This review contains spoilers
Until an hour ago I thought Virtue's Last Reward was about as good as a sequel to 999 could aspire to be. The magic of the first game, the tricks and the spark that fueled it could really only carry it for a single entry. Now that I've just reached the ending of this game, I'm assured that turning 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors into a franchise was a massive mistake. All because of VLR's ending. Or more accurately, its lack thereof.
999 worked not just because of its brilliance in game design and in how the platform of the ds enhanced the storytelling, but because it was expansive enough to clear up its biggest mysteries while maintaining the restraint to leave enough mysteries and unknown variables.
A sequel not just in terms of themes, gameplay or gimmicks but also in terms of storytelling has to take Schrödinger's cat out of the box and dissect it in front of us, the players, especially for fans of the previous one who want to know what those familiar (or not so familiar) faces are doing in their second show.
The result is a game that, while not at all lacking in substance, spends all of its time warming up for a final sprint, leading up to a final leap that doesn't actually come. At least, not until you buy the next entry in the Zero Escape Trilogy! Zero Time Dilemma! Drama! Action! Mystery! Don't you want to know how the story ends???
"History repeats itself, first as a stone cold banger of a vn, second as the parody of itself" -2Pac
999 worked not just because of its brilliance in game design and in how the platform of the ds enhanced the storytelling, but because it was expansive enough to clear up its biggest mysteries while maintaining the restraint to leave enough mysteries and unknown variables.
A sequel not just in terms of themes, gameplay or gimmicks but also in terms of storytelling has to take Schrödinger's cat out of the box and dissect it in front of us, the players, especially for fans of the previous one who want to know what those familiar (or not so familiar) faces are doing in their second show.
The result is a game that, while not at all lacking in substance, spends all of its time warming up for a final sprint, leading up to a final leap that doesn't actually come. At least, not until you buy the next entry in the Zero Escape Trilogy! Zero Time Dilemma! Drama! Action! Mystery! Don't you want to know how the story ends???
"History repeats itself, first as a stone cold banger of a vn, second as the parody of itself" -2Pac
5 Comments
It's so much. Having invested in it, knowing how the previous game was paced, I expected it to all make sense by the end. It actually does, in its own contorted way. It's just that it's completely batshit crazy and even now that I'm a couple months removed from completing it I still get flashes of the insane reveals and lose a bit of my mind every time. Maybe I should just let it go and laugh at the sheer silliness of the writing, get something positive out of it. Like how his name is frigging KYLE! How did I even forget that!
his name is Kyle except in one third of the endings where he's secretly a very old woman (because of Schrodinger's Cat)
I simultaneously know all this stuff and yet I don't (or rather, choose to forget). Also, happy to see you're back!
I agree with a lot of the points here, Im not as harsh on the game cause I think up until then the tension, humour and everything else was well done, but yeah it just built a house of cards that collapsed in on itself. I love ZTD though, unironic "so bad its good" territory for me
SlimeLord
1 year ago