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Virtue's Last Reward SPOILER Thread

Esura

Banned
But with time traveling nonsense, you've got free reign to do whatever, whenever when you want.

I have to wonder, what is up with all these time traveling plots in video games lately? Granted, its not some recent thing but it feels as of late every recent game got some time traveling or seeing or dimensional traveling thing going on.
 

Kazerei

Banned
But with time traveling nonsense, you've got free reign to do whatever, whenever when you want.

You still need a body to jump into. But let's not make things unnecessarily complicated here. We're probably looking for someone roughly Ace's age, plus/minus a decade or two. Could be related to someone we already know.
 

Busaiku

Member
You still need a body to jump into. But let's not make things unnecessarily complicated here. We're probably looking for someone roughly Ace's age, plus/minus a decade or two. Could be related to someone we already know.

Wasn't Hongou like in his 60s or something though?
That would mean Brother would have to be like 100.
 

Kazerei

Banned
Wasn't Hongou like in his 60s or something though?
That would mean Brother would have to be like 100.

Alice does mention Brother is quite old and can't get out of bed, though his mind is still sharp.

Edit: Wait a second, Alice still thinks it's the year 2028, right? Then ... I dunno ... Brother is supposed to be someone much older than Hongou?

Edit2: A guy named Gordain is mentioned in 999. He survived the Titanic sinking in 1912, became super rich, and made people play nonary games for shits and giggles. So in the year 2028, he has to be 120-130 years old. Hmmmm.
 

Kazerei

Banned
Yeah, Gordain does seem like 50 years too old, and he was dead anyway.

But I think we're at least looking for someone who is old and bedridden (but still alive) in the year 2028. Probably.
 

Videoneon

Member
Yeah I agree, I feel like there's nothing we can do to come up with anything about Brother's identity. He's at least someone whose face we haven't seen before, I'm sure. I think we'll see Brother or at least uncover his identity at the end of Zero Escape Volume 3, but I have my doubts on his being one of the nine who participate in the Nevada game. Can we deal with another one of Brother's agents while still closing the book on this series, assuming that Zero Escape is a trilogy?

Spiffying look robes.

Snake woke up wearing them in 999.

Wait...that's actually really problematic. It lends something to the idea that Uchikoshi always wanted a sequel, and takes away from the idea that Free the Soul was retroactively injected into the story of 999 by VLR, however much it may feel that way. But who then, besides Ace, knew of Free The Soul? That's not a robe you just get anywhere...so how did Akane and Aoi obtain a Free The Soul robe? I don't believe that the Kurashiki siblings are followers, but they have known of Free the Soul somehow...SINCE BEFORE 999 TOOK PLACE. Oh dear. Just when did this game start?...

On a side note, I'm generally reluctant to see old characters return as players in the upcoming game because new characters with fresh personalities makes the game more exciting and unpredictable, but I wouldn't have a problem with Snake making a cameo or through reference, given it makes sense. Pure bias and hypocrisy, I admit. It doesn't seem like there are any real obstacles to it, but it's a highly questionable choice...why include him at all? What happens to Clover? Other characters I would be happy to see/hear from besides the obvious returnees of Phi, Sigma, Akane, and Junpei include Ace and Dio (though it's basically impossible for them), and Luna, who I've done a 180 on and understand why her -likeness- may appear. Definitely can't have them all as players, but would be nice to see or hear of these four again somehow.
 

Noi

Member
On a side note, I'm generally reluctant to see old characters return as players in the upcoming game because new characters with fresh personalities makes the game more exciting and unpredictable, but I wouldn't have a problem with Snake making a cameo or through reference, given it makes sense. Pure bias and hypocrisy, I admit. It doesn't seem like there are any real obstacles to it, but it's a highly questionable choice...why include him at all? What happens to Clover? Other characters I would be happy to see/hear from besides the obvious returnees of Phi, Sigma, Akane, and Junpei include Ace and Dio (though it's basically impossible for them), and Luna, who I've done a 180 on and understand why her -likeness- may appear. Definitely can't have them all as players, but would be nice to see or hear of these four again somehow.

