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Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward |OT| -- More Hours, More Persons, More Doors

S

ScraftyDevil

Banned
Sorry for the triple(!) post, but I need to share more thoughts:

Here's my entry in the "Trust/Don't Trust" game back in the original thread. YOU ALL LAUGHED AT ME (not), BUT WHO'S LAUGHING NOW?!

The explanation at the end was a little drawn-out, but it gave me time to cram my brains back into my skull after they were blown out. Hot diggedy; that was a delicious twist.

Unmasked!Kyle being voiced by Troy Baker is cool. It's nice to know that he wasn't just used for the OVA.

Past Akane is attractive in both looks and voice. Also, I want her cloak.

So, the third game will focus on the Mars experiment, I presume? I heard it'll involve both Junpei and Tenmyouji, so I don't even know how that's gonna work.

This friggin' game likes sucker punching me with Blue Bird Lamentations when I'm emotionally vulnerable. Not that I mind; it's a really good piece used in some really good places.

I'm glad that Dio wasn't involved in the finale. I'd had about enough of him; and although I love Liam O'Brian's voice, it was starting to grate on me.

Old!Sigma looks like a BAMF. Two mecha-arms and an awesome eyepatch does that to you, I guess. Although I do have to wonder how Sigma never noticed that his voice sounded 45 years older. One would think that it would be pretty apparent considering all the monologuing he does. Ah well; if that's the only noticeable plot hole in the game it's a relatively small deal.

I'm doing Kyle's gaiden story right now, but man was this a great ride.

In short:

Electrical engineering: is pretty smart.

General relativity: is pretty friggin' smart.

The True Ending to Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward?

tumblr_mdl5z1mIVg1qjv6clo1_400.gif
 
protonion

protonion

Member
Finally got the game yesterday.
I have to admit the beginning is not as strong as 999. The setup was kind of dull and the characters felt uninteresting. But after the first ambidex game...
I'm so hooked now. It's all I think about all day!

Some thoughts up to this part.

Fuck you Alice! But it serves me right for choosing to go with her based solely on my boobs obsesion! Now the second game is gonna be a tough desicion. She could kill me and get out. But would she do that?

Also regarding K. I have a feeling he is snake. The way he explained the ambidex term and even his stance I think... I don't know.

Crew quarters puzzle
Is it me or the final password was poorly done? I got the shape numbers and input the code. Nothing. Since there was a mirror thre I put them again the other way around and got -to my surprise- the gold file. I had to use a guide to for the key code. How was I supposed to figure it out?
 
P

PK Gaming

Member
tumblr_mequpdGwrs1qeg3b4o1_500.jpg


do i even need to say anything

ScraftyDevil said:
Sorry for the triple(!) post, but I need to share more thoughts:

Here's my entry in the "Trust/Don't Trust" game back in the original thread. YOU ALL LAUGHED AT ME (not), BUT WHO'S LAUGHING NOW?!

The explanation at the end was a little drawn-out, but it gave me time to cram my brains back into my skull after they were blown out. Hot diggedy; that was a delicious twist.

Unmasked!Kyle being voiced by Troy Baker is cool. It's nice to know that he wasn't just used for the OVA.

Past Akane is attractive in both looks and voice. Also, I want her cloak.

So, the third game will focus on the Mars experiment, I presume? I heard it'll involve both Junpei and Tenmyouji, so I don't even know how that's gonna work.

This friggin' game likes sucker punching me with Blue Bird Lamentations when I'm emotionally vulnerable. Not that I mind; it's a really good piece used in some really good places.

I'm glad that Dio wasn't involved in the finale. I'd had about enough of him; and although I love Liam O'Brian's voice, it was starting to grate on me.

Old!Sigma looks like a BAMF. Two mecha-arms and an awesome eyepatch does that to you, I guess. Although I do have to wonder how Sigma never noticed that his voice sounded 45 years older. One would think that it would be pretty apparent considering all the monologuing he does. Ah well; if that's the only noticeable plot hole in the game it's a relatively small deal.

