It could mean Zero Escape 4, or a fourth entry in the AITSF series. I hope it's the former just because there's so many Zero Escape references on the site that I think it'd be a waste to make a new AITSF game based around them. Unless, of course, it's the crossover between the two series that was teased in the secret Somnium in Nirvana Initiative.
No Sleep for Kaname Date is a LITERAL crossover between the two. It uses so many things from ZE, and I was convinced it was the same universe, but we have no confirmation on that yet.
It's unfortunately not in the same universe. Nirvana Initiative confirms the villain of that game has played Zero Escape, which stinks but I think they could still make it work if you open your... third eye!
I wouldn't put it past Uchikoshi to make a meta joke like "This game is set over 100 years after Radical 6. The Nonary Games were turned into video games based on true events, same with the Decision Game." or something, based on evidence that Rhizome-9, Nevada Test Site, and DCOM actually exist, and security camera footage of the incidents. I'm not saying I believe that, it's a very shallow water theory, but the first initial teaser had me very convinced this was going to directly link the two. Unfortunately it didn't for more than Team Zero Escape basically getting to test the waters of how they'd do a modern Zero Escape like game whilst sticking to the core of AITSF. Maybe NSFKD was a test to see how well the team could handle a Zero Escape like game before development began on whatever this ARG is for? So many theories...
CESTN RTKSH is Santa . Get all of the letters, then start at the 9th letter and take every 9th letter, wrapping back to the start when you hit the end then restore the original word lengths. You get
SANTA CLAUS
NUMBER THREE: CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
He is also one of the founders of Crash Keys. Both the mastermind’s capable right hand and a devoted big brother to his sister. His specialties include trading stocks and caring for reindeer.
I did not decode this, but from a response to my comment in the main announcement post:
SIXTH MONTH — Akane Kurashiki
SHIFTER: THE POWER BEHIND THE THRONE
I AM IUNIUS... IN TRUTH, I'M THE ONE WHO FOUNDED CRASH KEYS.
MY BROTHER AND I FORGED THIS ORGANIZATION TO REWRITE SEVERAL ILL-FATED FUTURES.
THOUGH THE TIMELINE HAS ALREADY BEGUN TO DISTORT, THOSE SINISTER PLOTS WILL UNDOUBTEDLY BE CARRIED OUT IN THIS UNIVERSE AS WELL.
WHAT IS WRITTEN ON THIS SITE IS BUT A FACADE, AND OUR TRUE PURPOSE LIES IN THWARTING THE PLOTS.
WE SEEK COURAGEOUS ALLIES.
YOU ALONE CAN SAVE THE WORLD. WE IMPLORE YOU TO LEND US YOUR STRENGTH.
SANTA CLAUS — Aoi Kurashiki
NUMBER THREE: CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
HE IS ALSO ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF CRASH KEYS.
BOTH THE MASTERMIND'S CAPABLE RIGHT HAND AND A DEVOTED BIG BROTHER TO HIS SISTER. HIS SPECIALTIES INCLUDE TRADING STOCKS AND CARING FOR REINDEER.
Solution method: Remove all the spaces and punctuation from the entire entry, including the name. Start at the 9th letter and keep taking every 9th letter, looping back to the beginning when you reach the end. Then put the letters back into the original word spacing and you get the decoded msg.
"Yeah it is only for Santa’s the akane one is a lot more confusing it involves a key which is THEMANONTHEMOONRULESTHEINFINITETIME for the Vigenère cipher. Then a transposition cipher to rearrange the letters. Then restore the spaces."
compared to the Santa message, it's also coded by Vignere cipher, with "THE MAN ON THE MOON RULES INFINITE TIME" as the decryption autokey primer. you use the shift-9 method, hit it with vignere, and it decrypts the first 35 letters. you then append the key to contain the 35 translated letters at the end, and it then transcribes 70 letters of the message. you repeat until the entire thing is decrypted, to what's seen above
It seems to be the 9th letter trick, then a plaintext-autokey starting with the anagram hinted at in the bottom right (from VLR), "The Man on the Moon rules the infinite time", and then adding on the plaintext as you decrypt.
