Visual Novel / Anonymous;Code

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Anonymous;Code is a Japanese Visual Novel by MAGES., released on July 28, 2022, and published in English by Spike Chunsoft on September 8, 2023 for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam. In 2016, it was initially announced to be a part of "Science Visual Novels Series", an independent franchise from Science Adventure Series, however in 2017 and 2020 interviews, it, along with Occultic;Nine, were clarified to not be spin-offs and "SVN"'s announcement being a miscommunication. The story does take place two decades after Steins;Gate 0.

Similar to other games of the series, the visual novel doesn't present standard dialogue choices for story routes. Instead, the player controls a Mysterious Backer named Anonymous who can interrupt the protagonist's conversation at certain moments called Hacking Trigger to nudge him to take another course of action, or the player can choose to let the dialogue play out. There is no Story Branching and an incorrect choice leads to a quick game over.

Set in the near future, a duo of "anons" called Nakano Symphonies, Pollon Takaoka (90110n) and Cross Yumikawa, take on-field hacking jobs. Trying to cover his girlfriend bluff, Pollon so happens to be taken by a mysterious girl on the run with no knowledge of the AR technology, who adopts the name of Momo Aizaki. After the Vatican manages to abduct the girl, Pollon awakens the ability to Load a Play Data and retry from a previous point in time.

While helping her, Pollon gets wrapped against various conspiracies regarding the Earth Simulator, a supercomputer that can make a digital copy of the planet, the Sad Morning, an event where multiple laser satellites have malfunctioned and fired at major cities indiscriminately, and Cicada 3301 leaving puzzles related to impending catastrophes.

Anonymous;Code features examples of the following tropes:

• 20 Minutes into the Future: The story starts on November 24th 2037, where Everything Is Online, most things operate with Augmented Reality, and transhuman enchantments aren't unheard of. The tablets are treated as an outdated technology. 4chan is still active and is involved in the plot.
• Action Prologue: The story starts with Pollon and Momo escaping from JUSDF on a graper bike, before the intro credits. The scene is repeated again after the introductions.
• Actionized Sequel: Instead of Prolonged Prologue like in other novels, Pollon barely has a moment to breathe and has to engage in combat multime times.
• Arc Number: The opening monologue emphasizes the golden ratio, like the spirals and the Fibonacci sequence. It's ironically never brought up again.
• Arc Symbol: Momo's AR Facial Markings is actually a state from Conway's Game of Life, which is related to the themes of Creating Life in a computer, and is also used as her logo on minimaps. In the ending it's used as a reference command to bring her to life after the reset.
• Arc Words:
  • Passing through the "How's it going to end?" sign somehow causes Pollon to awaken the ability to Mental Time Travel. He sometimes questions if there's a relation. It's not explained, though the moment is used as one of the checkpoints.
  • Hackers who can alter devices without a trace are called "wizards". Pollon considers the one who gave him the "Saving and Loading" ability to be one. JUNO's hacking abilities are outright Sci-Fi and she's famous for her skills. Other hackers who can bypass military security are also called wizards. The opening narration also nods at there potentially being such wizard in a larger plot.
• Artistic License: The narration says that 404 error pages are produced either by the website or by the browser. It misses that it can also be produced by the server, and the browser is involved only when the server doesn't have such placeholder (quite a rarity) or is set to interject when it sees a 404 status code (most browsers don't do that). Also, Cross says the 404 page during the third quest was made a year ago, but there's really no way of knowing when a webpage was made unless the creator themselves gives a date.
• Artistic License – Physics:
  • Wheeler's delayed-choice experiment is brought up as evidence of retrocausality. Wheeler did not actually support this interpretation and had a different presumtion, and there exists the Copenhagen interpretation that resolves the paradox with superposition.
  • Quantum teleportation is acknowledged to be used to transfer information, but using it for physical teleportation casually like JUNO does is not how the concept works, and she can even transport other people. Nor any kind of private satellite could transform people into pure data and reconstruct them elsewhere in an instant.
  • Exploited in the ending. Since the world is digital, Liddie comes up with an infinite energy machine to create a glitch to let Pollon access impossible areas.