I'm doing Kyle's gaiden story right now, but man was this a great ride.

In short:

Electrical engineering: is pretty smart.

General relativity: is pretty friggin' smart.

The True Ending to Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward?

tumblr_mdl5z1mIVg1qjv6clo1_400.gif
Click to expand...

hahaha i loved this post, glad you beat it :)

if you have any questions feel free to shoot some, i think have a decent grasp on the plot.
 
P

PKrockin

Member
Seriously, a Good Burger reference was the last thing I was expecting from this game. Wonder what that line was in Japanese.
 
S

ScraftyDevil

Banned
PK Gaming said:
hahaha i loved this post, glad you beat it :)

if you have any questions feel free to shoot some, i think have a decent grasp on the plot.
Click to expand...

I just have a few, since I understood everything pretty well:

How were they able to pour drinks or manipulate liquid for puzzles if they're on the moon? Did Rhizome-9 have a sort of artificial gravity that I've forgotten about?

If Akane is in K's armor during the entire Cyan door path, why does she leave with Dio during Sigma's ending? Wouldn't that ruin the experiment?

Re: Luna. Is she able to leave the facility? I remember her saying that she couldn't, but she clearly does in the True ending. How does she know what the various alcohols tasted like in the Lounge escape? Did GOL-M say that robots can taste things?

That's about it. Man, what a great game. It it weren't for TWD and Kid Icarus, it might be my GOTY. Definitely in my Top 5 for this year, at least.

I think that my favourite references were K constantly quoting Sci-Fi movies.

"I'm sorry, Dio. I'm afraid I can't do that." had me chuckling for a while.
 
P

PK Gaming

Member
ScraftyDevil said:
I just have a few, since I understood everything pretty well:

How were they able to pour drinks or manipulate liquid for puzzles if they're on the moon? Did Rhizome-9 have a sort of artificial gravity that I've forgotten about?

If Akane is in K's armor during the entire Cyan door path, why does she leave with Dio during Sigma's ending? Wouldn't that ruin the experiment?

Re: Luna. Is she able to leave the facility? I remember her saying that she couldn't, but she clearly does in the True ending. How does she know what the various alcohols tasted like in the Lounge escape? Did GOL-M say that robots can taste things?

That's about it. Man, what a great game. It it weren't for TWD and Kid Icarus, it might be my GOTY. Definitely in my Top 5 for this year, at least.

I think that my favourite references were K constantly quoting Sci-Fi movies.

"I'm sorry, Dio. I'm afraid I can't do that." had me chuckling for a while.
Click to expand...

Darn I was hoping you'd have answerable questions :s

Maybe the liquid type is special? or there's some light anti-gravity at the facility...? I have no clue.

Probably for narrative reasons. The author couldn't show cyan path K being different from the others, or he might risk giving away the plot twist. That's my take on it anyway.

Luna's path shows us that she's had free will the entire time, so yes she can leave the facility. She was told by Akane to follow all orders, and she did in most of the pathes (save her own unfortunately). Since her ultimate goal is to blend in, perhaps she extracted the information from a database?
 
S

ScraftyDevil

Banned
PK Gaming said:
Darn I was hoping you'd have answerable questions :s

Maybe the liquid type is special? or there's some light anti-gravity at the facility...? I have no clue.

Probably for narrative reasons. The author couldn't show cyan path K being different from the others, or he might risk giving away the plot twist. That's my take on it anyway.

Luna's path shows us that she's had free will the entire time, so yes she can leave the facility. She was told by Akane to follow all orders, and she did in most of the pathes (save her own unfortunately). Since her ultimate goal is to blend in, perhaps she extracted the information from a database?
Click to expand...

Thanks, man. That helps a lot!

In other news, I lent my copy to a friend to play. I gave him a cheat sheet of what order he should do endings in and told him to avoid the top of the flow chart at all times, so here's hoping he loves it as much as I did!
 
P

podracer35

Member
ScraftyDevil said:
How were they able to pour drinks or manipulate liquid for puzzles if they're on the moon? Did Rhizome-9 have a sort of artificial gravity that I've forgotten about?

