So for anyone who is a fan of the Zero Escape game series (Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Virtue's Last Reward), you'll probably be aware of the fact that Zero Time Dilemma, the third and final instalment in the series, is getting released in June this year! :D
I decided to replay the two previous games to remind myself of the events that happened and after finishing Virtue's Last Reward and thinking about what might occur in the third game, I thought that I'd probably want to review the third game eventually. After coming to that realisation, I then realised another thing which was that I had reviewed the first game (999) but I hadn't reviewed VLR.
..999 is short for Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and VLR is short for Virtue's Last Reward in case...you didn't realise...that... ^^;
Originally, I had thought to myself I wouldn't review VLR because, compared to 999, it would be a lot harder since VLR is much longer, has more elements included in the story and the gameplay, a huuuuge amount of information you gather as you progress and numerous endings (9 character endings including the true ending, 11 bad endings, 6 non-standard game overs and 2 endings that occur after the true ending).
But even so, if I was going to review ZTD (Zero Time Dilemma), it made sense to also review VLR so then...I'd have reviewed the complete collection, I guess? :,)
So, to sum up, I'm going to be reviewing Virtue's Last Reward! :)
..got there eventually ^^;
And if you're curious, here is my review for Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors:
999 Game Review by SerahNyan (ME!)
--SPOILER WARNING--
I'm going to try my hardest not to spoil the game for anyone who hasn't played it yet and wants to, but that's going to be quite hard. So just to clarify to the people who have played it, I've missed out certain things for that very reason; I don't want to spoil it for the people who haven't played it yet :3
..but no solid promises, so...you have been warned :,)
~ ~ ~
[ Virtue's Last Reward (VLR)
Developed for the 3DS and PS Vita game systems ]
Plot Outline~
You assume the role of Sigma who is a 22 year old college student.
On the 25th of December 2028 at 2am, he is getting back into his car after finishing a paper for college due that day. Once he gets in and clips in his seatbelt, he puts the key in and turns it only for his car to protest in return. After trying a few more times it becomes clear that his car isn't going to start and while Sigma is busy verbally assaulting his car, it suddenly starts to fill with white smoke. He begins struggling to get out only to find he has been locked in and as his consciousness starts fading, he notices a strange figure through his rearview mirror and gets a quick glance at a person wearing a black cloak and a gas mask before completely passing out.
When he awakens he finds himself in a elevator with a strange watch attached to his left wrist that, through some effort, cannot be removed. However there is someone else with him in the elevator. A girl, in fact, called Phi.
It turns out that Phi knows Sigma's name to which surprises and slightly annoys him since he's almost positive he's never met her before and after going back-and-forth with her for a while, a CGI rabbit appears on a small screen in the elevator telling them that if they don't escape soon, the elevator will drop and ultimately kill them.
Seeing as they have no other choice, they start investigating the room. After obtaining the key that will let them out, they proceed to escape to find that they weren't in an elevator but instead in a small box shaped room that was in an even larger room that resembled an abandoned warehouse.
After meeting 7 other people (Luna, K, Tenmyouji, Quark, Alice, Clover, and Dio), the CGI rabbit that was in their room appears again and reveals that he is an AI (Artificial Intelligence) called Zero III and that they had all been brought to this place to play...
THE NONARY GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME: Ambidex Edition!
..Or just plain old "Ambidex Game" if you're not an annoying little CGI rabbit ^^;
After being told they were captured by a person called Zero, having the rules explained and the function of the bracelets explained to them, they group up and go off to investigate their first rooms.
Let the game begin! Have a nice tragedy!
..players of the game will understand that ;D
Recurring Themes~
There are a couple of recurring themes in this game that I want to briefly go over before going into the actual game in more detail.
If you are absolutely set on not wanting to read any spoilers if you haven't played the game, then maybe skip this part even though what I'm about to say you find out anyway; you don't have to dig around for this information, it just comes up in the game.
Okay, so;
Radical-6
This is a disease that is heavily featured in the game, it literally comes up in each and every ending :,) ..sometimes to the point where it actually gets annoying after, maybe...the second time >A<;
Basically this disease affects a person's perception of time. Meaning that a person infected with Radical-6 perceives time at about √6 of the normal rate which increases the mental processing rate. In other words, for every 2.45 seconds that pass in real time, a person infected with Radical-6 would process this as 1 second. This is why people with Radical-6 view things happening as if they were being fast-forward which you actually get to see happening in one route.
The most frightening symptom of this virus is eventually getting the urge to commit suicide. Because of the slowed processing rate, the brain is taking in more information than it can keep up with and will start to gradually shut down. This is the most fatal symptom as this can't be stopped if there is no one around to help.
While investigating the facility, you will come across or be shown a newspaper article about Radical-6 that claims it turned into a World wide pandemic with an estimated death toll of over 100,000 people. This confuses everyone as if such a huge pandemic happened...wouldn't they have heard about it?
Free The Soul
"Free the...Soul? What's that? Some kinda hippie shoe company?"
That line was spoken by Dio and I personally just think it's SO funny while at the same time, I could give him the most "are-you-actually-shitting-me-right-now" glare :,)
..only people who have played the game will get why I think that :,D
But anyway! Free The Soul is one of those really creepy religious cult things that believe the world can be saved if it's purified.
I can't go into too much detail here, but Free The Soul is lead by a person who calls himself Brother and he believes that it's possible to bring around a new and uncorrupted World even if it means killing all of humanity. Most people consider this group of people terrorists, and if you are sane...you will think so too :,)
Myrmidons
The Myrmidons are part of Free The Soul but they are considered the more elite members of the group. For a Myrmidon, you have to be raised with the teachings of Free The Soul from birth and then after that, they have to be chosen to join the ranks of the elite few.
Myrmidons believe that if you follow Brother's teachings from birth, you will be reborn as a new human form and only these few will be able to live in a new World without war and starvation.
Antimatter Bombs
Now, it's possible you find the bombs pretty close to the start of the game if you choose the path that leads you in that direction, however...I'll still be careful about what I say because this could lead to big spoilers :,)
But the bombs are only found in a route that leads up to the true ending and they heavily affect the plot and lead to us finding out more about specific characters. Basically, the bombs are put there to explode the facility everyone is trapped in if something else doesn't happen . . .
