Personally, I consider VLR anything but great. If I were to choose, only 999 has that distinction. Everything about VLR was simultaneously a bloated and watered down version of what the game immediately before it offered, on top of not even being able to exist as a standalone experience thanks to the story being deliberately left inconclusive (and subsequently not even followed up in ways properly accounting for how that game ended). Far weaker and largely unsympathetic cast (with the worst designs in the entire trilogy), puzzles that leaned more obtuse than challenging (along with the need to do them all twice to collect every file), and a much weaker twist, with the story going full-blown Metal Gear Solid in how convoluted it was.
If anything, it was like Uchikoshi was trying to go for a compromise between a neutered take on 999's sensibilities and the generally more leisurely pacing of Ever17, all while attempting to appeal to the Danganronpa crowd at Spike Chunsoft's behest, resulting in something lesser than any of those things.
