Re: Kiir's Gaming Topic (Reply #86 on: July 04, 2016, 06:05:42 pm)

me when i beat zero time dilemma in two sittings. here's the post aobut it.

I'm sad that some things from VLR don't get mentioned but the game handles itself pretty marvelously that I'm actually totally fine with it.

Probably my favourite in the series, or at least on level with 999. VLR is the lowest - 999 and ZTD have a really thick atmosphere of dread and in ZTD you can feel the weight of every action you take

I never got that with VLR - it never really felt like there was any danger, and going back to do a bad route never made me feel bad about my actions. Also the Game Over endings in VLR never seemed to contribute anything, whereas in ZTD, nearly every option you take lets you learn something new whether it be plot or character-related.

Also as an aside I liked the escalation of Zero's identities in the series:

I was honestly really hoping the dog would be Zero SOMEHOW but come D End 2 I managed to figure out who it really was. I do like the theory that the dog is Kyle or ? though - would probably explain why he's so helpful, and why he's never mentioned.

A lot of people also didn't like the ending but really, what else would you end the series on? Converting the post-game secret files into maybe credits cutscenes would have been nice, but I assume that was because of lack of budget and time. But that last cutscene brings up so many important themes and also ends it on the split timeline stuff the series is known for. Honestly, a concrete ending would have felt unsatisfying. But maybe I've just built up an appreciation for anti-climatic things in fiction. Drama just makes me cringe more often than not (that said, ZTD did its dramatic scenes beautifully - especially on the D-Team side of things).

02/13/2018 edit: this really bothered me more than any other game opinion i've had. i don't know what i was thinking here, ztd is NOT better than 999. i think i like it more than vlr because while vlr has a better narrative and better endings, that thickass dread atmosphere ztd has is Very Good. ztd uses some dumb/pretentious twists, and i don't give a dang about most of the characters outside of d-team (which have their own share of dumb twists). i still don't mind the twist of who zero is, though i wish there was a tiny bit more foreshadowing towards it because i feel some stuff doesn't make sense regarding it. i had more to say but i forgot so: 999 is better. wham bam thank you ma'am.

03/14/2025 edit: hello i have returned because i once again disagree with my past self. i like ztd because it is Funny. c-team is the best team because they are the funniest one. carlos trying to get this divorced couple back together is so funny. 999 > ztd > vlr. thanks for reading.