BUT! HANG ON! THAT ISN'T A SPOILER!
BECAUSE! Why else would bombs be there, right? Also one character straight up says it anyway when they are found, so...yea. Not technically a spoiler :,)
Gameplay/style and specifics of the game~
Virtue's Last Reward is a Visual Novel type of game which basically means it involves a lot of reading and very little action on your part as the player.
But what sets VLR separate from most other Visual Novels is that this game gives you the chance to actually interact with the game and by that I mean as the game progresses, you will find yourself in different rooms that you will have to explore and complete puzzles in order to escape.
Also, another key point that visual novels tend to include, is that you get to make different choices as the game moves along. Unlike 999, these choices don't affect the story, they only affect which path you'll take. I mentioned before about escaping from different rooms, yes? So before you find yourself in that situation, the game requires you to choose what door to go through and this will determine what room you end up in.
So to sum up a little of what I've just said, this game is split into two different types of gameplay. You have;
The Escape part;
This is where you end up trapped in a room of some description and you need to locate items, combined them (if necessary) and solve puzzles in order to earn your escape.
The Novel part;
This is basically just reading through the dialogue that makes up the majority of the game. You don't have to make any choices that affect the game, just deciding what door to go through.
Sometimes Sigma (who you play as) may be required to make a choice that affects the path you are playing through but usually when this happens, you will have seen what you need to do, so that doesn't make what you need to pick too hard to figure out.
So now we have all that figured out, the next part is working out how we get through said doors and into these rooms.
I mentioned at the start that Sigma had a bracelet on his wrist, didn't I?
Well as it turns out, every player has one on. And it's these bracelets that allow you to get through these doors.
Each bracelet has a colour, number, and a pair or solo assignment on it.
For example, this bracelet is red with a number 3 and a pair assignment on it.
The 3 shows the amount of Bracelet Points (BP) you have, but I'll explain more about that later.
As for the colour and the pair assignment, I'll explain that now.
So.
Each bracelet has a colour and these colours compliment each other. So, for example, there will be two red pair bracelets (obviously, since pair means two) and also a red solo. These solo and pair assignments group up together in groups of 3 and pass through a door.
Also you see the two buttons on the side of the bracelet? Well if you press those, the bracelet will show how much time is left before the doors open. There is usually a time limit here so while waiting for the doors to open, a large story segment will take place.
Once you have the bracelet schematics figured out, you then move onto the doors.
I've been calling them doors up until now, but they actually have a more official name which is Chromatic Doors (CD).
In the facility the players have been trapped in, there are three sets of Chromatic Doors.
The first set are magenta, yellow and cyan.
The second set are red, green and blue.
And the final set are white (you only pass through these in...three routes, I believe?)
I'll use the first set of Chromatic Doors as an example to show you how pairing up works.
I mentioned that the colours on the bracelets compliment each other, and this is how they do that:
- Magenta Door
Red pair + Blue solo
Blue pair + Red solo
Green pair + Green solo
- Yellow Door
Green pair + Red solo
Red pair + Green solo
Blue pair + Blue solo
- Cyan Door
Blue pair + Green solo
Green pair + Blue solo
Red pair + Red solo
So I'm sure you can see how the bracelet pairs work now.
Say for example, the Red pair and Red solo decided to go through the Cyan Door, then that would mean that the Blue pair and Blue solo would go through the Yellow Door and the Green pair and Green solo would go through the Magenta Door. And it works the same way; all first pairs go through their doors and all second pairs go through their doors.
I also said that there are different coloured Chromatic Doors.
So when it's time for the players to go through the second set of Chromatic Doors which are Red, Green and Blue, the colours on the players bracelets would be magenta, yellow and cyan and when the players reach the final set of Chromatic Doors which are the White ones (..can't really change the colour of the font to match that XD) then the players bracelet colours would be magenta pair, yellow pair, cyan pair, red solo, blue solo and green solo. And each time you would pair up accordingly so the colours would compliment each other.
HOW the bracelet colours change I'll explain a bit later.
So once everyone has decided which colours go through which doors, they can pass through them. The Chromatic Doors only stay open for 9 seconds and, once again, that's something I'll explain later :,)
Now that we've passed through our Chromatic Door, it's time to begin the Escape part of the game.
I briefly mentioned earlier about the Escape part of the game and how this is when you're trapped in a room and you need to solve puzzles and find clues to earn your escape, well...yea. That's pretty much it :,)
Personally, I found the puzzles in VLR much more challenging than the puzzles in 999 which I remember saying in my review were pretty tough! But these puzzles...
THESE. PUZZLES.
There was one in particular puzzle that really wound me up so much that by the time I'd completed it, I'd probably pulled out half of the hair in my head :,)
The room I was in was the Treatment Centre and it was a lock on the door styled like the game Mastermind which, roughly, is where you have to guess the exact combination of something?? And that's how the puzzle of this door was set out. You'd type in a bunch of numbers, click check and if you guessed the correct numbers but they weren't in the right place, an icon would say BLOW and if you guessed the correct numbers and they were in the correct place, and icon would say HIT. And basically you'd keep going like that until you guessed right, but you only had 10 tries and if you exhausted those...the puzzle would reset itself .-.
I'll tell you right now...I spent ages on that. Ages, ages, ages! And it still gets me every time I play it :,)
So depending on how sharp your puzzle solving skills are, some of these puzzles may stump you. I mean, there are cheats to help you (I recommend the site Thonky) but if you want to do them yourself, then be prepared for a hard time in some rooms.
The main goal of these rooms is to obviously escape and to do that, you need to find an Escape Password. Once you've done that, there will be a Safe in the room which you then enter the password into. Within every safe you will always get a key (to unlock the exit door), Key Cards with either the Sun, Moon or Star symbols on them (I'll explain why they are necessary later) and a map (you won't get a map going through the White Doors since there are only two floors in the whole facility and the second set of Chromatic Doors share the same floor as the White ones).
