Eight days and 25 hours of gaming later, I’ve beaten a game that has completely left my mind in a chaotic mess from all the unexpected plot twists and information overload (in a good way) about quantum physics and time travelling/alternate history concepts. Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward has managed to surprise me in so many ways that I am left wondering why I had doubted this game in the first place. Really, when I first heard that there was a sequel to 999, my reaction came off very lukewarm. Part of it is because I originally heard that the game was a “spiritual sequel” to 999. The last “spiritual sequel” I played was Ghost Tricks, which turned out to be a disappointment, so I approached VLR with wariness in the beginning. However, once raving reviews came out on the interwebs, I became very interested and found myself anticipating the game.

Like I said, the plot twists have completely left me in an awed state. I love what the creators did and how they made it connect to 999. It is much longer than 999 and infinitely more complicated — in fact VLR is an even bigger cliffhanger than 999, and now I am wondering what’s going to happen in the third game of the series that is currently in development.

Honestly, VLR is good. The puzzles are more challenging, and there is a lot more happening in the game, but I find myself preferring 999 more. I think that’s because I enjoyed the Titanic references and the characterisations were better in the first game. The characters in the second game were portrayed well, but something seemed missing from the second game. Also, Junpei felt like a much more rounded character and protagonist than Sigma. That’s just me, though.

If you enjoyed 999, VLR is recommended. Both games are suspenseful and will leave you constantly wondering what’s going on with the plot and the characters.