Zero Escape

This forum is specifically for discussing non-Mafia games
(board, card, video, we're not picky)
.
Playing
such games should happen in the Mish Mash forum, of course.
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Zero Escape

Post Post #0 (isolation #0) » Thu Jun 02, 2016 6:50 am

Post by Equinox »

At least a couple of you have played the Zero Escape games. Where are you all?

Zero Time Dilemma is coming out later this month to 3DS, Vita, and Steam. The Steam page was posted earlier today. Super hyped!
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #10 (isolation #1) » Fri Jun 03, 2016 5:41 am

Post by Equinox »

In post 1, inte wrote:what steam wtf. what dollar?
$39.99. There are rumors that the first two might be ported, but who knows?
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #14 (isolation #2) » Tue Jun 14, 2016 7:09 am

Post by Equinox »

Virtue's Last Reward is $12.99 in the Nintendo eShop until June 21.
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #16 (isolation #3) » Fri Jun 17, 2016 6:16 am

Post by Equinox »

The cinematics on the 3DS version look terrible. It looks like there's a lot of banding because of compression, and there's a yellow tint that isn't present in the PC version. It makes one wonder why they decided to do something so heavy on videos on a format that doesn't support the space needed for such a thing.

Spoiler: Japanese Spoilers for Zero Time Dilemma

To be fair, the compression probably won't be as noticeable on the actual console.

In other news, there's been quite a bit of teasing of porting the other Zero Escape games to PC.
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #24 (isolation #4) » Tue Jun 21, 2016 6:04 pm

Post by Equinox »

Is anyone going to be at Anime Expo or in the Los Angeles area during the holiday weekend? There's a Zero Escape Puzzle Hunt event from July 1 to July 4 for a chance to win franchise-related swag or escape room tickets, and it might be a fun thing to do for a couple of hours.

In other news, it looks like the PC version is the one to go for this game. There are comparison screenshots in the spoiler. It's someone saying something insubstantial in Japanese, so it's not even a minor spoiler unless you wanted to go into this completely blind (which is a good idea, anyway).

Spoiler: Nintendo 3DS
Image

Spoiler: PlayStation Vita
Image

Spoiler: PC
Image
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #39 (isolation #5) » Thu Jun 23, 2016 2:45 pm

Post by Equinox »

In post 38, Parama wrote:why isn't it the 29th yet omg
This wait is crazy agonizing.

This game had to be the one on Steam with no pre-order and pre-load option!
Why?
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #40 (isolation #6) » Thu Jun 23, 2016 2:58 pm

Post by Equinox »

The Destructoid reviewer said the story was even better than in Virtue's Last Reward.

HYPE
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #46 (isolation #7) » Sun Jun 26, 2016 9:57 am

Post by Equinox »

There's a comment in the Steam community hub that the 3DS version has leaked, so beware of spoilers.
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #51 (isolation #8) » Mon Jun 27, 2016 2:55 am

Post by Equinox »

(expired on 2016-06-30 02:00:00)

It's happening!

Someone is running around r/ZeroEscape posting spoilers, so it's time to avoid the Internet like the plague. If any of you post unmarked spoilers in here, I will find you and inject you with a thousand viruses until time stops moving for you.

The early sale bonuses for the Steam version will be available until July 8. Aksys is working on releasing the premium booklet at some point for the 3DS and Vita users, but details will be released prior to Anime Expo (i.e., this week). They're also estimating that the watches will arrive in August (I think) and that there will be about 200 on sale at AX. All the tweets are from here.
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #52 (isolation #9) » Mon Jun 27, 2016 2:20 pm

Post by Equinox »

User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #61 (isolation #10) » Wed Jun 29, 2016 6:43 am

Post by Equinox »

Good luck, everyone. I shall see you all in a few days!

Edit: My computer can't run this. It's just as well that I can't play this today, since Amazon was having inventory issues, anyway.
sobs
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #63 (isolation #11) » Wed Jun 29, 2016 7:32 am

Post by Equinox »

In post 62, Elekitu wrote:I can't launch the game because I need some file named OpenAL32.dll, and reinstalling the game doesn't work
What error message did you get?