Clover and Alice are definitely shoo-ins, maybe for coming in to save the day at the last minute or something. Remember that Akane? told them that they might have a way to physically go back to the past, though they only barely mention it before moving on in the Kyle scene at the end. Who knows.

Brother could pretty much be anyone. Considering this is a cult that manages to create generations of clones, I wouldn't put it past them to find a way to extend Brother's lifespan past it's normal limit or outright clone him as well.
 

Feep

Banned
Questions:

1) What was the purpose of Phi? I mean, I guess she got an "upgrade" by going to the future than back to the past, but the only thing she really gained was knowledge of the Nevada Test Site and the solid ability to timejump and retain memories. Will that be super helpful in Nevada?

2) Who did Kyle jump into? Sigma's body? It seems that way from the epilogue, but I was unsure. Who was speaking so calmly in Kyle's body in the epilogue? Young Sigma? Old Sigma?

3) What was up with Akane telling Clover and Alice they could actually time travel?

4) I guess Sigma and Phi by default "failed" in the timeline of VLR. Otherwise, the next 45 years of Nonary Game dev couldn't work. But the other timeline, the good one, is out there, right? And why would Phi telling Sigma/Kyle stuff erase that possibility? Quantum distributions collapse into a single possibility when observed, so I don't see how Phi observing or Kyle observing second-hand would make a difference.

5) What's all that "x-factor" stuff?

6) My brain

7) It hurts

8) Tenmyouji seeing the Q room and being like "Okay, someone is just messing with me now" was so awesome
 

Lusankya

Member
You know, playing the game again (finally finished my English playthrough), I just noticed something.

You know the password to the computer that K (Kyle) gives you? MIL-KEV-OLI

It reads I LOVE KLIM backwards.

I wonder who wrote the password then... hmm....

That will be Luna. The Id is luna's serial number.

But it's not Luna's computer. It's old Sigma's computer and that shows, that he really loves his clone son and Luna.
Of course Luna loves Klim as well. :)
 

Feep

Banned
Also, Radical 6. The probability that a random virus would modify a human brain to run at the PRECISE ratio required to make moon gravity look like Earth gravity is next to zero. It makes you wonder...does someone from VLR actually PLANT it to create the "failed" timeline of the game? If so, wouldn't "saving the world" be as simple as, you know, not planting it? Does some scenario require its existence?

There has to be a ton of suspension of belief on R6, now that I think about it. Phi jumps twenty feet into the air and no one thinks it odd? And as horizontal velocity isn't really affected by gravitational pull, wouldn't anything moving horizontally (darts, for instance) look super fast? And why did Quark and Sigma suffer double slowdown ("Normal 6", as it were) at times? I mean, I'm cool with it, but...still.
 

Lusankya

Member
So the set up for game three will probably be:

Kyle (main character)
Sigma (22 year-old body, 67 year old consciousness)
Phi

Maybe -
Akane
Junpei

And then whatever new characters they add to the mix. The worst part is going to be the wait... I hope Uchikoshi has made significant progress on it since GPD/VLR saw its initial release in February.

I don't think Akane will be there. In the true end (past) she said "I'm sorry. I really don't know anything about what happens in there." So she never was there.

That also increases the probability that we'll see the real Luna there (as the woman Sigma saved). Because in the credits you don't see any voice actor for the woman who reported she killed 6 of the other participants. This means she must have been spoken by a VA of the existing characters and people who play the Japanese version say it was Luna's VA.

In addition, Kyle will only be there with his consciousness. Akane said in the alternative time line: "His [Kyle's] consciousness has gone into a body from that time."