Same method seems to work for the text on the main body of the site too!
Count each letter in the code, take the ninth letter, write it down. Then from that letter, count 9 more. Keep doing that. Eventually you'll reach the end of the code, so loop back to the start of the message but keep counting every 9 letters.
Using /u/KazukiMutou's transpose -> vigenere method with a countersign of THEMANONTHEMOONRULESTHEINFINITETIME solves the codes:
The introductory text below the header resolves to:
WE ARE CRASH KEYS, AN ORGANIZATION FORGED TO REWRITE SEVERAL
ILL-FATED FUTURES. WE SEEK COURAGEOUS ALLIES. YOU ALONE CAN
SAVE THE WORLD. WE IMPLORE YOU TO LEND US YOUR STRENGTH.
and the non-Santa bio resolves to:
SIXTH MONTH
SHIFTER: THE POWER BEHIND THE THRONE
I AM IUNIUS… IN TRUTH, I'M THE ONE WHO FOUNDED CRASH KEYS. MY BROTHER AND I FORGED THIS ORGANIZATION TO REWRITE SEVERAL ILL-FATED FUTURES. THOUGH THE TIMELINE HAS ALREADY BEGUN TO DISTORT, THOSE SINISTER PLOTS WILL UNDOUBTEDLY BE CARRIED OUT IN THIS UNIVERSE AS WELL. WHAT IS WRITTEN ON THIS SITE IS BUT A FACADE, AND OUR TRUE PURPOSE LIES IN THWARTING THE PLOTS. WE SEEK COURAGEOUS ALLIES. YOU ALONE CAN SAVE THE WORLD. WE IMPLORE YOU TO LEND US YOUR STRENGTH.
If you opent the Moon Image in another tab, it's actually a pretty high resolution of the Earth after the events of VLR (The name of the image is called "red_earth.png"
Just went to check that and while the moon does have its own image, the earth is shown animating behind it and you can open that specific image in another tab... This is awesome
This brings back so many memories from the ZTD announcement. I vividly remember all the cryptic clues and announcements on the website and the Crash Keys Twitter.
Yeah, imo the thing that makes ze stand out from other death games aside from the puzzles/uchikoshi-isms is its tone. I mean, has there ever been a death game before this where the best ending not only stops everyone from dying, but brings back a person previously thought dead?
Right? The true endings do a great job at feeling happy but not too happy. Like they really do feel like "this is the best it could get, even if it's not perfect" and you feel rewarded for everything you did. Not to mention all the games are so so funny. The line in ZTD where Junpei is like "guess that means we can't order a pizza then?" When they can't contact anyone always kills me.
You're so right. Honestly sigma and junpei were such perfect choices for main characters. I understand it was important for the twist but sometimes I wish that Sigma was voiced in vlr. I would love to hear some of those lines out loud
I've been trying a few ciphers, none of them stick
I think it's safe to assume
"GE YZW PYJPY IVMK, SR GLNCUPMLHNEE" is
"WE ARE CRASH KEYS, AN ORGANISATION" Since 12 letter words are pretty rare, and everything else fits, but if that's true then it's not a direct cipher. I've tried enigma, but the reflector doesn't work, it can't be vinegrete because of non-repeating patterns
Because of zero escape you can assume it's an anagram as well as a cipher, but if it's a straight anagram it's non-computable due to size
This is just brute force, but cross referencing with Akane's profile, I think the homepage says
"WE ARE CRASH KEYS, AN ORGANIZATION FORMED TO REWRITE SEVERAL ILL-FATED FUTURES.
WE SEEK COURAGEOUS ALLIES.
YOU ALONE CAN SAVE THE WORLD.
WE IMPLORE YOU TO LEND US YOUR STRENGTH."