Mine crashes with the typical Windows "Zero Escape.exe has stopped working," and the crash is related to a DLL that isn't that one. I pulled the trigger (har har) on a refund request because I figured that integrated graphics wouldn't play ball with this game, but there might be hope yet if it turns out I'm having the same issue as you.

Edit: Actually, googling that DLL gives me a solution for your issue, so try that and see how it goes.
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #66 (isolation #12) » Wed Jun 29, 2016 7:44 am

Post by Equinox »

In post 65, Parama wrote:zero functionality dilemma amirite
At this rate, you're going to be the first of us to play this damned game, apart from InflatablePie who went to the eShop.
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #89 (isolation #13) » Fri Jul 01, 2016 5:25 am

Post by Equinox »

RIP Elekitu.

Spoiler: Thoughts with Spoilers
This game makes me feel like a terrible human being, and I love it.

The disjointed narrative threw me off initially, but it's starting to make sense in the context of us being in Carlos's, Q's, and Diana's heads. It might be because I finished another game recently with a similar style (Her Story), but I'm enjoying this a lot. It makes the game a unique experience for everyone. I'd be interested in seeing how they handle the player character (the one in Kyle's body at the end of Virtue's Last Reward), though, since I thought that, being a consciousness with no body with which to be injected with memory-altering drugs, the story shouldn't be so fragmented, even when considering the jumps. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something.

The portraits in the Status screen are creepy.

Also, getting to one of the endings after only ten minutes of game play was fun. 10/10 would guess again

I'm about four hours in, but it doesn't look like play time matters until it does.

The graphics in the 3DS really weren't noticeable on the actual console. Sound took some finesse, though, because Zero was practically inaudible until I turned the background music way down. Every save in this game feels like #yolo after the terrible bug in the 3DS version of Virtue's Last Reward, but I am also not turning off my machine just in case. Re-doing any of this would be legitimately annoying.

Music is fantastic, as usual. I love the remixes!
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #92 (isolation #14) » Fri Jul 01, 2016 11:59 am

Post by Equinox »

Don't open either unless you've finished both, but it might be a good idea to finish everything for C-Team before touching this regardless.

Spoiler: C-Team, P-----
During Carlos's vision, I thought he was seeing an argument between him and Junpei -- because my eyes are excellent, okay -- so I thought it was nothing until he spoke about it to Junpei, at which point it was
kind of creepy
but whatever. I didn't expect to see what happened until much later. Fate, however, has a twisted sense of humor.

Spoiler: C-Team, S--------
Carlos and Akane wake up, and they're like, "We're in the Pantry."

Uh oh.

"Where did Junpei go?"

Ah, shit.

Dumbass me, we're going around seeing all these
realistic
body parts and there's this niggling part of my mind going "You know who that is!" but I refuse to accept it. We finish all of the puzzles, and Carlos has to heat up the arm to get through the authenticator, and it's slowly dawning on me that this is getting really weird, especially the heating up the arm part of it.

But they open the freezer, and obviously there's Junpei's head.

WHAT THE FUCK

I saw it a mile away because Carlos spoke about it already, but like

WHAT THE FUCK

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS GAME
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #94 (isolation #15) » Fri Jul 01, 2016 5:24 pm

Post by Equinox »

Spoiler: All Teams
Acid baths are bad for your friends, kids.

I'm starting to figure out how they're going to factor in the player character and fourth wall, and it might just work. It fits with the last game talking about "?" being able to use any body at will. If what I suspect is correct, it wouldn't be the first time that Kotaro Uchikoshi pulled this, so I'm hoping that he has an original twist up his sleeve this time.

Spoiler: D-Team, T----------
The Transporter Room is throwing me off here. I know this is science fiction, but the series has generally established that things are limited to this world. Alien technology is definitely not that, and it'd be deus ex machina to introduce it at this point. I think that Zero is bullshitting, mainly because I think reviewers would have called out non-specific problems with the narrative rather than praising it if aliens were suddenly introduced.

