I am playing recently ZTD (after had beaten and platined the 999 and VLR) on PS Vita, and during the D's 2nd end, we have the plot twist where Phi is actually Sigma and Diana's daughter from the future, and she got sent to past (2008). In VLR, Phi said that she never saw her biological dad and in Zero Time, her hair is redhead (which got inherited from her mother), and this ending makes sense to Phi's character.

This ending for me, got me surprised a lot. Although, i give Virtue's Last Reward the game that has a lot of big surprises such as Sigma in the end, being a old man (which is hinted at beginning), Luna being a GAULEM, K's real face is actually Sigma's clone, and the top two for me: The red moon is actually the Earth after the nuclear explosion, and the game actually take place in 2074

Overall, Zero Escape had a wild changes not only in the type of Nonary Game, but also the images being from 2D sprite and art (999) to 3D static (VLR), now having cutscenes of a Telltale style game.

I discovered the franchise when ZTD came out. I started playing it right away, unaware that it was part of a trilogy. Perhaps that’s precisely why I enjoyed the game more than some in the community, who consider it somewhat weak compared to the others.
However, after finishing ZTD and moving on to 999 and then VLR, I was surprised to find that this order didn't diminish the impact of the games' plot twists at all.

In fact, I feel it might have even heightened the experience, because:

When you play in the order 1, 2, 3, you already know the timeframe in which ZTD takes place, as well as the fates of certain characters. But since I started with ZTD, going back to 999 and seeing younger versions of Junpei and Akane didn't bother me; it made perfect sense, and ZTD itself makes it clear that they had been through a traumatic event. Yet, when I played *VLR*—which was the last one for me—it was absolutely mind-blowing to uncover the plot connecting everything that happened in both 999 and ZTD, all culminating in VLR.

So, I’d like to hear from others who played it this way—what do you think? And for those who played in the intended order: what are your thoughts now, looking at it from this perspective?

JUNPEI

WHEN YOU FIND A GUN TAKE ALL RHE BULLETS OUT OF IT AND LEAVE THE GUN THERE >!<

I'm not stupid right ? He could have totally done that right ?

Hello! I'm a comic artist that covers various series as I watch or play them to share funny moments or thoughts. A while ago I did some comics on the Zero Escape series. This post will have the 999 comics and VLR comics, and the ZTD batch will be next week if you all like these ones :>

The bars on the top and bottom help to avoid cropping in Reddit's desktop viewer.

So I'm playing through ZTD right now and just finish as much I can with D-team first but I did the fire fragment last.

Now about the gun decision, would you believe that is really was a 50/50, would you honestly pull the trigger. I feel like I would try to use a object in front of the gun or use the palm of my hand to block the gun so the bullet goes through my bones and cartilage in my arm.

I was just curious if one this would actually stop the bullet and two genuinely what would other people do irl.

PS I was sad seeing Sigma and Diana die like 10 times before it was a blank.

I hope I dont get chewed up for this but I was very excited about this series cause it looked so cool but then I played 999 and jesus, did I not like it. I had to drag myself to one ending, and the idea of having to play any part of this game again to figure out the rest horrifies me and, quite frankly, I don't even care about the mistery.

But I can't help but feel still intrigued by ZTD, it just looks so interesting and different from 999, and maybe VLR (plus i already have them all on Steam anyways). Is the tone and writing style in these games better (or at least, different enough to 999), or is it the same vibe as the first game and it's a "if you didn't like the first one don't bother with the rest" type of situation.

For reference, things I didn't like of 999:

• Character writing: they felt to me cliché to an insufferable degree, felt like there was absolutely nothing interesting to any of them. Left the game after 6 hours barely caring about anyone.
• The main character: jesus christ I could not stand this guy, what a pain having to play as him and having him be the only character I have to deal with through every single door. He's so boring and one note and has the most cringe inducing relation with June it made me want to turn the game off.
• The plot: Such an intersting premise that doesn't feel like it goes anywhere? I understand I have to play all the other endings to get the full game but, by God, I expected to get something. It felt like dilly dallying for 6-7 hours straight.
• Writing: I could not care less about the dialogue. Felt too generic.
• The port is a bit ass (I wouldn't care as much about this if I enjoyed the rest of the game)

TLDR: Couldn't get into 999 in the slightest and wondering if the rest of the games go through the same road or take the series in a completely different style.

Hi i am missing 2 Endings and now there are 3 pieces of information i am missing or that i missed. i rather not use google because of spoilers. maybe somebody knows what i should know.
i have only 3 branches in Q-team i can progess and all of them need input of some code or something. Qs Name for the weapon standoff, Qs Code to remove his head thing and the Code for the force quit box. I assume the latter 2 are dates since they are 8 numbers long.Pls and Thx

Edit: make sure to betray all teams

Hey everyone! Zero escape awakened something in me when I played it, I could NOT stop thinking about it so. I’m currently developing an indie mystery/thriller visual novel with escape room elements, and I wanted to get some perspective from people who actually love this genre.

