Topic: Virtue's Last Reward

I can't trust people to use spoiler tags correctly so who knows if I'll read this thread before finishing the game. Just to be super safe, if you've not played the Zero Escape games this goes into a story mechanic but doesn't actually spoil the story at all!

If 999 was a great game, VLR is practically a masterpiece. Conveniently another example streamlining what little problems your previous game had and adding much more to it (and quite frankly, this is essentially the best way to make a multiple ending game). Also, because of that (and other reasons) I didn't have to wait to get to the cooler endings for something after the first "playthrough" to be interesting. Not to mention dat Zero, OMG. Brilliant character in this game.

In terms of suspense, horror, mature rated storytelling, it is soooooo good and even better than the last game. This is probably my favorite game I've played this year. It's rare that a game, or even most fiction, makes me so interested in EVERYTHING that's going on and wanting answers to so many questions. It's also the perfect game to play after finishing the goofy DLC of Dual Destinies.

I can easily say the Zero Escape games have some of the best stories in gaming and people should totally try them out.

also I'm sure there was another thread i don't care

also a reminder that this series might get MML3'd unless we do something D:

I'm very interested in this game. Like, VERY interested.

Still on my to get list. So many games too little time! I see 999 at my local Gamestop every time I go in there and it calls to me but I somehow resist. I should check out the price of this though and see if I can get it on the cheap now.

I can now tell I'm not getting this cheap at all. If it's still close to full price I rather just buy it new and reward the dev! Its been a while since I've played a native game. Ace Attorney doesn't count. Hotel Dusk would be the last.

I stopped playing it after I got hopelessly stuck on a puzzle. I couldn't figure out why the game thought I was wrong.

I did want to pick up 999 though. Maybe I should play that one first anyway.

I adore this game. It truly is a masterpiece.

Finished it, but one of the last puzzles was riddicolous hard -.-

VLR is thousand times bettter than 999, although difficulty of the puzzles is totally unbalanced (most of them are ungodly easy, and some ballbustingly hard, like the white room) and the ending blows. Thankfuly, playing 999 is not necessary, although helpful

It is not as "trial and error"-ish and punishing as 999, in which you had to play through the game all over again if you did chose wrong (unless I was missing something)

I loved the addition of a time-line where you can warp between different universes, but it did take away a lot of the game's drama seeing the game's structure laid out so plainly like that, and so easily being able to reverse your decisions. Also, VLR is nowhere near as frightening and intense as 999 sometimes was. None of VLR's endings are half as memorable as that Clover ending from 999. Shudder

On the other hand, the choices in 999 never felt very... involved. Do I go through this door or that door? Who cares! The Ally/Betray system is definitely my favorite innovation of VLR, because it adds actual moral heft to your decision-making. Also, replaying the game over and over to get the True Ending was a pain.

They're both excellent games, though. I will be VERY disappointed if the third game never gets made. I can't believe people in Japan don't like these games. It seems like most of his support comes from Western fans.

I personally liked 999 better. As @Ralizah mentioned, I thought the timeline, while good for knowing what to do, took all the suspense out of the game that made 999 so intense. And I just felt like I was going through the motions in VLR, just doing what I had to do. The ally/betray system was great the first couple playthroughs, but after that you just picked what you had to to go somewhere different with no choice behind it. I still always felt terrible when I had to betray that one person (I'm sure everybody who has played knows who I am talking about), but those were the only times. Also, it was kind of strange and cool when I got to the end and discovered that my very first time I played, I chose the exact right path to get the True Ending, but of course I couldn't advance to it until I did all the other bad endings first.

I haven't played 999 but I did play VLR

I love VLR but I disagree with the rest of people in this thread. 999 was the superior game/.

Funny, I just saw a movie on Netflix (Cube) that made me think of this game. Like others have said it's a true masterpiece; the suspense is constantly there, and although some of the endings fall flat, the true one blew my mind. Seriously, there were ingenious twists galore, lifting the game among my favourite literary works. It looks pretty good as well and the multiple paths tree is great.

The one thing that's keeping me away is the multiple endings. I don't have time to play through a game 2-4 times tbh. I would play it one time through and that's about it.

999 was the better story, VLR was the better game. 999 felt really archaic in the way it controlled, and the lack of a tree really hurt it, since it would take forever to go to the decision-making.

Also, I agree with @Ralizah on how VLR just wasn't as tense as 999 could be. I don't know if I'd consider it a weakness, though. Also, 999 had a way better ending. Nice and closed up, but with the potential to expand.

VLR had a lot more things going for it as a game, though. I like the branching path system. Really makes it a lot smoother. Voice acting is also excellent, so that's nice. the controls were better. The story went some really interesting places, too. However, the story tried to delve into some human-nature themes, and... it isn't as good at that as it is suspense. That doesn't keep it from being my favorite 3DS game, though.

@Spoony_Tech You actually have to go through some routes to unlock some of the other routes. There is absolutely no way you'll be able to play through the game once. Imagine a choose your own adventure book, but there are parts of the book that are locked until you get to a later part of the book in a different section to find the key to upon that part up. It's a way of telling a narrative that uses narrative as a gameplay device, one of the only games that actually does that. It also is a way of telling a story that would really only work in a video game.

And that's what scares me. I don't want to play a game twice. Very few have I ever done this but I guess if I go in thinking well It's not the end then maybe I can change my mind set.

Thank you! That's what I like to hear.

There is also a skip function to quickly fast forward text you have already read, it even slows down automatically once something you haven't read yet comes on screen so there's no risk of fast forwarding something new by accident

My dream Zero Escape game would combine the plot and characters of the first game with the production values, convenience, and meaningful choices of the second. You can have a timeline and still maintain tension: simply don't display the timeline for a route until you complete the route at least once, and lock them into the route they chose until they finish it. However, also allow players to warp back to previous decision points once they complete a route. It would maintain most of 999''s suspense without sacrificing the convenience of not having to replay the whole darn game. Of course, you'd have to change the game design a little bit so that you couldn't access the true route before unlocking the other endings, but it should be doable.

I really hope Uchikoshi considers crowd-sourcing at some point if he can't find ZE3 a Japanese publisher.

I actually disagree about the story. 999 had a great first run and great true endings but the middle of the game was just not that interesting as a whole (or at least vastly less interesting). Partially because different choices didn't lead to character stuff that was consistently interesting without the super late-game reveals. Partially because replaying puzzle rooms was a garbage idea that no one wanted (god forbid you don't realize that one of the options forces you to go straight to the ending you already did, like what happened with me). I think it's really the mysteries and characters, which are both just way better and more intriguing. Everything is still a mystery in a way but I've been given more than enough to wonder how all of this works. It's rare that so many mysteries are things I actively want to know and am thinking "where is this going?" so that's super impressive. And every character just feels more fully realized a character , even without knowing all about them. It also helps that it has REALLY high quality voice acting. This kinda buries most Japanese games in its English localization, and even going through stuff the same as other timelines, I'll occasionally not skip so much so I can hear it (again, ESPECIALLY Zero, whose performance is brilliant).

And this is why I was (and am) really mad that they decided to shun European gamers by only giving us Japanese voice acting. It's high quality as well, make no mistake, but why on Earth would they only offer something that's basically nonsense for majority of the audience – when there's expertly done dubbing all ready and wrapped up nicely?

Sure there was some silly poll where fans got to decide which one to get: it's just that no such thing should've existed in the first place. If it's about money then fork a few thousand bucks to offer the complete package instead of a gimped version, publisher! That was my only enormous gripe with the game and the sole reason I postponed my purchase until it was available for the cheap.