#zero time dilemma is. its zero time dilemma

[orphetoon]

What is 999 and how to you play it

oh boy time to promote one of my favorite games

999 (actually titled 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors) is a visual novel occasionally interrupted by 'escape the room' puzzles. It was originally released for the DS and its the first game in a trilogy.

It's a fun game wherein everybody but the protagonist has at least three wikipedia articles memorized and will info dump to you about literally anything. Technically its about a bunch of people (nine, even) escaping a replica of the Titanic as it sinks, but 'infodump game' is a better descriptor imo.

OKAY SO. IF YOU WANT TO PLAY. DO THE DS VERSION

while later releases (aka the steam release) has voice acting and some other updates, 999 was built to be played on the ds. i can't exactly talk abt why without spoiling a lot of the game, but it did split the narrative into two 'modes' which just makes it more confusing. the pc port also had to change the final puzzle, but instead of just removing ds specific elements they made it really stupid. as a fan of this game watching streamers play the pc version is an exercise in frustration lol

anyway play it! learn what morphogenetic resonance is! learn what a funyarinpa is!! also u can play the other two ig

[rawberry-preserves]

I know someone else made this post but I wanna throw out my own options!

[shhhhimwatchingthis]

My Favourite Zero Escape universe thing is the way it shows love flourish after the trauma of the various Nonary Games.

In VLR Junpei is visibly hurt that Clover doesn't trust him, even though it's been 45 years. he says himself he didn't expect it to hurt (but it does!) and despite knowing she has no idea who he is she's the one he ends up trusting most with Quark's life

and the inverse of this!Clover not giving much of a damn about Tenmeyouji or Quark untill its the timeline where he tells her his identity and suddenly her entire strategy to the AB game changes. she can't knowingly betray Quark even by association because it would be betraying Junpei and she could NEVER

Junpei in ZTD revealing to Akane that he works with Seven as a detective. that they keep up with Lotus.

Clover in VLR revealing that she and Light turned down SOIS' offer and they only accepted when Seven told them Junpei had gone missing and they needed to find him(!)

Junpei's search for Akane, in ZTD, years later in VLR, he never stops looking

Phi and Sigma's bond in VLR, the timeline where she betrays out of hurt for Sigma betraying her first. so hurt because the trust she felt was so real

Sigmas anguish in the Incinerator choice in ZTD. Phi's rage if you choose to pull the trigger regardless if Sigma dies or not(remeber they don't know what they are to each other yet)

its a small mention but in VLR Clover mentions when she and Light were recruited by Alice they were put in a room with the other 14 kids who were a part of the first Nonary game and it was 'like a reunion, everyone was so happy to see eachother'

just...love persisting through the horror. there are some things you go through with people where you can't help loving them after. The survivors went through hell together and after they would go back to hell to save each other forever

[meowsticmarvels]

one of the most insane things about carlos is like. based on how you are introduced to him in ztd you think he's gonna be the most normal character in the game especially when teamed with AKANE and JUNPEI of all people. and he is the hero type main character archetype guy. but then you play suspicion where he literally kills himself with an axe because he's worried about being dangerous to others (? Is he okay actually. What the fuck). and then there's also get back/apocalypse where he waits 10 fucking months for akane and junpei to save them instead of stopping zero at all. What is wrong with him

[sinlizards]

been a little obsessed with mira lately

[glittergoats]

A bunch of my ZTD doodles from twitter... I'm kind of obsessed with this game

[peachducy]

NASA knows how the pheromones

cascade!

down the walls

you can't help the way you feel

[prezaki]

C Team polycule is so good because it's this star-crossed lover couple with intertwined past present and future... and then they just take a random guy as a third. And completely mean it with all the love in their hearts.

It's neither breaking the already-forged destiny nor submitting to said destiny, but a third and more outrageous option.

It's acknowledging that you are tied together by forces beyond mortal comprehension and yet not letting that ruin your capacity to devote yourself to another - simply out of your own free will and affection.

Carlos doesn't need to be part of their from-childhood-til-death tragedy - it's enough that he chose them and they chose him.

