999 and VLR are high schlock, and I mean this as the highest compliment I can give. Both feel like the best kind of B movie—simultaneously completely absurd and incredibly endearing. both games take a vaguely Saw-esque plot—individuals kidnapped and forced to participate in a deadly game—but the miserable cynicism of the movies is nowhere to be found, replaced by intriguing characterization and a good heap of out-there pseudoscience for good measure. 999's more taut and thriller-influenced plot makes a natural progression to VLR's broader sci-fi setting—both offer a compelling narrative that's managed to stick with me for a long time (read: I may or may not cry when a certain song comes up on my phone).

The puzzles are fine-to-good: There's a couple of frustratingly obtuse solutions but the games, especially the second one, are good about doling out hints to the frustrated. the other gameplay sections—the visual novel parts—get a fair amount of flak for repetitiveness- it's certainly there but I've never had a major problem with it—the skip-text function works well to ameliorate the issue. (Note that this re-release comes with a modification to the first game that significantly mitigates repetition).

One final note is that the soundtrack to both games makes a great alternative soundtrack to any other puzzle game—there's something about Digital Root that makes it the best song to solve something to that I've ever heard.

My score is mostly only for the 999 remake because the full package is perfect due to having both 999 and VLR (which is unchanged). 999 however, is a bit of a sidegrade of the DS original. It adds generally pretty good voice acting (Junpei's VA is kinda spotty though) and a very very helpful flowchart.

However, the "redone" art is inconsistent and usually inferior to the DS' pixel art (Ace in particular looks fucking awful for some reason). The DS version also handles some story elements better as it divides text between both screens, which this version split into "ADV" and "NOVEL" views for no good reason. Novel view also obscures the artwork and places text on top of it, so I generally stuck with ADV, but novel is the "full experience" basically. I have no idea why they handled that so badly, it's not like 999 is the only VN that has descriptions cut in inbetween dialogue, but this is honestly the biggest flaw of this remake to me. I'm sure it could've been handled better.

Still, everything else is the same and it's still great, but I recommend the DS version of 999 over this one (hell emulate it on your phone if possible) unless having voices is that big a deal. Then again, this comes with VLR too, so it's 2 for 1.

999:
~4/5.~

Really Good. The plot is really interesting, and it probably has one of the best stories in the medium for me. The cast is pretty good, and the final twists were pretty well-done. The mechanics were enjoyable and it had a good gameplay. A really good first entry for an amazing duology.

Virtue's Last Reward:
~5/5.~

One of my all time favorites. My 2nd favorite game as of ever. I loved it, the story, plot, continuation of the first game, plot-twists, mechanics, gameplay... Gosh, I loved this game, everything from it. All the endings were superb, the cast it's one of my favorite, and I loved playing it. My favorite duology of all time.

Lo que esperaba: Escape Room

Lo que me encuentro: WTF???

El primer juego (999) es una buena vuelta de tuerca de las visual novels que mete en el centro la rejugabilidad como una nueva mecánica. Pero es que el segundo juego (Virtue's Last Reward) es una fantasía deliciosa para los que gustan de tramas enrevesadas con giros de guión atroces a la vuelta de cada esquina.