• As You Know: Offended that Cross finds screwing with the adware company more than necessary risky, Pollon probes for a reminder of what the Nakano Symphonies duo usually does.
• Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: Rosario holds Pollon at gunpoint and then shoots. Turns out she's a friend of Momo and shots Davide instead.
• Big Bad Ensemble: One one side, the new top researcher of Gai Institution, Asuma Soga, is the one who develops Earth Simulator GAIA and wants to ensure he keeps control over it and that its predictions remain always right, so anyone in the world can be blackmailed for something they've done or are even yet to do. On the other side, Felino Arcana is the counselor for Holy Office 513, acting as the head of the Apocalypse Cult who wants to ensure the disasters prophesied by Earth Simulator Necro Pilgrimage go uninterrupted.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • If the player does nothing in the last 10 seconds of the main story, the quick credits will play out and the world is shown to have avoided the Millennium Bug, but Momo is not part of it. Loading to the very beginning of the game instead will show the proper continuation.
  • In the true ending The Year 2038 Problem is undone and thus everything related to the Third Prophecy of Fátima never happens. However, Momo is the only one to remember anything and tries to befriend Pollon anew, while the illegal development of Earth Simulators is left unaddressed.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • The cast drinks 7cup, a take on 7up, continuing the tradition of Science Adventure Series protagonists enjoying carbonated drinks.
  • One of BMI ads is by Ggoole, who also operates PIQT OS most of the world works with. The web browser logo is also similar to Google Chrome.
  • One of the virtual games is Microstoria Flight Plan Garuda which looks familiar.
  • 5Gamer.net looks like 4Gamer.net, a real news website.
  • The video hosting site is called MewTube Live.
  • One of the news sites is Taboo! Japan.
  • Antenna News has the same logo as NBC.
• Boyfriend Bluff: Not wanting to be shamed for not being able to talk to girls, Pollon claims to already have one. When Wind, Dai and Ryoichi then patiently wait for her to arrive, Pollon was about to hack a dating app to make someone to come before Cross calls him out. Then a girl trying to hide from the government conveniently shows up and acts like she was the Momo in question.
• Brain Uploading:
  • Inverted, Momo is a product of young Lúcia dos Santos's memories being transplanted from Earth Simulator into an artificial brain.
  • Momo is spared from the Reset by Liddie and Amadeus Kurisu making an digital version of her and storing it in the Anonymous's world through the Black Knight satellite, so she can be reuploaded to the new world.
• Chekhov's Gun: Bambi gives Momo a stungun for protection. It's used to beat Davide.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Pollon's father turns out to be the engineer of the SA4D Kill Sat that didn't fire. Pollon realizes he really was a wizard hacker and his work made sure Nakano isn't a crater.
• Colony Drop: Being disappointed that even with Reality Warper powers he can't get his "real" parents to love him, Asuma summons a meteor and mocks Pollon for thinking life has any meaning.
• Conspiracy Kitchen Sink: Similar to other novels of the series, pretty much every conspiracy theory that also exists in the real world has plot relevance. This includes the Cicada 3301, Three Secrets of Fátima, Black Knight satellite, the simulation theory, Gaudi Code, and death of Nikola Tesla. There are a whole 36 verified apparitions of Mary. Ironically, Cross tells Momo to not sound like a Conspiracy Theorist trying to connect unrelated events.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The first thing to appear after the opening theme is the Divergence Meter from Steins;Gate, with 1.048596% (the Golden Ending) being superpositioned with 1.123581% (featured in Steins;Gate 0). An upgraded Divergence Meter physically appears in Chapter 4, though isn't explored in detail.
  • Liddie Kumar and Makise Kurisu worked together at Viktor Chondria University, with Kent Korihisa also being Kurisu's acquaintance. Liddie tells Kurisu had some sort of experience with Time Travel, but has been focusing on neuroscience.
  • Pollon abuses Mental Time Travel to win MINI Loto just like Okabe did.
  • The fourth top ranking hacker to attempt Cicada 3301 quests is DaSH, which stands for Daru the SuperHacker, while Frau Koujiro is 7th.
