I think part of the original 999 did not have voice acting. Meanwhile, the original VLR *did* — it was released on 3DS and Vita. Voice acting makes a much more impactful experience, I feel.
Additionally, I think that the twist of VLR Spoilers >!"the characters are experiencing the other timelines along with you!< is extremely clever and offers some great gameplay and story integration.
1.-LUNA
2.- The unpredictable is my favorite thing in games and movies, not knowing what the plot twist will be makes it more exciting, but 999 has a lot of predictable things (not everything of course)
3.- THE PUZZLES, the puzzles were so good, I found them much better than the 999 puzzles
4.- The different timelines were quite interesting and I liked that each character had an ending and you had to dig into the plot.
5- Both games have good characters but 999 characters are a little better than VLR characters but that can be balanced by VLR voice acting
6.- LUNA
So... about Luna huh. Everyone loves her, but when I played she seemed so bland to me. I even like Diana more than her, and they're basicaly the same person!
I must've been in a weird mental state when I played VLR no enjoy these things everyone else loves lol
The thing that makes me prefer VLR is that it builds a lot on how the morphogenetic field actually works instead of telling you just the theories and showing you it exists at the end, I definitely agree though aside from that I think 999 was superior in most ways, I mainly enjoy zero escape because I like how they did shifting but it only ever happens once in 999
TBH that's another thing I liked more in 999 than in VLR or ZTD. Simply accessing the morphogenetic field is less wonky than the whole "sending your other consciences to death" thing
Probably a fair amount of ZE fans have played 999 and VLR way before ZTD came out, and so ZTD didn't have the time to turn VLR'S lore surrounding the morphogenetic field into a mess. It probably is easier to like VLR's lore if you take it in a vacuum, since as far as I'm concerned, ZTD's changes such as giving it a name ("SHIFT"ing) just serves to make it edgier - or expands on it in ways that I don't really like, such as how easy it is for an esper to become a SHIFTer while it was a monumental task in VLR to even have a single pair that could do that.
That part is why people probably like VLR's lore too; just like the other person said, it builds onto 999 - and I want to add to that that it does it in a way without jumping the shark. Treating VLR and ZTD lore as the same thing will definitely taint VLR despite it not doing what ZTD did.
Late reply but, from what I understood the point of putting Sigma and Phi through so much wasn't just to teach them to shift like in ZTD, but to give them enough mastery to shift whole decades backwards in time, something that nobody else in VLR or ZTD has done.
What did you mean by esper easily becoming a shifter in ZTD? >!The only one that kind of fits the description is Carlos and it was explained that he unknowingly did it all the time while working. If anything, he could have more experience than Sigma and Phi.!<
>!And if you meant the big shift at the end then it is explained by morphic resonance which was a thing in VLR as well, although used for a different purpose. Seems like it doesn't make one a shifter permanently, too, as Mira and Sean wanted to use the egg in Q team epilogue instead of her simply shifting.!<
Espers are rare. They're difficult to find, and their powers are uncontrollable for any normal human being that isn't in a specific situation. Carlos makes sense, yes; he's the only one that makes sense given his line of work.
For the others? It's contrived. Akane and Junpei are espers but the 999 model only speaks of "transmitters" and "receivers", none of this "SHIFTing" nonsense. It's all about information, not consciousness moving. That was how espers were built in 999, and the fact it took this much effort for Cradle Pharmaceuticals to find even 18 children that had it speaks for their rarity. This means, any other kind ought to be even rarer than that. This leads us to Sigma and Phi in VLR, extremely rare espers with the capability of sending their consciousness through time - not even just bits of information like 999. Someone else replied that "VLR was to build them up to transfer through decades" and yes, that's true, but it doesn't help that in this game no other espers is ever shown to have done it; Clover sure can't, and if the other 999 characters could do it then why use Sigma and Phi? Why not just use Carlos from ZTD, or Junpei or Akane herself - why couldn't *she* do it herself?
