Zero Escape 3: Zero Time Dilemma ( Vita, 3DS, PC )

Xenji

As you probably know if you’re a Zero Escape fan, this one is set at the mysterious Mars testing facility where... things happened. Presumably it’ll take place directly after Virtue’s Last Reward, even though it’s set decades in the past. If you’ve played the games, you’ll get it.

The nine characters are Phi, Sigma, Akane, Junpei, and five newcomers: Diana (mentioned in VLR), Carlos, Eric, Mira, and... a little boy with a big helmet named Q. HMMM. These characters be separated into three different squads, and you’ll be able to switch between the teams as you play through the story. Each team is trapped in a specific ward of the facility, where they’ve gotta figure out how to escape.

The developers say the story will be told through cinematics; there’s no more lengthy prose. All of the dialogue will be voiced. “You can play the game without reading,” they say. They’re also trying to make it as accessible as possible to people who haven’t played the first two games.

Here’s the main gimmick, as described by Kirk: “The narrative trick is that every 90 minutes, a drug is injected from the watches everyone’s wearing that causes them to wake up and lose all their memories. The story can be played out of chronological order thanks to this mechanic, so you start from a ‘floating fragment’ screen that shows you the various scenes in the story.”

Digital Solitude

Cinematics are a welcome addition, though I don't think the old style of tap tap tapping would work on PC or Vita too well.

Must get around to VLR

Xenji

Trailer 2.

Star Lord

Loved Virtues Last Reward, so looking forward to this one! Need to go back and play 9,9,9 though!

Xenji

Trailer 3.

johnny_ultimate

Was downloading this a few minutes ago and said I'd check out one of the trailers. Got freaked out at the poor quality of the English dubbing. As soon as the download finished I booted up and breathed a sigh of relief with the Japanese voice acting option in the menu.

Looking forward to digging in. Watched a catch-up video earlier and forgot how absurdly convoluted the plot was - hopefully there'll be plenty of the good stuff alongside the hokum

Kirby

Japanese voice acting is just so irritating to listen to. They sound exasperated and out of breath in every line of dialogue. As bad as a dub might be, it can't be any more annoying than that.

Retr0gamer

As some one who has been a big advocate of this series and tried to raise awareness of it.... I've not played more than about an hour of 999.

Time to catch up.

Would be a good idea for Aksys to get PC ports up of 999 and Virtues Last Reward. Maybe even get the license for the Infinity series of visual novels which were precursors to this.

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

So excited, I can't wait for more people to catch up, I've had hardly anyone to get excited about ZE3 with.
I pre-ordered with the watch bit saw on IG a shipment got damaged so delays, not too fussed I wouldn't be playing it immediately.
https://mobile.twitter.com/SpikeChunsoft_e/status/747990008393457664

Would be a good idea for Aksys to get PC ports up of 999 and Virtues Last Reward. Maybe even get the license for the Infinity series of visual novels which were precursors to this.

And : http://gematsu.com/2016/06/spike-chunsoft-teasing-999-steam-release
So maybe there might be, if it means more people play it I'm all for it.
https://mobile.twitter.com/SpikeChunsoft_e/status/748199742471970816

Star Lord wrote: »

Loved Virtues Last Reward, so looking forward to this one! Need to go back and play 9,9,9 though!

Ouch, I don't think I'd like to go back to 999 after VLR, VLR was just so much better, it's like playing Person 4 and going back to Persona 3 Fes (I imagine).
We'll have to talk VLR when I see you next for sure!

johnny_ultimate

Couple of hours in now. Have to say I really like the new presentation style. While it certainly has plenty of limitations due to the game's low budget, I still think it allows for far more dynamic storytelling than the typical static portraits and occasional cutaways method adopted by visual novels. The flow and pace of the game feels far smoother too.

Definitely some stuttering on the Vita, but I think the close-up heavy visual style lends itself very well to a small screen - think some of the shortcomings may show up more on PC. The note taking interface is a tad awkward, and the one area where the 3DS would undoubtedly have an advantage.

Haven't gotten far enough in to pick out the real meat of the narrative, but the brutality and tenacity of the delivery are present and correct (not to mention that the game has the gumption to

roll closing credits

after ten minutes ). Puzzle rooms seem like business as usual.

Still find Uchikoshi's tendency to have one character with farcically exaggerated cleavage bizarre, tonally jarring and frankly a bit off-putting, but hey it's a quirk 999 and Virtue's Last Reward veterans will be prepared for.

Kirby wrote: »

Japanese voice acting is just so irritating to listen to. They sound exasperated and out of breath in every line of dialogue. As bad as a dub might be, it can't be any more annoying than that.

