Zero Time Dilemma Game Review~

Yahalloooo~ (^ _ ^)/

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~

Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ Game Review~

Yahalloooo~

So, I'm back! ♪ ..and for the second time this month! *O*

..that hasn't happened in a while ^^;

Like I said in my previous blog (if you read it), I'd be back in the near future to review Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ once I finished the game :3

Well, guess what?

It's the near future AND I finished it! >ω<

It was...yesterday when I finished the game;; and I miss it already :c

Which is strange that I miss it because when I first got this game, it literally took me forever to get into ^^; I don't know why, but that often happens with me when it comes to otome games :,) Like, it can take me a while to get fully immersed but once I do, I fall in love with them! ♥

I checked today on my PS Vita to see when I actually purchased the game and it was all the way back in February..! Σ(･o･;) And that's a long time to be playing a game!

8 months, in fact! (」゜ロ゜)」

But now that I have finished it, I really wish I had gotten into it straight away;; When I think back, I remember deciding to follow cheats from the start (which I'll explain more about later) and according to the cheats, it's best to start off with Van Helsing's route who is the character that is sort of...not
very connected with the main group? He joins in the second chapter with his own goals in mind and doesn't try to get close to anyone, so I think that maybe put me off? Like I found his route quite difficult to play through :,) Which is another super weird thing because he is now one of my favourites! >o<

But it's mean to blame Van Helsing.. He didn't really do anything wrong >ω<

Aaaaaanyway :,)

I think that's enough talking for now! I'm just going to get right on with the review~! :3

--SPOILER WARNING--

I'll try my best not to give anything huge away, but just in case...

You have been warned~ ^O^

~   ~   ~

Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~

Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ is a Visual Novel/Otome game for the PS Vita system. If you are unfamiliar with Visual Novels and Otome games, I'll explain what they are right now :3

Visual Novel;

An interactive fiction game which usually requires the player (obviously being yourself) to make choices throughout which will lead to different possible endings.

Otome;

A story based game that is usually more directed towards a female audience. The point of Otome games is to follow different routes that centre around a certain male character and to build up a romantic relationship with that certain character. Each character route usually has good and bad endings.

So with that explained, let's get right into the review! ^ω^

Story~

This story begins in the country of Wales. Living in an abandoned mansion, a girl named Cardia who was told in a letter that her father left for her that she must never leave the mansion and that one day, he would come and get her. Living isolated and alone, Cardia accepts this letter as truth because it's the only thing she has that means something to her. So she stays inside the mansion; branded as a "monster" by the locals as her body carries a deadly poison that melts anything she comes into contact with, waiting for her father to return. One day, the quiet solitude of her life is interrupted when the Royal Guards come all the way from London to kidnap her. As they leave the mansion and begin their journey back, they are halted by the appearance of Arsène Lupin, the Gentleman Thief who has also come to take Cardia. He swoops down amongst the confusion he has caused and after causing even more confusion, he quickly helps Cardia escape the Royal Guards.

She agrees to join Lupin's company in the hope of finding her father and finding a cure to her deadly condition as she journeys through London with Lupin and his four other bizarre, yet handsome companions...

Game System~

With the main story covered, I'll now talk about some other aspects the game has to offer :3

Main Heroine's Name~

Once you start a New Game, you have the option to change her name or keep it as the default name which is Cardia. Personally, I recommend you keep it as Cardia because...well, that's her original name.. ^^; Also because when she is spoken to by other people, they will say her name but if you change it, nothing will be said.

Plus Cardia is a pretty name! ♡ Why would you want to change it? >ω<

Game Flow~

Obviously, with this being an otome game, you straight away jump into the role of Cardia as the game begins. Although occasionally, you will switch to the point of view of other characters, but you can't make any choices when that happens; it's just to see what's happening elsewhere that links to the story or reveals more about certain characters.

Again, with the otome genre continuing, you'll make choices throughout the game that will influence the course of the story and raise affection with certain characters.

But something that is different here compared to other otome games is that you can't actually see the level of affection with these characters. In most games, there is an option in the menu or something where you can see what levels you have raised and stuff, but here you can just tell by the way the characters interact with Cardia. With the first 8 chapters of the game, it's pretty obvious to see what options will lead to which character as you sometimes get to choose to spend time with one of them. And once you reach the end of the eighth chapter, there is a moment when Cardia herself chooses to go with someone and that someone is the person whose route you have unlocked.