Re: Luna. Is she able to leave the facility? I remember her saying that she couldn't, but she clearly does in the True ending. How does she know what the various alcohols tasted like in the Lounge escape? Did GOL-M say that robots can taste things?
Click to expand...
The moon still has gravity, and the entire gacility is pressurized, I don't see any reason as to why the drinks wouldn't pour. They'd fall a little slower, but Radical-6 would compensate for that difference in the same way that it compensated for the difference in movement.

As for Luna, she either has sensors to know how things taste, she pulled info from the main computer, or both. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that Gaulems are able to function just as any normal human. Instead of neurons, the have sensors, and instead of a brain, they have a computer.
 
P

PurpleMaster

Member
ScraftyDevil said:
I just have a few, since I understood everything pretty well:

How were they able to pour drinks or manipulate liquid for puzzles if they're on the moon? Did Rhizome-9 have a sort of artificial gravity that I've forgotten about?

If Akane is in K's armor during the entire Cyan door path, why does she leave with Dio during Sigma's ending? Wouldn't that ruin the experiment?

Re: Luna. Is she able to leave the facility? I remember her saying that she couldn't, but she clearly does in the True ending. How does she know what the various alcohols tasted like in the Lounge escape? Did GOL-M say that robots can taste things?

That's about it. Man, what a great game. It it weren't for TWD and Kid Icarus, it might be my GOTY. Definitely in my Top 5 for this year, at least.

I think that my favourite references were K constantly quoting Sci-Fi movies.

"I'm sorry, Dio. I'm afraid I can't do that." had me chuckling for a while.
Click to expand...

Well!
Actually, K leaves with Dio during Quark's ending, which is in the Yellow door path! K never leaves during the Cyan door path!
 
K

KO Traveling Hobo

Member
I just finished 999, and am strongly considering picking up a 3DS for this game, but first I have a few questions. These have probably been asked before, but I'm scared to read through the thread since I don't want to wander into a spoiler:

-Does VLR address
Seven lying about Akane's fate in the original experiment?
-Can the voice-acting be disabled? Better yet, can it be replaced by 999's blips and boops?
-Why, oh why, did they trade in the charming 2D graphics for that 3D monstrosity? This isn't moe!
-Is it worth buying a 3DS for?

And here's some random 999 questions for good measure:
-What really happened in the
Knife and Submarine
endings?
-What was the deal with June's fever/fainting?
-If
Santa and June were running the show the whole time and had no intention of actually killing 2-8,
why did they let the various Bad Ends happen?
The Axe ending
in particular seemed like it could have been avoided altogether if
June had just told Clover that Snake was alive.
 
J

Jintor

Member
KO Traveling Hobo said:
I just finished 999, and am strongly considering picking up a 3DS for this game, but first I have a few questions. These have probably been asked before, but I'm scared to read through the thread since I don't want to wander into a spoiler:

-Does VLR address
Seven lying about Akane's fate in the original experiment?
-Can the voice-acting be disabled? Better yet, can it be replaced by 999's blips and boops?
-Why, oh why, did they trade in the charming 2D graphics for that 3D monstrosity? This isn't moe!
-Is it worth buying a 3DS for?

And here's some random 999 questions for good measure:
-What really happened in the
Knife and Submarine
endings?
-What was the deal with June's fever/fainting?
-If
Santa and June were running the show the whole time and had no intention of actually killing 2-8,
why did they let the various Bad Ends happen?
The Axe ending
in particular seemed like it could have been avoided altogether if
June had just told Clover that Snake was alive.
Click to expand...

Why would you turn off the amazing voice acting?

999 spoilers:
Knife: Ace stabs you after killing Lotus for her bracelet. Submarine: Ace is faking his death and murders everyone.
June's fever occurs every time you veer off the path that leads to the True ending, because it brings the timeline where she died in the incinerator in the past closer (paradox thinking)
The Bad Ends happened because they had to have happened for the knowledge in the True Ending to exist, but they also never happened. To put it another way: Only the "True End" actually occured in the true timeline because every other ending results in a paradox where Akane dies in the incinerator in the original nonary game, meaning this nonary game cannot exist; however, the other "Bad Ends" still have to be experienced by Junpei so that Akane has the necessary knowledge to build the current Nonary game to save herself.

