So, like I said I would be, I'm here to write my review for Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma.
I know I'm very late in doing this seeing as how this game has been out for a while now.. ^^; But then again, my reviews for things like games have never been posted soon after the release so.. Who cares? :,)
Zero Time Dilemma is the third and final instalment in the Zero Escape game franchise. It was longly anticipated since Virtue's Last Reward (which is the prequel to this game) ended on a major cliffhanger;;; And for a long while, it looked like Zero Time Dilemma would not see a release as Kotaro Uchikoshi (the creator of the franchise) and his staff lacked enough funds to complete the game;;; But thanks to the amazingly dedicated fans creating Operation Bluebird to raise awareness for the game and show everyone related how much they wanted it, Zero Time Dilemma was able to see the light of day! ♥ And I, for one, am very happy it did! *ω*
So I'm here to review this game and talk about my thoughts on it and what I liked and didn't like and so on :3
Oh! And if you're curious, here is a link to my review of Virtue's Last Reward ^ω^
VLR Game Review by SerahNyan (ME!)
You can also find a link there to my review of 999 (Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors) which is the prequel to Virtue's Last Reward :3
So without further ado, let's start the review~! :D
..hey! Did that rhyme? O: OMG! *O*
--SPOILER WARNING--
I always put this little note here before doing game reviews just to warn you that there may be a few spoilers included. But I'll try my best not to spoil anything since my reviews are mostly to help people decide whether to play said game and I wouldn't want to spoil the fun of playing something for the first time :3
But just a small warning.. ^^;
~ ~ ~
[ Zero Time Dilemma (ZTD)
Developed for the 3DS and PS Vita game systems ]
Plot Outline~
Date: December 31st, 2028
Location: Dcom Facility, Nevada Desert
For the past five days, nine people have been living in the Dcom facility performing a number of different experiments to simulate a manned mission to Mars to see if life is suitable there. On the sixth day, they wake up and discover that they have been trapped in confinement rooms with a strange bracelet strapped to their left wrist.
A mysterious, cloaked figure wearing a mask appears and calls himself Zero. He tells them that they are to play the Decision Game.
"The lives of you, me, and the human race hang in the balance."
Zero then flips a coin and tells one of the participants to guess what colour is facing up and if he gets it right, they can earn their freedom. After failing (which you need to do for the game to continue), the nine participants wake up in separate teams of three in three separate wards in an underground shelter and are forced to continue the Decision Game.
Zero once again appears before them, but on a small TV in each ward this time. He tells them that they are to play the Decision Game to earn their freedom and that they can escape through an elevator shaft in the centre of the three wards. The elevator has a large X marked on it and for it to open, the teams need to collect 6 X-Passes which can be earned every time a single player dies.
Zero will offer each team multiple opportunities throughout the game to kill the other teams or to kill someone within the same team. So who dies is up to YOU.
You are given an opportunity to kill one of the other teams at the very start or you can choose not to kill anyone. But I'd personally save the option of not killing anyone for last since that choice ultimately leads to the True Ending.
Let the Decision Game...begin!
Gameplay/style and specifics of the game~
Like it's previous games, Zero Time Dilemma is a Visual Novel/Adventure game which means that there is more reading than action on your part. Also like Virtue's Last Reward and Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, you can make different choices in different areas of the game. These choices will lead to different outcomes and different endings, too. So I recommend trying to get them all. Most cases will need you to view a certain scene before you make the Decision again, but you can skip past that after you've seen it once, so it's no big deal really :,)
Again like the other games, you have the Novel Part of the game and the Escape Part of the game. Zero Time Dilemma also offers a new part which, as I've already mentioned, is the Decision Game Part.
To give a brief explanation of what these mean;
The Novel Part;
This is basically reading through the dialogue that makes up the majority of the game. But, unlike Virtue's Last Reward, there is significantly less dialogue :,)
I can say that because each time I've played Virtue's Last Reward, it's taken me over 50 hours to finish, whereas Zero Time Dilemma took me around 27 hours the first time, and then 19 hours the second time. So the difference is pretty huge :,)
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 Escape part is mostly similar to Virtue's Last Reward and Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors apart from the fact in Zero Time Dilemma, you aren't always locked in. If you wanted to, you could just walk out of the room but obviously the game doesn't let you because...well...where would the fun in that be? :,)
The Decision Game Part;
This is where you are faced with the choice of doing something, or not doing something.
For example, one of the most well-known incidents is when one character, Sigma ends up trapped in a chair while another character, Phi is locked in an incinerator. Diana, another character, is faced with the choice of shooting Sigma which will unlock the door to the incinerator as the lock is apparently released when the sound of the gun goes off. The catch is though that the gun is half-loaded with bullets and set in a completely random order. So there is a 50/50 chance of Diana killing Sigma to unlock the door and let Phi out. So you have the choice to Shoot or Not Shoot.