  • John Titor's posts about Time Travel and You Can't Fight Fate are brought up when speculating about Pollon's ability.
  • One of the anonymous chat messages mentions KuriGohan. The only one who knows who that is should be Okabe.
  • Amadeus System plays a role as an example of an Artificial Human made from data, and Amadeus Kent and Amadeus Kurisu appear in the later half, with the latter bringing up how she's heard of an individual who tried to Screw Destiny. It was also said the project had rought development because of a mysterious hack in 2012 believed to be Kent stealing the project for himself, along with several attempts of security breach by foreign agencies.
  • One of the chat messages compares Momo giving the world superpowers to the Gigalomania incident.
• Corrupt Church: In the setting, the Vatican's Holy Office 513 is an Apocalypse Cult who has power over the Pope and are trying to secure The End of the World as We Know It as prophesied by the apparition of Mary and the Earth Simulator. They are behind the SA302LL Hihack incident and their assassins regularly threaten the heroes.
• Cosmic Chess Game: The world turns out to be inside a Recursive Reality, with versions of the characters in the World Layer above trying to affect the catastrophes below, while in turn are controlled by the World Layer above and so on, though only Kent's and Asuma's appear. The End of the World as We Know It really is a Millennium Bug and several entities, including Holy Mary and Anonymous, have been trying to prevent it propagating to other worlds.
• Cosmic Flaw: The GAIA computer somewhere in the higher World Layers operates the Recursive Reality. If any of infinite Earths don't resolve the Millennium Bug, the top-tier GAIA collapses along with the worlds in it. The only fix is causing a specific Reality-Breaking Paradox, which would reset all World Layers to a fixed point in time after the bug's date.
• Cosplay Café: There is a café "Incarnation" that uses Augmented Reality to make waitresses look like fantasy characters. Cross tells they're actually not women and Pollon is very grossed out when he turns off the BMI glasses. It gets shut down after Nakano Symphonies expose the owners for the VR spam campaign.
• Crazy-Prepared: GAIA is already a massive supercomputer, and Gai Institution has build multiple fake ones across the facility, just in case of the intruders. Asuma has additionally watched countless GAIA simulations and has made a lot of security features exclusive to himself in case of betrayal.
• Darkest Hour: After Pollon fails to protect Miori Soga despite the Loading, Asuma goes berserk with Physical God powers and summons a meteor to destroy Earth. Pollon doesn't even bother Loading while others are trying to come up with a solution, but when he comes to his senses, Asuma makes him Brought Down to Normal.
• Destructive Teleportation: One of the tips mentions that teleportation as is understood doesn't transfer matter, but reconstructs it at the specified location.
• Driven to Suicide: The SA302LL's co-pilot turns out to be an agent of Holy Office 513, who cuts own throat upon failure. Secretary Nimura and Ewan do the same when their connections to Holy Office 513 get exposed.
• The End of the World as We Know It: The world is prophesied to end at January 19th 2038 12:14:07. Holy Office 513 works to ensure it happens. One of the game overs shows the world inexplicably turning off, because the overflow bug causes the simulation world to fail.
• Everything Is Online: In the setting, it is possible to hack into vehicles and street power system, and sometimes even brainwash people. Pollon manages to counter hacks while fleeing for his life on an autopiloted graper bike. A hack on Ggoole's PIQT OS proves to effectively paralyze several countries as people can't move around or interact with electronics without authorization.
• Evil Running Good: In Chapter 7 Holy Office 513 takes over the CCO department. As police officers, Cyber Force Dolls can't disobey. It lasts one chapter.
• Exact Time to Failure:
  • The time of The End of the World as We Know It is known early, January 19th 2038 12:14:07. It becomes the countdown for the final mission.
  • During the SA302LL Hihack quest by Cicada 3301, someone makes a countdown app based on the remaining fuel, which everyone uses.
  • The Facehack quest shows a % counter, starting from 23/51. 51% means Cicada 3301 can hijack Tokyo Mistuishi Bank and cause the economy crash.
  • The Egg Tower Poolhack 2.0 quest shows a countdown until the hypnotized victims jump from the helipad.