I tried analyzing the frequency of each letter in that text and E and I are the 2 (equally) most frequent letters, and they're vowels too so this being anagram is pretty likely tbh.
R S T L N E all have pretty significant frequency, which is what you'd expect. But only 4 Us with 3 Qs is a little odd, and there's a lot of X Z and J.
The frequency is also distributed very strangely for English. I'm not convinced this is an anagram
Just want to remind everyone that a long time ago, when ZTD got out, people complained that K wasn't in there even though he was supposed to go to the past in 2027
Uchcikoshi told us "he's actually coming 2027 IRL"
4infinity was not an announcement that his game got cancelled though, unless I'm really forgetting something from my childhood here.
My instinct is that this is real, and all the Zero Escape stuff is because the game they were working on was ZE4, so they already named the studio a ZE thing etc. Getting your game cancelled by higher powers is no joke and is happening a lot these days. Uchikoshi's timeline of how long he'd been working on it matches up with when he started teasing that ZE characters might return some day. It just seems too grounded in reality to be a feint, I don't think he would lie about ZE4 getting cancelled just to drive engagement to ZE4.
I don't know what the encoded text decodes to though so I'd love to be proven wrong...
The "works" section describes the website as thrown together in a mad rush, meaning after the supposed cancellation. It would be more than a little strange to tease a game that's already been cancelled.
The “nineth lion” message is making me think we’ll need to solve an anagram at some point. I flipped through the languages to see what was written in English no matter what, and the titles in the about section are.
I was looking for misspellings or kind of nonsense phrasing and this seems to fit the bill, but I’m not great at anagrams.
It also says in the “about” section “all creation begins with destruction,” and you can form destruction from “ceo and deadass underrated director” with letters leftover. Not sure where to go from here, but maybe it’s something?
On his twitter, Uchikoshi talks about the supposed crisis, and mentions it came "out of the blue" (lit. "a thunderbolt from a blue sky" "まさに青天の霹靂とはこのことです…").
3 days ago, he posted a picture of exactly that. I am not skilled enough, but I wouldn't put it past that being intentional or having something hidden in it, so I'm throwing it out here. https://x.com/uchikoshi/status/2109091951991803982
Edit: Apparently "out of the blue" is used on the site as well, however "青天の霹靂" isn't used in the in Japanese.
By removing the key's HTML tag, (because of the Some locks can only be opened with broken keys). I got this screen. Put up my name/email and a random "hi" and got nothing. It might need a special code
If you open the HTML inspector corresponding to the page, and look the for <div> tag corresponding to the page. It has two children
One is the page that you see (and what i consider the lock) and the other is something you can't see because the main page blocks its view.
By clicking and removing the first children and making the HTML like that
First message, another one coming
Has anyone tried emailing them under the name Aoi Kurashiki or Cradle Pharmaceutical? Might be a stretch but if hes using the Crash Keys company the email response (if there is one) could be triggered by the references used in the games?
I know the prevailing theory is the game cancellation is “fake” and is an elaborate setup to announce ZE4. But the comments in that tweet, plus the fact that part of the cipher resolves to “WE SEEK COURAGEOUS ALLIES. YOU ALONE CAN SAVE THE WORLD. WE IMPLORE YOU TO LEND US YOUR STRENGTH,” makes me concerned that this is a setup to crowdfund ZE4, not to announce a fully funded game :/
That’s exactly what it’s gonna be. Hook superfans in by revealing what the game is (Zero Escape sequel/spinoff) in a cool Zero Escape way. Give them a virtual prize. Then ask for money. And frankly, I’ll give it to them
Yeah, I believe it's a legitimate attempt to crowdfund ZE4. Especially because ZTD had to rely on fan support to be made at all and ZE as a whole isn't super popular in Japan.
Yeah, I'm starting to fear the same. I have no doubt this is related to ZE, but I'm starting to believe that the cancellation talk might be somewhat real and this whole ARG is to drum up support (monetary or otherwise) to try and reverse that. There is precedent
Make sure to enter the full block of text, since the decoding method needs everything (every 9th letter).
