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Zero Time Dilemma

Zero Time Dilemma,[b] also known as Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma, is an adventure video game developed by Chime, and published by Spike Chunsoft and Aksys Games. It is the third entry in the Zero Escape series, following Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (2009) and Virtue's Last Reward (2012). The game was released for Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita, and Microsoft Windows in 2016, for PlayStation 4 in 2017, and for Xbox One in 2022. As of December 2021, it is no longer available for purchase on the North American and European Nintendo eShop.

Zero Time Dilemma
North American cover art
Developer(s)Chime
Publisher(s)
Director(s)Kotaro Uchikoshi
Designer(s)Akira Okada[1]
Artist(s)Rui Tomono
Writer(s)
  • Kotaro Uchikoshi
  • Ken Shimomura[1]
  • Makoto Yodawara[1]
Composer(s)Shinji Hosoe
SeriesZero Escape
Platform(s)
ReleaseNintendo 3DS, PS Vita
  • NA/EU: June 28, 2016
  • JP: June 30, 2016
Microsoft Windows
  • WW: June 30, 2016
PlayStation 4
  • JP: August 17, 2017
  • NA: August 18, 2017
  • EU: September 8, 2017
Xbox One
  • WW: August 30, 2022
Genre(s)Adventure, visual novel, escape the room
Mode(s)Single-player

The story is set between the previous two games, and follows nine people who are kidnapped by a masked person known as Zero. They are divided into three teams, and forced to play a death game called the "Decision Game". The player takes the roles of three of the characters, and plays through the chapters the story is made up of: these consist of animated cinematics, escape-the-room puzzles, and moral decisions for the player to make. The chapters represent 90-minute periods, and can be played out of order.

The game was directed and written by series creator Kotaro Uchikoshi, and features music by Shinji Hosoe and character designs by Rui Tomono. Uchikoshi had started planning the game's story in 2012, but the development was put on hiatus due to the commercial failure of the series in Japan. In 2015, development was announced to have resumed in response to high demand from the series' fan base. The game was positively received by critics.

Gameplay edit

 
In the Escape sections, the player searches for clues to be able to solve puzzles and escape from the room.

Zero Time Dilemma is an adventure game consisting of multiple chapters, representing 90-minute periods; chapters consist of narrative sections and escape-the-room puzzle sections.[3][4] The chapters, referred to as "fragments",[3] are chosen through the Floating Fragment system, in which the player gets to choose a fragment to play based on an image and a vague description.[5] The fragments can be played out of order; the characters lose their memory after each 90-minute period, and do not know where they are in the timeline. When the player completes a fragment, they are returned to the Floating Fragment screen, and the completed fragment is placed in a narrative flowchart, indicating where it takes place in the story.[3]

Narrative sections are presented as three-dimensional animated cinematics, with camera movements and full voice acting in Japanese and English.[3] The Escape sections, which include thirteen different rooms,[4] involve the player searching the room for tools and clues through a point-and-click interface in a first-person perspective and solving puzzles.[6][7][8] The puzzles are mostly self-contained, and test the player's problem-solving skills and memory; among these are puzzles where the player has to decipher messages, and ones where they have to align the sides of a three-dimensional object correctly.[4][9]

After completing an Escape section, the player needs to take a stance in a moral decision; one such decision involves one character being locked into a chair with a gun next to it and another character inside an incinerator. To stop the incinerator, the player needs to choose to pull the trigger, which has a 50% possibility of firing a live bullet, killing the character in the chair.[3] The way the decisions are made varies: some involve choosing between options, and some have the player input their own answer.[9]

Plot edit

Setting and characters edit

Zero Time Dilemma is set between the events of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Virtue's Last Reward.[10][11] The game follows nine characters who have been locked up in an underground nuclear bomb shelter and are forced to play a death game called the Decision Game, which is led by a masked person known as Zero. The shelter is divided into three wards, with three people placed in each section, making up three teams: C-Team, Q-Team, and D-Team. To get to the central elevator hall and escape, the characters need six passwords; one password is revealed each time one of them dies.[12] The characters are all wearing watches that inject them with a drug every 90 minutes, inducing memory loss.[3] Heavily involved in the game's lore is the many-worlds theory, where every decision made creates alternate universes where the opposite was chosen; these timelines make up the game's multiple routes.

C-Team includes Carlos, a firefighter with a strong sense of justice; Akane, a member of a secret society working for a peaceful future, and who pretends to be a "neat and clean, ideal Japanese woman"; and Junpei, a childhood friend of Akane's, who has joined a detective agency to find her after she has not been heard from. Q-Team includes a naive amnesiac boy wearing a spherical helmet; Eric, an ice cream shop clerk who easily cracks under pressure; and Mira, who does not show much emotion and is in a relationship with Eric. D-Team includes Diana, a pacifist nurse who dislikes fighting; Phi, an intelligent woman who participated in the Dcom (Dwelling for Experimental Cohabitation of Mars) experiment together with Akane and Sigma to save the world from the Radical-6 virus; and Sigma, a 67-year-old man in the body of a 22-year-old. Additionally, there is a dog named Gab who is able to pass through vents between the sections to deliver messages between the teams.[12]

Synopsis edit

The nine participants of the Dcom experiment are kidnapped by a masked individual known as Zero, who makes them play a coin toss; if they win, they are set free with no memory of what happened, and if they lose they awake in a facility separated into three wards, with one team in each. After losing, they are forced to play the "Decision Game", and submit a vote for one of the teams; the one with the most votes gets executed. At this point, the story starts branching into different timelines depending on player choices.

In one timeline, Phi is killed, and Diana and Sigma are trapped in the facility. They discover a transporter device, which they use to send copies of themselves to another timeline; their original selves remain, however, and the transporter takes ten months to recharge. They begin a relationship, and Diana later gives birth to fraternal twins, a boy and a girl whom they name Delta and Phi. Using the recharged transporter, they send the babies to the past, to keep them safe from Zero. In another timeline, Akane realizes that Carlos can send his consciousness between timelines in times of danger, which she calls "Spacetime Human Internal Fluctuating Transfer", or "shifting". Through the resonance from Carlos's ability, C-Team shifts between timelines to collect passwords, but Zero sends the boy in the helmet – revealed to be a humanoid robot named Sean – to attack them for violating the rules.

Carlos flees by shifting to the timeline that the copies of Diana and Sigma had been transported to. Diana and Sigma reach a room with sleeping pods, where they find and wake up Eric and Sean, and find the dead bodies of the remaining participants. Armed with a shotgun, Eric demands to know who killed Mira; Carlos says that he must be innocent as he was in the C Ward, but Diana realizes that the wards are not separate: there is only one lounge, which changes its appearance using projection mapping. They realize that only one team is active at a time, while the rest are kept asleep in the pods. Sean reveals Zero's true identity: he is Delta, an elderly man thought to be wheelchair-bound, deaf, blind and mute, who had been with Q-Team the entire time, but off-camera from the player's perspective. He admits that he killed Mira, who is revealed to be a serial killer called the Heart Ripper, and prevents the participants from escaping by using his esper abilities to make Eric shoot everyone but Diana.

In the timeline leading to the events of Virtue's Last Reward, Phi is infected with Radical-6, which has a 75% possibility of causing suicidal intention. Junpei and Akane learn that Zero caused a Radical-6 outbreak in the hopes that it would kill a religious fanatic who would cause the complete extinction of humanity; Radical-6 was seen as the lesser evil, as it would allow two billion people to survive. In the timeline where no teams were executed, the participants who are able to shift recall their memories from previous timelines. Delta says that he ran the Decision Game to ensure his and Phi's birth, and to cause epigenetic changes in Diana and Sigma, giving Phi the ability to shift and Delta the ability to read minds and briefly control others' bodies.

The participants activate the "force quit box" in the lounge, starting the facility's self-destruct sequence. Akane realizes that the impending danger and the resonance of the gathered shifters would allow the participants to shift to the timeline where they won the coin toss and were freed. After shifting, they threaten to call the police on Delta, but he points out that he has not committed any crimes in the current timeline. He says that there will be no Radical-6 outbreak in this timeline, meaning that mankind will go extinct, but that the participants now are determined to change the future; he says that one of his goals was to get them into this frame of mind. He gives Carlos a handgun with the choice of killing Delta or letting him live, saying that the fate of humanity is on the line. The game ends with Carlos aiming the gun.

