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Zero Time Dilemma (Zero Escape 3) review thread

H

Hylian7

Member
I called Amazon again today. They still know nothing about the game being shipped on time with the watch being shipped later.
 
T

takoyaki

Member
nichegamer 8.5/10
[…]The only problem that might arise with this narrative format is in the form of pacing issues. It’s quite possible that you’ll end up getting a really exciting moment really early on, followed by a slough of comparatively less interesting ones. Personally that was never a problem for me, and I found all the fragments to have value to them, whether it being from really tense and exciting moments to just character building.

[…]As for the story itself, while I refuse to give details passed it’s premise, I will say that the story very much feels like it belongs in the Zero Escape series. The new format does not detract from the game’s story telling, and in some instances actually makes for much better dramatic moments. The only minor complaint I have with the new format from a narrative stand point is due to the lack of narration, we don’t get those moments with the narrator detailing what the characters are feeling and describing what’s in front of them. This may seem a bit weird to criticize, but the Zero Escape games have always been good in churning up that sense of dread with it’s narration.

[…]I wish I could talk more about Zero Time Dilemma, but if I did I’d be spoiling so many of its great moments. I’m still baffled this game was made, but I’m none the less glad I was alive to play it. The puzzles may be the weakest in the series, but the story and characters carried Zero Time Dilemma all the way to the finishing line, and gives us the conclusion fans were hoping for all the way back in 2012. If you’re a fan of the Zero Escape games, I don’t need to convince you to buy it, since you probably were already going to do so anyway. If you’re a newcomer and want to get into the Zero Escape series, play the first two games before you even consider playing Zero Time Dilemma, as it offers a much more rewarding experience if you have.
Click to expand...

maroonersrock 8/10

actugaming 8/10 [French review]
 
Jack Videogames

Jack Videogames

Member
properpropaganda said:
How do you play the game wrong?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure, but it worries me. The full review doesn't elaborate on that point. I just hope it doesn't mean that you can doom yourself out of the best ending in a playthrough if you don't follow very specific steps
and you can't go back in time to mend them
(Generic Zero Escape spoiler that won't be a spoiler for anyone who's not jumping in the series with ZTD)

I don't mind bad endings in visual novels where I can easily go back and skip read text and try again, but I find bad ends on other genres a bit traitorous unless they're dependant on a last-second decision. I loved VLR's approach - 999's was more annoying. Let's hope ZTD also goes for pragmatism.

Still, my game is now on the way from Canada. So psyched.
 
M

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
For those of you who actually played it already, a request: a friend of mine would like to play it on Vita, but his console's right analog doesn't work anymore. He'd love to know if the game is fully playable without using the right analog.
 
C

calc84maniac

Member
Mpl90 said:
For those of you who actually played it already, a request: a friend of mine would like to play it on Vita, but his console's right analog doesn't work anymore. He'd love to know if the game is fully playable without using the right analog.
Click to expand...
I only played the 3DS version, but I believe the entire game is playable with the touch screen if it comes down to that.
 
P

properpropaganda

Member
Im going to post this here since everyone that I have helped seem to be stuck in the same spot (I too was stuck there).

So if you are playing and are around 20ish hours in and can not seem to progress any further:
make sure you have seen everything up to that point including all 4 outcomes of the execution vote.

If anyone needs other help, feel free to pm and i'll try my best to help.
 
M

mStudios

Member
ryanfadholi said:
Ehh nothing inside the case except the game cart :/



ZTD, MIGHT BE SPOILER
Played 4 hours today and
solved 2 rooms for D Team, still don't have any sense of how the flowchart/time is organized... And every path I chose for the "vote to kill" path always ends up with C Team killed It's how it should be, right?
Click to expand...

I have no fucking Idea. I'm 6 hours in and still confused as fuck... lol
 
L

LProtag

Member
I'm going to hope the game comes in on time, but I'll go look for it at Best Buy/Gamestop if it doesn't, I guess. Hopefully I'll find it.
 
I

Ivan A Nguyen

Member
I wasn't getting any clear answer from Amazon so I ended up canceling my pre-order with a watch and ordering some PSN cards from Best buy. I didn't have a Vita last year when I pre-oredered. I thought I could just get them to switch the 3DS copy for a vita copy, but apparently that requires an act of god. I'll be downloading my copy as soon as it goes live on Tuesday.
 