To explain that a little better, there is the A Floor (Above) and the B Floor (Below).
As well as the things I already mentioned, there may be a few other things in the safe that contribute to endings or another part of the story.
Once you've unlocked the safe and used the key to open the exit door, a story segment starts and that continues until you reach an ending or find yourself in another puzzle situation.
Now, as well as finding an Escape Password, you can also find a Secret File Password.
The Secret File Password, when entered into the safe, will provide you with a file that gives you a bunch of information regarding the game, items found in the game, certain characters, mysteries in the game etc.
BUT! If you complete an Escape Puzzle in Easy Mode, you only get a Silver File which doesn't contain as much information as a Gold File which you get from completing an Escape Puzzle in Hard Mode.
If you want to change the difficulty level of a room, you can click on the MENU button in the bottom left corner and change to Easy or Hard.
[ RANDOM TIP WITH SERAH ]
After the first escape in the elevator room, you will automatically start a room in Hard Mode and if you do want to switch to Easy Mode, you won't be able to switch back. So I suggest completing a room in Hard Mode since the only difference in Easy Mode is that you get more hints and really if you think hard and rational, the puzzles aren't too tricky. But then again, there are always cheats ;D
Also in the MENU section, you can save your game here and view the Archives which is were the Secret Files you found will be kept under the heading Secret. Here you can also find in game tips that cover controls and that sort of thing under the heading HELP, you also keep the Safe Passwords here so you can just check back whenever you need to enter them and they are under the heading Password. Also throughout the game, you'll see images of certain objects and things like that, and they are saved and stored in the Archives under the heading File. There is also a handy little option called Memo which allows you to jot down anything you notice that may help you with another puzzle. This also saves you from having to remember things, instead you just write them down. The Memo option only has space for two different memos though, so if you need to delete one to create another, make sure you don't need it anymore!
Another important feature in the MENU section is Flow which shows you a graph that displays the paths you can follow and what path you are currently on.
I took this screenshot from my PS Vita to give you an idea.
See how you have the novel sections, escape sections and also the Chromatic Door sections.
Before you get confused at how often you go through the green, red and blue doors, you don't go into the same room twice.
For example, the red door on the left side of the chart will be a different room to the red door in the middle section of the chart. Basically, you visit every room at least once in this game.
Another reason why this Flow chart is so important is because once you finish a character ending, you then automatically go back to the chart after saving and you then choose what part you want to play through next and where you start from. The fact that you kind of...jump between different sections of the graph actually contributes to a very important part of the game.
Also throughout the game, in certain routes, you may encounter a Lock Situation which basically means you will need to visit another part of the story to pick up information you will need to continue on with the section of the story you are locked out of.
For example, one lock situation (actually, a few lock situations) requires you to know the passwords to turn off the bombs that are counting down. If you haven't received the password in another route, you won't be able to continue with that path until you have.
I mentioned about the different endings you can get and I happened to find a useful table that tells you the ideal order in which to play through these endings and, because I'm SO nice, I'm going to share it with you guys! :3
1. Clover Ending (Y, b, a)
2. Dio (M, b, b)
3. Tenmouji (Y, a, B, a, a)
4. Alice (C, a, b)
5. Sigma (C, b, G, a)
6. Quark (Y, a, R, a)
7. K (M, a, B, b)
8. Luna (M, a, G, a, a)
9. Phi #1 (C, b, R, b)
10. Phi #2 (C, b, R, a)
(Y=Yellow, M=Magenta, C=Cyan, B=Blue, G=Green, R=Red)
(The colours above are referring to the Chromatic Door colours)
(a=ally, b=betray)
Following the ending order like this will reveal less and you'll find out things in a more ideal order. Also with this, you only encounter one lock situation, so that's all good! :D
Now, back to the game and what happens once you escape from the room you were locked in.
While going through the safe after unlocking it, I mentioned that you find things called Key Cards. Well, you need these Key Cards to play something called the Ambidex Game (AB Game).
The elevator-like rooms you started in are actually what you use to play the Ambidex Game. Once you've obtained the Key Cards you need, you swipe them through a lock on the AB Room and you can enter to play the AB Game.
(The Key Cards that you need change three times which is why you need to go into more rooms and find each one).
I will quickly explain the difference between the Nonary Game and the Ambidex Game.
The difference is that there is no difference :,)
The Nonary Game refers to the whole entire thing, like going into difference rooms and completing the puzzles...all that stuff. The Ambidex Game is just something you do in between all that to earn BP which I mentioned earlier means Bracelet Points.
Also, Nonary means 9 in a sense and the number 9 is another thing that appears a lot. For example, like I said, it's the amount of time the Chromatic Doors stay open. The number 9 also features on an important door that I'll explain later :,)
First I'll talk about the Ambidex Game and then why you need BP.
So when you go through a Chromatic Door, a pair (two people) and a solo (one person) group up to do so. Once you've completed your room and come out and it's time to play the AB Game, the pair will be playing against the solo and vice versa.
A common thing repeated in the game is that the pair share a destiny which I think is kinda linked into the ending of the game, but that'll take forever to explain and pretty much everything would get revealed if I went into that :,)
But I digress ^^;
The AB Rooms are in the main warehouse room you start in and there are 6 of them, so (since a pair "share a destiny") they will enter one room together and the solo will enter their own room. So, all in all, 3 pairs and 3 solos. Basic math even I can do :,)
There is a machine in the AB Room that was there when you woke up at the beginning and when you enter the room, the machine displays a message telling you to press the START button and then once you do, the polling period will begin and the AB Doors won't unlock until the polling period is over.
This is a game of betrayal.
You need to choose whether you want to ally with the person you went through the Chromatic Doors with, or betray them.
Personally, I prefer to ally but only when I know for sure that person is going to ally. Otherwise choosing betray seems like the more logical choice.
..Wow. I'd probably be hated as much as Dio ^^;
And depending on what you choose to vote, you will gain or loose BP.
This chart shows what happens when you make your choice and when your opponent makes theirs.