In the epilogues, Carlos' sister recovers from an illness and also gains the ability to jump between timelines. Carlos has become a brother figure to Akane and Junpei, who are to be married, and the three of them vow to stop the religious extremist. Mira has turned herself in for her killings and married Eric, but Sean breaks her out of prison so that they can use the transporter to stop Mira from committing her murders in the past. The Phi of 1904 is speculated to have become a researcher who studied the transporter well into her 100s.

Development edit

 
The game was directed by Kotaro Uchikoshi, who intended it to be the last entry in the series.

Zero Time Dilemma was developed by Chime,[13] and directed and written by Kotaro Uchikoshi,[14] with music composed by Shinji Hosoe.[15] Uchikoshi first mentioned details of a third Zero Escape game in 2012,[16] stating that it would be the last entry in the series;[17] by 2013, he said that he had finished planning the story, but that development had not yet begun.[18] In February 2014, the project was put on hold indefinitely in response to the series' poor commercial reception in Japan.[19][20]

Uchikoshi examined the possibility of financing the development through the use of crowdfunding on a website like Kickstarter, but felt that the idea would not be persuasive enough for it to meet the goal; he also sought out opportunities with executives and investors.[19] The series' fandom created Operation Bluebird, an online campaign to raise awareness of the series and support the game's development, in response to its hiatus.[21][22] When delivering the pitch for the game, Uchikoshi opened with a fan-made vocal rendition of the series theme song, "Morphogenetic Sorrow"; he considered this a major point in getting the project approved.[23] At the 2015 Anime Expo in July, Aksys Games announced that development of the third game had been resumed,[24] citing the high demand and awareness for the game as key factors for its reevaluation.[25] By March 2016, development was 80% finished.[15] The porting of the game to Microsoft Windows was handled by Chime, with consultation from Abstraction Games, who had previously worked on Microsoft Windows ports for the Danganronpa series.[26][27]

For the music, Uchikoshi wrote down directions about the mood and concept of the game, describing it as "sad and lonely, like a worn-out record", and "dark and visceral". Hosoe described the music as generally less melodic: because they could not make the music hit on cue like in film, they decided during the planning stage to include silence in the soundtrack, so Hosoe created atmospheric tracks to be used as background noise. Because the Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors characters Junpei and Akane and the Virtue's Last Reward characters Sigma and Phi appear in the game, Uchikoshi decided to have arrangements of songs from those two games included in the soundtrack. He also had the songs "Digital Root" and "Trepidation", which had been used in both previous games, be included, as he saw them as a sort of theme songs that tie the games together as a series, similarly to "The Imperial March" from the Star Wars films. Hosoe received a list of what songs were to be rearranged and how they were to be used within the game, and was asked to compose a total of 45 songs; he did however end up composing nearly 70 songs, ensuring that they had something that fit every situation in the game. For the ending theme, Hosoe incorporated several callbacks to songs from the previous games as "a sendoff for the series", leading into "Morphogenetic Sorrow".[23]

Two puzzle creators were enlisted with designing the escape-the-room scenarios; Uchikoshi described one of them as creating "orthodox" puzzles, and the other, Strider creator Kouichi Yotsui, as creating "unique and out-of-the-box" types of puzzles. He gave them a rough idea of what he wanted each puzzle to convey and how he wanted them to resolve. The puzzle designers would come up with a draft, which he would finalize together with them.[28]

Story and themes edit

The game was originally planned to be developed simultaneously with the previous Zero Escape game, Virtue's Last Reward,[29] with the two games being "paired as a set",[30] and with Virtue's Last Reward having a cliffhanger ending.[20] With Zero Time Dilemma, Uchikoshi intended to resolve all mysteries left from the previous game, as well as all introduced in the third,[30] while also attempting to make the story enjoyable for first-time players.[15] This was used as a "basic framework" to write the story within. In addition to figuring out how to explain the mysteries while avoiding contradictions with Virtue's Last Reward, they added side stories to the narrative to give it "a little extra punch". They also took the time-travel ability some characters in Virtue's Last Reward have into consideration, as it opened up for more narrative possibilities. Uchikoshi worked with two other writers; the three helped each other come up with ideas and figure out the best ways to make the story work.[31] When coming up with the story, he knew from the start that he wanted Sigma, Phi and Diana to be on one team, and Akane on another; this left open slots in the teams, which were filled with other characters as story development progressed.[32] The script took one year to write.[28] While Uchikoshi had already had an idea for the setting and events of Zero Time Dilemma when writing Virtue's Last Reward, the game structure changed when the time came to implement it. One reason was that characters "take on a life of their own and make their own decisions" when he writes from their point of view, and that characters might pull the story in a different direction than he had originally planned; most of the time, he would let the story go where the characters want to go rather than forcing it to follow his original plans, leading to changes in story and structure.[31] The budget partly dictated the game's setting in an enclosed space as it required few art assets to develop.[31]

The game's main theme is morality, and it is the game in the series with the largest focus on philosophy; Uchikoshi intends to have the player's "way of thinking, values, [and] virtues" shaken intensely while they play the game.[30] The "dilemma" in the game's title reflects this, as the game asks the player whether choices they make are the right thing to do.[15] Another main theme is identity, and how people try to figure out who they are. This came from Uchikoshi's personal struggles with identity issues: he said that he is "always thinking about who [he is]" and that he thinks he might have a multifaceted personality; his characters, like him, deal with this issue.[31] Among other major themes are "multiple-probability histories", with the player being able to move between different equally probable histories depending on the choices they have made;[28] and the big effects small coincidences can have, which was reflected in the use of randomizing events. The idea to include randomization came from how Uchikoshi wanted to "spoiler-proof" the game, and felt that FAQ websites that tell players how to beat the game make playthroughs uninteresting.[33] He had always been fascinated by the concept of coincidences, and how actions done in the past lead up "where we are today", so he did a lot of research and reading on the topic to prepare writing the story.[31] The theme of no absolute good or evil came from Buddhist literature Uchikoshi had read, particularly the Zen Buddhist idea of "shiki soku zeku", which he described as "matter is void and form is emptiness". Because of this idea, Uchikoshi tried to give each character "their own sense of personal justice that they believe to be true", resulting in characters with different philosophies who play off each other.[33]

While previous Zero Escape titles tell their narratives through visual novel segments, Zero Time Dilemma replaces them with cinema scenes,[5] intended to feel familiar for Western players and "emulate the feel of a big-budget American TV show". To further this effect, the option to turn off the subtitles was included.[29] Due to this more cinematic approach, Uchikoshi was able to make use of his experience with writing the anime series Punch Line (2015).[31] The inspirations for the change in format were Telltale Games' adventure game series The Walking Dead (2012–2019)[5] and Level-5's adventure game Time Travelers (2012).[32] Uchikoshi said that this would make for a lower barrier of entry for people not necessarily interested in visual novels,[29] and that mass appeal is important to Spike Chunsoft, as just a Japanese audience is not enough for the production of adventure games.[5] The non-linear and episodic nature of the game's chapters was done to appeal to more casual players and people new to the series, as they can uncover the story at their own pace without being "railroaded into doing one storyline from start to finish".[29] The use of fragments added some challenge to writing the story: Uchikoshi had to be careful when planning the progression of the story, as changes to one fragment would also affect the fragments surrounding it. When breaking the story up into fragments, he considered what would be the most entertaining for players.[31]

In response to feedback from players, Zero Time Dilemma was intended to be more suspenseful than Virtue's Last Reward:[34] Uchikoshi and the game's producer decided that, as Zero Time Dilemma is the final Zero Escape game, they should no longer hold back and instead do what they had always wanted to do. Because of the life-and-death theme, they felt that there would be less of an impact if they had held back, and that they instead should make the violence in the game "extreme" to make the player's choices hit home.[33] According to Uchikoshi, the development team wanted the player to feel worried, and that the game would be done as he wants it without any changes done for the sake of age ratings:[15] they had originally considered aiming for a CERO D age rating – 17 years or older – but decided to aim for a Z age rating instead, which is the highest age rating in Japan, as they felt they could not get the visual and emotional impact they wanted within a D rating.[33] Despite this, CERO ended up assigning the game a D rating.[35]

