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 Do not save in any puzzle room, it can cause a bug that corrupts your save. Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward, is the sequel to the cult-hit for the DS, 999: 9 hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors. Like 999, Virtue’s Last Reward is a visual novel with puzzle solving elements, but is being released on both the 3DS and the PS Vita. Both games are developed by Chunsoft, the developers of the renowned Infinity series (best known for Ever 17) and published by Aksys in America.  Similarly to 999, Virtue’s Last Reward follows an ordinary college student named Sigma, and 8 other strangers who are kidnapped and trapped in an abandoned warehouse. Their captor, Zero III, tells them they’ve been enrolled in The Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition and to escape the warehouse, they must put their lives on the line and attempt to win The Nonary Game.  The twist lies within the new version of the Nonary Game. In a twisted version of the Prisoner’s Dilemma, the player will be given the choice at certain points to either “Ally” with or “Betray” one of the other 8 characters. If you both ally with each other, you both gain “BP”, if you betray someone who allies you get even more “BP” while your partner loses it, and if you both betray each other no-one gets anything. If a player gains 9 BP, they can escape the warehouse, if a player drops to 0 BP or below, they’re killed via lethal injection from the bangle on their arm. While somewhat complicated, the system offers the potential for some difficult decisions on the part of the player, as the director of the game illustrates with an example: Uchikoshi posted:“What if both players have only 1 BP left? The opponent would invite you to cooperate with him and then both of you would get 2BP. Should you cooperate, trusting those words? However, if the opponent chooses to betray you, then your BP will go “1 – 2 = -1” and you’d die. Then, would the safe route be to betray? But if you do that and the opponent really was planning to cooperate, then his BP will go “1 – 2 = -1” and you’ll end up killing that person.” Interestingly enough, always choosing to betray can never penalize you, only others.  The gameplay component of the game, beyond making decisions throughout the story, involves solving puzzles to escape various locked rooms. While hints will be given to you normally if you take too long, clearing every puzzle on hard is necessary to see the true ending (it's possible to play the game on easy then just skip to every puzzle on hard and do it easily). If it’s anything like 999, the puzzles are fairly sensible and don’t involve any ridiculous adventure game logic. Basic Info: Release Date: October 23rd (NA), November 16 2012 (EU), November 2012 (AUS) Developer: Chunsoft Publisher: Aksys Games (NA), Rising Star Games (PAL) Systems: 3DS, PS Vita Features: -Full Dual-Audio Voice acting in the Novel sections of the game. (JP Audio only for PAL release) -24 Different Endings -3D models and rotatable environments -Scene Selection: You don't have to scroll through text time after time like in 999, and there's even an in-game story flowchart. Reviews: Famitsu: 34/40 (9/8/9/8) Metacritic: 90 IGN: 95 EGM: 90 Game Informer: 88 Gamespot: 85 Media: English Trailer 13 Minute English Dubbed OVA Which version should I buy? Reportedly, the Vita version has slightly better graphics, but the game controls much better on the 3DS. The Vita version is also free of many of the bugs that affect the 3DS version. Do I need to play 999 before this? For the most part, yes. The game is written with the assumption that you've played 999, and will lose much of its impact if you haven't. It's a good game anyway, go play it. As far as I can tell, I've done every event on the flowchart. What now? Beat every puzzle on hard for one more node to open. If you've seen that ending as well, then enjoy waiting for VLR2, you've beaten the game. Other important information: Save often, but never in a puzzle room: There's a bug where early in the game all the various buttons will no longer work (Save, Memo etc.). This mainly occurs in the PEC room, which is accessed on the Tenmyoji>Ally>Tenmyoji route, and after the Pantry. Save before you enter the room in either case, as saving in the PEC room is bugged.3DS has a "Game Notes" feature. Use it on any passwords/IDs you are told outside of puzzle rooms
Cake Attack fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Jan 2, 2013 |
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Oct 22, 2012 03:55
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Gutcruncher posted:To get the preorder bonus watch, grab one of these Cake Attack fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Oct 22, 2012 |
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Oct 22, 2012 03:56
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Loved 999, one of my favorite games on the DS, I heard from everyone that Ever17 is much better though, still need to play it. I have the game on preorder for the 3DS, I just hope it's not too big a pain in the rear end to get all the 24 endings, hope it's around same difficulty as it id to get 999's endings (which is not very much).
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Oct 22, 2012 03:59
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Two days? Fuckk. I guess my week is booked.
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Oct 22, 2012 04:01
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CousinKevin posted:Loved 999, one of my favorite games on the DS, I heard from everyone that Ever17 is much better though, still need to play it. I don't even have a 3DS yet but I'll probably pick this up :/
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Oct 22, 2012 04:20
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Cake Attack posted:Do I need to play 999 before this? I'll go ahead and say much of the later parts of the game will lose a lot of their impact if you haven't played 999. The little snippets of exposition for new players they give are far from enough. So, yes. You should play 999 before this one. It's clearly designed that way.