[ RANDOM TIP WITH SERAH ]

I do recommend following cheats with this game. Usually I would say do a blind play through first which...okay, is maybe fine for the first 8 chapters, but once you reach the ninth and you split off into a character route, it's maybe best to use cheats from that point. This is because some options you can choose will give you a game over and unless you save before that, you'll have to go back and start all the way from the beginning. If you don't mind that, then fine! But the first chapters are pretty lengthy and...I'm not saying they're bad, but I wouldn't like to play through them more than I have to as maybe after the third time, they start to get a bit boring as you know it all by this point;;

There is something in the Main Menu called The Path of Genesis which lets you choose what chapters you can skip to, but unless you have completed the entire character route, you can't use that option yet, so.. That's only really necessary if you want to play again :,)

So... Yes. Cheats are recommend and they're very easy to find :,) Just search for them and they'll appear super easily and they are also super easy to follow :3

Main Menu~

I would explain the System Menu as well, but that seems pretty self-explanitory :,) You have options like Save, Load, Glossary.. blahblah, you know the story :,)

So I thought just sticking with the Main Menu would be fine as you have more fun options here! :3

Memory Trunk;

This is where you store most things earned throughout the game :3

So you'll have things like Character CG's to view anytime you want (..yay! ♥), you have BGM (Background Music) which is actually great because this game has such a wonderful soundtrack~! You can also view the Opening Movie and the Ending Movie that features each character once you've completed their Good Ending and there are also Extra Stories which, again, are unlocked once you've completed the Good Ending for each character. These are just really short scenes where something happens and you get a shirtless CG of each character ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ..which is as good as it sounds! ;3

..although;; My favourite, Saint-Germain, is just wearing a skin tight black shirt thing with a kimono (I think it was?) draped around him;; which sucks because OMG! I bet he would have such a sexy front ASDFGHJKL ♥////♥

*cough* ..I-I'm sorry ^^; I just love him~~

Glossary;

This is where everything you learn throughout the game is stored. So, for example, when you learn things about places or people, it's kept here and you can view it (..if you want) anytime :,)

It's basically just a lengthier explanation of something mentioned in the game :3

Trophies;

This isn't something kept in the Code: Realize menu, but I thought I'd mention it since you can earn them :3 They're super simple to earn! You don't have to do anything specific, you just earn them as you go~

[ RANDOM TIP WITH SERAH ]

You get a trophy for each character once you have unlocked all of their CG's, but for Lupin, you need to complete his Normal Ending to unlock all of the Non-Character CG's :3

So just keep in mind if you like to earn all of the trophies (like myself >ω<), then I recommend viewing Lupin's Normal Ending :3

Characters~

Like I always say when I do my reviews, my favourite part is getting to talk about the characters! *ω*

So... Let's staaaaaaaaaart~! (◞⁎˃ᆺ˂)◞

Main Characters~

Name; Cardia

Age; Unknown, but looks around 18-20??

Occupation; Erm...being poisonous?? >ω<" ..too soon? X,D

The supah CUTE protagonist of the game! ♥

Sometimes the heroines in otome games can get a little annoying because...well, they tend to not have any real "personality"..

*cough* Amnesia heroine *cough* XD

But Cardia is really sweet and really not annoying! ^O^

Due to the fact she has lived alone for so long, she isn't really knowledgable about how to act in front of other people which is shown when she begins to take off her clothes to show Lupin the Horologium which is a gem embedded in her chest that causes the flow of poison in her body.. Ah! But don't worry! Lupin is a gentleman, so he asks her to get dressed again! X,3

In general, Cardia is a really sweet and innocent girl who cares about her friends and will often put them before herself. As the story progresses, she becomes less shy and contained and is able to express herself better and defend for herself.

Name; Arsène Lupin

Age; 24

Occupation; Gentleman Thief >ω<

Seiyuu; Tomoaki Maeno

[ You unlock Lupin's route once you've completed the other characters route; Normal or Good Ending ]

First of all...

