PlayStation Plus members can download Virtue’s Last Reward for their PS Vita free of charge this month as part of the Instant Game Collection offer. It was originally released on the 23rd of November last year but this current offer is a great chance to check it out if you haven’t already. Non-PS Plus members can still pick it up for €34.99. Virtue’s Last Reward was published by Rising Star Games in Europe and was developed and published by Chunsoft in Japan under the name Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward. The game is a direct sequel to 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors which has only been released on the Nintendo DS.
Like its predecessor, Virtue’s Last Reward is a visual novel with several puzzles throughout it to solve. You don’t need to have played 999 beforehand but I would recommend you do. There are some characters that make a return and the ending will have more meaning for players who have seen the true ending of the first game. However if you don’t have access to a DS to play it, I wouldn’t let that put you off Virtue’s Last Reward either. The story is written in such a way that it welcomes new players and it is only the returning players that will recognise which references are being made to the previous game.
You take the role of Sigma, a PhD student who was abducted and has woken up in a mysterious underground facility. Along with eight other prisoners he is forced to play a game devised by his masked abductor in order to try and survive long enough to escape. This ‘Ambidex Game’ forces the prisoners to team up and compete against each other to earn enough points to escape. Anyone who attempts to break the rules of the game or who loses all their points will be killed by a lethal injection from needles within their bracelet. This new dynamic of being able to ally or betray other characters, as well as the possibility of being betrayed yourself by one of them, adds a new interesting dimension to the game which wasn’t a part of 999. Successfully betraying a character gains you more points and brings you closer to your escape but can also ruin your relationship with them for the rest of the game, or perhaps I should say timeline. Virtue’s Last Reward is about the consequences of different choices, if you choose to ally but want to see the outcome if you chose betray, you can hop back into the menu to go back to the time where you made your choice and try again. The game keeps a flow chart of all the different choices you’ve made and branches out depending on your actions.
There are over 20 possible endings within the game and to see the true ending you will have complete them all. Sigma has the ability to remember actions that only you should know. If you go down one path in the timeline and discover useful information, Sigma may remember it and use it to his advantage on a different playthrough. In fact some paths will remain closed until you discover certain pieces of information on a different timeline. You don’t have to replay sections you have already done, any text you have already seen or puzzles you have already completed are easily skipped. This is a great improvement from 999 as previously players would have to redo puzzles or go through pages of text every time they wanted to make a different decision.
As to be expected from a visual novel, the game is very text heavy; you will spend a lot of time reading about the thoughts and actions of each character. Early on in the game all of the other prisoners seem so bizarre and secretive that I had very little time for them. The further I advanced though, the more surprises and twists the game threw at me, keeping me constantly guessing what motivated each of them. Some scenes are animated but most of the time you will be reading about what they do rather than seeing it play out before you. Each character has a couple of animations they will use when speaking to you but these are heavily reused and sometimes feel out of place with what they’re saying. In between puzzles the dialogue is fully voiced in Japanese over the English text. There is English voice acting in the American version of the game but none in the European unfortunately.
When you’re not reading or making the choice of whether to ally or betray, you will be solving puzzles. While the real joy of the game is the story, the main actual gameplay are these puzzles. They help to break up the text so you are not just constantly reading. Each puzzle is set in a room that you have to examine in order to find objects and clues which will lead you to a password that unlocks the exit. The PS Vita’s touch screen can be clumsy here. Sometimes it won’t register you touching an object which can leave you guessing as to whether the object is actually part of the puzzle or not. Trying to write notes with your finger on the screen is even more frustrating. A stylus would definitely work better and give some much needed accuracy to these parts of the game. All of the puzzles will require some thought to solve meaning you can’t exactly guess your way through them. If you are having trouble solving one you can switch the difficulty to easy and other characters will drop clearer hints on the solution.
Due to its novel style format, Virtue’s Last Reward certainly isn’t for everyone. The gameplay takes a secondary role to the story, but when the writing is this good it’s easy to recommend it. Anyone who enjoyed 999 should definitely check out this improved sequel. If you are at all curious about this lesser known genre then Virtue’s Last Reward is a great place to start. Visual novel games are popular in Japan and thanks to 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Virtue’s Last Reward, it may be a genre we will see more of in the West too.