Virtue's Last Reward is Sooooo Good

After playing a bit of Kisuke's story in Muramasa: Rebirth and deciding I just really don't like Chaos mode because block and attack being bound to the same button but needing a significantly longer hold for the former isn't particularly.....good, I decided it was time to finally play something that's been on my Vita for a good amount of time now.  I've had Zero Escape:  Virtue's Last Reward ever since the night it was made available to US Playstation Plus members and have not so much as opened up to the LiveArea of it, much to my own chagrin.  Too many other games to play.  Too many other things to do.  There was just too much going on before I could delve into the world of Virtue's Last Reward, which I knew would swallow up a good few days or closer to a week of my time.  But with Hotline Miami beaten, my desire to go back to Disgaea 3 with the knowledge that 4 is getting a long-awaited Vita port (and no doubt a localization sometime next year) shaken and my patience with Muramasa at a low-point, today was the perfect day to get into it.

Well, maybe not perfect.  After all, Dynasty Warriors 8 and Shin Megami Tensei IV, both of which I have on pre-order, will drop a mere two days from now and I'll be picking them up then.  I won't be able to play DW8 right away, but I will be sorely tempted to delve into SMT IV for curiosity's sake.  Regardless, sometime soon-ish, Rune Factory 4 will be a game in my possession and thereafter, I will not have what everyone calls "Free time" because my Free time will transmogrify into "Rune Factory time", so I sort of needed to get on this sooner rather than later.  In any case, I'm absolutely ecstatic that I did get on it, because if you couldn't tell, I think it is quite excellent from the short clip of it that I played.

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be laughing with the game, considering the dire context of it - The Nonary Game, a game tied implicitly with death - but I simply cannot help myself.  I have no idea if Aksys meant to have done such a humorous localization with Zero III, the above bunny rabbit thing you see, nor do I know if Cindy Robinson was instructed to put as much....character into Zero III, but I'm erring on the side of believing they did.  Simply because it's so well done that I cannot help but think it was intentional.  Zero III simply revels in delight at the plight of our band of nine and the task of running the Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition that Virtue's Last Reward revolves around.  While I'm not far enough into it to give you an approximation of its worth in terms of impressions, I'm not overstating anything when I say it was worth the download for Zero III's dialogue alone.

It does seem to play a lot like 999, in terms of having puzzle sections and then story sections and switching between them, which is quite welcome.  The puzzles so far are clever - nothing that's made me go "Fuck it, I'm reading a wiki", even though I've gotten close, which I believe is pretty much the best it can be.  The story so far hasn't really gone places aside from wonderful things with Zero III as mentioned (And Dio, who is voiced by Liam O'Brien which is always welcome), or at least not in a way I can speculate off of, but as stated, I'm in it early.  I do miss 999 a little bit in that nobody really has a....well, a pronounced personality thus far, whereas in 999, you could tell what was going on in the very intro scene of the game when everyone was collected together.  Also 999's character designs are miles better than VLR's, but that's a little thing in the long run, I suppose.

Still, I'm thoroughly enjoying the game and I'm glad I finally found a bit of time for it since it's been sitting on my Memory Stick for a while now, just waiting for me.  If you haven't grabbed it yet, it's not going to be there for too much longer (if it's not gone already), so I definitely -do- urge you to grab it.  However, if you have access to a DS, even of the 3DS variety, do yourself a favor and track down a copy of 999 to enjoy, because it's quite a good game.  This all does remind me that I never did finish my "Explaining 999's Best Ending" series of posts (which I would advise you to not pursue unless you've played it already) which is something that I -will- rectify eventually.  Promise.

