Zero Escape: The Nonary Games is a collection on Steam that contains ports of the first and second games of the Zero Escape series. I reviewed the first game "999" a while ago. This is a review of the second game Virtue's Last Reward.
VLR follows another group of 9 people, who find themselves trapped somewhere underground. The story is told from the perspective of Sigma. A young man who was kidnapped and found himself trapped with the others. The mastermind who put them in the situation, Zero told them to play the Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition. Only the winners will be able to get out.
Like the previous entry in the Zero Escape series. Virtue's Last Reward is half a Visual Novel, half a Room Escape puzzle game. The game shares elements and characters from the first title. Most notably, Clover, but other characters are mentioned and even play important roles here. The games are more connected than you might think at first. VLR also acts as setup for the next game, Zero Time Dilemma.
Virtue's Last Reward is full of Theoritical Science and Philosophy themes, with characters discussing Quantum Mechaincs/Schordinger's Cat, the Chinese Room problem, and of course, various Time Travel theories.
The main theme of the Ambidex Game is for participants to collect points to get out of the facility they're trapped in. To do so, they're split into teams and are forced to choose between [ALLY] and [BETRAY] in a Prisoner's Dilemma kind of situation... The doors to the Ambidex Room where the game is held, can only be opened with different Key Cards that are scattered around the facility.
Sigma starts trapped in an elevator with Phi as a pair in the game, but the pairing of the teams changes depending on the player's choices.
Since only 3 people can enter each door, the participants must split into teams, unlock the Chromatic Doors, and solve the puzzles behind them. As Sigma, you must team up with the others to find the next set of Key Cards and survive the game.
As a Visual Novel, there are multiple endings in this game. Many endings are locked behind others. Some routes require massive attention to detail to progress.
For example, in one route, you'll need 4 passwords that are scattered around various story routes. You, ask the player, must enter the passwords yourself, otherwise Sigma won't remember them when the time comes. I missed that when I first encountered them, so I had to replay to note these passwords down. Despite using a Notepad while playing, I couldn't finish the game without a guide.
The Cast
Like the previous game, the game has 9 main characters and a few other characters that play also play a role. I'll talk only about the nine Nonary Game participants as mentioning the others might spoil some plot-points.
The main character is Sigma. A med student with who got kidnapped on Christmas Day in 2028. He's a well-built muscular man, and he has a great memory. He's able to memorize the game Nonary Game's passwords upon seeing them once.
Being the player character and the narrator of the game, a lot of Sigma's decisions are decided by the player. While he's generally a good person, the Ambidex Game forces him to make brutal choices sometimes, but he always regrets the worst of these decisions.
It's implied that something happened to him between his kidnapping and the start of the game, as some of his backstory and actions are inconsistent. Sigma's past, despite seeming straightforward at best, is one of the biggest mysteries of the game.
Sigma also seems to have the ability to remember things from other Histories without experiencing them. His decisions and discoveries from one story route influence other story routes. Like Junpie from the first game. You'd hear him say "I know because I know!" a lot. That's a trait he shares with Phi.
After Sigma, Phi is the most important character of this game. She's a mysterious girl who knows more than she lets on. She knew Sigma's name before he introduced himself despite meeting him for the first time. Phi also knew about the Nonary Game rules before hearing them.
While she tries to be logical at all times, Phi is prone to emotional outbursts, and she's even vengeful in some routes. Yet, she's also the type to sacrifice herself if it'll save people she cares about. Her backstory is one of Virtue's Last Reward's deepsest secrets, and I enjoyed Phi's character the most of th cast!
By the way, I couldn't help but notice that Sigma and Phi are both named after Greek letters. It's another trait only both of them share.
Since no one knew why they're trapped in the Nonary Game, Sigma tries to find a common thread between all the kidnapped people as that may lead them to the identity of Zero. That thread that connects them, of course, is only revealed near the end of the game.
These other players include Clover, a young girl with special abilities who seems to work in a government agency. Her partner, Alice, is a half-egyptian agent. They were on the trail of a criminal organization when they got kidnapped and put into the Nonary game.
There's Tenmyouji, an old man who knows a lot more than he lets on. Quark, a young boy who refers to Tenmyouji as his grandpa. Luna a young woman with medical knowledge, K a mysterious amnesiac man inside a full-body metal suit, and Dio, apparently, a circus leader with a sinister smile. Dio is one character that I loved to hate!
All characters have hidden mysteries that you discover as you unlock more of the story. I loved Tenmyouji's flashback and Luna's backstory the most, though Alice and Clover were intriguing, considering their connections to the previous game. Clover changed a lot in the time between the two games.
...Then there's Zero. The main Zero we see in the game is an AI Rabbit who's programmed to enforce the Nonary Game rules. However, this rabbit (called Zero Jr.) is made by the real Zero (also called Zero Sr.) The real Zero is stated to be one of the participants in this Nonary Game. Possibly, one of the characters mentioned above... Of course, Zero's identity is one of the game's deepest mysteries.
The Puzzles
Virtue's Last Reward is an Escape Room game. As characters open the Chromatic Doors, they have to solve puzzles in order to progress to the next area. These puzzles require going around the room, collecting items, and solving Mini-games.
Item collecting is done via Point-and-Click gameplay, the interaction zone is very generous which minimizes Pixel Hunting. Most of the puzzles are intuitive. You may find a coin-shaped hole, then find a coin, a few minutes later. Many items are even color-coded. It also helps when you click the item in your inventory, and the characters highlight the important part about it!
I played the game in Hard Mode, but apparently, Easy Mode is full of Hints for solving the puzzles.
The hard part for me, however, is the mini-games. Most weren't difficult, but the gameplay change isn't always easy to adapt to. On the bright side, that meant VLR is full of gameplay variety.
Some puzzles require several minutes of trial-and-error! One puzzle is solved via randomly entering numbers and seeing if any of them hit. With trial-and-error you'll know which numbers should be put where in the password. I found that puzzle interesting, if a bit time consuming...
Since I was impatient for the story. I used a guide whenever I took too long to solve one puzzle. I needed the guide for many puzzles in the latter half of the game, including one password that I was apparently to got from another ending, but didn't note it down.
Philosophical Journey
Virtue's Last Reward leaned more on philosophy than the previous game. Even the game's title is a philosophical statement. According to a reddit post, Virtue's Last Reward implies that the reward for being a good person is death.
'The only way to lose the Ambidex Game is if you choose ALLY and the other player(s) BETRAY you. If you chose Virtue and trust the other party, Death would be your last reward." -- Reddit
One scene I loved was when we found a robot in the GAULEM Bay. He kept talking about what makes one a human? If he was wrapped in a human skin, we couldn't tell the difference.
"If it looks like a human, acts like a human, and responds like a human. It's probably a human." -- G-OLM
Other philosophical themes are strong too. The Prisoner's Dilemma while a being a Game Theory concept, has major philosophical implications. I enjoyed how the game explored the Chinese Room problem too.
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Timeline Jumping
Virtue's Last Reward multiple endings all lead to one true ending. Everything Sigma learns via the other endings plays a role then. I love the fact that timelines affect each other in this game.
Still, the true ending is pretty much a cliffhanger that only gets explained after playing the sequel, Zero Time Dilemma. Though as someone who played ZTD before writing this review, I can tell you it became a lot more satisfying with the knowledge obtained from there.
There's an extra non-canon ending in Virtue's Last Reward. It doesn't solve anything regarding the cliffhanger mentioned above, but it adds to the philosophical themes of the game. I'm glad I witnessed it.
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