• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward |OT| -- More Hours, More Persons, More Doors

Gvaz

Banned
So I guess I have to write down passwords given to me in novel segments? I wish the vita version let me use a pen or my samsung's SPEN because using my finger sucks.

Other than that I don't see much of a point of it.
 

AniHawk

Member
VLR final thoughts(for now at least)

But that all brings me to Akane Kurashiki. Her character is so fascinating, tragic, and frustrating. Gotta say, I was so happy when I found out the old woman was her. Figured there would be some super touching moments with her and Junpei at the end and I might get my happy ending. NOT SO. NOT SO AT ALL. Last night after I finished I was downright pissed off with her. How could she do all this? How could she intentionally let people die when she tried so hard to fight against the people who set up the first Nonary Game? So yeah I was pissed and indignant until I kind of realized I had her entire character wrong. She was never the girl she was portraying herself to be in 999. She was Zero, she was the orchestrated of all of this. But she was also a victim. She had DIED for no reason in the first Nonary Game. After that, she was never going to be the Akane that Junpei knew when they were kids. She was something else completely. Her quest for revenge was justifiable, to say the least.

But then in VLR here she is again, dragging more people in for "the greater good." I think her goals are noble but I will never not think that the greater good people are also kind of crazy. Especially when they're choosing to sacrifice other people for that goal. Especially Clover and Alice, they had their lives essentially stolen from them by Akane. At least at the end they reveal that there may be a way for them to go back to their time with their minds and bodies in tact. But even if she comes across as a heartless monster at times, there was that one line K tells Sigma that she said. Something about how she wishes more than anything she could have gone off with the person she loved but that it just wasn't an hoption for her. Junpei seemed to accept this though. He finally got closure on his end of the story. Akane isn't afforded such a luxury though. Her mind must be so fucked up from all the time jumping. Seeing all of these disasters over and over again, having the relive so much pain.

i super love that aspect of akane, that she's not the meek idealized school friend. danganronpa also plays with this trope, but 999/vlr do it in a far more subtle way. during 999, she is definitely playing junpei in order to get a response out of him that would have him connect to her younger self. i don't think she's bloodthirsty, vengeful person, but a survivalist, and will do whatever it takes to achieve the best reality.

999 was all about stabilizing one kind of reality, the one which led to various realities seen in vlr. vlr is about stabilizing the reality seen at the end of the game (every other ending, i think all of timespace collapses in on itself- there's a hint of this in 999 too, i think).

just a hunch, but i think the long game akane's playing is to restore her stolen youth, or a the very least to have a reality where she could live out her childhood. maybe with junpei. we'll have to see what the third game has in store, whenever it comes out.
 

Gvaz

Banned
This game is fantastic, I've been playing it for all the endings lately and it's nuts.

I wish the UI didn't suck at times, and I wish there was more animation, and there was a way to increase text speed for Sigma on auto, I read it like 3 times faster than it sticks around for.

Finally got my first unlock, #8. I think this game will be my first platinum'd game.
 

Gvaz

Banned
JgzhlBk.jpg

Aw yeah, my first ever platinum.

Where is that fuckin third game?
 

Zhao_Yun

Member
Okay guys, I started the game yesterday and I just got my first "to be continued" screen but I have a question about that.

My playthrough ended in the director's office where Sigma gets visions of the other dead people (and scenes which I haven't seen yet) and is prompted to type in an ID and a password into the computer. I treid a few combinations like "Remember" and "Death" or "Memento" and "Mori" but neither of them worked. I got fed up with it after some time and pressed "return". What followed was the "To be continued" screen.
So my question is: am I supposed to know the ID and the password at this point in the game or do I have to play other routes first before coming back to this point? I didn't want to google it because I was afraid of spoilers so hopefully I'll get an answer here.
 

Wichu

Member
Okay guys, I started the game yesterday and I just got my first "to be continued" screen but I have a question about that.

