The ChunSoft Thread: Zero Escape Series & Banshee's Last Cry

[LivewiresXe]

Hands down best game I've ever played.

Time to go back and read the spoilers here in the thread, now that I'm done.

Well, now I can at least tell ya the part that got me (in spoiler tags of course).

Spoiler

What actually got my heartstrings going was when Tenmy/Junpei saw the Akane hologram first and just collapsed. And even though the game didn't spend as much time on it as I'd wanted, when K revealed that it was actually Akane in the armour to everyone and to Tenmyouji, I actually kind of lost it just trying to picture how someone in Tenmy's position would possibly feel. That being said though, I personally didn't like his whole "biker analogy" thing and all the stuff he said about it. Not only because it's wrong and the game kinda showed it as such, but that Tenmyouji of all people should know WHY it's wrong.

 

[jamlosingthegame]

What I wonder is

Spoiler

how they're going to get Alice and Clover back to their original time. "Schrodinger's Cat" isn't really telling me much in terms of transportation, I just get the idea that's all.

 

[The Real Gamer]

Glad you enjoyed VLR Raziek! I love reading people's reactions as they're playing through the game.

Looking back I still think my biggest WTF moment was

Spoiler

when Tenmy pulled out that picture of young Akane. My mind was fried after that cause I couldn't figure out how Junpei was so old and Clover was still so young. I spent the rest of the night thinking of various scenarios over how this could be possible (of course none of them were remotely close but oh well).

Ahhh good times... I really can't wait for the 3rd game. VLR was just the set up for it so we all know it's gonna be epic.

 

[jamlosingthegame]

I still kinda feel stupid for

Spoiler

not realizing that Sigma was (or rather, will be) Zero. There were some hints that I could have picked up, but just didn't realize why such things happened.

1) Whenever you reached a room to get out of, the "Seek a way out" animation does not show Sigma's eyes like 999 shows Junpei's.

2) Unlike it 999, when you reached the mirror in the infirmary Sigma doesn't get a good look of himself.

3) In the small animated cutscenes and the AB game results, Sigma's face is nowhere to be seen (I was thinking they did the usual VN thing where you don't show the main character's face, but I was forgetting that it was already shown in the beginning of the game AND boxart). Heck, you don't even see his face when he points out Dio for planting the bombs.

What I find funny the most though is how Sigma doesn't realize his eye got replaced.

I noticed that the Director room music has a small sample of the Nonary Game track from 999.

 

[The Real Gamer]

A good portion of VLR tracks have small samples of 999 music in them.

 

[jamlosingthegame]

I noticed, but can't match the sample used to the track in 999. It would be funny if they continued this trend.

 

[LivewiresXe]

I noticed, but can't match the sample used to the track in 999. It would be funny if they continued this trend.

Oh, I'm pretty sure they likely will. And since one of the songs is in pretty much unedited, I suspect that one will be in the 3rd as well.

 

[Lythium]

Only three endings left to get, aw yiss~

 

[LivewiresXe]

Only three endings left to get, aw yiss~

I think I can guess, and one's kind of a given, but if you don't mind me asking Lythi, which ones are they?

 

[Lythium]

Luna and Phi.

I just finished Quark's about two seconds ago.

 

[LivewiresXe]

Ah, okay. 2 out of 3 for guesses ain't bad, lol.

 

[Lythium]

Bam, finished.

 

[Rutger]

Everyone is finishing up...

Guess it's time to start playing again.

I still have some more things to do in the Magenta door before I go after more endings.

 

[Raziek]

Kaaaatiiiiiiiee, you need to get at me on Facebook so we can gush about it. :D

 

[The Real Gamer]

Bam, finished.

No complaints... No thoughts... No reviews?

I am disappoint. ;.;

 

[Lythium]

Kaaaatiiiiiiiee, you need to get at me on Facebook so we can gush about it. :D

Haha, okay, I will. :3

No complaints... No thoughts... No reviews?

I am disappoint. ;.;

I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, I'm still pondering.

I think there were some pretty good twists at the end there

Spoiler

(LOL MOON)

, and the story was particularly well-executed

Spoiler

especially the time travel aspects

. However, I think the ending dragged on a bit longer than I would have liked, and the awesomeness of the conclusion felt a bit watered down by the time I had finished. The last scene was particularly great though

Spoiler

when Sigma goes back in time to save the world

.

I do think it's a great game, and I especially liked the puzzles a lot. It's a pretty minor complaint overall, I think I would have liked if the last part of the game wrapped up a little tighter though

Spoiler

, not even in terms of cliffhangers or anything, just a little less drawn out, a little more oomph.

 

[The Real Gamer]

I agree for the most part about the ending dragging on, but when you realize the writers are just setting everything up for the final Zero Escape game then it sorta makes sense.

 

[Lythium]

Haha, indeed.

It's a really small complaint though, I'm not that hung up about it.

 

[LivewiresXe]

It did seem a bit long in parts, but fortunately for me I felt that it was really well done and written to where I didn't care. Well, aside from one or two nitpicky things I have that felt contradictory or kinda odd from the game, that is.

 

[Rutger]

I just got Dio's ending. :3

Spoiler

I'm a little disappointed that antagonistic guy had a major role in what was going on, but whatever, I'm sure there will plenty of surprises to make up for that later. The secret reports kind of spoiled the "Free the Soul" thing too. :/

I will have to play more tomorrow.

 

[LivewiresXe]

I'm not going to spoiler tag this because I don't think it's necessary, but I kinda felt that saving reading spoiler reports from a room until a room or 2 later wound up saving me from being spoiled on things. No idea if anybody else wound up going that way though.