Who doesn't love Lupin!? ♥

He is literally perfect in every way possible ;ω;

Lupin is a super fun character! He's always cheerful, optimistic and is full of confidence! He may be a thief, but he refers to himself as a "Gentleman" Thief because he doesn't steal for his own gain.. Though he'll keep any handling fee he earns X,D

Name; Abraham Van Helsing

Age; 27

Occupation; Vampire Hunter

Seiyuu; Junichi Suwabe ♥

At first, I really didn't like Van Helsing much;; He just wasn't very emotionally connected to everyone else in the group.. But after a while, I really started to like him! *ω* He can be slightly tsundere sometimes and I tend to like that in male characters.. >/ /<

He is a Vampire Hunter renowned for his amazing ability and fighting skills; he is even referred to as the "Human Weapon" as he was able to kill an entire clan of vampires in the Vampire War that happened two years prior to this game. He joins Lupin and his companions as he is searching for someone linked to Cardia with whom he wishes to settle a score with.

As a person, he is quite aloof and cold and rarely shows emotion. But deep down, he does start to care for everyone around him and will openly recognise skill when he sees it.

Name; Victor Frankenstein

Age; 25

Occupation; Alchemist

Seiyuu; Tetsuya Kakihara

Victor is definitely the cootie-patootie of the group! >ω<

Like, he's SO adorably cute and stuff~

He was once a government researcher, but left that life behind after a serious incident occurred with something he helped to create.

Victor is very clever and has an immense amount knowledge when it comes to the field of science and as a person, he is humble and sociable, but he is often shown to have a fragile self-esteem level.

While he looks like he could barely lift a pencil, he is very capable at defending others and himself as he can make an array of potions and concoctions that prove useful in battle.

Name; Impey Barbicane

Age; 27

Occupation; Genius Engineer ;p

Seiyuu; My love, Shou-chan! ♥ (Showtaro Morikubo)

Impey is one of those annoying womaniser characters -___-

BUT! Because it seems like that's just a title be bestowed upon himself, he's actually super easy to love :3 

I'd say Impey is my second favourite character; he's just so much fun! >ω<

While his ingenuity is acknowledged by the other characters, they are seen mocking him more often than not.. X,D Especially Lupin and Van :,) But he still has an impressive level of self-esteem and confidence :,)

Impey is very care-free, energetic and friendly.. Maybe overly friendly sometimes as he never passes up a chance to flirt with Cardia :,) Though in his route, he is way more sweet and genuinely cares about her! ♡ 

He also claims he'll be the first man to land on the moon! (•̀o•́)ง

Name; Saint-Germain

Age; Umm... ^^;

Occupation; [ I'll keep that a secret to avoid spoilers ]

Seiyuu; Hirarin!! ♥ (Daisuke Hirakawa)

Behold!! My favourite!!

Saint-Germain! ///////

Just LOOK at him! LOOOOOOK!! LOOOOOK! JUST LOOK AT HIM!!!

His elegance! His beauty! ..HIS FREAKING LEGS OMG! GIMME!! >/ / / /<

*breathe in* . . . *breathe out*

..okay. I'm okay now! ^^;

I can't help that I love him so much ;A;

Saint-Germain is the most mysterious character out of them all. You literally find out next to nothing about him until you unlock his route which definitely kept me on my toes! *O*

I can tell you that he is a wealthy land owner with a mansion where he lets everyone else stay, but not for free, of course~ XD

He has a definite air of grace and dignity and speaks wonderfully~ Hirarin melts me~ ;/ / / /;

I will say though that he never opens his eyes, but when he does..

