I'm sorry, am I meant to be angry? Am I supposed to be mad that this game sucks ass? It is genuinely hilarious how bad every aspect of this game is. I can't help but laugh anytime I imagine someone who unironically thought Zero Time Dilemma was the best visual novel ever made back in 2012, waiting day after day that the sequel to your favorite series (which might I add only continued due to fan support) strikes lightning in a bottle twice, and when it finally does, you get this shit. How can I be mad? This is hilarious!
Zero Time Dilemma is the Shenmue 3 of Visual Novels, the Hunt Down The Freeman of mystery stories, and the fact that this was well recieved upon release only fuels my conviction that Uchikoshi is a hack with Naoki Urasawa Syndrome and can only write the same mystery story every time no matter how many stories he makes. The schadenfreude I get from shit talking this game is unparalleled, there's really no point in trying to make a coherent train of thought for ZTD but since it's so bad it warps itself into being funny, I think there are a few noteworthy thinks that make it an enjoyable experience compared to Virtue's Last Reward for me despite my score.
- The model quality is a surprising step up from VLR but jesus the animations on these are hilariously awful, Eric is always laughing no matter the occasion, the lip flaps aren't even close to matching on either language and everyone moves like puppets on a string, it makes Sonic Adventure 2's cutscenes look professional.
- What I tend to like the most about visual novels is how you can read the story at your own pace, be it a speedreader or an overanalyser, everyone can process the story at different intervals that make them comfortable with the experience. Throwing that out the window is a daringly bold move if you don't consider that they were trying to rip off telltale games's approach to gameplay with cutscene work that only rivals Yandere Simulator
- The escape rooms are pretty much the only thing that is consistent with the rest of the series to compensate for the neutered returning characters, but the flowchart is probably the worst one of out all, not only is it needlessly long, but the disordered nature of it's structure means you'll be clicking aimlessly through out of order events which feel like extremely inconsequential stepping stones until you reach that wet fart of an ending.
- It is clear that Uchikoshi wrote himself into a corner since VTL, and though I can feel pity on him, Zero escape is nowhere near the top 5 most convoluted and complex video game narratives, let alone for visual novels, so he only has himself to blame for making this jenga tower of a plot structure and failing to stick the landing.
- Multiverse theory is a load of horseshit and did irreperable damage to science fiction.
Zero Time Dilemma is the Shenmue 3 of Visual Novels, the Hunt Down The Freeman of mystery stories, and the fact that this was well recieved upon release only fuels my conviction that Uchikoshi is a hack with Naoki Urasawa Syndrome and can only write the same mystery story every time no matter how many stories he makes. The schadenfreude I get from shit talking this game is unparalleled, there's really no point in trying to make a coherent train of thought for ZTD but since it's so bad it warps itself into being funny, I think there are a few noteworthy thinks that make it an enjoyable experience compared to Virtue's Last Reward for me despite my score.
- The model quality is a surprising step up from VLR but jesus the animations on these are hilariously awful, Eric is always laughing no matter the occasion, the lip flaps aren't even close to matching on either language and everyone moves like puppets on a string, it makes Sonic Adventure 2's cutscenes look professional.
- What I tend to like the most about visual novels is how you can read the story at your own pace, be it a speedreader or an overanalyser, everyone can process the story at different intervals that make them comfortable with the experience. Throwing that out the window is a daringly bold move if you don't consider that they were trying to rip off telltale games's approach to gameplay with cutscene work that only rivals Yandere Simulator
- The escape rooms are pretty much the only thing that is consistent with the rest of the series to compensate for the neutered returning characters, but the flowchart is probably the worst one of out all, not only is it needlessly long, but the disordered nature of it's structure means you'll be clicking aimlessly through out of order events which feel like extremely inconsequential stepping stones until you reach that wet fart of an ending.
- It is clear that Uchikoshi wrote himself into a corner since VTL, and though I can feel pity on him, Zero escape is nowhere near the top 5 most convoluted and complex video game narratives, let alone for visual novels, so he only has himself to blame for making this jenga tower of a plot structure and failing to stick the landing.
- Multiverse theory is a load of horseshit and did irreperable damage to science fiction.