  • The asteroid impact by Asuma, or Meteorhack also gets a timer.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Once Asuma realizes only one person besides himself has access to the Cradle, Ewan reveals himself to be Faking the Dead and being a Deep Cover Agent.
• Foreshadowing:
  • GAIA demonstrating in the prologue being capable of making a digital copy of the room it is in along with itself, which can make the main twist very obvious.
  • In Chapter 4 Nonoka has trouble with payments. Soon it becomes apparent so has everyone.
  • Some of the news reports comment on SpaceGuard, space debris, Space Elevator and Astrea Project. All are used in attempt to take care of the asteroid. The thing that brings them together is the one deactivated SA4D.
  • The opening theme is full of symbols that get relevant throughout the story.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: With Asuma becoming Physical God, he detects when Anonymous activates Loading and disables it.
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Instead of shooting Asuma to stop his Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum, Pollon approaches him and clocks him in the face so he'd stop acting like a kid.
• Going Commando: Momo initially wears a large cat-themed coat that everyone finds absurd, but it also doesn't come with underwear. She buys proper clothes later.
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • Lorenzo Garzelli is the head of Holy Office 513 as is Felino's boss in theory, but she's not present in the story.
  • The Illuminati, which are part of the Committee of 300, which in turn are a part of something called Deep State, are mentioned to have been sponsoring Holy Office 513 for a century for their own agenda.
• Guide Dang It!: In the climax, the player's own saves (separate from Pollon's story saves) get involved, so good luck if you didn't know you have to manually save at one specific point because there's nothing to indicate that it's mandatory to progress and such mechanic even being a thing is revealed only after the fact. "A Beginner's Guide to Earth Simulator" does provide a clue about it, but it's released separately.
• Hacker Collective: Nakano Symphonies is a team of vigilante hackers who prevent abuse of AR and report it to the police. Together they are also a part of the /hack 4chan community. It's just Pollon and Cross, plus Wind Maki as an "unofficial" broker, but later others either join or get affiliated.
• Hand Wave: The entire concept of the Earth Simulator implies a supercomputer can simulate all of Earth's physical events up to creating a full subatomic digital copy, including itself. The only stated optimization is that it only loads the observed parts, but it's still a lot. How does such device have memory larger than the planet itself and who has filled it with the information about the current state of the world? Quantum physics, go figure.
• Historical Domain Character:
  • Lúcia (Momo), Jacinta and Francisco are real-life Portugese shepherds related to Three Secrets of Fátima.
  • Nikola Tesla is believed to have an ability similar to Pollon but was unable to use it to the full potential and was killed by the Illuminati.
• Hypocrisy Nod: In the climax, Pollon tells Asuma to stop playing god. Afterwards, he uses a massive Load leap and practically uses the whole world as pawns in his own scheme, the irony of which hasn't escaped him.
• Imagine Spot: Liddie's explanation of the Double-Slit Experiment and Wheeler's Delayed-Choice Experiment takes Pollon into an enlarged model for practical exercise. It's not mentioned if they are in VR or how they got there, so it has to be an internal visualization.
• Inside a Computer System: The plot turns out to be taking place inside Earth Simulator GAIA, the first one, and is susceptible to glitches. Liddie even brings up that by spinning fast enough some visuals take a moment to show up and the brain doesn't realize it.
• Jiggle Physics: Iroha's and JUNO's 2D sprites have extra anti-gravity for their chests.
• Lazy Alias:
  • Nakano Symphonies are located in the Symphony café in Nakano. It's surprising how literally nobody found these hackers despite them regularly leaving a Calling Card, Pollon getting doxxed and being searched by several conspiracies.
  • 90110n is a Leet Lingo of Pollon. A lot of 4channelers have realized this quickly.
  • A user named Swallow lives in the Swallow Apartments.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Pollon's "Saving and Loading" ability is literally the novel's save menu, though using it only at specific points called Hacking Trigger provokes a change in plot and plot-relevant Load points are separated. And the Anonymous hacker controlling is made sound like the player. Near the ending even user's separate saves get involved.
