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[CassSept]

Is there not a scene where Diana says she saw that very brooch during their days at DCOM? That's how the player discovers it's a thing, right? I think that's what's confusing me; why she wouldn't have recognized it to be hers then.

It's not really 'hers'. Phi is sent back in time with the brooch, there she is cloned again and sent to 2007 (?), again with the brooch, enters the DCOM experiment, gets burned in the incinerator, Diana picks up the brooch and later on gives it to Phi when she sends her back in time.

The brooch only becomes Diana's when Phi is burned in the incinerator. That's why she didn't recognize it before.

 

[FluxWaveZ]

It's not really 'hers'. Phi is sent back in time with the brooch, there she is cloned again and sent to 2007 (?), again with the brooch, enters the DCOM experiment, gets burned in the incinerator, Diana picks up the brooch and later on gives it to Phi when she sends her back in time.

The brooch only becomes Diana's when Phi is burned in the incinerator. That's why she didn't recognize it before.

Ah, right, right. It was that timeline, and time travel shenanigans means the brooch doesn't have any clear origin point. Thanks.

 

[j0hnny_385]

Finished the game last night. I might have a different perspective than most since I played all 3 games in succession this summer for the very first time.
I loved 999, but I didn't like how convoluted the ending "paths" were, not to mention the difficulty to get the true ending without a guide. Buuuuuuut, it's a great game that still holds up.
VLR is a masterpiece bar none. Strongest game in the series.
Really liked how they structured the whole story, introduced story locks in a smart way and overall the whole game was mindblowing.
Coming into ZTD, I expected a lot. A new game, new engine, LAST game...meaning, yea, it'll be interesting to see how they fix the timeline and can they pull it off.

Overall? Not really happy with the game. :/
Honestly my least favorite of the 3.
I don't like the jumbled mess of Team -> Fragment presentation (even though it fits the lore). Twists were fun, introduction of Delta was O_O , but all in all, because of the jumbled mess and randomness with which you progress through the story, I didn't really connect with the story or characters (Eric, Mira... uggghhhhhh). Team D had the best story by far.
It feels like the game was rushed to completion. It didn't have a proper close and it didn't feel impactful at all, certainly not after what VLR set up.
Engine was horrendous, they should have stayed with the classic "visual novel" type of presentation, not this weird Telltale-wannabe art style. :/

 

[broncobuster]

I was hoping Q team would turn out to be way more interesting than they initially appeared pre-launch, but they were pretty awful and the characters I liked being with the least during the game. The most "mastermindy" because of Sean and Delta, I guess.

Eric is probably the most obnoxious character in the series. Mira at least was slightly amusing with her craziness, but yeah. Sean wasn't that bad through, so that prevented team Q of being downright terrible all around.

I'd go as far as to say Eric is the worst character across any VN I played. Kept wishing the true end would exclude him somehow.

Sean is fine aside from never delving into why Zero only turned him into a kung fu machine in one timeline.

 

[Burbeting]

I liked Eric more or less. He works well as a red herring character, someone who seems inherently suspicious through-out the game, but isn't actually villanious. This worked mostly due to how VLR handled Dio in comparison (Dio looked really evil from the start, and was in fact evil).

It was Mira who was handled really badly in the Q team. Her resolution was such a lazy cop-out too, sheesh.

 

[Funyarinpa]

My best friend, who is a weeb and thinks that VNs are all boring as hell, apparently found ZTD by himself -despite me constantly talking about 999 and VLR-, played some of it, and he FREAKIN' ENJOYS IT. For context, VLR and 999 are respectively my #1 and #2 favorite games of all time and ZTD is one of the biggest disappointments I've ever had.

I fucking can't, this is too fucking hilarious.

Spoiler

L I F E I S S I M P L Y U N F A I R

 

[FluxWaveZ]

I liked Eric more or less. He works well as a red herring character, someone who seems inherently suspicious through-out the game, but isn't actually villanious. This worked mostly due to how VLR handled Dio in comparison (Dio looked really evil from the start, and was in fact evil).

It was Mira who was handled really badly in the Q team. Her resolution was such a lazy cop-out too, sheesh.

Weird. I didn't think Eric was a red herring character at all, and I never suspected him of anything throughout the whole game. Right when he was introduced, I immediately thought, "this is the 'normal' character who has to deal with the crazy shit."

And, unlike even Junpei in 999, Eric was just an unlikable, boring character with a boring past and extremely annoying motivations.

