This game truly exceeded my expectations.
Coming from 999, which I thought (and I still think) was a really solid piece of media, I was like "Hey, that game was really good as a standalone experience, how could they follow the formula?"
The answer is simple, reusing it. It's not a bad formula, considering there are a LOT of video games that use the same "claustrophobic adventure death game" formula, surely this one will fit right in. And surely, it does.
999 served as a really good base for this game, knowing the nature of the espers which can basically traverse different timelines sending their current conciousness to a previous self, or transmitting a message to the past or future, makes it so this game makes total sense in the script.
Virtue's Last Reward offers us the same "we're trapped here, we don't know where we are but we are forced to do this if not we die" situation, this time with a more active game of death and a lot of more options that branch different paths and different endings depending on which one you choose. This time the game has a really big sci-fi focus, and having no shame in showing it all over your face, it's a really well written story of its kind and I didn't feel like it was a letdown from the previous entry, especially the endings and the true one.
There's virtually not much I could say about this without gushing about the true ending, but I'll just say it's a mind fuck, and you've better come prepared from Steins;Gate or something because some scientific terms and "big words" show up from time to time.
So far, this was a really nice read, only complaints were the fact that it wasn't really bingeable like 999 due to it's long duration, the fact that (at first) the game doesn't hook you that well, thanks to Spike Chunsoft not giving Uchikoshi his fair budget the game lacks on the visual department, animations and they didn't even give Sigma voice acting!
It also takes a while to get hooked on the story, due to same events repeating per route and some puzzles making it seem like bullshit. But the payoff is huge, and if you're willing to read it all the way through, you will not be disappointed.
Coming from 999, which I thought (and I still think) was a really solid piece of media, I was like "Hey, that game was really good as a standalone experience, how could they follow the formula?"
The answer is simple, reusing it. It's not a bad formula, considering there are a LOT of video games that use the same "claustrophobic adventure death game" formula, surely this one will fit right in. And surely, it does.
999 served as a really good base for this game, knowing the nature of the espers which can basically traverse different timelines sending their current conciousness to a previous self, or transmitting a message to the past or future, makes it so this game makes total sense in the script.
Virtue's Last Reward offers us the same "we're trapped here, we don't know where we are but we are forced to do this if not we die" situation, this time with a more active game of death and a lot of more options that branch different paths and different endings depending on which one you choose. This time the game has a really big sci-fi focus, and having no shame in showing it all over your face, it's a really well written story of its kind and I didn't feel like it was a letdown from the previous entry, especially the endings and the true one.
There's virtually not much I could say about this without gushing about the true ending, but I'll just say it's a mind fuck, and you've better come prepared from Steins;Gate or something because some scientific terms and "big words" show up from time to time.
So far, this was a really nice read, only complaints were the fact that it wasn't really bingeable like 999 due to it's long duration, the fact that (at first) the game doesn't hook you that well, thanks to Spike Chunsoft not giving Uchikoshi his fair budget the game lacks on the visual department, animations and they didn't even give Sigma voice acting!
It also takes a while to get hooked on the story, due to same events repeating per route and some puzzles making it seem like bullshit. But the payoff is huge, and if you're willing to read it all the way through, you will not be disappointed.