zero time dilemma: finale

[graveexcitement]

ok, so

in retrospect i guess it was a little weird that when i put SEAN in as a lark for the "Who killed Mira?" question a few days ago, Eric knew I meant the boy, when at the time i didn't think anyone else should've known his name...

i'm still just like. what.

after thinking about it some more i'm slightly torn because, well, there were clues -- especially when any of the people on C-Team or D-Team talk about "Q," and i'm sure there's others i missed as well -- but i'm still a little ??? over it. like, "really?"

that said, i did at least guess correctly that Delta was Zero.

the rest of this isn't a liveblog, just further thoughts about the endgame revelations. i wish we got to know more about Delta's life (he's 124!!) and motivations. given that he took a much more antagonistic position than Akane did in VLR, i get that less explaining would happen, but still.

i suppose the Q/Sean issue explains why the dialogue log showed character portraits instead of names. i noticed pretty quickly in VLR that Sigma wasn't voiced, which annoyed me, but i accepted it because VNs do that sometimes. it wasn't til much later that i realized that that was intentional obfuscation to hide Sigma's age from the player. (that said i still don't know how Sigma himself didn't notice that his voice was different, unless R-6 was fucking with his senses enough for him not to notice.) with ZTD though, i didn't notice that the character portraits in the dialogue log could be obfuscating a character's name, which was clever.

i liked the ending in general, i think. kind of wish Mira and Eric got more development overall; i suppose Delta mostly brought them in to be volatile elements to throw more danger into the works. i wish we got a bit more of an epilogue, more than just some text files. (unless there's something else i need to unlock by viewing every single scene, in which case i'll do that... later...) also, i know Mira turns herself in according to the epilogue files, but... i would've expected a little more concern from the others (aside from Eric) about having a serial killer in their crew.

overall, i very much enjoyed this game, and i hope y'all enjoyed my blogging of it.

now, i finished the game somewhere between 4 and 5. at that moment, i thought, "finally, i can go to bed at a reasonable hour!" then, in the very next instant, i thought, "wait, but i want to read the fanfiction!" and it is now 9:30. (i've been excited to read zero escape fic since i finished 999 but i couldn't because spoilers and now i am free, it is amazing even if i sacrificed my sleep.)

(the bulk of this reading time was spent on The First Nonary Game, by airdeari. apparently this fic was only completed relatively recently; i feel myself quite lucky, to have been able to read it all in one go.)

honestly, my favorite game of the three may still be 999. i'm not certain of this, especially because i do love many of the characters/concepts/themes in the other two games, but 999 just feels very tight. (also, snake's in it, which is definitely points in its favor.)

hmm, starting to yawn now. as with any time that i'm sleep deprived, i have only two choices: succumb to sleep, or read something so that my brain wakes up again. since my grandma and aunt don't fly back til sometime tomorrow, and will in fact probably be here relatively soon, i may be stuck with the second one.

that's all right. i wanted to read more fanfic anyway.

Comments

[elisse]

AFHJDKSHFJKDSH ERIC KILLED ME. She killed your family, and you FORGIVE HER and MARRY HER? BOY BYE.

Also, did you know that Zero Time Dilemma anagrams to: "Me, I'm Zero, I'm Delta"? Because this blew my mind when I learned about it.

[graveexcitement]

eric is a god damn fool fhdghshsjs though i do gotta say, him being infuriated at all the sci-fi bullshit was really funny, like dude, are you in the wrong franchise, lmaooo

but yeah, i wish eric got some like... real development... instead of what he got, lmao

& whoa :0

[casualbird]

zero time dilemma's big review is honestly WILD, but all worth it for when phi dropkicks her brother screaming FUCK YOU OLD MAN!!!!!!

999 is my favorite too-- tight is a good way to describe the story, and those graphics are just gorgeous! i love the way the other two games look, but they just can't measure up to 999's style.

i'm so glad you enjoyed the series, pal! you tell me if you find any good fic for it, i haven't actually read that much.

[graveexcitement]

omg yeah, phi dropkicking her brother was GREAT

yeah 999 is super nice stylistically! and just in general it feels unified, stylistically and thematically.

so far in my fic delvings... well i've already linked The First Nonary Game; it's like 110k words and it is awesome. the same author writes a lot of aoi/light stuff; my favorite is Emergency Light.

i also quite like the variety of C-Team content (link goes to author's zero escape fics) provided by Riona

hmm. maybe i'll make an actual zero escape rec post at some point? it's been ages since i made a fic rec post of any kind, now that i think about it...

[casualbird]

i'll have to take a look into some of those-- i'd especially like to read about the first nonary game.

golly, i hope you don't find any of the hopeless ze angst i wrote in high school.

i'd definitely go through a fic rec post if you made one tho!!!

[graveexcitement]

hehe, hopeless ze angst? well i don’t usually read stuff that’s marked as or otherwise seems to be too heavy on the angst, so you’re probably safe!

& maybe i’ll throw together a fic rec post at some point, when i’ve read some more ze fics! right now i’m too sleepy to read, though. (which is a first for me because usually reading helps me wake up.)