The ending that follows when Diana kills Sigma is GOD AWFUL!! ; ___ ; ..even worse than letting Phi die ; ___ ;
Another new aspect of this game is the Fragments.
Fragments are what you use to...well, basically play the game! :,)
Unlike Virtue's Last Reward and Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, there is no linear order in which to play this game. Once you've chosen which Team to play as..
[ Either C-Team, Q-Team or D-Team ]
You'll then be shown a different screen which gives you different fragments to choose from that take you to a new part of the story.
[ But there will be more choices than just those two, this was
the only picture I could find.. XD ]
All the different fragments you can choose from don't follow a specific order; it's important to remember that. Sometimes other teams will see something that happens in another ward and you'll think..
"Aah, so that happens in this timeline."
And that helps you piece together what other teams are doing when you're playing as said team.
But that being said, each fragment is made up of pretty much the same thing.
So as you can see here, you have the Cinema/Cutscene at the very start of the fragment chart which is basically where the team you're playing as looks around at their current situation and then ultimately try to escape from the room they are in.
You then have the Escape which is where you'll examine the room and any objects it has to find your way out.
You then have the Decision Game where you'll have to choose whether or not to do something.
After that, you always get two or more directions in which the story diverts based on your choice. Sometimes the choice may be an incorrect one which will give you a Game Over or it may be the right choice in which you'll get another Cinema scene or maybe something else.
Zero Escape games are famous for their glamorous Bracelets.
Just kidding! They really aren't that glamorous at all.. XD
The bracelet in this game has a similar function to the bracelet in Virtue's Last Reward, but in that game, the bracelets are far more sinister ^^; Especially compared to the bracelets in Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors which basically have no function other than showing everyone else what number player you are :,)
But in Zero Time Dilemma, the bracelet actually shows the time! ..for once :,) So by pressing the two buttons on the side (as seen in the image above) you can check the time. And doing that is very important because each team is only awake for 90 minutes before they are injected with an anesthetic that will put them to sleep.
.........
Ya.
So what happens is after a certain amount of time, each team will wake up, do their thing and then once that thing has been done, Zero will appear on his little TV screen and say..
"It is now time for you to sleep. Know that when you next wake, you will have no memory of the last 90 minutes." ..or something along those lines :,)
Which also means once they have been knocked out by the anesthetic (which we can assume is Soporil), they'll be injected again with a memory loss drug so that they don't remember what just happened while they were awake.
There is also the MENU option, which you can't forget about :,)
100,000,000,000,000 points to whoever can spot the Funyarinpa!!! XD
As you can see, you have a lot of things that feature in the Menu option.
You have FILE.
Here you can view lots of different things. You have the Cinema option which gives a description of everything you learn in the game. So, for example, the infamous Radical-6 description would be under here. You also have the Quest option which shows you things you obtain from the rooms when you're trying to escape.
[ RANDOM TIP WITH SERAH ]
Once you finish the game, I strongly suggest to load up your save file because there are a bunch of new file choices to read about that tell you the different things that the characters in the game are up to. Though Diana, Phi and Sigma aren't included. I guess because maybe their consciousnesses keep jumping through time? ..I'm not sure :,)
But reading about the other characters is nice :3 It especially makes up for the ending which, I found, was a little disappointing :<
You have FLOW.
Here you can choose to view either the Fragment Flowchart which is the smaller flowchart specifically for each escape room. This is good for when it's time to play the Decision Game. Once you've made one choice, you can go back to the Decision Game fragment and play through it again to see different outcomes.
Or you can choose the Global Flowchart which shows you the entire flowchart of every team and every possible direction.
This can be viewed either like this:
Or like this:
With the Flow option you can also choose which Team to play as by choosing "Team Select".
You have MEMO.
This is a handy little tool that allows you to make any little notes or doodles to help you when during a room escape if you need to remember anything.
You have SAVE.
..this basically goes without saying that this is the option you choose if you want to save your game!
No, really! I'm telling the truth! XD
You have LOG.
Again, kind of obvious but this is where the conversation is stored. So if you missed anything or need to re-read something, choose Log.
You have OPTIONS.
You can change any settings to your liking.
You have STATUS.
Here you can view which teams are still alive. But usually you can't see this until after you're told by an announcement which teams are dead, so.. Is it really that useful? ^^;
Another thing I'll briefly mention is Story Locks.
Like in Virtue's Last Reward, this will happen when you reach a part in the story that you get locked out from because you need more information to continue. This can be obtained simply by playing through more of the story with other teams :3
There are a couple of Non-story Locks which is where you aren't locked out of continuing a certain route, you just need to play a bit more to learn what you need to do or say to carry on.
