Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward Review

Available for the 3DS, and Playstation Vita

Many people haven't heard of 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and that's really unfortunate. Luckily anyone who knows me or read my Top 10 Best Games You've Probably Never Played article knows that I absolutely adore the game. Virtue's Last Reward is the sequel to this great sleeper hit and with a gripping story and unique puzzles, it lives up to its predecessor in many ways. 999 will retroactively be considered part of the "Zero Escape" series along with any future games with Virtue's Last Reward being the second entry in the franchise.

The first thing I always make sure to tell people about these games is that they are VERY text-heavy, story based games.  If you don't like reading, or don't feel like going through a lot of story before you get to gameplay, this isn't the game for you.  But if you're still interested after my warnings, then you're in for an awesome story.  In a Saw-esque fashion, nine people wake up in a strange building with faint, blurred memories of being abducted. Some of them seem to know each other or are at least connected somehow, but no one trusts each other enough to open up to anyone else. They are thrown into a twisted game of trust and betrayal known as the Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition. Everyone is equipped with a bracelet showing three points, and as the story progresses you will have multiple chances to ally with or betray the other characters and they will have the same opportunities against you, and depending on how you vote you can earn or lose points.  If you break any of the rules of the game or your points drop to zero, your character dies. If anyone (or everyone) reaches nine points they can escape the game.

The game is primarily divided into two segments, Novel and Escape.  The Novel segments progress the story and as a major upgrade from the previous game, VLR's Novel portions are done with a full cast of voice actors in English or Japanese and 3D character models that are animated.  Every character has a distinct personality, from the douchebag dressed up like a magician, to a very polite gentleman in what appears to be mechanical armor, to the mysterious woman barely clad in anything. The rules of the game are explained to the players by their host, a CGI rabbit named Zero III. He's like a mixture of Kathy Griffin, Elmyra from Tiny Toons, and the Genie from Aladdin all balled up into a cute little psychotic, bipolar bunny body. Seriously, this guy's nuts. After a stretch of Novel progression, the Escape portions are where the gameplay comes in. You get stuck in locked rooms and you must use point and click movements to examine the room, check for clues, solve puzzles and play mini games. When you succeed, you'll find an exit to the room and progress the story through more Novel segments.

The puzzles in this game are fairly challenging.  Some may be easy or obvious, but others will really make you think and give you a serious sense of accomplishment when you get through them. I actually fist pumped when I solved a few. Some are just stupidly frustrating.  The game does provide you with an in-game memo feature that you can use to draw or write clues to help yourself figure things out. If puzzles get too difficult, there's also an easy mode you can switch to for that room and get more hints. The Escape rooms will also group you with other characters and you may get some extra tidbits about their back stories or find out information about the game from them. You may learn how one character is connected to another, or maybe get a brief lesson in quantum theory. Who knows?

Virtue's Last Reward has a TON of replayablity because every time you make a decision in the story it causes a branch in the flow chart.  You can choose from three different doors?  That's three different story paths. Down one path, you chose to betray someone?  You can go back to that point later and choose to ally with them instead. In all, the game provides a whopping 24 endings to earn, consisting of nine "game over" endings, nine "actual" endings, and six "to be continued" endings which require you to get more information from elsewhere in the story.  Conveniently enough, Virtue's Last Reward has a flow chart showing where you are in the story, and allows you to go back to previous segments to try other parts in the story and get new information. After a weekend of non-stop playing this game (including 14 hours in a car, and a day and a half in a hotel room) I've logged 16 hours of gameplay and I have roughly half the available endings and the best part is I'm not bored yet.. The cool thing is, anytime you reach text you've already read you're able to fast forward through it until you reach something you haven't read. Another feature that adds to the replayability is that every level requires you to find a password to escape, but there's also a secret password hidden in the room that will earn you a special file containing extra information about the game.  These files aren't required to progress the story, but a true completionist won't pass them up.  If you find the 2nd password while on easy mode, you'll receive a file with five pieces of information, but if you complete the room on hard mode (as you should!) then the file will have eight pieces of information for you.

***Synopsis***
Overall, Virtue's Last Reward is exactly what I was hoping for: a game with an awesome story, intense puzzles, and lots of replayability.  In 999 you had to do a lot of reading, and in this game there's a lot of story but if you don't want to READ everything, you could just listen to the characters. Be aware there is no voice for your character so you'll still need to read that. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, the beginning of the game is like 45 minutes of story before you get to your second puzzle so be aware that while this game is awesome, you better be prepared for a lot of story. But when you DO get gameplay, the puzzles are pretty fantastic.



Gameplay: 6.0 - The puzzles are great. Most are a nice difficulty with a balance of challenge while still giving you a rewarding feeling. However some puzzles are extremely difficult or tedious for seemingly no reason. Also since this is a story-driven game, gameplay elements are fewer than most games.

Graphics/Presentation: 9.0 - 3D character models is a nice step up, even though each has a preset number of animations, reactions and poses. The 3D graphics are used to give depth to the environments, altho not necessary. Some scenes are actually presented animated in video CGI. Very simple layouts for both button controls or touch screen.

Story: 10 - The game is BASED on a good story. This feels more like you're reading a virtual book than playing a game. There are a lot of plot twists, various endings, and shocking moments.  Each story path you choose gives you a new outlook on some of the characters' personalities and it's kinda fun finding the endings that aren't the "true" ending.

Sound/Music: 9.0 - Full cast of voice actors really lends to make this game better. Zero III is one of the most interesting characters I've encountered in a long time, and everyone's personality really shines more through their voice actor.  The music offers creepy undertones to lend to tense situations, and simple rhythmic music during puzzle solving.

Replay Value: 9.0 - The game has 24 endings to unlock, and a diversely branching story tree. Every room has an extra password to find, on easy or hard modes.  This game will ensure a lot of long nights and plenty of hours logged before you complete everything.

Overall Score:  43/50