But then again, there's no reason for that technology to exist in 2028 based on information from the other games.

Ten hours now.
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #96 (isolation #16) » Sat Jul 02, 2016 8:13 am

Post by Equinox »

I don't know if this is a bug or if I am really bad with the stylus, but there's an issue completing one of the rooms if you don't do things in the right order.

Spoiler: Q-Team, Biolab
Once you've moved the sink, check the drawer before you move the other one holding the pig. I moved the pig first and couldn't get the game to focus on the drawer no matter how much I tapped, and it'd keep telling me that there's a drawer; I ended up re-doing the whole room.

Also, saves aren't broken this time, so save away!
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #97 (isolation #17) » Sat Jul 02, 2016 9:22 am

Post by Equinox »

I've played for 14 hours now.

Spoiler: Q-Team, R--------
As it turns out, having a world where the events of Virtue's Last Reward happen is already extremely unlikely to the point where: (1) worlds where Q-Team does not release Radical-6 because they were executed are more likely, and (2) the only other world that is less common is the one where no one in Dcom dies. Thus, it looks like Virtue's Last Reward occurs because of a perfect storm, and it requires another perfect storm to get both Phi and Sigma to jump back to December 2028. What a delightful mess. The Radical-6 being given to Q-Team is perfectly set up and really points to Brother being the one behind the Decision Game; Zero also said as much when he told them that he already knew what Q-Team was going to do and had prepared beforehand.

What I don't get right now is what happens when Q-Team doesn't get to the laboratory on account of being dead. I'd guess that Brother would find some other vector to spread it, since Radical-6 is one quick way to achieve Free the Soul's ultimate goal. On the other hand, it's also possible that the only reason Radical-6 is a problem is that it's a problem in the world Sigma et al. observes in Virtue's Last Reward.

The final thing is that Akane obviously appears in April 2029 in Virtue's Last Reward, but she's already dead by the time D-Team gets out in this world. There was a hint of something being wrong when Akane wasn't able to answer younger Sigma when he asked her what happened at the test site -- "I don't know what happens there" -- when she should have been able to answer him as a participant at Dcom. Tenmyouji seemed to keep his personality and memories intact, too. What's going on?
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #101 (isolation #18) » Sat Jul 02, 2016 4:21 pm

Post by Equinox »

These spoilers aren't necessarily tied to the Fragments for which they're named, so don't open them unless you've already finished the game. It's so weird not being able to talk about this game with others, but the format doesn't really allow for spoiler-free discussion.

Spoiler: D-Team, T-- S------- P---
Having SHIFTed around and seen the nature of the yellow door, I don't think Zero is who I originally thought it was. Radical-6 is the only reason that I thought it was Free the Soul, but there's no reason for Brother to include "Twins' Birthday" as a hint when that event occurred after all was said and done. The game notes say that Dcom is a facility where Free the Soul holds majority ownership, so it looks like what might have happened was someone -- definitely a SHIFTer -- hijacked the experiment and the outbreak might be a side effect of the wrong person (i.e., Mira) getting hands on it. Given that SOIS was looking into raiding the facility to prevent a case of biological terrorism, though, it's possible that the intention was to release Radical-6 anyway and the Decision Game interrupted it.

It's looking more and more like the Decision Game was specifically designed to strengthen the SHIFT phenomenon, so I'm about 90% certain that Brother isn't involved in the creation of it.

I'd love it if it turns out that this is something like Phi and Sigma (or even Akane) coming up with this scheme to stop Radical-6 from breaking out of Dcom but also having to replicate the history that the two of them saw in the Nonary Game. The game has already said that Aoi is assisting Akane from outside, so Akane being the one isn't impossible, either. It'd also explain why Akane basically abandoned Diana and Sigma for ten months.

On the other hand, I really don't want to believe that Akane would let someone saw off Junpei's head. That's just sick. So yeah, this is just one of those "I wonder if" things and not a serious consideration at the moment.

About the ten months, by the way ...

