PSA: Play 999 and VLR first

[hellshake dys]

Since some people might in one way or another not be aware of it, this game is the third and final game in a very story heavy trilogy of games. For your own sake, please do not play it unless you have played 999 (aka Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors) and Virtue's Last Reward first. Virtue's Last Reward specifically is very, very much one big preparation for this game. Going in without having played it will undoubtedly ruin a large part of the experience for you.

[Г]

i agree, anyone who plays ZTD should absolutely play 999 and VLR first. if 999 is not availible to you for whatever reason, i highly reccomend checking out the Let's Play of it on lparchive.org , though i don't know of any good alternative to actually playing VLR. also, Kotaro Uchikoshi (the director of this series) has said he may get 999 and VLR ported to Steam as well at a later date, so if you really can't play 999 or VLR, or you hate Let's Plays, then you may just want to wait to play this game until the previous titles are ported.

[Powerlord]

Virtue's Last Reward had spoilers for 999, so I wouldn't doubt if Zero Time Dilemma has spoilers for both games that came before it.

[*]

ZTD will absolutely have spoilers for at least some aspects of VLR. Uchikoshi time and time again has said this final game will answer all remaining questions, so....

[Powerlord]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย 10:40pm:

ZTD will absolutely have spoilers for at least some aspects of VLR. Uchikoshi time and time again has said this final game will answer all remaining questions, so....

Heck, just by looking at the cast list, I have a strong suspicion I know who the unknown entity inhabiting K's body in the secret ending in VLR is.

[Xydiria]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย MadeULook:

I'm pretty sure the creator, Kotaro Uchikoshi, has already claimed that you can jump right in without playing the previous two. In fact, he wrote the story in a way that makes them not required and only really helps with some references and potential impact of some scenes.

I played VLR before 999 and was able to follow the story just fine by the way since VLR was written to be that way too. Still had a great time.

See, and that concerns me about this. VLR, from what I remember, ends in a pretty serious cliffhanger that's supposed to be solved in ZTD, but if the game is accessible to newcomers that can't exactly be a good sign for the overall story, unless there's explanation for everything in the beginning.

[*]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Xyruk:

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย MadeULook:

I'm pretty sure the creator, Kotaro Uchikoshi, has already claimed that you can jump right in without playing the previous two. In fact, he wrote the story in a way that makes them not required and only really helps with some references and potential impact of some scenes.

I played VLR before 999 and was able to follow the story just fine by the way since VLR was written to be that way too. Still had a great time.

See, and that concerns me about this. VLR, from what I remember, ends in a pretty serious cliffhanger that's supposed to be solved in ZTD, but if the game is accessible to newcomers that can't exactly be a good sign for the overall story, unless there's explanation for everything in the beginning.

I had the same fears as you. But the same things were done and said about VLR being accessible to newcomers, and I was ultimately not disapointed with it.

[Syragar]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย ScrapMettle:

As has been mentioned the 3DS has a major save breaking bug (Or at least it did, it might have gotten patched?) Where if you saved while in a certain puzzle room the save file would corrupt. Just save during story segments to be safe.

I bought my copy of VLR from the eshop. The save bug has been somewhat fixed in the eshop downloadable version, but I'm uncertain if there's a patch for the physical verstion. I said "somewhat fixed" because the way they fixed it is by not allowing you to save in the room that causes the save bug. So I guess the bug isn't actually "fixed"... but it's still better than allowing someone to save and ruin their entire game.

[Г]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Syragar:

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย ScrapMettle:

As has been mentioned the 3DS has a major save breaking bug (Or at least it did, it might have gotten patched?) Where if you saved while in a certain puzzle room the save file would corrupt. Just save during story segments to be safe.

I bought my copy of VLR from the eshop. The save bug has been somewhat fixed in the eshop downloadable version, but I'm uncertain if there's a patch for the physical verstion. I said "somewhat fixed" because the way they fixed it is by not allowing you to save in the room that causes the save bug. So I guess the bug isn't actually "fixed"... but it's still better than allowing someone to save and ruin their entire game.

the thing is, the save corrupting bug, to my understanding, actually happens when saving in /any/ puzzle room, but the PEC room has another bug in that it's likely for the game to crash in that room. the combination of the save getting corrupted, then the game force-quitting, is the reason that room is often quoted as the problem, because most other rooms, the player will likely save again at some point after completing them, overwriting the corrupted save.

