I'm finding it hard to rank the three games. After thinking for a bit, I'd describe the series as two halves to the same coin - 999 is one half, VLR and ZTD is the other.
999 is the best standalone game, but VLR expands on the more meta aspects like the flowchart in a great way, and I even like ZTD a ton despite some questionable story decisions.
If you don't know how to lie, then how do you know when you're being lied to?
No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.
Finally finished the game, the Delta twist was off-putting at first but once everything was explained I was okay with it, overall I think VLR was better, I enjoyed the plot and the twists more and I also think the escape rooms were better
Also, what is NM doing? Worst play I’ve ever seen.
I can't remember the last N_M post that wasn't bland, unimaginative and lame. Some shitposters are at least somewhat funny. You are the epitomy of the type of poster that nobody would miss if you were to suddenly disappear. You never add anything of value.
I'm guessing you haven't read the game and probably never will? Why even sign up to play?
For a while I was totally convinced that Gab was a robot and kept putting his name in first whenever I got prompted with one of those text inputs about who to kill / who was the killer
Thinking about it a bit more I should totally have picked up on Q/Delta existing because the trick that was pulled in VLR with Sigma actually being hella old is precisely along the same lines in terms of PoV and things that the characters take for granted but the player has no idea about
Also, question: in that ending in ZTD where iirc someone with robes and a hood attacks Sigma while it's just Diana and Sigma in the Lounge and then Diana totally thinks it was Phi BUT THEN Phi ends up getting stabbed too and Diana gives her a totally not lesbian-themed hug as she bleeds out—who was the killer then?? Was it evil serial killer lady, the one with the boobs and the annoying boyfriend?
1 Carlos
2 Diana
3 Phi
4 Mira
5 Sean
6 Junpei
7 Akane
8 Sigma
9 Eric
Also, what is NM doing? Worst play I’ve ever seen.
I can't remember the last N_M post that wasn't bland, unimaginative and lame. Some shitposters are at least somewhat funny. You are the epitomy of the type of poster that nobody would miss if you were to suddenly disappear. You never add anything of value.
I'm guessing you haven't read the game and probably never will? Why even sign up to play?
in his backstory but nope it's just a reason for him being the shitty character he is
He could have maybe been kind of a decent clover-esque character if they toned him way down and just made him get aggressive when Mira was in actual danger, but no, he's just an angry moron for the entire game except when it's useful to the plot for him to be IN WUV
Overall tho this game definitely had better characters than VLR—I did not connect with anyone except Phi, Sigma and Clover in that game. 999 I think basically had no dud characters.
Also, the character who turned out to be Asshole #1 in 999 did a good job of hiding it for most of the game—not so for either of the sequels (especially VLR). Not as fun.
Also, the character who turned out to be Asshole #1 in 999 did a good job of hiding it for most of the game—not so for either of the sequels (especially VLR). Not as fun.
Ugh yeah.
Spoiler:
It was so fucking obvious that Mira was the big asshole the whole time. Same with Dio in VLR. I don't even remember who it was in 999. Was it Ace?
999 has the best characters, VLR is close (Alice is pretty forgettable but everyone else was interesting by the end imo, even if Quark does spend half the game napping), and ZTD has the entire Q team being not particularly good.
Do think that VLR had the best puzzles+gameplay sections though.
I really like the concept of "split everything into fragments and have the player try to slowly piece everything together from the little chunks they know about", but I think that made the designers feel like they always had to have one person arguing for each side in all of the choice decisions that weren't just math or puzzleish things (and even then usually you'll have something similar). And that means half of the non-leader characters need some justification for being an asshole for most choices and their characters get a bit pulled away from what makes sense for them to do as actually good fleshed out characters.
It was so fucking obvious that Mira was the big asshole the whole time. Same with Dio in VLR. I don't even remember who it was in 999. Was it Ace?
Spoiler: 999 and VLR spoilers and also ZTD comments
Dio I thought was just an asshole instead of pretty much the "guy wanting to murder everyone" of the story until maybe midgame, but literally from the first team vote I was thinking that Q team (and pretty much either Eric or Mira) is going to murder the entire rest of the game given any opportunity to do it. And yeah it was Ace
Q team in general was the weakest part of ZTD. The Q twist, Mira twist, and Eric's character in general were all the most frustrating parts of the game.
how else could they pull off ztd then? You already knew Akane/Junpei/Sigma/Phi so you knew they couldnt be psychos. Then theres Diana who wad already described as nice by Luna/VLR. That leaves 4 people, as opposed to 9 in 999 and 7/8 in VLR. Of course its always harder to make it clever in a third installment as opposed to the first or second
I actually liked Q team after having the game finished for two weeks now. They were definitely the most dynamic and the stories werent all that bad. I think everyone just was eager to know how the story ends moreso then being introduced to new stuff that it makes Q team less interesting from that angle
9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors definitely had a great, if not the best, ensemble.
I'm with Gammagooey on the characters in Virtue's Last Reward. The characters in Zero Time Dilemma were a mixed bag. They were either better than those in Virtue's Last Reward or way, way worse, and that killed a lot of the enjoyment for me. I could understand the logical reasons for Eric being Eric, for instance, but it wasn't executed well at all. Delta became really irritating when he was unmasked. Carlos was pretty cool, but someone mentioned here that there didn't seem to be any bad qualities about him and that's definitely true; as fun as Carlos is, he's not a very interesting character. Actually, that seems to be true for everyone on D-Team, too.
Thinking about Diana and Sigma gives me the shivers. Ugh.
Both Virtue's Last Reward and Zero Time Dilemma had excellent game play segments. Virtue's Last Reward was better at snark, though ("If you move one of the yellow jellyfish to the hole instead, you are a failure and we are very disappointed in you"). I preferred Zero Time Dilemma's puzzles, but I strongly suspect that it's because I was able to save in this game whereas I had to re-do things in Virtue's Last Reward sometimes. Thanks, 3DS.
in his backstory but nope it's just a reason for him being the shitty character he is
He could have maybe been kind of a decent clover-esque character if they toned him way down and just made him get aggressive when Mira was in actual danger, but no, he's just an angry moron for the entire game except when it's useful to the plot for him to be IN WUV
Eric could have been interesting and sympathetic given his backstory but they never made him anything more than a coward
Also, what is NM doing? Worst play I’ve ever seen.
I can't remember the last N_M post that wasn't bland, unimaginative and lame. Some shitposters are at least somewhat funny. You are the epitomy of the type of poster that nobody would miss if you were to suddenly disappear. You never add anything of value.
I'm guessing you haven't read the game and probably never will? Why even sign up to play?
The first two games are being ported to PC to be sold on Steam sometime next year simultaneously with the PlayStation ports: http://store.steampowered.com/app/477740/
Just about ready to finish Virtue's Last Reward! I have two endings left.
Such a marked improvement over the first. Hated how I played through most of the game only for it to be like, the worst of the endings and have to play the whole thing over again.
VLR has its faults (love seeing
the path from the elevator to Warehouse A on the map
fifty times) but the way its constructed just works so much better.
There will be no kisses tonight
There will be no holding hands tonight
'Cause what is now wasn't there before and should not be
i think the steam remake of 999 fixes the multiple-playthroughs issues and adds voice acting too
i dislike that it removes the dual-screen aspect and "adventure mode" sounds like a complete disaster but other than that it's probably better to play on steam
regardless i recently finished a replay of the entire game on DS because i just, really like the dual-screen aspect