Character design edit

The game's characters were designed by Rui Tomono; Uchikoshi had considered asking Kinu Nishimura, the character designer for the previous two games in the series, to return, but wanted to show that the series had changed significantly. He also felt that, as the production had moved from backgrounds and drawn characters to 3D cinematics, "more impressive design" was needed, and that Tomono's designs were likely to be accepted internationally while still feeling Japanese.[15] Some character designs had to be changed due to technical difficulties with the 3D models: the baggy sleeves of Akane's dress were made tighter; Junpei's jacket was removed;[36] and asymmetrical aspects of Eric's design were removed.[37]

Zero's character design was changed to suit the story's focus on a virus; the character wears a plague doctor mask as opposed to the gas mask worn in the previous games.[33] Carlos was designed to clearly communicate his occupation as a firefighter: he was given scars on his arms, a tight t-shirt and shirt to help show off his muscular build and silhouette, and an axe embroidery on his shirt pocket. Because Akane is Japanese, her design incorporated Japanese elements such as the use of straight lines on her top and a belt to emulate the look of a kimono and a kimono sash. The black color of the belt was meant to represent her hidden dark side, while the belt chains represented things that constrict her. The top halves of her sleeves were initially going to be pastel purple to make sure that the design was not too dark and that it contrasted against Junpei's more monochromatic design; this was changed for the final model, however, with Tomono noting that the use of purple might be better for a mentally unstable character. Similarly, Akane was given blue accents to contrast against Junpei's reds. Junpei was redesigned to fit his jaded personality in Zero Time Dilemma as his previous design in Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors felt "childish" and clashing. His design process was difficult, with the development team going through many design proposals.[36]

Sean was originally meant to wear a cubic helmet, but Tomono presented a spherical design instead, which Uchikoshi described as "everything I didn't know I wanted". Mira was designed to continue the series tradition of having a "sexy femme fatale" character in each game: she was given an open track jacket and a bikini-like top to show off her cleavage, and a jiggle effect was added to her 3D model. Eric's design and 3D modelling went smoothly, with Chime saying that some faces are easier to model than others. Tomono wanted him to specifically have a Caucasian chin and brow, but noted that they had to be careful to not go too far with it, to avoid a too realistic look.[37] Diana's design was difficult to recreate in 3D, with the initial model having "really chubby chipmunk cheeks", but was worked on until it matched the design. She was also difficult to animate, due to her long skirt. Phi was originally shorter and had bigger eyes, but after she was given glasses, it was decided that she should look more like a model to match the stylish look of her short hair and glasses. Parts of Sigma's design from Virtue's Last Reward were incorporated into his new one, in the form of embroidery on his polo shirt.[38]

Promotion and release edit

In March 2015, Aksys Games launched the website 4infinity.co, which consisted of a countdown timer;[39] the countdown ended in July, coinciding with the game's announcement at Anime Expo.[24] The game's title and logo were revealed in October,[40] and in December, a teaser Twitter account was launched, revealing artwork of characters from the game.[41] The game was unveiled during a presentation in March 2016.[42] The Japanese release uses the English series title, Zero Escape, instead of the Kyokugen Dasshutsu (極限脱出, "Extreme Escape") title used for previous Japanese releases, as the developers wanted to renew the series' image and bring over the Western title to Japan.[15]

Unlike previous Zero Escape games, the game was localized alongside the production of the Japanese version:[24] it was published by Aksys Games for the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita in North America and Europe on June 28, 2016, with a Japanese release following on June 30.[43] A Microsoft Windows version was released worldwide by Spike Chunsoft on June 30.[44][45][46] The game was released digitally and physically on the Nintendo 3DS and the PlayStation Vita in North America, and digitally only in Europe.[40] The PlayStation Vita version is compatible with the PlayStation TV.[47] The Nintendo 3DS version does not support the system's stereoscopic 3D effect.[48] A PlayStation 4 version with improved lighting and shading was released in Japan on August 17, 2017 and in North America the following day.[49][50][51] It was released in Europe on September 8, with Rising Star Games assisting Aksys Games by distributing the retail copies.[52] An Xbox One version was released on August 30, 2022.[53]

In North America, a limited edition that includes a wristwatch was released.[54] Because the watches were damaged in transit, they were delayed and sent separately from the game.[55] Japanese pre-ordered copies came bundled with the 48-page Zero Escape: Premium Booklet, which includes production material, illustrations by Tomono, summaries of the previous two Zero Escape games, and a prequel written by Uchikoshi;[56] a digital edition of the booklet was bundled with the Microsoft Windows release, together with a portion of the game's soundtrack.[57] Aksys plans to release the booklet separately from the game,[46] and is also considering releasing other merchandise based on the game.[47] According to Hosoe, his company, Supersweep, which published the soundtrack albums for the previous games, is considering publishing an album for Zero Time Dilemma too.[23]

Reception edit

Zero Time Dilemma was well received by critics on all platforms,[58][59][60][61] and was the second-best reviewed PlayStation Vita game of 2016 on Metacritic, after Steins;Gate 0.[68] During its opening week in Japan, it sold 5,375 copies on the PlayStation Vita and 3,916 copies on the Nintendo 3DS, for a total of 9,291 copies sold.[69] It was the third best selling digital PlayStation Vita game of June 2016 in Europe, despite being released three days before the end of the month.[70] The Steam release had an estimated total of 38,000 players by July 2018.[71]

Famitsu's four reviewers enjoyed the game's setup of three different teams and non-chronological plot progression, with the player getting a greater understanding of the story as they play; one of them said that learning what was going on in the fragments was "fantastic", and that they liked the emphasis on "interpersonal human drama". Another of them commented that the "light banter" dialogue is helpful in motivating the player. One of them said that the game would be enjoyable even for players who have not played previous entries in the series.[63]

The reviewers at Famitsu noted that the puzzle rooms were challenging and fun, but wished that the game had included a hint function for people who primarily play the game for the story; one of the reviewers also commented that the way the player uses items is difficult at some points. They appreciated how the puzzle rooms, unlike many other escape-the-room games, do not feel artificial.[63] IGN praised the "inventive" puzzles, "stellar" storytelling, darker tone, decisions and consequences, "beautiful character moments", and "mind-bending plot".[9]

Destructoid called the game a "hallmark of excellence" ruined only by the "abysmal presentation" of the cut scenes.[4] One reviewer at Famitsu liked how the game allows the player to skip past already viewed cutscenes, while another commented that the cutscenes are not perfectly lip-synched to the Japanese voice acting.[63]

The game has won or been nominated for some awards: it won Destructoid's award for the best PlayStation Vita game of 2016,[72] Game Informer's award for the best ending in an adventure game of 2016,[73] and RPGFan's Reader's Choice award in the adventure games and visual novels category.[74] It was a runner-up for Hardcore Gamer's Best Story, Best Voice Acting and Best PlayStation Vita Game of 2016 awards,[75][76] and was nominated for IGN's Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita games of the year awards.[77][78] It was selected for two of RPGFan's Editors' Awards: Peter Triezenberg ranked it as the fifth best game of the year,[79] while Robert Fenner selected it for his Most Disappointing category;[80] and Mira was included on Destructoid's list of their favorite new video game characters of 2016.[81]