..or you could just use cheats.
That works too :,)
Though I don't recommend that since viewing cheats will lead to viewing spoilers! > O <
It's kind of unavoidable in this game, for some reason :,)
Characters~
My favourite part (yay!) is to talk about the characters! o(^∀^*)o
I mentioned before in the Plot Outline that the characters are split into separate teams, so I'll talk about the characters while keeping them in their specific team so you can see how they're organised ^ω^
C-Team~
Name; Carlos
Age; Unknown, guessed at around 28
Occupation; Firefighter
Seiyuu; Tomokazu Sugita
Carlos is a new addition to the Zero Escape characters and is the leader of C-Team.
He is your typical "has-a-strong-sense-of-justice" type of character and has a serious reason for participating in the experiment at Dcom.
He is genuinely nice as a person, though. Carlos is very honourable, kind and considerate.
If it wasn't for the moments when you as the player choose things for him to do, he wouldn't ever do anything bad! His strong sense of justice makes him have the desire to save and help people.
Junpei and Akane, included ;3
I think he is a secret Junpei x Akane shipper! Oh~ho~ho >:3
He actually kind of acts like an older brother to Junpei and Akane! O:
Awh~ He's actually suuuuuuper lovely the more I think about him :,3 I guess I've just never hugely thought about his character before since he's so...well, normal? XD Most characters in Zero Escape games have something wrong with them or have some sort of secret so, yea.. Compared to everyone else, he really is just a normal guy O:
Name; Junpei Tenmyouji
Age; 22
Occupation; Underground Detective
Seiyuu; TATTSUN! ♥ (Tatsuhisa Suzuki)
We all know Junpei. Very well, in fact! He features in all three Zero Escape games and in Zero Time Dilemma, he is put in C-Team with Carlos and Akane.
In Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, we know Junpei to be a very caring towards people. He is also kind, prone to making jokes (..though not everyone always understands/appreciates them) and has a strong sense of justice a bit like Carlos.
But after saving Akane in the first Nonary Game, he spends a year trying to find her after she disappears. During this time and as a result of his job as an Underground Detective, he becomes very sardonic, ruthless and unfazed by all the gruesome things that happen during Zero Time Dilemma.
After a year of searching, he eventually finds a trace of Akane and discovers she signed up to be a participant at the Dcom facility and goes to join himself.
The way Junpei is in Zero Time Dilemma really hurts me;;; SO, SO, SOO much! ;A;
I like Akane, so I can't hate on her too much...but it really is her fault that Junpei turned out this way :< Which is why I absolutely LOVE a certain scene between these two! ♥ It's SO perfect~ Also the secret files that appear after you clear the game about Junpei and Akane are even more perfect! *ω*
But aside from how he acts in this game and in Virtue's Last Reward (where I didn't like him much), after playing Zero Time Dilemma, I found out that I really do love Junpei! He definitely turned out to be one of my top favourite Zero Escape characters! (´・｀ )♡
He is also incredibly HOTTTT!! *drooool* ♡
Name; Akane Kurashiki
Age; 22
Occupation; [ I won't say because I'm unsure of whether it's a spoiler or not.. ] X,D
Seiyuu; Miyukichi (Miyuki Sawashiro)
Like Junpei, Akane features in all three Zero Escape games and in Zero Time Dilemma, she is put in C-Team with Carlos and Junpei.
On the surface, Akane acts like your average girl. She's very cheerful, upbeat and has an optimistic view on almost every situation. But in actuality, she is machiavellian which basically means that she can be quite cunning and scheming.
She actually has moments in Zero Time Dilemma where she goes absolutely fucking PSYCHO! Like...it's actually terrifying what she is really capable of! ( ꒪д꒪;) ..and it's usually when something bad happens to Junpei she goes mental, so.. I guess there is no reason to doubt her feelings for him even if her outward personality isn't her true self...
But even if Akane is machiavellian, I still believe she's a kind person. She's just very driven and goal-orientated and it's these tendencies in her personality that speak in higher volumes to everything else.
I still like her, though :3 ..even though I'll never forgive her for leaving Junpei after he saved her in the first Nonary Game. I get the reasons why she did...but still! Junpei wouldn't have judged her as harshly as she judged herself;;;
But they're together now, and I'm happy! ♥
Q-Team~
Name; Q . . .
Age; ..seriously? Who fucking knows :,)
Occupation; [ I won't say because SPOILERS ]
Seiyuu; Aki Toyosaki
...there's always one ^^;
Q is a new addition to the Zero Escape characters and is the leader of Q-Team.
