Completed Zero Time Dilemma.
One annoying bit is that the game gives you multiple 8-numbers long passwords, and it was driving me crazy that I tried all of them in the Quantum Computer room, and none worked. Turns out, one of the scripts is slightly buggy, and you need to do all the votings methodically over again, to get the cutscene you’ve missed initially.
The game goes on to break the 4th wall by saying that all that time you were controlling a supposedly blind, deaf and immobile old man, and for that reason all characters ignored you completely. Kind of Saw-like moment.
Must say, that the ending disappointed me a little. Not just because it ends in a cliffhanger despite it was known that that’s the last game in the trilogy. But because despite having the “all knowing villain”, Chessmaster, trope, it doesn’t tie up nicely. Very little explanation given why Eric is in the experiment, and everyone seems to forget that Mira is a sociopathic serial killer.
The rant about the snail changing the course of humanity (aka Butterfly Effect) is only half-meaninful. Yes, Akane is an orphan “because of a snail” and genius Sean died “because of a snail”, but I expected a bit more.
Comparing all three, I think that the puzzles are the best in Zero Time Dilemma, while Virtue Last Reward had slightly smoother mechanics. But the first game in the series, 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, is still the best for me story-wise.
