Annoyances with the Zero Escape Series (Spoilers)

[samael21walter]

So there's a few things in this series that really get on my nerves as a whole (not enough to make me dislike it). For all of the carefully thought out plot threads, there's some that just flat out exist for no reason other than MINDF*CK.

The whole organization of Free the Soul. The main antagonist in VLR as well as the entire reason for the series starting in the first place, is very underplayed. Instead of the series being about religious fanatics hell-bent on creating a "better" mankind, instead, it's about the leader creating this entire religion so that he can set up his own birth and take out a religious fanatic in the first place. This, to me, is completely absurd. Surely they could have come up with a better explanation as to why he had to create an entire belief system with his own clone army of Myrmidons. This is one of the biggest letdowns in ZTD for me.

Sigma never sees his reflection in the entirety of VLR. That means, whenever he's in the puzzle room looking into the water, he never once notices his reflection. Even further, that means that every single item in the entire game has zero reflective surfaces. Not to mention, Sigma never touches his face, and no one really comments on the fact that he's missing an eye.

The alien transporter at the end of ZTD seems to be convienently placed there just to tie up plot threads. There's almost no backstory to it at all. It seems like Uchikoshi was having trouble linking things together, so he created that just to do so.

The existence of Left is never really given much thought. In VLR, the death of Left leads to Free the Soul (so his death seems extremely important). However, in ZTD, Left is just a passing name. There's no expanded story for him. This pretty much goes along with the fact that Free the Soul was nothing more than a convenient plot device used to tie up loose ends.

Kyle in VLR (if I remember correctly), was to be sent back to D-Com as well. I might be wrong on this since it's been quite a while since I've played VLR, but if he was supposed to, the only explanation I can think of is that Kyle was just a mind-hacked body that Delta was also using.

Mind hacking. This entire plot device also is given a very brief explanation and seems thrown in to, again, tie up loose plot threads. Instead of coming up with a clever thing to tie the entire series together, it really just seems like Uchikoshi didn't have enough time to properly plan things out. Also, since mind hacking was introduced, it might mean that, from the beginning with 999, everyone in the series has been mind hacked to make the choices they made, leading to ZTD. Again, this just seems a little absurd.

Mira's character in general. The fact that, at the end of ZTD, everyone never even reacts to the fact that she's a serial murder, and also the fact that she chimes in during the whole "friend" speech, is just odd. I know that she turns herself in afterwards, and that she is trying to go to a different timeline to stop herself, it's still extremely bizarre that none of the characters react to this information.

The existence of Sean is confusing, to me. An old man and a young boy in the hospital. Does that mean it was Delta/Sean who spent time together? If so, why is Delta there in the first place? I might have just missed something, but I thought that Sean was partly there just to keep the identiy of Q secret.

No one calls Sean by his name except for in the endings when Delta is revealed to be Q. Sean never even says his name is Sean. This is extremely odd, to me. I know it had to be done to preserve the twist, but that's the problem, it feels like it was put in JUST for a twist.

During the entire series, the cast of characters has been "erasing" themselves in other timelines as the result of a jump. Why, all of a sudden, is this a major decision at the end of the game, and why do they all of a sudden grow a conscience regarding this? It was brought up in a better way in VLR, but in ZTD it just feels like a tacked on moral choice that doesn't really fit in the context of the characters OR the situation. Why go through the ENTIRE GAME trying to stop Radical-6 only to stop just because you have to do what you've been doing the entire game?

The terrorist triggering a nuclear war is never even mentioned until the very end of the game. There were a few hints that Radical 6 was created to avoid another catastrophe (one of the puzzle rooms with Mira, Q, and Eric. Also, how was Radical 6 even created in the first place? Was it engineered? It never fully explains the origins of Radical 6.

The entire story of the terrorist attack leading to nuclear destruction feels like it was made only to add to the conversation regarding ISIS and other Islamic terrorist groups. It doesn't really add anything to the conversation, and instead, just feels like a cheap plot device.

There were a few more here and there, but those are the major ones. I love this series to death, but I do feel like VLR and ZTD were tacked on to 999, and, if given the choice, I would have advised Uchikoshi to turn them into another series altogether. 999 fit perfectly within its own game, it didn't really need anything else. Whenever VLR and ZTD came out, all it did to 999 was make the backstory to it more needlessly convoluted.

However, I did enjoy VLR and ZTD a lot! Just feel like they weren't nearly as well thought out as they could have been.

[CXXXV]

The black bar, too much.

I'll just say this. Isn't mind hack can only happens in the vicinity of the user?

[samael21walter]

Well, I assume that he can mind hack across timelines because otherwise, the times where Q is dead, they would be making the choices of their own free will?

[Rox]

Well, you need to remember that Zero Time Dilemma wasn't even going to be made originally. It was only fan demand that made them decide to make it, but they gave them a limited budget and probably not a whole lot of time. He probably couldn't flesh out the story as much as he wanted to and just did what he could to tie up the story and give it a proper conclusion, as weak as it was.

Sigma not seeing his reflection throughout the entire game is rather odd, but not entirely impossible. He could be more concerned with escaping than checking his hair or something. Him having a robotic eyepiece and never noticing that is pretty absurd, though.

Also, I don't think mind hacking had anything to do with the other games in the series. I think they only times Delta actually mind hacked people during Decision Games was for the Execution votes and Decontamination button presses. Basically when people went "I didn't! Someone else... made me do it!" is when Delta mind hacked them.

Kyle not being in the game, along with the story of the religious fanatic that would cause a nuclear war that would make mankind go extinct, as well as the alien transporter was, like I said, all there just to bring a conclusion to the story with the limited time they were probably given.

I will agree, though, Mira being a serial killer that basically caused all the events that would lead to the rest of the games, as well as everyone basically not caring that she was a serial killer, is pretty stupid. Especially Eric being 100% okay with her having killed him and ripped his heart out in another timeline. Seriously, the dude needs a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ therapist.

[samael21walter]

Yeah, I think all of the weak plot points are there because of limited time constraints and budget. I honestly wish this would sell well and maybe they could have a do over game or something XD Not that ZTD was bad, just the conclusion wasn't worthy of the events before it.

[Amplify]

The best explanation I can give you for the final decision is that basically every SHIFT before that one was all within a self contained set of history, whichever one they picked they were exchanging somebody who was in a bad spot for somebody who was f*cked and would likely die anyway.

The last SHIFT though? Those 9 had no idea what was going on or of any danger, and were going to go off and live happy, ignorant lives (until everyone dies in a nuclear fireball, but that's irrelevant to this), so by doing the SHIFT they would be taking people who were going to live happily and send them to almost instant death with no knowledge of what's going on or why. At least the other times they'd be able to guess at that much or were going to die anyway.

[Amplify]

Also, there was one thing I really didn't get and you didn't cover in your post, if you wanna try answering it?

In the Q team mexican standoff in the study, and when the fool was threatening to shoot Sean, both times when you put "Delta", Delta suddenly appears out of f*cking nowhere as if he's been there the entire time. What the hell was that? Was he around the entire time and never mentioned or something.

I was confused out of my mind when I told Q to shoot "Delta" right after doing the "Twins" ending, thinking that the little boy was really Delta come from the past and that he'd commit suicide, only for him to turn to the camera and shoot some guy offscreen I'd never seen before. Had no idea what to make of that for quite a while.

I might basically answer it for myself if I get around to replaying the game (after beating the first two) and paying careful attention from the start about his possible existence, but it completely blindsided me.

[Rox]

Delta was with Q-Team the entire time. Camera position just made it impossible to see him.
Delta is Q. The boy with the helmet is named Sean. The game never explicitly tells you these things, as a way to preserve the plot twist.

[samael21walter]

Yeah, Rollout is right. If you go back and watch the scenes, he's actually there the entire time, just offscreen. Every time there's an ending where Eric shoots everyone, there's also an extra shotgun blast.

[Amplify]

In that case, waaaay back at the start when the leaders are being named, I'm pretty sure "Q" was made the leader of Q team, not "Sean", and votes in the initial game are only accepted from the "leader", and we saw "Q" (Sean) doing the vote. How is that one explained?

[Rox]

Originally posted by Broseidon:

In that case, waaaay back at the start when the leaders are being named, I'm pretty sure "Q" was made the leader of Q team, not "Sean", and votes in the initial game are only accepted from the "leader", and we saw "Q" (Sean) doing the vote. How is that one explained?

Each time a decision has to be made by the team's leader, it's always Sean being rushed to do it. When Eric is about to force a vote, we see Sean clutching his helmet and looking at the PC. He's probably thinking which team to choose and rushing towards it before Eric can. When deciding whether or not to press the button in the decontamination room, Eric was knocked out by Mira, so it was Sean making the decision.

Zero probably either didn't have an actual limitation on who could do the voting, or he had it so that Sean could vote for him, since he was playing the part of a cripple.

[Amplify]

I guess someday I'd have to replay and watch more carefully as things progress.

Not for a long while though, I've had my fill of puzzles and I've got a huge backlog of stuff anyway.

[Amplify]

Hang on, did just remember one other thing I was confused over and might have missed:

Where did Phi's Brooch come from? As near as I can tell it's a circular existence and has no "creation" point.

[Rox]

Originally posted by Broseidon:

Hang on, did just remember one other thing I was confused over and might have missed:

Where did Phi's Brooch come from? As near as I can tell it's a circular existence and has no "creation" point.

It's a bootstrap paradox. It exists because it was given to baby Phi by Diana at her birth, because Diana recovered it from the incinerator after Phi died, so she could give it to baby Phi when she was born.

Same reason why Delta and Phi exist at all, they exist because Delta created the Decision Game that can result in Sigma and Diana being stuck in the bunker, so they have children, so they can send their atomic copies back in time, so that Delta can create the Decision game.

[samael21walter]

This kind of paradox pretty much describes the entire story of the entire series, as, beginning with 999, the whole reason Akane was able to escape the incinerator was because of future Akane recreating the Nonary game. The future Akane was able to create the nonary game because the young Akane escaped the incinerator.

[Kinzo]

The worst part is there are ways FtS, Rad6 and Left could be integrated into the plot.