I really can't say much about Q because, while he may not look like it, he turns out to be a pretty important character and has some pretty big surprises himself! > <
He's pretty harmless most of the time, though :,) And if you have a keen eye, you'll notice he'll do things that make you think..
"Hang on..! How the hell?!"
Also in general with Q-Team you should keep an eye and an ear out because you'll notice a few things that are pretty sneaky and will make sense at the end of the game :,)
Q also takes the brunt of Eric's annoying anger issues >. > Which is a shame because Q is really sweet and kind to the people participating in the game; he treats them almost like his own family;; He's also naïve, honest and pure of heart~ ;ω;
Q also doesn't know why he's wearing a helmet because when he wakes up, it seems he is suffering from amnesia, so he can't remember anything about himself or why he is at the Dcom site.
..that really is all I can say to avoid spoilers ^^; He's pretty important, so shh~ XD
Name; Eric
Age; Unknown... But I'm guessing somewhere around 23-25?
Occupation; Ice-cream shop clerk
Seiyuu; Akki!!! ♥ (Akira Ishida, GOD! I love him SO much! His voice~~)
Eric is a new addition to the Zero Escape characters and he is put in Q-Team with Q and Mira.
So, Eric. Eric is...very annoying ^^; Actually now that I think about it, I think Q-Team is the least favourite team out of the three :,)
I can see why.. But I don't hate them. I don't particularly like them that much, but I don't hate them either :,)
Most of the time, Eric seems to be smiling. It's kinda creepy... ( ⚆ _ ⚆ ) Even in bad situations he just has this smile plastered on his face! Even if it is what his mother said he should do.. It's a little creepy ^^;
He is also the type to panic quickly when surprised and he's also pretty incompetent, hapless and kind of weak.
Eric is also dating Mira (not a spoiler, by the way!) and he absolutely worships her. He calls her things like "my angel~" and refers to her as a Goddess.. Oh my god, that is far from what Mira really is .-. He's always trying to impress her throughout the Decision Game and often falls short of that since she rarely pays him any mind and often laughs at his failed attempts. He is also literally willing to die for her.. Though I'm sure she could take care of that herself...
I do pity him though :,) I do feel bad that he is so infatuated with her, yet she barely even looks at him :,)
Meh. I guess all works out for them both in the end :,)
Name; Mira
Age; Unknown... But I think she'd be around the same age as Eric?
Occupation; [ I won't say because SPOILERS ]
Seiyuu; Maaya Sakamoto
Mira is a new addition to the Zero Escape characters and is put in Q-Team with Q and Eric.
............. *cough*
If you know Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Virtue's Last Reward...her appearance isn't really much of a shock :,) Because you have Lotus and then Alice. And actually these three could all be sisters or something they actually look weirdly similar..! ( ⚆ _ ⚆ )
Mira is pretty bold and, yea... Okay. You can't deny she is pretty damn hot. Especially when she walks around showing her body off like that :,D
Personality wise, she is pretty intelligent and cunning. She has no problem speaking her mind and seems to act more on logic than emotions.
When it comes to Q and Eric, you see her more often than not, being more friendly towards Q than Eric which is weird since she is dating Eric :,) ..though Eric is pretty mean to Q, so I see why she sides with Q.. ^^; But even when it comes to Eric, she is pretty insensitive towards him..
But we find out why later on and...it's pretty fucking gross. Like, barf-worthy gross > <
She's kind of a psychopath, but it's okay because Eric doesn't care and they apparently end up married anyway??? You got me, I don't even know myself :,)
All in all... I don't really like Mira at all.
D-Team~
Name; Diana
Age; Unknown... My guess is around 24, maybe?
Occupation; Nurse
Seiyuu; Mamiko Noto
Diana is a new addition to the Zero Escape characters, though not a complete stranger. She is also the leader of D-Team.
For those of you who have played Virtue's Last Reward, you may notice a similarity between a character from that game and Diana. And yes, the reason for that is... Wow ; ___ ;
Also we could never be friends if you don't love Sigma x Diana ;;;;
Diana is...kind of like the shining ray of hope in this game :,) She is very kind, cheerful, friendly, nice...all the best words and just wants everyone to get along. During her time in the Decision Game, she develops very close relationships with Phi and Sigma ♥
There are a few times during the game when Diana will say or do something out of character that kind of make you think WHOA. but most of the time, it's understandable in the situation;; She also has a pretty dark past and a sad reason for joining the Dcom experiment;; Diana is the kind of character who has been involved in sad things and you just want to see her happy again, you know? She's just a lovely person~ ♡
Name; Phi
Age; 20 ..I think ^^;
Occupation; Does anyone actually know? :,)
Seiyuu; Chiaki Omigawa
This is Phi's second appearance in the Zero Escape franchise as she is also a main character in Virtue's Last Reward. In Zero Time Dilemma, she is put in D-Team with Diana and Sigma.
