gosh. i have a million things i could say about this game, but i'll keep it fairly brief. (or at least, i have MUCH more i could say)

this game is so fucking insane. there's SO MUCH going on here, from the hilariously shitty animations, to the environments that look like they were rendered on my car's key fob, to the out of nowhere over the top plot twists. there's also SO MUCH about this game that i dislike. some reveals make things in other games uncomfortable, and some character personality changes are undesirable. it's not all bad for me though. i had a much more emotional experience playing this game compared to VLR. while i do still think VLR is better than ZTD, i enjoy the character moments in this game far more. also, the characters in this one are so much less gross personality-wise, and i didn't feel absolutely disgusted by random sexual harassment like i did in VLR. of course, there are still characters in this game i dislike. overall, even if the directions personalities go in and everything feel haphazard and arbitrary, i will not lie that i sobbed several times in this game and don't feel cheated out of enjoying those moments.

the structure of the game is cool!!! no notes there. at the start of playing the game i was like "oh fuck this is,,, yeah, huh.." but as i kept going, it makes sense why the game is like this (fragments, etc).

i think ZTD had really big shoes to fill after VLR. that's not to say that VLR was a masterpiece that can't be topped (because i do not hold that opinion), but because the scope of the Zero Escape series grew so goddamn much with VLR. you could argue that the whole series after 999 doesn't really "have a point" in more ways than one. but, at the same time, i think there's not really much else you can do to rectify everything. instead, we get a absolutely nutty bonkers game that had me saying "oh my fuck i love this game" to "oh my fuck i hate this game" every other hour.

puzzles are fine. that's it. they're fine. not enough of them, tho. i finished all of the puzzles like halfway through my playtime. worst puzzle design of the series for sure, but nothing is egregious.

i'm glad i played it, and i still had a good time, despite the numerous issues i have. i was consistently excited to play this game, even if i could tell that it kiiiinda sucks. zero escape is over. what the fuck.

🐌oops!

RAPID REVIEW💨

Mors certa, hora incerta

► Time Dilemma is the most ambitious in the Zero Escape series to date. Its intricate narrative treads similar ground to 999 and Virtue's Last Reward that fans of the series are sure to love, but at times ZTD can't seem to escape its own labyrinthine constructions...

B-B-B-Breakdown 🕵️‍♂️

► Narrative🪓
Fans of Uchikoshi will find themes in Zero Time Dilemma they've come to adore. Morphogenetic fields, The Monty Hall Problem, and The Sleeping Beauty Paradox all make appearances, as do time machines, world eradicating viruses and serial killers. At roughly 20 hours of gameplay, ZTD ends with more loose ends than it tidies, tackling the more complex narrative questions but leaving the simple left unsaid. The game itself is so preoccupied with impressing us with its complex structure that the treatment of characters like those on Q team, (Mira, Eric and Q), are notably absent of a satisfying motivation by the Endgame. Believability is, obviously, thankfully, left at the door when you start any Zero Escape game, and because of this they're able to sink you deeper and deeper into their unique worldbuilding. Even then, Zero Time Dilemma presents us characters who turn their personalities on a dime in order to fulfill narrative goals or provide red herrings, neither of which ever really land on their feet.

► Audio🔪
Perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of Zero Time Dilemma is the audio mixing. The game is reliant on its eerie, mechanical music gelling with some of the incredible voice acting talent, but the highs of both are undermined by some choice audio mixing. There's an option in-game to change these manually, but losing key audio in early game moments is disappointing. In general, the music sells the "underground bunker" environment, and appropriately guides the player through the emotional moments. The voice cast supports this by cutting through the wooden character models to breathe humanity back into the experience.

► Visuals🩸
The change to 3D was met with some pushback from Zero Escape fans and it's easy to see why. The 2D character sprites of 999 cut the shape of a diverse cast with bright colours and unique silhouettes which started us on our Zero Escape love affair. 2D artwork is of course a staple of visual novels, but the 2D models of 999 and the more basic 3D models of VLR were perhaps usurped by the siren call of the new uncanny valley sprites in ZTD in an attempt to modernise. Writing this in 2024, there's going to naturally be an issue with dated graphics, but comparing it to the previous two games in the series, it's a notable downgrade in charm and polish, both in character sprites and environments.

► Gameplay⚰️
Time Dilemma's pacing issues have similar resonance in its gameplay. Most of the puzzle rooms take roughly 15 minutes, and are somewhat routine. Once you figure out the first piece of the puzzle, the rest will be a case of following the thread to the next puzzle in the queue. The most challenging were mathematics based, and their difficulty came from the intricacies of their calculations, rather than any sort of complex logical thinking involved. Choosing between two (or more!) narrative options and potentially altering the future was initially very fun, but as the impressive story threads became more interlocked with this mechanic, it became apparent that at some point you would end up having to see every option anyway, which undermined the stakes of your decisions as the game progressed. Unfortunately, it's a puzzle that's baked into the game design of Zero Time Dilemma that couldn't be solved with some clever thinking alone.