So...say you chose to betray, but your partner chose to ally...
Then you would gain 3 BP and they would loose 2 BP.
Pretty easy to understand, yes?
More often than not, Sigma has a huge debate with himself about what to choose and blah blah it can go on for a while :,)
But once you've made your choice, you then look to the screen again...
...and press Ally or Betray.
Once you've put in your vote and exited the AB Room, there is a projection screen in the big warehouse room that will display the results.
And based on what you chose, points will be added on or subtracted.
(If you're wondering why everyone has 3 BP, that's just because everyone automatically started with that amount).
Also remember how I said pairs share a destiny? Well that includes the points too. So if you choose to betray (like what Sigma did in this round), both members of the pair will receive 3 points.
When everyone has finished their argument about why they were betrayed (..every. time.) the AB Room Doors will shut and the pair and solo assignments and colours on everyone's bracelets will change.
So...say Sigma was a Red Pair to start with, he could be changed to a Cyan Solo or something like that. This means that whenever you go into a new room, you'll be with at least one new person.
Now onto why everyone needs BP.
I mentioned that the number 9 features on an important door. The reason that door is so important is because it's the door to FREEDOM!
..in a sense ^^;
The Number 9 Door is how you escape from the facility.
You play the AB Game to earn BP and it just so happens that the goal number of BP you are aiming for is 9. If you can get 9 BP, you can pull the lever next to the large door and leave.
This is essentially winning the game!
..also the Number 9 Door only opens once, so if you don't have 9 BP when someone else who does opens it, you'll be trapped forever! ;A;
But that doesn't mean you win the game as soon as you get 9 BP. As long as the person who has 9 BP doesn't open the Number 9 Door, the game will carry on.
Oh yes... There is one more thing I have yet to mention.
The bracelets and how to remove them.
Well, uh.. *cough* There are two ways;
1. You escape from the facility.
Once you are outside, your bracelet unlocks and falls off.
2. You die.
Basically what it says on the tin.
..There is also a cheat way to get them off, but I'll leave that for Luna to explain :,)
This relates back to the AB Game.
If, for example, you were betrayed in the first round of the AB Game you would end up with 1 BP.
If you are stupid enough to ally someone with 1 BP and get betrayed by them, you would have -1 BP. Once your bracelet reaches 0 or lower BP, you'll get penalised and die.
But... How?
Well. In the underside of your bracelets, there are four sets of needles.
..even though this picture only shows two.. ^^;
And if your BP reaches 0 or below, the needles will inject you with Soporil β (Beta) which is an anaesthetic. It'll spread throughout the body and the participant who was injected will eventually fall asleep. After the Soporil has been injected, 9 minutes later (..of course) the bracelets will inject another substance called Tubocurarine which is a muscle relaxant that will eventually shut down the respiratory system killing the person through asphyxiation.
How pleasant!
I just have one final thing now I want to talk about before moving onto the rest to the review.
I've briefly gone over the different endings and stuff, but after completing Phi's End/True End, you have the possibility to unlock two Secret Endings ("End or Beginning" and "Another Time") which are definitely worth seeing. They are really short, maybe about 30 minutes altogether?
But anyway! To unlock them, you need to have completed all the rooms in Hard Mode. And if you did switch to Easy Mode at one point, then all you need to do is go to your Flow Chart and click on the room you completed in Easy Mode and skip to there.
Once you've done that, just switch the difficulty to Hard and go to the safe and unlock it.
Seriously, it's that easy! Because you already earned the password while playing through in Easy Mode and the level of difficulty doesn't change the password, so just re-enter the same password in Hard Mode and BOOM! You've done it! :D
Then you can see the two extra endings! :3
Also if you play this game on the PS Vita system like I did, you can also earn Trophies.
But honestly they are so easy to get. All you have to do is see all the character endings, complete all the rooms in Hard Mode, earn all the files...basically everything that you will eventually do in the game, you get a trophy for :,)
So...yea! Real easy to earn the trophies :3
....aaaaaaand, I think that's everything!
..pheewf ; ___ ; That was all really hard to cover >A<
Characters~
And, as always, in reviews this is MY favourite part! I just love talking about the characters! :D
. . .
Name; Sigma
Age; 22 . . . (Don't let appearances fool you, though...)
Occupation; College Student
Seiyuu; Kousuke Toriumi (only in the ONA)
I just want to ask WHY the Zero Escape character designers have to make the main characters so attractive? I mean, first there was Junpei and now Sigma? ..seriously ;A;
..look at dem beefy arms doe! XD
Sigma is one of my favourite characters :,)
Quite often (more so when partnered up with girls) he's really perverted and can slip sexual innuendos into almost every conversation and I literally love it! :,D
Aside from that...he's actually a really nice, honest and kind person which puts him at a disadvantage when playing the AB Game as he mostly votes ally since he trusts quite easily.
He also has a great memory! O:
OH! Probably the best thing about Sigma is that he has this "cat-tic" which causes him to talk like a cat when talking about cats :,) it's hard to explain...just play the game and you'll see :,)
Name; Phi
Age; 20
Occupation; Unknown
Seiyuu; Chiaki Omigawa
Another important feature in the MENU section is Flow which shows you a graph that displays the paths you can follow and what path you are currently on.
I took this screenshot from my PS Vita to give you an idea.
See how you have the novel sections, escape sections and also the Chromatic Door sections.
Before you get confused at how often you go through the green, red and blue doors, you don't go into the same room twice.
For example, the red door on the left side of the chart will be a different room to the red door in the middle section of the chart. Basically, you visit every room at least once in this game.
Another reason why this Flow chart is so important is because once you finish a character ending, you then automatically go back to the chart after saving and you then choose what part you want to play through next and where you start from. The fact that you kind of...jump between different sections of the graph actually contributes to a very important part of the game.
Also throughout the game, in certain routes, you may encounter a Lock Situation which basically means you will need to visit another part of the story to pick up information you will need to continue on with the section of the story you are locked out of.
For example, one lock situation (actually, a few lock situations) requires you to know the passwords to turn off the bombs that are counting down. If you haven't received the password in another route, you won't be able to continue with that path until you have.