E

Eusis

Member
Ivan A Nguyen said:
I wasn't getting any clear answer from Amazon so I ended up canceling my pre-order with a watch and ordering some PSN cards from Best buy. I didn't have a Vita last year when I pre-oredered. I thought I could just get them to switch the 3DS copy for a vita copy, but apparently that requires an act of god. I'll be downloading my copy as soon as it goes live on Tuesday.
Click to expand...
With Amazon it doesn't hurt to cover both bases. Just cancel whichever one you don't want when the time comes, it's why I have the more pragmatic worry of which comes sooner rather than whether to get the one that works nicer or the one I can get a watch with even if the game looks like trash.
 
T

takoyaki

Member
tech-gaming 85/100
Here’s the irony surrounding a discussion of Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma- revealing even the slightest detail threatens to diminish the experience. So, if you were a fan of 2009’s Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors or 2012’s Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward, you’re advised to put your faith in writer and director Kotaro Uchikoshi once more. […]

It’s apparent that Telltale’s characterization was the ambition, with Dilemma delivering a procession of tense close-ups, a persistently fluid camera, and more Dutch angles than a Terry Gilliam retrospective. And while 999’s Akane and Junpei as well as Sigma and Phi from Zero Escape make reappearances, you’ll find that the cast is no longer a collection of Danganronpa-style tropes. Characters are endowed with personality, ambitions, and secrets, they’re now more like typical people, making Zero Time’s dilemmas all the more unnerving. […]

Zero Time Dilemma is a synergistic blend of brooding story and complex brainteaser, creating an experience that’s exceedingly hard to put down. Even after completion, you’ll likely find yourself returning to the game, studying just how the amazing the amalgam of exposition, moral dilemma, and random element all fits together so stunningly.
Click to expand...
 
I

Ivan A Nguyen

Member
Eusis said:
With Amazon it doesn't hurt to cover both bases. Just cancel whichever one you don't want when the time comes, it's why I have the more pragmatic worry of which comes sooner rather than whether to get the one that works nicer or the one I can get a watch with even if the game looks like trash.
Click to expand...

The watch wasn't worth paying for the 3DS version and getting a sub part experience. I also have an apple watch so there's almost no use case for me wearing a ZTD watch. A lot changes in a year.
 
M

mStudios

Member
I feel like if you haven't played any of the previous one, you're just gonna waste your time playing this game.

The games does NOTHING to explain you what happened in the past. Maybe a bit here and a bit there.
 
E

Eusis

Member
Ivan A Nguyen said:
The watch wasn't worth paying for the 3DS version and getting a sub part experience. I also have an apple watch so there's almost no use case for me wearing a ZTD watch. A lot changes in a year.
Click to expand...
The things always been more of a novelty for anyone with a smartphone at a minimum anyway admittedly. Which is also why it's probably not worth waiting on the game for if Amazon drops the ball.
 
P

properpropaganda

Member
mStudios said:
I feel like if you haven't played any of the previous one, you're just gonna waste your time playing this game.

The games does NOTHING to explain you what happened in the past. Maybe a bit here and a bit there.
Click to expand...

You are basically put into the position of Carlos/Diana if you havent played the first 2. You get the information. A short, cliff notes version. You can understand it, but you dont fully GET it without playing the other two.

I still stand by that you dont NEED to play it, but it is HIGHLY, HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommended. Plus it helps you to get attached to the characters, so it hightens the impact of certain events.
 
M

mStudios

Member
properpropaganda said:
You are basically put into the position of Carlos/Diana if you havent played the first 2. You get the information. A short, cliff notes version. You can understand it, but you dont fully GET it without playing the other two.

I still stand by that you dont NEED to play it, but it is HIGHLY, HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommended. Plus it helps you to get attached to the characters, so it hightens the impact of certain events.
Click to expand...

What am i supposed to do in the Poison puzzle room? I got 4 items (luminol, barcode scan, syrenge, stethoscope). I'm dunno what else to do lol
 
K

Kuma

Neo Member
...So I signed up for Neogaf a few months ago and just now my account was finally approved. Really?!

Anyways, I do have a small question about the game about the voice acting (of which is one of the last things I'm still iffy about). I think Team C's voices were the most disparaged based off the trailers. How they are in-game? I'd like some details on them, especially on Carlos's. Please, and thanks!
 
JeTmAn81

JeTmAn81

Member
Hype hype hype for this. Some of the best stories I've encountered in games are from this series. Really they're some of the only game stories I've felt were good enough to be translated to other mediums. I'd love to see a 999 movie. Can't wait to finish out this series.
 
