Is this connected to the others?

[Pyrowolf]

Is this game connected to 999 and VLR in terms of story?

I really pray it's not, this 3D modeling is SOOO much worse then the stylized graphics of 999/VLR, I would pretty much prefer to skip this one. It looks so bad visualy.

[Pyrowolf]

That's highly unfortunate. I don't remember having any issues in VLR.
Just looking at the cast of characters in this game they are so boring looking. The other characters were vibrant in color and had great stylized designs.

[Nipz]

You don't play 999 and VLR for the graphics. You play it for the story.

[Pyrowolf]

yes but the graphics and design give the characters so much more story, you get a feel for them and thier unique personalities. The characters look rather bland in this one. I'll be playing it regardless, it's just moving from an instant buy to waiting for a 50% off sale.

[Kayeka]

Eh, it took me a bit of getting used to as well. It's still good stuff, though, apart from the occasional narm-tastic animation failures. (Easy there, Eric)

[Raeven]

It gets the good reviews it gets from everyone DESPITE the presentation. Lots of people hate how it looks and still like the game.

[iemander]

It is an immense loss of potential. Scenes that should have (emotional) impact feel utterly hollow and I feel like the story is about emotionless robots. I loved the previous titles because they left more to the imagination. But I wish this was novelized so I wouldn't be forced to watch this very bad art and voice acting.

[EnglishRosie]

"is this game connected to the others", OP asks, somehow managing to completely overlook the fact that Junpei, Akane, Sigma and Phi are all in Zero Time Dilemma. Good god.

VLR looked godawful even if the voice acting was solid. This is a slight improvement as far as graphics go (with them not reusing the exact same animation countless times). Some of the voice actors are great (Diana's in particular is pretty good), and some of them are a bit crap (Akane, GOD, that crying/yelling), but the Japanese cast is an option this time if you really can't stand someone's voice, and they have a lot of big names in there.

If you're going to whine about it not being novelised, just wait until the end of the scenes and read the logs or something. Graphics have NEVER been a big part of the Zero Escape series, certainly not in VLR, and these are at least passable.

[Metadragon]

Originally posted by Pyrowolf:

Is this game connected to 999 and VLR in terms of story?

I really pray it's not, this 3D modeling is SOOO much worse then the stylized graphics of 999/VLR, I would pretty much prefer to skip this one. It looks so bad visualy.

Only an idiot turns his nose at a good story because he dislikes the visuals.

[Pyrowolf]

There's no way you can tell me that the character designs are equal.

Santa (999), K (VLR), and Carlos (ZTD). A stylized punk kid, a robot guy, and then just some dude in shirt and jeans.

Also I will play and probably enjoy the game despite the visuals. I'm just dissapointed, I thought the character design was quite good in the other games. The main characters were actually the most boring, and they decided to just bring them all back, then added more generic boring people to the mix. I did go back and watched some video's on VLR and it's not great, but I thought it still looked better, at least the individual character design anyway.

There's no colorful pink girl, random egyption lady, or snazzy looking blind guy.

[Battler Ushiromiya]

Just because the character's don't LOOK interesting doesn't mean they actually AREN'T interesting. Carlos is one of my favorite characters in the series.

[venkyru]

Originally posted by Pyrowolf:

yes but the graphics and design give the characters so much more story, you get a feel for them and thier unique personalities. The characters look rather bland in this one. I'll be playing it regardless, it's just moving from an instant buy to waiting for a 50% off sale.

I agree the expressions on the characters' faces are not very well animated, but voice actors in both language do a decent job at expressing emotions and the game is as well written then before. Read the subtitles and don't scrutinize the models, if it bothers you that much

Characters design, personally I love the simpler design. I guess it is mostly personal taste, but I think that because they are simpler each detail on their outfit gives much more information on their personality then the ridiculous outfits in VLR.

For example, noticed how there is a power symbol on Q's socks? Two axes on Carlos' shirt?

[EnglishRosie]

Originally posted by Pyrowolf:

There's no way you can tell me that the character designs are equal.

Santa (999), K (VLR), and Carlos (ZTD). A stylized punk kid, a robot guy, and then just some dude in shirt and jeans.

Okay, because no thought went into the character designs in ZTD at all? Not the scars on Carlos' arms or the tiny motifs hidden on people's clothing, not the fact that Akane's outfit was designed to resemble a yukata somewhat? Plus characters like Eric and Carlos are meant to be, you know, relatively normal, average people, that's kind of the point.

You can't compare K to Carlos, you are being ridiculously biased and ignoring ZTD's own character-with-unusual-mask here: Q's design is pretty striking. Is Luna's design more distinctive than Diana's somehow?

There were also a lot of limitations placed on the designers- this was a game made on the smallest budget they could manage. It says in the premium booklet that the animators complained over Diana having a long skirt, so it's no wonder the designs are a bit more dialed back. You're hardly going to get the characters mixed up.

[iemander]

Don't fanatically defend this game. There's truth the game's visuals detract from the overall experience.

I'm more of a quality over content type of guy. I would've preferred they did maybe 1/3rd of the game at quality similar to 999 then have this fully packaged hideous game. And then release the other parts in episodes.

[FluffySquirrel]

When I first saw the screenshots on steam, I thought they looked horrible, but once I started playing, they looked lovely and natural

I'm really happy with the new art in the grand scheme of things, worked well

[iemander]

This is great art:
http://www.siliconera.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/ZTDKeyArt.jpgUpdated_thumb.jpg

The ingame version of this....

Just imagine they didn't do the entire game in 3D. But used 2D visual novel style and had the entire game in that art style. Even without any animation whatsoever, that would be godlike.

Art is more than just character art and animation, it's also the environment. Heck, I'd say the environment is far more important to define the mood.