[sholmeser]

like i can't in good conscience recommend ztd just because objectively i don't think it's a very good game and sequel especially regarding the way it builds on zero escape's preexisting themes but it's just so fucking ridiculous that i feel like everyone has to experience it at least once. two characters have sex in a time machine. a grown man threatens a little boy with a shotgun. the catastrophe of the world's annihilation is revealed to have been caused by a literal snail. a woman chases you around with a chainsaw only to get axed to death. the main antagonist is 124 years old but also he hasn't been born yet. you beat the game within five minutes by winning a coin flip. there is a literal serial killer on the loose and she isn't even the worst person there. it's so bad. so bad.

[hecksupremechips]

Girl it’s just a snail just hop over it why do you insist on taking evil mcscary route. Dumbass

[dreamdripdistance]

love is in the air? wrong. Divorce

[magistius]

shout out to the au me and like 3 of my friends all collectively thought of as soon as we all started ztd and missed vlr sigma

[marstyler42]

It's not that I want to argue that ZTD is not a bad game, but I feel like reducing it to just a bad game kinda ruins all conversations about the fact there are some genuinely good bits of writing in it? Like I'd argue the fact that there's those few moments of greatness is honestly what makes it such a complete letdown in the end, but that shouldn't discredit the game entirely

[argentsunshine]

Carlos in figment ? 💕

[ID: A digital drawing of Carlos from Zero Time Dilemma using a limited colour palette of cream, pale pink, slightly more saturated pink, bright magenta, and navy. He has his arms crossed and is talking and looking off to the side.]

a quick peek behind the curtain for non artists these palette challenges tend to be harder the more similar the colours in the palette are in brightness. the palette itself wasn't a problem but carlos' whole character design is almost all the same brightness

[meowsticmarvels]

phi is such an insane character. shes just a girl. shes rude and blunt and won't hesitate to call you out on your bullshit. she's not good at expressing her emotions. typically, she's cold and unemotional, but there are a few times where this demeanor snaps and breaks under pressure - shes's not as invulnerable as she wants to be. shes lived through so many histories where it all went wrong. shes a living paradox. an unknown variable in the equation. she is everything and nothing all at once. she says she doesn't feel like a normal human being - what sense of self is there in a person so stretched and torn by the fates of time? she's named after herself. she raised herself. similar with her brooch, which has been given to herself in a paradox. this brooch carried a message -- not even jupiter can find a lost opportunity, which she memorized and recited like a prayer. it was all that was left of her dead mother, she thought. it's why she studied latin at all, but ironically, she's born with the ability to do what jupiter can't. her twin brother is the very man who caused the deaths of her and many, many others, and they will never grow to have anything close to a sibling bond. she's a clone of a clone. the only reason that version of phi exists is because she was part of an experiment as as infant. she's patient zero for a virus that has one of its most prominent symptoms be driving its host to suicide. in one timeline, this is how she dies. she dies many times - she's burned, stabbed, slashed her own throat, had her head blown off, what have you. shes had to teach herself how to die. does she even fear death when she's had to witness her own death so many times? maybe during the ambidex game, but in the decision game, it hardly seems to be worth anything to her anymore. what was it like the first time she SHIFTed? she's a girl who will willingly kill herself for the sake of humanity, and would have, had diana not wanted to let her live. shes one of the few characters to have never directly killed anyone. she could never bring herself to. she never wanted to kill q-team. that was delta's cruel decision - the decision of her own brother to leave her with blood on her hands and a virus in her brain. she never wanted to be patient zero or a paradox or an experiment or a being that exists between the stars and the sky and in spacetime. she didn't choose any of this. not the ab game, not the decision game, no matter how necessary. underneath the cold and inflappable attitude she harbors is just a girl. a girl who's just as human as anyone else even if she doesn't feel it. a girl with fears, wants, needs. she just has to find the timeline where it all goes right.

[andro-ice9-lover]

In their first adventure Akane put a gasmask on to make sure she survives.

In their last adventure Junpei puts the gasmask on her to make sure she survives.