Fuck, what a great game
 
P

PKrockin

Member
KO Traveling Hobo said:
I just finished 999, and am strongly considering picking up a 3DS for this game, but first I have a few questions. These have probably been asked before, but I'm scared to read through the thread since I don't want to wander into a spoiler:

-Does VLR address
Seven lying about Akane's fate in the original experiment?
-Can the voice-acting be disabled? Better yet, can it be replaced by 999's blips and boops?
-Why, oh why, did they trade in the charming 2D graphics for that 3D monstrosity? This isn't moe!
-Is it worth buying a 3DS for?
Click to expand...

No, you can't turn it off or replace it with blips. It has Japanese voices though, and the English voices are quite good.

The 3D models look great IMO... except for the occasional CG scene.

If you loved 999 I'd say VLR and the next Zero Escape game confirmed to be in the works now will be worth buying a 3DS for.

oh btw Ever 17 >>>>> Katawa Shoujo :p
 
H

Hours Left

Member
Amazon is giving away free copies of Virtue's Last Reward when you buy certain Vita bundles. You can read about it here.

Pretty cool I think, hopefully it will bring in more fans. (Too bad the Vita bundles are back at the 249.99 price still.) Plus, it's a bit hard to suggest people start with VLR to get into the series, since playing 999 first is preferable, but at least it will give the series exposure.
 
I

Ice Mage

Neo Member
Alrus said:
Damn the pantry puzzle is really tedious, not having fun at all with this one...
Click to expand...

Which one? Haha, I hated almost every single puzzle in the Pantry. Had to set it down to Easy for the nutritional chart one and the ice sliding puzzle :/ So horrid being insulted by Clover, of all people, due to failing at it repeatedly... "Are you stupid or something?"
 
A

Alrus

Member
Ice Mage said:
Which one? Haha, I hated almost every single puzzle in the Pantry. Had to set it down to Easy for the nutritional chart one and the ice sliding puzzle :/ So horrid being insulted by Clover, of all people, due to failing at it repeatedly... "Are you stupid or something?"
Click to expand...

All of them actually. The ice puzzle is pretty hard, took me "ages" (relative to other puzzles in the game) to figure out. Then you have the food bank thing, which isn't hard, just annoying. Then the the food chart one is just pure tediousness, you have to switch to different archive files all the time (even with 2 screens it's annoying). I hated it. Thank god it was one of the last room I had to do.

Anyway, got Dio's and Tennymoldy's ending (after getting like 3 to be continued in a row). I'm still confused but again I guess all will be explained in the end. Only a few endings left, I think I'm nearing the end.
 
K

KO Traveling Hobo

Member
Jintor said:
Why would you turn off the amazing voice acting?

999 spoilers:
Knife: Ace stabs you after killing Lotus for her bracelet. Submarine: Ace is faking his death and murders everyone.
June's fever occurs every time you veer off the path that leads to the True ending, because it brings the timeline where she died in the incinerator in the past closer (paradox thinking)
The Bad Ends happened because they had to have happened for the knowledge in the True Ending to exist, but they also never happened. To put it another way: Only the "True End" actually occured in the true timeline because every other ending results in a paradox where Akane dies in the incinerator in the original nonary game, meaning this nonary game cannot exist; however, the other "Bad Ends" still have to be experienced by Junpei so that Akane has the necessary knowledge to build the current Nonary game to save herself.

Fuck, what a great game
Click to expand...
Faking death
is cheating! Thanks for the answers, broseph.
PKrockin said:
No, you can't turn it off or replace it with blips. It has Japanese voices though, and the English voices are quite good.

The 3D models look great IMO... except for the occasional CG scene.

