Introduction

Warning!

Do not read this thread if you have neither:

Played 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors to completion, nor
Read Dragonatrix's quite satisfactory LP of same all the way through

Open discussion of 999 spoilers is permitted in this thread.

This is your first and only warning.

Still here? Excellent.

Intercepted communication c. Jan 2011 posted:

'Aksys Games, Ben Bateman spe-'
'Hey Mr Bateman, Kōtarō Uchikoshi here.'
'Oh - hey! What's up?'
'I'm working on a sequel to 999. I'll let you handle the localization if you promise to stop abbreviating every god-damned number in dialogue.'
'...'
'...'
'...Deal. Alright, guess I'll get a head start. What's this thing called?'
'"Zennin Shibō Desu". "Zennin" means "good person", "shibō" means "wish", and "desu"... well, it's "desu".'
'So, "I want to be a good person"?'
'Right, except, here's the thing. "Shibō" can also be read as "death", and "desu" is how you pronounce "death" in Japanese.'
'So...'
'So it also means "Good People Die".'
'So it's a pun based on homophones that only exist in Japanese?'
'Yep.'
'I hate you.'
'Well, I'm sure you'll come up with something! Good luck!'
*click*
'...'
'...'
'...'
'...Um...'

(it's actually a pretty clever title!)

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, a.k.a. 極限脱出ADV 善人シボウデス (Kyokugen Dasshutsu Adobenchā: Zennin Shibō Desu) is the 3DS/Vita sequel to the spectacular DS visual novel 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors and is thus the second installment in the Zero Escape series, which is totally what this series has always been called (also this has totally always been a series). It is decidedly and pointedly "next-gen", improving on its predecessor with fully 3D rendered environments and models, as well as (almost) full voice-acting. The latter of those is particularly impressive because 999 was extremely wordy, and VLR is moreso.

Actually, now I think about it, "Moreso" is pretty much VLR in a word. There's more of everything. More puzzles. More choices. Waaaaay more endings. Tons more pseudoscience. More mindfucks. More. More. Mooooore!

As with 999, VLR's story was written by Kōtarō Uchikoshi, development was handled by Chunsoft (of Spike Chunsoft) and the North American localization was done by Aksys Games. Unlike 999, VLR was also published in Europe and Australia by Rising Star Games, who, in a flash of inspiration, decided to license it directly from Spike Chunsoft and not from Aksys, causing the European release of the game to lack the English voice dub. Good job on that.

Kōtarō Uchikoshi, before coming up with 999, worked on the Infinity series, which is generally considered to be pretty great by people who come across it, although not many people seem to ever come across it. You should probably check it out at some point! 999 did somewhat better for itself, what with actually securing an official English localization and a sequel.

Chunsoft are an odd little developer. They developed the first five Dragon Quest titles, and then made Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. Basically, what I'm saying is, they're pretty much the last developer you'd expect to be behind 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors, a dark and intriguing visual novel in which lots of people die gruesome deaths. But there you go! In April 2012, Chunsoft merged with Spike to form Spike Chunsoft. You probably know Spike as the developer of a certain other dark and intriguing visual novel in which lots of people die gruesome deaths. Actually, that's probably why they got on so well.

Remember the bit about full voice acting? It presents a bit of a problem. How best to show off the game, animations and voices included, without turning this into a VLP?

The solution: invent the Dual-Audio SSLP™.

I have endeavoured to record both voice tracks and will present them alongside a traditional SSLP for those who wish to listen to them. Note that the main character is unvoiced and the game does employ text-scrolls every now and then, so the voice tracks will not be a substitute for reading the LP, but will merely enhance the experience. Voice tracks are broken up with the intention of eliminating as much of the unvoiced parts as possible, and while I'm trying to include all the actual voiced lines, sometimes I decide that capturing, cutting and uploading certain individual lines out of a sea of beeps and silence just isn't worth it.

You can choose either track, or neither. You probably shouldn't choose both, though. That will get ugly.

(I will also include music links at the appropriate points, should you wish to experience ambiance but not the voice acting.)

In more traditional "About the LP" news, there will be voting wherever decisions are called for. In exactly one instance, I will force a decision, and in other instances I may limit options slightly for the sake of my sanity, but otherwise, this will very much be a Vote Driven LP.

Do you even have to ask?

ABSOLUTELY NO SPOILERS

. Ever. Not one. Not in tags. Not in "wink nudge you guys are going to love this next bit". Not in leading questions. No big spoilers. No little spoilers. If it has not been shown in the LP, do not talk about it or acknowledge it in any way. This extends to pre-release marketing material.

All of which said, speculation is fine and wonderful and encouraged and welcome and please go absolutely nuts.

(just don't do that thing where you post your speculation in spoiler tags because you're ~absolutely sure it's right~ because that's really annoying)

There is no need to tag or otherwise tiptoe around 999 spoilers, because anyone who skipped over the warning above has only themselves to blame.

Here is some advice for those who haven't played the game:

Don't Google (or Wiki, or (*shudder*) TVTropes) anything relating to the game, or characters, or... anything.
In fact, don't Google (or etc) anything relating to 999 either. I've seen seemingly unrelated VLR endgame spoilers come up in 999 searches.
Don't search for fanart.
Generally don't seek info or clarification outside this thread (and the 999 thread).

Spoiler Policy Addendum: Absolutely no discussion of Zero Time Dilemma.

The Let's Play Archive

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward

by Fedule

Introduction

Intercepted communication c. Jan 2011 posted: