Where The Steins;Gate 0 Timeline Fits Into The Story

gamerant.com:

Technically speaking, Steins;Gate 0 is a prequel. Even though, chronologically, it takes place after the events of the original Steins;Gate. Following the death of main heroine, Makise Kurisu, this is the timeline--or wordline--labeled “beta” in the world of Stein’s;Gate. Yet it is only because of events that take place in Stein’s;Gate 0 that the events of Stein’s Gate are possible. So, from a certain point of view, the events of Stein’s;Gate 0 are events in the future that take place before the events that already took place in the past. In the world of Stein's;Gate,time really is a flat circle.

Trying to trace that circle back to a beginning can often make things more confusing rather than clear. In theory, there is a version of the events of Stein’s;Gate 0 that follows their original course: Kurisu dies, main character Okabe Rintarou dedicates his life to fighting the future tyrannical fallout of World War III, and, presumably, when he ends up in a coma after practically getting tortured to death. However, the story that Stein’s;Gate 0 actually tells is one where the future is already trying to interfere with the past to change things. Amane Suzuha travels back in time to save the world from the dark future from World War III, rather than SERN's dystopia. From there, events occur based on the influence she tries to exert on Okabe in this world-line.

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Interestingly, Okabe is initially resistant to her insistence that he get back into the time machine to try one more time to save Kurisu and avoid the events of World War III, after already trying and failing once before. He’s already experienced the events of Stein’s;Gate, where he tried over and over to save his childhood