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Oct 22, 2012 04:28
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orenronen posted:I'll go ahead and say much of the later parts of the game will lose a lot of their impact if you haven't played 999. The little snippets of exposition for new players they give are far from enough. I didn't know this, I looked around briefly and someone said it mostly stood alone. I'll edit that.
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Oct 22, 2012 04:29
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orenronen posted:I'll go ahead and say much of the later parts of the game will lose a lot of their impact if you haven't played 999. The little snippets of exposition for new players they give are far from enough. Well then poo poo. 999 was DS only right? Don't have a DS  .
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Oct 22, 2012 04:32
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Revitalized posted:Well then poo poo. 999 was DS only right? Don't have a DS
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Oct 22, 2012 04:40
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Revitalized posted:Well then poo poo. 999 was DS only right? Don't have a DS Yeah i was interested in this game but reading that i should play the first one then i guess i will wait for it to be ported or something!
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Oct 22, 2012 04:42
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999 was a good game and you should play it! E: I mean import it, if that was the hold up. Nate RFB fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Oct 22, 2012 |
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Oct 22, 2012 04:45
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It's not a big deal but you might want to put in the OP that dual audio is only available for the US release, EU has JP audio only.
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Oct 22, 2012 04:45
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999 is one of my favorite games, I played it non-stop until I got every ending. I really can't wait for this one, I ended up pre-ordering it for Vita since I honestly prefer it over the 3DS.
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Oct 22, 2012 04:48
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Despite having both a 3DS and a Vita, I'm going to pick up the vita version. I've heard the Vita version is a bit janky in parts, but I'm a slave to the OLED.
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Oct 22, 2012 04:54
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Nate RFB posted:Well, that problem's solved if you're getting Zero Escape on the 3DS. Supposedly that's the "better" version as well. Nope I've only got a Vita unfortunately
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Oct 22, 2012 04:54
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Aw hell yeah, can't wait to "betray" every time on my first playthrough 
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Oct 22, 2012 04:55
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Volt Catfish posted:Aw hell yeah, can't wait to "betray" every time on my first playthrough You monster...I'll probably do the same. I've heard VLR has a shitload of endings, too. Depths posted:Yeah i was interested in this game but reading that i should play the first one then i guess i will wait for it to be ported or something! That will probably never happen, so I suggest not waiting.
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Oct 22, 2012 04:56
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999 just got a reprint with the Zero Escape branding, too, for those of you who couldn't find a copy earlier in the year.
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Oct 22, 2012 04:56
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So I know a few people around here played the JP version, and I'm just wondering, are we talking 24 full endings, or 4 or 5 really different endings, and then 19 slight variations? Because if it's really 24 non bullshit endings, I will be having my life devoured by this game.
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Oct 22, 2012 07:58
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mrfreeze posted:So I know a few people around here played the JP version, and I'm just wondering, are we talking 24 full endings, or 4 or 5 really different endings, and then 19 slight variations? Because if it's really 24 non bullshit endings, I will be having my life devoured by this game. It's a little difficult to explain fully without spoiling, but rest assured all endings are valid endings, and aren't duplications of each other. In fact, you have to see them all to get the entire story (the "true ending" is reachable only after you see the rest, and for good reasons)
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Oct 22, 2012 08:03
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What do people mean when they say the Vita version has bad controls?
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Oct 22, 2012 08:08
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orenronen posted:It's a little difficult to explain fully without spoiling, but rest assured all endings are valid endings, and aren't duplications of each other. In fact, you have to see them all to get the entire story (the "true ending" is reachable only after you see the rest, and for good reasons) Oooh! My weekends for the next couple months are shot now!
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Oct 22, 2012 08:10
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PaletteSwappedNinja posted:What do people mean when they say the Vita version has bad controls? It's a little clumsier to scroll around the rooms, is all. Only thing that bugs me about the demo: it seems like every character is voiced except for the protagonist. And I don't mean he's a silent protagonist, I mean he has lines with text but the audio is "bippy bippy bippy". Speedball fucked around with this message at 09:14 on Oct 22, 2012 |
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Oct 22, 2012 09:11
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PaletteSwappedNinja posted:What do people mean when they say the Vita version has bad controls? Other than movement clumsiness and the free note drawing interface that is much less useful with a finger than with a stylus, some puzzles seem to be designed for two screens of information - that is, I had to use a pen and a paper to write down long sequences in several places where I imagine they'd just be on the second screen on the 3DS.
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Oct 22, 2012 09:31
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Cake Attack posted:-Full Dual-Audio Voice acting in the Novel sections of the game. (JP Audio only for PAL release) What the hell is up with this? The 3DS is region-locked right? drat it.
