Zero Escape 3: Zero Time Dilemma (Sequel toNine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Virtue's Last Reward)

anotherpoorgamer

anotherpoorgamer

CAGiversary!
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=768470

http://gematsu.com/2014/02/zero-escape-3-difficult-realize-needs-funding

Saw this at GameFAQs...  Zero Escape 3 may not happen.

I so would contribute through Kickstarter to get this game made.  Especially, if awesome items were made available as rewards. Make Paypal an option at the beginning and I so would be contributor a to the cause.

Honestly, I didn't expect to see this series do so poorly in Japan.  I hope Zero Escape 3 does get released soon.

Massive Edit:  It happened and just finished the game recently.

 
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Oh yeah definitely a Day 1 purchase for me on ZE3.  Unless financial problems get the best of me. 

I probably should save up for it now.  I may not have Day 1 999, but I did with VLR.

Yeah, I think I enjoyed 999 a little more than VLR.  I think it has more to do with wanting to know more about what happened to the rest of the 999 characters.

 
I think it also has to do with the un-expected deaths. And the branching seems like a good idea, except that it made playing thru the game again (to get the various endings) very predictable vs. the having to figure out the new paths yourself in the original.

 
I had no issues with the branching paths in VLR.  Probably because I looked online with 999's paths, which doors to take to get a certain ending. 

I really hope the Zero Escape series doesn't end up like the Shenmue series.  Fans are still wanting an unreleased sequel even after like 10 years.

 
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The good thing is that there are more financing options available these days as opposed to when the first two games in the series got made. If the team behind it can't find a large-scale publisher to back it, they could always go the crowd-funding route instead. The series has a decent and growing fanbase. I think they'd be able to get a sequel funded.

There's also the advantage of possibly limiting the scope of such a sequel. The full 3D approach of Virtue's Last Reward isn't a necessity for a series like this one. If they took a step back and made another entry in the series that was all 2D in order to cut costs, they could do that. Likewise, voice acting is not a requirement for this series either. A scaled-back version without voice acting would also be accepted by many of the series' fans. Cost-cutting measures like these would allow them to run a crowd-funding campaign with reasonable funding goals.

There's also the availability of platforms, and this particular style of game's compatibility with those platforms. This series lends itself well to control with either mouse or touchscreen. It would be both likely, and desirable to see such a game released on Steam, GOG, iOS, and Android Play.

 
In my opinion, I want everything you suggested cutting.  Especially, if the next game is going to be crowd funded. 

I'm all for saving money, but I feel it would be kind of a step backwards removing the voice acting. I did, however; have the 3D turned off.  I never liked that feature. I also like the idea of other platforms. 

I still prefer to see the game on the 3DS/Vita though.  I still hope there will be a PSP or Vita version of 999.  I don't really know what even happened to the Android/iOS version of 999.

 
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I would totally drop at least $100 on a ZE3 kickstarter.  VLR was an amazing game and the first (and only) thing I strived to platinum on Vita.

 
So what is the operation blue bird's end game?  They seems to think getting mention by a site like ign will make a difference.  Having a bunch of like and pictures on your facebook is not going to make ChunSoft change their mind.  Some people keep mentioning kickstarter but they don't even support Japan.

 
62t said:
Except Kickstarter doesn't support Japan.
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Yeah, I heard they would have to go through another party to use Kickstarter.

According to a twitter post, the idea of crowd funding has been considered. Just not necessarily, Kickstarter.

I would also drop probably about or at least $100 through Paypal if an official crowd funding project were to happen for Zero Escape 3.

 
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62t said:
So what is the operation blue bird's end game? They seems to think getting mention by a site like ign will make a difference. Having a bunch of like and pictures on your facebook is not going to make ChunSoft change their mind. Some people keep mentioning kickstarter but they don't even support Japan.
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I figured Operation Blue Bird was just kind of like those "sign this petition if you want this game made" kind of thing. Showing to maybe some financial party that Zero Escape won't be a bad idea to support.

 
anotherpoorgamer said:
I'm all for saving money, but I feel it would be kind of a step backwards removing the voice acting. I did, however; have the 3D turned off. I never liked that feature. I also like the idea of other platforms.
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Voice acting isn't as essential as some people think. What's really appealing about visual-novel style games is the writing, not the voice acting. When I played through Virtue's Last Reward, I switched the language to Japanese. English dubbing on titles like this is usually sketchy anyway. I would have been fine with there being no voice acting, as was the case with 999.

Voice acting, especially good voice acting, is a major expense for projects like this one. Localization just compounds the issue, as you have to produce voice acting for multiple languages. It also limits the overall amount of writing that you can put in the game, as every spoken line of dialogue requires an actor in the studio for a finite amount of time. Since lack of funding is the deciding factor in whether or not the game gets made, I would say that the voice acting would be one of the most effective areas to cut. It would give you the biggest savings for the last consequences to the enjoyment of the game.

