This Classic Visual Novel Puzzle Series Will Change The Way You Think About Games (2024)

The United States and Japan have long been engaged in enthusiastic cultural exchange; many Americans love Japanese animation, and a growing number of Japanese fans enjoy American shows like King of the Hill. Among some of Japan's most unique exports that have traveled across the pond in the past few decades are escape rooms and visual novels. Escape rooms, cooperative puzzle experiences that challenge participants to "seek a way out" before their time limit is up, have exploded in popularity in the West in the past decade and a half. Visual novels, meanwhile, are somewhat more niche, as they are closer to novels than video games, usually accompanied by manga-style illustrations, and sometimes containing explicit content.

An ingenious blending of these two interactive experiences can be found in the Zero Escape trilogy, developed by Chunsoft and written and directed by Kotaro Uchikoshi. The first two games in the series, 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors for the Nintendo DS and Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward for the Nintendo 3DS, were critically well-received, but they were commercial failures in Japan, putting the series' future in jeopardy. However, with the help of international fan support, Uchikoshi was able to complete the trilogy with 2016's Zero Time Dilemma for the 3DS, with all three games receiving localized versions. While the series is far from perfect, each Zero Escape entry takes elements of science fiction, storytelling, and the interactive medium to create something uniquely extraordinary.

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is a Tense, Twisty Tour de Force

The First of Two Excellent Nonary Games

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, or simply 999, was the first game in the Zero Escape series to be released, and Japanese audiences were initially intimidated by it, leading to less than stellar sales. Indeed, 999, which originally debuted in 2009 without voice acting, is probably the most atmospheric and suspenseful entry in the series, and the title that feels most like reading a thriller novel when playing.

The main characters of 999 awake to find themselves on what appears to be a luxury cruise ship a la the Titanic with numbered watches on their wrists. They have been brought to the ship for unknown reasons by the mysterious Zero, and they must follow the rules of Zero's 'Nonary Game' if they hope to escape and survive. While most members of the group are strangers, players gradually get a better sense of each character's backstory and their connections to each other.

Following the perspective of one of the nine captives, Junpei, players spend their first moments escaping from ship quarters that are rapidly filling up with water. With the use of the DS stylus, players interact with various elements of the environment, collect items (which can be examined in 3D in the inventory) and collect the codes they need in order to escape. A significant portion of 999 is spent navigating similar environments, from kitchens containing hexadecimal-based puzzles and infirmaries which will see players mixing and matching mannequin body parts to various ends. Throughout the game, number-based concepts such as 'digital roots' will pervade both storytelling and puzzle solving, prompting players to think twice whenever they encounter numbers in a given room or story section.

The story of 999 gradually deepens through several potential paths the player can take, as each room selected in a given path requires a different combination of characters to group together. At the end of a given sequence, players may learn crucial hints toward the truth behind their circumstances shortly before reaching an untimely end, but all is not lost; players can restart the game from various points in the flow-chart of routes to work toward a new ending without retreading previously completed puzzle rooms. This grows to become a distinct design element of all three Zero Escape games, as players will be encouraged to pursue paths that seemingly lead to dead ends with significance that will only take shape as the full tapestry of story beats is revealed.

In true thriller fashion, 999 has its share of mind-blowing twists, including a few that simply must be experienced firsthand, but what makes the game stand out alongside its two sequels is the way that its foreboding music and lack of voice acting gives the player a palpable sense of dread while playing, even when the dialogue can be far-fetched and heady. Players never know what they will find on the other side of a door, and while bonafide jump-scares are rare, they are far from non-existent. Fans of science fiction will enjoy how the game's blend of scientific and mathematical concepts intersects with its imaginative take on sci-fi tropes. Players seeking a visual novel experience that will keep them playing well into the wee hours of the night will find 999 a chilling bedside companion.

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

Visual Novel

Adventure

Systems

Franchise

Zero Escape

Platform(s)

iOS , Nintendo DS , PC , PlayStation 4 , PS Vita , Xbox One

Released

November 16, 2010

Developer(s)

Chunsoft

Publisher(s)

Spike Chunsoft , Aksys Games

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Drug Reference, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence

How Long To Beat

10 Hours

How Long To Beat (Completionist Runs)

20 Hours

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward Digs Deep Into the Many Worlds Theory

This Sequel Ups the Ante and the Sci-Fi Complexity

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, or simply Virtue's Last Reward, stages a new type of 'Nonary Game,' gathering together an eclectic mix of nine people to escape from a decidedly higher-tech sequence of rooms, corridors, and hidden chambers. While the true identity of the previous game's Zero is known to players of 999, the main characters of Virtue's Last Reward lack that context, and interface with the talking lagomorph, Zero III, as they learn the rules of the high-stakes game they have been affixed to. Similarly to how 999 attaches the player to Junpei, Sigma serves as Virtue's Last Reward's main POV character, a man whose somewhat bland leading man exterior (when compared to the imposing-looking K and the sparsely dressed Alice) belies an active interior world.

Whereas 999's various branching paths depend on the selection of specific doors and groupings based on digital roots, Virtue's Last Reward pits each of its players into Prisoner's Dilemma-style 'games' known as the Ambidex Game (or AB Game for short), in which participants must decide to either Ally with or Betray each other. The results of the AB Game determine which players enter which doors and add or subtract 'Bracelet Points' from each player's bracelet to progress the Game to its desired conclusion: if a player earns 9 or more BP, they can access the Number 9 door and, presumably, escape the Game. The Number 9 door can only be opened once, and if a player's BP reduces to zero, they receive a lethal injection through the bracelets they're wearing, making each AB game result intensely personal and fraught with drama.

