How far did you get?: Full completion. Platinum Trophy.
The visual novel genre is not particularly popular these days. After all, we live in a time where 140 characters or less is not only acceptable, but forced in some places. Reading is time consuming, and we value our time.
However, we also complain that modern entertainment media is stupid and anti intellectual. Television is controlled and designed for mass idiot consumption. Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are outlets for dumb teenagers to spout off their opinions as though they were facts and insult anyone who disagrees. Call of Duty is made for twitch gamers who's minds grow smaller every day they play.
Well, as they say, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Perhaps that scary visual novel with all the words and stuff is exactly what you're looking for, and you just don't know it yet.
Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward is 30-35 hour visual novel style game with occasional mind puzzles to break up the monotony a bit. See, they're even trying to help keep you from getting bored!
It also isn't designed for children, for multiple reasons. The general premise shares similarities to the Saw films, but it's far more in depth. Your character and 8 others are stuck in a building being controlled by what seems like an evil person, and sometimes you have to make some rather difficult choices to get out. People will die. Tensions rise, and people get very upset. It's all rather bleak. You are forced to play a game, called the Nonery Game. You have to group up with others in order to complete puzzles, so you can gather cards to use in the second part of the game, the AB Game. This is where things get a little tense. You are forced to go into rooms, and vote "ally or betray" in order to increase or decrease a number on a watch you are wearing. Your goal is to reach 9 points, and if you do, you can leave. However, the door only opens once, and once the door closes, everyone left behind is stuck there forever. In order to avoid spoilers, I won't say what happens if it reaches 0, but needless to say it's not good. An important thing to point out is that this game is a sequel to another game that appeared on the Nintendo DS titled 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors. The story does connect, and while the game can certainly be played on it's own, it has much more to offer those that played it's prequel.
In addition to the mature subject matter, the game focuses on a very complicated story involving the 4th dimension, conscious time travel, and a whole lot of math and science. The puzzles aren't much different, especially regarding the math and science. If you failed algebra, you may need to give this one a pass. or at least get very familiar with a strategy guide.
The story branches off into many paths. The game has 22 endings, and requires many different choices in order to see all of them. Each play through take about 3 hours, but you'll get but a fraction of what the story has to offer by only playing one path. Fortunately, the game has a "flow" option, where you can view the story on a graph, and choose parts of the story where decisions were made and directly go there so you don't have to play the whole story again. Occasionally, you'll see a a scene you've already seen in another timeline, and the game gives you the option to "skip" it, where it will fast forward through everything you've already seen and stop when new dialog pops up.
As for visuals and sound, it's a competent looking game, but there isn't a lot of animation. It's works more on a screen by screen basis, but things on each screen do move. You can also maneuver about the puzzle rooms using the Vita touch screen. The game doesn't look like anime, but the character models still look very anime inspired, so if that bothers you, it wouldn't hurt to keep that in mind. The music fits the mood very well, and the voice acting is actually quite good, in both English and Japanese.
If you're the kind of gamer who feels like things are getting a little too easy, or a little too brainless in modern gaming, your prayers have been answered, assuming you're willing to be patient and deal with a book or two worth of voiced text. It can be relentless and sometimes a bit too wordy, but it's also incredibly engaging and who knows? You might learn a thing or two, as well.
Rating: 9/10
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