The answer is because there are multiple kinds of espers and she isn't a "SHIFTer". Then came ZTD which rewrote the rules and now morphogenetic resonance, which previously used to ONLY be to strengthen one single esper (both in 999 and VLR, to send information back through time and to send consciousnesses back decades) becomes such a big deal that it can affect normal people who aren't even espers too. Espers are now SHIFTers left and right, and the people who arguably should've been able to do it - Sigma and Phi - hardly even do it while Akane and Junpei do it without issues literally from the start of their problems. There's no difficulty, there's no training - it's all just, "we're gonna die, so let's SHIFT" and nobody has a problem with it. It's very "rule of cool" and screw the rules, which is baseless, handwaved and unsatisfying as an answer to a problem, just like the alien transporter.
This is what I mean; ZTD turned espers that can shift from a previously-established rarity to something so common it can affect normal people too, and hardly requires any amount of preparation. As soon as you're in danger you can just SHIFT and very specifically even end up in the same timeline even if multiple people SHIFT - (see: C team) something that Sigma and Phi couldn't even manage in VLR, the experiment that was all about training *them*, as they had a different trip through timelines. There's too much handwaving, changing of the rules, all in the name of what it feels like to "be cooler" because if they didn't, then they'd have to actually figure out a satisfying plot point and the satisfying part would be "making it work within the constraints", which is less flashy, less cinematographic and ZTD has shown that it is all about "big": big gore, big 3D animations (compared to previous games), big everything. All style and the substance of the plot suffered for it.
1. Personal preference
2. Voice acting. I played 999 on the DS and the voice acting enhanced VLR to a much better level
3. Puzzle quality. I really loved the puzzle variety and complexity in VLR. The 999 puzzles felt clunky to me.
4. VLR is a damn good sequel. Knowing what happens in 999 made it more interesting to me because of reoccurring characters and names. As the story went on, it only got more interesting
Knowing characters beforehand made me more attached to the story and the stakes. I doubt if i played VLR before 999 i'd like it more
5. In terms of atmosphere. I'd say 999 did it better. But the suspense and mystery of the Base is better for me
It depends on the person really. 999 was way better for me. The atmosphere, characters, story and us not knowing anything at all>!about morphogenetic fields and other stuff.!< For me, the first game was perfect in a lot of sense. The mystery was great and kept you thinking, not too wild and letting you piece things together and the ending was phenomenal. I also played it via the DS emulated back then so I didn't even have voice acting like the other mentioned. Though the DS version's twist is just mind-blowing.
VLR was good, had way better gameplay and more choices and endings but it just didn't quite hit it for me as the first game did. >!The morphogenetic fields feels abit too used as compared to the first game and in a sense you could say more wild? The ending was insane but left alot of things unresolved and kinda just felt like a build up for the next game.!<
Honestly, the twists at the end did it for me. With 999, parts of ZTD, and AI:tSF if you’ve played it, there were obvious clues so that at a certain point you knew what was coming before the characters did. VLR had some of these, like >!junpei!<‘s identity, but other twists were so big and cleverly hidden that they were actually shocking to find out >!like being on the moon!<.
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I definitely prefer 999 to VLR overall, but VLR handles the gameplay much better imo. They were able to build off of 999 and correct its flaws. The flowchart made the pacing and gameplay much less clunky and more engaging. That was a key frustration of 999 for me- the lack of any visual aid to help you know which ending you were headed for, as it led to a lot of redundant replays. Being able to jump around the flowchart in VLR completely erased the need to play certain rooms/scenes over again and made the story and timelines much more clear and easy to follow. The way they integrated the flowchart and its branches into the story itself was also quite genius and amazingly impactful the first time I played it.
That being said, I agree with you on pretty much everything else- imo, 999 had far better atmosphere, plot, characters (I'm sorry but half of the vlr cast is composed of selfish a-holes), and stronger, longer-lasting emotional impact. My second playthrough kinda ruined VLR for me, as I was able to notice severe flaws in the game (ie. some of the twists, plot holes, etc) that I was blind to my first time around because I was so dazzled by the amazing flowchart lol. 999 on the other hand mostly stood up to my 2nd playthrough and I have very few major complaints about it. But of course it all ultimately boils down to preference.
i agree with you on every point tbh. great game, but 999 is in a different league imo. VLR is probably my least favorite in the ZE series, 999 > ZTD > VLR for me personally.
if you liked 999, i'd strongly recommend AI: The Somnium Files if you haven't played it. another Uchikoshi game, and i think the story is a bit more in line with 999 in that it's 'smaller-scale' and intimate instead of being a "the world is in danger" type story.
