Since I recently completed this game for the 52 Game Challenge and spent 50 hours total on it, I figured I'd take the time to write out all of my thoughts and feelings on this game. Because hoooo boy... there's a lot to discuss.

For context: Virtue's Last Reward is the second game of the Zero Escape trilogy. I completed the first game, 999 (Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors), back in 2022 after getting both the first and second game on sale. The main aspect of the games is puzzle solving, and I'm a sucker for puzzle games (especially the classic JRPG maker games like Ib, Misao, Mad Father, etc.). Along with the puzzles, there's a mystery that unfolds in the style of a visual novel. So lots of text, lots of reading, moving sprites... you get the idea. 

I will say that overall I enjoyed 999, but the ending started to lose me. Certain things about the story just kept getting more complicated and needlessly dragged on. The conclusion also felt a bit lackluster given how open-ended it was, but I figured that since there was a second game, a lot of that stuff would get answered. Overall, the puzzles were fun, the characters were a bit annoying at times, but not insufferable, and it was fairly simple to 100% the game.

...And then we get to Virtue's Last Reward. Still focused on puzzles, still primarily plays like a visual novel, and still stuffed with tons of philosophical concepts.

At the start, I was vibing with the game. I was enjoying the puzzles, getting into the mystery, and enjoying some of the interactions between characters. But as the game went on, its problems started to become more and more apparent. Everything that I didn't like about 999 became amplified in this game. Having to play as a 20-something year old man who makes uncomfortable comments about women and practically begs for them to do certain things gets really old, really fast. Spoilers about one of the twists:

The awkward comments at women weren't the only obnoxious interactions though. The game's dialogue starts to get really repetitive, especially if you're trying to 100% it. You wanna hear Phi tell Sigma that he doesn't need to ask her before doing everything? Good, because you're gonna hear it over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over... And that's not even with the repeated cutscenes you have to watch to get through every route. I can live with having to watch some cutscenes, because inevitably in a game with branching routes, some of them are going to have overlap. And that's fine. But when you're repeating dialogue that isn't part of those cutscenes and doing it time and time again, it becomes grating.

Along with the repeated dialogue, you also get long-winded, sometimes unnecessary explanations. But for every half hour long explanation about things you already know, you get a thirty second explanation about things that make no sense and are never mentioned again. Those philosophical concepts I was talking about? You'll feel like you're taking a 101 course on it. All the time traveling and transferal of consciousness across time and space which is integral to the plot? Good luck understanding all of that, especially after having to listen to a character monologue for an hour straight. (At one point, I did just start crocheting during these parts).

I think my biggest letdown with this game is how bogged down it gets with trying to be clever. Once you hit a certain point, the game just keeps throwing in twist after twist in an effort to say "Ha! Gotcha! Didn't see that one coming, did ya?" But when you're hit with so many attempts to subvert expectations, it just becomes an incomprehensible mess. The rules of the universe they've established start to blur, the characters they pulled in from the first game don't even feel like they have much of a purpose for being there other than fan bait, and it's impossible to keep all the details straight. The game itself even fully admits in some of the "Secrets" that not everything is explained. Which would be fine if, again, you didn't explain what Schrödinger's Cat was 50 times while barely mentioning anything about the core mysteries of the game. I'm sure there's some answer to this like "well, if you pay attention to those concepts, you could solve the mystery", but that feels like a pretentious way of doing it. By the way, I have yet to see anyone online have a good answer for what actually happened in this game.

And with all this explaining going on, the main draw of this game for me, which were the puzzles, really start to take a back seat. The game seems to almost treat the escape rooms like a nuisance getting in the way of the plot (which I guess makes sense with the narrative, but it's still disappointing to me).

The ending, even more so than the first game, felt disappointing and confusing. By the time I got the "Alternative"/Final ending, my brain had just completely melted. I had no idea what anyone was talking about, and the final cliffhanger just felt like another attempt at putting in a twist with no logical way of finding the answer to it. 

I could probably keep going, but I'll stop there. All in all, I would say if you're interested in this series, play the first game and stop. From my experience with this game and from what I've heard about the third game, the first game is the best of what the series has to offer. So if you're just looking for a game where you can solve puzzles with an escape room type of vibe, play 999. Then look for other games. Please. Don't repeat my mistakes.

Sincerely,

A Puzzle Game Enthusiast