Thoughts on the Delta twist I can tell this is the most controversial element of the game. How could it not be? I'm just going to say it: it's incredibly stupid and bad. It's also stupid and bad in two different ways, which makes it interesting to talk about.
First, it's comparable to the Titanic, "actually a base in Nevada," and "you're on the moooooon" twists, in that those are all completely pointless and have no payoff and are just there to have epic plot twists. They don't actually change the stakes of the game or anyone's actions. Revealing that there was actually a tenth guy in ZE3 the entire time and only the audience didn't know is an example of a plot twist that changes nothing and is just there to shock you. What I'm saying is this: you could have had the audience be aware that there was a blind, deaf old man the entire time, and the plot of the game doesn't change. No one's actions change. From the perspective of the characters, the twist is just that Delta isn't blind and dead, not that Delta exists. The only difference that showing Delta from the start would have is that the audience would instantly know that the old man is behind everything, because how could he not be. So, this is just the last in a line of epic plot twists that exist for the sake of epic plot twists. It's the plot twist equivalent of that one treasure chest in Final Fantasy 4 where you have to click A behind a pillar that Cecil would be able to easily see, but that the audience can't because of the perspective.
Just to be crystal clear about this, compare this plot twist to AA's or Danganronpa's, where the plot twists in those games are actually consequential and make you think about the rest of the game differently. In AA6, Dhurke being dead all along as he reunites with Apollo in ghost form completely changes their relationship and colors all of Dhurke's actions. In Danganronpa 1, the world being destroyed before the game ever starts makes everyone's actions until this point completely pointless and despairful. Or hell, even in ZE2, the "you're actually in the future" plot twist has stakes and consequences, so even this series understands how to do it.
As an aside, I'll admit the idea of "the third person perspective was actually someone's first person perspective all along" is interesting in a fourth wall-breaking way, but the game cheats it all the time when Delta is dead or after the reveal, so it's not even particularly consistent.
Second, the twist is completely absurd. I understand that it's foreshadowed, but the idea that no one ever mentioned Delta aloud until the extreme end of the game, that Eric and Mira never talked about why Sean wasn't on the leaderboard or mentioned his name, that the paranoid lunatic Eric never suspected Delta, and that no one was ever worried about the whole wheelchair issue, I mean, give me a break. There's "everyone avoids mentioning Tidus' name because the player can name him anything, so the dialogue is slightly awkward" and then there's this. And that's before you go into how he's still alive at 125. Wasn't he alive in the second game, fifty years later? Dio specifically mentions that he's still alive. Are you telling me that he lived to be 175? That's okay in like Breath of the Wild where it's a fantasy game and Impa can just be 200 years old without explanation, but Zero Escape ostensibly takes place on normal Earth. And why, in the name of God, did Sigma send Delta and Phi back to 1904? I understand sending them back before 2009, but why would you send them to 1904 of all times? When this was said, I assumed it would tie into the Titanic stuff from the first game, but that never comes up, so why not just send them to 1950 or something so the ages make sense? Not that they make sense anyway given ZE2. And how does Delta even know when and where he's supposed to be born if Sigma didn't include that information and literally no one knows it in his timeline? I mean, look, I don't want to pick apart the million plot holes and extreme conveniences here, my point is less that it's a bad twist and more that nothing about it makes any sense at all.
So yeah, like, you got me, game. You tricked me. I did not see this coming, because it's so dumb and silly that I don't think anyone could have.
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Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005