I mentioned about the different endings you can get and I happened to find a useful table that tells you the ideal order in which to play through these endings and, because I'm SO nice, I'm going to share it with you guys! :3
1. Clover Ending (Y, b, a)
2. Dio (M, b, b)
3. Tenmouji (Y, a, B, a, a)
4. Alice (C, a, b)
5. Sigma (C, b, G, a)
6. Quark (Y, a, R, a)
7. K (M, a, B, b)
8. Luna (M, a, G, a, a)
9. Phi #1 (C, b, R, b)
10. Phi #2 (C, b, R, a)
(Y=Yellow, M=Magenta, C=Cyan, B=Blue, G=Green, R=Red)
(The colours above are referring to the Chromatic Door colours)
(a=ally, b=betray)
Following the ending order like this will reveal less and you'll find out things in a more ideal order. Also with this, you only encounter one lock situation, so that's all good! :D
Now, back to the game and what happens once you escape from the room you were locked in.
While going through the safe after unlocking it, I mentioned that you find things called Key Cards. Well, you need these Key Cards to play something called the Ambidex Game (AB Game).
The elevator-like rooms you started in are actually what you use to play the Ambidex Game. Once you've obtained the Key Cards you need, you swipe them through a lock on the AB Room and you can enter to play the AB Game.
(The Key Cards that you need change three times which is why you need to go into more rooms and find each one).
I will quickly explain the difference between the Nonary Game and the Ambidex Game.
The difference is that there is no difference :,)
The Nonary Game refers to the whole entire thing, like going into difference rooms and completing the puzzles...all that stuff. The Ambidex Game is just something you do in between all that to earn BP which I mentioned earlier means Bracelet Points.
Also, Nonary means 9 in a sense and the number 9 is another thing that appears a lot. For example, like I said, it's the amount of time the Chromatic Doors stay open. The number 9 also features on an important door that I'll explain later :,)
First I'll talk about the Ambidex Game and then why you need BP.
So when you go through a Chromatic Door, a pair (two people) and a solo (one person) group up to do so. Once you've completed your room and come out and it's time to play the AB Game, the pair will be playing against the solo and vice versa.
A common thing repeated in the game is that the pair share a destiny which I think is kinda linked into the ending of the game, but that'll take forever to explain and pretty much everything would get revealed if I went into that :,)
But I digress ^^;
The AB Rooms are in the main warehouse room you start in and there are 6 of them, so (since a pair "share a destiny") they will enter one room together and the solo will enter their own room. So, all in all, 3 pairs and 3 solos. Basic math even I can do :,)
There is a machine in the AB Room that was there when you woke up at the beginning and when you enter the room, the machine displays a message telling you to press the START button and then once you do, the polling period will begin and the AB Doors won't unlock until the polling period is over.
This is a game of betrayal.
You need to choose whether you want to ally with the person you went through the Chromatic Doors with, or betray them.
Personally, I prefer to ally but only when I know for sure that person is going to ally. Otherwise choosing betray seems like the more logical choice.
..Wow. I'd probably be hated as much as Dio ^^;
And depending on what you choose to vote, you will gain or loose BP.
This chart shows what happens when you make your choice and when your opponent makes theirs.
So...say you chose to betray, but your partner chose to ally...
Then you would gain 3 BP and they would loose 2 BP.
Pretty easy to understand, yes?
More often than not, Sigma has a huge debate with himself about what to choose and blah blah it can go on for a while :,)
But once you've made your choice, you then look to the screen again...
...and press Ally or Betray.
Once you've put in your vote and exited the AB Room, there is a projection screen in the big warehouse room that will display the results.
And based on what you chose, points will be added on or subtracted.
(If you're wondering why everyone has 3 BP, that's just because everyone automatically started with that amount).
Also remember how I said pairs share a destiny? Well that includes the points too. So if you choose to betray (like what Sigma did in this round), both members of the pair will receive 3 points.
When everyone has finished their argument about why they were betrayed (..every. time.) the AB Room Doors will shut and the pair and solo assignments and colours on everyone's bracelets will change.
So...say Sigma was a Red Pair to start with, he could be changed to a Cyan Solo or something like that. This means that whenever you go into a new room, you'll be with at least one new person.
Now onto why everyone needs BP.
I mentioned that the number 9 features on an important door. The reason that door is so important is because it's the door to FREEDOM!
..in a sense ^^;
The Number 9 Door is how you escape from the facility.
You play the AB Game to earn BP and it just so happens that the goal number of BP you are aiming for is 9. If you can get 9 BP, you can pull the lever next to the large door and leave.
This is essentially winning the game!
..also the Number 9 Door only opens once, so if you don't have 9 BP when someone else who does opens it, you'll be trapped forever! ;A;
But that doesn't mean you win the game as soon as you get 9 BP. As long as the person who has 9 BP doesn't open the Number 9 Door, the game will carry on.
Oh yes... There is one more thing I have yet to mention.
The bracelets and how to remove them.
Well, uh.. *cough* There are two ways;
1. You escape from the facility.
Once you are outside, your bracelet unlocks and falls off.
2. You die.
Basically what it says on the tin.
..There is also a cheat way to get them off, but I'll leave that for Luna to explain :,)
This relates back to the AB Game.
If, for example, you were betrayed in the first round of the AB Game you would end up with 1 BP.
If you are stupid enough to ally someone with 1 BP and get betrayed by them, you would have -1 BP. Once your bracelet reaches 0 or lower BP, you'll get penalised and die.
But... How?
Well. In the underside of your bracelets, there are four sets of needles.
..even though this picture only shows two.. ^^;
And if your BP reaches 0 or below, the needles will inject you with Soporil β (Beta) which is an anaesthetic. It'll spread throughout the body and the participant who was injected will eventually fall asleep. After the Soporil has been injected, 9 minutes later (..of course) the bracelets will inject another substance called Tubocurarine which is a muscle relaxant that will eventually shut down the respiratory system killing the person through asphyxiation.
How pleasant!
I just have one final thing now I want to talk about before moving onto the rest to the review.