► Final Thoughts⏲
I had a great time with Zero Time Dilemma as a massive fan of previous works in the series and also as a writer. Uchikoshi throws away all decorum and unleashes himself in this iteration which is just a joy to watch. Technically speaking, he is what can only be described as a master of plot structure, but loses softer moments of characterisation to enact ungraceful lore dumps. This isn't Uchikoshi at his pinnacle, but fans of his works have come to learn the fun is in getting battered and bruised in the many paths he winds for us, not in leaving through the X door totally unscathed.

Plaudite, acta est fabula.

ZTD is the video game equivalent of the sibling who needs to be shoved into a locker.

Listen, I knew this game would be a joke going in. I had hoped that it would prove me wrong, but the first few minutes proved that would be a laughable idea.

There's so many things this game does that simply do not make any sort of sense. Take the structure of the game, instead of following a branching pathway like 999 and VLR, it takes a new approach to how the story reveals itself by letting the player choose fragments. These fragments misses the mark on what made 999 and VLR so enjoyable structure wise. Zero Time Dilemma's fragments feels like an attempt to do something new and interesting, but ultimately misunderstood what made past Zero Escape so enjoyable.

Not to mention the story is insane in how unbearably mediocre it is. For the brunt of the game, you're spending time being confused about the questions presented. You find yourself making theories, drawing conclusions, combing for answers in dialogue. But once the curtain is drawn, all you see is a dirty wall full of answers that just aren't coherent. All the set up from VLR is thrown out the window for some of the most redundant and meaningless plotlines of the whole series.

Take for example, there's backstories for two new characters. It doesn't reveal a ton about either of them, but it's information that should increase your understanding of the presented situation. Do they though

No, they do not. In 999 when a character reveals something about themselves, there is some usually some connection with a larger image. Not in ZTD. It sucks because some character moments are really good. One of the reasons it's 2 stars instead of 1.5 or 1.

At least the gameplay is fine, right?? Well... I didn't enjoy the puzzle rooms as much as VLR, but they were actually pretty good most of the time. Some decent puzzles, lots of fun to be had with them.

Why the hell did they go from novel to cutscenes? They did not have to spend the money on creating full cutscenes. The visual novel aspect of VLR was not broke, they didn't need to "fix" it. All they do is make playing the game more miserable. Also due in part to the 3ds' power, and whatever budget they had (probably low) the quality of the cutscenes are pretty... poor. Lip sync is off, movements are rushed with little weight, things clip and don't connect. It's not an unmitigated disaster. But it ain't good.

Simply put, this game is a poor final entry in a series that deserved better. So many loose strings left open in the series finale that now sit in a grave, only to be explored by people willing to create fan fiction, an unfortunate death. Still, I'm glad it exists. Many adore it on the virtue of being really freaking bad. I treated it as a comedy and still had fun. I just wish I enjoyed it for reasons that would make it a good game.

I give this game a "now THIS is podracing!" ;)/10

A mess of a trilogy closer, downgraded on every front from its progenitors, unable to meet its high ambitions. It's not without merit, but it's extremely hit or miss. Its approach to chronologically ambiguous storytelling is maybe its only unmarred highlight. Its character beats, puzzles, and twists (of which there are many) peak at "not as well done in the previous two games" and bottom out unfathomably low.

Its attempt to tell a much more harrowing tale than the previous two games is seriously undercut by its mawkish writing, awkward character animations, and stiff voice acting (which reeks of poor direction, not a slight on the VA's talent). Because of these, it often ends up as a farce - comic when it grasps for tragedy, and something to laugh at when it asks the player to laugh with it.

I held hope that Zero Time Dilemma would reward enduring until the end. I wanted to know how ZTD would try to justify the time spent playing it. Unfortunately, that desire was left unfulfilled. No puzzle left a deep, lasting sense of satisfaction. No character development or plot arc gave any kind of meaningful insight. No twist or mystery electrified my mind racing with excitement or fascination. All that it left was a beleaguered shrug of exhaustion: "Well, I guess that happened."

Life is simply unfair, don't you think?

Downgrade from 999/VLR but still a solid game in it's own right and a miracle it came out at all, one of my most anticipated games at the time, gets a bit grimdark/edgelord with some of the paths you end up going down to the point of absurdity but I was still engaged throughout still has solid puzzles but the presentation and voice acting is a bit of a downgrade in comparision to it's predesacer, overall really happy with how this series ending other then one group that feels like it didnt get fully wrapped up, was not a fan of most if not all of the new characters, Q's path was definitely my least favorite, With Carlos' being may favorite due to my attachment to the 999 cast, definitely worth playing to see how this all wraps up but maybe not the best to start with if you are new to the series

8/10

good parts of this game:
- time travel pod sex
- sigma boob equality
bad parts of this game:
- story
- themes
- graphics
- design