THERE IS FOOD FOR TEN MONTHS

FRUGALLY

WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING WITH BABIES

THE BABIES ARE ALSO CREEPY AS SHIT

Spoiler: Q-Team, T-------
When Zero first told the story about how the snail caused the deaths of six billion people, I figured that it was going to play a big role, but the way it played out was still quite nice.

All of the advertising material made Mira the "attractive and bold" personality who "spoke her mind." An innocuous explanation like that in a game like this meant giant neon signs saying "DANGER." (I also thought Carlos was one of the Myrmidons clones before the game was released, so go figure.) Still, it was easy to let her lull me into a sense of security for the early and mid-game Q-Team scenes because she was very likable, even if ruthless at times. That was until that one scene where she began laughing at a sad story of Eric's childhood. At that point, it was super creepy, and it came together by the time they got to the three-way standoff. It probably helped that I played the Q-Team Fragments nearly back-to-back, but the change from "likable" to "OMG PSYCHOPATH" was immensely satisfying. Fantastic character.

I've played for twenty hours.
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #103 (isolation #19) » Sat Jul 02, 2016 5:53 pm

Post by Equinox »

More rants.

I also talk about Ever17, so don't open this at all if you've never played or finished that game but intend to do so.

Spoiler: D-Team, T-- S------- P---
THEY NAMED THE KID "PHI"

THIS IS THE SAME PHI

THIS HAS UCHIKOSHI WRITTEN ALL OVER IT

I guess I should watch what I wish for. I mentioned Uchikoshi and "?" before, and that was because he'd used a similar device in Ever17. To very quickly destroy a game that some might find worth playing, a set of people were trapped by chance in an underwater theme park, and, to make sure everyone got out, they trapped themselves and their children -- who were, incidentally, conceived during the original disaster -- to repeat history. The game also featured the outbreak of a lethal pathogen. At the very end, all of the characters thanked "Blick Winkel," also known as the player, for influencing everything in that park both times to get everyone out.

I came into this expecting some of this to appear in this game because trademarks don't really go away, and Uchikoshi is well-received in general; why fix a formula if it's not broken? I mentioned "?" in an earlier post because I expected it to come into play somehow. Carlos, Diana, and Q all talked about how they didn't know why they submitted the fatal hammer vote, so that's the set-up for revealing the player's role in everything. I just didn't expect
all
of it, so seeing Diana and Sigma conceive twins who would later come back and set all the wheels in motion was less surprising or amazing but more eye-rolling. I don't know.

I really don't know what I was expecting. I'm just disappointed, I guess.

There doesn't seem to be much of the game left, so let's see how the rest of it goes.

Also, on further thought, the relationship between Diana and Sigma is creepy. Sigma is 40+ years older than Diana, but he's also known her previously due to having already been in a relationship with some different version of her. The way this fragment played out, Sigma laid out what he knew about her, which affected how she saw him. I mean, it was obvious that she was attracted to him, sure, but it felt like Sigma was specifically playing to her weaknesses and that's predatory. It doesn't matter that they're the last man and woman on the planet.
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #106 (isolation #20) » Sat Jul 02, 2016 8:56 pm

Post by Equinox »

Spoiler: Endgame
I've finished all of the routes but the final one. I might finish tonight, but I think I'm going to need a few days to process everything.

The twists with Delta and Phi were enough to make this a unique twist with its own "Zero Escape" flavor, so I think I'm okay with it. I'm still totally disappointed with the Diana-Sigma story line, though, and I think it's chiefly because it's been done before and now feels like the token shock twist. It's also pretty gross. I'm not sure how I feel about Delta being the point-of-view character;
that
came out of left field for me. Unless I missed it (plausible), there weren't hints of a tenth person in the shelter until Q pointed at Delta. For comparison, Sigma in Virtue's Last Reward was the butt of several jokes about his age. Actually, for an in-game comparison, I thought the "there are no separate wards" reveal was done relatively well because there were hints of something not quite right (e.g., four-hour naps with no apparent wakeful but forgotten periods, X-Doors working only once, Mira wandering into Ward D unimpeded).

