Zero Escape

[Karifean]

It's been a while since I played these games but they were pretty cool. I enjoyed Virtue's Last Reward more than 999 but from what I can tell a lot of people liked 999 more, I think? They both had very good plots for sure; I really dug the whole trust/betrayal theme of VLR though, even more than the incredibly chilling atmosphere of 999.

Let's talk about Zero Escape!

[Vyk]

Played 999 and absolutely loved it. My ending sucked though and haven't motivated myself to try again for a better one. But even a bad ending was really compelling. I've played the demo of Virtues Last Reward and liked what I played until it seemed to stray close to spoiler territory. Then I quit. Haven't bought it yet but seriously want to. Especially with the third game on the horizon

[Del Murder]

I liked VLR more because you could more easily go back to key decision moments and change your course for a different outcome. It was just overall more polished, but I like the story from 999 slightly better as it was more self-contained. VLR begs for a sequel that I don't think will ever come. Both these games were awesome.

[Karifean]

VLR begs for a sequel that I don't think will ever come.

Actually, this summer is was announced that the final, third game is in the making and will be released presumably Summer 2016. So yay!

You're right, the technical side of 999 had some silly problems... having to redo the same puzzles over and over again and having a fixed text speed the first time around both got on my nerves real fast. It did sour the sense of exploration for all the endings a bit, but at least the story didn't really suffer from it.

VLR's decision tree was great especially with how you unlock parts of it from somewhere else. Hell I even liked the little touch of how the text speed matched the length of the voice track.

[Del Murder]

Actually, this summer is was announced that the final, third game is in the making and will be released presumably Summer 2016. So yay!

Awesome news! I checked the status of the sequel when I completed VLR last year and it didn't sound like they had the sales to justify it.

[KentaRawr!]

I love the first game! Haven't had the chance to play the second one yet, though.

[Vyk]

Yeah the third game has been available on Amazon for preorder for a little while now. W00t

[blackmage_nuke]

I really liked VLR better than 999. The story tree was great, it keeps throwing you twists even when you think it's run out. The puzzles were better and the bizarre pseudo science was more easily acceptable (but maybe that's because I had a semi-clear idea of what to expect going in).

The only thing 999 did better was the art. VLR had too many awkward 3d still frames where as 999 had consistently well designed 2d art all the way through. Though to be fair its a shorter game with fewer variables so it was probably easier to draw all the assets.

I cant wait for game 3!

[Karifean]

Relevant article: http://gematsu.com/2015/10/zero-esca...o-time-dilemma

Really, I hope with its final instalment Zero Escape finally does away with what's always bothered me most about the series, which is the uncanny similarity in plot elements when compared to Uchikoshi's earlier works, specifically the Infinity series. I couldn't help but laugh when the guy confirmed the true identity of mystery person in the VLR secret ending, but it also made me worried that he'd go and reuse plot points AGAIN.

But the way it looks right now it'll at least be one hell of a ride even so. 999 and VLR sure were.

[Dr Unne]

Both great games. The worst part of 999 was being unable to make the text go faster. Thank God they fixed that issue in VLR. I'm looking forward to the third.

I liked these games because they were smart. Characters would start talking about something and I'd think to myself, "Oh, the devs are just referencing the Prisoner's Dilemma", and a lot of games might stop there. But then a character in the game would immediately say "Wait, isn't this the Prisoner's Dilemma?", and then talk about it in detail as it relates to their world, and go further with it and build on top of it. I felt like the devs must've been smart people, and by extension so were the characters.

The puzzles were never especially hard, and VLR especially was mostly a "figure out what you can touch" point-and-click adventure. But the story was fun, the characters were interesting, and even though it wasn't the kind of mystery that I think you could reasonably figure out or solve based on clues before the ending, I thought the resolution of each game was pretty clever and satisfying.

You really need to get all of the endings to understand these games at all. Cheat and look up how to unlock the endings if you need to.

And I'd be satisfied with a 2D game with no voice acting too. I liked the style of the first game.

[krissy]

you could make the text go fast in 999 as long as

(SPOILER)you had already played that part before im pretty sure, and then just started a new game from after the ending screen