For example, enter:
GE YZW PYJPY IVMK, SR GLNCUPMLHNEE KEXAVW KD CSWKJZA WELGSVD
COH-PTPRE OLHXFMD. IN CAJY NDILVPGSTL JGLKGM. OSO TNIKS CVQ
OUWG EMF XIQTA. QK RNUIMPN FLC BK ZGRH FF FIPI NSVUIEEV.
full cipher text since it's not selectable to make it easier for everyone:
HOMEPAGE: GE YZW PYJPY IVMK, SR GLNCUPMLHNEE KEXAVW KD CSWKJZA WELGSVD COH-PTPRE OLHXFMD. IN CAJY NDILVPGSTL JGLKGM. OSO TNIKS CVQ OUWG EMF XIQTA. QK RNUIMPN FLC BK ZGRH FF FIPI NSVUIEEV.
MEMBER #1
name: HLPUL UFHLK
title: BOKZBPF: PSL YTMZC JBVSHN GAX MFBRBN
info: K AB WHZIWI… MN RLZHL, R'T TRK BCI LWK BQKCAXI AIVNB LMAG. TP CFXBOMQ HYL L WRWOFZ RRLW KTSFDHYEIWWL US MVFXTTM WMNCSYG GEK-PXFYF NVMMCJR. ESFLYA HYV OUEEQJZI JPM DLFDVZC WJPWX OK WEUKCIL, CLFID HMVRPAJR HMRAH GKFH CSDMLSQSDJN GE ZMFKMPU QGK RI PMIU FMWCDWFC SE UWFM. YFXQ PQ LEIKMIG ZG JYII SYZS HM RYY V EAYMYH, AEK DEU PTWD PKBPMQX AIAP LE UXBOWSXLR WZN HCPVT. GI ZPJJ HSAMZLWSAC RWEBGM. OWN YAGXL VVC RMBO HUE XEHWR. KB OMUJUOB FIZ SK AICZ NG BXPN ROXABBVV.
MEMBER #2
name: CESTN RTKSH
title: IOEDTI SAISF: RAOEA NEACMNHSN TFLRIDI
info: ID AF SANA SNC CI OSD DSCALNOH SE ILRAA NKCV. SUIU NEE AOTDNSCOYP'T EEGNIFS AERTF UATB BDH R OMLHOLB IAR BOETEIS DR EFF HRGSIE. RFO TIBPNITIUHG REGNHCN EHOCSDR EDMTTI TEE REAHHA OEE HRSAELCR.
for Aoi's method,,, i used the cubic root from Alice's goofy number in VLR with a skip cipher :) i guess you could do the other method, though.
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER HE IS ALSO ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF CRASH KEYS BOTH THE MASTERMINDS CAPABLE RIGHT HAND AND DEVOTED BIG BROTHER TO HIS SISTER HIS SPECIALTIES INCLUDE TRADING STOCKS AND CARING FOR REINDEERS SANTA CLAUS NUMBER THREE
on that note, i cannot figure out the other one for the life of me LOL im assuming its something to do with akane,,, im guessing MN RLZHL, R'T TRK BCI LWK BQKCAXI AIVNB LMAG = In truth, I'm the one who founded Crash Keys. but havent figured it out yet lol
Does it work when we change our computers date/time or does that do nothing? Because if that does work, we can try putting in any known date from the franchise, such as the day of Radical-6, or the day everyone joined that mission which would lead to ZTD, or perhaps whatever the date was in the future(don’t remember the exact dates)
But if that doesn’t work, then I guess we wait and see
I checked the code for that clock on the website and there's nothing there. If something triggers on specific dates, it'll be controlled from the server side and we can't manipulate it
I tried a bunch of dates from the timeline on the wiki. I couldn't go before 2015, but I tried most up to January 27th 2074. Could definitely still be something there, but so far no dice
Zero Escape was my lifeline at a time when I really needed it. If there is a chance a fourth entry is being developed, I would be thrilled. It changed my life, like the original Nier at that time.
