Article Eclipse Expounds - Zero Escape Trilogy

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Hello everyone; welcome back! Pull up a seat and make yourself comfortable, as it is now time for another entry of Eclipse Expounds, the series wherein I take a video game I have enjoyed in the past, and elaborate upon it so as to entice you to experience it yourself - or, if you already have it, give you something entertaining to pass the time.

For this particular entry, it will be a little bit of both, as I've run into people who have played these games and have very much enjoyed them - but also a handful whom I haven't and am trying to get interested in it. This time will be a bit of an anomaly for Eclipse Expounds, because - as suggested by the title - I'm not reviewing one single game in isolation, but rather a trilogy. Each of them is its own separate experience of course, but there are enough similarities between them that I can cover their facets all at once.

Now then, what do we have on the review plate today?

Images are of the North American box arts of each Zero Escape title.​

:: Introduction ::

The Zero Escape series is a trilogy of murder-mystery visual novel games released by Chunsoft (and later Spike Chunsoft), the company that is well-known for - among many other things - its production of the entire Mystery Dungeon genre (Shiren the Wanderer series being the 'prime' example); its work on a few of the early Dragon Quest games; and its creation of the Danganronpa series, which is alike to Zero Escape in many ways. In fact, if you've known about or played Danganronpa at some point, you'll definitely notice a lot of similar themes between the two series.

Zero Escape games exist on several platforms, including the Nintendo DS and 3DS, PlayStation Vita, and even Steam, with game releases spanning from 2009 to 2016, so with that in mind, the games shouldn't be too difficult to find should you desire them. The games are also very heavily into numerology, and a lot of science factoids are peppered throughout the game's lore (both real and fictional science).

The first of the three games, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (more commonly known by its acronym 999), involves nine people trapped inside a sinking ship, where they are given nine hours to escape and must pass through nine specific doors to escape - in other words, the game is exactly what the title suggests. It doesn't have 'Zero Escape' in the title, but what happens here sets the stage for the other two games to come thereafter, both in terms of lore and gameplay.

The second game, Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (sometimes abbreviated to VLR) has a basic plot setup very similar to the first game; there are nine people trapped inside a giant facility, with the exit barred by a door with a large number 9 on it. Unlike the first game, there is no time limit to escape, but rather the players are teamed up with each other must attempt to accrue enough points (at least 9) to escape through the door, with their actions directly influencing how many points they and their partners will make - or lose.

The third and final game, Zero Time Dilemma (or ZTD for short) doesn't adhere quite as closely to the 9 theme as the previous titles, though there are once again nine people trapped inside a facility. The theme this time is much more sinister, for in order to escape the facility, at least 6 of the 9 people must be dead - thus creating an atmosphere of distrust as the players do what they must to either survive or meet a grisly fate.

In proceeding with this entry, I will first note what is similar between all three of the games, and then highlight the key differences between them. I will not be revealing plot spoilers of any kind, though - they are murder-mystery visual novels, after all, and those games create an experience very much made by their plot, so going into the game knowing such details would ruin your experience.


:: Gameplay ::

First, I'll start with the gameplay. The basic steps of how the Zero Escape games are played is the same in all three. Gameplay is divided into two general parts: puzzle segments and plot segments.

In puzzle segments, you are put inside of a locked room, that is set up very much like a puzzle. Your goal is to explore the entirety of the room, and then use whatever items and tools are given to you therein to unlock the door barring the way out, in order to proceed to the next area or plot segment. The puzzles involve you picking up items scattered about the room, and/or solving certain other smaller puzzles, in order to steadily progress forward.

Items can either be 'used' on certain objects in the room, or 'combined' with another object you're holding. For example, a small key may unlock something elsewhere in the room, while a screwdriver could be used to take another object apart. The rooms can also contain various files or other instructions, which either are used directly in the escape OR contain interesting bits of game lore.

The game also gives you an internal notepad for you to take notes on the puzzle itself, with any kinds of observations that you wish to record; in all games the notepad has 2 separate pages, and you can write your notes in up to 4 different colours (except for in 999, which only gives you 1 colour), so you can remember the information however you please. You can also take notes down during the plot segments, so you can remember any crucial information given to you there as well.

After you manage to unlock the door and are able to exit the room, you'll proceed to the next piece of the plot. Items don't 'carry over' between puzzles; you will always start each room puzzle completely fresh, so you don't need to worry about needing to bring things over. Items found in puzzles that are important for the plot ('key items') are never missable and generally don't appear in your inventory (unless also used during the puzzle itself), so you don't need to worry about that either.

