Zero Escape: The Nonary Games

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is peak, and Virtue's Last Reward is even better.
If you like visual novels, escape rooms, puzzle games, etc., with a ton of personality and challenge, this is the collection for you.

Amazing story mystery novels. I would recommend for those who want a mystery game where your choices majorly change the outcome of the games.

This review is for 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

After obtaining the true ending for 999, I have to say, this game was amazing. The story wraps up so insanely nicely, the gameplay was fun, the dialogue was engaging, the characters were mostly great. This game is seriously just so fucking good. It wasn't really the plot twists that really got to me, but instead getting the full story of what had been happening the entire time. I cannot understate how nicely everything is wrapped up. It felt really good and I was not expecting to leave the game feeling this way. Playing through the true ending was an amazing experience. The story is a bit convoluted, but not enough to really ruin it for me. It was in a very weird way where it kinda added to the experience, there's just a lot to dig up as to what's happening here.

Now, I've been referring to the 'true ending' this entire time. This game has a bunch of different endings and imo the other ones all suck. They're mostly just fan service what-ifs, and don't have any real meaning to them. The creators intended it to be this way because you were meant to get these lesser endings first, which slowly give you different bits of info, before getting the true one and getting the big picture. I get the concept, I respect it, but I don't think it was really working. The other endings can get frustratingly bad due to how uninteresting they can be. Some of the endings in this game are horrible and definitely wouldn't encourage me to do a 2nd run for the true one. I achieved the 'safe' ending on my first run and I thought it was an embarrassingly bad way to end the story. I get it, it gave me some early info in preparation for the true ending but like... yeah idk I feel like I could have just been given the true one and been fine. It didn't do anything for my experience and was kinda annoying imo. It actually made me stay away from the game for a while since I both didn't feel like restarting the game right away and just thought the safe ending was bad.

The puzzles in the game were pretty fun although some of them honestly required waaaaaay more effort than I was willing to give. It was also kinda a byproduct of where the story was going. I wanted to know what happened next so badly to the point where I was just using guides to speedrun the room puzzles. Most of them were really fun to do though and make you feel big brained.

In terms of general things, the art, music, ui, etc etc etc were all great and I had no complaints for any of them.

This game was so good and I definitely wasn't expecting it to enjoy it as much as I did. I'll play VLR in the future and add to this review when the time comes.

this game lets you experience what Jimmy Neutron felt during a brain blast. great music would recommend.

One of the greats.
Let's just say it is a must play for anyone the likes puzzles and awesome weird convoluted stories.

endings really go from 0 to 100 in a couple mins, escape rooms are really creative and dialog is great

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (The first of the two games in this bundle), is not just an amazing visual novel and puzzle game, but it's also one of the best games I've ever played. I cannot reccomend it enough.

got so into this game that i started doing math by hand again

999: Good story and characters, some puzzles are stupid but most of them are good

VLR: Its a fine game but also boring at times

I LOVE SEVEN CLOVER N SNAKE

"Reality is shaped by what we believe reality should be. If observation can change the motion of a particle, then how is it odd to think that human thought can shape reality?"

Gotta be one of the greatest games I've ever played!

I 100% recommend both of the games this comes with the story is amazing and the puzzles are fun to play if you are looking for a good mystery thriller game with some horror aspects you should play this game characters are awesome as well.

awesome sauce game i love temu howl pendragon🥰🥰

It's just too slow and too boring.

man fucking uchikoshi always cooks with his first games, 999 was really good probably second favorite VN i've played, I don't like ZTD so far but I haven't finished it yet

such a nice story from escape game

I loved both 999 and VLR, I was completely mindblown once I completed both. The puzzles are fun and interesting, and have varying difficulties. You can switch difficulty levels in VLR, which was nice. The storyline spans both games, and I would suggest playing both games if you want to get the full picture. VLR is longer than 999 but it didn't bother me at all because the plot kept me on my toes and I wanted to keep playing XD. There is a lot to keep track of as the plot can become convulted, but in my opinion it was the only way to tell the story for the maximum effect. In short, it's a game series that might hurt your head with its elaborate plot, but I highly recommend it.