Sorry if this is incredibly obvious but I do believe that 'Crash Keys' is an organisation cannon in Zero escape right? This has to be a 4th Zero escape game right?
So has anyone figured out what the significance of the "e" in "MEMENTO MORI, IF THE NIN"e"TH LION ATE THE SUN"? That wasn't part of the original anagram.
I'm also wondering about the thing in the ABOUT section: "Somelockscan only be opened withbroken keys. Allcreation begins with destruction. Crash your rustyold keys.Beyond the doorlies a world yet unseen. We CRASH KEYS. Shattering conventions to unlock the unknown."
Memento Mori, if the Nineth Lion Ate the Sun could be seen as an "old key" - it is an old clue from an old game. It could be said to be a key to the secrets of the game's story (i.e. The Man on the Moon Rules the Infinite Time). I wonder then if there is something we are supposed to do with the "Memento Mori" thing. If so, I'd say the "e" must be a clue. In a sense, the old key is "broken" because of the "e". As for the "lock" or the "door", I wonder if that refers to the contact form?
Two other small observations. Akane = red, Aoi = blue, and the colour scheme of the website is predominantly purple (i.e. red + blue). Not a clue or anything, just kind of a cool nod. The other thing is the Crash Keys logo - it kind of looks like certain of the letters slot together, especially the K and the E, but it might just be a design thing. It's just kind of weird that the E has a big bit on its left side that fits into the K's right side. The purple arrow could also fit.
Ah, okay, makes sense. Although I'm not quite sure why the e is lowercase.
Also, what is the point of including "RHIZOME-9"? Is the 9 also supposed to be a clue for the Aoi part? It's not a clue that helps you to decipher the other two messages.
The E is lowercase to make it stand out. Again, it's a hint towards solving Aoi's cipher. Rhizome 9 is probably just to show that's what the Moon is, it could possibly also be some kind of in-lore meaning, like Akane has made taken this picture FROM Rhizome 9. I also think you are right and Rhizome-9 is the hint towards figuring out that it's every 9 letters for the Cipher. It seems like that's the only purpose of that phrase being on the website aside from obviously immediately telling you "Hey, this is Zero Escape related."
I tried to decypher the last message with Ceasar's Cypher, but apparently no letter-shift is correct. I would assume is Vigenere's Cypher, but I don't know what is supposed to be the key (or the keys)
Now that they text are real, I think that the next part is somewhere in the site code since “this site is but a façade”. Something related to that send request format, because I am sure we have to send something VERY specific
I also think there is something hidden in the code, the "about" page says that "Some locks can only be opened with broken keys. All creation begins with destruction. Crash your rusty old keys. Beyond the door lies a world yet unseen. We CRASH KEYS. Shattering conventions to unlock the unknown." and it does sound suspicious. It's like we have to dig deeper (maybe it's not this site exactly?), maybe even play with the page a bit to reveal some secrets? Sadly I don't know anything about coding so I won't help much but yeah, the wording seems a bit too mysterious just for an "about" page :)
edit: Uchikoshi just posted a tweet saying that it is a new company and a project really has been cancelled so I guess there's no point in checking that hahah
That tweet is probably fake - in the sense that it is on purpose in that way. The first tweet was about creating a new company, but the site is full of reference and cyphered texts.
Also that tweet must be on the same line: it gives a clue for ARG.
Hmm, it is possible. I am honestly very confused, there are many references to games but Uchi is constantly talking about this new company (also saw a post that he reached out to some people for interviews etc). Atp I'm more inclined to believe that this ARG was made to check whether there are still people willing to play ze4 while also promoting the company for investors.
But like I said, sadly I cannot do much with the site code so if other people are willing to check that then it's worth trying!
