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Maybe I don't have a saying in this, considering I just couldn't keep playing either VLR or ZTD for pretty much the same reasons you mentioned in your post, amongst other things.
Perhaps I'll give the sequels a second chance someday, but for now I have better games to waste my time on, clearly.
In my humble opinion, 999 is and will always be the best in the trilogy, I'm ultimately convinced I won't change my mind even if I get around to finishing the sequels. There are things you just know, things you can see coming from miles away.. And VLR as well as ZTD not doing a good job is one of those, to me.
So huh yeah, we're on the same boat lol.
Still, all this makes me wonder even more now... what happened?
All 3 games were written by the same guy, who would make great work after great work (after all, he also created Infinity Trilogy), who wrote 999... went completely downhill after finishing 999.
How did this happen? What went wrong?
999 was meant to be a stand alone story. The ending is sort of like the ending to the original Back to the Future where they never planned it to mean anything, and then they had to go back and pick up from there. And for that reason, I think 999 ended up being the best of the bunch because aside from being unique, it was self-contained and made sense.
With VLR, they got feed back from 999, which apparently sold better in the States than Japan. And they did some research into why Japanese audiences didn't like it as much when they started gearing up for a second run, and were told that "it looked scary." Which ... I agree that it can look scary, but as a person who isn't huge into scares, it isn't that frightening to play and what tension there is from the claustrophobic setting is necessary to add to the uncertainty.
Anyway, they doused the scariness in VLR and I think that contributed to some of the problems. I will also agree with you that Clover didn't seem like Clover in the second game. She's no favorite of mine, but I would have liked more from her as a survivor of *2* nonary death games. And some concern about Snake, who barely gets a mention. Tarting her up really didn't help as it made her seem even less like herself. It's not that she needs to be in a huge overcoat and earmuffs. It just doesn't seem like overcoat and earmuffs girl would suddenly switch to barely there miniskirt girl.
June is a different case. You may like her from the first game. I thought she was nice enough in the first game. But apparently what the developer was doing (starting in 999) was intentionally making "the worst heroine" based on Japanese standards. And Akane, who was genuinely sweet in 999 ALSO kidnapped people, including a guy who was madly in love with her, forced some of them to eat bombs and die (because she knew that would be the result no matter what she did) set another guy up to be chopped to bits, all to save her OWN life. In VLR, she's grown older and more committed to her own ideas about saving the world by rewriting it because she has the power to do that. She'll torture her old friends (Junepei, Clover, potentially Alice, and Sigma) plus two kids (K and Quark) to get the future that SHE wants. And all the suffering and deaths she causes won't matter in her mind because she'll make them not have happened. Her depiction in VLR was totally on point as she grew older, more set in her ways, and more convinced of her own righteousness. And I actually really liked Junpei rejecting her as he sees that she's no longer the girl he fell in love with. I thought it was poignant and showed the growth of his own character and maturity in this universe. That may be the main reason I like VLR.
And ... well ... I can't really address ZTD because I haven't played it and never will.
I can tell you the rest of the history:
ZTD was designed to get the highest maturity rating/warning in the Japanese games industry. The designers had felt they'd had to hold back in VLR and didn't want to bow to censorship in their final title. So, instead, they tried to make it as bloody and disgusting as they could (I am personally not into their overcompensation, though I understand chafing at restrictions on creativity). Another reason to go more extreme is likely that VLR still didn't sell all that well in Japan and the market for these games appeared to be the States, so why bother with Japanese censorship issues if no one will buy it anyway?
I've read a synopsis or two of the story and ... it seems to be a royal mess that makes the whole trilogy not make any sense, like Phi being a replica of a replica from another possible universe who is her own child (adopted) and Sigma's child (biological) as is Zero in this version who may just be playing the game to get himself born, except that that pocket universe where it happens isn't the main universe of the game and ... Blerg.
VLR had some problems/possible problems depending on what happened in ZTD. ZTD has no excuse for the mess that it is from my reading of it. I'll go write fanfiction picking up with VLR if I need an ending to the story because the real one sounds awful. And gory.
Anyway ... I hope this was at least informative. Most of my info came from Wikipedia a few months back.
That I do know myself, yes, but this also wasn't what I exactly asking.
I think that Kotaro's writing just became straight up worse after 999, none of his works were the same quality wise as pre-Zero Escape.
