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Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward Review


Jyosua
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As some of you may know, I've begun my own website for reviews and game streams as an extension of the writing I've done for Gaming Bus. The most recent game I reviewed was VLR, the sequel to 999. It was pretty good and I'd recommend buying it if you've played the previous game. If not, you should definitely do yourself a favor and play 999. It's relatively cheap (You can get it for $15 and under if you look), and it's pretty fantastic. Anyhow, a link to my full review is here: http://jyosua.net/2012/11/21/review-zero-escape-virtues-last-reward/

I also link to my 999 review, in case you're not familiar with the series at all yet.

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That's not the hidden ending I'm referring to. There is another path that opens up after getting all the gold files.

It's in the same timeline as the nonary game, and involves someone other than Kyle waking up in his body in the future.

The game doesn't notify you when this one unlocks.

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I'm planning on picking it up soon, but it's good to know there's a bug that might be patched.

I'd like to just ask the VLR players who also played 999, without spoilers, to give a quick indication (if they might) of which they think was better, between VLR and 999. If you have trouble saying which one is better, saying that is a good answer too. No particular explanation as to why is needed.

Edited by Mouse
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Jyo's article's assessment was actually pretty much spot on. To be honest, despite actually falling victim to the save corruption bug, and having to redo ~24 hours of save file (which only took ~8 hours on attempt #2), I honestly loved the game enough to give it a pass, and not dock its score because of it in my own internal ratings. Maybe I'm actually a masochist?

VLR was mechanically much, much superiour. Dual-audio voice acting, flowchart navigation, etc. are all incredibly huge wins it has on its side.

999 was a much better single package delivery, and took great advantage of the player coming in with null expectations, which I honestly think is a fucking necessity for maximal enjoyment.

VLR's plot suffers from the fact that people are likely to go into it much more genre-savvy/prior-assumption-laden. That's not to say it's not still expertly crafted, and you won't get a similar sense of achievement while unwrapping the goods, but... it loses something when you're not completely broadsided, imo.

If you were to only play one, you should probably play Ever17.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I got the game, not all the way done but enjoying it so far. Wanted to check something I had noticed. (spoiler not related to that)

I kind of think some aspects of the game that make it smoother and more comfortable to play than 999 actually reduce the buildup of tension somewhat. As far as enjoying 999, I don't think my expectations for the game were null, and I still had some of the most fun I've had in a while...it really became an excellent thriller in my case, because 5->3->2 was a great, and the ending was disappointing but actually "undid" some of my "correct" judgments, and so I still enjoyed the later endings more.

Stuff on 0 escape:

The AB game sort of makes me feel like I have a slightly firmer grip on whether the choices I make in the "novel" sections can be used to figure out what will happen for the rest of the game. When I played 999, I would make choices on doors that I thought might be "smart" and Junpei would go along with them, but he wouldn't notice the possibilities that I banked on and that materialized, and wouldn't act accordingly which kinda made me sigh.

So playing from Sigma's perspective has been a little less frustrating. Currently I have these endings:

Clover

K

Tenmyoji

In that order. I think I liked K's the best. Clover's ending in this one is nearly as aggravating as the axe and knife endings in 999.

Edited by Mouse
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