Phi is pretty much exactly the same in Zero Time Dilemma as she is in Virtue's Last Reward.
She is just as sassy in this game :,) Also still very cold, blunt and methodical. Although this time, due to what happened in Virtue's Last Reward, she is self-sacrificing. She's seen what happened to the world in the Virtue's Last Reward timeline and she will do whatever she can to prevent that happening again...even if that means putting herself in danger. She also holds a great concern for everyone's safety; especially Diana and Sigma.
OMG! The connection between Phi, Diana and Sigma is just...the most beautiful thing ever! ♥
I didn't see it coming until the ending in which it all happened~ And honestly, it's perfect! *ω*
..although once you realise the connection between the three, it makes Sigma's swimsuit comments in Virtue's Last Reward even more inappropriate ^^;
I learned to like her a lot more in this game :3 ..though she is still a bit of a mystery :,)
Name; Sigma
Age; Physically, he is 22... But mentally he is 67.. yea ^^;
Occupation; I'm actually not sure what his occupation is in this game :,) College student??
Seiyuu; Daisuke Ono ♥♥♥
Like Phi, Sigma also featured in Virtue's Last Reward as the character you are playing as. In Zero Time Dilemma, he returns again and is put in D-Team with Diana and Phi.
You're probably confused by the age if you haven't played the game and, to avoid spoilers, I won't go into detail about that ^^; Just play the games and you'll see what I mean (^~^)
But UuuUgGggHHh~ Sigma. I've said it before and I'll say it again...
He. Is. So. DAMN. Hot. ///////
And I'll also say again that he still remains one of my favourite characters from the Zero Escape games.
Because of the fact he is a 67 year old in a 22 year old body, he shows a high level of maturity and intelligence for his age. He's a lot more rational, logical and has a broader perspective on things. I think maybe related to things that happened in Virtue's Last Reward, Sigma isn't good at opening up to people because he's afraid to lose things important to him also showing the fact he is afraid to be vulnerable to someone. He cares very much for those close to him, though he can sometimes come across as cold. Phi is someone he cares for a great deal and Diana is someone he loves very much.
The more I think about it... The more I think D-Team is my favourite team. ♥
~ ~ ~
Name; Zero [ I won't say his real name because SPOILERS ]
Age; [ I won't say because it invites too many questions which means SPOILERS ]
Occupation; [ I won't say because SPOILERS ]
Seiyuu; Fumihiko Tachiki
The mastermind behind the Decision Game.
Zero.
Duh. Duh. Duuuuuuuuuh!
..heh ^^;
I just want to ask. Does anyone else think of a crow when they see his mask? The thing looks like a bird beak, right? It's weirdly creative :,)
Because this guy is Zero, there isn't much I can say because almost anything I could say would give something away. In the previous two games, the person who is Zero has reasons for doing what they did and even though they are still drastic, you can understand them on a level. But this Zero, to me, is just really messed up;;; Like...I get what he's doing, but I don't understand. So he isn't relatable in anyway. Not one.
He's just not nice. He's cruel, wrong and a bad, bad, bad person. (；￣Д￣）
Name; Gab
Age; ..he's old.
Occupation; ..seriously? He's a dog.
Seiyuu; *sigh* :,)
There isn't really much I can say here. I mean, he's a dog.
The teams use him to send messages to one another through an air vent in the underground shelter. The Decision Game is just a dark place for a dog to be.
Poor doggy;;; What did he ever do to anyone? ; n ;
Endings~
I decided to add a small section here just to briefly cover the endings ^ω^
I won't go into a huge amount of detail in case anyone reading this hasn't played the game yet, I just decided to do this because...well, I wanted to? ..is that a good enough reason? ^^;
I also thought it would be easier to do it this way so that when I discuss any thoughts on the endings, I can just link back to the ending using the short title and leave it at that instead of having to add an explanation as to what happened in each ending.
..does that make sense? That felt kinda talky :,)
So. Endings.
There are a total of 32 endings. You have;
Main Endings; 7 (which includes the True Ending)
Additional Endings; 2 (called 'Additional' because they aren't shown on the screen where you see what endings you have so far)
Bad Endings/Game Overs; 23 (this basically just means you made a wrong choice and the game no longer continues in that direction)
[ This screen shows the 7 main endings you can get ]
I'll now just make a small (well, we'll see ^^;) list of each ending and what each one consists of.
CQD-End: 1 (Pay-off/Beginning of the End)
This is the first and easiest ending to get. This happens when Zero flips the coin and you guess the correct colour which is facing up. Everyone will then fall asleep and then wake up outside the Dcom facility.