• Logging onto the Fourth Wall: None of the Cicada 3301 weblinks featured are real.
• Lore Codex: Like in the previous entries, tons of techno jargon fill up the tips section.
• Magic Versus Science: Holy Office 513 members have miraculous powers called "Sacraments", which include Spontaneous Weapon Creation, Carbon Skin, and straight up Psychic Powers without using any gadgets. Because this alters fate, the agents pay an unspecified price. This goes beyond Sci-Fi and Pollon lampshades that this sounds like a manga. Davide even returns as a zombie. The only rational explanation is the world being a simulation means Holy Office 513 have certain cheat codes by tapping to a higher World Layer.
• The Many Deaths of You: Pollon can fail by Loading at wrong times or at some points doing nothing, and failure usually means dying and breaking the story. This brings up a Conclusion tip about what should have been done instead, and there are many of those.
• Mass Super-Empowering Event: To overload Earth Simulator Necro Pilgrimage and Restart the World, Momo grants Sacraments to everyone on Earth. Some start causing chaos, some live out their superhero dreams, some are Driven to Suicide, but their united trust causes the simulation to reboot, getting rid of the Millenium Bug.
• Medium Blending: Aside to the standard visual novel perspective, the novel uses comicbook style for some cutscenes, internally called Manga Trigger.
• Mental Time Travel: Pollon suddenly gets an Augmented Reality app that lets him "Saving and Loading" a Play Data from any manually placed checkpoint, allowing him to use new knowledge to retry certain events. However, when he Loads, all Saves made after that point are wiped, while jumping too far or overusing it puts him in a coma. This however, is traceable by Earth Simulators because events deviate from the prediction.
• Millennium Bug:
  • The 2036 overflow error has caused a bunch of SA4D Kill Sats to fire at Earth's cities seemingly at random. One of the satellites has mysteriously turned off right before hitting Nakano. Momo's incarnation at that time also is believed to be related.
  • The 2038 overflow error results in the crash of GAIA. While it's a small bug for the Top Layer, inside Earth Simulator this really is the Apocalypse and is treated as such. The same applies to an upper World Layer for January 19th 2938 3:14:07.
• Monty Hall Problem: Liddie Kumar gives a math quiz regarding Monty Hall as part of her introduction. Pollon doesn't understand the question, and can optionally Load to give the correct answer.
• Mundane Utility: Some "Saving and Loading" moments are completely optional and low-stakes, like redoing the conversation with Momo when Pollon doesn't compliment her new clothes, ordering different food at a café, and trying to win a gacha for Nonoka.
• Mysterious Backer: A mysterious wizard hacker has installed a Mental Time Travel app into Pollon, and opens it remotely if he screws up. Pollon is thankful, but is really suspicious of someone reading his every thought. He nicknames him Anonymous.
• Necessary Drawback: While Pollon's "Saving and Loading" power allows him to travel back in time, the main limiting factor that prevents him from changing events from saves he made far in the past is that his brain experiences strain the farther back he Loads. If he Loads too far back in time, he will fall into a temporary coma and be unable to affect anything. This is only circumvented in the end when he realizes that Loading a save Anon created does not trigger this issue, allowing him to go back to the very start of the game.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Amadeus Kurisu is still rendered in huke's distinct style rather than redesigned to fit the other character designs that were done by Haruhisa Nakata.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Pollon has a light blue color motif while Momo has pink.
• Player and Protagonist Integration: Pollon gets an ability from an unknown hacker who appears to be the actual Player Character, who can use him as a proxy for Saving and Loading. Pollon dubs the entity Anonymous. Near the end it becomes apparent that Anonymous comes from some World Layer that is beyond even GAIA.
• Player Nudge: When Pollon starts thinking outloud not knowing what to do, this is usually a prompt to the player to use the "Saving and Loading" function. He does this less often as the story progresses, requiring the player to pay attention to not miss the opportunity.
• The Power of Friendship: Nakano Symphonies initially has only two members and one unofficial one. By the later half of the story over a dozen of named characters help them to Screw Destiny and by the end the only people not on Pollon's side are Holy Office 513 agents.
