"Once again, I gaze upon this stately ladder" - Zero Escape Series!

Why don't we have a thread for this why

So, after a year of hearing about it and seeing it on my dash, I finally decided to pick up (and by pick up I mean lowkey email the amazon links to my grandma to ask to buy me for christmas :-) the zero escape series, and I've recently completed 999 and am now stuck on the second puzzle of Virtue's Last Reward, BUT, holy shit, guys, I love this game so far. I love the characters, I'm a total sucker for things like psuedoscience theories (and trying to wrap my head around Sheldrake's is difficult but it's an experience, I love learning about it), and it's right up my immaturity alley in terms of sexual innuendos that make me giggle a bit too much. I also love room escape games, and what do you know, this game is just all about them.

But you know the drill, talk about them here for me, fuel my newfound obsession. Do me a favor though and label spoilers and nest puzzle solutions, for the sake of my completionist ass (I've been refusing to look up a walkthrough for these games, I intend to keep it that way) and others who simply haven't played them, as I know this series has a fairly small fan base. :-) Thanks pals!

 

I've read/watched LPs of all three of those. Phi is the beautiful snark queen of my heart.

Spoiler: Third game characters

I like how the third game has a character who is just "STOP TALKING ABOUT PSEUDOSCIENCE TIME TRAVEL BULLSHIT" and I'm like, Erik, buddy, pal, have *you* ever walked into the wrong sequel.

 

I am in the middle of the third game right now! I've finished VLR, but haven't finished the first game. At some point I'm going to go back and actually finish it, when I have a bit of time to devote to it.

I love Phi too! Definitely a fave. And all the games have a combination of fun characters + an appealing setting (I'm a sucker for the "have to solve puzzles to get out of here!" kind of trope, as well as "we've been imprisoned by a mysterious entity" and "one or more of the people here might be/be involved with our captor") + the pseudoscience that makes me really, really love them.

Be careful of save corruption in VLR! I don't know if they fixed it, but there used to be one puzzle room in particular that would bork save files. Generally the advice I've heard is "only save in the warehouse area", just to avoid any potential corruption issues.

 

Oh man, thanks for the advice! I usually make backups of all my 3ds games on my computer, but ill be sure to do that too :D

 

Ive only experienced this series through supergreatfriend's streams

It's ridiculous

Fave memes: donno,"chat... look at these dice"

 

i’m resurrecting this thread to say that i’ve gotten sucked into 999 pretty hard! currently on the path to what i believe is the true/best ending, but i haven’t actually finished it yet. (i was trying to finish it just now before going to do homework, but then i:

Spoiler: 999 spoilers

finished the library puzzle, checked the flowchart, saw that there were quite a few rooms/novel sections left

and realized no way do i have time to finish this game right now, when this assignment is due in a few hours, lmao.)

but i super like it! i’m very curious to know how it ends, and i love (most of) the characters.

Spoiler: 999 characters/spoilers

except ace. motherfucker.

i LOVE snake though and i was THRILLED when i realized he was alive. like hooooly shit, heart eyes motherfucker, snake surviving is like my #1 priority, forget june.

 

finished 999 last night!

Spoiler: 999 ending spoilers

really good omg!! and everyone made it out, even that motherfucker...

also i love how at some point i was like “ok so it’s either june or santa,” and lo and behold it was june AND santa (or at least, santa helped)... damn.

also, i... appreciate how this ending made junpei’s connection with june/akane... make a bit more sense. by which i mean, sometimes in some of the other routes i was just internally screaming like GDI JUNPEI WHY MUST YOU BE SO RELENTLESSLY STRAIGHT. so having there be an actual reason makes it better.

and i like june more now that she’s not just Bland Everygirl Childhood BFF Love Interest.

snake’s still my all time fave tho. i mean, obviously.

will probably start VLR today (i got it on steam & so i got 999 and VLR in one game).

 

i promise i don’t mean to spam this thread, but i’ve just started VLR and

Spoiler: VLR characters

i’m very unimpressed with clover’s new skimpy outfit. :/

not that i’m not pleased to see her, but... why. why.

 

no no please spam this thread because you're making me wanna pick it up again lmao

Spoiler: response to last spoiler

yeah i was very :/ about that too. im also confused on the story so far for VLR, which is why i havent picked it back up after setting it down

 

ahhh ok then i will spam >:3 with... some nested spoilers, because idk what routes people have seen, etc.

Spoiler: VLR: early game

specifically i’m writing this after i went through the first chromatic door (i picked magenta) and did the next escape room, and then did ambidex game round one.

Spoiler: “ambidex game”

the Ambidex Game definitely caught my interest!! prisoner’s dilemma, set up so that no one could die in round one, and if everyone cooperates then it’s three rounds before you win, but fear of betrayal makes you more likely to betray...

which was interesting enough on its own, but the color & pair/solo shuffling afterwards makes it even more interesting!

because i went through the magenta door, my opponent was Luna, and

Spoiler: results of ambidex round vs luna

i was PSYCHED when i chose to ally and she did too, like HAHA, FRIENDSHIP WINS AGAIN, FOOLS

Spoiler: VLR: characters

i like phi so far. sigma is alright but i don’t know much about him yet, other than college dude whose gf broke up with him (does he really not get voiced limes? i know that’s normal for some visual novels but junpei was voiced, so...)

like i said, happy to see clover, way less happy about her new design. i guess i sorta like her hair, but that’s it. (ETA: ok, i also like her clover-shaped belt buckle, that’s cute. otherwise... :/)

K is interesting. dio is hot but kinda a jerk. alice is intriguing for obvious reasons. luna seems nice (and she’s a doctor! cool!) don’t have many thoughts about quark and tenmyouji yet, except what the heck is quark’s hat.

this next bit isn’t a spoiler, just spoilering for length

Spoiler: “VLR: interface thoughts”

i kinda miss the 999 escape room interface where when you clicked an item, the outline of the item is kinda highlighted so you know exactly what you clicked on? fhdgdjhs idk that might just be me but i liked seeing exactly what object i selected so i could see if a nearby but different object would give me different results. (hope that made sense...)

i do like the smoothly rotating camera instead of the fixed cameras

i don’t like having to flip between 20 items instead of like... just having an inventory screen and clicking the one you want.......

i’m ambivalent on the art style. i think i like it, but i’m still trying to decide if i like it as much as the 999 style.

 

Spoiler: VLR mechanic

the only problem with the ‘hidden file’ system in VLR is i am torn between my desire to move forward and find out what happens in the story... and my desire to get All The Secrets

for instance, in the room i’m currently in, i have the escape all done, i just... want the hidden file...

i mean. if this follows the 999 pattern then i will be doing the same escape rooms multiple times so. i guess i will be able to find them on future runs, just... i got the file in my last room (lounge) and i want to get it in this one too :P

 

spam part 3...

maybe it’s just bc it’s late and i’m tired, but i definitely feel like there’s a spike in difficulty WRT the puzzles, in comparison to 999.

also, in the first route i went down,

Spoiler: VLR route vague spoilers

people started dying VERY quickly. now i’m curious to see if that’ll be the case for other routes too, or if that one was just especially deadly.

Spoiler: my specific choices

my choices were: magenta door (luna), ally luna, green door (luna), ally luna, and then suddenly there were a lot of dead people.

also i didn’t even get a “proper” ending because i got a password prompt where presumably i would know the PW if i learned it in another route, but i didn’t know it, so i haven’t seen the actual ending.

man. this game seems like it’s gonna take me a while. considering how many endings there are.

Spoiler: 999

i miss snake :( and i can’t go looking for fanart/fanfic, bc that’s a very easy way to get spoiled for the other games.

i just want to know. if there are other fans out there who love snake as much as i do.

 

hello everyone i am back on my bullshit. idk why but this is ending up like way more detailed than my 999 posting. there’s so many more decision points..... i was told to spam though so i’m gonna keep on truckin

Spoiler: 999/VLR comparison (jokes)

999: hey junpei have you heard about EDT crystals/ice-9/glycerin crystallization? no? well considering this is a digression into weird pseudoscience, that’s natural. let me explain...