Plot segments are any part of the game that isn't a puzzle segment. You'll be watching the story progress, talking and interacting with the characters, and essentially finding out where you (and the others) will be going next, and what you'll be doing. During the course of the game, you will be asked to make decisions on small but crucial points, as part of the story - these are the 'decision points'. The decision you make determines where the plot will be headed next; your actions and choices directly impact the game's storyline.

This leads to branching possible pathways that you as the player can take, and - this is particularly important here - the multiple possible branches (and multiple possible endings that come as a result) are a very major point to the Zero Escape series. This is not only so you can experience all of the possible endings that the story and the characters can take, but also that (some of) what you learn in one branch can be carried over into subsequent attempts, in case you run into a 'bad ending'.

...That's it as far as gameplay is concerned. Overall, it's generally a very simple concept, and though the puzzles can be tricky, it's nothing that a little bit of ingenuity and time can't solve. Though, since we're on the topic of branching pathways, I'll discuss that bit next, since each game handles it a little bit differently.


:: Story Branches ::

As I mentioned earlier, a major component of the Zero Escape series is how it handles branching pathways and how you learn more about the plot and the overall situation. In all three of the games, the basic concept is the same: what you learn in one pass can help or otherwise aid you in future parts, and some branches can't be unlocked without having passed through certain other branches beforehand. With the game's multiple branches does come multiple endings, and each Zero Escape game has a 'true' ending that generally involves you having gone through each of the other possible branches at some point.

In all three games, if you end up going through a plot segment you've been through before, you can fast-forward past it to save time if you wish. How each game handles the branches, or at least how you replay them, is done differently. I'll explain each in turn.

First, 999 has you start each 'run' at the beginning of the game. You can work your way down the plot branches however you wish (until you get to an ending, in which case you can go no further), and any branches you've unlocked can contribute to other parts of plot branches, as is standard for the series. However, in 999 you always have to start at the very beginning with each 'run', so this will involve completing the same puzzles, and watching the same plot events, multiple times each. This can be mitigated with the fast-forward feature during the plot, but it can be a minor inconvenience.
Thankfully, each run through 999 tends to be rather short, so while overall it isn't too bad, it can cause frustration if you accidentally made a wrong choice or forgot about something that happened earlier. However, the game does have a separate mode in which you can replay any puzzle you've previously cleared, though playing a puzzle this way will have any plot-like details removed.

Virtue's Last Reward improved on this by introducing a 'flow' feature, which shows you a schematic of all of the possible branches you may take, and where the decision points (branch splits) are located - the start of the game is at the top of the flow chart, and progression goes vertically down towards the bottom. Each cell in the flowchart - which will have either a puzzle, plot, or decision segment in it - starts off as a hidden '?' until you've gone through it at least once, after which you can pick up or start a run at any point you've previously unlocked.
This means that you can choose to start off a run at one of the decision points, and choose another choice you didn't make, thus going to the new branch - which saves you a lot of time and trouble as opposed to having to play through from the start, a major advantage VLR has over its predecessor. This method also has the added bonus of you only needing to play through each puzzle in the game exactly once each (unless you may have missed a lore piece or two in a puzzle, though that's more for a completion run than for direct plot progression). Progression is, as before, very much vertical as you go from start to finish towards the various branches and endings.

Zero Time Dilemma also maintains the 'flow' feature, and (like its predecessor) keeps all cells hidden at first until visited, and allowing you to jump to any cell you've been through at some point. Unlike its predecessor, however, the branches do not follow a strictly linear progression; while the flow chart still shows a top-to-bottom vertical time progression, and shows exactly where all the branches are, the plot progression of ZTD is instead subdivided into various smaller parts called 'fragments', and - with the exception of the very first one that starts the story off - can be played in any order. This emphasises the non-linearity of the game, and also lets you approach the plot progression essentially however you choose.
Each fragment generally ends with a decision segment, which works like any other - though in this game, rather than having you pick between choices, some decision segments will have you enter a word (usually someone's name) as your decision. This will usually depend on the situation you find yourself in, and the question you're given - and, humourously, pretty much every feasible word you could enter will have some sort of response for you. For example, a few of the questions are "Who did [thing]"?, and trying to answer with the name of someone who isn't present will have the game tell you "S/he is not here". Yes, they thought of everything.


:: Comparison of the Titles ::

How do the titles stack up in comparison to each other? How should they best be approached? Are there any things you should know going in to the series that you will want to know beforehand? Before I proceed to the conclusion, I will spend a little time comparing the titles to one another.