• Private Military Contractors: In the future Japan has lost rights to JSDF and is dependent on US's military. JUSDF works exactly like JSDF, simply primarily composed of paid foreigners.
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide: During an earlier Cicada 3301 quest, a bunch of BMI users were hacked and made jump from a building. In present time, this reappears as Poolhack 2.0.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When hackers start to butt-in to Pollon for fame during the second quest, he stops to address their amorality on a livestream and effectively disrespects every active hacker in the world. This does cause some hackers to help out near the end of the quest here and there.
• Recursive Reality: Gai Institution's GAIA Earth Simulator is a quantum computer data center (QCDC) that can make a perfect replica of the Earth up to other copies of GAIA, allowing the users to see private events they were not present for or see the future. If the user with foresight changes the outcome, the simulation gets outdated and needs to be recalibrated. This is considered a violation of the international law even more serious than Nuclear Weapons Taboo, but other nations are also racing to develop their Earth Simulator, like Vatican's Necro Pilgrimage. This includes the current storyline being inside one GAIA instance, which explains all the supernatural stuff, with characters having infinite "real" them in World Layers above.
• Restart the World: To combat Millennium Bug that would cause The End of the World as We Know It, the team invokes a different Reality-Breaking Paradox, if everyone starts spamming abilities after a Mass Super-Empowering Event, it would overload the Earth Simulator and reboot it with an update that clears the bug.
• The Reveal:
  • Momo is a clone of Lúcia dos Santos, created by Holy Office 513 to tap into her connection with the apparition of Holy Mary.
  • In Chapter 7 it's shown that Kent Korihisa was killed by the SA4D satellite during the Sad Morning. JUNO is his sister. Cicada 3301 is his Amadeus System copy, looking for someone who has powers of an outside entity.
  • In Chapter 9 it's revealed that the entire story takes place inside Earth Simulator, and the World Layer above is also simulated and so on.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: In the true ending after the reboot, Momo is the only one to remember everything being reuploaded externally, including the poem she made up with Pollon.
• Save Scumming:
  • It takes Pollon multiple attempts with Saving and Loading to escape Cyber Force Dolls, learning of their methods every time he's caught.
  • Pollon tries a few different methods to resolve the Cicada 3301's quests, eventually getting ahead before anyone even knows what the incidents even are.
  • Since Ronin relies on Combat Clairvoyance, fighting him multiple times is the only way to throw him off.
  • Due to taking on two armies at the same time, Pollon practically spams reloads during the Gai Institution raid. Nothing works since he can't combat someone who can also see the future and gives up after countless attempts only make the situation worse.
• Screw Destiny: Pollon relies on "Saving and Loading" to stop distastes predicted by Earth Simulators, eventually bringing everyone to oppose the Fateline directly.
• Scry vs. Scry: Due to their access to future simulations, Pollon, Asuma and Felino hold a Mêlée à Trois trying to out-predict each other's moves and derailing the timeline.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: In the true ending route, Pollon Loads to the very beginning of the game, and using knowledge of the whole story, does everything "flawlessly" by resolving all incidents as soon as they happen and getting all of Holy Office 513 arrested early, and even brings Asuma to his side.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Pollon and Momo get really close, but keep denying there's something between them.
• Shout-Out:
  • The plot of Armageddon (1998) is mentioned when the team discusses if they can explode the asteroid somehow. It's too big and close to plant a nuke.
  • Ronin's input device is a cryptex. Tips note that there was a certain novel and movie made about it.
• Signature Device: Almost every character has a custom input device. Pollon uses a 6-key keyboard, Cross has a DJ set, Davide has his giant cross, Ronin has a cryptex, Asuma has a Rubik's cube, and Rosario's is literally the Bible.
• Skirts and Ladders: Before climbing the ladder, Momo starts fidgeting and asks Pollon to go first. He doesn't get the hint until she spells out she's been Going Commando.
• Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • Turning off the user interface (a standard feature of visual novels) also turns off Pollon's AR vision.
  • Pollon's Mental Time Travel is directly linked to the game's saving feature. Sometimes it just loads the game, but at key points it's plot-relevant. Critical save points and user's saves are separated for convenience.