When I referred to 3D, I wasn't thinking of the 3D support of the 3DS version. I was referring to the use of 3D models. Virtue's Last Reward used 3D models and animations for its presentation, while 999 used 2D illustrations, and much more limited animation. Taking the 999 approach of a much more limited 2D illustrated presentation would probably allow them to further cut costs. The real determining factor is how much animation they were expecting to use. While the initial set-up for 3D modeling can take more time than basic 2D illustration, you start seeing a lot more value when you get into animation. Animating 2D graphics, especially hi-res illustrations, can get very costly, while animating 3D models is usually more cost-effective. If the developers felt that the 3D modeling approach was more beneficial for character expression, I would say that sticking to it would probably be worth the extra complexity. I'm playing through Dangonronpa, which actually uses a rather interesting fusion approach to this particular problem. I would not mind seeing them employ a similar method with a Zero Escape sequel.

 
Dead of Knight said:
Aksys
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Has Aksys said anything yet? I can't really see video game publishers (Aksys Games) raising funds for a video game developer (Spike Chunsoft) though.

Now if Zero Escape 3 was just looking for localization. Then I could see Aksys Games doing some sort of sponsored campaign, to raise the funds needed to localize the game.

I'll gladly contribute to crowd funding that gets us ZE3, especially through Paypal.

 
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NIne Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors the Novel has been released on the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad.

It looks pretty good.  I still would prefer if it was released on the PSP/Vita.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFBDk2kxSs8

 
Personally, I thought the voice acting was exceptional in VLR, although Clover was... not the voice I would have chosen for her. I wouldn't want them to backtrack there or with the 3D modeling. I mean, look, we have next gen handheld consoles, we don't need to be settling on games with GBA effects anymore, not when these games cost $40.

But he would be a damn fool indeed not to crowd fund this game, seriously.

soonersfan60 said:
I think it also has to do with the un-expected deaths. And the branching seems like a good idea, except that it made playing thru the game again (to get the various endings) very predictable vs. the having to figure out the new paths yourself in the original.
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THIS. I really enjoyed VLR and the meta levels in that game were beyond even 999, which is great. But part of what gripped me so much about 999 was the fact that if you screwed up, people CAN and WILL die. Horribly. It was so intense!

In VLR, deaths were far less common, and when they did happen, you usually saw it happen over and over again because it was before the paths branched off. It was a "Safer" game.

 
Apparently there is a new bad ending in the 999 novel.  Saw it on Operation Bluebird's facebook page. 

  Clover injects Junpei with the sedative that Ace used to fake his illness.  Junpei falls down some stairs into some flooded areas.  He drowns slowly as crazy Clover pretends to try to reach out to Junpei.  The animation of Clover is similar to the Axe ending. 
 

 
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RISE FROM GRAVE and double post!

Decided to bring this thread back instead of creating a new one.

What an amazing game this was!  Just wish there was more to this series like alternate timelines where we got to see characters that didn't make the cut.

One thing I didn't like is whenever a character was talking during a non-cutscene you could barely see the character's face since it was faded into the background of the text.  I miss where you saw the characters somewhat animated to show some emotion while speaking.

There seemed to be a lot of loose ends that weren't taken care of in my opinion. 

Like in Virtue's Last Reward, it would have been nice if we got to know where Kyle went when he supposedly SHIFTED with old Sigma?  Also, Clover and Alice being able to SHIFT/go back in time at the end of Virtue's Last Reward.

999, where was Santa and Snake during Zero Time Dilemma.  Where was that old man during those events?

I never noticed that old man, Delta in Zero Time Dilemma being with Q-Team. Not until he was spoken to and is he supposed to be ? from VLR because they look right at the camera/the player. 

Also, how does Delta exist outside of timeline where he was never born?   Same with Phi's Brooch.

 
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I finished playing the game earlier this week. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It did a good job of tying together the story introduced in 999 with the story of Virtue's Last Reward. (which got pretty out-there by the end)

I switched off the English voice acting as quickly as I could. You can tell they did not spend the big bucks on the voice actors. The Japanese voice track with subtitles was far less grating. I would have also liked to see some better lip-sync animation, but I recognize that is a personal pet-peeve. I know first-hand how expensive and time-consuming effective lip-synced animations can be, so I can't really blame them for skimping a bit in that department.

It's too bad this is the last game in the series. I really enjoyed the overall story. Here's hoping that we can see more adventure games in this vein.

 
I stopped playing it fairly early in the game because I did not enjoy it as much as the original. This 3rd one seems more like the 2nd than the first, and I still don't like the branching. I like the original where I didn't know what would trigger the branching. The best example is when you got a different ending depending on whether or not you gave the flower away. That made me want to play again and again to figure it out rather than going to a decision tree where I just knew to pick the other path.

 
Richard Kain said:
I finished playing the game earlier this week. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It did a good job of tying together the story introduced in 999 with the story of Virtue's Last Reward. (which got pretty out-there by the end)
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Oh god... I forgot about VLR's ending. After beating VLR, I had to read tons of stuff online to figure out the ending and never understood it... too much going on.

 
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