It's a great game

Extremely creative. Both installments are peak, though I prefer the second. Takes everything about the first game, including the bad, and brings it to 11. It's everything exactly where it needs to be. One day I will play #3 to see if it's actually as bad as everyone says. Anyway, this is fantastic science fiction, without the deus ex machina problem most sci-fi runs into. Well. You know. I hope you like convoluted puzzles.

Like the story, but not into puzzles so switched to watching a youtube playthrough instead.

Played it originally on the DS and thought it was so great I ended up hunting down the two sequels as well. Great games, great story.

Haven't played through VLR yet, but 999 is a fantastic VN. Highly recommend going through all of the routes.

To start off, 999 is my favourite game. I played it on release and was hooked. I love the art, music, story, characters and puzzles. I was rather obsessed. And coming back I still think it's a fantastic game. It isn't perfect but I find it charming. This new version made it even better. The voice acting is phenomenal and it adds a lot to the experience. The action mode gives players not as fond of traditional visual novels a way to better enjoy the game as well as matches the style used in the later part of the game series. Overall this is a great game then and it's a great game now. I highly recommend it.
As for the other game in this collection. VLR is a bit of a change. It's far more sci-fi and is a lot longer. Normally that would be great for a sequel but in this case. It takes a bunch of alternative story telling styles that sound like an interesting idea but can make parts of this game really drag. Since every possibility is possible some of them aren't as interesting as other routes. The other issue is that the puzzles can be rather repetitive in this game. There are about five or six basic puzzles that get re-skined at least three times each throughout the game with also made the length of the game really feel even worse. That being said this game isn't all trash. The story itself is good when it has time to progress and there are a lot of mysteries that piece together really well. I think the ending twist is one of the best in the entire series. Many things are well put together and I still find pretty enjoyable. That being said this game is intrinsically tied to the final game of the series so if you play one you have to play the other or the story will be incomplete. Those of us who waited through the development hell can attest.
Overall I recommend this bundle. You get two games for the price and I still believe that 999 is amazing. Especially in its newest form.

one of my favorite visual novels of all time. no complaints about 999, however in vlr some of the twists + loopholes get so convoluted that idek if the devs kept up with allat lmao. generally a non-issue though. i so super recommend

Protag: Ow, my ass hurts-

Character: That reminds me of this story where this scientist hit his ass on the edge of a table, but didn’t feel it. Then, months later, he died of ass pain. They call it Temporal Ass Pain or TAP

Protag: I’d TAP that-

Character: Say we took two asses, and we both slapped them really hard, there’d be a 56.000079% chance that one of them won’t feel it. That pain didn’t just get absorbed by the ass tissue, it’s being transported to the future. They call people who don’t feel Ass pain until later…TAPers…I wonder…if they could transport ass pain to someone else-

Zero: Ive injected Ass Poison into all of your left buttcheeks. You have exactly 2 hours to solve my Ass Slap puzzle.

https://savefrog.tumblr.com/post/167945341780/every-zero-escape-game

Ma tew sents.

funyarinpa :)

i will have nightmares about this game series for the rest of my life in a positive sense

Best vn/puzzle/escape room type game i've ever played. Character and story writing kept me engaging and guessing until it all comes together in super satisfying ways. Way cheaper than it is worth, though its unfortunate the series never really got a conclusion.

