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Science Adventure Series - TV Tropes

  • ️Sun Dec 01 2013

Science Adventure Series (Visual Novel)

The Science Adventure Series, or SciADV Series for short, is a collection of stories originally in the forms of Visual Novels. They all span among other different forms of media (such as anime, manga, light novels, drama CDs, and stage plays), whilst sharing a single universe. Each main entry has its own relatively self-contained story, but they are all united by some common themes and threads, and some characters return in later entries.

The world of SciADV is a world much like our own, with bustling cities and people going about their daily lives. However, unbeknownst to the general populace, the sinister group known as the Committee of 300 lurks in the shadows, controlling various powerful organizations and leading them in their mission to establish dominion over the world and reduce its human population to a manageable billion. Their goal: to create a utopia without wars or conflict, a world where the human mind is enslaved to their collective will. The various stories follow different groups of ordinary people who nevertheless get themselves entangled into the Evil Plan of a Committee-controlled organization, and find themselves with the daunting task of fighting a conspiracy that towers over them and everyone they know.

The series is part of the collaboration between Japanese visual novel developer nitro+ and video game manufacturer 5pb./MAGES. As of 2017, the Science Adventure series covers six visual novels that are the mainline entries, though there are oodles of side material (manga, audio dramas, etc.) and fan discs that act as companion pieces to the mainline entries. The series is primarily written by Naotaka Hayashi (sole writer of Chaos;Head, Robotics;Notes, and all but one route of Steins;Gate), with idea guy Chiyomaru Shikura, the CEO of MAGES., music composed by Takeshi Abo and Zizz Studio, other supporting writers, and featuring character designs by artists including Mutsumi Sasaki and Huke.

Occultic;Nine and Anonymous;Code were initially revealed under the series moniker SVN (Science Visual Novel Series), until Shikura held a livestream in 2017 stating that ''SVN'' isn't a separate series, but rather the Western nickname he made up for SciADV, only for the name to be quietly ignored by western localizations anyway.

A list of the main works in the series:

A list of the spin-off games in the series:

  • Chaos;Head Love Chu Chu!
  • Steins;Gate: My Darling's Embrace
  • Steins;Gate: Variant Space Octet
  • Steins;Gate: Linear Bounded Phenogram
  • Chaos;Child Love Chu Chu!!

Tropes common to all installments in the SciADV Series:

  • 20 Minutes into the Future: Robotics;Notes and Anonymous;Code jump a few years ahead and the society is full of digital technology.
  • All Theories Are True: Whenever scientific, pseudo-scientific or conspiratorial trivia is mentioned in the series, there's a very high probability it's exactly what the villains are doing.
  • The Anime of the Game: Most of the mainline entries either have received an anime adaptation.
  • Audience Surrogate: The heroic groups are usually composed of anime fans and tech savvies who require exposition on what the game's problem is from someone more experienced.
  • The Chosen One: Each protagonist of the series stands out even from others with similar Psychic Powers by having a superior version, but not understanding how to take advantage out of it until the climax.
  • Continuity Creep: While entries are mostly standalone stories, over time the core concepts start to pile up. Robotics;Notes duology requires knowing the previous entries, while Anonymous;Code borrows from Steins;Gate 0 and Occultic;Nine.
  • The Conspiracy: Every entry deals with some private organization that has great influence in Tokyo to conduct human experiments on a grand scale without anyone noticing, with no connection between them aside of serving the goals of the Greater-Scope Villain.
  • Conspiracy Kitchen Sink: The series often involves real-world conspiracy theories as conversation topics that may end up true. If the protagonist monologues that the world is not what it seems and someone is pulling the strings behind minor events, they'll likely encounter that first-hand.
  • Covert Group with Mundane Front: Villainous groups usually operate through government facilities like hospitals and respected research institutes, or use them as proxies.
  • Evil Only Has to Win Once: Each entry in the series chronicles a new plan created by the Committee of 300 that are meant to result in the deaths of most of the population, with the remaining populace of 1 billion to be subjugated under their rule. The cast of each entry fight what's essentially a Secret War spanning over a decade to retain their freedom and end their tyranny.
  • Humans Are Morons: An often repeated topic is the general public being easily manipulated by social media trends and greater-scope machinations, while the protagonists notice social abnormalities by being contrarians.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every installment uses a semicolon between two words.
  • Imageboards: The protagonists are regulars of a 2channel analogue @channel, which amongst mean comments provides Foreshadowing or clues.
  • Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: Each entry at first semi-randomly mentions internal terminology and recent accidents, only later to explain how they relate.
  • Loser Protagonist: Nishijou Takumi, Okabe Rintaro and Yuta Gamon are anti-social reclusive Otaku with delusions of moral superiority over masses. Overcoming their flaws allows them to bond with their group to resolve problems.
  • Mass Hypnosis: A recurring plot of the series is a local organization researching if whatever Applied Phlebotinum can be used to bend the population to their will.
  • Multiple Endings: Novels have a gimmick that allows interrupting the linear narrative by nudging the protagonist into a certain train of thought. While these look inconsequential on their own, over time these choices decide who the protagonist spends most time with and if they get all clues required to undermine the villain's manipulations. Doing very specific actions at certain moments are often required for the true ending.
  • Next Sunday A.D.: Chaos;Head, Steins;Gate and Chaos;Child take place slightly ahead from their release date.
  • Psychic Powers: A common plot point is the protagonist group gaining a mental ability (Gigalomaniac, Reading Steiner, precognition, paranormal abilities, Saving and Loading) that villains are trying to gain for themselves.
  • Science Fiction: As the title suggests, the primary genre for each game, using real scientific concepts and theories, but also crossing over into fictional territory, using non-accurate science. According to Anonymous;Code: A Beginner's Guide to Earth Simulator, the themes of the series are Delusional Science, Speculative Science, Augmented Science, Paranormal Science, and Meta Science.
    • Chaos;Head and Chaos;Child focus on cognition and individuals with reality-altering powers.
    • Steins;Gate and Steins;Gate 0 focus on Time Travel, with both also having the theme of memories.
    • Robotics;Notes and Robotics;Notes DaSH focus on giant robots and virtual reality technology.
    • While Occultic;Nine is mostly supernatural, electromagnetic fields are given focus.
    • Anonymous;Code focuses on quantum supercomputers generating Earth simulators and individuals with the power to see the future.
  • Shared Universe: Constant references, Continuity Nods and characters appear between each installment, some more obvious than others.
  • Thematic Series: The stories all take place in the same world, and all of them deal with a group of characters taking down a conspiracy, but except direct sequels, each entry rarely connects to the plot outside their specific sub-series (for example, you'll rarely see Steins;Gate mentioning events of Chaos;Child), the main unifying factor is the background villain, the Committee of 300. That being said, Steins;Gate has oodles upon oodles of Chaos;Head references and nods confirm that "Yes, Chaos;Head did indeed happen a year before Steins;Gate". Robotics;Notes heavily relies on returning plot points from both Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate, Chaos;Child is a direct sequel to Chaos;Head 's aftermath, DaSH requires nearly every entry before it to be fully understood in its entirety due to its content, while Anonymous;Code also uses some concepts that are only explained in previous entries.
  • Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: The entries took place in various wards of Tokyo. In Chaos;Head it's mentioned Shibuya has a spike of gravity fluctuations, increasing the likelihood of phenomena related to brain activity.
  • Trademark Favorite Drink: Each Protagonist has one of these:
    • For Takumi it's Coke.
    • For Okabe it's Dr. Pepper.
    • For Takuru it's Mountian Dew.
    • For Pollon it's 7Up.
    • The only exception from this rule is Kaito. He instead has a Trademark Favorite Food in the form of "Space Candy".
  • Unwanted Harem: Nishijou Takumi, Okabe Rintaro and Yuta Gamon end up accompanied by a lot of girls, with little interest between each other, who usually join due to the protagonist's connection to ongoing incidents.