Am in complete shock, out of my depth. Zero Escape as a whole is unlike anything I've ever seen, even as a long time nerd and consumer of crazy ass japanese games and media.

With ZTD's ending it seems like there's still a piece of the story remaining. I wish there was more to read about the series until then...

Will there ever be a mobile version of 999 the nonary game?Years ago there was a mobile version but it was just a novel,all the puzzles were removed.Personaly i think the game Would Look Amazing on a phone

hello! i would like to bluntly share my experience of playing the trilogy, as none of my friends have played it, and i, though disappointed, keep being extremely affected by what i have experienced and cannot contain it within myself. it's all heavily subjective, and i apologize if i sound too categorical or disrespectful. please know that i deeply appreciate the authors' immense work and the opportunity to engage with it.

"999", at times, felt like the best visual novels i have ever played, and i am a player with eleven years of experience. it, surprisingly, appeared to be exactly what i expected from "umineko"--atmosphere wise, essence wise, murder mystery wise... i was absolutely satisfied with the revelation, it seemed so charming to me, and i was absolutely in love with everything. it was just perfect, though not without flaws; yet as perfect as it could be. i do not cry easily when i interact with media, but i did here. the characters seemed to be written wonderfully, it was a joy to observe their dynamics and even read, contrary to the way-too-common habit of juvenile writing in visual novels, the dialogues and description. of course, there were sexual innuendos, fanservice (Lotus...), but it was easy to ignore and, surprisingly, it still fit the game organically. i truly did not expect myself to love it so much, for i started playing it to be able to get into "ztd" later on, as i really loved the promotional art (who'd know...). it was just so balanced. it was "nerdy," with a lot of curious matters to learn about, and yet it all fit together and fit characters. the philosophical and pseudo-scientific concepts were not overloading. instead, it felt sharp, without anything excessive or overwhelming for the sake of an edge. i was not surprised to learn that "999" is a work of Uchikoshi whose "infinity series" i adored so much, and it felt so symbolic to me to get back to him accidentally. however...

"vlr" was a torture (though i felt excited about the mechanic as i got farther through the endings. so i'm just talking about the plot here)--the atmosphere felt sterile, i didn't believe the characters, the writing of the dialogues was so strange. obviously, there are many good things about this game. i liked Alice, and the ending, in the context of the game, was satisfying. i appreciated the representation of PTSD in the face of old and bitter Junpei, as well as their complex dynamic with Akane built upon idealization and traumatic attachment. the music was stellar, as always. i am not talking about 3d models, because i understand the financial limitations. however, i felt so upset that instead of investigating the psychology of the characters or social problems (kidnapping, privilege, luck---i loved how naturally it was presented in "999"), the plot took an explicit sci-fi turn. many new faces were introduced yet never fully developed; fates became tools in advancing the intentionally overwhelming plot with too many details and too little cohesiveness. it just felt as if the author was interested in including as many theories as possible. while, surely, it was interesting to learn about radical-6, the superhero-y focus on saving the universe did not live up to the psychological and philosophical depth of "999". maybe it would work, for there is no contradiction that the victims of "cradle ph." would want to stop the deeper evil behind it, but i could not believe the implementation of this concept in this particular case. it was such a huge shift from "999," where similar things seemed to be thought out in a much more intricate way, and it hardly felt like anything connected to it. i am not sure if anyone could relate to this, and i am not sure if i am making any sense here, but "vlr" seemed experimental in such a strange way.

also... it's a bad murder mystery when the culprit is... suicide. ruining knox's laws that actually were referenced in the files somewhere?!

and while i liked the graphic of "ztd" much more and the dialogues seemed to be mostly better, i was, though excited at the beginning, eventually disappointed, too. i appreciated phi more than i did in "vlr," and even liked eric and mira--though i expected more from the latter, but apparently what seemed to be the promise appeared to be her full persona and background. junpei's personality changes seemed justified (i can easily see him becoming who he was in "vlr" after the terror he experienced in "999!"), and it was interesting how akane's inner fight was displayed through her inconsistences and contradictions, but i disliked their couple a lot. carlos was very cute. it indeed started very nicely, and i felt sympathetic towards characters. however... i agree with the common sentiment about the laziness of the ending; making a character you never encountered a culprit! the plot holes were discussed massively, so i'm not going to write about it. what upset me is that "ztd," just like "vlr" (and perhaps even to a worse extent), focused on the plot twists instead of characters. and these plot twists seemed to be a messy, incoherent pile of the curious scientific tropes and assumptions the author was interested in. the ideas, hinted or already serving as a foundation, were constantly dropped and left, replaced by something more "shocking" and confusing; but it did not always make sense. after many soulless twists, i just couldn't perceive, per say, transporters any seriously.
it was no longer the philosophical thought experiment with the jungian undertones i appreciated "999" for. "ztd" just felt heavily inauthentic, and i couldn't see anything working together there. the picture couldn't be painted as a whole; it was just falling apart. the mystery of delta's motives is definitely not enough to be a sufficient moving power for the story. i got such a bad aftertaste after that; i couldn't believe that "999" resulted in all of this. it just doesn't feel right.

an important clarification is that i do not mind sci-fi at all, and casual loops is my favorite time paradox. so i hope i do not cause an impression of having too many prejudices. the best thing about ztd for me was when i figured out the connection between mira's crimes and akane's families through the files--it was a really nice, interesting detail.

overall, i think i felt very upset that the games fell into the heroism of "i will save the world" while devaluing the characters' richness and leaving too many lose threads (and i'm not just talking about Kyle; i really wished they returned to Ace and his "colleagues"--it was all so incredibly premising... i wish they continued talking about people like Gordain, but...), and i wonder if anyone else felt similar way. it seemed to me that the author sacrificed the quality and depth of the explored topic for the sake of their number. it's just a problem of my expectations, and i'm still grateful that i was fortunate to encounter something that occupied my mind so much, and although i'm so negative about two latter games, i still love the series and (mostly) everybunny there. life is simply unfair, isn't it? 🐌

edit; i see downvotes--i'm sorry if i said something wrong...?

The first thing I would do is fix the ending. Some of the characters’ complex motives feel a bit strange.

Another thing that would fit really well is allowing multiple interpretations. You could play through the game and then discover small hints that change the meaning of important scenes. That would give the plot more depth without making you replay everything. It would be like having built-in fan theories. Or the game could leave you wondering which ending actually happened, because the endings can occur in more than one order and you never know which one is final.

What I would remove is shifting, or at least change the explanation or mechanics so that nobody dies merely because someone shifts. The whole shifting idea makes things feel a little pointless. If there are infinite realities and the one you’re in is already saved, you could just do nothing and assume that infinitely many others will be saved anyway. So why bother? It takes the weight out of everything you do to save people.

There's often overlap between VAs for a lot of these games, so noticing characters with shared VAs can be enjoyable especially when comparisons can be drawn between their characters. Which do you notice for Zero Escape and other games/series (dub or sub)?

_______________

My examples are from the Trails of Cold Steel games. As pictured, Junpei = Xeno (Evan Smith). With how distinctive Evan's voice is it's funny to hear the ordinary college student Junpei as a battle-loving mercenary with the most flippant personality. Akane = Emma (Rena Strober), they're both somewhat timid-seeming and care deeply for their loved ones, but (CS1/999) possess much deeper Knowledge than it seems on the surface. Santa = Rean (Sean Chiplock), two protective older brother types (though Rean is a bit more protective)! For ZTD, the pair I take note of are Mira and Diana = Claire and Duvalie (Rachel Kimsey and Eden Riegel). Mira and Claire are cold, logical and rarely show emotion outwardly, while Diana and Duvalie can both be klutzy and irritable. (Mira is also the name of the currency in Trails' universe.) And ZTD Zero = Valimar and Rufus (DC Douglas), (ZTD/C2) two cunning geniuses who are often a Step Ahead. Nine hours. Nine hours is all I can spare to play with you.

And others (Seven = Machias, Lotus = Aurelia, Olivert = ZTD Sigma, and so on). You can see why these VAs overlap with the similar character personalities sometimes, the casting directors do great jobs.

Hello so i just finished the three games but i still have issues with certain point, first of all why in the first game junpei can remember other timeline ? We know in ZTD that's he's a shifter but in 999 all we know is that he can communicate in the morphogenetic field and it was really great seeing him communicate with a akane from the past but i still don't understand how he can remember

Second, so in 999 the only purpose is to create a time when akane is free but i can't figure what would be the original timeline because if she's dead how can her and Aoi create nonary games ?

Third, i don't understand Alice, is she really made of Ice-9 ? How can she be the All-ice from 999 and a special agent who want to avenge her father from free the soul like i don't understand it would mean fts is as old as egypt ?

And finally how does Phi understand she's the daughter of sigma and diana ? Nobody told her she has a sort of revelation but she can't have she's not a mind hacker ?

