Should you play this Nonary game?
First, let's get the elephant in the room out of here. As of now, I have not played 999, the title which preceded today's title. For those who don't know, 999: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors was a visual novel on the Nintendo DS that became a cult hit when it was released in 2010. It became so beloved and so popular that the developer decided to announce a sequel less than a year after its North American launch and even before Zero Escape reached our shores, Chunsoft has already talked about yet another sequel. Anyway, to prepare myself for this game, I tried my hardest to get my hands on a copy of 999, but as I said earlier, it was all for naught. However, I did talk to one of my good friends who had played the game and this is what he had to say " The gameplay was minimal as expected for a visual novel, but the story was very good. It had a good plot and that's all it had going for it". Well spoken. I should mention at this point that you don't need to play the first game in the series in order to enjoy the second, it may help at points, but we'll get into that later in the story. Also, subtle much? Might as well play Iron Maiden for the theme.
So yes, I never did get to play 999 before this review though I plan to in the future. For now, we have to ask: Is Zero Escape a rewarding new experience? Or should this be Chunsoft's last stand? Let's find out.
the story goes like this. You and eight other people were kidnapped and placed into a facility to play "a game", unbeknownst as to why they were chosen. The goal of this "game" is to get enough points in order to open up a door with the number nine. In order to do that, you and eight other people need to team up in groups and solve a series of puzzles. All the while, the mastermind behind this game is a player just like you, but you don't know who it is, it could be anyone. Even you. It's easy to compare the plot to Saw, except Zero Escape is more experimental on the selfish nature of humanity and less... torture porn. As expected for a visual novel, there is alot of story and choices to make. The plot gets pretty complicated at some points (believe me, any game that involves multiverse theory and Schrödinger's Cat for thematic purposes is anything but simple) though in all honesty, it's really easy to follow the story. The characters are all distinct and they really do make choosing sides all the more difficult in a game fuelled by trust. The only aspect of the narrative that I doesn't work was you... or rather the character you plays as named Sigma. In such a serious situation, it's amazing that he comes off as the one you wish would die as he constantly tries to get some cheap perverted thrill when everyone including himself could die or worse yet, forced to lie in some unknown facility for the rest of his life. There's also one character who tries way too hard to be memorable and funny and fails at both aspects. I won't say who it is, bunny's not funny at all. Not a bad character, they just come off as trying way too hard. Aside from the very unlikable protagonist and this other character, the rest of the cast is full of players with unique and distinct personalities; you're sure to have your favourites during your time in the facility, mine are Clover, Phi and K, and you'll want to see them make it to the end with you. Their voice actors sell their part at their worst but at their best, they capture the mood of being trapped in a facility where the people you're working with may kill you just to save themselves. There's also some genuinely funny moments in Zero Escape, mainly from its twisted dark humour that really works. The premise is fantastic and Zero Escape executes it almost perfectly. There's a ton of story to enjoy, and I do mean plenty. There's a plethora of multiple endings, most of which tend to end either horrifically or tragically, but they do encourage you to play through the multiple paths and uncover every little spec that you can in this facility. There's plot twists in every branching story path that always keep you guessing while filling you in on important details in other parts that drives you to keep playing to unravel the entire story. Best of all, you don't need to play 999 in order to enjoy the narrative! I'm sure veteran Nonary players will understand key elements of the plot more than those that haven't and be able to answer some of the many questions you'll be asking yourself during the events in the plot, but anyone can jump right in without any knowledge of the previous game and enjoy a fascinating mystery horror, the selfish characteristic of human nature and a truly horrific game that is most definitely a game of life or death.
