Can we have a Zero Escape thread?

Can we have a Zero Escape thread?
Also K is the worst character, even Alice and Dio are better.

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what does K even do

Swooces out of the 9 door a few times and gets forgotten about in the sequel. Also he has a very amiable personality but I'm pretty sure he betrays every time.

It’s been quite some time since I’ve beat ZTD and I’m not bothered about its shortcomings anymore.
Too bad I can't think of anything I liked about 999 and VLR because now I retroactively disregard the whole series.

Same here. Now I only remember memes
I suddenly want to replay 999 now.

Pick Ally bro

B-but I only have 1 BP and you have Quarks miracle cure!

A quick reminder.

I finished ZTD literally today.

The ending was not as bad as everyone says - what really ruined the game for me was everything else. It's just shit experience all throughout.

>cuckpei
>chad
pick one

He's a walking red herring designed to fuck with you.

Nah he does have a purpose, he needed to be there so Akane can slide into his armor and join the group without anyone noticing.

>even Dio
nigga what? Dio is great
>Alice is better
oh nevermind you're retarded, carry on

>cinematic narrative style
>ugly ass 3D models
>Q team was garbage. None of the returning characters's behavior made sense
>ayy lmao transporter
>2 carlos inconsistency
>kyle is player metafiction
>people and fans waited 4 years for a game that wanted to attract newcomers and original followers alike

Not only I'm glad to have discovered 999 and VLR in May 2015 so waiting for ZTD, while hype as fuck was'nt so bad compared to people who were part of the BlueBirdOperation or something, but I'm also glad that I pirated this piece of crap. VLR ended up being the only game in this series that I bought, retrospectively I'm fucking pissed because I gave actual incentives for Uchikoshi to continue. Fucking hack I'll never not be mad, MGSV then this

Fortunately memes managed to ease the pain
sorry for the broken english but I'm mad and english is not my first language

imma just copy paste the shit I posted in the other thread

The idea of there being an extra person in the room that everyone just conveniently refuses to acknowledge most of the time is unreliable narration to a level beyond ridiculous, made even sillier by the fact that it was only made this way for a twist that in the end was extremely lackluster and without any real impact of shock value - Zero being there with a fucking invisibility cloak instead would have made more sense.
The puzzles are shit, a huge downgrade from the previous games and there are also less of them. They tend to be very "boolean", everything is essentially a glorified key, there are very little puzzles that you can't brute force your way through (in stark contrast to the puzzles in VLR where without proper understanding of the mechanics, you just couldn't progress due to too many possibilities or it being like a math puzzle).
The choices aren't choices, most of the amounting to "choose A to advance the plot or B to get an instant game over".
The fragmented story structure and lack of real main character means it's virtually impossible to be immersed in anything.
The constant return to the main menu takes you out of the experience constantly and practically encourages you to simply do every possible choice for a given fragment before moving on, completely eradicating what little sense of consequence there is. I also felt like this made it way more tedious to progress as you sometimes simply had to replay certain fragments with no indication that something will change now or why that happens.
Due to the constant memory wipes, the player has to endure endless repeat of exposition as the group has to explain the same concepts every time after they wake up - the whole sleep/memory wipe shit again just an excuse to allow for a very cheap and also very impactless twist (there was only one ward all along).

And all of this doesn't even begin to touch on the actual meat of the story.

so the series is OFFICIALLY officially dead now, right?
no more sequels, no more re-releases, no Q&A, no closure, right?