So we have:
Kyle's consciousness in a body we don't know yet (well, it should be ?'s body, who is us, the player).
Old Sigma's consciousness (with everything he knew from VLR) in young Sigma's body.
Phi (basically her consciousness of the Phi End).
A woman who will be saved by Sigma (I think it's human Luna).
At least five other participants we don't really know about. Maybe six, because it seems like Kyle will "infiltrate" the mission and not regularly participate in it.
In addition, "?", the player, will also be there. The question is how and as whom.
Furthermore, Clover and Alice could play a role outside of the game, when they really manage to get their bodies send back in time.


Akane: "Don't you want to know what happened in-between Christmas and New Year's Eve in 2028?!"

I DO want to know, Akane! Give me the third game already! :(
 

Necrovex

Member
I like Kyle; I just hope they give his 2028 version a good design.

It's not long but... the ending of VLR was so good I need vol. 3 since yesterday ;-;

I haven't spent enough time with Kyle to make an opinion of him. We only really saw him and his true personality during the epilogue. Though, he got some major brownie points during his time as K and the Zero Jr. ride.

I'll probably dig him in the next game, but I want to continue being with my two manly beefs, Sigma and Junpei.

I understand the long wait ahead for the both of us. This is going to be similar to waiting for MGS4 to come out again.

Why would he go against his own sister's plans?

Xenosaga III spoilers:
Your post reminded me how Jin was fully prepared to kill his sister, Shion. Man, that was a good fight.
 
Also, Radical 6. The probability that a random virus would modify a human brain to run at the PRECISE ratio required to make moon gravity look like Earth gravity is next to zero. It makes you wonder...does someone from VLR actually PLANT it to create the "failed" timeline of the game? If so, wouldn't "saving the world" be as simple as, you know, not planting it? Does some scenario require its existence?

There has to be a ton of suspension of belief on R6, now that I think about it. Phi jumps twenty feet into the air and no one thinks it odd? And as horizontal velocity isn't really affected by gravitational pull, wouldn't anything moving horizontally (darts, for instance) look super fast? And why did Quark and Sigma suffer double slowdown ("Normal 6", as it were) at times? I mean, I'm cool with it, but...still.

Radical 6 was man made so it probably wasn't random.
 

Watch Da Birdie

I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
I actually played around with the idea of Gordain being Brother.

With all the weird science stuff going around, I think it's possible that Gordain could be in fact Brother...I'm pretty sure they mention that Brother is surprisingly old at one point, so Gordain could have used some advanced medicine to stay alive, could be a GAULEM based off the original, or even could be some dude whose mastered transferring his consciousness so transported it to another body in the future after his original gave up.
 

Roto13

Member
I like that the most trustworthy character in the game is the character who is secretly a robot planted to observe and manage the game on behalf of the people who kidnapped you.
 

Toki767

Member
I like that the most trustworthy character in the game is the character who is secretly a robot planted to observe and manage the game on behalf of the people who kidnapped you.

I felt bad having to betray her just to branch off for extra endings, but I must admit somewhere in the back of my mind I kept thinking she'd do something to betray me eventually. Never happened though lol
 

Lusankya

Member
Where exactly was the scene when we hear how the woman tells about how she killed 6 billion people by releasing the virus?
 

Aeana

Member
You know, it seems odd to me that the characters doled out age-related jokes and insults toward Tenmyouji throughout the game, but didn't say a single thing about Sigma (as far as I can recall). Obviously, doing so would have ruined the surprise, and yet, it still bothers me.
 

Lusankya

Member
You know, it seems odd to me that the characters doled out age-related jokes and insults toward Tenmyouji throughout the game, but didn't say a single thing about Sigma (as far as I can recall). Obviously, doing so would have ruined the surprise, and yet, it still bothers me.

Actually they did so quite a lot. ;)

E.g. Sigma said he is only two years older than Phi and she asked him how many drugs he did to look that old. Sometimes they call him old or grandpa and Alice wonders how long he studied to still not have the PhD.
 

Belisarius

Neo Member
Care to give examples?

Phi calls him an old man (or old pervert, or something like that) in the AB Room before you know it's an AB room.