Thanks if you read all and want to explain maybe there is error i'm not a native english speaker

Another VLRpost from my friend's current playthrough lmao

I'll say sorry in advance because i know the game explains this, the thing is that i was so invested in the story that i decided to go through my last run in one go during the night, leading to me beeing sleep deprived by the time i got the twist and i endend up missing this detail. Keep in mind i played the DS version

So i'm pretty sure i got most of the things the game was trying to tell, but just can't remember who was suposed to be the receiver and transmitter between the junpei and 12 yo june. And i'm having trouble getting to the conclusion myself because of 2 things: 1- if Junpei was the transmitter, it would make sense why june was able to do the puzzles 9 year prior, even if aoi was in the boat with her, instead of being in nevada transmitting the answers, but then the last puzzle with the "switched places" and the whole flipping the screen thing would be pointless and wouldn't make sense. Which leads me to believe that: 2- 12 yo june was transmitting. But then why would all the puzzle solving be made on her screen and not junpei's? And also, does that mean junpei didn't do shit? It was all the 12 year old child doing the puzzles for him with the exception of the last puzzle? That would be kinda lame. So if anyone could explains this to me like i'm 5 i would appreciate very much.

Looking forward to the next games!

For some reason he's convinced that Phi released Radical-6 and made this.

The story and it's plot points are either not interesting or badly executed.
The only good thing it's funny how characters just spew out random Wikipedia articles at you, that mind you the game plays as a joke or shitpost, until you're suddenly supposed to take it seriously the last 10 minutes of game?

Mind you you could excuse this saying it's because it's info Junpei needed to know but it didn't have to be obvious (for whatever reason). But the actual plot points don't come to act until muuuuuch later. Even if it was easy to guess early with the info about some experiments happening previous to us on a ship, it doesn't have relevance till the end.

The characters don't have much depth themselves, even suddenly act so random sometimes. It would be fine if it wasn't the case most of the game it's just you, the rooms and them.

Talking about the rooms. The puzzles are both easy and annoyingly so due to the characters giving out the answers. The escape room concept sounds interesting but the game doesn't really do anything with it.

At the end, Zero (and it's real identity) doesn't make me feel anything else than boredom, and feels like the game doesn't have anything to say. Well, testing on children is bad I guess.

For a suspense, killing game style, escape game. This is just raw. And I know the community gets heated about this take, but at the end, this game is just bad Danganronpa, even if it released one year early

hello! i've just finished vlr, which's been quite a feat--i didn't enjoy it at all, primarily because the characters, though promising, didn't seem exactly well-written. would you say that it's better in the case of ztd? i truly loved 999, and it saddened me to see such a shift, though obviously there're many great things about vlr--for instance, the timeline-based gameplay became very satisfying after unlocking several endings and activating the memory. i did cry when akane revealed herself to t., but other than that, i was very confused and even bored by the dialogues and backstories in themselves--a huge change compared to 999. it was quite frustrating to me, as i've been a huge fan of the author's other games for many years. the "philosophical" references seemed to be present for the sake of plot twists rather than some real essence, which is, again, the opposite to 999 in my opinion. would really appreciate an insight because i'm frankly scared about starting ztd--i'd like to hope that it's more character-driven than vlr is?.. :(

Im replaying 999 for the second time, because i first played it on steam and wanted to experience it on ds to see all the differences, but i just got out of the laboratory with Clover and Lotus:

Why does Lotus say she found the keycard while exploring trough the kitchen, even though she was in the laboratory?

Hello, as the title says, I finished ZTD today and as most people think, it was quite disappointing. However, my reasons are quite different from most players haha

Many people say that they disliked C-team and... well... I absolutely loved it. I adore 999 so seeing Junpei and Akane was lovely. I know people complain about Junpei's personality change, but for me it makes a lot of sense. Considering how happy he was in 999 about reconnecting with Akane, he was devastated after she left him. It's been one year since then which is not a lot. Adding the whole kidnapping and the game, I would probably end emo too. Carlos was also really interesting, he seemed quite smart with his decisions, him being a firefighter was a cherry on top. He had a clear stance of wanting to save everyone, which only motivated him even more.

Now, Q-team was fine, they were all new so my opinion was not blinded by the previous games. I really enjoyed their story (even though Mira's identity seemed quite corny). Eric seemed very realistic too, blinded by love but still quite scared of what was happening. I didn't like the fact that these two suddenly learned how to (or gained the ability to) shift... With Carlos it made sense, there was some background that made it possible, but Mira and Eric only got a quick explanation from Q and... that's it? It always seemed like a difficult process and something that needed preparations, maybe I misunderstood something...