It actually scared me!! XD Like, he's my favourite, but whenever he opened his eyes, I'd flinch away from the screen! Even though they are the most beautiful colour ♥ 

But you get used to it~ So much that you miss it when he closes them;;

Also his route made me cry SO much! ; ___ ; You could see his suffering plainly on his face and in his eyes and it hurt me!;;

He's wonderful~ And the ending of his route it so romantic~ *blushes* ^/ /^

Supporting Characters~

These characters are technically supporting characters, but they are so much involved in the story that they could be considered main.. So, let's say Main-Supporting Characters :,)

But because they are quite closely involved in the story, trying to talk about them may lead to me spoiling certain things, so.. I'll just leave it as their Name, Age, Occupation and Seiyuu :3

Name; Finis

Age; Unknown, but... Maybe looks about 10-13, I'd say :,)

Occupation; Being annoying--! >ω<

Seiyuu; Of course, it would have to be Yuki Kaji ;3

Name; Herlock Sholmes.. Yes, you read that right :p

Age; 28

Occupation; Private Detective

Seiyuu; Kazuya Murakami

Name; Jimmy A. Aleister

Age; 54

Occupation; [ I'll keep that a secret to avoid spoilers ]

Seiyuu; Rikiya Koyama

Name; Delacroix II (later nicknamed by Impey as Delly)

Age; 12

Occupation; Heir to [ spoiler ] XD

Seiyuu; Miho Ishigami

My Thoughts~

After it taking me a long while to get into this game, by the end of it, I could definitely say that I enjoyed it very much! ^ω^

The first thing I noticed about this game was it's AWESOME Steampunk theme! Like, OMG! That rocked so hard! ♥ The characters clothes are all so cool! And the background designs are insanely detailed and beautiful as well :,) They even go as far as to add a mechanical leg to a small dog so even he has something Steampunky about him, as well! >ω<

STEAMPUNK! STEAMPUNK! STEEEAMPUNNNK!! /////

The soundtrack for this game was... Whoa.

It was really something else! So many wonderful and powerful pieces! You have your easy-going pieces for a fun scene and your serious pieces for a scary scene..

It all just fits SO well! *ω*

I have...many favourites, but I think this one tops them all~! ♥

Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ OST: Guardian of Rebirth

It's so beautiful~ And moves my heart completely~

Oh! And this one too! You can't forget this one! ;ω;

Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ OST: Beside You This Evening

You just know a really special scene is happening when you hear this~

And this one just because! >ω<

Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ OST: Junk Inventor

It just reminds me of Impey and I love it so much! :,D

Some of the ones I would also like to link haven't been uploaded, but you get the idea! :3

A-MAZ-ING SOUNDTRACK! ♡

As for the characters, I loved all of them :,) ..there were maybe a few exceptions..

*cough* Nemo *cough* He is a character who appears once, but has more of an impact in Impey's route, so I didn't feel it was necessary to mention him with the other Supporting Characters, but Nemo. Yes, he was very annoying. When you first come across him, it's like..

 "Wow! He's so weird and funny!!" :,D

But the after a while of listening to him and stuff, it's more like..

 "Someone just...take this guys meds away from him." .-.

But aside from Nemo annoying me and Finis (more so towards the end of Lupin's route) I could pretty much like everyone else :,) I especially enjoyed the interactions between Lupin and Herlock Sholmes >ω<

Talking more about characters, I loved seeing how Cardia developed relationships with them and also how they developed relationships with each other! ..I say that in a friendly manner, mind you ;p

It's just really sweet watching this naïve girl getting all cute and flustered trying to figure out what this feeling is that she has towards them :,) There was a pretty emotional scene in Van Helsing's route when he sort of just snaps at her and begs her not to follow him because he cares about her and doesn't want her to get hurt;; Impey was one of the funniest, too! :,) At first, Cardia is just like..

 "OMG! This dude is weird, get him away from me!"

So when they finally develop and relationship, it's like..

 "Heh.. You luuuuuurve him!" ;3

And also funny how no one believes Impey when he tells them :,) They literally think he drugged her or something and made her say all those things.. Okay, well maybe not "drugged"... But they still didn't believe him :,)

..although no matter how hard you look at it, Cardia fits the most perfectly with Lupin ^//ω//^

And because all the characters are so different, no route is exactly the same or travels in the same direction :3 Different routes focus on different supporting characters and give them more depth which sometimes helps towards your understanding of that person in another route!