The story is just kind of lame looking back at it, Q team is hardly related to anything, D team, which really should have been by far the most proactive just kind of does nothing in the end while C team leads the story. The main issue is really that most of the returning cast don't act like the ones we've known from the previous games. I mean we spent the entirety of VLR essentially developing the shifting skills of Sigma and Phi and what the fuck do they do with it? Fucking nothing. It takes fucking Akane (who from the previous games is not nearly as experienced or giften in terms of shifting as those other two), Junpei (who we're told only managed to access the morphogenetic field once in his life) and Carlos (random new character nobody gives a shit about and also not particularly trained, at least consciously, in the use of shifting) to make shifts a major tool in their arsenal. It's really quite amazing how something so simple can really ruin the best game in the series, VLR, by turning its main characters and main plot, really, into a fucking joke. The prevalence of shifting like I said also undermines the whole feeling of consequence, when you learn how Sigma lost his arms and eye your first thought was probably "why didnt they just fucking shift right there? this is a terrible timeline, the virus is free too". It's really a fucking pandora's box of storytelling, this shifting.
I mean there are other dumb things like the idea of Sigma and Diana becoming intimate and having fucking babies in the shelter being very silly, how everyone just snapping and killing each other in a bunch of timelines is unbelievable and cheap shock value, how Junpei being a prick for most of the game is a genuine offense and discredit to his character from 999, how Eric and Mira are just fucking unlikeable shit characters...

ZTD is just all around crap.

>Eric and Mira are just fucking unlikeable shit characters...
I wanted to like him- his backstory had terrific fucking potential, but then he's just a one-dimensional bitch boy at every turn.

Introducing a characters in the third game of a trilogy and him being completely unrelated to everything and everyone was asking for trouble. It doesn't help that he's the go-to WAAAH I SNAP AND KILL EVERYONE NOW faggot.

And really when I learned his backstory I couldn't take it seriously because I just so preocupied with wondering why I should give a single fuck about him. So he's had a tough life, so has everyone there and unlike him they're actually relevant to the plot.

Hey hey hey, Carlos was the only good thing about ZTD
youtube.com/watch?v=wD0p22Jzd3A

>even Alice and Dio are better.

Alice is probably the worst character of the 3 games. You literally could replace her with a calculator.

Dio is one of the best character of VLR though.

Oh and of course another big deal with Eric is that he was almost like a caricature of himself, so comically unhinged. Stuff like muttering under your breath "must always smile, must always smile, must always smile" or these random outbursts of anger - who does that? Even among the legit crazy that isn't common, it never seemed genuine and just silly instead.

looking back he probably was the best thing by virtue of everyone else being shit

>worse than alice
lol nice one

Thanks for reminding how great 999/VLR are and how god awful ZTD is. Literally every character in ZTD is worse than even the worst of 999/VLR, save Carlos.

Alice has that one line about putting on a nurse outfit for Sigma because it's a fetish of him so she's not that bad in my book.

Oh and ANOTHER thing that greatly bothered me with ZTD, where's fucking Santa? That guy seemed to be more of a mastermind than Akane and then just fucking drops off the earth and not only that, he lets his beloved sister put herself in danger constantly?
We're told he assists her from HQ or whatever but what the hell, seriously.

Wait no it wasn't a nurse outfit it was a lab coat. That's hot too.

Oh and we're also never told who collected the participants for VLR which I consider a pretty big loose end. I mean I'm kind of thinking it's Akane by process of elimination, but even then it's still pretty weird. It makes you wonder when exactly Akane learned about the plan and the future and we're never told she was one of those shifting 40+ years but that's like the only possible explanation.
Your first though would be that it was Zero, but that's Sigma who was captured by Zero in his car.

my first reaction when sigma lost his eye and arms is how the fuck did he only lose his eye and arms, what kind of shit bomb was that

ztd sucked but at least it was funny

>sigma spend 40+ years setting up a crazy nonary game to teach himself and phi how to shift when it took a random firefighter like 10 minutes

REALLY MAKES ONE THINK
THANKS FOR THESE CONCLUSIONS ZTD

I want Phi's boots, they're cute.

Phi is super cute and I loved her personality in VLR too, spunky but kind and smart.
Really wish they hadn't butchered her character in ZTD.

Hopefuly yes.
shitkoshi can go go die after ZTD

How would Zero Escape 3 have turned out if it was never temporarily cancelled and Uchikoshi started working on it right after VLR?

Maybe you can find some Doc Martens in that style. Check them out.

It would probably look better and have more and better puzzles. I can only imagine the decisions leading to this garbage look and barebones game came from it being made on a shoestring budget after basically not planning to be made in the first place.

