This game was picked for me for the monthly challenge (nice pick at this point!). First I gotta tell that this game was recommended by a user from BLAEO and just one day later I was lucky enough to win it. Also it was my first 'real' win with more than 20 participants so my hype was real. °v°
I instantly fell in love with the art style, the music and the characters. It was short, but lovely and overall just hella cute. Especially the last episode (there are three, each about an hour long) impressed me a lot and evoked some deeply emotions inside of me. There wasn't anything unpredictable, the game isn't hard or anything but it was fun anyway (and I will ask myself how lies taste like for the rest of my life, thanks for that).
The Nonary Games - Virtues Last Reward
Oh boy, where to start...? This review will maybe turn out a bit confusing; that's because I'm also still a bit confused. Sorry for that! Like I mentioned some weeks ago when I reviewed 999, I already played all Zero Escape Games but not in correct order, couldn't therefore understand all of it and I still don't and tbh also forgot about the half.
I already said smth about 999, so I will focus on VLR now.
Hell, this game is complicated! There were some very hard puzzles and compared to 999 they blew my mind. I had to use a walkthrough for about two times (and I truly hate using those). That's still okay I guess; I remember using one far often when I first played VLR so that's a progress at least. If you're curious about those games be aware that you have to like tough puzzles because they won't be easy on you.
Not only the puzzles were hard but also the story itself. It's probably the most complicated story I have ever read in my life and the devs have either to be geniuses or must have completely lost their minds. It's crazy how many theories and elements were used. You get to learn quite a lot (if you won't forget everything right ahead) and probably won't understand everything (like I didn't either lol). The characters explain quantum physics or Einstein's E=MC² and my mind is still smoking from that.
The story itself is quite big. There are 20 different outcomings, nine real endings and about 30 hours of playtime. That's as amazing as it's unamazing. Yeah, I know, that's paradox. Let me explain.
If you look at VLR as an individual game it's absolutely awesome. So freaking many things and such a big outstanding story. But when you look at 999... Spoiler ahead - everything was about the rescue of a cute little girl. In VLR we have to rescue the freaking humanity! That's a big difference and somehow I enjoyed the rather “plain” story of 999 which leaves me a bit overwhelmed with VLR.
What I also noticed comparing to 999 is that characters were somewhat... weak? No that's not the right word to use. But if you look at the characters from 999 especially Ace there won't be big surprises in character design in VLR like there was in 999. The first hours therefore felt a bit weak but with 30 hours you still grow to them, learn them to know in each different timeline. But there is no such thing as “Which of those characters is the freaking asshole?” because the freaking asshole reveals himself as a freaking asshole right away and stays one the whole time.
So, yeah. The first paths felt a bit poor and short (in 999 you will go through three doors in every path; in VLR you probably just go through two doors and discover the third ones some time later on) but those feelings go away after some time. Imo that doesn't make the game worse. I mean what are two hours compared to 28?
What also is worth mentioning is that each room you visit is different. You won't have to go through the same door twice like in 999 and even if you'd want to you keep the password for the safe with the key in your files, so you won't ever have to solve the same puzzles multiple times. So there are far more rooms and puzzles to solve! And I liked that a lot.
Sadly I can't say that they changed the game mechanics in any way or at least I haven't noticed. In my last review about 999 I was so happy that they crossed out every flaw the mechanics had; in VLR I don't think they changed a thing. There aren't much flaws tho, but the biggest one (at least for me) was the somewhat slow movement especially when your character moves around the map. Often you can't skip through that and spent some long minutes just waiting. Well, I don't even care about the map so I even find it more annoying than I would have if I'd care where a room is placed and which way one character took to get there. But I'm so not patient... A button maybe to just skip to the room already would have been nice or just fasten things up a little.
So... yeah. If you like awesome games with an awesome story and are a fan of puzzles you seriously don't have any excuses to not play this one!
I knew about LiEat but you just got me more interested ! And I put “The Nonary Gmes”in my wishlist again.
Thanks for the reviews :)