Zero III really is just so good

Couple Bits of Japanese Handheld News

Today just seems like one of those news days, since I do have two pretty-big (well, decently big, depending on your perspective) game announcements to throw out here.  I like these days, even when they're just about games I'm interested in, and don't have proper experience with, which is both of these games this time unfortunately.  The first, which is directly related to the above screen of 999:  9Hours, 9 Doors, 9 Persons, is that the sequel for the game, or at least spiritual/semi sequel to it, is getting a release outside of Japan, specifically to North America.  Both the 3DS and Vita versions (Retail and digital for the latter) are heading this way sometime this fall, but beyond that the details on the specific date are a little sketchy.

The details that -aren't- sketchy, however, is that the game will offer both the English and Japanese audio tracks for those who really just hate dubbing, or want to give it a listen in glorious Nippon stereo.  Even if you don't care for audio beyond the region it's released in, I think we can all agree that just having the -option- should be vital.  Especially when it directly impacts the capacity in which it can be released which I am still totally not bitter about at all or anything, nope.  Beyond that, I don't know what all there is about the game, as I never played the first, and haven't really kept up on the game since the Japanese name, "Extreme Escape Adventure:  Good People Die" just never caught me because I thought it was something completely different, regardless of the fact that it's on the Vita, which as you know will draw my attention right quick.  The new name, Zero Escape:  Virtue's Last Reward, lacks that punch of "Good People Die", but is also a little better sounding regardless.

I'm definitely going to be interested in this now, since I've been clarified as to just what it is.  I've always wanted to give 999 a shot, but, wouldn't you know it, a niche game for the DS is impossible to find in 'the wild' as it were.  I'll still keep my eye out for it, but short of a re-print, I'm not too hopeful on my chances.  I believe I spent all of that luck when I found The World Ends With You (which I have yet to see what the big deal about it is) and Ghost Trick:  Phantom Detective which I thought was fantastic as you might remember.  My only exposure was playing the browser demo that was available way back when and I thought it was pretty great.  With any luck, I'll be able to find it before I can get my hands on Zero Escape, but again, I'm not putting my chances up too high.

Working off the "only mostly related" theme I've got going with screenshots, the above shot of Persona 2:  Innocent Sin should give you an idea as to what the other bit of news is.  If you're not quite there, however, I'll just come out and say it:  Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is getting a PSP-release, rounding off the Persona collection by being the final one to get a PSP version.  (Minus 4 which is getting a Vita version.  Same thing.)  The japanese text in the picture is appropriate as well, since there's no specific North American release mentioned but, c'mon.  It's Atlus.  We know these guys, we trust these guys.  They'll get us the game.  Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they make a special edition out of it that includes a digital copy of the game if you buy it for UMD just to make sure everyone with a Vita will look into it as well.  I certainly will.

Once again, my only real exposure to the Persona series here is Minimal and that's probably for the best, considering the wealth of options that are theoretically available at this point.  With Persona 1, both 2s and 3 on PSP (and thus, will be on the Vita eventually if not already, via digital BC) and 4 on the Vita itself, it's possible that one could have -all of the Personas- at once.  Digital versions of all of them, or Digital of the first four with 4:  The Golden as a card in your Vita, which is likely the route I will go.  I can only hope Atlus does some sort of package deal so I can pick them all up in one fell swoop and just -have them- for whenever I feel like playing an RPG.  Which is often, of course, and certainly not an issue on the PSP.  Looking through the PSP catalog on my Vita has proven dangerous, as I've already just started thinking about grabbing PSN cards at random to just throw at games that I don't have time to play.

It's great to see that these Japanese-centric games and studios are giving us all a chance, regardless of their permanent 'niche' seat.  For all the praise 999 has received, the sequel will no doubt be fantastic as well, and I look forward to grabbing it before it becomes too rare to find.  (Even though I could just download it just as easily, since it'll be on the digital store.)  And with Persona 2:  Eternal Punishment being a Persona game, well, there's likely good times to be had there as well.  It's all a matter of just getting them and getting the time, as always, which seems to be a running theme of this year moreso than previous.  And I love it and hate it simultaneously for times just like this.  Times that make me wonder why the hell some of this stuff couldn't come out last year.  Because goddamn this year.