 

[asianaussie]

yeah, i read the secret reports before i even got out of the escape rooms (with the exception of the infirmary, it took me so bloody long to get that gold report), and it spoiled a bit of stuff for me

i still havent gotten over how they trolled everyone with

Spoiler

the all-ice nonsense in 999

back to p4g, bloody risette accomplishment is absolutely stupid gafargar***a

 

[jamlosingthegame]

I read the reports after finishing a room, since there's that bug and since I'm practically done with the room I might as well escape and then save to save myself misery. Though I did forget about the reports once because I wanted to know what happened next so soon.

Since a lot of people are starting to finish up, I wanna know what everyone thinks about

Spoiler

Another Time

.

 

[LivewiresXe]

I'm assuming you mean the whole thing with

Spoiler

"Not Kyle" going around and talking to everybody and all that, right? If so, I enjoyed it except for the Tenmyouji stuff because I'm pretty sure his analogy is wrong and that he of all people should know why it's wrong.

 

[jamlosingthegame]

What do you mean by it's wrong?

 

[LivewiresXe]

Well, what I mean is

Spoiler

999 itself and the whole way that it went down with all the branches and changes and stuff and everything Junpei had to do and all that is completely the opposite of the scenario he described.

 

[Rutger]

Done!

Spoiler

So, I had only one thing spoiled to me before going into this game, that Junpei's last name is Tenmyouji. While Junpei actually being in the game was certainly not my first though it did kind of lessen the impact of the reveal, oh well.

I really enjoyed it. For now, story wise, I would say 999 is better, if only because it actually has something of a conclusion. This game ends on a massive sequel hook and I don't really want judge it yet, I am excited to see what happens next though.

Gameplay was such an amazing step up, it will be hard to play through 999 again after playing VLR. The flowchart was such a great idea and the puzzles were more enjoyable overall imo.

Edit:

Spoiler

Just found out about Another Time, must have missed that when I looked over the flowchart, guess I'll go do that now.

Okay, now I'm done.

 

[The Real Gamer]

I wanna play through 999/VLR again but I'm probably going to wait until before ZE3 is around the corner.

That way both games will feel fresh again and I can build hype for the final game. ^.^

 

[jamlosingthegame]

Well, what I mean is

Spoiler

999 itself and the whole way that it went down with all the branches and changes and stuff and everything Junpei had to do and all that is completely the opposite of the scenario he described.

I'm still not quite getting what is the opposite of what happens in the games. It makes sense to me.

 

[LivewiresXe]

Uhhh....hmm...I'm trying to think of a way to explain it...Could we possibly get a 3rd opinion on this?

 

[Raziek]

I can explain it later, after Apex.

 

[LivewiresXe]

Fair enough, Raz. I appreciate it. Granted, it's nice that JLTG and I can both take different things away from it without feeling like we don't understand it, which is good.

 

[jamlosingthegame]

lol just call me jam. Maybe I've jumped and you haven't?

 

[LivewiresXe]

lol just call me jam. Maybe I've jumped and you haven't?

No worries. I only used that instead of Jam because I sometimes use that when talking to the poster Jam Stunna, that's all. So I was just trying to avoid confusing myself. Hm...maybe I've jumped too far.

 

[KayB]

Just finished VLR completely (Another Time and everything).

So I have three major/minor gripes about an otherwise fantastic game:

1. The fact that half/most of the time you can't skip transition sections where you travel through the base is very annoying and tedious. If they do it once, you should have the option to skip it.

2. Some of the options you choose makes it so you can never see certain cutscenes. For example,

Spoiler

If you see Phi's GAME OVER ending, you can never see the alternative of what happened if you chose Ally first to see Phi's END

. As a person who likes knowing the possible scenarios, this slightly disturbed.

3.

Spoiler

The ending is very, very unsettling. Why can't they just have made it like 999 where the ending was satisfying and impactful to the viewer? It made the game feel finished. VLR's ending makes the story feel unfinished, and video games certainly aren't the type to end in cliff hangers that would otherwise reveal crucial parts of the story.

Other than that, I loved the game. Now all I need is a TWEWY sequel and I'll marry my 3DS.

 

[jamlosingthegame]

I can understand your 3rd gripe, but I think they were trying to keep our minds open to the ending. Other than that, maybe they're setting up for a sequel.

As for you second gripe, I think it was done that way to build on the story the way they want. Remember, they said that the future affects the past, so I think that was their way of doing that.

Also, we still need someone to clear up what was going on in Another Time with Tenmyouji's explanation.

 

[LivewiresXe]

I'd mention the Tenmyouji thing that you referenced, but then I'd wind up going into an angry rant on how contradictory it is for him, and how flat out wrong it is.


And as for the game having a sequel, I think it was announced that there would be a 3rd game before the 2nd one was even released.

 

[The Real Gamer]

You're correct.

Virtue's Last Reward was made with the intention of being a "build up" for the 3rd, final game. The reason 999 had so much closure was because the writers didn't anticipate a sequel during its development.

So instead of being disappointed about the lack of closure I'm just hyped for the 3rd game!

 

[KayB]

I'd rather have two amazing games that leaves a lasting impact than one game that leaves a weird aftertaste that directly leads to another. If that makes any sense lol. The point is, I'd rather the developers finish the whole story in VLR and make a new Zero Escape game with a new protagonist. The game feels much more fresh that way.

 

[Rutger]

Actually, I think VLR wrapped itself up nicely overall.

VLR was about the third Nonary game and at the end we understood its purpose, who was behind it, and all of the character's history and motivations(

Spoiler

except Phi, who will play a big role in the next game anyway.

)

The game certainly left plenty of things open for the sequel, but that's not a bad thing, at the very least if movies can get away with it then why not a game?