Not sure the story would have turned out better though.

Looking forward to Uchi's new game, hoping he can unhack himself from any more writing issues. What was it called again? Project P-Sync?

Phi/Sigma would still be daughter/father but the game as a whole wouldn't have been much ass.
Also Siggy would've still been the protag.

Did we ever gonna get PunchLine here? I think that game was the first sign that Uchi fucking lost it

THESE WOUUUUUUUUUNDS,
THEY WILLLLL, NOT HEEEEEAAAAAAAALLLL

We're never getting Punchline's game, get over it. Anime games are almost never localises, doubly ao if it's just a VN with minor gameplay. I wish someone made an English summary of what happened in that game though, I actually really liked the anime.

Welp. I enjoyed VLR but it is alot worse than 999. ZTD seems to be even alot worse. I guess I can skip it.

The "create new timeline" bullshit from Akane.
I was thinking for a long time how this could be done. What cool story will Uchikoshi come up with to do this. Will it be something like Steins;Gate (similar concept)? No. You jump to the timeline where you lost coin toss, do some pointless shit and the jump back. That's it.

localised*, doubly so*

Apologies, not used to phoneposting. Currently away from PC.

>Also he has a very amiable personality but I'm pretty sure he betrays every time.
This. He seems like such a nice guy but always always dicks you.

I thought VLR was much better than 999.

Probably. But I don't want it back unless it reinvents itself again anyways. ZTD was an interesting departure from the old formula but I'd had enough of it by the time it was over.

Yeah, Uchikoshi is working on a new game "Project P-sync". I'm willing to give him a chance. Hopefully he will leave ZE behind

It's not. It has more bullshit, more filler, more plotholes and worse characters (just compare Ace to Dio)

What's everyone's issue with Alice?

And VLR had much better puzzles and Phi is a better character than everyone in 999.

>The main issue is really that most of the returning cast don't act like the ones we've known from the previous games.
Fucking hell. 1 year had passed between 999 and ZTD and fucking Junpei became this grizzled fuck angry at the world in that short time? I don't think so.

I want him to leave ZE behind, it's run its course. And of course, have another writer on board to reign him in and keep things reasonable.

Best puzzles in the series: VLR. No question. Special honour goes to alien algebra in ZTD though, that was legit fun and the most engaging puzzle in ZTD.

By the end when you have to make choice to shift or not to shift. "B-but, if we do that, those versions of ourselves will just die without doing anything". Who the fuck cares? We've been doing that for entirety of VLR and ZTD. Why should we care now?

I also hate when they add names to previously known powers. SHIFT this, SHIFTER that. That sounds so stupid

hey

>Best puzzles in the series: VLR. No question.
The only thing I'm bitter about is the gold file in the infirmary. They were one small hint away from making that a reasonable puzzle.

Oh great that you remind me, yeah, I was fucking baffled when that came up.
Like literally 6 out of the 9 people there had zero issues with shifting a million times and suddenly it's an ethical dilemma? Get the fuck outta here.

Thanks for reminding me.
THAT BLUE FUCKING THING when you jump

I also liked those geometry puzzles in the pod room and searching for shapes in the healing room wasn't half bad either.
But overall the puzzles left me disappointed.

>Phi is a better character than everyone in 999.
Phi was a damn good character. But I don't know about that. Seven was top tier too.

>Let's retcon Phi's eyebrows to be orange, so anyone can predict this twist before release

I didn't put a lot of thought into it, to be honest. I wasn't expecting the timetravel shenanigans.

>my face when I considered the story behind Phi and how she's related to everything a major mystery of VLR and wanted to have that loose end tied up in ZTD

And the best thing is they didn't even fucking explain it anway.
In the original timeline, Sigma has no relation to Phi and has no reason to get her into the AB project. There is no reason for him to meet her, let alone discover she had the shifting potential.

Is ZTD worth playing if you've played 999 and VLR?

for terrible, terrible closure, yes
I mean after VLR you probably want to find out what happens at that test site, no?

Maybe. Flip a coin.
If you do play it, check the archive around release for all the hot memes.