Notes edit

  1. ^ Published the game on all platforms in Japan, and on Windows via Steam worldwide
  2. ^ Known in Japan as Zero Escape: Toki no Jirenma (Japanese: ZERO ESCAPE 刻のジレンマ, "Zero Escape: Time Dilemma")[2]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c Chime (2016-06-28). Zero Time Dilemmma (PlayStation Vita). Spike Chunsoft. Scene: credits.
  2. ^ "【先出し週刊ファミ通】『極限脱出』シリーズついに完結! 『ZERO ESCAPE 刻のジレンマ』ニンテンドー3DS&PS Vitaで発売決定(2016年3月10日発売号)". Famitsu (in Japanese). Enterbrain. 2016-03-08. from the original on 2016-03-08. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Schreier, Jason (2016-03-16). "Everything We Just Learned About Zero Escape 3: Zero Time Dilemma". Kotaku. Gizmodo Media Group. from the original on 2016-03-17. Retrieved 2016-03-17.
  4. ^ a b c d e Andriessen, CJ (2016-06-23). "Review: Zero Time Dilemma". Destructoid. Modern Method. from the original on 2016-09-02. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
  5. ^ a b c d Mackey, Bob (2016-03-17). "Zero Time Dilemma Brings Spike-Chunsoft's Sci-Fi Thriller to a New Frontier". USgamer. Gamer Network. from the original on 2016-03-17. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  6. ^ a b Frank, Allegra (2016-06-29). "Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma Review". Polygon. Vox Media. from the original on 2016-07-02. Retrieved 2016-06-30.
  7. ^ LeClair, Kyle (2016-06-23). "Review: Zero Time Dilemma". Hardcore Gamer. from the original on 2016-06-24. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
  8. ^ Kemps, Heidi (2016-06-25). "Zero Time Dilemma". Anime News Network. from the original on 2016-09-30. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
  9. ^ a b c d Koczwara, Michael (2016-06-29). "Zero Time Dilemma Review". IGN. Ziff Davis. from the original on 2016-07-01. Retrieved 2016-06-30.
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  12. ^ a b Romano, Sal (2016-03-14). "Zero Time Dilemma prologue and characters detailed; first trailer coming March 17". Gematsu. from the original on 2016-03-15. Retrieved 2016-03-17.
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  15. ^ a b c d e f g Romano, Sal (2016-03-08). "Zero Time Dilemma participants announced [Update 2]". Gematsu. from the original on 2016-03-09. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  16. ^ Ponce, Tony (2012-12-02). "Zero Escape writer talks early third game details". Destructoid. Modern Method. from the original on 2013-05-29. Retrieved 2015-07-21.
  17. ^ Uchikoshi, Kotaro (2013-01-25). "Yes, last one. ZE will be the trilogy". from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-06-08 – via Twitter.
  18. ^ Hoffman, Chris (2013-06-27). "Zero Escape's creator discusses the series' past and future". GamesRadar. Future plc. from the original on 2015-07-07. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  19. ^ a b Smith, Carly (2014-02-13). "Zero Escape Conclusion Put on Hold Indefinitely". The Escapist. Defy Media. from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
  20. ^ a b Hansen, Steven (2014-02-13). "Zero Escape not profitable in Japan, trilogy end on hold". Destructoid. Modern Method. from the original on 2014-07-07. Retrieved 2015-07-21.
  21. ^ Schreier, Jason (2014-02-17). "Fans Fight To Bring Virtue's Last Reward Back To Life". Kotaku. Gizmodo Media Group. from the original on 2015-04-14. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
  22. ^ Chieng, Kevin (2014-02-17). . GameTrailers. Defy Media. Archived from the original on 2014-03-02. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
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External links edit