When Sigma tells Alice he's going to college, she asks if he's a doctor or something like that, and when he responds in the negative she says something about how he's must have been working on that degree for a long time.

Phi (and I think others) make a couple digs along the lines of suggesting that his hearing/sight/etc is starting to go, which are easy to gloss over initially but make more sense once you know the truth.

I could look up the exact lines if you want them, but trust me, they're there. I put a lot of effort into making sure they were, and would make sense once you knew he was old, but wouldn't give the game away.

I felt bad having to betray her just to branch off for extra endings, but I must admit somewhere in the back of my mind I kept thinking she'd do something to betray me eventually. Never happened though lol

Arguably, the Three Laws would have prevented her from ever betraying, especially once BP totals got low.
 

Toki767

Member
Arguably, the Three Laws would have prevented her from ever betraying, especially once BP totals got low.

Yeah, but I say that not knowing she was a robot until near the end of the game. That's why I was just waiting and waiting for that moment of betrayal that never came.
 

Roto13

Member
Phi calls him an old man (or old pervert, or something like that) in the AB Room before you know it's an AB room.

When Sigma tells Alice he's going to college, she asks if he's a doctor or something like that, and when he responds in the negative she says something about how he's must have been working on that degree for a long time.

Phi (and I think others) make a couple digs along the lines of suggesting that his hearing/sight/etc is starting to go, which are easy to gloss over initially but make more sense once you know the truth.

I could look up the exact lines if you want them, but trust me, they're there. I put a lot of effort into making sure they were, and would make sense once you knew he was old, but wouldn't give the game away.

It's great that they keep acting like Sigma is an old man, but still nobody saw that plot twist coming. :p
 

Eusis

Member
It's great that they keep acting like Sigma is an old man, but still nobody saw that plot twist coming. :p
Probably because it IS out there, and those with a passing familiarity with anime/JRPGs know that it's not uncommon for 20-some year olds to get old insults thrown at them. Just this time he actually is physically old and not "I'm no longer a high school student" old. Then again, given that only Quark is below 20 (well, probably Luna as well, but she's special) it should've come off as more suspicious.
 

Lusankya

Member
I would have never imagined that plot twist, but it makes so much sense in retrospect.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=43178470&postcount=2178

Just saw my prediction from two weeks ago and I basically nailed Sigma's secret back then. :D

It's funny that many people didn't really trust the VLR cast before they played the game. In the end everybody but Dio is trustworthy.

I don't know much about Luna, but I know I totally trust her! She's so adorable (and hopefully won't use that against me)!
And damn, was I right about Luna!
 

perorist

Unconfirmed Member
Finally finished at around 4 AM last night.

Overall I think the game's better than 999 - plot was complex but the twists were tied up cleanly and the clues were done well. The setting wasn't as good and the characters not as charming though. Kind of disappointed Junpei walked out on Akane at the end for her being "a different person" now, even though she killed people during the first game too and he didn't seem to mind then (really glad they put in the 20 year old akane though ( ´з`) miyuki sawashiro).

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet but did anyone go through the bomb codes? I got

my brother
crash keys
free z soul
myrmidons

The only one that I don't get is crash keys, so I'm wondering if that's some foreshadowing/info about the 3rd game. Also are we pretty sure that the consciousness in Kyle at the end was the player?
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
Finally finished at around 4 AM last night.

Overall I think the game's better than 999 - plot was complex but the twists were tied up cleanly and the clues were done well. The setting wasn't as good and the characters not as charming though. Kind of disappointed Junpei walked out on Akane at the end for her being "a different person" now, even though she killed people during the first game too and he didn't seem to mind then (really glad they put in the 20 year old akane though ( ´з`) miyuki sawashiro).

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet but did anyone go through the bomb codes? I got

my brother
crash keys
free z soul
myrmidons

The only one that I don't get is crash keys, so I'm wondering if that's some foreshadowing/info about the 3rd game. Also are we pretty sure that the consciousness in Kyle at the end was the player?