I've briefly gone over the different endings and stuff, but after completing Phi's End/True End, you have the possibility to unlock two Secret Endings ("End or Beginning" and "Another Time") which are definitely worth seeing. They are really short, maybe about 30 minutes altogether?
But anyway! To unlock them, you need to have completed all the rooms in Hard Mode. And if you did switch to Easy Mode at one point, then all you need to do is go to your Flow Chart and click on the room you completed in Easy Mode and skip to there.
Once you've done that, just switch the difficulty to Hard and go to the safe and unlock it.
Seriously, it's that easy! Because you already earned the password while playing through in Easy Mode and the level of difficulty doesn't change the password, so just re-enter the same password in Hard Mode and BOOM! You've done it! :D
Then you can see the two extra endings! :3
Also if you play this game on the PS Vita system like I did, you can also earn Trophies.
But honestly they are so easy to get. All you have to do is see all the character endings, complete all the rooms in Hard Mode, earn all the files...basically everything that you will eventually do in the game, you get a trophy for :,)
So...yea! Real easy to earn the trophies :3
....aaaaaaand, I think that's everything!
..pheewf ; ___ ; That was all really hard to cover >A<
Characters~
And, as always, in reviews this is MY favourite part! I just love talking about the characters! :D
. . .
Name; Sigma
Age; 22 . . . (Don't let appearances fool you, though...)
Occupation; College Student
Seiyuu; Kousuke Toriumi (only in the ONA)
I just want to ask WHY the Zero Escape character designers have to make the main characters so attractive? I mean, first there was Junpei and now Sigma? ..seriously ;A;
..look at dem beefy arms doe! XD
Sigma is one of my favourite characters :,)
Quite often (more so when partnered up with girls) he's really perverted and can slip sexual innuendos into almost every conversation and I literally love it! :,D
Aside from that...he's actually a really nice, honest and kind person which puts him at a disadvantage when playing the AB Game as he mostly votes ally since he trusts quite easily.
He also has a great memory! O:
OH! Probably the best thing about Sigma is that he has this "cat-tic" which causes him to talk like a cat when talking about cats :,) it's hard to explain...just play the game and you'll see :,)
Name; Phi
Age; 20
Occupation; Unknown
Seiyuu; Chiaki Omigawa
Phi is probably-- actually, she is the most mysterious character in the game. You literally learn nothing about her, so I'm hoping her background and everything like that will be revealed in the third game.
But as a person, I guess she is okay? I mean, I like her...but at the same time, I'm wary :,)
She takes on the leader (I guess you could say) role of the group and has no problem being demanding and forceful. In general she's quite cold, curt and mechanical...but not really mean. I guess you could say she's "hot and cold" so she can be compassionate and kind one moment and then be cold and unfeeling the next. All in all though, I don't think she's a bad person. She wants to help everyone escape really, so that's at least proof that deep down, she's likely a good person overall :,)
Name; Luna
Age; Unknown
Occupation: [ I won't say because SPOILERS ]
Seiyuu; Mamiko Noto
Luna is an angel. She is seriously the one person you can genuinely trust, no matter what.
She's best described as being a pacifist and rarely gets angry, I think the one time she ever gets slightly angered is once towards Dio, which...is understandable. I mean, it's Dio.
Her character ending is also heart-breaking. Every time it gets to me ; ___ ;
..my precious Luna </3
She also always votes ally when playing the AB Game and will feel devastated if someone betrays her. Unfortunately to see a few endings, you have to betray her which is actually super hard to do ;;;
Luna is a little introverted as she is often shown as being shy and timid and also uncomfortable if a lot of attention is focused on her. However, she is also caring, gentle, humble and modest.
While unrelated, she also has a medical license which allows her to use equipment often found in the Infirmary (a room you'll explore) and she possesses a high level of intelligence.
Name; K
Age; [ I feel it's best not to say ]
Occupation: [ I feel it's best not to say ]
Seiyuu; Daisuke Ono ♥
..yea, this isn't a joke. I'm dead serious :,)
There is a reason for this suit...armour...thing but to say what would be a massive spoiler! >A<
One of the first things you find out about K is that he has amnesia. People are reluctant to believe that because of his appearance, but he's telling the truth :,)
K is pretty intelligent and is probably one of the most unpredictable people in the AB Game as he chooses ally and betray somewhat evenly, I think. He also usually thinks before he acts, but can still make irrational decisions and...strange ones, at that.
I'm referring to the scene in the Rec Room. Sigma and Alice are disturbed by it...but I think it's freaking hilarious! :,D
This is really all I can say about K, though > < I think because of his amnesia, there isn't much to his personality other than what I've already said.
Name; Tenmyouji
Age; 68
Occupation; Rubbish Collector (..goals, am I right? XD)
Seiyuu; The Late Rokurou Naya
First of all, this isn't Tenmyouji's first Nonary Game. That's all I'll say about that :,)
Sadly...I'm not his biggest fan ;;; I mean, I like him because, well...it's him. But it's so sad to see how much his personality has changed..
Tenmyouji is very bitter, stern and doesn't trust others easily. The only person he is seen to trust completely in the Nonary Game is Quark and that's because they've been together for a very long time. He was strict when raising Quark, but that's only because he wanted to be sure Quark would be okay when he was no longer around to care for him. So actually, depending on the person involved, Tenmyouji can be caring in his own ways :,)
Also, like Luna, his ending was another that made me cry like a baby! D;
Name; Quark
Age; 10
Occupation; Rubbish Collector with Tenmyouji
Seiyuu; Rie Kugimiya
Quark is a little cutie :3
He's probably on par with Luna that he is one of the more nicer participants. Given the situation he's in, he somehow remains cheerful and optimistic and he also cares for the other participants. He sometimes makes jokes and tends to stay very calm and collected; I'd say he's quite mature for a 10 year old :3
He's also really polite and often addresses the other participants as "Mr." or "Ms." which shows that he also respects them :3
Name; Alice
Age; Unknown
Occupation; ..that's confidential ^^;
Seiyuu; Atsuko Tanaka
There is always a character in the Zero Escape games that dresses...somewhat extravagantly which is the nice way of putting it :,)
In 999 you have Lotus, then obviously Alice in VLR and Mira in ZTD.. I'm not sure why :,)
I think overall, Alice is my least favourite character .-. Even after playing through her ending and understanding more about her and why she does certain things, I still can't like her ;; I mean, I dislike her less...but it doesn't change the fact she isn't the nicest person ever, you know?