If anyone was a red herring to me like that, it was Carlos. And nothing came of it, disappointingly.

 

[Orlov]

Sean is fine aside from never delving into why Zero only turned him into a kung fu machine in one timeline.

It wasn't the Sean. It was one of many "seans" that Zero uses to help him run the game.

Also, I hoped Eric would die horrible death at the end.

 

[Burbeting]

Weird. I didn't think Eric was a red herring character at all, and I never suspected him of anything throughout the whole game. Right when he was introduced, I immediately thought, "this is the 'normal' character who has to deal with the crazy shit."

And, unlike even Junpei in 999, Eric was just an unlikable, boring character with a boring past and extremely annoying motivations.

If anyone was a red herring to me like that, it was Carlos. And nothing came of it, disappointingly.

He was suspicious to me from the point they introduced this picture:

That smile was pretty eery, and made me think he was up to some shady shit. It didn't help that the initial reveal trailer showed him first strangling Q, so at the very least I think that the marketing material was showing him up as definitely not "normal character". That only becomes apparent in the latter half of the game imo, before that his suspiciousness is still there, especially with the possibility that he could be brother, with his backstory being presented as it was.

 

[Sumio Mondo]

Eric was obviously a psycho from the first artwork with that creepy slight grin right through to the box art that shows him having what looked like a meltdown. Dunno how people couldn't see that from a mile off.

Weird. I didn't think Eric was a red herring character at all, and I never suspected him of anything throughout the whole game. Right when he was introduced, I immediately thought, "this is the 'normal' character who has to deal with the crazy shit."

And, unlike even Junpei in 999, Eric was just an unlikable, boring character with a boring past and extremely annoying motivations.

If anyone was a red herring to me like that, it was Carlos. And nothing came of it, disappointingly.

I did see some theories that Carlos would end up being Brother and Dio was a clone of him when Carlos was first revealed. Would have made more sense to me than what we got. Ah well.

 

[fluxcore]

I thought it was a bit ridiculous that Carlos or Sigma didn't try to grab the gun off Eric as he was waving it around carelessly in close quarters. They could easily have overpowered him, and he wasn't even pointing it at people half the time.

 

[calc84maniac]

I thought it was a bit ridiculous that Carlos or Sigma didn't try to grab the gun off Eric as he was waving it around carelessly in close quarters. They could easily have overpowered him, and he wasn't even pointing it at people half the time.

Well, you know it's Zero Escape Rule #1 that talking about pseudoscience takes priority over any life-threatening situation that may be at hand.

 

[fluxcore]

Argh, I just remembered the darkened room chainsaw sequence. A great combination when you can't see your quarry, but they can hear you because of your extremely noisy weapon.

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

I finally finished the game today. Started earlier this month - my shortest playtime of the 3 (31 hours for this, VS 44 for 999, and 65 for VLR).

Holy shit, the impressions I heard weren't kidding. The ending is hilariously lazy.

Fucking "the villain was actually right there the whole time and also HE CAN HACK PEOPLE'S MINDS!!!!"

Jesus Christ.

Honestly if this game was viewed by itself and totally disconnected from the other two, I couldn't in good faith give it any more than a 5 or a 6. The few puzzles there were were nice, but I didn't like virtually anything else, Junpei and Akane felt unlike themselves, the Fragment system made the first 20 hours feel like they had no consequence or impact, unnatural and overly-expositional dialogue (seemed almost like a literal translation they had no time to clean up), and the lack of resolution for numerous plot points/character arcs made the game feel a bit numb as a conclusion to the overall trilogy. I feel like Uchikoshi just wrote himself into a corner with how complex VLR was, compared to the tighter focus and neatly-wrapped story of 999 (still my favourite in the series - kinda bummed the guy in my avatar virtually vanished from the series after he escaped in its ending) and the game really suffered for it.

EDIT: I mean, in this game, we have the revelation that one of the characters is a literal serial killer and it provokes virtually no reaction or consequence from anyone. Just mind-boggling.

 

[Yasumi]

It's not even just that he wrote himself into a corner, it's that a lot of the overall structure, character writing, and plot decisions were extremely poor and sometimes nonsensical. Everything about Mira and Eric, Junpei and Akane's personality shifts, Delta, and so on.

It just felt like Uchikoshi had given up, and between the ending, post-game files, the Twitter comments about Another End, non-canon metafiction, and "make up your own canon", he really has.