Again, this is the same guy who wrote Infinity Trilogy and 12Riven, visual novels considered by many as one of the best in the genre, and 999 was on par with them as well.
So what happened?
Post-999 just doesn't feel like it's Kotaro-san writing at all.
Which is also why I'm really sceptical about Somnium Files, but it's a completely different topic altogether.
Well, let's see:
1) Between 999 and VLR console technology changed, so the team had to design for tech that they weren't familiar with, adding pressure to the guy in charge. (This is also why it has crappy 3D)
2) As mentioned before, Japanese audiences who didn't purchase the game thought "it looked scary," so, he felt creatively hampered trying to not give people scares. I honestly think he would have done better if he'd improved the lighting, got rid of the dank warehouses, and used more color while maintaining the same level of suspense in storytelling. But those aren't the creative coping decisions that he made. ::shrug:: Some artists look at restrictions or guidelines as exciting challenges to overcome and other people are simply frustrated. I think he falls more into the frustrated category and doesn't like being told what to do. Or at least his creative output suffers. This also explains ZTD to a degree. He went the exact opposite from his previous restrictions in a kind of "I'll show you!" bid to make it the most violent thing he could, and by focusing on that goal he got distracted from the actual core story.
3) The 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami apparently also lead to him changing the ending to "lighten the mood."
4) Possibly writing with localization in mind affected the storytelling as well. 999 was written for a Japanese audience and was a surprise hit in the States (and did not do well in Japan). VLR and ZTD were written for the States with Japan being a secondary consideration. Except, I'm not sure how well he knew his audience when he switched targets. When I like something made for a foreign audience (999, Money Heist, most anime), I like it for whatever inherent characteristics it has because it was made for that audience. If you switch audiences, you make it differently, you change the sort of story you're telling, the sort of visuals you're using, the sort of characters you're writing, etc. Or at least most people do if you tell them to write for a foreign audience rather than a home audience. If your success came in your attempts to write for a home audience (even if you failed at that goal), then you're better off sticking with whatever ideas informed your original decision making rather than trying to guess at what people you have limited exposure to want. Clearly they wanted the thing you made the first time, informed by your own culture and ideas, rather than attempts to please them.
(ETA) 5) He wrote himself into something of a corner with the ending of 999, much the way the writers of Back to the Future wrote themselves into a corner at the end of their first episode. Everyone would want to know what happened after that and particularly they'd want to know about the strange woman on the side of the road, so he had to use that element. And ... well ... maybe he could have come up with an interesting story for the Egyptian woman being in the middle of the American desert wearing Ancient Egyptian dress and woven it into the next adventure, but the reason he chose was really out of nowhere and didn't work well with the series, especially roping Clover into that back story rather than giving her her own unique reasons for being where she was.
Granted, these are all my interpretations based on experience of how things turn out when people are given goals like this and looking at the end product, rather than first hand knowledge. But these seem like the most plausible issues.
Seriously though, this ending was, like, the best thing ever.
But i digress.
Don't be actively discouraged, i'm not here to do this. You really should see for yourself, and decide for yourself as well.
After all, if you'll see it and immediately realize you won't like it - you can immediately stop.
And if you'll like it - you'll just continue as if nothing happened.
I happen to like VLR. It has its flaws. And it's not as good as the first one, but that often happens in a series, particularly if it wasn't originally intended as a series.
But I thought it was an entertaining follow up and I really like Junepei's story arc when you find it. The escape rooms are challenging, Some people don't like Phi or Zero Junior, but I do. I thought Diana was annoying until I was shown her story arc. K is an interesting puzzle throughout. And I loved Tenmyouji (I have a soft spot for cranky old men). But it is definitely not as scary. I didn't have a feeling of dread of someone possibly coming to kill me at any moment.
I definitely say it's worth playing.
Also hated Alice. I was expecting a smart, wise and cool character, she was (supposedly) an ancient mummy chick after all, but then she was always scared, unstable and always dying like a dumbass.
Other thing, the plot in the first game is somehow credible, i mean is fiction but you would think that is something possible. The second game just throw too many plot twist i didn´t enjoy because were too incredible, like all the "we are in a secret moon base cuz the earth is gonna explote (or something, i don´t remember)" thing.
Luna was bae tho.