To list all of my thoughts on these games, I'm going to drop a lot of spoilers.
Both games have their own ups and downs. The scope of the first game was a lot smaller, so there was less room for contradictions and contrivances.
The second game is so huge that they're almost unavoidable.
The number combinations in the first game were cooler, than the rail-roady colour combinations, which swap in whichever way is more convenient to progress the route.
There is a list of contrivances in the second game, such as convenient timing of things happening, railroading through colour swaps, some characters behaving unpredictably whenever its convenient. I was going to point to Alice, but they all behave like this.
But what I liked about the second game is that I didn't have to go through certain scenes and say specific things to get the right endings.
On the other hand, while there is more freedom, there's also a lot more dead ends, which end on "to be continued" because you weren't supposed to make it there yet.
Overall I think I like the first game more. The plot is better and the characters are slightly more believable.
I also liked in the second game that I didn't have to go through the same puzzles a second time to get a new route/ending. You seem to always end up going to different rooms for every route you choose. Gameplay wise it's good,
but story wise it's weird and contrived. Because one lever can sometimes any one of 3 doors and as if it read the script, it knows which route you're on and which door to open.
Also, the nonlinear approach ends up with very goofy outcomes. For example, the Phi gets revenge on me for something I didn't do yet, because the game assumes I've already tried the betray action before.
It just doesn't work narratively, because I will be trying that route later, so it's out of order even in universe. She couldn't have the premonition/vision of something that I haven't done in a different route yet. Even more so if it's all happening simultaneously. She seems to be very knowledgeable about the whole situation and that's the point where she decided to get petty? Come on.
Phi's behaviour can be very erratic, which is contradicted by her knowledge of the whole situation in midgame and then contradicted 10x more after the final reveal.
To me it seems like the scope of the second game got so overcomplicated that compromises had to be made. For example, some of the deaths/ends seem very forced/sloppy.
Also, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, the unskippable rehashing of the Alice incident was very annoying. It's in every route and you have to click through it, can't skip it, like most others repeated scenes.
Why? Because characters say very slightly different but still irrelevant things. And occasionally because it happens in a different room. Didn't like it.
Also, there was no need to replay the door opening animations hundreds of times.
Some character endings are downright crap. Case in point: Clover's Ending, Tenmyoji's Ending. They just info dump you about their entire irrelevant backgrounds and then it abruptly ends. Another one of the compromises. I'll be honest, they shouldn't even count as character specific endings, they're just Bad Endings.
Some of the general bad ending are also crap. What, Dio, K, Tenmjyoji, Quark, Phi, etc they just get to walk out and nobody tackles them, but when Sigma tries, everyone tackle him? Convenient.
Another problem was the game giving me a To Be Continued, even though I've already seen the solution to my current predicament in a different timeline.
The subject matter/theme of the second game is more interesting. The matter/antimatter part and all possibilities existing simultaneously.
The weakest part of the second game are the bombs. Where did he pulled them out from? His crapshoot? When did he have time to assemble them and activate them? Program them from scratch? It really is just forced and unnecessary. He snuck in with nothing but a knife. He has neither the resources nor time to create antimatter bombs. There was no room on his person for him to hide them.
The ending of the first game was crazy. But it doesn't even come close to how batshiet the ending stretch of the second game is. It's a bit silly, but very interesting.
Lastly, I will point out that they over-explain the same things a bit too much. Maybe it's necessary, I don't know, but I got bored re-reading things I already knew for the 5th time.
The several shortcomings notwithstanding, I think these games are still great. The puzzles are fun, even with a bit of moon logic here and now. The ideas are interesting and the characters are never bland.

Después de pasarme toda la saga pienso que los 3 juegos son más que decentes, para mí el que más sobresale es 999 (el primero) porque es prácticamente perfecto en comparación con vlr y ztd, sin embargo los 3 juegos son muy disfrutables en su totalidad aunque 999 es perfectamente uno de los mejores juegos del género que he tenido el placer de jugar (te amo snake)

guys this might be a little far out but i think morphogenetic fields could maybe have some sort of relevance?? perhaps they'll come up at some point. probably not though right

this really was a zero escape

i learnt math

I'll split the review into two parts since this game actually includes two games.

First Game: 999

Second Game: VLR

funyarinpa

i wish kotaro uchikoshi was sent back in time and forced to kill his father so he would never be born

Peak fiction, both these games are life changing man

Crazy story that all ties together. Amazing writing

This is one of those games where there should be an option to give a mixed review.

Let's start with the bad stuff. This game is... well, frankly, it's sexist. It's in the character design, the CGs, et cetera. It feels out of place. I mean, I'd expect that on GTA, but these are sci-fi/mystery visual novels. I don't think the type of gamer who buys games based on female characters with skimpy outfits is going to enjoy this one. Also, VLR is peppered with Sigma's terrible sexist (and on one occasion, transphobic) jokes which are not only unfunny, but excessively repetitive and some times just plain sad. I don't really see the point in adding those.