The puzzle room sections of Virtue's Last Reward are significantly more challenging than those found in 999, and the greater number of branching story paths and endings leads to a larger proportion of story sections being repeated between different 'runs' of the game, but players can speed through previously read conversations and skip past finished sections of both gameplay and story to mitigate repetition. As the story progresses, information found in some unsuccessful routes is utilized across later routes as part of macro-puzzles extending beyond a single escape room. Once it becomes clear that the ability of the player to jump between routes is not merely an accessibility feature, but a plot device, the game barrels toward a climax that may leave some players' heads spinning.

One main critique of Virtue's Last Reward's story is that it stretches the (mostly) grounded plausibility of its predecessor into wilder sci-fi territory, a move that some players found difficult to accept as the story progresses. However, because of the game's increased emphasis on each character's backstory, identity, and connection to the series' larger plot concerns, Virtue's Last Reward packs in numerous incredible twists and poignant character beats that will stick with players long after the credits roll. Packaged alongside 999 as part of The Nonary Games, Virtue's Last Reward's improved interface over its predecessor and memorable cast helped it solidify the franchise's foothold in the United States, and forge a path toward the trilogy's conclusion.

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6 Images

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward

As a direct sequel to Aksys Games’ 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors; Virtue’s Last Reward holds on to everything that made the original interactive novel a cult hit while branching out and atoning for 999’s shortcomings. Like the original, Virtue’s Last Reward presents an interactive story, this time revolving around 9 kidnapped strangers who must contend with puzzles and interpersonal conflicts to escape an unknown facility.

Visual Novel

Adventure

Systems

Platform(s)

Nintendo 3DS , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation Vita , Xbox One , PC

Released

February 16, 2012

Developer(s)

Spike Chunsoft

Publisher(s)

Spike Chunsoft , Aksys Games

ESRB

M For Mature: Blood, Drug Reference, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence

How Long To Beat

27.5 Hours

How Long To Beat (Completionist Runs)

36 Hours

Zero Time Dilemma Breaks the Mold But Doesn't Quite Stick the Landing

A Convoluted, But Compelling Conclusion

Arriving on the 3DS four years after its predecessor, Virtue's Last Reward, Zero Time Dilemma brings the Zero Escape trilogy to a thrilling, if sometimes upsetting, conclusion. By this point in the series, a formula has been established: 9 strangers find themselves held captive and forced to work together to escape their circumstances, solving puzzles along the way. However, Zero Time Dilemma spends less time obscuring the sci-fi elements that serve as its beating heart, as players are able to take on each of the game's chapters in any order. Unlike in Virtue's Last Reward, which dynamically grouped characters together depending on AB Game results, the 'Decision Game' of Zero Time Dilemma creates three fixed teams that are led to a variety of potential conclusions.

In a similar way to how previous Zero Escape playthroughs operate, characters are missing key context about the environments and scenarios they experience, so it is the player's job to piece together what choices are still available and what details across story chapters are relevant to a new scenario's resolution. As the title might suggest, the cast of Zero Time Dilemma has comparatively less time to get to know each other as an ensemble before circumstances turn desperate, and the siloed approach to character groupings means that each team of three has a largely self-contained slice of the game's overall narrative. The effect this has on the story is that, while some characters are walking plot twists hidden in plain sight, others feel more like means to an end. While this is somewhat fitting given the game's plot, it can leave certain character threads feeling unsatisfying.

It's difficult to talk about the merits and shortcomings of Zero Time Dilemma without delving into spoiler territory for the whole series, but given the presence of numerous returning characters in its cast and its larger story implications, an argument could be made that the series' third title serves as the connective tissue welding all three games together. That said, critiques levied against Virtue's Last Reward's suspension of disbelief are also apt here, as the Zero Time Dilemma's story is enmeshed in the series' long-standing thematic and sci-fi motifs, to the point where the series writers only had so many avenues left to further escalate the number and style of plot twists. Fortunately, Kotaro Uchikoshi still has a few dastardly narrative tricks up his sleeve, including one late-game twist that recontextualizes the entire experience.

The Zero Escape series as a whole is not for everyone. While its puzzles are challenging and its story sections are tense and twisty, the series as a whole is heavy on dialogue and light on action. Even Zero Time Dilemma, which feels far more cinematic than its predecessors, can grow a bit tiresome if players are not fully invested in the series' elaborate timeline and complex sci-fi mythos. However, each title delivers numerous narrative haymakers that will have players asking, "Is this really happening?" Few video game stories are as immersive and engrossing as the ones found in the Zero Escape series, and fewer still explore branching paths in-game narratives while integrating the consequences of player choices into their very themes. Players seeking a story-heavy experience that will keep them guessing will do well to give the Zero Escape series a try.

Zero Time Dilemma

Adventure

Puzzle

Visual Novel

Systems

OpenCritic Reviews

Top Critic Rating:81/100 Critics Recommend:74%

Platform(s)

3DS , PC , PS4 , PS Vita , Xbox One

Released

June 28, 2016

Developer(s)

Spike Chunsoft

Publisher(s)

Aksys Games

Engine

Proprietary Engine

ESRB

m

How Long To Beat

20 Hours

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

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