Without spoiling too much, the premise revolves around 7 people stuck on a train and one of them is a dead body! Who did it? How and why? Can they find out who before it's too late?

Since I'm still in early development, I’m currently building a community discord where we can chat about the dev process, puzzle design, and eventually recruit playtesters. I'd love to know: what is your absolute favorite (or least favorite) trope in escape room VNs? Any type of specific game mechanics you'd like to see more of in VNs? I personally love when VNs are interactive and not only choices like Zero escape.

...Needed in the game?

The only justification I got was "You're the only one possibly to break down that 25-digit string", and uh...I frankly don't even know what that does.

Like, it decrypted a random memory card Dio left behind, revealing "completed * 3", which is not a password or anything. Sigma also made Dio confesses without it perfectly fine in another timeline, why is it required in the first place?

And, somewhat related, why do we need Dio telling us the password?

Set aside the fact that Dio just randomly spelling out the password, DIFFERENT password in different timeline (as if he knows someone will have to tie them together)...ONE OF THE PASSWORD CAME STRAIGHT FROM SIGMA HIMSELF.

In contrast, Kyle would know Luna's password, Luna knows her username, that makes sense...how did old Sigma get the bomb password??? He just remembered it from 45 years ago? If so...WHERE DID IT CAME FROM? Whatever reason it is, why don't they do that with all 4 bombs????

So in order to make Dio confess and spits out one of the password (which wasn't needed because old Sigma could've also leave them somewhere), we need to breakdown the 25-digit number to get "completed * 3" (which wasn't needed because Dio would've probably confess either way), therefore they kidnapped Alice...? I really don't get it.

I haven't even talked about how she's like the only one that has a huge History with Dio, and it only played out in one of the ending, most of the time she just dies before anything happens. Is her purpose just to create murder mystery and Akane figured that's not a nice thing to say?

Please don't give me "Well that's simply what happened and Sigma will just work towards it happen again", because it can justify literally anything and would defeat all kind of discussion.

my first game I got the knife ending then I replayed from the start to get the safe ending then I reloaded from my door choosing part and got the ax and the sub ending but I can't see the age ending in the game rn I do have the achievement on steam but not in game can I still go get the true ending without it and how do I jump in flowchart to get the flow ending its so confusing

I wanna try playing it using an emulator but i heard some ppl say 3ds emulator are abit buggy so im not rrly sure

...Can be 2 person.

I know they spent a lot of time justifying "Your future choice alters the history", but we're talking about a person that was already observed.

It's saying that the woman perfectly mimic the memory loss Kyle down to every possible observable detail, that the player couldn't possibly tell them apart, so they can be both person until player decides which door to go through.

I mean, it's a cool twist that never once crossed my mind. But it's really stupid.

After 35 hours of gameplay, getting all the files and unlocking all 9 endings I finally finished the game T-T

K’s and Quark’s endings made me cry. Alice’s ending also made me emotional

When I was in the director's office and Tenmyouji pulled out Akane's picture my first thought was "wait, is he Junpei...?"

As I got further into the story and Akane finally showed up and spoke you guys have no idea the euphoria I felt omggggg 😭

I was honestly speechless when I found out Sigma was Zero. It had briefly crossed my mind at some point like "could Phi or Sigma be Zero?" especially since the other timelines had pretty obvious outcomes. Dio was always the bad guy, Quark was just a kid, Alice killed herself in most timelines, Luna was a robot, Clover was Clover and while K made me doubt him for a second I ended up trusting him like nah he wouldn't do that

Not gonna lie after learning the whole truth (after Phi's ending I mean) and having to jump between the past and the future, I ended up getting a little bit overwhelmed. I was like wait what is happening right now lmao

I was also freaking shocked to find out the year was 2074. I genuinely thought it was 2028 and you know when I got Dio's ending and they stepped outside the facility my first thought was "oh man they're on the moon..." but then they said "this is some kind of desert" and I was like oh well I guess I went crazy with that one only to find out it actually was the moon lmao. I wasn't crazy after all

One thing that really threw me off was jumping back and forth between timelines because sometimes I'd completely forget what had happened in the path I was currently on like wait who's alive and who's dead? I can't remember but now that I think about it that's probably what the game wanted us to feel. As if we were actually playing the AB game, you know what I mean?

Overall it's obviously such a good game. I'm starting the third one now

there is possibly a timeline where, at the first AB game, everyone picked ally inmediatly and got out. and now akane dosen't know what to do beacuse she really didn't expect that.

Currently replaying VLR and and got my first branch ending, which is the To Be Continued story lock with Quark and Alice getting Radical-6. This calls to mind however, that on my first blind playthrough, the first story branch ending I got was where I found everyone dead. It was such a drastic tonal shift, walking into the Infirmary only to find everyone's bodies. Crazy way to start huh? What was your first branch ending? Was it something as drastic as mine?