T

Trigonometrize.

Member
JeTmAn81 said:
Hype hype hype for this. Some of the best stories I've encountered in games are from this series. Really they're some of the only game stories I've felt were good enough to be translated to other mediums. I'd love to see a 999 movie. Can't wait to finish out this series.
Click to expand...

I think they work much better as games. I'm all for supporting the growing potential of story-telling in video games, but ZE's best qualities are not ones that translate well to other media.
 
D

Deleted member 518609

Unconfirmed Member
DasFool said:
Aksys, if you're reading this, please open preorders on Steam already. I want to throw my money at you, damn it!
Click to expand...

That'd be Spike Chunsoft you want to read that. Aksys are the publishers for only the 3DS/Vita versions. Steam is all Spike Chunsoft.
 
D

Deleted member 518609

Unconfirmed Member
Trigonometrize. said:
I think they work much better as games. I'm all for supporting the growing potential of story-telling in video games, but ZE's best qualities are not ones that translate well to other media.
Click to expand...

Completely agree. Not that it'll ever happen, but a 999 adaptation wouldn't be too big a task to adapt to a film, though it'd have to remove a fair bit. But dear god, a VLR adaptation would be an absolute nightmare, there's no way you could ever get those timelines into one and not confuse the hell out of the viewer and lose a tonne of the impact.
You'd also have to probably film the entire thing in first-person.
 
R

ryanfadholi

Member
Soo.. Apparently 999 port to Steam & Vita is hinted?

I'm curious, how did they reveal the
bottom screen is Akane and upper screen is Junpei twist in DS
in the iOS port?
 
D

Deleted member 518609

Unconfirmed Member
ryanfadholi said:
Soo.. Apparently 999 port to Steam & Vita is hinted?

I'm curious, how did they reveal the
bottom screen is Akane and upper screen is Junpei twist in DS
in the iOS port?
Click to expand...

In the DS version, the bottom screen only ever shows narration, and the top screen only ever shows everyone's dialogue.
So in the iOS version, the twist is just that the narrator is Akane. It works pretty well.
 
S

Spieler Eins

Member
fixyouregrammar said:
In the DS version, the bottom screen only ever shows narration, and the top screen only ever shows everyone's dialogue.
So in the iOS version, the twist is just that the narrator is Akane. It works pretty well.
Click to expand...

Just as anyone could have guessed. The DS ,,feature" was really overhyped and not at all crucial to the core element of what was happening. In fact, it made me guess the twist pretty early on, because how everyone talked about it. It would have probably been harder to predict (i.e. better) in the iOS/PC ports.
 
G

gdt

Member
This hype is swirling around me. I've never played VLR though! And I have no way to.

Please let there be a quick Steam release of the port.
 
J

Jachaos

Member
Kuma said:
...So I signed up for Neogaf a few months ago and just now my account was finally approved. Really?!

Anyways, I do have a small question about the game about the voice acting (of which is one of the last things I'm still iffy about). I think Team C's voices were the most disparaged based off the trailers. How they are in-game? I'd like some details on them, especially on Carlos's. Please, and thanks!
Click to expand...

Don't worry, that's the norm
 
J

JTripper

Member
Trigonometrize. said:
I think they work much better as games. I'm all for supporting the growing potential of story-telling in video games, but ZE's best qualities are not ones that translate well to other media.
Click to expand...

Even a tv show, which might handle the multiple endings thing ok, would completely lose any sense of player involvement and how that plays into the story.
 
P

properpropaganda

Member
Kuma said:
...So I signed up for Neogaf a few months ago and just now my account was finally approved. Really?!

Anyways, I do have a small question about the game about the voice acting (of which is one of the last things I'm still iffy about). I think Team C's voices were the most disparaged based off the trailers. How they are in-game? I'd like some details on them, especially on Carlos's. Please, and thanks!
Click to expand...

Everyone is pretty good for the most part but there were a few scenes between Junpei and Carlos were I thought it was fucking fantastic. Same with Sigma and Diana/Phi.

JeTmAn81 said:
Hype hype hype for this. Some of the best stories I've encountered in games are from this series. Really they're some of the only game stories I've felt were good enough to be translated to other mediums. I'd love to see a 999 movie. Can't wait to finish out this series.
Click to expand...

I'd rather a Tv show so they wouldnt have to super heavily condense the story, at least with VLR and ZTD. 999 could just take the true path.
 
F

Fat Goron

Member
I'm almost thinking this game was not QA tested for the 3DS at all...