As good as the plot is for Zero Escape, a game is only as good as the sum of its parts. As far as the gameplay goes, Zero Escape is a puzzler. Quite literally, it's all about interacting with the environment, collecting clues and items to solve a smaller puzzle and escape from a locked room. In order to escape, you need to find a password and unlock a safe with the key that will let you escape and that's where what you collect comes in handy. Sometimes, items need to be examined, flipped around, combined with another item or even taken apart. They're usually necessary in order to find and solve a smaller puzzle, like adding up numbers in a specific order to 91 or figuring out the weight of coins. The puzzles are fun and incomparable, no two ever play the same, and they get very challenging, so luckily you can switch between Hard and Easy Mode. Depending on your difficulty you'll get different rewards and unlock different secrets for your enjoyment. But be warned, once you change to easy you can't change back until after you exit the room, so if you want to get the best secrets, you're going to have quite the challenge on your hands. And then there's the Ambidex Game. It's rather simple, you either choose to either Ally or Betray your opponent, which leads to you gaining or losing points in the Nonary game and branches off paths in the game's multiple ending. Speaking of multiple endings, Zero Escape's path changes depending on key decisions you make in the Nonary Game. Who you choose to go with in the round, who you ally or betray, and so on and so forth. It adds alot of replay value to the game, you're sure to get at least 30 hours out of it and even more if you want to get every single secret from every safe.
With such a vast amount of play time, thoughtful puzzles all tied together with a horrific mystery tale, you have to ask yourself, are there any vices in Virtue's Last Reward?
There's only one, and that would be that the game simply has too much story relative to its gameplay. I know that in the visual novel genre, gameplay isn't the major focus, but still, that's not my point. I play a game for the experience of the gameplay. Out of the 30 or so hours, I believe only 9 and a half or so were actually me solving puzzles as opposed to watching the story unfold. Even when a game has a wonderful story such as this one, when there's not alot of gameplay to actually play, then there's a lack of substance to break up the story. and that can get pretty annoying when the cutscenes are taking up the majority of your play-time. What gameplay exists is fantastic. I just felt there could have been just a little bit more put in during certain parts. Other than that, I don't have much else to complain about, most of my other problems are minor nitpicks, like why do you have to choose your language every time you boot up the game, why not have an option button to just switch it if you change your mind? In fact, why do you need to select a file when you only have one save file to choose from? That's just... dumb... Just have a new game and continue option. Simple as that. Also, (big shock), the 3D doesn't add anything during cutscenes or puzzles, though in all fairness, it is a multi-platform title so I didn't expect it to do much in the first place.
It's a bit of a shame, because the story and gameplay are interwoven quite well, but there's just not a ton of gameplay shoved into there. To me, the game mechanics comes first and story comes second, if there is one. Even though Zero Escape has fantastic gameplay, it could have benefitted from just a little more. That's not to say you won't enjoy it, the environment puzzles are well done. It's just a shame that there's not more of it.
Finally, the presentation. I can't speak for the Vita version, but on the 3DS, Zero Escape is pretty solid. Admittedly, most of the environments are grey and unappealing but character models but there are a few standouts that look quite good. Character models look unique and expressive, though they don't move around more than just act as icons. As for voices, you have the option to choose Japanese or English which is a nice option. The English voice actors range from decent to great. The sound quality of the voice work itself is questionable, it's especially noticeable whenever an s sound is made. The lip sync hits more than misses but it does looks off at times. Oh, and if you're wondering about that animated video, it never shows up once. There's some in-game cutscenes, but that's about it. But the best part of the game's presentation is the soundtrack. It's a truly haunting and downright creepy that's absolutely perfect in setting the tone of a scene and capturing the foreboding atmosphere in this gloomy scenario. These compositions get your blood pumping and the hair on the back of your neck stand up, it's simply fantastic. Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward has its ups and downs in its presentation but never fails to be anything less than good.
Overall, Zero Escape is a surprisingly chilling title and a downright brilliant visual novel, scoring eight of ten points from me. Now I wanted to give this game a higher score, but what it all came down to was that as much fun I had with the puzzles and as much as I enjoyed the story, I just couldn't forgive how much more narrative there was. If you love a good story and some great puzzles, I shouldn't even have to tell you that you'll love this game. However, if you're new to the visual novel and you're looking something a little darker, then give Zero Escape a chance.
Until next time, game on my friends!