My playthrough ended in the director's office where Sigma gets visions of the other dead people (and scenes which I haven't seen yet) and is prompted to type in an ID and a password into the computer. I treid a few combinations like "Remember" and "Death" or "Memento" and "Mori" but neither of them worked. I got fed up with it after some time and pressed "return". What followed was the "To be continued" screen.
So my question is: am I supposed to know the ID and the password at this point in the game or do I have to play other routes first before coming back to this point? I didn't want to google it because I was afraid of spoilers so hopefully I'll get an answer here.

You have to play the other routes first.
 
I just got this game and just beat the
Crew Quarters puzzle
and that had to be the most ridiculously stupid puzzle I've played so far in the series. How the hell would I know
the order to put the numbers in from the shapes?
Why make it more complicated than it is?
 

Jintor

Member
I just got this game and just beat the
Crew Quarters puzzle
and that had to be the most ridiculously stupid puzzle I've played so far in the series. How the hell would I know
the order to put the numbers in from the shapes?
Why make it more complicated than it is?

I mean, I don't remember this very clearly anymore, but I remember being able to work this out explicitly from the room, so...
 
I am pretty sure there was a foil with the correct order.

The foil displayed the incorrect order (which was the entire problem). The foil displayed it as
Circle, Star, Diamond, Triangle;1689
when that wasn't the number for the locker. The number was something else. It was
backwards for the gold file and some weird ass order for the key.
 

Lusankya

Member
The foil displayed the incorrect order (which was the entire problem). The foil displayed it as
Circle, Star, Diamond, Triangle;1689
when that wasn't the number for the locker. The number was something else. It was
backwards for the gold file and some weird ass order for the key.

Ah yeah, that was because
two symbols on the poster were flipped, so you're supposed to flip these numbers as well.
 

Xenoflare

Member
Vita is the superior version. No save corrupting bugs, and better graphics.

The 3DS version has a few cool interface additions, but nothing worth switching to if the Vita version is an option.

If I'm not mistaken the Vita version also has higher quality audios, particularly the voices.
 
I bought this a long while ago, but I never played it. Some fool in some thread haphazardly spoiled the location of the game. I remember being wowed by the location reveal in 999. Are there plenty of other twists and turns to make it worth playing? I'm sure there are, but having the location spoiled was a huge bummer for me. I've started playing it but the location thing is eroding a lot of the mystery in the atmosphere.
 
I bought this a long while ago, but I never played it. Some fool in some thread haphazardly spoiled the location of the game. I remember being wowed by the location reveal in 999. Are there plenty of other twists and turns to make it worth playing? I'm sure there are, but having the location spoiled was a huge bummer for me. I've started playing it but the location thing is eroding a lot of the mystery in the atmosphere.
It's a spoiler, but I wouldn't say it's a huge one. (The reason for why you are there is a much bigger spoiler.) Most likely the ending it's revealed in will be the first one you get. (It is for most people.) There are many, many more crazy twists and turns in the game to look forward too.

It's also VERY obvious if you are paying attention, even early on.
 

Tenrius

Member
It's a spoiler, but I wouldn't say it's a huge one. (The reason for why you are there is a much bigger spoiler.) Most likely the ending it's revealed in will be the first one you get. (It is for most people.) There are many, many more crazy twists and turns in the game to look forward too.

Do you mean the Dio ending? I actually thought it was just some desert lol. And I think it's the way it was supposed to be ­­­­– the Earth is all red, so you automatically assume the game is taking place on the "red moon night". A red herring, quite literally. I also didn't think it was all that obvious, all the gravitation shenanigans flew right over my head and I just assumed for the most of the game that it was a test facility/shelter in a desert, protected from the virus outside.

The Awesomest: I'd say it's a pretty big spoiler, sadly. However, there's a ton of other circumstances surrounding the whole ordeal, some are even more interesting, so stick to it and you won't be disappointed.
 