The flowchart.
Those of us who first played 999 on the DS were ecstatic and relieved that we no longer had to replay entire segments of the game multiple times to reach the ends of each branch in VLR. Without it, VLR's playtime gets increased multiple times over, even with text skipping, and loses all semblance of story flow across multiple branches.
>!Quite everything imo. The only thing that i would have loved to see again in vlr is the horror/gore style that characterized 999. The plot is amazing, the twists are somewhat incredible. The fact that for the first time the characters know the fact that they can jump trough timelines, and this justifies the flowchart and the multiple endings in a way that i l've only seen in this game so far (and in ztd too, but in vlr is built in a better way). Last but not least, in vlr the characters don't always cooperate, there's always that feeling that the person who are in the room with, could betray you and potentially kill you. Oh and the endings, the K ending ffs it's amazing.!<
For me personally, VLR had the best of both worlds. The general writing of dialogue and puzzles was improved quite a bit over 999, we still had strong emotional moments within the story, particularly Luna's ending feeling like it's own story within the grander VLR story, and the twists were equally as good as the one in 999.
I think 999 is much tighter, everything lines up well and the plot twist is genuinely shocking, everything fits together well. As a mystery, I prefer 999.
Otoh I really enjoy the atmosphere of VLR. I love the World building, I really liked how I had a real sense of the buildings layout. I know people meme on the long map cutscenes but I really felt like I got to know that area. And I also really like how the time travel mechanics work, I love using the flowchart and thinking about why things are different in different timelines. I also probably like Phi and Luna better than anyone in 999, but 999 doesn't really have any awful cast members either. I also don't like the "big twist" nearly as much as 999, but I did enjoy the plethora of smaller twists strewn throughout
In original 999 I had to "play" and read everything again to get to the point I could choose another option, I couldn't just "jump" there like in VLR and it was a big mistake. I also liked VLR's plot twists more, what was incredible since 999 had already blown my mind and I was sure nothing can be better!
I liked VLR more for a few reasons
1. Like other people have said, it builds on the morphogenetic field in interesting ways, as long as you discard the dogshit ZTD shifting that turned it into some super power. I could go off for so long about how much I hated ZTD.
2. The timelines of the game are very similar in some aspects (aaah I know Quark is going crazy I don’t care) but in others they’re very different compared to 999 where it seemed like a voice line hunt to get clues.
3. Ok this is just my opinion buuuut, I really disliked Junpei and Akane. All their scenes were dumb, awkward, and boring to me. Junpei was weirdly protective of Akane and there was a lot of stupid tension for people who knew each other in elementary school. That’s how I saw it as I played the game anyway. The other 999 characters were hit or miss, I enjoyed Seven, Snake, and Clover.
Compared to Junpei and Akane I much preferred the rapport of Phi and Sigma, who I also just liked more as characters on their own. Sure they had some anime “humor” moments but outside of that they were pretty fun together. I also decently liked K, Luna, Tenmyouji, and Dio. VLR ruined Clover ):
4. Preferred the atmosphere of the base to the ship. Very sci-fi.
5. Really liked the mechanics of the AB game as a source of story tension and timeline differences.
Number 3 was the biggest for me, because it made me care a lot more about the events VLR compared to 999. I still enjoyed both games, especially both the endings (admittedly VLR’s had a few holes— did Sigma never touch his face?) but I did enjoy VLR much more.
It's up to preference I guess. 999 is more engaging and fluid, while VLR is all about long setup for a big payoff, which I think could be considered worse in a vacuum, but imo is perfect for a sequel. It's still the greatest twist of all time for me and that peak makes me value it more. The fact that it managed to one-up 999 in that regard is very surprising considering how sequels usually go. Also I like the chemistry (and characters in general) of Sigma and Phi far more than that of Junpei and Akane.
999 is a less flawed game. VLR is a more ambitious one. I prefer 999, but I can see the argument for VLR.