VLR: hey sigma have you heard of schrodinger’s cat? you haven’t? what are you a fucking idiot?

anyways

Spoiler: VLR - early on

went thru cyan door this time with Alice, cause i wanted more Alice time, and

Spoiler: post-cyan ambidex game

originally i thought this choice would be easier, since on my other route i knew Alice picked ally, so that means she’s more likely to do so again, but on this route our Ambidex Game voting period didn’t get cut down to like 5 minutes because of

Spoiler: spoiler for magenta door route

a surprise dead body

and Phi actually gave a more detailed explanation of why “betray” is more rational, and Sigma agreed to pick “betray” so now if i pick ally that means that was a lie, and i don’t WANNA lie to Phi... but i don’t want to betray Alice either...

man. the choices in 999 were rarely this clearly moral...

Spoiler: ambidex results

hoo boy, i decided to pick betray for this run and Alice did not like that, lmao

but dio & quark decided to ally luna? didn’t expect that from dio after my last route...
wait. wait did dio just... pick ally because luna is pretty. fhdhdgdh ok the reasoning is probably deeper than that but it’s making me laugh

 

hang on a moment...

Spoiler: VLR spoilers/speculation

the... the Floor B escape rooms (red/green/blue doors) in this route were different from the ones in my first route?????

so... so does that mean there’s actually multiple different floors that are all being claimed as “Floor B”????

how many escape rooms are there, then??? like 20???

 

Spoiler: follow-up

oh, i get it. they’re actually all on the same floor, it’s just that each chromatic door of the R/G/B doors then leads to 3 different escape rooms; the only difference is which one gets unlocked. don’t know what determines that selection, though.

that said, we still can’t actually be sure about the distribution of floors in this facility, since we’re accessing them via elevator and not stairs.

 

Spoiler: VLR

hmm. now i see why “seeing any of the endings” is an achievement in this game — i’ve reached the “end” of 3 paths so far and each time it’s locked/“to be continued!” no real endings yet! i still haven’t seen sigma die a grisly death even one time! what gives?

also, back on the cyan door path

Spoiler: ambidex game vs alice

what the hell, alice, why did you betray me this time around now that i’m trying to ally you. can’t we just both pick the same damn thing.

hmm. this is making me increasingly worried/curious if the “Delete save data” option on the main menu is because you can accidentally cut yourself off from some endings if you do the wrong path first, because the characters remember what you did last time?

ie. if i chose to ally Alice first, would she have picked ally too?

jeez, there’s already enough endings/game replaying without you being able to bork an ending by playing the wrong path first...

this feels like undertale except everyone is judging me instead of just sans...

though, considering in the ending i got where i went into cyan door with alice, betrayed alice, then did red door with phi & allied phi...

Spoiler: that ending

phi betrayed me claiming that i betrayed her in the “first AB round 2” — so, essentially the reverse of what Sigma just experienced in this route (chose ally alice because he remembered her allying the first time).

but, since i didn’t actually go down the “betray phi” path first, but she still reacted like that, that makes me think that while the characters (or at least phi) do react to potential other-path decisions, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re reacting to the current player decisions...?

hmmm. i actually do have an extra save from when i was in the middle of the crew quarters escape room, ie. before i played any ambidex against alice. i guess i could re-do that escape, then ally alice, and see if the result’s the same — if she picks betray again, that’s just what happens when you try to ally her — if she does ally, then she is reacting to player decisions on earlier routes.

it’ll be a little annoying, but useful information, so i guess i’ll do it.

Spoiler: results of said experiment

ok, it looks like alice betrays you anyways. it’s just that if you try to ally her on a second run, sigma justifies it with “i knew she would pick ally” (because she did in the other route), whereas if you try to ally her on a first run, sigma just says “i want to trust her” or something like that.

this is good, because i was worrying about having to replay the game even more, lmao.

still, this does make me curious, because this means alice does change her vote with no discernable reason why/no discernable difference in the route before the actual choice, and since her choice isn’t narratively caused by your choice, then... what is it caused by...

geez. well, let’s add that mystery to the like 8000 other mysteries i’ve accumulated so far. maybe if i go down this path, i can actually solve one of them? or at the very least see an actual ending :Y