C-End: 1 (Apocalypse/Fly me to the moon)
This ending happens in the timeline that leads to the events of Virtue's Last Reward. This means that they failed to stop the Radical-6 outbreak and now history is to repeat itself and Akane resolves to begin the AB Project to prevent Radical-6.
Q-End: 1 (What is love? Don't hurt me)
This is probably one of, if not the most fucked up ending Zero Time Dilemma has :,)
After finishing escaping from the Study, Eric, Mira and Q are faced with a decision. This ending occurs when Eric is chosen from said decision.
Let's just say...
Mira is one crazy chick. Seriously. You wouldn't want to run into her in a dark alley :,)
Q-End: 2 (Real Zero/It Came From Within)
This ending is where some of D-Team and Q-Team manage to come together and end up finding out who the real Zero is. It literally blows your mind! I really wasn't expecting it to happen the way it did :,)
D-End: 1 (Circle of Fate/A Rabbit In Your Future)
This ending happens in the timeline that leads to the events of Virtue's Last Reward. A bit like C-End: 1, just what happens from D-Team's perspective.
So this means that Sigma will need to work with Akane to create the AB Project in the hopes that their future selves will be able to stop the outbreak... It really is a circle of fate;;;
D-End: 2 (The Hope of Two/A Silver Lining)
This really is a silver lining~ (;▽;)
It's a very bittersweet ending, I must say! But also lovely because it's the ending that shows you how Diana, Sigma and Phi are all connected and... Whoa.
This wasn't an ending I was expecting, but once it happened, it really made so much sense ;ω;
D-End: 2 is...probably my favourite, in a way :,) While I love the endings that lead to the events of Virtue's Last Reward, seeing something as special as this...it's hard to not love it! ♥
CQD-End: 2 (Pay-off 2/The Final Decision)
This is, as you can probably tell, linked to the first CQD-End. Once everyone ends up back at the starting point, Zero offers everyone one last decision to make.
I'm not really...a fan of this ending;; Even if it is the True Ending.. I mean, I like what you can read in the Files which you can do by loading the game again, but how it ends and everything it's just not what I was expecting. Which is kind of a let down... ; ___ ;
As for the Additional Endings, you have;
HAPPY END: (Virtual Reality) which is linked to Q and a choice he can make. Though the idea of a Virtual Reality sounds...kind of suffocating to me, but I guess he wouldn't know...right? I've never actually thought about that OMG! :,)
PERCEPTIVE END: (A Wrinkle in Time) which is an ending that branches off from the decision you make in the Study with Q-Team. You can't get this ending straight away though (unless you use cheats) so you need to come back to this once you've learned what you need to do.
Then you have all the Bad Endings/Game Overs which I won't bother explaining because that would literally take forever :,)
And there you have it; Zero Time Dilemma's Endings ^ω^
Remastered Versions~
Unfortunately, because Zero Time Dilemma was the final game in the series, there won't be a new Zero Escape game in the trilogy. Though that kind of goes without saying.. ^^;
BUT! Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Virtue's Last Reward are getting remastered! *ω* ..though I think the aspect of "remastered" will only be noticeable in Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors :,)
Both games are being re-released in a bundled version titled..
Zero Escape: The Nonary Games
While it's a cool idea and I'll most likely be getting it myself, the only real difference will lie (like I said) in Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors :,) I've read about it and it doesn't sound like Virtue's Last Reward will be any different than it was before;;;
Both games will be released at the same time for PS4, PS Vita, PS TV and for the PC available on Steam. It's unconfirmed as to whether or not the PS4 and PS Vita versions will have a physical release or if it'll just be available for digital download, but that doesn't really bother me since that's how I get most of my Vita games anyway :,)
Additions and Changes~
The remastered version of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors will contain;
- English and Japanese dual audio as well as the ability to disable voices. I personally am not too fussed about the English voices since I play these games in Japanese :,) But I know I would love to have Miyukichi, Tattsun and Yukarin back to reprise their roles and Akane, Junpei and Clover. ♡
- Unlike the iOS version, escape rooms will be included. Well, yea! You'd hope since that makes up the entire interactive part of Zero Escape games! :,)
- HD artwork! FUCK YEEAAA!! It's unknown at the moment though whether that will work on a widescreen since Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors was never initially released on widescreen, but developers are working on it! *ω*
- HD characters with animation adapted from the original DS version.
- Higher quality music.
- A Flow Chart which will most likely remove the Memories of Escape feature.
- Auto-advancing text boxes similar to Virtue's Last Reward so the player doesn't have to do much clicking :,)
The remastered version of Virtue's Last Reward will contain;
- ..nothing?
