Zero Escape
Zero Escape, formerly released in Japan as Kyokugen Dasshutsu, is a series of adventure games directed and written by Kotaro Uchikoshi. The first two entries in the series, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, were developed by Spike Chunsoft, while the third entry, Zero Time Dilemma, was developed by Chime. Zero Escape is published by Spike Chunsoft in Japan, while Aksys Games and Rising Star Games have published the games for North America and Europe respectively.
Each game in the series follows a group of nine individuals, who are kidnapped and held captive by a person code-named "Zero", and are forced to play a game of life and death to escape. The gameplay is divided into two types of sections: Novel sections, where the story is presented, and Escape sections, where the player solves escape-the-room puzzles. In the first two games, the Novel sections are presented in a visual novel format, whereas the third uses animated cutscenes. The stories branch based on player choices, and include multiple endings.
In addition to Uchikoshi, the development team includes character designers Kinu Nishimura and Rui Tomono, and music composer Shinji Hosoe. The series was originally conceived when Chunsoft wanted Uchikoshi to write visual novels for a wider audience; he came up with the idea of combining the story with story-integrated puzzles. While Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors was initially planned as a stand-alone title, its success in the international market led to the development of two sequels, intended to be paired as a set. Both Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Virtue's Last Reward were commercial failures in Japan, and the third game was put on hold in 2014, only to resume development for Zero Time Dilemma the following year, due to fan demand and the hiatus becoming big news. Critics have been positive to the series, praising its narrative for being experimental and for pushing boundaries for what can be done with video game narratives.
Titles
Main games
The series consists of three video games. The first two games were released in English by Aksys Games in North America, and the second game was released in English in Europe by Rising Star Games. The third game was released by Aksys Games in both North America and Europe for consoles, and by Spike Chunsoft worldwide for Windows.- Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is the first game in the series, developed by Chunsoft. It was released for the Nintendo DS on December 10, 2009, in Japan and on November 16, 2010, in North America, and for iOS on May 28, 2013, in Japan and internationally on March 17, 2014.
- Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward is the second game in the series. It was released for the Nintendo 3DS and the PlayStation Vita on February 16, 2012, in Japan, on October 23 in North America, and on November 23 in Europe.
- Zero Time Dilemma is the third game in the series. It was released for the Nintendo 3DS and the PlayStation Vita on June 28, 2016, in North America and Europe, and on June 30 in Japan. A Windows version was released worldwide on June 30. A PlayStation 4 version was released in Japan in August 2017, while an Xbox One version was released on August 30, 2022.
The updated version of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors has separate Adventure and Novel modes; the Adventure mode presents the character interactions similar to the top screen of the original game, while Novel mode uses the additional narration from the bottom screen. Both modes have animated characters and voice acting. The updated version also includes a story flowchart, similar to the other two games in the series, to help players with getting to the game's true ending. It does not include the additional story content that was part of the iOS version, but the final puzzle is different. The new version of Virtue's Last Reward is primarily based on the original PlayStation Vita version, but corrects some typographic errors.
Other media and appearances
A novelization of the first game, titled Kyokugen Dasshutsu 9 Jikan 9 Nin 9 no Tobira Alterna, was written by Kenji Kuroda and published by Kodansha in Japan in two volumes in 2010. An original video animation based on the beginning of the second game was made by Gonzo; it has been dubbed and released in English by Aksys Games. An untitled Flash game was made for Virtue's Last Reward and made available on the official Japanese developer website. An artbook featuring art from the first two games was published by SB Creative in 2012 in Japan; an artbook for the third game was released as a pre-order bonus in Japan, and is sold separately in the West. Music albums with the soundtracks of the first two games were released by Super Sweep on December 23, 2009, and April 19, 2012, respectively. Aksys is also considering releasing merchandise based on the third game.Aksys and Spike Chunsoft worked with the Japanese puzzle event studio SCRAP to create Real Zero Escape: Trust on Trial, a real-life room escape game based on the Zero Escape universe, which was held at SCRAP's studio in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles for several months, starting in April 2016. Players had to solve real-life escape-the-room puzzles in the spirit of the Zero Escape series within a limited amount of time.