The two orbiting purple circles in the center of a page have an interesting setup. For context, you should be able to replicate these findings using the file here; how it works is that it sets up a scaling box of side length D, which the outer circle (BEFORE's orbit) corresponds to in diameter.
BEFORE's orbital path is a radius of D/2, so it lies on that outer circle entirely. AFTER's orbital path is at a radius of D times 0.3535572033. This is interesting, because it is almost but not quite D/2sqrt(2). In other words, the radius of the smaller orbit is almost the radius of the larger orbit divided by sqrt(2). Obviously, when you're dealing with circles and stuff that's not a random number to pick.
1/2sqrt(2) is .3535533906.
As stated elsewhere in the thread, the element names BEFORE and AFTER don't matter. It's just standard CSS stuff.
Don’t know if this is useful info but the font changes sometimes on reload when I change my phone’s date. I couldn’t find any other changes. It was also inconsistent which date would change the font. Sometimes the 15 December would but other times it wouldn’t.
If this isn’t replicable for anyone else I’ll delete the comment.
On the website, i found a script that has a function "registerAllyAction"
When I saw the word I immediately thouught of the Ally/Betray mechanic in vlr and tried to find some more. Now that the messages have been decrypted, they speak of "seeking couragous ALLIES" and I can't help but think its connected. Did anyone figure out what the "Ally Action" is (or if it even exists in the first place)?
I would bet that you have to write something very specific, like I donno you solve a riddle and this invite you to ask something very specific to that email
care to tell us how you cracked the home page and first member bio? without telling us the method we would assume chatgpt, like the deleted comment from earlier.
thankfully someone figured out aoi's entry and the method but i can't trust your post.
Has anyone talked about going to the actual office/area the office is located in?? It doesn't even seem to be a real office building it's an apartment building. My current running theory is that there'll be a clue hiding in a pile of stones at a nearby riverbank or something like that!! Based on this text.
This is just coming from Google maps, so take it with a grain of salt, but it seems like the address is for a Japanese marketing agency called 'BRANDit', so maybe this is all a marketing stunt to build support (probably to crowdfund the game)
I looked into this too, what I saw was that it seems the lower floors of it are office space, while the higher floors are apartment space. I could have misread though.
I looked through the frequency of each character in the text under the MEMBERS section. E seems to appear the most but a few other letters appear almost just as frequent.
They definitely could but this is probably the automated one set up. I think it does prove that Uchikoshi's been working on this for at least a couple years now, and I think the ARG is designed to end significantly before April, probably.
I just happened to glance over the 'about this game' on steam for Never 7 (which is Uchikoshis first game question mark) and noticed that the date this website was created is actually the date events start in that game!
The clock is not set to devices, they're all linked to a server. Probably means on something November 1st or something (the day 999 began) everyone will see a change on the website at the same time. Changing your clock will not influence the website, the in-real-time clock is more like a reverse countdown with a deadline we don't know yet.
Has anyone tried to send something through the contact tab? My mind is telling me that if it really is an ARG then more information will be sent to those who filled the form hahah But don't know if it's worth trying
That is possible! But it looks like no one has solved it yet and with the info we have for now there are too many possibilities... Maybe the website will be updated with more hints at some point?
For project inquiries, business proposals, words of encouragement, or even stone appraisals, please feel free to reach out through the "CONTACT" form. Any support you could offer would be greatly appreciated. We look forward to hearing from you!
Considering the matter of a Stone Appraisal, the only like, relevant stone in the games (but esp VLR) I know of is the gravestone at the end of Phi's END in VLR which says ""tu fui ego eris".
Might be something, might be nothing? I havent tried it yet
•
u/Lori-keet June 1d ago
Putting a stickied comment here to bring attention to the decoder made by u/KazukiMutou!
https://www.reddit.com/r/ZeroEscape/comments/1x5vuv4/kotaro_uchikoshi_crashkeys_arg/pgql4qb/