It's just...all very well done, I think ^ω^

I also absolutely LOVED the story!! *ω* While at the end I thought Cardia getting her poison cured felt too easy, the rest of it was great! I love how each route really reflected so well on the specific character and I also loved that each character had a really deep and emotional backstory;; 

But back to the main story :,) I really felt that it was very detailed and very well thought out :3 I also liked how each chapter focused on something brand new and elaborated on that and how also something in each chapter ended up circling back around and connecting to Cardia in some way :3

If there was maybe something I disliked...it was maybe the length of the chapters;;

I remember when I reviewed Amnesia, I commented that the chapters could have been longer, but with this game...maybe a little shorter? I'm not contradicting myself too much, am I? ^^; Like by saying I loved how detailed the story was but wanting the chapters to be shorter? ^^;

Maybe not so much the character chapters, but the first eight chapters. I already mentioned this, but by the third time you have to start this game, you've pretty much memorised everything that happens in these first eight chapters and they start to become really difficult to play through .-. I swear the amount of times I fell asleep and actually played through them in a sleep-type...daze...thing? Like I remember starting Chapter Six which is one of my least favourites ^^; I started it and what only felt like a few minutes in, I was already half way through! :,) So I must have hella been dozing to miss all of that :,)

I mean, they were GOOD. But if there was a way to skip them, I would have taken it;; It's just you have to play through them again to make all the choices necessary to move onto another character route;;

That also links to why I recommend cheats :,) Because it would be A LOT of effort to complete all of those chapters, enter the character route, choose something wrong, get a game over and have to start All. Over. Again. >. >

I say that, but I also recommend using cheats because it's interesting to get a game over :,)

Once you've made a choice that leads to a Bad Ending, the story doesn't continue for much longer, but it's still fun seeing what the wrong option leads to, you know? :3

So as long as you save before you make your choice, you can get the Bad Ending and then go and load your save and continue without having to start from the beginning again :,)

I also recommend you actually try to get the Bad Endings and Normal Endings :3 because it adds a new level of depth to the story :3 The Normal Endings tend to be very sad, but are interesting to see how the characters develop when that path is taken! ^O^ Of course nothing beats the Good Endings (especially Lupin's! ♥), but do it because it's just...fun! ^ω^

But this game really is worth playing through purely for the ending of Lupin's route! ♥

It's SO romantic and literally everything you're hoping for and more! *ω*

I recommend that you play this game :3

I know I slammed a lot on the first eight chapters for being so tedious after the first few play throughs, but it's worth it once you reach a character route because they are all so great! ..I can't find a thing to fault them about, actually! O:

So...yush :3

Serah recommends this one! ;D

Overall Score~

Like always, I rate specific categories individually then rate the overall game after :3

> Background Graphics: 10/10 (STEEEAMPUNNNK!!!)

> Character Designs: 10/10 (everyone looks B-E-A-UTIFUL!)

> Music: 10/10 (beautiful music and so fitting)

> Story: 9/10

Overall: 8/10

..I can't help but rate everything so highly ^^; It's all genuine scoring, though! ^ω^

But I rated the game an 8/10 overall though because of how repetitive it was to replay the first 8 chapters.. It doesn't lessen the quality of those chapters, just the feeling of replaying them again was kind of boring because you just KNOW everything.. ;A;

But regardless of that, I really did love this game and I really do recommend it to anyone who loves otome games! It's also on MAL (MyAnimeList) as it'll be getting an anime adaption...at some point, I don't know when yet :,) But hopefully that'll be good, so I'm looking forward to that! ^O^

..I digress :,)

Definitely give the game a try! :3

~   ~   ~

So that was my review for Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ :3

I hope you enjoyed it and it helped you decide whether or not you want to play the game if you haven't already ^O^

If you have any questions about the game, please feel free to leave a comment and I'll reply as best I can~ 

Thank you for reading and have a great day~! ^ω^

BYESIES~! c:

                          xoxo~

October Updates~

Yahalloooo~ ^ω^
..it's been a while again, huh? ^^;

I'm kinda just not doing anything of real significance right now, so I thought I'd write a blog :,) ..not that I have an awful lot to say (do I ever?) but we'll see where this goes! >ω<

