Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward Joins PS-Plus Free Titles

[Earnest Cavalli]

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward Joins PS-Plus Free Titles


Another week, another addition to Sony's collection of free games.

Own a PlayStation Vita? Have a subscription to Sony's PlayStation Plus service? Then you're all set to enjoy Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward totally gratis later this week.

But what is Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward? The official PlayStation Blog describes it thusly:

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward is a suspense-driven visual novel/puzzle game and spiritual sequel to the hit, 999. Zero has kidnapped nine people and placed them in a warehouse to play the deadly Nonary Game. These seemingly nine strangers have bracelets that will kill them if they don't play the game correctly. However, how can they trust each other, and do some have ulterior motives? Play as Sigma and decide who to trust and who to betray in this plot twisting visual novel! Who is Zero, why has Sigma been brought here and who exactly are the others? With fully voiced dual language support, mind-bending puzzles and more, solve the mystery that is Zero!

Despite being a Vita title (and thus having a criminally small playerbase), Zero Escape has earned nearly unanimous propers from critics. For instance, we gave it a very respectable three out of five stars [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/10010-Zero-Escape-Virtues-Last-Reward-Review]. That, combined with the game's new zero dollar price tag, should make it a very enticing title for anyone with a PlayStation Plus subscription.

Unfortunately, with the addition of Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, something has to be bumped off of the Instant Games Collection roster. That something happens to be the PlayStation 3's Deus Ex: Human Revolution. You've still got a bit of time to download that title (it doesn't vanish until July 2), so if you've been meaning to enjoy Human Revolution, now would be a very good time to do so.

Full details on the promotional offer and instruction on how to sign up for PlayStation Plus can be found on the official PlayStation Blog.

Source: PlayStation Blog [http://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/06/24/playstation-plus-zero-escape-virtues-last-reward-free-for-members/]

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[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Oh hey, would you look at that?

I was actually planning on buying that, but it looks like I'm in luck this time. Normally when they show what the next set of free games are I already own a good portion of them, but not this time.

Hooray!

 

[ClockworkUniverse]

I just finished this a couple days ago, and while more people playing it is a good thing, I can't see how it would make any sense at all to those who haven't played the (DS exclusive) first game.

 

[Mahorfeus]

This game has one of the most convoluted yet amazing plots I've ever experienced. Good on anyone who gets to play it for free.

I just finished this a couple days ago, and while more people playing it is a good thing, I can't see how it would make any sense at all to those who haven't played the (DS exclusive) first game.

The plot itself is pretty detached from that of 999, and you do get those archive things that fill you in on background information. I do agree that playing 999 first helps a lot though.

 

[ZombieMonkey7]

The zero escape fan base is probably one of the most unjustly small fan bases consider the two amazing games they have put out. Seriously go check out the metacritic and some of the 10 out of 10 reviews for 999 and VLR

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

I love that I finally get to play this, and that I don't have to cough up anything for it, but should I pull out my DS and find 999 first? I know most would recommend I play it anyway because it's apparently good, but would I be missing any context or aspect of the experience having not played it?

 

[Riobux]

I love that I finally get to play this, and that I don't have to cough up anything for it, but should I pull out my DS and find 999 first? I know most would recommend I play it anyway because it's apparently good, but would I be missing any context or aspect of the experience having not played it?

It can help to play 999 first, but I played Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward and I didn't get confused. I'll admit I missed some of the references, but there was also notes about that informed me of some of the things that would be useful (e.g. some characters return for ZE:VLR). Although I will warn that after playing ZE:VLR, 999 seemed somewhat bad in comparison. Although it's more of a statement of how good ZE:VLR is personally rather than 999 being absolutely bad.

 

[Palademon]

Not sure why it's considered a 'spiritual' sequel. It has one of the same characters in the main cast.

I bought it recently and loved it. Then imported 999 recently. So gotta spam this link to my Sony leaning friends.

If anybody wonders whether you have to play 999 first, whilst many push for it I actually think it's better if you don't because it's easier to guess plot points if you played the previous, and all required details are mentioned in archive files you can pick up.
The only downside is it gives away parts of 999. And whilst it means you may know parts of the results, 999 still kept my interest wondering how you get there.

VLR is much longer because of the many more paths than 999, which really destroys repetition since you think you've seen everything 20 minutes in then bam, this new path has completely different plot twists.
Whereas the trick to 999 is getting the true ending by mixing the correct plot points brought up in specific combinations of rooms together to force the plot out. Otherwise you get the same 3 bad endings over and over.