There is a puzzle involving cards that is painful to solve because of the low resolution.
 
P

properpropaganda

Member
Fat Goron said:
I'm almost thinking this game was not QA tested for the 3DS at all...

There is a puzzle involving cards that is painful to solve because of the low resolution.
Click to expand...

It wasnt that bad. I was able to make out what the cards were. Or were you playing on a small 3ds.

Although, in regards to that same room:
jam-odds+sadman
was a bitch to do because of the resolution.
 
G

Gvitor

Member
Fat Goron said:
I'm almost thinking this game was not QA tested for the 3DS at all...

There is a puzzle involving cards that is painful to solve because of the low resolution.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's the one I talked about a while ago. The blurriness won't go away (Sigma's shirt being the prime example), but that specific puzzle is the only one where it affected me.
 
M

mStudios

Member
properpropaganda said:
It wasnt that bad. I was able to make out what the cards were. Or were you playing on a small 3ds.

Although, in regards to that same room:
jam-odds+sadman
was a bitch to do because of the resolution.
Click to expand...

Gvitor said:
Yeah, that's the one I talked about a while ago. The blurriness won't go away (Sigma's shirt being the prime example), but that specific puzzle is the only one where it affected me.
Click to expand...

pm'd
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Woke up this morning, said "Wisn I could play ZTD but I'm broke". Went for a hike, found $100 in the parking lot. I was pretty near Aksys' office--is this viral marketing?
 
mrmickfran

mrmickfran

Member
UberTag said:
Let's not get carried away... I'll be happy if the final scores settle around where Virtue's Last Reward (MetaCritic = 84 / GameRankings = 85.56%) and 999 (MetaCritic = 82 / GameRankings = 83.21%) wound up. That said, as of right now, this is still shaping up as the best-reviewed Zero Escape game and that's a very good thing indeed.
Click to expand...
VLR scored higher than 999? Shenanigans.
 
T

Thoraxes

Member
Stumpokapow said:
Woke up this morning, said "Wisn I could play ZTD but I'm broke". Went for a hike, found $100 in the parking lot. I was pretty near Aksys' office--is this viral marketing?
Click to expand...

Make sure you don't see a person in a Zero mask gas you when you turn around.

Who knows where the hell you'll wake up.
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Thoraxes said:
Make sure you don't see a person in a Zero mask gas you when you turn around.

Who knows where the hell you'll wake up.
Click to expand...

Normally I pay to be locked in a room and solve puzzles to escape IRL, so all things considered this sounds like a pretty good deal.
 
B

Bogeypop

Member
Stumpokapow said:
Woke up this morning, said "Wisn I could play ZTD but I'm broke". Went for a hike, found $100 in the parking lot. I was pretty near Aksys' office--is this viral marketing?
Click to expand...

It's cursed. You'll go to sleep and wake up only to repeat today's events with no knowledge of the infinite loop. Doomed to forever pick up that same $100 in a never-ending, infinite cycle. Never getting closer to ZTD's release. It's Aksys and Uchikoshi trying to
awaken your esper powers so you can tap into the Morphogenetic Field and "escape" their 4th dimensional marketing.

Remember, you're here forever!
r1aNPcP.png
 
K

Kuma

Neo Member
properpropaganda said:
Everyone is pretty good for the most part but there were a few scenes between Junpei and Carlos were I thought it was fucking fantastic. Same with Sigma and Diana/Phi.
Click to expand...

But only in conversations with those specific characters? As much as I do look forward to this, it is a bit of a bummer that they don't pull off stellar performances in other situations (ie, in monologues or death scenes?) or with other characters. I'm still glad everything seems to be solid otherwise.
 
G

Gravijah

Member
Stumpokapow said:
Woke up this morning, said "Wisn I could play ZTD but I'm broke". Went for a hike, found $100 in the parking lot. I was pretty near Aksys' office--is this viral marketing?
Click to expand...

I walked outside, realized that it had rained, realized I live in Florida, died from humidity and then dragged myself back inside.

Twinsies!
 
JeTmAn81

JeTmAn81

Member
Trigonometrize. said:
I think they work much better as games. I'm all for supporting the growing potential of story-telling in video games, but ZE's best qualities are not ones that translate well to other media.
Click to expand...

Definitely the story benefits from interactivity but I just meant the story is strong enough for a medium where story is all there is (books, movies, etc.), and that's very rare for games. It would probably be better as a TV show than a movie as well.
 
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