Crash Keys = Kurashiki if you sound it out in Japanese like Kurashu Kii
And yes, the consciousness in Kyle at the end is definitely the player.
 

perorist

Unconfirmed Member
Crash Keys = Kurashiki if you sound it out in Japanese like Kurashu Kii
And yes, the consciousness in Kyle at the end is definitely the player.
Oh god I'm an idiot

Also if the player is in Kyle's body right now, where did Kyle's consciousness jump to?
 

Venfayth

Member
I just listened to it again, you're right, it's absolutely her.

I'm hoping that means Luna gets a continued role in the next game!
 

Kazerei

Banned
Akane tells an interesting story in 999, about another guy who has memories of the future.

Akane: In 1892, 14 years before the Titanic sank... A novel was published. It was called "Futility". It was written by an American novelist named Morgan Robertson. The story was about a big cruise ship colliding with an iceberg and sinking. Of course, if that was the only similarity, there wouldn't be any reason to mention it... It wasn't though... The name of the ship, its nationality, course, departure time... Size, displacement, maximum speed, number of passengers and crew, the number of lifeboats... Even the location of the accident itself, and the cause, and the location of the damage... Everything matches the Titanic almost exactly. It was almost as if he'd seen the whole thing happen... But this book was written 14 years before the Titanic sank.

Akane: But that's not all. It wasn't just "Futility" that predicted the sinking of the Titanic. There were 2 other, similar stories written by a man named William Thomas Stead. Both of them before the accident... One in 1886, and one in 1892. Stead wrote 2 stories that had striking similiarities to the Titanic disaster. In one, 2 ships collided, and many of the passengers died because there weren't enough lifeboats. In the other, a ship collided with an iceberg, and sank.

Junpei: Hmm, I dunno. I mean, I'll give that it seems a little weird, but... I'm pretty sure it wasn't too uncommon for ships to hit icebergs back in the day, or even other ships.

Akane: Right. I knew you'd say that. But... what if Stead had some sort of special powers...? To be more specific, what if he had the ability to do automatic writing...?

Junpei: What? Automatic writing? Wait, are you... Are you talking about that thing where someone says they're possessed by a spirit... And then they write a bunch of stuff without knowing what they're writing?

Junpei: Okay, so let's say--hypothetically--that automatic writing isn't a total load. These guys still couldn't have predicted the sinking of the Titanic. When this Stead dude wrote his thing... Nobody had died on the Titanic yet. So if automatic writing is about being possessed by spirits of dead people... Who the hell possessed him so he could write that stuff?

Akane: That's not it. Stead wasn't possessed by a spirit. He was doing the possessing. William Thomas Stead was a passenger on the Titanic. He just wrote down what he saw with his own eyes... 20 years before it happened...
 
So, let's spoil!
I wanted to say that I REALLY loved this game, even more than 999.
My only issue with it is having played other Uchikoshi games, namely Ever17.
I will put spoiler tags, because there are spoilers from Ever17.
So, after Ever17, a faceless, non talking protagonist automatically makes me think about another face. Uchikoshi tried to troll us with the anime, but the game is different. As soon as Phi called me "grandpa", I knew the plot twist would have been the same as in Ever17 (sort of). When I saw the Zero ologram, I instantly knew how Sigma looked like and that he was Zero... Took me little time to figure out that he was his older self, AKA K's "father". But, obviously, his motives were unknown until the last bit.
As for Radical-6, when Quark got infected with the virus and they proposed to put him in Cryogenic sleep I was like WHHAAAAT!!! COCO AGAIN???? Thank God it was maybe only some kind of easter egg.
Other than that, the game left me speechless many times. Figuring out that the year wasn't 2028 was easy and they could have been more subtle about Tenmyouji's identity, maybe showing that he only had Akane's picture, instead of adding a lot of details about him being Junpei! But I liked that too!!!!
I'm happy that, apart from a couple of things, Uchikoshi didn't take too many twists from his other works!