[Mairo the bear]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Г:

the thing is, the save corrupting bug, to my understanding, actually happens when saving in /any/ puzzle room, but the PEC room has another bug in that it's likely for the game to crash in that room. the combination of the save getting corrupted, then the game force-quitting, is the reason that room is often quoted as the problem, because most other rooms, the player will likely save again at some point after completing them, overwriting the corrupted save.

That's my understanding as well. I also had my game crash and corrupt in that room but after reading about the bug, it turned out that it's indeed possible to replicate corruption in other puzzle rooms as well and workaround said to not save in any puzzle rooms, which added on top of frustration made me quit for while.

With 3DS digital games it's actually now possible to backup save files, so I would highly suggest doing that as well.

But on top of save corruption, EU has only japanese audio, so if someone would like to have english ones (some do prefer those), they would have to buy US 3DS along with US game because of region restrictions of nintendo. I tried playing with stereoscopic mode, just to find out that majority of things are 2D images shifted to left/right making my head just hurt - I usually like playing with stereoscopics on.

I had far better experience with Vita version, which also without saying had better assets available and trophy support. So if there's change to play that version instead of 3DS one I would strongly recommend that - not only to avoid losing saves, but for clearly better experience. That's why I said Playstation TV in my first message, because getting that tiny little thing cheaply is worth it for handful of games where VLR is one of them.

[Syragar]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Г:

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Syragar:

I bought my copy of VLR from the eshop. The save bug has been somewhat fixed in the eshop downloadable version, but I'm uncertain if there's a patch for the physical verstion. I said "somewhat fixed" because the way they fixed it is by not allowing you to save in the room that causes the save bug. So I guess the bug isn't actually "fixed"... but it's still better than allowing someone to save and ruin their entire game.

the thing is, the save corrupting bug, to my understanding, actually happens when saving in /any/ puzzle room, but the PEC room has another bug in that it's likely for the game to crash in that room. the combination of the save getting corrupted, then the game force-quitting, is the reason that room is often quoted as the problem, because most other rooms, the player will likely save again at some point after completing them, overwriting the corrupted save.

Oh wow! I didn't know that. I guess I'm lucky, then. I was able to go through the whole game without any problems. I remember having the save feature disabled in the PEC room... and originally thought that the game was bugged so that I can't save anymore. I looked up if other people had the same problem, and was relieved to hear that it was an intended workaround for a save glitch, and that saves would be enabled again once I left the room.

I had no idea there was still a glitch in puzzle rooms. I had been saving the game at odd intervals regularly... because I rarely had the time to go through large chunks of the game in one sitting. I'm VERY lucky!

[Xydiria]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Syragar:

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Г:

the thing is, the save corrupting bug, to my understanding, actually happens when saving in /any/ puzzle room, but the PEC room has another bug in that it's likely for the game to crash in that room. the combination of the save getting corrupted, then the game force-quitting, is the reason that room is often quoted as the problem, because most other rooms, the player will likely save again at some point after completing them, overwriting the corrupted save.

Oh wow! I didn't know that. I guess I'm lucky, then. I was able to go through the whole game without any problems. I remember having the save feature disabled in the PEC room... and originally thought that the game was bugged so that I can't save anymore. I looked up if other people had the same problem, and was relieved to hear that it was an intended workaround for a save glitch, and that saves would be enabled again once I left the room.

I had no idea there was still a glitch in puzzle rooms. I had been saving the game at odd intervals regularly... because I rarely had the time to go through large chunks of the game in one sitting. I'm VERY lucky!

I went into VLR knowing about the save bug and never saved once in any puzzle room. But I also almost never quit the game. Just closed my 3DS and came back. I think I only ever quite and started the game 6 times total. No reason to quit the game when you can just close the system and come back later.

[Jardex22]

According to the website, you play as the leader of each team, none of which are returning characters. That leads me to believe the game will be pretty stand alone. At some point, Sigma will explain the events of VLR and Junpei or Akane will explain the events of 999. I expect the players should be able to follow the story without playing the previoius games. Just expect spoilers from them.

[Zaandin]

I certainly agree you'll get more from the game if you play the predecessors. Plus they're excellent games that will tie you over til Zero Time Dilemma comes out. You won't appreciate Akane's appearance so much without previous experience, for example.

I'm just excited for the game and finding out what happens next. Its been so long now holding onto this cliffedge lol.

[Rei dos Vermes]

Thank you for warning. I was going to buy the game on launch, but now I'm going to wait for the first one if it makes to Steam.

[Xydiria]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Rei dos Vermes:

Thank you for warning. I was going to buy the game on launch, but now I'm going to wait for the first one if it makes to Steam.

And second. This game is the 3rd in the trilogy.