  • Official website

zero, time, dilemma, also, known, zero, escape, adventure, video, game, developed, chime, published, spike, chunsoft, aksys, games, third, entry, zero, escape, series, following, nine, hours, nine, persons, nine, doors, 2009, virtue, last, reward, 2012, game, . Zero Time Dilemma b also known as Zero Escape Zero Time Dilemma is an adventure video game developed by Chime and published by Spike Chunsoft and Aksys Games It is the third entry in the Zero Escape series following Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors 2009 and Virtue s Last Reward 2012 The game was released for Nintendo 3DS PlayStation Vita and Microsoft Windows in 2016 for PlayStation 4 in 2017 and for Xbox One in 2022 As of December 2021 it is no longer available for purchase on the North American and European Nintendo eShop Zero Time DilemmaNorth American cover artDeveloper s ChimePublisher s NA EU Aksys GamesWW Spike Chunsoft a Director s Kotaro UchikoshiDesigner s Akira Okada 1 Artist s Rui TomonoWriter s Kotaro UchikoshiKen Shimomura 1 Makoto Yodawara 1 Composer s Shinji HosoeSeriesZero EscapePlatform s Nintendo 3DSPlayStation VitaMicrosoft WindowsPlayStation 4Xbox OneReleaseNintendo 3DS PS VitaNA EU June 28 2016JP June 30 2016Microsoft WindowsWW June 30 2016PlayStation 4JP August 17 2017NA August 18 2017EU September 8 2017Xbox OneWW August 30 2022Genre s Adventure visual novel escape the roomMode s Single playerThe story is set between the previous two games and follows nine people who are kidnapped by a masked person known as Zero They are divided into three teams and forced to play a death game called the Decision Game The player takes the roles of three of the characters and plays through the chapters the story is made up of these consist of animated cinematics escape the room puzzles and moral decisions for the player to make The chapters represent 90 minute periods and can be played out of order The game was directed and written by series creator Kotaro Uchikoshi and features music by Shinji Hosoe and character designs by Rui Tomono Uchikoshi had started planning the game s story in 2012 but the development was put on hiatus due to the commercial failure of the series in Japan In 2015 development was announced to have resumed in response to high demand from the series fan base The game was positively received by critics Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Plot 2 1 Setting and characters 2 2 Synopsis 3 Development 3 1 Story and themes 3 2 Character design 4 Promotion and release 5 Reception 6 Notes 7 References 8 External linksGameplay edit nbsp In the Escape sections the player searches for clues to be able to solve puzzles and escape from the room Zero Time Dilemma is an adventure game consisting of multiple chapters representing 90 minute periods chapters consist of narrative sections and escape the room puzzle sections 3 4 The chapters referred to as fragments 3 are chosen through the Floating Fragment system in which the player gets to choose a fragment to play based on an image and a vague description 5 The fragments can be played out of order the characters lose their memory after each 90 minute period and do not know where they are in the timeline When the player completes a fragment they are returned to the Floating Fragment screen and the completed fragment is placed in a narrative flowchart indicating where it takes place in the story 3 Narrative sections are presented as three dimensional animated cinematics with camera movements and full voice acting in Japanese and English 3 The Escape sections which include thirteen different rooms 4 involve the player searching the room for tools and clues through a point and click interface in a first person perspective and solving puzzles 6 7 8 The puzzles are mostly self contained and test the player s problem solving skills and memory among these are puzzles where the player has to decipher messages and ones where they have to align the sides of a three dimensional object correctly 4 9 After completing an Escape section the player needs to take a stance in a moral decision one such decision involves one character being locked into a chair with a gun next to it and another character inside an incinerator To stop the incinerator the player needs to choose to pull the trigger which has a 50 possibility of firing a live bullet killing the character in the chair 3 The way the decisions are made varies some involve choosing between options and some have the player input their own answer 9 Plot editSetting and characters edit Zero Time Dilemma is set between the events of Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors and Virtue s Last Reward 10 11 The game follows nine characters who have been locked up in an underground nuclear bomb shelter and are forced to play a death game called the Decision Game which is led by a masked person known as Zero The shelter is divided into three wards with three people placed in each section making up three teams C Team Q Team and D Team To get to the central elevator hall and escape the characters need six passwords one password is revealed each time one of them dies 12 The characters are all wearing watches that inject them with a drug every 90 minutes inducing memory loss 3 Heavily involved in the game s lore is the many worlds theory where every decision made creates alternate universes where the opposite was chosen these timelines make up the game s multiple routes C Team includes Carlos a firefighter with a strong sense of justice Akane a member of a secret society working for a peaceful future and who pretends to be a neat and clean ideal Japanese woman and Junpei a childhood friend of Akane s who has joined a detective agency to find her after she has not been heard from Q Team includes a naive amnesiac boy wearing a spherical helmet Eric an ice cream shop clerk who easily cracks under pressure and Mira who does not show much emotion and is in a relationship with Eric D Team includes Diana a pacifist nurse who dislikes fighting Phi an intelligent woman who participated in the Dcom Dwelling for Experimental Cohabitation of Mars experiment together with Akane and Sigma to save the world from the Radical 6 virus and Sigma a 67 year old man in the body of a 22 year old Additionally there is a dog named Gab who is able to pass through vents between the sections to deliver messages between the teams 12 Synopsis edit The nine participants of the Dcom experiment are kidnapped by a masked individual known as Zero who makes them play a coin toss if they win they are set free with no memory of what happened and if they lose they awake in a facility separated into three wards with one team in each After losing they are forced to play the Decision Game and submit a vote for one of the teams the one with the most votes gets executed At this point the story starts branching into different timelines depending on player choices In one timeline Phi is killed and Diana and Sigma are trapped in the facility They discover a transporter device which they use to send copies of themselves to another timeline their original selves remain however and the transporter takes ten months to recharge They begin a relationship and Diana later gives birth to fraternal twins a boy and a girl whom they name Delta and Phi Using the recharged transporter they send the babies to the past to keep them safe from Zero In another timeline Akane realizes that Carlos can send his consciousness between timelines in times of danger which she calls Spacetime Human Internal Fluctuating Transfer or shifting Through the resonance from Carlos s ability C Team shifts between timelines to collect passwords but Zero sends the boy in the helmet revealed to be a humanoid robot named Sean to attack them for violating the rules Carlos flees by shifting to the timeline that the copies of Diana and Sigma had been transported to Diana and Sigma reach a room with sleeping pods where they find and wake up Eric and Sean and find the dead bodies of the remaining participants Armed with a shotgun Eric demands to know who killed Mira Carlos says that he must be innocent as he was in the C Ward but Diana realizes that the wards are not separate there is only one lounge which changes its appearance using projection mapping They realize that only one team is active at a time while the rest are kept asleep in the pods Sean reveals Zero s true identity he is Delta an elderly man thought to be wheelchair bound deaf blind and mute who had been with Q Team the entire time but off camera from the player s perspective He admits that he killed Mira who is revealed to be a serial killer called the Heart Ripper and prevents the participants from escaping by using his esper abilities to make Eric shoot everyone but Diana In the timeline leading to the events of Virtue s Last Reward Phi is infected with Radical 6 which has a 75 possibility of causing suicidal intention Junpei and Akane learn that Zero caused a Radical 6 outbreak in the hopes that it would kill a religious fanatic who would cause the complete extinction of humanity Radical 6 was seen as the lesser evil as it would allow two billion people to survive In the timeline where no teams were executed the participants who are able to shift recall their memories from previous timelines Delta says that he ran the Decision Game to ensure his and Phi s birth and to cause epigenetic changes in Diana and Sigma giving Phi the ability to shift and Delta the ability to read minds and briefly control others bodies The participants activate the force quit box in the lounge starting the facility s self destruct sequence Akane realizes that the impending danger and the resonance of the gathered shifters would allow the participants to shift to the timeline where they won the coin toss and were freed After shifting they threaten to call the police on Delta but he points out that he has not committed any crimes in the current timeline He says that there will be no Radical 6 outbreak in this timeline meaning that mankind will go extinct but that the participants now are determined to change the future he says that one of his goals was to get them into this frame of mind He gives Carlos a handgun with the choice of killing Delta or letting him live saying that the fate of humanity is on the line The game ends with Carlos aiming the gun In the epilogues Carlos sister recovers from an illness and also gains the ability to jump between timelines Carlos has become a