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

It's not even just that he wrote himself into a corner, it's that a lot of the overall structure, character writing, and plot decisions were extremely poor and sometimes nonsensical. Everything about Mira and Eric, Junpei and Akane's personality shifts, Delta, and so on.

It just felt like Uchikoshi had given up, and between the ending, post-game files, the Twitter comments about Another End, non-canon metafiction, and "make up your own canon", he really has.

Considering that the more I think about the game the more it falls apart, it pains me to admit it but I honestly wouldn't be surprised.

A lot of the game is just inherently flawed right from the concept (e.g. the Fragment structure and splitting everybody up were biiiiiiig mistakes, and at times it honestly feels like Junpei and Akane don't even need to be there). There aren't enough words to describe how much of a copout everything surrounding Delta is.

 

[Two Words]

It's not really 'hers'. Phi is sent back in time with the brooch, there she is cloned again and sent to 2007 (?), again with the brooch, enters the DCOM experiment, gets burned in the incinerator, Diana picks up the brooch and later on gives it to Phi when she sends her back in time.

The brooch only becomes Diana's when Phi is burned in the incinerator. That's why she didn't recognize it before.

Yeah, but who originally owned the brooch....

 

[CassSept]

Yeah, but who originally owned the brooch....

Nobody, the entire existence of the brooch is paradoxical. It just pops into existence when Phi is sent back to 1908

 

[Sumio Mondo]

Considering that the more I think about the game the more it falls apart, it pains me to admit it but I honestly wouldn't be surprised.

A lot of the game is just inherently flawed right from the concept (e.g. the Fragment structure and splitting everybody up were biiiiiiig mistakes, and at times it honestly feels like Junpei and Akane don't even need to be there). There aren't enough words to describe how much of a copout everything surrounding Delta is.

I was surprised more people didn't talk about Diana being totally different from the description we sort of got of her from VLR and theories fans had about her being this manipulative psychopath when she just turns out to be exactly the same as Luna, so sweet and kindhearted. I was always under the impression that Diana was supposed to be unhinged, for some reason. Kept expecting her to be putting on an act which never happened.

 

[JoeyJungle]

Nobody, the entire existence of the brooch is paradoxical. It just pops into existence when Phi is sent back to 1908

This is probably intentional, given how much Uchikoshi loves pradoxes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causal_loop

 

[Taruranto]

The "item stuck in a time loop without an end or a beginning" is a classic in these kind of stories.

Don't think too much about it.

 

[upandaway]

Just finished it. I'd put it around the level of VLR and with 999 being above both of them, but I still enjoyed all 3 a lot.

I should say though that I tend to put more weight to my enjoyment of the whole thing rather than just the ending (actually the ending is one of the less important parts to me because they almost never satisfy). I'd say that up until the point where gameplay more or less ended (let's say, up until the Sigma and Diana hooking up fragment) it was really really enjoyable and fun for me. I loved clicking into a fragment, and trying to piece together everything I know to make sense of the story, it was exciting to realize that bad ends also "count" because it's just one group's bad end.
In terms of "playing" the story it was the most enjoyable of the trilogy for me. Every time I'd click on a new fragment or make a new choice was exciting because I'd immediately check where I am in the graph, what this means etc, and the fragment format challenged my memory and understanding of sequence of events, both in timelines and between timelines. Some surprises like seeing Junpei's head after playing with his limbs made me question my understanding of how fragments are connected again and again and it was fun. I honestly never had this kind of fun messing around with the story of a VN before, and I think Uchikoshi nailed it. It felt like he finally arrived at something after experimenting for multiple games, it easily justified playing the price and time for me.

Of course at some point that stuff mostly stop and then it's just watching the rest of the story unfold, I think at that point I stopped enjoying it as much, but the twists were still nice (when you find out that the passwords are changed between timelines on purpose... whoa). I actually played a VN last year which also had that "a new character was actually behind the camera the whole time" twist... and it was better done there, so I took it at face value more or less. Outside of that, meh, endings are endings, it was serviceable enough that it didn't hurt what I felt about the first two thirds of the game. And I wasn't expecting much anyway.

I didn't like the story itself much. Every ending in VLR had some kind of punch to it, not so much here.
My biggest problem was really Junpei's entire character, and Akane's character whenever Junpei was involved. Neither of them made any sense and they were written so badly that I can't even treat it as canon. I honestly think Uchikoshi shouldn't reuse any character ever again. I'm super upset about this. There isn't any single scene with Junpei and Akane that I could accept actually happened. Because of this both C-team and Q-team had incredibly annoying dialogue, but the D-team VLR-esque banter was great.