I mean, don't get me wrong! She does care about people; especially those close to her like Clover and she has their best interests in mind. But what we mostly see is her arrogant, cold and holier-than-thou attitude. That's why, in a way, I like her ending because it shows her being vulnerable and actually having emotions :,)
She's also good at maths. That's when I usually space out because I'm...not ^^;
Name; Clover
Age; 19
Occupation; ..that's confidential ^^;
Seiyuu; Yukari Tamura (I LOVE Yukarin! *v*)
She was my favourite character in 999 and she's still my favourite character in VLR ♥
Poor Clover.. *sniff* This is her third Nonary Game now ; ___ ; Yet she still manages to mostly keep her calm which, I think, is due to the fact Alice is with her (they're colleagues at work) and in the second one (999) her brother was with her...most of the time > <
In 999, Clover was very cheerful, bubbly and bright! But after she survives that Nonary Game, she becomes less bubbly and more down-to-earth. She's still very cheerful and bright, but has more of a serious side which I think is due to the job she has. Clover doesn't trust many people easily, other than Alice (she only opens up to Sigma in her ending) and when certain things happen to Alice, she immediately assumes everyone was in on it and closes herself off from them even more.
But generally she is quite compassionate and cares about the people close to her and even cares for the other participants. She's also hella cute and kinda naive and maybe a liiittle bit of an airhead. I just LOVE her! ^O^
Though her ending. It's really quite disturbing.. > < but still brilliant? Idk :,)
Name; Dio . . .
Age; Unknown
Occupation; [ SUPER MASSIVE HUGE SPOILER ]
Seiyuu; Yoshimasa Hosoya (I LOVE Hosoyan ♥)
Dio, Dio, Dio...
First of all, I know how much of a dick this guy is...
BUT I LOVE HIM! ..I hate him, though ;;;
I hate him. BUT I LOVE HIM! ;3;
I think the fact Hosoyan voices him largely contributes to my liking him, but I really do! He's one of those characters you know you should hate, but you can't help but love :,)
..which I do! ; ___ ;
But Dio. Let's make a list, shall we? :,)
He's selfish, rude, uncompassionate, uncooperative, manipulative and...basically just mean!
Dio also always picks betray when playing the AB Game, basically he wants out and doesn't care if anyone goes with him :,)
I don't think he's all bad though since when he plays against Luna, he votes ally because he sees her as "beautiful" which I think is pretty cute ^v^
He also swears a butt load which always makes me laugh and the way he phrases some things is just brilliant :,)
It's been counted and is stated that he drops the "F" bomb 39 times throughout the game! :,D
Name; Zero III
Age; doesn't have one. It's an AI.
Occupation; Running the AB Game, I guess?
Seiyuu; Tarako
Zero III is a rabbit (..clearly) AI that gives the participants information and tips regarding the game and it's rules (though he doesn't tell them everything). After a while, Zero III gets given the title Zero Jr. so the participants can distinguish between the AI and the Zero who brought them all there who they also end up calling Zero Sr.
Zero III is also very, very, very, very...very annoying. While humorous...mostly annoying :,)
It...he(?) is kinda sadistic, psychotic and also enjoys poking fun at the other participants and trying to provoke them. Dio is the one who mostly gets annoyed by this :,)
Zero III also gives everyone a nickname :,)
- Sigma (Siggy)
- Phi (Phido)
- Luna (Moony)
- K (Potassium)
- Tenmyouji (Tenmyoldy)
- Quark (Quirk)
- Alice (Alas)
- Clover (Cleaver)
- Dio (B.O.)
. . .
Third Game~
I've mentioned a few times that there is going to be a sequel to Virtue's Last Reward which will be Zero Time Dilemma and since Virtue's Last Reward was released in 2012...you can imagine how long everyone has been waiting for this third and final sequel ; ___ ;
It's been a long time coming and it's finally getting released THIS FREAKING MONTH on the 28th! :D it's majorly exciting! :3
I get so hyped whenever I look at this! *^*
..but I also get so depressed ;;; I mean, look at the crack between Junpei and Akane on the right side of the cover? I hope that doesn't symbolise anything because if it does, I'm never going to get the Junpei x Akane happy end I want so badly </3
I mean, I want one happy end when everything works out for everyone, and I want Akane and Junpei to be included in that everyone D;
Zero Time Dilemma is going to be SO good, though! :D
It's set in between Virtue's Last Reward and Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. I won't say too much as this will give away some things revealed in VLR, but it's set in the Mars Mission Test Site in Nevada Desert where Radical-6 was released. Phi, Sigma, Junpei and Akane are all there and it's mostly set around the idea of preventing Radical-6 escaping from the Test Site which is what ultimately leads to Virtue's Last Reward. I hope they have that ending as well because I really want to see that!
If you're interested, this is a trailer for it!
I'm personally going to play this game in the Japanese version, I just used the English trailer since the Japanese one doesn't have subtitles.
ALSO! Kotaro Uchikoshi (the creator of the Zero Escape games) said himself that he designed Zero Time Dilemma with the idea in mind that people who haven't played the games yet can get into them using this game as their first. So while some references to things revealed in previous games may not make full sense, you can play this game first and still enjoy it which I think is really awesome!
So watching this trailer doesn't really mean you'll be spoiling anything for yourself :)
Something else that's really cool is this!
You get a sneak peek of an area in the game! *v*
Again, nothing in here counts as a spoiler; it's something that fans of the game know is going to happen and as I said before, this game is also designed for people who haven't played any prequels, so if that's you, it's still fine for you to watch this :D
Also...I'm dying here ;~;
I had NO reason to play the game in English until I heard Sigma's voice. Matthew Mercer.