brother figure to Akane and Junpei who are to be married and the three of them vow to stop the religious extremist Mira has turned herself in for her killings and married Eric but Sean breaks her out of prison so that they can use the transporter to stop Mira from committing her murders in the past The Phi of 1904 is speculated to have become a researcher who studied the transporter well into her 100s Development edit nbsp The game was directed by Kotaro Uchikoshi who intended it to be the last entry in the series Zero Time Dilemma was developed by Chime 13 and directed and written by Kotaro Uchikoshi 14 with music composed by Shinji Hosoe 15 Uchikoshi first mentioned details of a third Zero Escape game in 2012 16 stating that it would be the last entry in the series 17 by 2013 he said that he had finished planning the story but that development had not yet begun 18 In February 2014 the project was put on hold indefinitely in response to the series poor commercial reception in Japan 19 20 Uchikoshi examined the possibility of financing the development through the use of crowdfunding on a website like Kickstarter but felt that the idea would not be persuasive enough for it to meet the goal he also sought out opportunities with executives and investors 19 The series fandom created Operation Bluebird an online campaign to raise awareness of the series and support the game s development in response to its hiatus 21 22 When delivering the pitch for the game Uchikoshi opened with a fan made vocal rendition of the series theme song Morphogenetic Sorrow he considered this a major point in getting the project approved 23 At the 2015 Anime Expo in July Aksys Games announced that development of the third game had been resumed 24 citing the high demand and awareness for the game as key factors for its reevaluation 25 By March 2016 development was 80 finished 15 The porting of the game to Microsoft Windows was handled by Chime with consultation from Abstraction Games who had previously worked on Microsoft Windows ports for the Danganronpa series 26 27 For the music Uchikoshi wrote down directions about the mood and concept of the game describing it as sad and lonely like a worn out record and dark and visceral Hosoe described the music as generally less melodic because they could not make the music hit on cue like in film they decided during the planning stage to include silence in the soundtrack so Hosoe created atmospheric tracks to be used as background noise Because the Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors characters Junpei and Akane and the Virtue s Last Reward characters Sigma and Phi appear in the game Uchikoshi decided to have arrangements of songs from those two games included in the soundtrack He also had the songs Digital Root and Trepidation which had been used in both previous games be included as he saw them as a sort of theme songs that tie the games together as a series similarly to The Imperial March from the Star Wars films Hosoe received a list of what songs were to be rearranged and how they were to be used within the game and was asked to compose a total of 45 songs he did however end up composing nearly 70 songs ensuring that they had something that fit every situation in the game For the ending theme Hosoe incorporated several callbacks to songs from the previous games as a sendoff for the series leading into Morphogenetic Sorrow 23 Two puzzle creators were enlisted with designing the escape the room scenarios Uchikoshi described one of them as creating orthodox puzzles and the other Strider creator Kouichi Yotsui as creating unique and out of the box types of puzzles He gave them a rough idea of what he wanted each puzzle to convey and how he wanted them to resolve The puzzle designers would come up with a draft which he would finalize together with them 28 Story and themes edit The game was originally planned to be developed simultaneously with the previous Zero Escape game Virtue s Last Reward 29 with the two games being paired as a set 30 and with Virtue s Last Reward having a cliffhanger ending 20 With Zero Time Dilemma Uchikoshi intended to resolve all mysteries left from the previous game as well as all introduced in the third 30 while also attempting to make the story enjoyable for first time players 15 This was used as a basic framework to write the story within In addition to figuring out how to explain the mysteries while avoiding contradictions with Virtue s Last Reward they added side stories to the narrative to give it a little extra punch They also took the time travel ability some characters in Virtue s Last Reward have into consideration as it opened up for more narrative possibilities Uchikoshi worked with two other writers the three helped each other come up with ideas and figure out the best ways to make the story work 31 When coming up with the story he knew from the start that he wanted Sigma Phi and Diana to be on one team and Akane on another this left open slots in the teams which were filled with other characters as story development progressed 32 The script took one year to write 28 While Uchikoshi had already had an idea for the setting and events of Zero Time Dilemma when writing Virtue s Last Reward the game structure changed when the time came to implement it One reason was that characters take on a life of their own and make their own decisions when he writes from their point of view and that characters might pull the story in a different direction than he had originally planned most of the time he would let the story go where the characters want to go rather than forcing it to follow his original plans leading to changes in story and structure 31 The budget partly dictated the game s setting in an enclosed space as it required few art assets to develop 31 The game s main theme is morality and it is the game in the series with the largest focus on philosophy Uchikoshi intends to have the player s way of thinking values and virtues shaken intensely while they play the game 30 The dilemma in the game s title reflects this as the game asks the player whether choices they make are the right thing to do 15 Another main theme is identity and how people try to figure out who they are This came from Uchikoshi s personal struggles with identity issues he said that he is always thinking about who he is and that he thinks he might have a multifaceted personality his characters like him deal with this issue 31 Among other major themes are multiple probability histories with the player being able to move between different equally probable histories depending on the choices they have made 28 and the big effects small coincidences can have which was reflected in the use of randomizing events The idea to include randomization came from how Uchikoshi wanted to spoiler proof the game and felt that FAQ websites that tell players how to beat the game make playthroughs uninteresting 33 He had always been fascinated by the concept of coincidences and how actions done in the past lead up where we are today so he did a lot of research and reading on the topic to prepare writing the story 31 The theme of no absolute good or evil came from Buddhist literature Uchikoshi had read particularly the Zen Buddhist idea of shiki soku zeku which he described as matter is void and form is emptiness Because of this idea Uchikoshi tried to give each character their own sense of personal justice that they believe to be true resulting in characters with different philosophies who play off each other 33 While previous Zero Escape titles tell their narratives through visual novel segments Zero Time Dilemma replaces them with cinema scenes 5 intended to feel familiar for Western players and emulate the feel of a big budget American TV show To further this effect the option to turn off the subtitles was included 29 Due to this more cinematic approach Uchikoshi was able to make use of his experience with writing the anime series Punch Line 2015 31 The inspirations for the change in format were Telltale Games adventure game series The Walking Dead 2012 2019 5 and Level 5 s adventure game Time Travelers 2012 32 Uchikoshi said that this would make for a lower barrier of entry for people not necessarily interested in visual novels 29 and that mass appeal is important to Spike Chunsoft as just a Japanese audience is not enough for the production of adventure games 5 The non linear and episodic nature of the game s chapters was done to appeal to more casual players and people new to the series as they can uncover the story at their own pace without being railroaded into doing one storyline from start to finish 29 The use of fragments added some challenge to writing the story Uchikoshi had to be careful when planning the progression of the story as changes to one fragment would also affect the fragments surrounding it When breaking the story up into fragments he considered what would be the most entertaining for players 31 In response to feedback from players Zero Time Dilemma was intended to be more suspenseful than Virtue s Last Reward 34 Uchikoshi and the game s producer decided that as Zero Time Dilemma is the final Zero Escape game they should no longer hold back and instead do what they had always wanted to do Because of the life and death theme they felt that there would be less of an impact if they had held back and that they instead should make the violence in the game extreme to make the player s choices hit home 33 According to Uchikoshi the development team wanted the player to feel worried and that the game would be done as he wants it without any changes done for the sake of age ratings 15 they had originally considered aiming for a CERO D age rating 17 years or older but decided to aim for a Z age rating instead which is the highest age rating in Japan as they felt they could not get the visual and emotional impact they wanted within a D rating 33 Despite this CERO ended up assigning the game a D rating 35 Character design edit The game s characters were designed by Rui Tomono Uchikoshi had considered asking Kinu Nishimura the character designer for the previous two games in the series to return but wanted to show that the series had changed significantly He also felt that as the production had moved from backgrounds and drawn characters to 3D cinematics more impressive design was needed and that Tomono s designs were likely to be accepted internationally while still feeling Japanese 15 Some character designs had to be changed