There were plenty of other problems but I didn't mind them really, mostly thanks to the suggestions I got not to replay 999/VLR before playing this. Heck, I only remembered VLR's secret ending after finishing this game.

 

[CiNozzo]

Because of this both C-team and Q-team had incredibly annoying dialogue, but the D-team VLR-esque banter was great.

I agree. It's due to the fact that Uchikoshi wrote the D-Team storyline and other writers wrote C and Q team.

 

[hohoXD123]

Recently came across this reddit post summarising all of the hints which pointed towards Zero being Q. Didn't realise there were so many, even if most were tiny hints.

 

[Afrit]

Diana is the best character in ZTD,& Luna was the best character in VLR.
Sigma comes second.


Phi had little screen time in ZTD, but she was awesome in VLR.

I didn't care about the rest.. & that bitch Akane, I hated her even more than Mila.

All makes sense!


& yes worse character for the whole series goes to Delta!

 

[Funyarinpa]

I ended up listening to some ZTD tracks all day, and honestly, ZTD as a game does not deserve this soundtrack. Also, absolutely fucking hilarious that the credits theme has like three versions but Blue Bird Lamentation is used for every single thing ingame.

I just feel empty about it all now. I've accepted we'll never get the resolution we imagined. May there be people in other timelines who see the time dilemma we never could.

 

[Jintor]

Life is simply unfair, don't you think

 

[PK Gaming]

¯\_(&#12484_/¯

I feel like i'm one of the few ZE fans who genuinely liked ZTD. It didn't at all live up to 999 or VLR, but it was enjoyable in its own way. From making Junpei into a good character (999 Junpei was garbo, lmao) to the various tense (sometimes hysterical) events that were interspersed throughout the game, ZTD was genuinely pretty fun to play through. Even the plot contrivances and retcons are weirdly hilarious.

Also the game was responsible for this so it can't be all bad

 

[hohoXD123]

¯\_(&#12484_/¯

I feel like i'm one of the few ZE fans who genuinely liked ZTD. It didn't at all live up to 999 or VLR, but it was enjoyable in its own way. From making Junpei into a good character (999 Junpei was garbo, lmao) to the various tense (sometimes hysterical) events that were interspersed throughout the game, ZTD was genuinely pretty fun to play through. Even the plot contrivances and retcons are weirdly hilarious.

Also the game was responsible for this so it can't be all bad

Holy shit XD
Yeah, I quite enjoyed ZTD too, even if it did have moments and characters in it which were simply too complex for me to fully grasp.

 

[Zolo]

¯\_(&#12484_/¯

I feel like i'm one of the few ZE fans who genuinely liked ZTD. It didn't at all live up to 999 or VLR, but it was enjoyable in its own way. From making Junpei into a good character (999 Junpei was garbo, lmao) to the various tense (sometimes hysterical) events that were interspersed throughout the game, ZTD was genuinely pretty fun to play through. Even the plot contrivances and retcons are weirdly hilarious.

Also the game was responsible for this so it can't be all bad

I enjoyed it on its own merits, but I do feel it makes a pretty awful conclusion. So yeah. Overall, I'm satisfied with my purchase.

 

[PK Gaming]

Oh yeah, forgot about the ending

"A terrorist did it" is quite possibly one of the worst explanations for mass extinction in fiction

I always forget about it, haha

 

[Jintor]

It was the one ze game where I liked the journey more than the destination, where it was the other way around for the rest of them

 

[Holundrian]

As someone that was pretty ok with ZTD the most painful thing about it is the what could have been if they relied more on the writing and didn't go the Telltale route with a shoestring budget.

I feel like the constraint of having everything needing to be a scene did the game no good.

 

[Riposte]

The moment I saw Uchikoshi talking about The Walking Dead, I was worried. Could've been worse.

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

What really killed the game to me was the non-linear storytelling and the lack of character interactions (due to forcing them all into separate groups)*. Now that I think of it there's a lot of things in the game that probably would have annoyed me less if the story and characters just had a bit more meat on their bones.

Non-linear storytelling can work well if done fine but here it just made the game feel like a series of vignettes that didn't have any consequences.

*That and the "SURPRISE DELTA WAS THERE ALL ALONG" twist. I'm sorry, that was just flat-out cheap writing.

