Zero Time Dilemma Reviews
Zero Time Dilemma seems to be brimming with good ideas. Unfortunately, between the increasingly insane, shark jumping, plot revelations, and the never-ending dialogue strands, someone forgot to put a video game here. When the player does get to do something aside from making decisions, the game improves markedly but since the design of the game can make even these sections few and far between, it becomes harder and harder to forgive as the run time of the game continues to tick along.
Zero Time Dilemma is a hugely flawed game that, despite moments of brilliance (such as the coin toss at the start of the game), fails to come together. A game that can hold my attention for twelve hours in a single day should review well, but sadly too many of those hours were spent silently cursing at the ludicrous nature of the story, and basically begging for it to all pay off and it never did. At least Virtue's Last Reward, which I previously criticised for leaving so much up in the air, was asking interesting questions. Zero Time Dilemma failed to do even that.
Sadly, despite an attempt to include in-depth story threads and bring in intriguing puzzles, Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma falls down on too many occasions. Be it the convoluted yarns that do not tie things together well enough, puzzles that fluctuate in difficulty and interest levels far too much, as well as a poorly thought out flowchart system that leads players into numerous dead ends, either requiring sheer guesswork and random replaying of certain scenarios, or caving in and using online guides.
Zero Time Dilemma is an adventure that constitutes the final ending to Zero Escape, a long-running saga that combines philosophical elements, science fiction and a series of plot twists that leave no one indifferent.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Zero Time Dilemma is the weakest game in the trilogy, yet it's an unmissable piece of the puzzle that every Zero Escape fan needs to play. It isn't the satisfying conclusion hoped for, it has some uninteresting characters, and the pacing is off, but even with the unanswered questions, there is still a story here that warrants playing through, especially as it develops and wraps up the arcs of the familiar, better and more important characters in the overall narrative.
Make no mistake about it, Zero Time Dilemma is a disappointment, but it's mainly because fans of the franchise are such devoted ones. Taken on its own merits, without looking back to how the series was, it is certainly not a bad game, and has some excellent qualities that leave it an overall good experience, and definitely not a bad one.
Final chapter in intriguing narrative adventure series brings back favourite characters, but fails to go out with a bang
Despite a slew of problems, Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma uses complex story techniques in a suspenseful tale about human nature.
As a story, Zero Time Dilemma matches up to the ambition of its predecessors, with some missteps. As a game, it’s significantly less polished, with ideas and changes that nearly always step backward.
It lacks the charm and wit of Danganronpa, but Zero Time Dilemma, like its prequels, is still valuable, smart, and stimulating. Its presentation really badly hurts it, but once you push past that distaste, what you're left with is an intense, engaging and intelligent narrative with some thoughtful and well-designed puzzle rooms to sort through.
Despite having dozens of questions early on, by the end of the long twisted journey, I found everything to be resolved—or even left unresolved—in an extremely satisfying way.
Zero Time Dilemma is an amazing ending for the superb trilogy… although the price should be cut in half.
Review in Polish | Read full review
While some of its flaws may leave some areas feeling half-baked, Zero Time Dilemma will be something that won't be leaving our minds anytime soon.
Even when the narrative fails to drive the plot, the game’s well-designed room-escape puzzles pick up the slack.
If you can look past the awkward animation, poor dialog and condescending tone, Zero Time Dilemma offers a short but interesting mystery murder experience and set of puzzles, if only to fill the gap between other new decision-heavy (or Danganronpa) titles.
Fans of escape rooms and puzzle-solving games that don't mind a more adult and dark tone will have a lot of fun with Zero Time Dilemma.
I'm glad that I got to see the series through to the end. Though it answered some of the questions I had while replaying the prior games, the execution of Zero Time Dilemma itself has some rough patches and relying on our message boards/GameFAQs/other places of ill repute is going to cause a lot of problems for those playing it day one. If you haven't played the two prequels, at least play Virtue's Last Reward first.
Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma will not be to everyone’s tastes; that much is obvious. An eclectic mix of puzzle solving and non-linear visual novel narrative, Zero Time Dilemma’s inconsistent conundrum quality and distinctly no-frills presentation aren’t enough to seriously detract from the impressive calibre of its numerous idiosyncrasies.
Zero Time Dilemma is the weakest entry in the series but still worth a gander to find out how it all ends/begins/continues.
While there are minor issues with continuing the story and finding yourself a bit lost at times, Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma is a fantastic story-driven game, with characters you’ll quickly become attached to and a narrative that drags you through to its gritty conclusion. For Vita and 3DS owners, playing the previous titles is a must, but once you get here, Zero Time Dilemma won’t disappoint.