The second reason why this is a negative review is that it's frankly a terrible port. It feels like a rushed job. Controls are randomly mapped to the keyboard with no information on how it's mapped and no option to remap it. Almost no attention was paid to reworking the UI, and some of it is just plain broken (like a frozen button at the bottom right corner of the screen on VLE that does nothing). I also hear very bad things about the 999 port, though I only played VLE here. All in all, you'll probably have a better experience playing these on an emulator.

With that out of the way, here's the good points:

I truly recommend 999 (the first game) for anyone who enjoys visual novels, or just games with good storytelling. The plot is interesting and well-designed. Some of it is actual science, some is bs, but it all works and it's a great story altogether. Make sure you play until you get the true ending, and avoid spoilers like the plague.

VLR (the second game) is a much bigger game than the first (I'd say maybe five times bigger). I personally prefer 999, but VLR does have a number of interesting plot twists that will keep you wanting to play until the end. If you loved 999, you'll probably like VLR. There's some great puzzles in it too. Voice acting is pretty good altogether, but I must mention that the VA for Zero Jr. is simply stellar. I hate that bunny but I love the voice acting.

Its a pretty neat game

I was gonna write a long review on my thoughts on each game, since I played both of them years ago and can compare how it felt reading these when I was younger and now that I'm older. And I might, but for now, I just feel like saying-- *10 minutes left until Ambidex Polling Closes* OH SHIT-

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Ping-Ping-Ping-Ping*

2 of some of my favorite games ever made, 999 has incredible atmosphere, story, characters, and sound track, despite this version being technically gimped compared to the ds version (which i recommend you play if you can get behind the loss of the QOL features of this version) And virtues last reward is more of the same but bigger, The escape rooms are alot better than 999's and it's got my favourite method of story telling that i've ever seen in a game period. Highly Recommend these 2 games even if Zero Time Dilemma is a disappointing dumpster fire

if you like suspence and hard puzzles, and don't mind the visualition of blood death , i totaly recommend.

This is mostly a visual novel game with some puzzle elements - It starts out pretty good but then just ends up dragging on for me and the story becomes more and more bizarre until its completely lost my interest.

It has over 90% positive reviews so you should take mine sparingly but the game just felt too far fetched for me to enjoy it - I also found a chunk of the puzzles very boring and the characters not as "likeable" as I would have liked

First VN in a long time thats been a miss for me

4/10 Overall score

Boring.

Game is a legendary, story, characters, everything was fun. You will also learn something new about conspiracy theories and etc. so definitely worth play.

Only issues I encountered was on linux (haven't tried on windows), cut scenes for 1st and probably also 2nd game didn't worked, so probably I missed a little bit immersion. But maybe with new proton updates it become more playable (or needs some workarounds)

Either way, very big recommend.

One of the best series I have ever played.

Zero Escape: The Nonary Games is a must-play for fans of intricate puzzles and gripping narratives. One of the standout moments is when Junpei humorously misidentifies a dog portrait as a funyarinpa. This quirky term quickly became a beloved in-joke among fans, symbolizing the game’s unique blend of tension and humor.

The funyarinpa moment is a perfect example of the game’s charm, adding a touch of whimsy to the otherwise serious storyline. Whether you’re solving complex puzzles or navigating branching storylines, the funyarinpa and other surprises will keep you entertained. For those who appreciate a game that can make you think deeply while also making you laugh, Zero Escape: The Nonary Games is a well-rounded and thoughtfully crafted experience.

And just when you think the funyarinpa couldn’t get any more memorable, it pops up again in fan discussions and memes, proving its lasting impact on the community. The funyarinpa truly encapsulates the quirky, unforgettable moments that make this game series so special.

Even years after playing, fans still fondly recall the funyarinpa as a highlight of their experience. The funyarinpa has become a symbol of the game’s enduring appeal and its ability to blend humor with high-stakes drama. The funyarinpa has essentially changed society as we know it for the better!

Pseudoscience peak.

One of the best visual novel experiences I've played.