If you loved 999 I'd say VLR and the next Zero Escape game confirmed to be in the works now will be worth buying a 3DS for.

oh btw Ever 17 >>>>> Katawa Shoujo :p
Click to expand...
I'm sure the voice acting is good(I think I saw something about Goddess Omigawa being in this), but I'm still partial to text/blips. Oh well.

There's another one coming out? Jeez.

I haven't played it, but there's no way Ever 17's mystery thriller can compare to the sheer magnitude of Katawa Shoujo's FEELS.
 
P

PK Gaming

Member
KO Traveling Hobo said:
I just finished 999, and am strongly considering picking up a 3DS for this game, but first I have a few questions. These have probably been asked before, but I'm scared to read through the thread since I don't want to wander into a spoiler:

-Does VLR address
Seven lying about Akane's fate in the original experiment?
-Can the voice-acting be disabled? Better yet, can it be replaced by 999's blips and boops?
-Why, oh why, did they trade in the charming 2D graphics for that 3D monstrosity? This isn't moe!
-Is it worth buying a 3DS for?

And here's some random 999 questions for good measure:
-What really happened in the
Knife and Submarine
endings?
-What was the deal with June's fever/fainting?
-If
Santa and June were running the show the whole time and had no intention of actually killing 2-8,
why did they let the various Bad Ends happen?
The Axe ending
in particular seemed like it could have been avoided altogether if
June had just told Clover that Snake was alive.
Click to expand...

-That's already been addressed by the author here[/quote]. question 24.
-it can't, though the voice acting is stellar and it definitely makes the game feel more immersive. puzzles are voice-less.
-(Shrugs) everyone feels this way at first but you'll get used to ti
-Maybe. Are there are any other 3ds titles that interest you?


-Ace kills you in both of these endings. In the submarine ending, he fakes being dead (the only hint is lotus' bracelet, again this was answered by the author)
-June's fevers meant Junpei was heading down the wrong path, and that she was about to be incinerated in the past
-Santa & June were only concerned with saving themselves, if things went airy (ie anyone dies) then the plan was done for
 
K

KO Traveling Hobo

Member
PK Gaming said:
-That's already been addressed by the author here.
Click to expand...
Dear God...Christmas has come early.

I lol'd at this one:
FINALLY, A LIGHT QUESTION! Unfortunately, I'm sorry... I didn't really give the characters specific atributes like that. All I know is that Lotus has big boobs. That's for sure. She used to live in Silicon Valley, but her boobs are not filled with silicon. They are ALL NATURAL.
Click to expand...
The author seems like a cool dude.

June
is really pretty messed up, isn't she?
 
P

PK Gaming

Member
He's a VERY cool guy

you can aks him questions on twitter and he (at the time anyway) would answer them! I think he's busy nowadays though.
 
S

ScraftyDevil

Banned
PK Gaming said:
He's a VERY cool guy

you can aks him questions on twitter and he (at the time anyway) would answer them! I think he's busy nowadays though.
Click to expand...

He's probably busy working on the third game, which is absolutely fine in my books.

Kyle's in a starring role, so I'm satisfied at least :D
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
Mixed feelings about this game relative to 999. More later, maybe.

Edit: wait, there's more game?!

Edit edit: ok, NOW I'm done.

I'll take one copy of 999-3, please.
 
protonion

protonion

Member
18 hours in.

Still haven't seen a single ending. Just game overs and locks (and the leftmost path which I cannot do for now I think).

Even worse, still no PEC room!
 
P

PurpleMaster

Member
That's for real guys. Be careful!
In most cases everything is just fine, but I've seen people lose over 24 hours of gameplay for this shitty bug...
 
The Hermit

The Hermit

Member
Copy finally arrived, playing it scared as fuck since its the 3Ds version, so i am following every gaf advice about saving.

That being said, I am not really feeling it, the story is too convoluted and I had a "to be continue" so far... Which is lame for a first "Ending". The first time i ended 999 I was killed with an axe, which was fucking awesome.

Anyway, is this game better than 999? I know its too early to judge this game so early, but I loved 999 a lot and this time everything feels kinda forced.

Btw, the localization is amazing. I noticed a lot of internet jokes like "the more you know" and "forever alone" and the humour is great like the AI entry... Lol.
 