Heh ^^;
Because Virtue's Last Reward already has HD artwork and voice acting, there is no confirmation yet as to whether any new features will be added;; So the bundle is really just for Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors to get some new stuff! I guess they released Virtue's Last Reward along with it because both games include a version of The Nonary Game.
But. There is one thing in Virtue's Last Reward that might be changed. There is a small extra ending titled Another Time which, according to Kotaru Uchikoshi, was intended to be metafiction and not directly related to the ending of Virtue's Last Reward. So it's possible that Another Time might be changed which, I have to admit, will be interesting to see :3
So as you can see, most changes are only included in Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. But I do want to see all those changes for myself, so I'll most likely be getting the remastered version :,)
I just LOVE the Zero Escape games so much, so I want all I can possibly get out of them! >ω<
My Thoughts~
I have a lot of thoughts when it comes to this game :,) But I'll try not to make this too lengthy since this review might already be pushing to match the length of my review for Virtue's Last Reward.. ^^;
The True Ending is where most of my thoughts lie :,) Because this was the final game in the trilogy, I was hoping for a completely solid ending; no questions left or anything! But the game ended on a sort of cliffhanger, you could say? I mean, it's easy to presume that the choice that was presented in that final scene didn't happen, but again you can't be certain and I really don't like that;;
You even have to go back into the game to find out what happened to the characters after the Final Decision and I didn't even do that until a few days after I when I read it on a forum somewhere :,) And it's not even all of the characters; Sigma, Phi and Diana aren't included. So what happened to them? I mean, you can assume Sigma and Phi continue jumping to different pasts and stuff, but why would they want to go back when they can just stay there? And where does Diana go? That bothered me a lot;;;
The fact that you get no solid confirmation on their whereabouts and what happened during that Final Decision.. It just seems like you would want to include that, no?
BUT! I will say that who Zero turned out to be was an insaaaaaanely good plot twist! Like, it took me right until the last moment to realise! With Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors it gets obvious after a while and then Virtue's Last Reward wasn't a huge surprise since the previous Zero was an assistant to that Zero. So to have a completely different Zero who pretty much (in a sense), remained hidden most of the time, it was really good with a proper WHOA! factor :,)
Aside from the True Ending, I did like all of the other endings *ω*
Especially C-End: 1 and D-End: 1 ヽ( ★ω★)ノ While those are the endings that lead to the events of Virtue's Last Reward, I just thought it was SO cool to see them! Because once things start unfolding in Virtue's Last Reward and you're learning about all these different events and people and things that happened to them, you're just like..
"Well, I really want to see what happened!"
And you get to in Zero Time Dilemma and.. OMG! It's just SO awesome!!! >ω<
I also loved D-End: 2 ♥ I think I already mentioned this, but I just thought it was so special~ While the situation around Diana and Sigma was awful, what happened to them and what they went through was so lovely;;; Up until the very last moment </3 I definitely shed a tear or two with that ending ;A;
Neither of the Q-Endings excited me a huge amount, but I think maybe that's because I had no real feelings towards any of the characters in that team? I mean, you have Akane and Junpei in one team and Sigma and Phi in another who are all characters you're familiar with. And while I did like Carlos and you're aware of Diana because of "stuff", Q-Team were just completely new people all put together and I didn't like them that much :,) I mentioned before that Q-Team is the least liked team out of all of them, but it really isn't hard to see why :,) You have Eric who is one hair strand away from going berserk, you have Mira who is already berserk and Q who is just, I'm sorry, but nothing special :,) Regardless of the fact he is sweet, he's only there to cover up a pretty big secret! >o>
Even so! I did enjoy the twists in the story that came with Q-Team! *O* That team seemed to have a lot of those, so that made up for the fact they were just a bunch of crazies-- X,D
The other teams were great, though! ^ω^ While I do like Junpei and Akane and would consider them maybe top favourite characters, my favourite team is D-Team because Sigma is who you see Virtue's Last Reward through and Phi is pretty much with you in that game 24/7 and you know of Diana, so they really just make the perfect team! Plus their connection together that I've already mentioned is just... KYAAAAH~ /)/ / /(\ ..Plus they have the best escape rooms, in my opinion :,)
Speaking of escape rooms, I was a little disappointed at the difficulty level;; After hearing that professionals would be working on creating the escape rooms for Zero Time Dilemma, I was straight away thinking..
"OMG! They'll be so difficult! OMG! I can't WAIT!"
But once I got into the game, I found they were pretty freaking easy;; The escape rooms in Virtue's Last Reward had me seeking cheats every 5 minutes because I kept on getting stuck;; But in Zero Time Dilemma, I maybe looked for cheats 5 times in total, so... Yea D; While getting stuck is in no way exciting, it's better than flying through the puzzles;;; So that was a little bit of a let down :<
But the Decision Game at the end of each escape room was always good! *ω* And whenever it was timed, my heart would be thumping like..