Oh! Like pretty much every other person at the moment, I'm currently very obsessed with Mystic Messenger *ω* If you don't know what that is, it's an otome phone app. where you basically message different guys (and one girl which is a fun twist to the otome genre) and work through their different routes and get all sorts of different endings and awesome CG's and stuff :3 I usually just play console otome games so I wasn't expecting much when I downloaded this app. but it's actually seriously great! ..sometimes a little creepy and a lot of the time very emotional;; if you're into things like this, I recommend this app. and welcome you to MysMes HELL! >:D
I only have two complaints about this game .-.
1. The MC really needs to get a fucking haircut, like seriously >. >
2. And JuHyun NEED their own route! They. Just. Do. (JuHyun = Jumin x Zen)
Those two are seriously shippable it's unreal! Also Jumin is SO gay. And SO my favourite ;3
..that sounds like a very strange thing to say, but whatever :,)
I'm currently working through Seven's route which, according to cheats and stuff, is the final one to play through if you want to play in a recommend order to avoid spoilers. Though when you're far in MysMes Hell like I currently am...it's very hard to avoid spoilers and people will just tell you anything anyway which sucks;; But I still feel some stuff hasn't been spoiled...kinda??
Eh, well. It's still fun! :,)

I'm also very close to completing Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ ♡
I can't remember exactly when I got this game, but it was a while ago; maybe around the time it actually came out :,) it took me a ridiculously long time to get into, but now that I am into it, I SO love it! ♡ So when I finish it, I'll be reviewing the game, so yay! :3
Oh! I'm also still planning to review Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma, but that may be a little longer ^^; And there are two reasons for that :,) The first being that I want to replay it just to refresh my memory of all the things that happened so my review will be a little better and the second reason is that there is another game coming out at the end of this month that I really want to play and...I'll probably review that once I've played it, so...
J-Just know that the Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma review will be happening, I just don't know when yet heh ^^;
But YES, Code: Realize ♡
Saint-Germain is my favourite ///// In a way, he's kind of the most frightening character with a really dark story, but...it's because of that that he's my favourite ;ω; It's like you see all of that and also see all of his suffering you just want more than anything to make him happy! So...his route is definitely my favourite *ω*
He is then VERY closely followed by Impey :,) which is surprising because I don't usually like characters who are considered "womanisers" and stuff.. But because Impey is really cute and funny and...slightly "absent" in his head, you can't dislike him :,) then after Impey, it's Van Helsing who I didn't like much at first, but the more I think about him, the more I do! He has the tsundere personality I really like in guys :,) and then the super cute Victor comes next :,) I can't say where Lupin will come because I haven't finished his route yet...but maybe he'll be around the middle, I think? I just know that he won't top Impey or Saint-Germain.
It's just not possible :,) 
But Lupin is still awesome and definitely the HERO of the story who will save Cardia~ *ω*
..at least I hope he does;;

Also! The game I mentioned coming out later this month, I am SO excited! >/ /<
It's called Root Letter (√Letter) and it looks stunningly beautiful with a very interesting story! ♡
The gameplay is stylised in a Visual Novel format with the genre of adventure ^ω^ You're playing as a character who, when said character was younger, had a pen pal named Aya. They would both exchange letters but one day, letters from Aya suddenly stopped arriving after the player received a peculiar letter from her. The player than travels to Shimane to try and uncover the reason behind Aya's disappearance while interacting with people who knew Aya and by also piecing different clues together.
I am SO excited for this, words don't even begin to cover it! *ω* I also still can't wrap my head around how beautiful this game looks~ And even MORE exciting is that this game is going to be the first in a new series (most likely stand-alone games instead of a series of sequels) so that's something to look forward to! 
If you're interested, here is a trailer for the game~
PLEEEEEASE WATCH IT! ♡
Root Letter (√Letter) English Story Trailer - PS4 / PS Vita
So? So? It's beautiful, right? Looks incredible, right?! *ω*
I'm SO excited omG! I even order the super expensive Pen Pal edition.. T ___ T
MY POOR BANK ACCOUNT! IT CRIES AND CRIES AND CRIES! ;;;

But. Worth. It.

Y-Y-YAAAAAY~! *ω*

Aaaaand...I think that's all I have to say.. >A<

I feel like my spontaneous blogs always end so abruptly :,)

..Oh well! ^ω^

I hope you found this blog fun to read~

Have a great day, everyone :3

BYESIES~! c:

                         xoxo~