• Space Elevator: One of the news snippets mentions that NASA is in the middle of constructing the space elevator. It plays a role during the Meteorhack quest.
• Speak of the Devil: Bambi is afraid of dark places and wants to give up the search on Pollon, trying to convince others they'll never find him. Who stumbles upon them right afterwards. Pollon often tends to show up when Bambi the least wants it.
• Spiteful Suicide: After Asuma's father was Driven to Suicide, the mom tries to do the same just because she doesn't want to see her son's face anymore. If she wakes from a coma she does that again right away.
• Spontaneous Human Combustion: One of the mysteries is the cases of hackers dying from fire with no obvious cause and leaving only charred legs behind. It's soon revealed to be the work of Holy Office 513's Davide.
• Stealth Sequel: Despite the title not indicating it and early production interviews (retracted later) stating it to be unrelated to the rest of the franchise, Anonymous;Code relies on events of Steins;Gate 0 26 years later and they are discussed as if they are recent.
• Storming the Castle: In order to crash Earth Simulator Necro Pilgrimage and Restart the World, the gang raids the Vatican, where Felino and Asuma wait for them.
• Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: Holy Office 513's plan is to allow Asuma's mother to commit Spiteful Suicide. This causes him to merge with GAIA to bring her back, and then he concludes that nothing he does has a meaning, resulting in him trying to delete the world altogether.
• Suicide as Comedy: A Freeze-Frame Bonus listing popular "eloping spots" names secluded hot springs as a good spot for lovers suicide.
• Switching P.O.V.: While Pollon is the protagonist, the POV sometimes switches to Momo, Bambi or the villains.
• Take a Third Option: Graham tells Pollon to hand Momo over and go to jail, or he can be written off as an accidental death. Pollon has seen the future and smugly tells that neither is going to happen.
• Unrealistic Black Hole: Asuma throws a black hole at Pollon, who dodges it like it's a ball. A black hole about 10 meters in diameter should not only kill Pollon without touching him, Earth would immediately be gone as well.
• Unwitting Pawn: For the first two quests, Cicada 3301, or someone he's working against, uses proxies who have no idea they're involved in a major crime.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Japanese government keeps Asuma Soga around only because he's a genius who can finish the GAIA Project, which they're interested in despite it being an equivalent of a Nuclear Weapons Taboo. Once the media learns about it, they try to kill him to cover the tracks.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Sometimes Pollon is being Innocently Insensitive. While he doesn't prompt it, at secret points if you bring up the Loading he'll realize he can redo the conversation to do something nice instead.
• Villain Team-Up: Asuma joins Felino's side in Chapter 9. Or rather, he decides to protect Earth Simulator Necro Pilgrimage just to spite Pollon. He couldn't care less about the world ending and threatens Felino to stay quiet, he just wants to end the world himself personally.
• Virtual Assistant Blunder: Regretting running his mouth, Pollon asks "aaa" for a time machine to undo the conversation. The AI assistant asks if he instead wants to see a movie about time travel. Most of it replies are entirely useless.
• We Only Have One Chance: Pollon's Saving and Loading gets erased, there's only one window of opportunity to set the satellites, and he has only one try left to access his dad's computer. The password is dad's Catchphrase.
• Wham Episode: In Chapter 9 the cast is contacted by Kent Korihisa from a higher World Layer who explains the entire story takes place Inside a Computer System, while Asuma becomes a Physical God and starts a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Holy Mary is heavily implied to be an Observer from the topmost World Layer, but her deal is left unexplained.
  • Ouranos is namedropped a few times as an authority figure, but it's not explained who that is.
• Witch Hunt: Holy Office 513 arranges a leak about Gai Institution's involvement with Earth Simulator, resulting in public doxxing Asuma Soga's past and him getting flamed online, while pressuring the government to get rid of him.
• World War III: Cicada 3301's Facehack quest overrides the blockchain authority from major banks of the world, and if not stopped results in a full crash of the economy and invasions between countries.
• Would Hurt a Child: Pressured by the leak, Japanese government makes a move to capture 14 year old Asuma Soga, dead or alive, primarily the former.