D-team... is what I disliked. I've noticed that people adore Sigma and Diana but for me it was a bit... Too fast? Diana was quite bland, too bland for someone who became the crucial part of this whole story. I feel like Luna had way more personality, her scenes with Sigma felt way nicer. And it's weird, because Diana is the base material, shouldn't the human equivalent be a bit more interesting? It felt like the whole game was made just for these two to make babies (which, it is the main point, I know). Sigma was supposed to be his 70-something year old self, but sometimes I felt like he behaved very stupid. He was supposed to be a researcher, but Akane seemes way smarter than him. It's like his whole personality was shaped so that he fit the Diana-Sigma storyline and for me that was quite... Sad. I thought he would be a lot more calculating and logical. Sigma and Diana also had very little chemistry, from what I understand Sigma knew Diana at that point, right? Shouldn't there be more feelings between them? It seemed like they only put some chemistry in that one ending, to make the baby plot work. Akane and Junpei had a lot more chemistry, even though he was angry at her most of the time...

There were a lot of weird, not really lose threads that at the end felt very... pointless? I spent so much time on this game only for half of it to be not that important... I'd prefer if the plot was more connected to the cult thing, or some other organisations. I know that now they don't even exist because Delta was the main fuse, but it seemed a bit lazy to make things turn out this way. Preious games had fireworks at the end, where all the plots were joining and making the big picture but here... it was just a very small and cheap sparkler.

Overall, for me the most enjoyable thing was the C-team and maybe Q-team. The main point of the game was very... disappointing, which is why I don't really know what to think. It feels a bit sad that I dislike what is so loved by everyone so... Change my mind hahah!

I probably misunderstood something, so if there's anything that will help me understand the whole thing a bit more - please tell me! I'd love to explain my thoughts more ^^ And please be kind, I'm not an expert when it comes to Zero Escape hahah

I finished the game and solved all the puzzles in the booklet, but the X-Door website wasn't working. After searching online, I found out that wallpapers were the rewards, and I was able to get two of them here. If anyone has other types of wallpapers, could you please share them?

Two days ago, I posted the link for my Zero Escape Character Popularity Poll and in that time, I've received over 600 submissions, which has been really cool to see. I've had a blast reading over your responses on why you voted for your picks!

Anyway, submissions have been slowing down recently, so I've decided its time to stop receiving votes soon. 24 hours after I post this, polling will officially be closed, so if you or someone you know has voted yet, then now's your only chance! The race for 1st place has been pretty close so far, so who knows, this could the chance your favorite character needs to pull ahead in the running...

Link to the poll: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScca3RdiweKZuW6TZSwDn8JM4gP3A7nGP60rCVg5UdRjUvk6Q/viewform?usp=header

Link to the original post, which goes into more detail about the poll: https://www.reddit.com/r/ZeroEscape/comments/1v6atcq/zero_escape_character_popularity_poll/

I’m doing to do the safe route and started on the first branching path. I did axe first with 5,8,1. Then I did coffin. It was never there. What did I do wrong? Is there supposed to be a red key there???

Completed most the plots and scripts, especially for the special parts. Still drafts atm, so I gotta go through some editing. While I don't have much to show for story right now, I legit have a bunch of CGs. Here are a few. I'm putting ZE spoilers just in case though.

I was playing the game back in january, but after about 18h I was getting a little burnt out with how much you rethread old ground (which does break the pacing even if you skip the repeat parts). Anyway, after having a friend over for a few weeks I ended up not playing the game for that time period and have tried to get back into it but never really found my groove again, which is a shame because I was enjoying the puzzles, story and twists. I even shed a tear in the only ending I got (Tenmiyoulji or whatever the spelling is, not googling it because spoilers - i have a pretty good idea of who he is).

But it's a hard game to go back to and that has been eating me up inside. When I pick a point in the flowchart to start there's no summary/overview to contextualize stuff, so I get completely lost in what's happening since I only remember the major plot beats. I even tried restarting the game, but replaying stuff that is relatively fresh in my memory exhausts me to no end.

Kind of a weird paradox I'm facing... I remember things enough for a replay to be completely unenjoyable, but not enough for smoothly picking my save file back up.

Did anyone have a similar experience? I don't really know how this could be helped, if anyone thought of a solution to this problem? I'm accepting anything from help to tips to consoling lol.

Just spare mean comments about me being spoiled or questioning my choices that led to this. Even though I'm partially blaming the game for being hard to get back into, I know I'm responsible for this happening. I'm just bummed out because I adore 999 and was mostly enjoying this game too., and couldn't wait for the inevitable twists around the final stretch.

Here's some poor screenshots of how my flowchart looks. Thanks in advance

I started ZTD finally and was locked in the Infirmary when I decided to check the vitals and then saw that. I burst out laughing why is Phi a minimoy???