again and it was nice to see what the world would have looked like in WW3. There was also a great touch when Okabe switched world lines and was able to say goodbye to Kurisu - just an excellent scene.

Other than that, unlike the first season, this one was quite depressing and filled with major flaws. Not to mention the ending was weird and didn't really feel like a climax at all to me. All in all, this is truly one of the most underwhelming things I’ve ever watched, and I despise that they went through with creating it. Especially after the masterpiece that was Steins;Gate. There have been plenty of poorly executed sequels in the history of story telling, and this to me is one of the worst. Perhaps I’m being a bit emotional about it, but that’s just how much the original meant to me. And now to do this to it…

Please, if you’re reading this and haven’t seen 0 yet, I would implore you to forget that it even exists and just stick to the original. I promise you will be better off without it.