First off, in terms of time you can expect to spend on each game, and be able to 100% your file and reach the true ending, for 999 it can take about 15 hours (though it may be a bit longer if you can't figure out the decisions on how to reach the true ending - which are rather specific), for VLR it will take between 30 and 35 hours to get everything, and for ZTD you can expect to spend a little over 20 hours to finish it. These figures I gave based on my own experiences with the games (it did take me more tries than I'm comfortable admitting to figure out how to get to the end of 999, which put my total time at about 20 hours), and I'm not one to rush through games, so these numbers are good 'average' estimates. This means that you can expect 999 to be the shortest in the series (even with the issue where you have to start at the beginning each time), ZTD to be a little longer than that, and VLR being the longest in the series and taking up a good chunk of your time. One thing I found interesting is that ZTD gives you 3 save slots, and the others only give you 1 (though this isn't a large issue for 999 due to its short nature), which may be important to you if you decide to replay any of them.

As far as lore in the game is concerned, there is a lot of it. While it isn't required for you to play the games in order for you to understand everything (unlike the sister series Danganronpa, where knowledge of prior titles is basically expected), it is definitely recommended. VLR alludes to 999 a fair amount, though it doesn't spoil too much about it, so you can comfortably go back and play 999 after VLR if it's appealing to you. ZTD has allusions as well to both prior titles, but it's a lot more subtle, enough so that only people who have played the prior titles will notice the references at all. I do still recommend playing the titles in order, however, to get a good feel for the series plot as a whole. I should note that as far as the subsequent titles go, VLR operates very much like a sequel title, but ZTD is constructed to be a conclusion and finale to the entire series, bringing everything together - and you'll appreciate ZTD a lot more if you've finished 999 and VLR first.

The games also feature some voice acting as well, each handling it differently. 999 initially did not have any voice acting at all, with text given in little 'beep' noises that you might expect text in a video game to sound like; the re-release of 999 on Steam does have voice acting in it, however. I haven't played the Steam version of 999, so I can't comment on the voice quality there.

VLR has voice acting in all plot segments, where all lines are fully spoken and acted out (there are two options for voice: English or Japanese); the characters also speak to you as 3D models rather than 2D sprites, though the text layout is still much the same so you only see them from the front. There isn't any voice acting in the puzzle segments; text there simply is in 'beeping' noises, as above.

ZTD continues the tradition of voice acting, though instead, the plot segments are fully animated 3D cutscenes, complete with camera angles, full-body models, and everything. The models aren't by any means perfect, and sometimes their movements can come off as a little mechanical, but they're still fairly well done, and the voice acting is great as usual (again with English and Japanese options). Puzzles in ZTD are text-only still, and the text doesn't make any noise.


:: Conclusion ::

I do have a few more comments on title comparison, though they are more opinion-based, so I've located them to the conclusion rather than the above section.

To start that off, my favourite of the Zero Escape games is VLR, not just because it's the longest of the titles, but I also enjoyed the basic premise of the game itself (I found it both colourful and engaging), as well as the nature of how the puzzles were set up; I enjoyed them more in VLR than how the other two titles executed them. It's also the only game of the series for which I have no real misgivings about; 999 has the start-at-the-beginning-every-time bit that I mentioned before (though 999 has the best button controls for the puzzles out of the three titles), and ZTD can be a little wonky with its puzzles, particularly in terms of object detection (i.e. something rather small and not inherently obvious you have to find and touch with the stylus), and some cutscenes - but not all - can come off as rather narmy.

As far as the premises and the characters overall are concerned, I love them all. Even though you are put in a situation where you're trapped with these people that you'll probably never see again, there are a lot of opportunities to learn more about them - their pasts, their struggles, their motivations, and so on - enough so that even the brief time you spend around them lets you form a pretty good picture of what each one is like. As with other visual novel games I've played, I tend to replay through the series several months after my last go, to feel everything as fresh and exciting again (even though I know everything already), and the games do a good job of that, VLR in particular (for me).

Zero Escape is also my first real experience with a game in which decisions made impact the story, and does so in a pretty large way - and to see that bit put into play as something vital for understanding the story was something I found to be brilliantly executed. It's also logical and very straightforward with its lore and plot, and while you do tend to learn more as the story progresses, I didn't find anything revealed (in any of the three titles) to be something that felt like it came 'out of nowhere'.

I certainly hope I've enticed you to take a look at the Zero Escape series - or maybe even replay it again, for those of you out there who've played it before. It's a series that has really captured my heart and attention, both with its puzzles and its characters, and I hope that for at least one of you out there it will do the same. Thank you very much for your time and patience, and I hope to see you again, when I expound on something more.

◈◈ From the desk of Eclipse, the Pure-Black Dragon ◈◈