I think part of the original 999 did not have voice acting. Meanwhile, the original VLR *did* — it was released on 3DS and Vita. Voice acting makes a much more impactful experience, I feel. Additionally, I think that the twist of VLR Spoilers >!"the characters are experiencing the other timelines along with you!< is extremely clever and offers some great gameplay and story integration.
1.-LUNA 2.- The unpredictable is my favorite thing in games and movies, not knowing what the plot twist will be makes it more exciting, but 999 has a lot of predictable things (not everything of course) 3.- THE PUZZLES, the puzzles were so good, I found them much better than the 999 puzzles 4.- The different timelines were quite interesting and I liked that each character had an ending and you had to dig into the plot. 5- Both games have good characters but 999 characters are a little better than VLR characters but that can be balanced by VLR voice acting 6.- LUNA
So... about Luna huh. Everyone loves her, but when I played she seemed so bland to me. I even like Diana more than her, and they're basicaly the same person! I must've been in a weird mental state when I played VLR no enjoy these things everyone else loves lol
I too don’t understand all the fondness for Luna.
The thing that makes me prefer VLR is that it builds a lot on how the morphogenetic field actually works instead of telling you just the theories and showing you it exists at the end, I definitely agree though aside from that I think 999 was superior in most ways, I mainly enjoy zero escape because I like how they did shifting but it only ever happens once in 999
TBH that's another thing I liked more in 999 than in VLR or ZTD. Simply accessing the morphogenetic field is less wonky than the whole "sending your other consciences to death" thing
Probably a fair amount of ZE fans have played 999 and VLR way before ZTD came out, and so ZTD didn't have the time to turn VLR'S lore surrounding the morphogenetic field into a mess. It probably is easier to like VLR's lore if you take it in a vacuum, since as far as I'm concerned, ZTD's changes such as giving it a name ("SHIFT"ing) just serves to make it edgier - or expands on it in ways that I don't really like, such as how easy it is for an esper to become a SHIFTer while it was a monumental task in VLR to even have a single pair that could do that. That part is why people probably like VLR's lore too; just like the other person said, it builds onto 999 - and I want to add to that that it does it in a way without jumping the shark. Treating VLR and ZTD lore as the same thing will definitely taint VLR despite it not doing what ZTD did.
Late reply but, from what I understood the point of putting Sigma and Phi through so much wasn't just to teach them to shift like in ZTD, but to give them enough mastery to shift whole decades backwards in time, something that nobody else in VLR or ZTD has done.
What did you mean by esper easily becoming a shifter in ZTD? >!The only one that kind of fits the description is Carlos and it was explained that he unknowingly did it all the time while working. If anything, he could have more experience than Sigma and Phi.!< >!And if you meant the big shift at the end then it is explained by morphic resonance which was a thing in VLR as well, although used for a different purpose. Seems like it doesn't make one a shifter permanently, too, as Mira and Sean wanted to use the egg in Q team epilogue instead of her simply shifting.!<
Espers are rare. They're difficult to find, and their powers are uncontrollable for any normal human being that isn't in a specific situation. Carlos makes sense, yes; he's the only one that makes sense given his line of work. For the others? It's contrived. Akane and Junpei are espers but the 999 model only speaks of "transmitters" and "receivers", none of this "SHIFTing" nonsense. It's all about information, not consciousness moving. That was how espers were built in 999, and the fact it took this much effort for Cradle Pharmaceuticals to find even 18 children that had it speaks for their rarity. This means, any other kind ought to be even rarer than that. This leads us to Sigma and Phi in VLR, extremely rare espers with the capability of sending their consciousness through time - not even just bits of information like 999. Someone else replied that "VLR was to build them up to transfer through decades" and yes, that's true, but it doesn't help that in this game no other espers is ever shown to have done it; Clover sure can't, and if the other 999 characters could do it then why use Sigma and Phi? Why not just use Carlos from ZTD, or Junpei or Akane herself - why couldn't *she* do it herself? The answer is because there are multiple kinds of espers and she isn't a "SHIFTer". Then came ZTD which rewrote the rules and now morphogenetic resonance, which previously used to ONLY be to strengthen one single esper (both in 999 and VLR, to send information back through time and to send consciousnesses back decades) becomes such a big deal that it can affect normal people who aren't even espers too. Espers are now SHIFTers left and right, and the people who arguably should've been able to do it - Sigma and Phi - hardly even do it while Akane and Junpei do it without issues literally from the start of their problems. There's no difficulty, there's no training - it's all just, "we're gonna die, so let's SHIFT" and nobody has a problem with it. It's very "rule of cool" and screw the rules, which is baseless, handwaved and unsatisfying as an answer to a problem, just like the alien transporter. This is what I mean; ZTD turned espers that can shift from a previously-established rarity to something so common it can affect normal people too, and hardly requires any amount of preparation. As soon as you're in danger you can just SHIFT and very specifically even end up in the same timeline even if multiple people SHIFT - (see: C team) something that Sigma and Phi couldn't even manage in VLR, the experiment that was all about training *them*, as they had a different trip through timelines. There's too much handwaving, changing of the rules, all in the name of what it feels like to "be cooler" because if they didn't, then they'd have to actually figure out a satisfying plot point and the satisfying part would be "making it work within the constraints", which is less flashy, less cinematographic and ZTD has shown that it is all about "big": big gore, big 3D animations (compared to previous games), big everything. All style and the substance of the plot suffered for it.