Acid08

Banned
Yeah, that's a pretty big spoiler. Sorry you had to see that :/

But still, it's only one part of a huge mystery, still very much worth playing.
 
Eh, as far as spoiler go in the game, I still say it's no where near the top of the list. There's so much more that factors into it, that the one piece of knowledge by itself won't mean much alone.
 

Acid08

Banned
Eh, as far as spoiler go in the game, I still say it's no where near the top of the list. There's so much more that factors into it, that the one piece of knowledge by itself won't mean much alone.
It's one of the biggest reveals in the game dude. It's a very shitty thing to find out before you even start playing.
 
It's one of the biggest reveals in the game dude. It's a very shitty thing to find out before you even start playing.
Yes, I totally agree that it sucks to be spoiled on it. But as I said before, I don't think it's even in the top 5 of big reveals in the story, and it's one of the first major reveals in the game you learn. (For most people, anyway.)

There are certain reveals that I think being spoiled on would very heavily impact your enjoyment of the game, I do not think this is one of them. (Especially since it's also very obvious from early on in the game.)

I'm not trying to play anything down or give false expectations.
 

Holykael1

Banned
Yes, I totally agree that it sucks to be spoiled on it. But as I said before, I don't think it's even in the top 5 of big reveals in the story, and it's one of the first major reveals in the game you learn. (For most people, anyway.)

There are certain reveals that I think being spoiled on would very heavily impact your enjoyment of the game, I do not think this is one of them. (Especially since it's also very obvious from early on in the game.)

I'm not trying to play anything down or give false expectations.

I have to agree, yes it's a great reveal but only one of many and not even one of the most hard hitting.
 

Vylash

Member
Just finished this and good god I hated it so much, I don't know who thought this disgusting, tangled mess of a story was a good idea but I certainly don't want anything to do with the series anymore at this point. If I had to force some compliments I'd say the music was good, I REALLY enjoyed the dub, and Clover was the absolute best. I only paid 25 dollars for this and I still feel ripped off. I feel the exact opposite that I did after finishing 999
 

Lusankya

Member
I don't know what exactly is disgusting about the story. Yes, it is kinda tangled but makes a lot of sense. Is there anything specific about the story you didn't like?
 
Just finished this and good god I hated it so much, I don't know who thought this disgusting, tangled mess of a story was a good idea but I certainly don't want anything to do with the series anymore at this point. If I had to force some compliments I'd say the music was good, I REALLY enjoyed the dub, and Clover was the absolute best. I only paid 25 dollars for this and I still feel ripped off. I feel the exact opposite that I did after finishing 999

FpsAVGL.gif
 
Just beat this. I honestly feel odd that people often compare this to 999 and wonder which game is better. Virtue's Last Reward blows 999 out of bthe water in quite literally every single category: puzzles, characters, story, etc. 999 felt very rough around the edges but this feels more refined.

It is sad that they'll likely never make a third entry
as the game didn't really have an end
 
Just finished this and good god I hated it so much, I don't know who thought this disgusting, tangled mess of a story was a good idea but I certainly don't want anything to do with the series anymore at this point. If I had to force some compliments I'd say the music was good, I REALLY enjoyed the dub, and Clover was the absolute best. I only paid 25 dollars for this and I still feel ripped off. I feel the exact opposite that I did after finishing 999
The story is MUCH more coherent than 999's. I still don't understand many aspects of 999's story. So most notably
how Akane Kurashiki was able to reappear before history was changed.
 

Holykael1

Banned
The story is MUCH more coherent than 999's. I still don't understand many aspects of 999's story. So most notably
how Akane Kurashiki was able to reappear before history was changed.

