Zero Time Dilemma Reviews
I wish that there were more games like Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma. As Telltale Games has achieved in recent years, Spike Chunsoft under Kotaro Uchikoshi's direction has pushed the boundaries of what we have now come to expect from storytelling in the games industry. Zero Time Dilemma is a success in that regards, becoming one of the most thrilling narrative experiences to grace the Nintendo 3DS library.
Zero Time stands as the weakest of the trilogy, but still a satisfactory visual novel in its own right.
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.
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.
At the end of the day, this is an absolutely fantastic game that’s only bogged down by its animations. However, at the same time, this is a wonderful example of where the technical problem they couldn’t get down doesn’t harm the enjoyment of the whole. What does harm the game’s overall enjoyment is just how lost one might be if they didn’t go through the previous games. Even so, while this potentially ends the franchise with a weird bang, it’s a bang nonetheless.
Aside from the uneven animations, my only other complaint comes from the memo feature. I found it far easier just to keep notes on a pad of paper than attempting to write with my fingertip. This is not the best use of touch controls between the memo and the sometimes finicky puzzle inputs, but it is hardly a deal breaker either. Because at the heart of everything here however, is the narrative. I really cannot say enough good things about how well-written the characters and the stories are. I never felt like there was too much exposition, and despite the tense scenarios moments of levity are found within as well. The characters feel fully fleshed out, the story captivated my interest in a way that only good books usually can.
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.
A series full of mysteries, murder, twists and intrigue comes to its conclusion in the third title from the "Zero Escape" series, Zero Time Dilemma. All the questions that have been left answered and the fates of the characters MAY come to a head in this final game of life and death, provided you can manage to muddle through the convoluted plot line(s), occasionally poor voice acting, and some of the annoying necessary steps for making it through some of the decisions in-game.
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.
Once you do open up the puzzle routes, Zero Time Dilemma becomes a well-blended avalanche of slick cinematics and brain-teasing escapes for the next 20 hours
Zero Time Dilemma is a masterpiece and a must play game for Vita owners. I would love to see more from the series, but think this might be swansong on it, but we shall see. As stated earlier this game is awesome, and you should be playing it. People will be talking about this game for years to come. If this Zero Time Dilemma review hasn’t made it extremely clear, you should rush out to buy this game.
Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma is a game everyone absolutely must play. If you haven’t played the previous games in the series, drop everything and experience them. Even though the artistic direction is a misfire, ultimately you’re looking to a game like this for the narrative, and it absolutley delivers something intelligent and meaningful there.
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.
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.
A cinematic, rollercoaster ride of high drama with twists and turns at every step. Structural flaws and a story perhaps not on-par with previous outings aren't enough to stop Zero Time Dilemma from being an excellent interactive experience.
Fans of Zero Escape, you're in the right timeline: the one where the series gets the spectacular ending it deserves. Violent, tense, and thought-provoking, this is a game that will keep you up for days while you finish it, than days more while you process what you just saw. If you haven't picked it up yet, you owe it to yourself to do so now.
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.