 

forgot to mention this in my last post, but

Spoiler: VLR / cyan routes

hey alice... sure is convenient how if you’re the one with 1 BP, you think people with 1 BP ought to pick who they go with for the next door, but if you have 6 BP, you think we should take a vote instead

anyways

Spoiler: room: archives

this is the only escape room i’ve done so far where i (accidentally) got the hidden file password first, and then the actual escape password, lol

the dice minigame was fun. overall i would rate this perhaps the easiest/quickest escape room thus far (aside from the “elevator”)

Spoiler: VLR / yellow

(specifically, spoilers for the following route: yellow door (tenmyouji), ally, red door (dio))

Spoiler: that route (red door: lab)

apparently people infected with radical-6 experience reduced brain processing speed, which...

(spoilers for the following route: magenta door (luna), ally, green door (luna), ally)

Spoiler: spoilers for this route

...is just like sigma experiences in the security room in this route. ohhhh shit, sigma’s got it too. damn.

also,

Spoiler: spoilery reference to danganronpa

(as in, this kinda spoils a plot point in danganronpa)

Spoiler

the bit about the facility they’re in potentially being originally designed to be a shelter for uninfected humans is giving me big danganronpa vibes, lmao. especially the shelter-converted-to-murder-game thing.

anyhow, back to my present route (yellow door, red door (dio)), time to ally dio

Spoiler: results of allying dio

holy shit, i knew dio would almost certainly betray, but i wasn’t expecting everyone else’s reactions (especially clover) to be so heartbreaking. and damn, sigma has got that Determination... fuck u dio

on the plus side, this isn’t a game over, but a locked end... so there’s still hope!

and it looks like i unlocked a couple of my earlier locks! finally, i get to unlock locks instead of just staring those locks in the face! amazing!

 

i am LOSING MY SHIT right now

Spoiler: VLR/ yellow

specifically, yellow door, ally, blue door, ally, then past lock #2

Spoiler

...and after completing the director’s office escape...

Spoiler

FHDGDHDHSFGHJD

IF THIS ISN’T ZERO ESCAPE IN A NUTSHELL I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS

 

i’m almost done... i may have played for like 11 hours straight and forgotten that sleep was a thing, but i’m almost done...

Spoiler: VLR

all i have left to do is to go back and get the hidden files i didn’t get the first time around (i think there’s like 5-6 left) and see if that unlocks a thing. at the very least it’ll give me an achievement.

but i remembered sleep so i will sleep now and return with actual thoughts/words later

 

Spoiler: VLR: entire game

Spoiler: no seriously, entire game spoilers

some of my thoughts about the game/the ending
-i like how at one point my theories were 'everyone's a clone and/or robot!' turns out there was only 1 clone and 1 robot.
-but i guessed they were on the moon based on sigma's 'premonition' of the facility blowing up and i was right :D (totally missed the clues about their bodies feeling weird, though)
-i'm still not sure what exactly determined which of the red/blue/green doors opened when; maybe random, but it wasn't evenly distributed -- the garden got unlocked a lot compared to the other blue doors, etc. i guess the answer's probably "zero jr opened different doors depending on what was required for that timeline"
-side note, it's impressive how dio was the myrmidons' leader, because he's a fucking idiot
-i get how sigma didn't ever see his reflection, didn't notice difference in his strength/body bc he had radical-6 and was on the moon, but... would he not have noticed a difference in his voice? (conveniently, the player never gets to hear his voice, which could have been an indicator, but... wouldn't sigma himself have noticed?)
-wait, ALSO??? he's missing an eye, and idk how good his cybernetic replacement is but??? would he not notice that one of his eyes wasn't blinking?? or did his cybernetic eye perfectly replicate that or??
--overall this is making me look at everyone's interactions with sigma in a different light, cause, you know, everyone thought he was goddamn 60 bc that's what his body looked like... damn

overall, i really liked it -- i think it took me a bit longer to get fully invested into VLR than it did to get invested in 999, but VLR also took like twice as long to complete, so...

also, now i wanna jump into the third game, but... costs money... maybe if i wait until the steam sale, it'll be on sale? but i'm also... impatient... lmao