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Oct 22, 2012 11:38
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The_Frag_Man posted:What the hell is up with this? If it's anything like with the original DS, they're cutting corners in order to use a smaller cart capacity, which saves a few pennies during manufacturing. It even happened with a few PAL games on the PS2, where they'd cut plot/cutscenes in order to cram it onto a CD instead of a DVD. It really blows.
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Oct 22, 2012 11:48
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The_Frag_Man posted:What the hell is up with this? The 3DS is region-locked right? drat it. The PAL publisher got the rights to the game directly from the Japanese publisher, so they'd have to acquire a second license in order to include the English dub as that's owned by Aksys, the NA publisher. orenronen posted:Other than movement clumsiness and the free note drawing interface that is much less useful with a finger than with a stylus, some puzzles seem to be designed for two screens of information - that is, I had to use a pen and a paper to write down long sequences in several places where I imagine they'd just be on the second screen on the 3DS. Understood. Thanks for the info.
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Oct 22, 2012 11:52
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PaletteSwappedNinja posted:The PAL publisher got the rights to the game directly from the Japanese publisher, so they'd have to acquire a second license in order to include the English dub as that's owned by Aksys, the NA publisher. According to the Aksys website, they're in a partnership with Rising Star (the PAL publisher) so I have no idea why obtaining the license would be too much of an issue.
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Oct 22, 2012 12:55
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Yeah, I don't get it either. That's the line the RSG rep gave me, so make of it what you will.
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Oct 22, 2012 12:58
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Speedball posted:It's a little clumsier to scroll around the rooms, is all. That's odd. Isn't he voiced in the OVA?
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Oct 22, 2012 13:43
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Oh man, I forgot that this came out this week. I don't think I got the option for release date shipping when I ordered it off Amazon, though, so I probably won't get to play it until Thursday or Friday at the earliest.
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Oct 22, 2012 13:46
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PaletteSwappedNinja posted:The PAL publisher got the rights to the game directly from the Japanese publisher, so they'd have to acquire a second license in order to include the English dub as that's owned by Aksys, the NA publisher. This might turn out... interesting. The Australian release date seems to be a confirmed thing, but it's not the same (or near) the EU one (if it were, there'd be an actual number). We could theoretically get either the US or EU versions. Also, it might mean the EU version has a different script and we'll get another case of Advance Wars: Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict
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Oct 22, 2012 13:56
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So I preordered this on Amazon over the weekend, and it is still listed without a ship date. Any idea if I'll actually get this game on the release date? Usually when I preorder games there's a "release date shipping" option available more than a few weeks in advance.
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Oct 22, 2012 13:58
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Artix74 posted:Oh man, I forgot that this came out this week. I could have sworn when I ordered it through Amazon they gave me a release date shipping option (which I picked), but I just checked and it says my shipping method is two-day, without release date shipping as an upgrade option. Man, that's a total bummer. I was expecting to get it tomorrow, and now it says the estimated arrival date is Monday.
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Oct 22, 2012 15:28
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To get the preorder bonus watch, grab one of these 3DS http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009APQ9R4 PSV http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009APQ9QU Grab it ASAP, very limited quantities. 
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Oct 22, 2012 16:27
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Gutcruncher posted:To get the preorder bonus watch, grab one of these Thank you! I had completely given up on getting one of these. Can't wait to own the tackiest watch in the world.
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Oct 22, 2012 16:37
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Gutcruncher posted:To get the preorder bonus watch, grab one of these Totally threw money at that but also e-mailed Amazon to confirm that comes with the watch because if it doesn't I'm cancelling so I can go buy it at the store and have it in my grubby hands sooner than later.
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Oct 22, 2012 20:00
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Oh gently caress, I keep forgetting when this comes out. Just tomorrow! Sweet gumdrop poo poo, I cannot wait. I played 999 all the way through, to all endings, in just a couple days. Even got into a couple big fights with my girlfriend at the time over it. If Virtue's Last Reward is even half as good, goddamn.
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Oct 22, 2012 20:08
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astr0man posted:So I preordered this on Amazon over the weekend, and it is still listed without a ship date. Any idea if I'll actually get this game on the release date? Usually when I preorder games there's a "release date shipping" option available more than a few weeks in advance. If it doesn't have release date shipping you probably won't get it on release. Also of note: Amazon claims the release date is the 24th as opposed to tomorrow.
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Oct 22, 2012 21:02
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RyuujinBlueZ posted:Oh gently caress, I keep forgetting when this comes out. Just tomorrow! Sweet gumdrop poo poo, I cannot wait. I played 999 all the way through, to all endings, in just a couple days. Even got into a couple big fights with my girlfriend at the time over it. If Virtue's Last Reward is even half as good, goddamn. I have to ask: what did you fight about?
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Oct 22, 2012 21:09
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