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[Keyouta]

I have a 3DS a VITA, and a PC...

PC seems like the obvious choice, but can I really hold out the extra 2 days?

I'm 50/50 VITA/PC.

Same, but I just bought a 1440p monitor so I'd love to see how it looks on it. Vita would be great for portability though.

 

[poutmeter]

I have a 3DS a VITA, and a PC...

PC seems like the obvious choice, but can I really hold out the extra 2 days?

I'm 50/50 VITA/PC.

Same situation, but I was never comfortable playing similar games on PC, so it's Vita for me. A great game to play while in bed.

 

[Xieldos]

Does anyone know how much this'll be on the UK PSN store?

 

[properpropaganda]

What?! Totally didnt see that coming....

<mindblown>

 

[Zakard]

We Got This Covered - 5/5

YES!

 

[Kresnik258]

Aksys investing their money better than they did with Magus then!

 

[blacksark]

how many hours until the end of the embargo then?

 

[CiNozzo]

So ZTD is shorter than VLR?

 

[Galactic Fork]

What?! Totally didnt see that coming....

<mindblown>

I'm pretty sure i hate you... no offense.

 

[Ondore]

how many hours until the end of the embargo then?

It's already over, but going into plot elements pre-release would be a dick move.

 

[blacksark]

It's already over, but going into plot elements pre-release would be a dick move.

I mean there should be a ign and gamespot review if the embargo has already ended right?

 

[clay_ghost]

So ZTD is shorter than VLR?

Shorter does not mean Worst, it's still over 20 hours man.

 

[Ondore]

I mean there should be a ign and gamespot review if the embargo has already ended right?

They may be waiting for regular business hours, or simply haven't had a chance to complete it/write the review. Getting the game Friday of E3 week might have set people back.

 

[SilentRob]

I mean there should be a ign and gamespot review if the embargo has already ended right?

Wouldn't the existence of literally ever other american/european review kinda indicate the review is over?

 

[blacksark]

Wouldn't the existence of literally ever other american/european review kinda indicate the review is over?

No, I at least thought that the 4 or 5 reviews seen here were pre-embargo and that it was going to lift sometime today. Anyway waiting for more reviews and opinions

 

[KiraFA37]

I completely forgot this was coming out, thank god I pre-ordered the vita watch edition the moment it was available. Good to see that the reviews are all positive, still over a week away and longer since I ordered from Amazon.com and I'm in Europe, the wait is going to be excruciating.

 

[JBwB]

I'm slightly disappointed to hear that it's not as long as VLR (25+ vs 35+ hours) but other than that I'm hyped.

 

[bilas]

I expected to be shorter than VLR...If it was a visual novel it might be longer. How many hours was 999?

 

[PurpleMaster]

999 was more or less like ZTD. I remember clocking in 20 hours, my GF made her first complete playthrough and lasted 25 hours (getting stuck on puzzles)

Also, both VLR and 999 had lot of repetition. How could we forget the map screen of VLR?

 

[Phamit]

I expected to be shorter than VLR...If it was a visual novel it might be longer. How many hours was 999?

Depends, everything probably 20 hours, if play straight for the true ending maybe 10 or so

 

[ramoisdead]

Zero Escape: 999 was the sweet spot when it came to length. VLR kind of dragged along and some of the puzzles were a bit obscure so less of that in ZTD is a good thing to me.

 

[Corpekata]

I mean there should be a ign and gamespot review if the embargo has already ended right?

It's entirely possible they might not even be reviewing it or that it's not a "rush to match release" priority review.

 

[calc84maniac]

I played 999 and ZTD completely blind; 999 took a little over 20 hours while ZTD took about 24 hours. I admit I got really lucky in 999 as far as getting a different ending every time, though. As for VLR my Activity Log is telling me 40 hours, but I feel like some of that must have been idling (and I can't remember whether I consulted a walkthrough or not). That said, I think ZTD has great pacing.

 

[Korigama]

Equivalent to or slightly longer than 999 (which felt about as long as it needed to be), yet shorter than VLR (which felt more bloated) sounds fine to me.

 

[GoodMorningPluto]

Sorry, didn't read all reviews (don't want to accidentally spoiler myself), just have a question:
does the game have VLR structure, where you need to witness all endings to get to true one, or you can get true ending straight away? Knowing Uchikoshi it should be the former, but stil...

 

[TheChaos0]

I forgot that the game is coming out so soon! The impressions are good but I've expected nothing less.

 

[DNAbro]

I played 999 and ZTD completely blind; 999 took a little over 20 hours while ZTD took about 24 hours. I admit I got really lucky in 999 as far as getting a different ending every time, though. As for VLR my Activity Log is telling me 40 hours, but I feel like some of that must have been idling (and I can't remember whether I consulted a walkthrough or not). That said, I think ZTD has great pacing.

