#...gdi i ended up writing a truncated version of the essay anyways

[alto-tenure]

the issue is. I had this essay prepared to write after I finished ztd about how ZE inches you closer and closer to empathizing with Zero as the game continues. in 999 the deaths of characters like nijisaki and musashidou and kubota and ace (the last in safe end) all feel like there was only ace to blame, and that in some ways they got what they were coming to them, even though they couldn't be saved in the end. and of course, at the end, you have the reveal that it was all to close the paradox on the side where akane lives. by the end, even though you have to recontextualize many moments, you have an understanding of what "being zero" meant to akane. in vlr as you start jumping between more and more timelines you start to accept the mindset of zero that all timelines are necessary. virtue's last reward leaves the player not with the conviction to change fate you built throughout the game, but with the timeline you left behind, on the question of whether the ends truly justified the means.

zero time dilemma attempts something similar. all of the orchestrators of their games all in some ways challenge the player to see if the ends justified the means, but delta does it the most directly, even challenging the characters in-universe with his explanations of complex motives. but with the stakes of this game high from the outset coming out from vlr setting the bar at apocalyptic-level, they end up having to justify his ends with an even higher threat that falls flat for me because while I do understand the whole "Sigma and Diana need to make him and Phi come into existence" part, it falls apart in the endgame when he tells them that he instilled in them also a drive to stop the true threat. because if Sigma, Phi, and Akane were told that radical-6 was made to prevent a larger disaster I have no doubt they would have already dedicated every resource possible to finding that person as well, no death games required. and when none of the characters agree with the premise that the ends justified the means...it's hard for the player to be convinced as well that it's an open question whether delta's means justify the ends as defined in the game.