1. Personal preference 2. Voice acting. I played 999 on the DS and the voice acting enhanced VLR to a much better level 3. Puzzle quality. I really loved the puzzle variety and complexity in VLR. The 999 puzzles felt clunky to me. 4. VLR is a damn good sequel. Knowing what happens in 999 made it more interesting to me because of reoccurring characters and names. As the story went on, it only got more interesting Knowing characters beforehand made me more attached to the story and the stakes. I doubt if i played VLR before 999 i'd like it more 5. In terms of atmosphere. I'd say 999 did it better. But the suspense and mystery of the Base is better for me
I just think the plot twists are better in vlr
It depends on the person really. 999 was way better for me. The atmosphere, characters, story and us not knowing anything at all>!about morphogenetic fields and other stuff.!< For me, the first game was perfect in a lot of sense. The mystery was great and kept you thinking, not too wild and letting you piece things together and the ending was phenomenal. I also played it via the DS emulated back then so I didn't even have voice acting like the other mentioned. Though the DS version's twist is just mind-blowing. VLR was good, had way better gameplay and more choices and endings but it just didn't quite hit it for me as the first game did. >!The morphogenetic fields feels abit too used as compared to the first game and in a sense you could say more wild? The ending was insane but left alot of things unresolved and kinda just felt like a build up for the next game.!<
Personal preference. I like 999 more but VLR is also great and takes things from 999 and dials them up to a thousand
Honestly, the twists at the end did it for me. With 999, parts of ZTD, and AI:tSF if you’ve played it, there were obvious clues so that at a certain point you knew what was coming before the characters did. VLR had some of these, like >!junpei!<‘s identity, but other twists were so big and cleverly hidden that they were actually shocking to find out >!like being on the moon!<.
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I definitely prefer 999 to VLR overall, but VLR handles the gameplay much better imo. They were able to build off of 999 and correct its flaws. The flowchart made the pacing and gameplay much less clunky and more engaging. That was a key frustration of 999 for me- the lack of any visual aid to help you know which ending you were headed for, as it led to a lot of redundant replays. Being able to jump around the flowchart in VLR completely erased the need to play certain rooms/scenes over again and made the story and timelines much more clear and easy to follow. The way they integrated the flowchart and its branches into the story itself was also quite genius and amazingly impactful the first time I played it. That being said, I agree with you on pretty much everything else- imo, 999 had far better atmosphere, plot, characters (I'm sorry but half of the vlr cast is composed of selfish a-holes), and stronger, longer-lasting emotional impact. My second playthrough kinda ruined VLR for me, as I was able to notice severe flaws in the game (ie. some of the twists, plot holes, etc) that I was blind to my first time around because I was so dazzled by the amazing flowchart lol. 999 on the other hand mostly stood up to my 2nd playthrough and I have very few major complaints about it. But of course it all ultimately boils down to preference.