First time I played VLR it was around 40 hours and my second playthrough was around 33 and that's with basically skipping the puzzles.

 

[darkside31337]

Going to be really annoyed if my Amazon copy doesn't show up. Can't believe its still in limbo shrug.

 

[daveo42]

Odd question, but does anyone have some non-spoiler insight on how you can possibly "play the game wrong"? Can't access the Nintendo World Report review.

Also, regarding the Amazon issue, I may just buy the game digitially on Vita Tuesday if shipping confirmation doesn't come by Monday.

 

[ThirstiestGamer 2.0]

• title: Zero Time Dilemma (ZERO ESCAPE &#21051;&#12398;&#12472;&#12524;&#12531;&#12510
• platforms: 3DS, Vita (incl. Playstation TV support), Steam
• physical edition: only NA/JP 3DS, Vita
• release date:
  -3DS, Vita: NA/EU June 28, 2016, JP June 30, 2016
  -Steam: WW June 30, 2016
• developer: Chime
• publishers: Spike Chunsoft, NA/EU Aksys Games (3DS/Vita)
  
• director: Kotaro Uchikoshi
• artist: Rui Tomono
• writer: Kotaro Uchikoshi
• composer: Shinji Hosoe
  
• official website: Aksys, Spike-Chunsoft
• trailers:
  US/EU1, US/EU2
  JP1, JP2, JP3 (999/VLR recap, Spoilers)

REVIEW AGGREGATORS:

opencritic

metacritic (3DS)
metacritic (Vita)
metacritic (PC)




REVIEWS:&#8232;

• playstationinsider 10/10
  
  
  
  
• nintendoworldreport 7.5
  
  
  
  
• destructoid 9.5/10
  
  
  
  
• nintendoeverything thumbs up
  
  
  
  
• gamingtrend 85/100
  
  
  
  
• nerdmuch no score
  
  
  
  
• wegotthiscovered 5/5
  
  
  
  
  
• https://twitter.com/Sycoraxic98 7/10 (print review)
  
  
  
  
  
• spoiler-free video review of the game by Gaffer IamAwake - Buy Recommendation
  
  
  
  
• famitsu: 32/40 (8 / 8 / 8 / 8)
  
  note: Famitsu scores for the previous: VLR: 34/40, 999: 36/40
  
  
  
  
• dengeki playstation (85/85/80/85)
  
  
  
  

big thanks to orthodoxy1095, SexyFish for finding more reviews

Comparison between the three versions
[3 min. gameplay trailer in Japanese]:

3DS
Vita
Steam




previously on ZE ...

since it’s been asked multiple times in this thread (and other ZE threads), there’s no perfect recap video for both games.

Those are your best bets if you want to refresh your memory:
999: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiQaWCJK_xo&feature=youtu.be
VLR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnooebuHRtU

and there's always the ZE Wiki, both are really good summaries:
999: http://zeroescape.wikia.com/wiki/Zero_Escape:_Nine_Hours,_Nine_Persons,_Nine_Doors
VLR: http://zeroescape.wikia.com/wiki/Zero_Escape:_Virtue's_Last_Reward

Volcynika will also add a recap section to the OT when it goes live on Monday.

Fyi, Nerd Much now has a score. 9.2/10. Sorry about that, i am the owner of the site and my editor forgot to hit a checkbox. Sigh...

 

[TheDanimal]

I used a guide for the puzzles, but I didn't know there was a skip button (RIP) until the end for VLR, and I finished it in like 22 hours.
So this sounds similar to me? Idk

 

[takoyaki]

Fyi, Nerd Much now has a score. 9.2/10. Sorry about that, i am the owner of the site and my editor forgot to hit a checkbox. Sigh...

No worries, it's updated now. I hadn't visited Nerd Much before and thought you guys were a site that doesn't hand out scores.

 

[Ondore]

Odd question, but does anyone have some non-spoiler insight on how you can possibly "play the game wrong"? Can't access the Nintendo World Report review.

Also, regarding the Amazon issue, I may just buy the game digitially on Vita Tuesday if shipping confirmation doesn't come by Monday.

Upthread a bit:

This was me. Allow me to clarify. I'll use spoiler tags so feel free to skip this (I'll keep this as vague as absolutely possible), but this is how you can "play the game wrong."

Spoiler

In one of the escape rooms that you can play from early on in the game, one of the final puzzles is to order three colored liquids in the correct order. You have 8 or so options for what colors you can pick, and you can reuse the same color in the order. This gives thousands upon thousands of possibilities. I spent thirty minutes looking through everything I had obtained and every object in the room, yet all I was told in dialogue was "maybe we already have the answer."