EDIT: The switch from visual novel to cinematics was bad mainly because the internal monologues and narrations are a natural way of giving exposition. Without those, we got too many scenes with characters standing around talking and giving infodumps. The dialogue all sounded really robotic, impersonal, and uninteresting as a result, whereas 999 and VLR's characters felt a lot more colourful.

 

[bobawesome]

Also the game was responsible for this so it can't be all bad

Glad I stepped in here.

 

[Yasumi]

New Uchikoshi interview. He pretty much doubles down on the stuff he's already said.

http://www.siliconera.com/2016/11/25/spoiler-filled-interview-zero-time-dilemmas-director/

This question made me . I... don't think we ever needed an explanation of who made the timeline diagram. And of course, it's a complicated paradox.

Also, one thing I noticed in ZTD is if Q-Team is killed off there are more situations where chance affects story branches. Was this part of Delta’s scheming, to force other characters to SHIFT and affect the time line?

The answer for this question is yes and no. Since Delta was a mind hacker and not a SHIFTer, he was able to know the histories and alternative time lines by looking through the mind of SHIFTers. So the tree diagram of the time lines in ZTD already existed, and he simply followed the diagram. That’s leads to the questions of "Who then created the diagram?" which is a complicated subject and also a paradox.

 

[FluxWaveZ]

Another plot thread to be answered in the non-existent sequel.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

I would back a Kickstarter to check Uchikoshi into a retirement home.

 

[PK Gaming]

What do you think post-marriage life is like for Akane and Junpei?

They might argue over things, but I think they’ll have a happy post-marriage life.

^_^

 

[Taruranto]

I still want to know about the two Carlos, assuming he realized that.

 

[FluxWaveZ]

What do you think post-marriage life is like for Akane and Junpei?

^_^

Akane is clearly psychotic and overprotective of Junpei, so I don't think he's right.

 

[PK Gaming]

Akane is clearly psychotic and overprotective of Junpei, so I don't think he's right.

I have no idea what you mean

 

[Jintor]

New Uchikoshi interview. He pretty much doubles down on the stuff he's already said.

http://www.siliconera.com/2016/11/25/spoiler-filled-interview-zero-time-dilemmas-director/

This question made me . I... don't think we ever needed an explanation of who made the timeline diagram. And of course, it's a complicated paradox.

Oh so ? Another ending was noncanon but he fucked up by implying it was canon by... Doing all the stuff that basically implied it was canon

Damnit uchikoshi

 

[Sandfox]

New Uchikoshi interview. He pretty much doubles down on the stuff he's already said.

http://www.siliconera.com/2016/11/25/spoiler-filled-interview-zero-time-dilemmas-director/

This question made me . I... don't think we ever needed an explanation of who made the timeline diagram. And of course, it's a complicated paradox.

The answers given for the ? End and Ever 17 questions just annoy me. There are also people defending the former in the comments section and saying it should've been obvious to everyone in the first place after playing VLR.

 

[Yasumi]

The answers given for the ? End and Ever 17 questions just annoy me. There are also people defending the former in the comments section and saying it should've been obvious to everyone in the first place after playing VLR.

Yeah, when the characters in the epilogue outright say, "Okay, we're going to do such-and-such thing at the location of where the sequel takes place," you expect them to show up and do something. Huge copout on Uchi's part, especially with the "wait until 2028 for Kyle" BS.

 

[Zolo]

Akane is clearly psychotic and overprotective of Junpei, so I don't think he's right.

As long as Junpei never cheats on her, it should be good.

 

[Marow]

Yeah, when the characters in the epilogue outright say, "Okay, we're going to do such-and-such thing at the location of where the sequel takes place," you expect them to show up and do something. Huge copout on Uchi's part, especially with the "wait until 2028 for Kyle" BS.

What I find most frustrating is that I somehow can't let go of the thought that Uchikoshi didn't just give up, but rather - for some reason - wasn't able to create the story he wanted. ZTD feels so different, which makes even more sense considering it had multiple writers (did the past games also have that?).

 

[Sumio Mondo]

So yeah, just thought on, has anyone asked him what happened to Alice and Clover yet? lol.

ZTD feels so different, which makes even more sense considering it had multiple writers (did the past games also have that?).

Not as far as I know. Pretty sure that 999 was all Uchikoshi, at least.

 

[Taruranto]

So yeah, just thought on, has anyone asked him what happened to Alice and Clover yet? lol.

We already know the answer anyway: Alien Fax Machine.