This feeling of disappointment is probably the result of massive amounts of hype leading to unreasonable expectations on my part.

Delta releasing Radical-6 to "save" two billion people and Akane continuing to stop Delta despite knowing the alternative are interesting dilemmas, though. That might end up being my takeaway from this game because the story with some of the twists that have happened ain't it.

In any case, onward to Point E.
In post 104, Parama wrote:ever 17 is solid but takes forever to really get going, i preferred remember 11 overall even with its weird ending
If nearly all of the slice-of-life scenes were cut from Ever17, it would've been a leaner but much improved game without sacrificing character development.
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #108 (isolation #21) » Sat Jul 02, 2016 9:47 pm

Post by Equinox »

I am done!

Spoiler: Does the dog die?
YES WTF

I'll open spoilers tomorrow. I've had enough Zero Escape for a long time.
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #109 (isolation #22) » Sun Jul 03, 2016 5:08 pm

Post by Equinox »

I did the Zero Escape Puzzle Hunt today in Little Tokyo. The puzzles were similar in spirit to the ones in Zero Time Dilemma, which was nice. However, as I was trying to submit the solutions, the LAPD swarmed the area due to the armed robbery of a souvenir shop. There was an ambulance on standby, but it didn't seem like anyone was hurt. Miraculously, traffic was no worse than usual. 8/10 would miss evacuation again

News of greater interest to the general public: A voiced PC port for 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors has been confirmed at Anime Expo. There's a video preview of it on Twitter, but the dubbing seems to be in Japanese for now.


For some reason, this news isn't as exciting as it would've been a week ago.

Spoiler: Story
I've been thinking about this game more since finishing it. It's fine. This is the story that they wanted to tell, for better or for worse, and grumbling about the reappearance of a specific plot device isn't going to change anything.

However, I am still upset about the alien technology that was never explained. Apparently, Delta and Phi were sent back to 1904 and appeared through the transporter while it was still in German hands, and it was never said that Zero had been lying. Thus, the truth seems to be that someone decided that, if we're going to play with nonsense like timey-wimey-wibbly-wobbly stuff, we might as well throw in aliens. The discrepancy in Virtue's Last Reward was obvious, so Akane and Junpei had to have survived death somehow. The existence of the transporter was planned. But why did it have to be aliens? Deus ex machina. :(

For a series that had decent writing for the first two games, the writing in the post-game notes was ... um ... less so. The editing on Aksys's end also went on vacation (e.g., "intellegence," "nothing phases me" dgndfhdfhkr). Normally, minor editing issues would barely register as a problem, but the game was already suffering and words going out of their way to be misspelled only added to the feeling that nobody cared anymore.
In post 93, KaleiÐoscøpe wrote:Just finished the game
game ending feels kinda underwhelming. The big reveal is cool for like a few minutes, then it drags on closing loose ends. New characters werent all that interesting, phi was mostly irrelevant, akane was annoying, junpei became a sarcastic asshole which i sorta lived, and sigma was okay. The journey was cool, but the ending wasnt really satisfying, and the ending seemed made up rather then it being the main theme of all three games. Game was good, but liked vlr better
Spoiler:
Yeah, the ending felt made up. I'm sure that the story outline was planned beforehand because it has to be for something of this scale. The execution somehow made the game feel like an ass-pull, though.

I think what killed Akane's character in this game was her voice actress because otherwise Akane was as expected from what I've seen of her in the last two games. She seemed to really struggle with calm explanations (e.g., room with nuclear reactor) or strong emotion (e.g., "There's no point in living once you lose the one you care about the most"), and Akane is in those two modes frequently. I don't mean to knock the actress too much because it's difficult to play the soft-spoken, demure character, and the flaws were in particularly stark contrast because everyone else had done extremely well.

Junpei definitely stole the show.
In post 99, Parama wrote:
Spoiler: Seriously Don't Open This
what the hell happened to kyle tho
Spoiler:
Poor Kyle. All he ever wanted was the love of his father. It was for the best that he never saw that Sigma had other children by another woman.