"OMGOMGOMG! WHAT DO I DO?!" XD
And then whenever you made the wrong choice and got a bad end, it was kinda like..
"Oh crap."
..but in a weird way, I kinda liked it??! O/ /O;
I briefly mentioned this (though it was mostly about Q-Team and Zero), but the game as a whole had a lot of exciting and surprising twists and turns throughout! There were a couple of things I had in my mind that I hoped would happen.. AND THEY TOTALLY DID!! ♥ There were also some things I never even considered or thought would happen.. AND THEY TOTALLY DID!! There really is no shortage of WHOA! moments in this game. You will have to stop to catch your breath :,)
The style of the game resembled Virtue's Last Reward in the sense of you get a Flow Chart and can jump to different moments that are available to you, but what's different about Zero Time Dilemma is that there is no exact order. I mentioned you get different fragments to jump to for each team and you basically just choose one and then play through what you can. I did like this idea as I liked being able to switch between teams, but what I didn't like was the fact there was no order :<
For example, you'd maybe choose to go to a certain team and then witness something that happened with another team that you might not have seen yet;; And that ruins the surprise a bit because I find it's better to see first then see the other team witness said thing happening;;
I thought about this for ages and it took me a couple of days to complete, but I think I came up with a fairly decent order to play through the rooms that limit the amount of surprises as possible! ^O^
I know it says "Official Order", but it's not :,)
It's just the order I came up with that seemed like it would work well in seeing things in a better order. Because this game isn't linear, it doesn't really matter anyway... But I just thought it would be fun to try and come up with something like this :3 I have yet to try it out myself, but I think it'll work so maybe also try it yourself if you want! ^ω^
By the way, "Don't Shoot" and "Shoot Live" are options that come from the Decision Game in the Trash Disposal Room in case you were wondering what that meant.
Another thing I want to pick at was the animation of the game. It didn't bother me a huge amount, like it didn't take away any of the enjoyment or anything! But it was a little choppy in places; mostly the movement of the characters felt a little awkward. I also noticed that Akane's hair kept flipping out at one point and even sat inside her shoulder :,) I get the budget of the game was limited so I can't hate on it too much, but it wasn't the best animation I've ever seen;; The characters also have limited facial expressions :,) So if something bad was happening, they'd only look mildly surprised XD
But I thought the style of the characters in general was pretty :3 Meaning I liked how they looked, especially Akane, Junpei and Diana ^ω^
Oh! And of course, if you have the PS Vita version of this game, you can earn trophies as well. But they're pretty simple to earn and you do it without trying since they mostly come from seeing the different endings, earning all the files and other things you get during your play :3
I feel like I had more bad things to say than good, but I really did enjoy this game! ♡
I mean, it's thanks to Operation Bluebird that Kotaru Uchikoshi and the staff members were able to see how much the fans wanted the third and final game! And everyone involved in making the game really did do a good job, despite the annoyances and ticks I had with some elements :,)
It was a lot of fun to play through and I definitely will keep playing it whenever I need my fix of Zero Time Dilemma; Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Virtue's Last Reward included! ^^
My Overall Score~
For this section, I'm going to score out of 10 on each main feature :3
So, we have..
- Graphics: 7/10
- Music: 9/10 (the music was great, but it was pretty much the same score used in Virtue's Last Reward)
- Character Design: 8/10
- Puzzles: 7/10
- Content: 9/10
Overall: 7.5/10
You may be thinking..
"Why 7.5?"
But that's because a 7 just felt too harsh :,)
I try to find a mean overall score based on the individual ones I give and 7 felt too harsh and 8 felt too...generous? :,) Like I said, it's not a bad game! It's a great game! I just feel the True Ending lets it down slightly by finishing the way it did; I wanted it to carry on a little more. Plus there are also a few questions, it felt like, that were left unanswered;;;
But overall, it was a fun, enjoyable and heart-wrenching experience and I highly recommend the Zero Escape games to anyone who loves a good mystery/adventure game in a Visual Novel format ♥
~ ~ ~
So that was my review for Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma.
I know it was pretty long, so if you stuck with it until the end... Well done! >ω<
I hope you enjoyed it and if you haven't played any of the Zero Escape games before, you really should! It's an incredible experience~
And to everyone who has played them... Go play them again! Because I'm gonna! :,)
If you have any questions regarding my review or the game, please leave a comment below and I will try my best to answer as best as I can! ^^
Thank you for reading and have a great day~! :3
BYESIES~! c:
xoxo~