I believe that
since the morphogenetic field transcends time and space, it's like a separate dimension of shared knowledge between all things in the universe. This allows communication between past and future as if both were in the "present" or in the same time, meaning that Akane becomes an unstable living being in sort of a limbo state until she can make her survival happen and fix the "contradiction"(her), if she doesnt succeed(bad endings), the universe fixes itself by erasing her from existence, She is guaranteed survival(albeit an unstable and undecided one) through the use of the morphogenetic field whose characteristics allow her to have a paradoxical existence until the moment her fate is determined in the future(if she fails in replicating the exact circumstances in which she survives, she dies but until then "the universe" assumes she will survive because of that morphogenetic communication with junpei). Also don't forget that as per VLR, each little change in the universe produces a new timeline, in 999 we are only shown a couple of timelines with a very specific set of circumstances and bad ending timelines probably end up disappearing because they don't make any sense even when "the universe" kills Akane to try and fix itself, why? because that morphogenetic field communication still happened and with Akane dieing afterwards that communication would be rendered impossible and a big contradiction alongside Akane herself. The moment the morphogenetic field communication happens, the only timelines that will be stable and not collapse eventually will be the ones in which she lives(true ending), basically the existence of said communication guarantees Akane's survival and bad ending timelines end up collapsing(or so it is theorized) because they are paradoxical
 
The story is MUCH more coherent than 999's. I still don't understand many aspects of 999's story. So most notably
how Akane Kurashiki was able to reappear before history was changed.
The story in 999 is a hell of a lot more coherent than VLR, and it actually has a full conclusion on top of it.

VLR is far worse in every narrative-related aspect. It's easier to play but that is far outweighed by the beautiful way the story, medium, and hardware are married in 999.
 

Holykael1

Banned
The story in 999 is a hell of a lot more coherent than VLR, and it actually has a full conclusion on top of it.

VLR is far worse in every narrative-related aspect. It's easier to play but that is far outweighed by the beautiful way the story, medium, and hardware are married in 999.

Hmm.. I wouldn't call it less coherent. The plot points are actually more clearly explained making for more coherent exposition in VLR. VLR is also a beautiful marriage of story and medium(Not hardware but honestly I didn't find that aspect of 999 to be very impactful).

I still prefer 999 as a whole but I don't think the story is much better or even better than VLR. Well.. just my opinion of course.
 
Oh man... everything is locked. There are probably some keys in the "betray Luna" path, but I don't wanna betray Luna ;_;

Even if the moving AB rooms is kinda fishy

EDIT: Just had the scare of my life. Finished the Round 2 AB game in the path I just mentioned, chose
'Betray', got a game over
, and the game crashed and kicked me out to the home menu. Fortunately, I saved right before the crash, so everything was still there after I got back in, and I was able to pick the other path.

EDIT 2: I'll just keep updating this. Luna end
is the saddest thing ;_; Even sadder considering Sigma will eventually kill himself if he doesn't find the Axelavir in his eternal wanderings around the facility. They didn't really do anything with Sigma's infection after it happened, which is odd. Either way, that was probably the most satisfying end I've gotten, followed by Dio end. All I have left is the True (Phi?) end, but I'm so heartbroken after Luna end that I'll wait for tomorrow. I do wonder what that gravestone in the garden was, though. That's really the only real mystery I have left, aside from all the big obvious plot points. Hopefully that gets resolved in True End.
It also seems that my Memos are screwy. I write stuff down, turn my 3DS off, and when I come back they look like they were saved as a JPEG or something. Weird.
 

RiggyRob

Member
Yo - just popping in to say that I've just started this, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I've got a few questions that I wouldn't mind some spoiler-free, yes/no answers to:

1. Am I right in thinking that Alice and Clover
are from the original 999 game? I thought I'd heard the name Clover before (coincidentally, I think the game subtly reminds you of it as well), so I looked up the character list for 999 and found that the Clover in Virtue's Last Reward looks like an older Clover from 999, pink hair and all. After that I twigged that Alice was the Egyptian woman that you find and pick up as a hitchhiker at the end of 999's true ending, I forget her name though.

