#Zero escape games series

If it seems like this review focuses very heavily on 999, that’s because Virtue’s Last Reward is, essentially, the exact same game it was when it was previously released. Luckily, if gamers do find this distracting, The Nonary Games offers players the option to switch to Japanese audio instead. Of note, Junpei’s voice acting is extremely hit or miss, and his role as protagonist means he will be who gamers hear the most of while playing 999.

That being said, 999 still looks pretty dated, and the voice acting ranges between reasonably good and egregiously bad, with some of the lines being so oddly performed that it can be a bit jarring during the gameplay experience.

#Zero escape games series

The Flowchart lets players jump back and forth between key moments in the game, and since the Zero Escape series features so many different endings, not having to loop back through the entire story to get to a new one is a huge boon to gamers who only have so much time to play the title. The other major addition to 999 is the Flowchart, a feature that was successful in both Virtue’s Last Reward and Zero Time Dilemma and is a welcome inclusion here. The game forces players into Novel Mode even when they have selected Adventure Mode at certain points, presumably so that nothing important is missed, so fans don’t even need to worry about managing the modes. Adventure Mode still gives players the most essential information to the story, meaning they won’t miss out on any clues or narrative happenings, but speeds along the process considerably. The ability to switch to Adventure Mode is a welcome one, and is especially useful for gamers who have already played through 999 before. Adventure Mode, however, removes all of the pomp and circumstance, presenting gamers only with voiced lines and modern dialogue boxes like the one’s found in Virtue’s Last Reward and the follow-up Zero Time Dilemma. The Novel mode presents the story as it was originally intended on the Nintendo DS, complete with a number of introspective scenes made up entirely of dialogue where protagonist Junpei struggles with the psychological trauma of the Nonary Game.

Of these additions, 999’s greatest achievement is the introduction of Novel and Adventure modes. The bulk of the changes made to the titles in The Nonary Games come in 999, the oldest title in the series and the one in the direst need of an upgrade. That the series’ story is completely ridiculous doesn’t hinder it in the slightest – one need only look at the recent success of NieR: Automata to see how bizarre storytelling can still be some of the most intriguing as well. Without a compelling narrative, games like The Nonary Games often fall apart at the seams, and even though this reviewer had already played both titles before, the storylines are dynamic and complex enough that revisiting them is still the right mix of emotion and disbelief. Perhaps the most important thing about The Nonary Games is that its story, which is only occasionally interrupted by gameplay, is so strong. What begins as a rote sort of prisoner’s dilemma for both titles very quickly becomes an investigation that spans time travel, different universes, and superpowers like telepathy, and both 999 and Virtue’s Last Reward are much more engaging once they finally hit their stride. What follows is, predictably, the formation of alliances and execution of betrayals that are typical of this sort of adventure, although The Nonary Games certainly features twists that make it much more interesting than it first lets on. Both titles in The Nonary Games feature a cast of characters who have all been kidnapped and placed within the titular Nonary Games, a series of labyrinths and puzzles all designed to murder the entrants. The story of each Zero Escape game closely resembles the film Saw, although once the life-and-death stakes of the puzzle game are established comparisons between the two should cease.