Common elements
Gameplay
The gameplay of the series is divided into two types of segments: Novel sections – presented in a visual novel format in the first two games, and as animated cutscenes in the third – and Escape sections, which are escape-the-room scenarios. During the Novel sections, the player reads dialogue, occasionally inputting choices that change the course of the story. During the Escape sections, the player aims to find a way out of rooms by exploring the room and solving puzzles. The player can move around during these sections, and can pick up and combine items in order to open locks or get access to new items. Each room also includes more complex puzzles, such as sliding puzzles and mini-games, which can't be solved without finding clues in the room.The games are non-linear: the first two games' stories branch depending on player choices, and lead to several different endings, with a final true ending that the player can only reach by playing through various different branches; the third game divides the story into chapters called "fragments", each representing a 90-minute period, which can be chosen from a "Floating Fragment" menu and played out of order. In the first game, the player has to start over from the beginning after completing each branch, replaying Escape sections; in the second game, the branches are represented by an interactive flowchart, allowing the player to jump to any point in the game that they have reached, and try different outcomes. This flowchart was also implemented in the iOS and The Nonary Games versions of the first game. In the third game, fragments are placed in a flowchart upon completion, indicating where they take place in the story.
Plot and themes
The three Zero Escape games are narratively linked, with events of Zero Time Dilemma occurring between 999 and Virtue's Last Reward. Each game in the series follows a group of nine people who get kidnapped by masked individuals who call themselves "Zero", and are locked inside a facility where they are forced to play a death game where the participants are locked inside rooms and have to solve puzzles in order to get out. In the first two games, the death game is referred to as the Nonary Game, while the one in the third game is called the Decision Game. The characters do not at first appear to have anything in common, but throughout the course of the games, it is revealed that each was chosen for a specific purpose, including connections to previous narrative elements from the other games in the series. The characters attempt to escape from the facility, to identify Zero, and to learn of Zero's goal.The series has science fiction and horror elements, and philosophical and supernatural themes. A recurring theme is the concept of morphogenetic fields, which is explored in different ways in each game, and is the main theme of the first game. The second game focuses on game theory, specifically on the prisoner's dilemma. The third game's main theme is morality, and it is the game in the series with the largest focus on philosophy.
Development
The first two Zero Escape titles were developed by Chunsoft, while the third was developed by Chime. The series is directed and written by Kotaro Uchikoshi, with music by Shinji Hosoe. Character design was handled by Kinu Nishimura in the first two games, and by Rui Tomono in the third. The series was originally conceived when Chunsoft contacted Uchikoshi and asked him to write visual novels for them; they had found success in the genre, but wanted to create a new type of visual novels which could be received by a wider audience. Uchikoshi's idea for this was to combine puzzles with a story, in a way where puzzles are integrated into the story and includes clues, and need to be solved in order for the player to make progress. The inspiration for the first game was the question "where do mankind's inspirations come from?"; while researching it, Uchikoshi came across the theories of the English biochemist Rupert Sheldrake, and used them as the main theme. The game's setting was meant as a depiction of two of humanity's instinctive desires: the unconscious desire to return to one's mother's womb and shut oneself away, and the desire to escape and overcome one's current condition.Uchikoshi had initially written 999 as a stand-alone game, but its positive reception led to its sequels' development. The tension present in its first sequel Virtue's Last Reward was deliberately toned down from that in 999, as the results of a survey indicated that some Japanese people had not bought 999 because it seemed "too scary". Uchikoshi stated that Zero Time Dilemma, the second sequel which was released in 2016, will "tone it up" in response to feedback from players who praised the sense of fear present in 999. The two sequels were specifically intended to be "paired as a set": the second game has a cliffhanger ending, while Uchikoshi intended for the third game to resolve all mysteries left from the second game, as well as all introduced in the third game. While he intended for the series to be a trilogy with a story that ends on the third game, he is open to "new incidents arriving" if fans still request it.
While the first game performed well enough in the West for Spike Chunsoft to decide to develop a sequel, both games were commercial failures in Japan. Because of this, the third game, which had originally been mentioned in 2012, was not approved by the management at the company. By February 2014, the development was put on hold indefinitely. 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. As a response to the news of the game's hiatus, fans of the series created Operation Bluebird, an online campaign to raise awareness of the series and support the development. By July 2015, the development of the third game had been resumed; the game being put on hold becoming big news, and fans being vocal about wanting a third game, was what led to the game being reevaluated. With the third game, the development team wanted to renew the series' image in Japan; to do this, they used the English series title, Zero Escape, instead of the Kyokugen Dasshutsu title that had been used for previous Japanese releases.