2. For my first time, I've
just gone down the left-most path on the flowchart, choosing the top/first option you're given (green Chromatic door, Ally with Luna etc). This leads you to finding Alice, Luna, Clover, Tenmyouji, Dio and K all dead, with an Ambidex gate opened by someone, presumably Quark. This then leads you to going into the Director's room, with a screen for an ID and password. Before being able to do anything, you see flashes of events/dead people with 'Memento mori' / 'Remember death', and I'm pretty sure some of them didn't happen on my first playthrough (e.g., in one flash, it appeared that Dio was holding his neck, but in my playthrough he'd been stabbed with a spear). My question is, I'm not supposed to know what the ID and password for the screen is on my first time through, right?
 

Tenrius

Member
Yo - just popping in to say that I've just started this, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I've got a few questions that I wouldn't mind some spoiler-free, yes/no answers to:

1. Am I right in thinking that Alice and Clover
are from the original 999 game? I thought I'd heard the name Clover before (coincidentally, I think the game subtly reminds you of it as well), so I looked up the character list for 999 and found that the Clover in Virtue's Last Reward looks like an older Clover from 999, pink hair and all. After that I twigged that Alice was the Egyptian woman that you find and pick up as a hitchhiker at the end of 999's true ending, I forget her name though.

2. For my first time, I've
just gone down the left-most path on the flowchart, choosing the top/first option you're given (green Chromatic door, Ally with Luna etc). This leads you to finding Alice, Luna, Clover, Tenmyouji, Dio and K all dead, with an Ambidex gate opened by someone, presumably Quark. This then leads you to going into the Director's room, with a screen for an ID and password. Before being able to do anything, you see flashes of events/dead people with 'Memento mori' / 'Remember death', and I'm pretty sure some of them didn't happen on my first playthrough (e.g., in one flash, it appeared that Dio was holding his neck, but in my playthrough he'd been stabbed with a spear). My question is, I'm not supposed to know what the ID and password for the screen is on my first time through, right?

1 - Yes.

2 - No, you're not supposed to know it just yet. Play the other branches of the flowchart for now, you'll learn the password eventually (it's a bit obscure, but I suppose you'll know when you get there).
 

RiggyRob

Member
Dis game. Dis fuckin' game. I even told myself they wouldn't pull the
unreliable narrator
shit again!

Shyamalan.twists everywhere.

Edit: Is there an English dub of the game on the 3DS version? I enjoyed it a lot but I think it might have been better if I'd been able to listen to it in English.
 

DaBoss

Member
Dis game. Dis fuckin' game. I even told myself they wouldn't pull the
unreliable narrator
shit again!

Shyamalan.twists everywhere.

Edit: Is there an English dub of the game on the 3DS version? I enjoyed it a lot but I think it might have been better if I'd been able to listen to it in English.
Yes.
 
Only in NA version though, all EUR versions have only Japanese dub I believe.

This game has this Japanese touch, that I think playing it with original dub is simply the best.

Thanks to price drop (3DS) I finally bought this game, and I feel like I can't go back to 999, now. I would miss everything from dub to art. I have same feelings about new Laytons. 1-4 are fantastic games and everyone should play 'em, but this overwhelming beauty of L5,6 (to perfection these games only needed Lost Future's terrific plot) is a must, now.
 

Necrovex

Member
I stumbled onto Virtue's Last Reward 'Blue Bird's Lament.' This pain still lingers on, even after two years. I so want my Zero Escape 3. I would sacrifice all of Dangaronpa for it!
 
Man... So I bought this game day one and I'm STILL PLAYING IT. Actually put it down for years and finally decided that I need to revisit and I've finally made some decent headway. Nothing revelatory yet as I've hit a bunch a locks but the game has posed some interesting thoughts
such as the whole is Sigma a robot thing, which I guess is reinforced by that monologue that GOL-M dropped. Might also explain a thing or two about Phi's super human jumping ability. But eh, knowing where things went with 999 I'm probably way the fuck off lol
 
Top Bottom