due to technical difficulties with the 3D models the baggy sleeves of Akane s dress were made tighter Junpei s jacket was removed 36 and asymmetrical aspects of Eric s design were removed 37 Zero s character design was changed to suit the story s focus on a virus the character wears a plague doctor mask as opposed to the gas mask worn in the previous games 33 Carlos was designed to clearly communicate his occupation as a firefighter he was given scars on his arms a tight t shirt and shirt to help show off his muscular build and silhouette and an axe embroidery on his shirt pocket Because Akane is Japanese her design incorporated Japanese elements such as the use of straight lines on her top and a belt to emulate the look of a kimono and a kimono sash The black color of the belt was meant to represent her hidden dark side while the belt chains represented things that constrict her The top halves of her sleeves were initially going to be pastel purple to make sure that the design was not too dark and that it contrasted against Junpei s more monochromatic design this was changed for the final model however with Tomono noting that the use of purple might be better for a mentally unstable character Similarly Akane was given blue accents to contrast against Junpei s reds Junpei was redesigned to fit his jaded personality in Zero Time Dilemma as his previous design in Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors felt childish and clashing His design process was difficult with the development team going through many design proposals 36 Sean was originally meant to wear a cubic helmet but Tomono presented a spherical design instead which Uchikoshi described as everything I didn t know I wanted Mira was designed to continue the series tradition of having a sexy femme fatale character in each game she was given an open track jacket and a bikini like top to show off her cleavage and a jiggle effect was added to her 3D model Eric s design and 3D modelling went smoothly with Chime saying that some faces are easier to model than others Tomono wanted him to specifically have a Caucasian chin and brow but noted that they had to be careful to not go too far with it to avoid a too realistic look 37 Diana s design was difficult to recreate in 3D with the initial model having really chubby chipmunk cheeks but was worked on until it matched the design She was also difficult to animate due to her long skirt Phi was originally shorter and had bigger eyes but after she was given glasses it was decided that she should look more like a model to match the stylish look of her short hair and glasses Parts of Sigma s design from Virtue s Last Reward were incorporated into his new one in the form of embroidery on his polo shirt 38 Promotion and release editIn March 2015 Aksys Games launched the website 4infinity co which consisted of a countdown timer 39 the countdown ended in July coinciding with the game s announcement at Anime Expo 24 The game s title and logo were revealed in October 40 and in December a teaser Twitter account was launched revealing artwork of characters from the game 41 The game was unveiled during a presentation in March 2016 42 The Japanese release uses the English series title Zero Escape instead of the Kyokugen Dasshutsu 極限脱出 Extreme Escape title used for previous Japanese releases as the developers wanted to renew the series image and bring over the Western title to Japan 15 Unlike previous Zero Escape games the game was localized alongside the production of the Japanese version 24 it was published by Aksys Games for the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita in North America and Europe on June 28 2016 with a Japanese release following on June 30 43 A Microsoft Windows version was released worldwide by Spike Chunsoft on June 30 44 45 46 The game was released digitally and physically on the Nintendo 3DS and the PlayStation Vita in North America and digitally only in Europe 40 The PlayStation Vita version is compatible with the PlayStation TV 47 The Nintendo 3DS version does not support the system s stereoscopic 3D effect 48 A PlayStation 4 version with improved lighting and shading was released in Japan on August 17 2017 and in North America the following day 49 50 51 It was released in Europe on September 8 with Rising Star Games assisting Aksys Games by distributing the retail copies 52 An Xbox One version was released on August 30 2022 53 In North America a limited edition that includes a wristwatch was released 54 Because the watches were damaged in transit they were delayed and sent separately from the game 55 Japanese pre ordered copies came bundled with the 48 page Zero Escape Premium Booklet which includes production material illustrations by Tomono summaries of the previous two Zero Escape games and a prequel written by Uchikoshi 56 a digital edition of the booklet was bundled with the Microsoft Windows release together with a portion of the game s soundtrack 57 Aksys plans to release the booklet separately from the game 46 and is also considering releasing other merchandise based on the game 47 According to Hosoe his company Supersweep which published the soundtrack albums for the previous games is considering publishing an album for Zero Time Dilemma too 23 Reception editReceptionAggregate scoreAggregatorScoreMetacritic83 100 Vita 58 81 100 3DS 59 80 100 PS4 60 78 100 Win 61 Review scoresPublicationScoreDestructoid9 5 10 4 Electronic Gaming Monthly9 10 62 Famitsu32 40 63 64 Game Informer8 75 10 65 GamesRadar nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 66 IGN9 2 10 9 Nintendo World Report7 5 10 67 Polygon8 10 6 Zero Time Dilemma was well received by critics on all platforms 58 59 60 61 and was the second best reviewed PlayStation Vita game of 2016 on Metacritic after Steins Gate 0 68 During its opening week in Japan it sold 5 375 copies on the PlayStation Vita and 3 916 copies on the Nintendo 3DS for a total of 9 291 copies sold 69 It was the third best selling digital PlayStation Vita game of June 2016 in Europe despite being released three days before the end of the month 70 The Steam release had an estimated total of 38 000 players by July 2018 71 Famitsu s four reviewers enjoyed the game s setup of three different teams and non chronological plot progression with the player getting a greater understanding of the story as they play one of them said that learning what was going on in the fragments was fantastic and that they liked the emphasis on interpersonal human drama Another of them commented that the light banter dialogue is helpful in motivating the player One of them said that the game would be enjoyable even for players who have not played previous entries in the series 63 The reviewers at Famitsu noted that the puzzle rooms were challenging and fun but wished that the game had included a hint function for people who primarily play the game for the story one of the reviewers also commented that the way the player uses items is difficult at some points They appreciated how the puzzle rooms unlike many other escape the room games do not feel artificial 63 IGN praised the inventive puzzles stellar storytelling darker tone decisions and consequences beautiful character moments and mind bending plot 9 Destructoid called the game a hallmark of excellence ruined only by the abysmal presentation of the cut scenes 4 One reviewer at Famitsu liked how the game allows the player to skip past already viewed cutscenes while another commented that the cutscenes are not perfectly lip synched to the Japanese voice acting 63 The game has won or been nominated for some awards it won Destructoid s award for the best PlayStation Vita game of 2016 72 Game Informer s award for the best ending in an adventure game of 2016 73 and RPGFan s Reader s Choice award in the adventure games and visual novels category 74 It was a runner up for Hardcore Gamer s Best Story Best Voice Acting and Best PlayStation Vita Game of 2016 awards 75 76 and was nominated for IGN s Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita games of the year awards 77 78 It was selected for two of RPGFan s Editors Awards Peter Triezenberg ranked it as the fifth best game of the year 79 while Robert Fenner selected it for his Most Disappointing category 80 and Mira was included on Destructoid s list of their favorite new video game characters of 2016 81 Notes edit Published the game on all platforms in Japan and on Windows via Steam worldwide Known in Japan as Zero Escape Toki no Jirenma Japanese ZERO ESCAPE 刻のジレンマ Zero Escape Time Dilemma 2 References edit a b c Chime 2016 06 28 Zero Time Dilemmma PlayStation Vita Spike Chunsoft Scene credits 先出し週刊ファミ通 極限脱出 シリーズついに完結 ZERO ESCAPE 刻のジレンマ ニンテンドー3DS PS Vitaで発売決定 2016年3月10日発売号 Famitsu in Japanese Enterbrain 2016 03 08 Archived from the original on 2016 03 08 Retrieved 2016 03 08 a b c d e f Schreier Jason 2016 03 16 Everything We Just Learned About Zero Escape 3 Zero Time Dilemma Kotaku Gizmodo Media Group Archived from the original on 2016 03 17 Retrieved 2016 03 17 a b c d e Andriessen CJ 2016 06 23 Review Zero Time Dilemma Destructoid Modern Method Archived from the original on 2016 09 02 Retrieved 2017 01 12 a b c d Mackey Bob 2016 03 17 Zero Time Dilemma Brings Spike Chunsoft s Sci Fi Thriller to a New Frontier USgamer Gamer Network Archived from the original on 2016 03 17 Retrieved 2016 03 07 a b Frank Allegra 2016 06 29 Zero Escape Zero Time Dilemma Review Polygon Vox Media Archived from the original on 2016 07 02 Retrieved 2016 06 30 LeClair Kyle 2016 06 23 Review Zero Time Dilemma Hardcore Gamer Archived from the original on 2016 06 24 Retrieved 2016 10 10 Kemps Heidi 2016 06 25 Zero Time Dilemma Anime News Network Archived from the original on 2016 09 30 Retrieved 2016 10 10 a b c d Koczwara Michael 2016 06 29 Zero Time Dilemma Review IGN Ziff Davis Archived from the original on 2016 07 01 Retrieved 2016 06 30 Ishaan 2013 03 27 Zero Escape 3 Will Take Place Between 999 And Virtue s Last Reward Siliconera Curse Inc Archived from the original on 2015 10 01 Retrieved 2016 08 30 Matulef Jeffrey 2016 03 17 Zero Time Dilemma dated for June on 3DS and Vita Eurogamer Gamer Network Archived from the original on 2016 09 11 Retrieved 2016 08 29 a b Romano Sal 2016 03 14 Zero Time Dilemma prologue and characters detailed first trailer coming March 17 Gematsu Archived from the original on 2016 03 15 Retrieved 2016 03 17 Spec in Japanese Spike Chunsoft Archived from the original on 2016 04 20 Retrieved 