No matter how OTT and derivative the Japanese V/O is, I'll always choose it when the option is there. Have a mental block when it comes to English voices and clearly Japanese aesthetics. Doesn't help that the vast majority of dubs are so weirdly wooden and operating on a different layer of expression than the visuals. But hey fair play to the publishers who continue to give us the option to choose based on our own preferences

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

JU shouldn't be asking things but wanted to know something linked back to VLR

vaguely is the Luna looking character very Luna like personality wise? She's one of my waifus lol

(too scary to google because of spoilers)

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

http://www.siliconera.com/2016/07/03/999-zero-escape-virtues-last-reward-ports-confirmed-anime-expo-2016/
"The announcement confirmed “porting in progress,” but didn’t announce which platforms the games would come to."

johnny_ultimate

Having finished this now, I'll happily state it's the best game in the series. It brings all the ideas that have been knocking around over the previous two games to fruition. Structurally, it is a step beyond Virtue's Last Reward - the complexity of the non-linear storytelling is super impressive, and it all ultimately gels together in a mostly satisfying way. It really takes its critique of choice in video games to some crazy extremes, constantly putting the player in situations where they have to watch consequences play out in often startling detail. While a better resolution is usually only one menu away, right through to the end of the game it keeps hitting you actions with genuine consequences and ethically murky resolutions - zero escape indeed. Kotaro Uchikoshi is fascinated with the philosophical quagmires posed by even random acts, and that's curiously reflected throughout the game. And the game thankfully continues to satisfyingly reflect on the player's own role in proceedings,

including one particularly meta ending

.

As I mentioned before, the presentation is a big improvement from the previous games, with some exceptions. There's some moments of great, vivid direction, right up to the final cut to black in fact. It carries over the visual novel genre's fundamental flaw of 'showing rather than telling' to some degree - there are some stretches of serious exposition that kill pacing, and unfortunately the fast forward button usually skips two or three lines of dialogue rather than one (thank god for the log) - but it's also more liberated than the previous games were. The low budget has its definite consequences - clunky animations, and one timeline in particular that really could have used some more dynamic costume changes - but overall it's a more aesthetically and by extent narratively effective game than its immediate predecessor and even more so 999.

The puzzles are slightly more polished than the ones in the other two games, but they're still a weak link especially in a year with several genuinely great puzzle games. Still, there are a few puzzle rooms that work very well too and there's only a handful of particularly obtuse moments so they don't get in the way too much. The three or four ones that feed directly into the narrative typically have an urgency and tension the others lack.

Overall than, this is definitely a strong conclusion to a sometimes flawed but almost always fascinating series of games. It does insane things to link its themes with a crazy sci-fi story, and while the lore is sometimes baffling and/or ridiculous, overall it amazingly somehow comes together. The characterisation is mostly strong and some of the backstories & relationships surprisingly potent (although Mira's sections would be more convincing if she didn't randomly look like she dropped in from a particularly kitschy Charlie's Angels scene.

Also weird how everyone seemed to forget she was a serial killer at the end

). Quirky, dark and often totally mad, this is a welcome swansong to a series that was nothing if not yet unique, and really puts to shame pretenders like Spike Chunsoft's own Danganronpa.

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

Thanks JU! I'm even more excited, still waiting over the watch but I really want it so I can wait.
(*˘︶˘*)

cherryghost

How dare you taint Danganronpa

johnny_ultimate

cherryghost wrote: »

How dare you taint Danganronpa

I despised that game It's just a mess of lazy tropes, lazier plotting and laziest characterisation that has no meaningful or interesting payoff. It has a flashy presentation, but other than that I found it a chore to work through.

Zero Escape games definitely have their weaknesses, cliches and irregular moments of eye-rolling. But they also deliver actual substantial and intriguing themes and resolutions that make good on some of the more bizarre concepts present, which is something the hollow Danganronpa completely failed to achieve.

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I despised that game It's just a mess of lazy tropes, lazier plotting and laziest characterisation that has no meaningful or interesting payoff. It has a flashy presentation, but other than that I found it a chore to work through.

Zero Escape games definitely have their weaknesses, cliches and irregular moments of eye-rolling. But they also deliver actual substantial and intriguing themes and resolutions that make good on some of the more bizarre concepts present, which is something the hollow Danganronpa completely failed to achieve.

I meant to ask what you thought and forgot.
I'd still prefer to play it myself and hopefully not remember this post when I do lol try stay unbiased. I avoided it while it was hyped, seems pretty calm now thankfully.
Was Sweet Fuse another another similar type game too?

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

I finally got Zero Time Dilemma and my watch!

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

Sorry to bump such an old thread.

Just got around to playing and finishing the game and I have to say the ending for me left a lot to be desired, it felt a bit rushed or like they didn't know where to go normally they're so good with these things.
I just didn't feel the reasons behind the Decision games was enough.

I loved the game for the most part, I liked the new characters and older ones and their relationships, the decisions they've to make ... but

I didn't see the point of Eric or Mira (and why they just kinda forgot she was a murderer as mentioned above).
I'd have liked it if maybe Delta did it all for Sean so he grew up in a safe world without radical 6 and stuff as cheesy as that is. Or Sean being Erics brother. Or that this was all training for the terrorist attack.
It was like "yeah just want to make ye determined, I dunno if humanity will be okay but sure".
Diana and Sigma as much as I love them just didn't seemed fussed about their son at all. I was thinking maybe they shouldn't have been twins and they needed to change the timeline and no one would be able to shift or it being more Handmaids Tale.
I dunno, vefy bitter

TLDR : VLR was the best one.

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

It wasnt all bad, Sigma is gorgeous


and got a good laugh off these