Z

zashga

Member
Ugh. Loved 999, but this game seems very poorly put together. Only a couple hours in, and I already hit a bug where all of the menu screens (log, save, inventory... everything) got locked out somehow. I had to exit out of the game, and wouldn't you know it... there's no auto save. Staring at "start from beginning" right now; very discouraging.
 
N

NEO0MJ

Member
Just got my first ending, where all I presses was ally. Having to hit the betray button now sucks X(

Edit: Does skip automatically stop at scenes we haven't seen?
 
P

PhoenixSFT

Member
NEO0MJ said:
Just got my first ending, where all I presses was ally. Having to hit the betray button now sucks X(

Edit: Does skip automatically stop at scenes we haven't seen?
Click to expand...

Yeah, it automatically stops.

I haven't seen any character endings yet, I've hit 4 locks and a few Game Overs.
 
T

TheExodu5

Banned
Finished it. Don't know what to think. Wasn't really blown away by the ending.

It was better than 999 in some ways, worse in others. Honestly, even though I wasn't too happy when I finished 999 (mostly because I had to replay it so many times to get the true ending), I preferred the story to what we got here. There was also a sense of urgency in 999 that I just didn't get here at all. VLR felt very relaxed by comparison. Still, the puzzles were mostly more involved (though still didn't fit in very well with the world), and I really appreciated the ability to go from one timeline to the other so easily.

I'll still be in for the sequel, despite my disappointment with the story.
 
S

Sheik

Member
TheExodu5 said:
Finished it. Don't know what to think. Wasn't really blown away by the ending.

It was better than 999 in some ways, worse in others. Honestly, even though I wasn't too happy when I finished 999 (mostly because I had to replay it so many times to get the true ending), I preferred the story to what we got here. There was also a sense of urgency in 999 that I just didn't get here at all. VLR felt very relaxed by comparison. Still, the puzzles were mostly more involved (though still didn't fit in very well with the world), and I really appreciated the ability to go from one timeline to the other so easily.

I'll still be in for the sequel, despite my disappointment with the story.
Click to expand...

I feel similarly, although I still really enjoyed VLR. Maybe it's because 999 was so unexpected and special. I went into 999 blind and was pleasantly surprised. I played that game religiously until I beat it. While I did finish VLR fairly quickly, for me at least, I didn't play nonstop.

VLR wasn't as frightening or, like Exo mentions, as urgent. It also lacked the emotional depth of 999. There wasn't any character that I felt especially attached to in VLR. In 999 there was June and Junpei. In VLR, while I liked certain characters more than others, there were none that I felt visceral reactions at their deaths (besides the protagonist of course.) Most of the puzzles didn't feel as connected to the storyline. 999 had a lot of clever, albeit easy, puzzles that tied in well. The storyline in VLR had parts that were predictable and parts that were irrational and/or sloppily looked over. Overall, I did enjoy the story, but I felt they could have done more with it. Huge missed opportunity of
Akane and Junpei having an actual discussion. Bleh
.

Something I did really enjoy was the AB game. It brought a lot of fun gameplay, strategy, and storyline to the game. I also really, really appreciated the time line jumping and safe password mechanics. It was so damn nice to be able to skip puzzles. Worst part of 999 was having to redo entire rooms over and over again. However, I wish there was a faster way to skip novel sections in VLR. It's not really skipping so much as fastforwarding. Also, there were times where I had seen certain novel sections that were for some reason unskippable.

Another thing I found quite annoying were the small hints that other nonary game participants gave away, even on "hard" mode. I played the entire game through hard mode and was able to solve all the puzzles on my own. However, because of the crappy touch screen controls of the Vita, sometimes I unintentionally clicked on certain puzzles and items repeatedly, which gave me annoying and unwanted clues from my partners.

Sorry for the word vomit. Literally just finished the game and I am still a bit amped. Would still love to see a sequel, perhaps with a new concept. As many fond memories of the
morphogenic field
I have, I would love to see them do something entirely new and creative.
 
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