He voiced my hubby in Tales of Xillia (Alvin) and MYFUCKINGGOD! When Sigma spoke, my nose spurted blood! :,) I'm SO mad!! Because the Japanese version has voice actors I love SO much, and I also love Matthew Mercer. ..I guess what I'll do is play the game more than once (which I was planning to do anyway) in different settings... but ghaaaaad!! ;;;
Another thing is that Zero Time Dilemma is designed to be more like 999 in terms of themes and stuff since 999 was pretty dark.. So I'm also looking forward to that! :D
The trailer shows so much blood and death.. It's going to be so fantastic!! :,)
A quick note! The image I used is for the PS Vita game cover, but it's also getting a 3DS release :)
My Thoughts~
I really love this game. It's surprising that a game as long as VLR never gets boring no matter how many times you play it :,) I mean, if I had to choose out of VLR and 999, I would still say 999 is my favourite, but I still really love and enjoy Virtue's Last Reward.
The characters are all really great (..most of the time) and it was really cool to see Clover and Tenmyouji again, especially since I love Clover :3
The endings this game created are simply brilliant! ..maybe not so much the bad endings since they're mostly the same, just a few things change which reminds me!! Does it bother anyone else that whenever Sigma gets 9 BP and tries to escape, everyone loses their SHIT and will literally kill him if it means they can stop him leaving but if someone else tries to escape, they just stand there like..
"Oh no. This is bad. What do we do..?"
..seriously? .-.
It's SO stupid!! :,D
I'm like where'd that freaking energy go when you all tried to stop Sigma escaping? It's ridiculous :,)
But anyway!
The character endings are really amazing! I like that you also find a bit more out about that character whose ending it is; it kinda makes it all the more special :3
Definitely Luna and Tenmyouji's endings get me the most </3 that's real and raw emotion right there ;;;
This game also has a seriously good soundtrack! Some real intense tracks that really set the mood. Especially the music you get for each escape and also the music when shit is going down! OMG! >//<
The music that gets played during Luna's ending is really sad and moving.. Basically each piece of music fits so well with the scene it's used in; forgive my lack of vocabulary, but it's amazing! :,)
The art style is okay. The CGI animation was definitely a change from 999, but it wasn't great. Most of the time it worked well, especially with the background and the rooms they were in; it made them feel more...realistic. The still art scenes were pretty good as well :) the only major tic I have with the art style is occasionally when characters are talking (this happens mostly with Tenmyouji), their teeth will dislocate from their mouths :,) so when their mouths are moving, their teeth are moving separately which looks so weird :,) also when there is a scene with a lot of movement in it, the animation isn't very fluid and looks more...rocky, I guess you could say? But that's my only major issue. I do like how the breathing of the characters was animated, meaning their chests move and stuff. I thought that was a nice touch :3
I spoke a bit at the start about recurring themes? Well, the Radical-6 one gets a bit much.
Like, Quark for example. Not really a spoiler because it always happens, but he gets diagnosed with Radical-6 in every single route!! At first, you're like..
"Oh my god, no! Quark! Please save Quark!"
But then after a while, you're like..
"Oh, Quark has Radical-6? Well, yea. Okay, what else is new?"
That whole scene when he collapses, gets diagnosed, goes bat-shit cray and then sleeps gets boring after a while :,)
But it's relevant, so...
Also (another 999 comparison) is that VLR doesn't provide moments where you get to choose things. I think I mentioned this briefly, but in 999, you get the opportunity sometimes to choose responses to things characters will say to you, but in VLR you only get to choose what room you want to go in. Which isn't...great since I liked that aspect in 999. That could have been carried over...
But I know in Zero Time Dilemma, the choices you get will fucking kill you to make (or someone else) so...I'm sure I'll hate that at some point :,D
And the science lessons :,)
Seriously! Especially in Phi's route, she doesn't half know how to bloody talk :,D
That didn't annoy me as much as it confused me. I could honestly hear my brain fizzling away as more and more science was pushed down my throat like ARGH! STOP ALREADY! ; ___ ;
But all joking aside... ^^;
This game truly is a masterpiece! It's so well thought out and you can tell how much time was spent on making the story as clever and gripping as possible! I definitely can't fault that in any way.
My Overall Score~
For this section, I'm going to score out of 10 on each main feature :)
So, we have..
- Graphics: 9/10 (mostly because the CGI didn't always flow well, but still looked good)
- Music: 10/10
- Character Design: 9/10 (really detailed but didn't follow through as well into the game)
- Puzzles: 10/10 (really freaking difficult, but awesome!)
- Content: 10/10
Overall: 9/10
Other than what I already said, I really can't find any faults in this game.
It's no lie when I say the Zero Escape games are my favourite game series; I really mean it!
Virtue's Last Reward is seriously one of the most thought out games I've ever come across. So much time, effort and dedication was put into it that it oozes out of the game console :,)
I personally find it baffling how something so smart can be created, you know?
If you're someone who hasn't played Virtue's Last Reward or even Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors...you are really missing out on something so incredible!
Picking up these games and playing them will be your best decision ;D
..so go and do it NOW! :,)
~ ~ ~
So that was my crazy long Virtue's Last Reward Review :,)
If you read the whole thing...well freaking done!
That was one of the reasons why I was hesitant to review this game because I knew how long it would be, but now that I've completed it...I feel quite proud of myself! :,)
Just a little note to the people who have played this game, I am aware of the things I missed out. I know there was a whole mess of crap I didn't mention and I did that purely for the people who haven't played this yet and happened across this review. When I review games, I like them to be as spoiler free as possible in case someone wants to read about something before actually playing it; just to get an opinion on whether someone thinks something is good or not, you know?
Plus if I had decided to review every single little detail...I don't think this review would have ever ended! :,)
But I'll stop now because it can't get any longer! ;A;
If you have any questions regarding the game, please leave a comment below and I will try my best to reply with as much detail as possible :3
If you made it this far, then once again CONGRATULATIONS! *^*
And thank you for reading! ^v^
BYESIES~! c:
xoxo~
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