True, but I haven't played VLR in a while. Anything I should know before going in (~minus spoilers)

not really
just go in

>loved 999, got every ending
>tried VLR and dropped it halfway

dunno what it was, I guess the fact that the story just ends with no resolution on so many routes, it felt boring and repetitive to me. I looked up a chart and you have to visit every branch to see the ending? That sounded super boring. Everyone seems to like this game the best. Is the PC port any good?

PC port is fine, yes.
And you do need to get most routes but it's not repetitive as you can jump to new scenes instantly via the flowchart. Honestly you should get back into it, I think it is the best one.

I enjoyed ZTD

impossibru
seriously

I've been told 999>VLR>ZTD

Is this true? I loved 999.

I enjoyed it for what it was, but it was admittedly a flawed product.

VLR's PC port is the definitive way to play.
999's is terrible.

In my opinion it's VLR > 999 > ZTD but I can (barely) see why people would switch the former two.

It's true. Ignore VLRfags

Did they change 999's sprite graphics? I was only turned off by the price on steam

999 = VLR >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ZTD

I will always love VLR for making me genuinely tense every time a vote came up. I can see why it might seem silly considering all the time jump shenanigans but at the end of the day you can only change your own actions, you can't change your opponent's actions, so when you want them to ally, you REALLY want them to ally, there's no other way.

These scenes had me on the edge of my seat more than I'd expect and pic related had me both laughing and crying at the whole situation.

999fags just can't let go of their babby's first VN.

VLR is superior in every way. 999 puzzles are junk and the gameplay sucks.

notZTD > notZTD > piss > shit > vomit > ZTD

No. They altered some aspect of storytelling due to the lack of dual screens though, which I'm told is meaningful.

>You will never play 999 and VLR for the first time again

Feels terrible.

>shit > vomit
I'd rather someone vomit on my face than shit on my face.

No

ZTD>999>VLR

I voted trust every time, until I couldn't proceed and it resulted in a game over.

>tfw nobody else voted that way back

I think it showed up in some databases or something but if I recall 5pb. basically localizes their shit themselves and take their sweet time doing so, so if it does happen I wouldn't expect it soon.

Well it does take away from one extremely clever way of displaying the final twist.
Basically it's revealed that everything that was shown on the bottom screen, the "narrator" was Akane, while the top screen where stuff like dialogue was shown was Junpei's point of view. However the bottom screen, the touchscreen, was also where you solved the puzzles and made story decisions, so it meant that all along you, the player, was basically acting as Akane, sending Junpei the solutions and story deicsions guide him to that final puzzle room. Then for that final puzzle, you spun the DS in your hand so that the touchscreen, the puzzle solve screen, was on top - Junpei's screen - because this time it was Junpei sending the solution to Akane.

Like I said it was an extremely clever way to portray the twist.

I didn't even realize that, I've become brainlet

I hate the idea. That there has to be a swap between two universes. Theres an infinite amount of them so why does any of them have to die in place of another?

what did you think you spun the DS for

also if I recall correctly they make it fairly explicit in the end with the narrator turning from fairly neutral (like most of the game) to really personal that you kind of have to notice it's Akane

I think Luna votes to ally every time and K does it once

Did they remove a lot of the narration as well? I watched some videos of the PC release and it felt like it was almost all talk between two characters where before it was descriptive, but that might be my imagination.

I never personally played much of it but on the PC they have you switch between like "novel mode" which displays all narration and "adventure mode" which shows dialogue and stuff.
Then they rename them Akane and Junpei mode for the finale but that's obviously much less elegant and clever.

I hope he explains why every cast has a half naked girl in there.
Not that im complaining, but it's odd.

>tfw Akane got countless of Junpeis killed for no reason
And they say a sequel can't retroactively ruin a game.

do you really have to ask
cuz people like hot women

999 literally changed my life and cured my depression.

I will forever cherish this game and will always have a special place within my heart because of this. But Uchikoshi is a scam artist that landed an accidental masterpiece with 999 and I don't expect him to ever hit perfection like that ever again.