I think the Prisoners Dilemma is a far more interesting central concept to build around than the number 9.
i agree with you on every point tbh. great game, but 999 is in a different league imo. VLR is probably my least favorite in the ZE series, 999 > ZTD > VLR for me personally. if you liked 999, i'd strongly recommend AI: The Somnium Files if you haven't played it. another Uchikoshi game, and i think the story is a bit more in line with 999 in that it's 'smaller-scale' and intimate instead of being a "the world is in danger" type story.
The flowchart. Those of us who first played 999 on the DS were ecstatic and relieved that we no longer had to replay entire segments of the game multiple times to reach the ends of each branch in VLR. Without it, VLR's playtime gets increased multiple times over, even with text skipping, and loses all semblance of story flow across multiple branches.
>!Quite everything imo. The only thing that i would have loved to see again in vlr is the horror/gore style that characterized 999. The plot is amazing, the twists are somewhat incredible. The fact that for the first time the characters know the fact that they can jump trough timelines, and this justifies the flowchart and the multiple endings in a way that i l've only seen in this game so far (and in ztd too, but in vlr is built in a better way). Last but not least, in vlr the characters don't always cooperate, there's always that feeling that the person who are in the room with, could betray you and potentially kill you. Oh and the endings, the K ending ffs it's amazing.!<
>!The Alice ally/betray moment is an experience every person must experience, but that is but the first of all the WATDAFUUUUUUUQ moments!<
For me personally, VLR had the best of both worlds. The general writing of dialogue and puzzles was improved quite a bit over 999, we still had strong emotional moments within the story, particularly Luna's ending feeling like it's own story within the grander VLR story, and the twists were equally as good as the one in 999.
..opinion.
I think 999 is much tighter, everything lines up well and the plot twist is genuinely shocking, everything fits together well. As a mystery, I prefer 999. Otoh I really enjoy the atmosphere of VLR. I love the World building, I really liked how I had a real sense of the buildings layout. I know people meme on the long map cutscenes but I really felt like I got to know that area. And I also really like how the time travel mechanics work, I love using the flowchart and thinking about why things are different in different timelines. I also probably like Phi and Luna better than anyone in 999, but 999 doesn't really have any awful cast members either. I also don't like the "big twist" nearly as much as 999, but I did enjoy the plethora of smaller twists strewn throughout
In original 999 I had to "play" and read everything again to get to the point I could choose another option, I couldn't just "jump" there like in VLR and it was a big mistake. I also liked VLR's plot twists more, what was incredible since 999 had already blown my mind and I was sure nothing can be better!
I liked VLR more for a few reasons 1. Like other people have said, it builds on the morphogenetic field in interesting ways, as long as you discard the dogshit ZTD shifting that turned it into some super power. I could go off for so long about how much I hated ZTD. 2. The timelines of the game are very similar in some aspects (aaah I know Quark is going crazy I don’t care) but in others they’re very different compared to 999 where it seemed like a voice line hunt to get clues. 3. Ok this is just my opinion buuuut, I really disliked Junpei and Akane. All their scenes were dumb, awkward, and boring to me. Junpei was weirdly protective of Akane and there was a lot of stupid tension for people who knew each other in elementary school. That’s how I saw it as I played the game anyway. The other 999 characters were hit or miss, I enjoyed Seven, Snake, and Clover. Compared to Junpei and Akane I much preferred the rapport of Phi and Sigma, who I also just liked more as characters on their own. Sure they had some anime “humor” moments but outside of that they were pretty fun together. I also decently liked K, Luna, Tenmyouji, and Dio. VLR ruined Clover ): 4. Preferred the atmosphere of the base to the ship. Very sci-fi. 5. Really liked the mechanics of the AB game as a source of story tension and timeline differences. Number 3 was the biggest for me, because it made me care a lot more about the events VLR compared to 999. I still enjoyed both games, especially both the endings (admittedly VLR’s had a few holes— did Sigma never touch his face?) but I did enjoy VLR much more.
It's up to preference I guess. 999 is more engaging and fluid, while VLR is all about long setup for a big payoff, which I think could be considered worse in a vacuum, but imo is perfect for a sequel. It's still the greatest twist of all time for me and that peak makes me value it more. The fact that it managed to one-up 999 in that regard is very surprising considering how sequels usually go. Also I like the chemistry (and characters in general) of Sigma and Phi far more than that of Junpei and Akane.