Turns out that if I had looked at items in the room in a different ORDER, the dialogue would have been different - and told me the answer. I tried this in a separate playthrough of the room and it definitely happened. I got the answer on what went wrong directly from Aksys Games. I played the room wrong, apparently.

"Oh, but it's a bug"

And I reported it as such. I was simply told "The hints in rooms can depend on what order you look at and examine items so it's possible it's circumstantial." at first, and then got the more detailed breakdown. If it IS a bug, they definitely know about it and I really hope, for FAQ-averse players, that it gets fixed. That escape room was completely soured for me because of it.

That said, it wasn't something that really shaped my opinion on the game. Maybe a difference between a 7 and a 7.5, so if that gets patched, bump mine up to a 7.5.

 

[ThirstiestGamer 2.0]

No worries, it's updated now. I hadn't visited Nerd Much before and thought you guys were a site that doesn't hand out scores.

Thanks for fixing!

 

[Ohnonono]

So what is wrong with the 3DS version of this?

 

[thestopsign]

Are there any good story recap videos for 999 and VLR? I played VLR a year and a half ago and I really can't remember all the details. 999 I played probably 3 years ago and I have a better recollection of the events (possibly because it had a narrower focus).

 

[sensui-tomo]

So what is wrong with the 3DS version of this?

Apparently, looks bad(more of an opinion i guess?), frames sometimes go down as low as 2fps, longer loading times. (unless i've missed any other statements)

 

[takoyaki]

gamespew 9/10

Aside from strange menu systems and a slow early game, Zero Time Dilemma marks an incredible conclusion to the Zero Escape franchise. Both the puzzles and the plot will give your brain a workout, but give you all the tools necessary to work them out. More importantly though, long after I’ve finished playing, my thoughts have lingered in this game universe. Kotaro Uchikoshi has given us one of the finest gaming trilogies of the 21st century, which has shaped me both as a gamer and a writer. Zero Time Dilemma is a must-play for any fans of the franchise, or indeed for any puzzle game fan.

+Smart and heartwrenching narrative
+Creative and diverse puzzle rooms
+Satisfying conclusion to the trilogy

-Overly convoluted timeline menus
-Slow early game

 

[boredandlazy]

This'll be the first time I turn my Vita on for a while.

 

[Durante]

I'm really happy this is living up to expectations. I can't wait!

 

[Yasumi]

Apparently, looks bad(more of an opinion i guess?), frames sometimes go down as low as 2fps, longer loading times. (unless i've missed any other statements)

3DS version confirmed for visual novel, wow.

 

[Rektash]

-Overly convoluted timeline menus
-Slow early game

A slow beginning is pretty much the standard when it comes to Uchikoshi games.

The only Uchikoshi game that starts off strong is Remember 11 I feel like. Too bad that one had budget issues in the end which resulted in them not beeing able to put out the ending they wanted.

 

[Holundrian]

Just found out I have to import if I want a physical vita copy(EU) :/

 

[Letep]

Interesting comment made by Nintendo World Report about the graphics creating an uncanny valley effect.

Wonder if it rings true.

 

[Toadthemushroom]

Apparently, looks bad(more of an opinion i guess?), frames sometimes go down as low as 2fps, longer loading times. (unless i've missed any other statements)

Blimey, while that's probably an isolated part of the game, did they not even bother making this New 3DS enhanced?

 

[Imp the Dimp]

I'm slightly disappointed to hear that it's not as long as VLR (25+ vs 35+ hours) but other than that I'm hyped.

VLR overstayed its welcome a bit in my opinion. An adventure game taking 32-35h is ridiculous.

 

[Hassun]

It bums me out so much that I can't play this without playing the other games.
I hope they come to Steam soon.

 

[daveo42]

Upthread a bit:

"Oh, but it's a bug"

Thanks for the heads up. Hard to tell if it is or isn't a bug tbh, based on how it's described.

VLR overstayed its welcome a bit in my opinion. An adventure game taking 32-35h is ridiculous.

It was more in how the game was set up than anything else. Backtracking or covering very similar ground in different scenarios both helped in that you could easily retread over similar stuff as a refresher, but also took up extra time and I know I had to remember where I was in the story to make sense of a few of the events.

 

[pinkurocket]

Yasss those reviews!
Glad to see the game delivers despite the awkward looking animations.

 

[DR2K]

Is 9/9/9 on iOS a good place to start the series? I know it doesn't have the puzzles, but o just want to ingratiate myself with the lore and characters.