Zero's Escape Series: Like Saw, but good

Zero's Escape is a series of adventure visual novel-esque games being made by Chunsoft, before this series they were known for making the first five Dragon Quest games on NES and SNES... so yeah their pedigree really doesn't matter much here I suppose, that's about it.



The first game in the series is 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors for the Nintendo DS.

You play as Junpei, a college student who is one day kidnapped by a masked figure named Zero. He awakes aboard the sister ship of the Titanic, the Gigantic and learns he must complete a series of puzzles and challenges, called "The Nonary Game", if he wishes to escape. Attached to his arm is a bracelet with the number "5" on it. Junpei also meets 8 other people who also have bracelets ranging from numbers between 1-9, they all have 9 hours to escape the ship before it sinks and in order to do so must find the door with the number "9" on it. To do this, Junpei and co. must work together and combine their numbers to pass through certain doors ranged from 1-9 by use of a digital root.

A digital root is the combination of three or five numbers and the sum of any remaining numbers. For instance, 1+8+9 = 18, now this combination would be able to open any of the doors on the ship, but through use of a digital root, you would add the digits of 18 together, so 18 becomes 1+8=9. The game presents various challenges, mostly in the form of adventure game logic or using math to solve your problems. Between all of this is a story of the Nonary Game and the characters that is actually very well written, if a bit confusing and obtuse. The game has 6 endings for you to achieve and they are all individually different from one another, no ending is exactly the same as the other nor is it just like the exact same ending but with one major difference. Be warned though, some of the later puzzles get really obtuse and annoying and you might just want to use a guide to save yourself the trouble... oh and the dialogue is pretty bad.



The second game in the series, Virtue's Last Reward for the Playstation Vita and Nintendo 3DS.

You play as Sigma, another college student, who is kidnapped by Zero while driving his car one night. He awakes in an elevator with a girl named Phi and must play the Nonary Game, this time being called the Ambidex Edition. Attached to his and Phi's arm are bracelets with the number "3" on both and "Pair" under the three. The two are greeted by a talking on a screen that calls itself, "Zero III", and informs them they must escape the elevator. The two meet seven other people, two groups of them also sharing the number "3" and "Pair", while the remaining three people have "3" and "Solo" under theres, each of them varying colors between Red, Green, and Blue lettering.

Discovering they are in an abandoned warehouse with the goal to escape the building. In doing so they must work together, however this game uses a system called, Bracelet Points (BP). In order to gain points one must cooperate with or betray another player, should their number reach "0" they are killed by a lethal injection. Much like 999, the game involves various adventure game elements, but is much less like a visual novel this time around through virtue of having fully rendered 3D sprites and voice-acting. On top of the new additions, the game also now has 24 individual endings and a scene select function to make obtaining them that much easier.

The Vita version is the recommended one, but it's not like the 3DS version isn't good either.

There is also currently a third game in the making.

I thought this was about Zero and Roy versus the hospital.

Superbuu3 wrote:

I thought this was about Zero and Roy versus the hospital.

I can arrange a novel for that, if you'd like.

Zero wrote:

Superbuu3 wrote:

I thought this was about Zero and Roy versus the hospital.

I can arrange a novel for that, if you'd like.

Do it.

I just ordered a Vita (weak), and according to the internet I not only need to play 999, but also do it legally on a DS before I can get VLR. Baal, you should know about this stuff so I don't have to. what say you?

You definitely need to play 999 first. They're directly related and are essentially visual novels with puzzle rooms so the plot is a main point of the game.

I just finished Virtue's Last Reward (All of it, I got all the trophies and everything) and holy shit, this fucking game series. I can confirm that you definitely need to play or at least know the story behind 999 to understand half of what ends up happening, because holy shit this series loves its mythology and call backs.

Did you get the two secret endings? Don't spoil anything, I haven't played much and have only gotten to a couple of locks + the Dio ending but I heard that they

Spoiler:

Oh yeah and they're doozies, that's all I'll tell ya.

Fucking Clover endings I swear to god. Anyway, just gotta do some Cyan door stuff and then I can move on to getting a shitload of endings in a row.

What exactly is the gameplay if these games like, and would they be a suitable Christmas present for an older relative who like the Professor Layton series?

It's a visual novel with point+click exploration/puzzle sections, similar to the investigation parts of Ace Attorney games if you've played them but much more interesting and in depth.
The puzzles aren't quite as difficult as the Layton ones can sometimes be but the story is much better, they also have multiple stages (ie: one puzzle gives you a bit of info you need for something else in the same room) and in the second game there are parts that can be solved two different ways for different results.
Given that it's a visual novel first and foremost there's a lot of reading involved so check whether this person is cool with that or not before you buy them but if they like story based games and/or puzzles these are among the best on their respective systems.

I know there's a 3DS demo, maybe there's a Vita one you could try out to get a better idea?

Finally got around to finishing VLR, that sequel hook is fucking annoying considering the next one won't be out for at least a year.

http://www.siliconera.com/2014/02/13/zero-escape-creator-kotaro-uchikoshi-talks-fate-series/

3rd one is unlikely at the moment because it doesn't sell much in Japan apparently.

... I heard i dont understand why it winst doing well the game WAS good but maybe thats just my perception maybe, the japs didnt like it?
Well here hopin it doesnt end up like shenmue. And some funding can be procured