LogFAQs > #933763011

#80. Zero Time Dilemma


My feelings on Zero Time Dilemma arecomplex. There was a lot to live up to as the long-awaited finale to the Zero Escape trilogy that very nearly never happened. I think it lived up to it in a lot of ways and fell short in others. There was probably no way to come up with a plot that would be 100% satisfactory to the fanbase, and so Im willing to be lenient in judging the game in that regard. It answered a lot of my big lingering questions, but there were also points that the game didnt do much of anything with. Im being vague on purpose because I dont want to include any spoilers because this is a game (and a series as a whole) you should go into without knowing anything ahead of time.

The basic premise of Zero Time Dilemma is that there are three teams of three people trapped inside a facility, and they have to solve a lot of puzzles and make a lot of difficult choices that affect not only their own team but the other two teams. Some of the choices were brutal (the image I posted being perhaps the prime example), but you eventually have to play through every permutation to see all the scenes and all the endings. I always make the choice I would personally make first, and then go back and do the other ones afterwards once Ive hit a dead end. Its one of those games where you want to see every version of every event, even when it leads to a bad ending or a dead end. And even when you hit a dead end, youre eager to find the missing piece that opens the way to the next series of events. Its satisfying seeing all the routes almost create a cascade effect as plot bombs start going off.

Anyway, each team was pretty balanced, and the characters played off of each other well. They each served their own function. When you just wanted answers to the mysteries, Team Q was usually the way to go. When you wanted some emotional drama, that was Team Ds department. When you just wanted straight up crazy, you couldnt go wrong with Team C. I liked most of the characters, although I wasnt a huge fan of Eric. Carlos was probably the new character who impressed me the most. Id say Team D was my favorite overall, but I loved Sigma and Phi from Virtues Last Reward, and Diana is very similar to another character from that game.

Zero Time Dilemma is probably the most divisive game of the three, and as such, perhaps the least popular among them. I suppose it boils down to what you were expecting and what you wanted from this game. As I said before, it was probably impossible to make a game that would leave everyone feeling completely satisfied with how the story wrapped up. As for me, I didnt get everything I wanted, but I got enough out of it to say I really enjoyed the experience.

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http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/080/145/638.png
https://imgur.com/WqDcNNq