They're probably going to do a question-and-answer session for this game like they did for 999 and Virtue's Last Reward, though, so we'll probably find out what happened to him there.
And it may or may not be an ass-pull.
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #115 (isolation #23) » Mon Jul 04, 2016 6:51 am

Post by Equinox »

In post 114, xRECKONERx wrote:
Spoiler: Q
old man????? really?? fuck off. invisible guy who has been there the whole time? fuck you
Spoiler:
Oh thank god I'm not the only one who hated that.
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #118 (isolation #24) » Mon Jul 04, 2016 11:22 am

Post by Equinox »

Spoiler: Zero Time Dilemma Explained
Image
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #141 (isolation #25) » Thu Jul 14, 2016 4:51 am

Post by Equinox »

Spoiler: Characters in Zero Escape
9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors definitely had a great, if not the best, ensemble.

I'm with Gammagooey on the characters in Virtue's Last Reward. The characters in Zero Time Dilemma were a mixed bag. They were either better than those in Virtue's Last Reward or way, way worse, and that killed a lot of the enjoyment for me. I could understand the logical reasons for Eric being Eric, for instance, but it wasn't executed well at all. Delta became really irritating when he was unmasked. Carlos was pretty cool, but someone mentioned here that there didn't seem to be any bad qualities about him and that's definitely true; as fun as Carlos is, he's not a very interesting character. Actually, that seems to be true for everyone on D-Team, too.

Thinking about Diana and Sigma gives me the shivers. Ugh.

Both Virtue's Last Reward and Zero Time Dilemma had excellent game play segments. Virtue's Last Reward was better at snark, though ("If you move one of the yellow jellyfish to the hole instead, you are a failure and we are very disappointed in you"). I preferred Zero Time Dilemma's puzzles, but I strongly suspect that it's because I was able to save in this game whereas I had to re-do things in Virtue's Last Reward sometimes. Thanks, 3DS.
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #143 (isolation #26) » Mon Oct 31, 2016 5:25 pm

Post by Equinox »

The first two games are being ported to PC to be sold on Steam sometime next year simultaneously with the PlayStation ports: http://store.steampowered.com/app/477740/
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #154 (isolation #27) » Tue Feb 18, 2020 2:25 pm

Post by Equinox »

How would y'all rank AI: The Somnium Files relative to the Zero Escape games? I want to try it, but Zero Time Dilemma burned me badly.
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #163 (isolation #28) » Tue May 12, 2020 5:48 am

Post by Equinox »

In post 162, Iecerint wrote:You didn't like ZTD? Just because some characters were OOC, or something else?
Image
User avatar
Equinox
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
User avatar
User avatar
Equinox
he/they
Shot Count
Shot Count
Posts: 10105
Joined: April 12, 2010
Pronoun: he/they
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post Post #166 (isolation #29) » Sun Jun 14, 2020 6:31 pm

Post by Equinox »

In post 162, Iecerint wrote:You didn't like ZTD? Just because some characters were OOC, or something else?
Earlier trolling aside, what basically happened was that I played through the first two games back to back to prepare for the third game, and I had created a fairly detailed set of notes about what questions I wanted answered in
Zero Time Dilemma
. If it weren't for setting myself up, I might have enjoyed the game more. Looking back at my reactions in this thread, it looks like my biggest problems were
alien technology seemingly introduced as deus ex machina, a cheesy plot twist that was very characteristic of Kotaro Uchikoshi, and the reveal of Delta's identity
. OOC was a problem, but it paled in comparison to the spoilered bits. All of these things might have been fine with better execution, since it felt like
Zero Time Dilemma
was pulled from the writer's ass rather than the thoughtful games that were the previous installments. From what I remember, though, the third game existing at all was something of a miracle.

Since I have these games on Steam (why did I do that), I might do the three games back to back someday, but
Zero Time Dilemma
happened to hit my general pet peeves about narratives in just the right way. I will probably never play another Uchikoshi game, though. Holy shit.
Post Reply

Return to “The Arcade”