2016 04 20 Frank Allegra 2015 10 31 Zero Escape 3 has a new official name Polygon Vox Media Archived from the original on 2015 11 29 Retrieved 2015 11 30 a b c d e f g Romano Sal 2016 03 08 Zero Time Dilemma participants announced Update 2 Gematsu Archived from the original on 2016 03 09 Retrieved 2016 03 09 Ponce Tony 2012 12 02 Zero Escape writer talks early third game details Destructoid Modern Method Archived from the original on 2013 05 29 Retrieved 2015 07 21 Uchikoshi Kotaro 2013 01 25 Yes last one ZE will be the trilogy Archived from the original on 2016 03 04 Retrieved 2015 06 08 via Twitter Hoffman Chris 2013 06 27 Zero Escape s creator discusses the series past and future GamesRadar Future plc Archived from the original on 2015 07 07 Retrieved 2015 11 11 a b Smith Carly 2014 02 13 Zero Escape Conclusion Put on Hold Indefinitely The Escapist Defy Media Archived from the original on 2014 02 22 Retrieved 2015 06 08 a b Hansen Steven 2014 02 13 Zero Escape not profitable in Japan trilogy end on hold Destructoid Modern Method Archived from the original on 2014 07 07 Retrieved 2015 07 21 Schreier Jason 2014 02 17 Fans Fight To Bring Virtue s Last Reward Back To Life Kotaku Gizmodo Media Group Archived from the original on 2015 04 14 Retrieved 2015 06 08 Chieng Kevin 2014 02 17 Operation Bluebird A Fan Movement to Bring Zero Escape 3 Into Reality GameTrailers Defy Media Archived from the original on 2014 03 02 Retrieved 2015 06 08 a b c Kotowski Don 2016 07 30 Shinji Hosoe and Kotaro Uchikoshi Interview Zero Times VGMO Archived from the original on 2016 10 01 Retrieved 2016 10 01 a b c Sanchez Miranda 2015 07 03 Zero Escape Volume 3 Revealed IGN Ziff Davis Archived from the original on 2015 07 09 Retrieved 2015 10 21 AX 2015 Uchikoshi Zero Escape panel Aksys Games 2015 07 05 Archived from the original on 2016 02 02 Retrieved 2015 08 25 via YouTube Spike Chunsoft SpikeChunsoft e June 6 2016 ZTD PC Here s the launcher Port is by Japanese dev but Abstraction Games is consultant Tweet Archived from the original on 2016 06 06 Retrieved 2016 06 06 via Twitter O Connor Alice 2016 07 01 Zero Escape Zero Time Dilemma Released On PC Rock Paper Shotgun Archived from the original on 2016 07 10 Retrieved 2016 10 10 a b c Lopez Azario 2016 03 21 Interview With Zero Escape Series Creator Kotaro Uchikoshi Operation Rainfall Archived from the original on 2016 03 21 Retrieved 2016 03 21 a b c d Frank Allegra 2016 03 21 Zero Time Dilemma turns to Western fans and TV to go out with a bang Polygon Vox Media Archived from the original on 2016 03 21 Retrieved 2016 03 26 a b c Sanchez Miranda 2015 07 07 Zero Escape 3 More Philosophical Than Past Volumes IGN Ziff Davis Archived from the original on 2015 08 25 Retrieved 2015 10 27 a b c d e f g Nutt Christian 2016 04 25 No escape Zero Time Dilemma and the narrative design of Kotaro Uchikoshi Gamasutra UBM plc Archived from the original on 2016 04 25 Retrieved 2016 04 27 a b INTERVIEW Zero Time Dilemma s Creator on Zero Escape s New Art Style Adventure Games and More Polygon 2016 05 18 Archived from the original on 2018 06 30 Retrieved 2016 05 19 via YouTube a b c d e Sato 2016 03 25 Zero Time Dilemma Director On Randomized Events And How Graphic The Game Will Be Siliconera Curse Inc Archived from the original on 2016 03 26 Retrieved 2016 03 26 Spencer 2013 05 29 999 And Virtue s Last Reward Creator Chats About Suspenseful Visual Novels Siliconera Curse Inc Archived from the original on 2015 04 28 Retrieved 2015 11 16 ZERO ESCAPE 刻のジレンマ まとめ Vita Famitsu in Japanese Enterbrain Archived from the original on 2016 05 23 Retrieved 2016 05 23 a b Uchikoshi Kotaro Tomono Rui Zero Escape Premium Booklet Aksys Games pp 8 15 a b Uchikoshi Kotaro Tomono Rui Zero Escape Premium Booklet Aksys Games pp 19 25 Uchikoshi Kotaro Tomono Rui Zero Escape Premium Booklet Aksys Games pp 28 35 Hannley Steve 2015 03 18 Aksys Teasing Something Zero Escape 3 Announcement Inbound Hardcore Gamer Archived from the original on 2015 07 19 Retrieved 2015 12 04 a b Hannley Steve 2015 10 30 Zero Escape 3 Officially Titled Zero Time Dilemma Logo and Concept Art Released Hardcore Gamer Archived from the original on 2015 10 30 Retrieved 2015 10 30 Romano Sal 2015 12 22 Aksys Games launches Zero Time Dilemma teaser Twitter account Gematsu Archived from the original on 2016 01 23 Retrieved 2016 01 30 Romano Sal 2016 02 16 Zero Time Dilemma to be fully unveiled in March Gematsu Archived from the original on 2016 02 17 Retrieved 2016 02 17 Beck Adam 2016 03 16 Zero Time Dilemma Release Date Announced Coming to PC Hardcore Gamer Archived from the original on 2016 03 17 Retrieved 2016 03 17 Frank Allegra 2016 05 30 Zero Time Dilemma arrives on Steam not long after handheld release Polygon Vox Media Archived from the original on 2016 05 31 Retrieved 2016 05 31 ZERO ESCAPE 刻のジレンマ の発売日が2016年6月30日に決定 PC版もSteamで同日リリース 4Gamer net in Japanese Aetas Inc Archived from the original on 2016 03 17 Retrieved 2016 03 17 a b Romano Sal 2016 05 28 Zero Time Dilemma for PC launches June 30 Gematsu Archived from the original on 2016 08 04 Retrieved 2016 05 28 a b Joshi Shaan 2016 05 27 Zero Time Dilemma Gets PlayStation TV Support Art Book More Hardcore Gamer Archived from the original on 2016 05 27 Retrieved 2016 05 28 Sato 2016 06 20 Zero Time Dilemma Gets Its First 3DS Footage But The Game Won t Support 3D Siliconera Curse Inc Archived from the original on 2016 06 20 Retrieved 2016 06 20 Sato 2017 07 01 Zero Time Dilemma Makes On PS4 Makes Its Way To North America On August 18 Siliconera Curse Inc Archived from the original on 2017 08 29 Retrieved 2017 09 15 Frank Allegra 2017 05 04 Zero Escape trilogy to be complete on PS4 with Zero Time Dilemma port Polygon Vox Media Archived from the original on 2017 05 05 Retrieved 2017 05 05 ZERO ESCAPE 刻のジレンマ グラフィックをリファインし プレイステーション4で発売決定 先出し週刊ファミ通 Famitsu in Japanese Enterbrain 2017 05 16 Archived from the original on 2017 05 16 Retrieved 2017 05 16 Romano Sal 2017 08 29 The Nonary Games and Zero Time Dilemma PS4 physical editions announced for Europe Gematsu Archived from the original on 2017 08 29 Retrieved 2017 08 29 Romano Sal 26 August 2022 Zero Escape Zero Time Dilemma coming to Xbox One on August 30 Gematsu Retrieved 26 August 2022 Spencer 2015 07 08 Zero Escape Volume 3 Limited Edition Includes A Bonus Watch Siliconera Curse Inc Archived from the original on 2015 07 09 Retrieved 2015 11 30 Casey 2016 06 27 Watches Included In Zero Time Dilemma s Limited Edition Have Been Delayed Siliconera Curse Inc Archived from the original on 2016 06 27 Retrieved 2016 06 27 Romano Sal 2016 04 05 Zero Time Dilemma pre orders include exclusive booklet in Japan Gematsu Archived from the original on 2016 04 06 Retrieved 2016 04 06 Sato 2016 06 02 Zero Escape Zero Time Dilemma Is Headed To Steam On June 29 In The West Siliconera Curse Inc Archived from the original on 2016 06 03 Retrieved 2016 06 06 a b Zero Escape Zero Time Dilemma for PlayStation Vita Reviews Metacritic CBS Interactive Archived from the original on 2016 10 01 Retrieved 2016 09 10 a b Zero Escape Zero Time Dilemma for 3DS Reviews Metacritic CBS Interactive Archived from the original on 2016 10 01 Retrieved 2016 09 18 a b Zero Escape Zero Time Dilemma for PlayStation 4 Reviews Metacritic CBS Interactive Archived from the original on 2017 10 21 Retrieved 2017 10 21 a b Zero Escape Zero Time Dilemma for PC Reviews Metacritic CBS Interactive Archived from the original on 2016 10 01 Retrieved 2016 09 10 Patterson Mollie L 2016 06 24 Zero Time Dilemma review Electronic Gaming Monthly EGM Media LLC Archived from the original on 2016 07 05 Retrieved 2016 06 25 a b c d ZERO ESCAPE 刻のジレンマ Famitsu in Japanese No 1438 Enterbrain June 2016 Romano Sal 2016 06 21 Famitsu Review Scores Issue 1438 Gematsu Archived from the original on 2016 06 21 Retrieved 2016 06 21 Gwaltney Javy 2016 06 23 Zero Time Dilemma Game Informer GameStop Archived from the original on 2016 06 26 Retrieved 2016 06 24 Arendt Susan 2016 06 28 Zero Time Dilemma Review GamesRadar Future plc Archived from the original on 2016 07 01 Retrieved 2016 06 30 Theriault Donald 2016 06 22 Zero Time Dilemma 3DS Review Nintendo World Report Archived from the original on 2016 06 24 Retrieved 2016 06 24 Dietz Jason 2016 12 20 The Best Videogames of 2016 Metacritic CBS Interactive Archived from the original on 2016 12 22 Retrieved 2016 12 28 Romano Sal 2016 07 06 Media Create Sales 6 27 16 7 3 16 Gematsu Archived from the original on 2016 07 06 Retrieved 2016 07 06 Dutton Fred 2016 07 07 Battlefield 4 was the best selling game on PlayStation Store last month PlayStation Blog Sony Interactive Entertainment Archived from the original on 2016 07 07 Retrieved 2016 07 07 Orland Kyle 2018 07 06 Valve leaks Steam game player counts we have the numbers Ars Technica Conde Nast Archived from the original on 2018 07 10 Retrieved 2018 07 11 Complete list Archived 2018 07 11 at the Wayback Machine Carter Chris 2016 12 23 Destructoid s award for Best Vita Game of 2016 goes to Destructoid Modern Method Archived from the original on 2017 01 05 Retrieved 2017 01 12 Gwaltney Javy 2017 01 06 2016 Adventure Game Awards Game Informer GameStop p 2 Archived from the original on 2017 01 12 Retrieved 2017 01 12 Games of the Year 2016 Best Adventure Visual Novel RPGFan 2017 Archived from the original on 2017 01 07 Retrieved 2017 01 07 Best of 2016 Day One Story Soundtrack Voice Acting Hardcore Gamer 2017 01 01 Archived from the original on 2017 01 02 Retrieved 2017 01 02 Best of 2016 Day Seven PS Vita 3DS Artistic Design Technical Graphics Hardcore Gamer 2017 01 07 Archived from the original on 2017 01 08 Retrieved 2017 01 12 3DS Game of the Year IGN Ziff Davis 2017 Archived from the original on 2017 01 12 Retrieved 2017 01 12 PlayStation Vita Game of the Year IGN Ziff Davis 2017 Archived from the original on 2017 01 12 Retrieved 2017 01 12 Triezenberg Peter 2017 Peter Triezenberg s Awards RPGFan Archived from the original on 2017 01 09 Retrieved 2017 01 12 Fenner Robert 2017 Robert Fenner s Awards RPGFan Archived from the original on 2017 01 09 Retrieved 2017 01 12 Andriessen CJ 2016 12 23 Good golly there were a lot of great new characters in 2016 Destructoid Modern Method Archived from the original on 2017 01 09 Retrieved 2017 01 12 External links editOfficial website Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Zero Time Dilemma amp oldid 1182882604, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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