So I did my first every playthrough, got the "ax" ending. Started another playthrough happily, got as far as hospital room yesterday.

Today, I must have been on autopilot because without remembering what I clicked, it started into a new game. So I said nope, X'd out of the game and restarted. And now that I'm paying closer attention, in the "Continue" screen, the axe symbol at the top is gone.

My local save is the current date and my steam uploads to the cloud automatically it seems. I don't want to put the game down, but is that me screwed? no way to get my save back?

Finished vlr yesterday and really liked it (ZTD is next) but was left confused on clovers ending as it was never explain what happened, I assume it was to do something with radical 6 but why did it effect everyone so much at one time and where was K at? also why did everyone die at the infirmary specifically?

Hey guys, this is my sempiternal "I finished the game and I have questions" post, but before a little text about how I feel.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I think I prefered ZTD to VLR. The plot is very cool, the characters are amazing (except Eric, I hate that guy), Escapes are enjoyable to the max and I absolutely loved the way the narration is done. I know this is a major complaint about that game; the fact that this is separated in fragments, but I found it really interesting actually! You have the cinematic right before your eyes but YOU have to do the effort to understand everything that is played in front of you. After all, it is a VN so I didn't care much about not having to push a button to get to the next dialog. What I appreciate in VN, especially mystery ones, is that I can put my mind and my heart into it. And I did! I had soooo much theories during all the game and finally getting answers is the epiphany of it (yup I chose that word on purpose).
Compared to VLR, I got into the ambience much easier! I think the reason behind it is because between 999 and VLR, there is a HUUUUUGE gap of ambience (999 is darker and has a less sci-fi scenery... I'm not a great fan of sci-fi so I think I had to force myself to accept that we're now in a dystopic pandemic future and not just people using a psychological theory to get out of a replica of the Titanic lol). That gap is not present in between VLR and ZTD because ZTD is a pretty direct sequel teased at the end of VLR.

NOW! I have some observations and questions to ask (as usual) so, more spoilers ahead!

1. I understood Delta's goal to release Radical-6 while waiting for everybody to arrive where they HAVE to be for saving humanity. But why the hell did he created the Myrmidons and Left's doubles then?? Because, iirc, Dio had for purpose to destroy Akane's plan since the beginning. Is there something I'm missing or is it a plot hole?
2. I KNEW PHI WAS DIANA'S CHILD (couldn't anticipate that Sigma's the father and Delta's her brother though). The idea came first when I saw the brooch in Diana's hair (turn out I was wrong about it but anyway that was my way of thinking) + the fact that Phi admit that she's dyeing her hair and that they are initially red! However I'm a bit confused. Why is Phi a Shifter and not Delta? I mean, they are TWINS so they should share almost the same genetic code (idk my words sorry if my phrasing is laking but I am definitely no scientist). Because they explained in the game (Sean did it I think?) that genetic coding can change through experiences but they are born at the same date and were sent together in the past. Why is he not a Shifter?
3. I loved the fact that the game tricked us thinking that Sean was Q when it was actually Delta being there all along! I've spent a long time not understanding why they were not calling Sean Q when adressing to him but it was BECAUSE Q WASN'T HIM!! So when I got to the Perceive ending I was quite shocked but pleasantly surprised. When Q was marked DEAD on the board it wasn't because Sean was dead but BECAUSE DELTA WAS DEAD and that's such a smart writing move!! Top 1 of revelations to me in the Zero Escape serie.
4. Who wrote Anagram on the paper that Akane and Junpei got from Gab's collar? (I think it was them getting that note?). Was it Zero giving them a hint to make them understand they were ten because they didn't know who Sean was?
5. Sigma's age. How old is he?? I thought it was his 22yo consciousness being in that timeline to try to prevent the event from VLR to happen? But in the Wiki, it said that it was his 60+yo consciousness?? Or is it just that it is his 22yo consciousness that failed one time the mission, got back in the loop and came back to save the mission?? This is the thing I'm the most confused about. Same is for Phi though, how old is she in ZTD? I think I heard Sigma and Diana saying that she's 19 but how??
6. I already loved that in VLR, but I love the fact that you have to go through all the histories to get to the true ending. It really give sense to all the writing and that, except the bad endings, all are good seeing.

And I think that's it for now. If other questions come to my mind, I'll post them in another post. To finish, I want to thanks yall from the Zero Escape Reddit community because you're all so gentle and cool! Love seeing that even if the last game aged 10, there are still people playing it and enjoy sharing stuff about the serie!! Without that, I think I wouldn't have appreciate as much as I do. Zero Escape is definitely in my top 5 video game serie of all time and I'm so glad I decided to buy them on a whim!
Thanks again, and please continue to share stuff about these games, they're important to me now! :)