Oh, and I LOVED LOVED LOVED K explaining thinks like in 999: "it was like that because it needed to be like that" and then noting that it wasn't enough!
Bravo, Uchi! You learn!
I really feel I don't need an answers page with this game. Definetly better than 999 (which was one of my favourite games of all time).
 

GSR

Member
Still trying to get my brain back together out of the trillion pieces it's in right now.

My big question is: is anyone sure who the hell was in Kyle's body at the end? Obviously with the way Akane was talking it was all very fouth-wall "it's the player", but I'm just making sure in-universe it's (as far as we know) someone separate from Sigma and Kyle.
 
Still trying to get my brain back together out of the trillion pieces it's in right now.

My big question is: is anyone sure who the hell was in Kyle's body at the end? Obviously with the way Akane was talking it was all very fouth-wall "it's the player", but I'm just making sure in-universe it's (as far as we know) someone separate from Sigma and Kyle.

I came here right now to speculate about it.
I think she's talking to YOU, the player.
Or, to be more correct to the character we will be impersonating in the next game.
That's what I think, but maybe I'm going too deep.

Still, I think we'll see more about Junpei since he was involved in that Nevada test site.
 

Necrovex

Member
I came here right now to speculate about it.
I think she's talking to YOU, the player.
Or, to be more correct to the character we will be impersonating in the next game.
That's what I think, but maybe I'm going too deep.

Still, I think we'll see more about Junpei since he was involved in that Nevada test site.

That was my original thought before everyone told me that I was being spoken to. I have to replay that part.
 

LiK

Member
37 hours and my first Vita platinum. WOWOWOW, so awesome. I will collect my thoughts and join the discussion later. Took a bunch of screenshots I wanted to discuss. Anyway, AWESOME. I LOVE YOU BO AND BEN.
 

StatsChu

Neo Member
Been reading neogaf threads for a while but I wanted to make my first post in this thread: I think this game is purrrrfect. Furget that, I hated that the ending was so much of a cliffhanger. Where to begin with my thoughts :)

1. Anybody get the feeling that Kyle Klim could be the antagonist in zero escape 3? Just a hunch... I have a feeling parenting issues have negatively affected him (Dr. Klim, Akane) so sending him back in time might not be a good idea.

2. Did anyone think it odd that Quark talked about "freeing his soul" during his suicide attempt? Is he a free the soul follower? Could he be a clone of Left? Or something else?​

3. Not speculating, but I hope they do something to resolve Clover and especially Alice's situation. It sucks for Alice about not being able to avenge her dad, and then for the both of them living in the worst possible outcome (at least for them).​

4. I'm not sure if this has been discussed yet; for those of you who played the 3DS version, did you notice how the view differs between the two screens in escape sections? In the bottom screen it appears as though we are viewing the puzzle through the lens of a camera (I notice the word "Zoom" on the top right portion of the screen) but on the top it is clear. I'm thinking 999 plot twist redux - I take it the bottom screen represents Sigmas viewpoint - he does have that robotic eye and all - but who's viewpoint are we looking at on the top screen? Could the top view represent the "person" we will be playing in zero escape 3?​

I want Zero Escape 3 Meow!!! By the way how do we use the list feature???
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
Akane tells an interesting story in 999, about another guy who has memories of the future.

Futility and Morgan Robertson are a real thing, btw. He also wrote a book describing an attack from the Japanese on Americans prior to Pearl Harbor. Coincidence maybe? Probably.

Robertson included a short story called "Beyond the Spectrum", which described a future war between the United States and Empire of Japan, a popular subject at the time. Japan does not declare war but instead launches sneak attacks on United States ships en route to the Philippines and Hawaii; an invasion fleet about to launch a surprise attack on San Francisco is stopped by the hero using the weapon from a captured Japanese vessel. The title refers to an ultraviolet searchlight used by the Japanese, but invented by the Americans, to blind American crews. Some readers have compared the searchlight's effects (blindness, intense heat, and facial burns) to those of the atomic bomb.
 
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