LogFAQs > #933121328

#16





Years of release: 2012 (3DS/Vita), 2017 (PC/PS4)
Beaten?: Yes

I don't think I could have telegraphed any harder that this game would be on the list, considering I was kicking myself for not including 999 on the list (still kicking myself honestly), and calling ZTD somewhat of a disappointment, although an incredibly fun disappointment. While I played 999 on Board 8's recommendation and enjoyed it since I knew the sequel was coming up soon, HOLY HELL was VLR a ride that I wasn't expecting. In my opinion, it's not just the best of the three games, but really the high mark that makes the entire trilogy worth it, at least for me.

I think it would be kind of an injustice for me to describe too much of the game or talk about any of the story for anyone who hasn't played it, but the general premise is - nine people wake up, trapped in a mysterious location by a mysterious figure named Zero, and they are forced to play a Prisoner's Dilemma style game with each other with potentially lethal consequences. It's a dark, philosophical, sometimes humorous, and fully batshit insane visual novel with branching paths and escape room-style puzzles, as well as some other tricks up its sleeve that I won't talk about here that really blew my mind when I realized them.

Some of the twists in the story - if you've played the game, you can probably imagine which ones - still get me thinking about this game sometimes, and there are things that happen that blew my mind and are so interesting that it makes it fun for me to see other people experience them vicariously. This story is confusing as shit and makes no sense half the time, but man oh man, it knows how to play intrigue, it knows how to make the player question everything they think they know, and even the game's stupider plot points are delivered with such flair and confidence that I can get over the fact that, again, this game's plot makes no sense and is mostly just a bunch of pseudo-philosophical babble.

I actually really love the cast, too. The funny thing is, despite the fact that they look like a bunch of absolute clowns, every character is actually way less weird than they look and wind up being relatable and likeable from top to bottom. Unlike Danganronpa, where the characters are just completely absurd, I actually feel like I can take the cast of VLR really seriously, and that gives the story a much greater sense of urgency than it would have otherwise. It's a long game, too, so getting to spend a good 40 hours with this cast helps you really get to know them and get invested in figuring out the mystery behind each one of them.

The game's puzzles aren't too great, really, and could have been better, but that's alright - the story's the meat on the bones here, and I think that having the escape room puzzles to do as a fun little break in between story sequences helps not just break up the action but also kind of tricks you brain into making you FEEL like you're doing work in solving the story, even though the game never really requires you to do anything except make a few difficult choices. I haven't really played many true visual novels, like the ones where all you do is advance the text and read, but I really like these games like Ace Attorney, Danganronpa, and Zero Escape, where it's mostly reading but then you have to do some stuff yourself as the player, and you feel like you're really the one advancing through all these scenarios instead of merely watching the characters do it.

It's one hell of a game, and I was super excited for ZTD afterwards, and it... didn't quite deliver, but honestly, this game alone feels self-contained enough, even with something of a slight cliffhanger of an ending, to have been a completely satisfying experience on its own. I'm looking forward to playing AI: The Somnium Files now, which I've heard is really good, and I trust that whatever Uchikoshi does, it's gonna be interesting at the very least.

Zero III >>>>>> Monokuma and I'm really sad that he just doesn't appear in the second half of the game for no apparent reason (aside from one small cutscene).