Welcome to the Virtue's Last Reward Wiki[]
This is a wiki for collecting and sharing information about the visual novel and puzzle game Virtue's Last Reward, (fully titled "Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward") available on Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita. It is the direct sequel to 999 (9 Persons, 9 Hours, 9 Doors), a game for the original DS.
Availability[]
Virtue's Last Reward was released on October 23rd, 2012 in US territories, and on November 16th, 2012 in the UK and Europe, on both 3DS and PS Vita Consoles.
The original Japanese version, titled Extreme Escape Adventure: Good People Die was released on February 16 in Japan. Several Japanese sites have extensive coverage of the game. The Japanese title is Zennin shibou desu, often abbreviated to zendesu by Japanese gamers.
PS Vita versions of the game are not region-locked and can be imported. 3DS versions of the game are region locked and will not run on 3DS consoles from regions other than the one where the game was purchased.
There are a relatively small number of content changes between the Japanese and English scripts, but none are yet so severe as to alter the story of the game. The US? versions allow the player to choose English or Japanese voice acting.? The European version supports only the Japanese voices; this is because the European publisher, Rising Star Game, licensed the game directly from the Japanese developers rather than the US publisher who redubbed the voices.
Game Content and Walkthrough[]
The content of Virtue's Last Reward is presented in the game using a "flow system", which shows how different parts of the story connect to each other. Because the details about what appears where on the flow diagram is a potential spoiler it does not appear on this front page. To view it, visit the flow diagram page.
The pattern of the game is always the same no matter which route you take. The pattern is:
- A game always begins with the Elevator Escape.
- After this, and the following story sections, you are given the choice of one of three doors to go through: Yellow, Magenta, or Cyan.
- Your choice of door determines which of several escapes you will play, and each escape is associated with a story section before and after.
- After the escape, you will be asked to play the AB Game for the first time. Your choice here alters the options you have for the next choice.
- Depending on your choice in the first AB game, you may then given the choice of three doors to go through: Red, Green, or Blue. However, one of these choices will turn out to be unavailable when you try to take it. Alternatively, you may have no choice, in which case the choice made for you will be the one you could not have made on the branch where you did have a choice.
- Inside the second door, there will be a further set of three doors of which only one will open. Which of these three inner doors opens is determined by what your first choice of door was. So the second escape you play is determined by both your second and first choices of door. As before, each escape is associated with a story section, before and after.
- After this escape, you will play the AB Game the second time. In most (but not all) cases, an "incorrect" choice here will result in a Game Over, while a correct choice will allow the game to continue.
- Depending on the path you are on, there may be a further escape and a further AB Game, or the route may end straight away.
Escapes[]
The Escape puzzles are the main gameplay component of Virtue's Last Reward. They are short adventure sequences resembling classic "room escape" games, as popularized by The Crimson Room in 2004. In each section you play in a first-person perspective investigating the contents of a room in order to find a way out.
In Virtue's Last Reward the rules for the escape games are more standardised. Your goal is always to find a password that will open a safe, inside which is the key that will enable you to escape, plus (usually) other objects that relate to the plot, such as keys to other parts of the facility, information or useful tools, messages from Zero, etc. This password is generally called the "escape password" or the "green password" because it appears on a green background.
There is also a second password to find, which when entered into the safe, will reveal a Gold File containing further information about the plot. This second password is usually called the "file password" or the "blue password" because it appears on a blue background. This second password may be revealed before or after the first one. Finding the file password does not enable you to escape, so it will always be possible to find the escape password as well, in the same visit.
The passwords are not randomly generated and thus it is possible to skip an escape completely by obtaining the password from elsewhere and entering it directly into the safe. Also, if you have learned a password in any previous playthrough, the game will keep it recorded in your Archive and you can enter it straight away to avoid replaying an escape.
Each escape can be played in "easy" or "hard" mode. In "easy" mode, the characters give you more hints, while in "hard" mode they tend to stand idly by and let Sigma solve all the puzzles on his own. In "easy" mode, however, it is not possible to find the Gold files: entering a file password will instead give you a Silver file which contains less information and does not count towards unlocking the extra ending. However, the passwords do not change between easy and hard mode, meaning that you can solve the puzzle on Easy mode, remember the file password, then restart the puzzle on hard mode and immediately enter the same password to obtain the Gold file.
- Elevator
- Lounge
- Infirmary
- Crew Quarters
- GAULEM Bay
- Rec Room
- Pantry
- Pressure Exchange Chamber
- Laboratory
- Treatment Center
- B. Garden
- Archives
- Control Room
- Security
- Director's Office
- Q
Plot locks and Passwords[]
Certain parts of Virtue's Last Reward must be played in an particular order. You'll know that you've encountered one of these if:
- You're asked for a piece of information (commonly a password or code) which you don't know, or
- The game ends with a To Be Continued message.
These normally indicate that you need to play through another route first, in order to learn or experience something that gives you the necessary information. The points where this can happen, and the points you need to visit in order to pass them, are detailed below:
Plot Lock and Password locations
If you don't want spoilers, but do want to know the order in which to play routes in order to see the game's events in order, use:
Story Sections[]
- Opening Story - This section always plays at the start of a game. It includes the Elevator escape.
- After First Round - Plays after the first escape.? The majority of it is the same no matter which door you went through, but there are some variations which are noted on this page.
- Story: After Infirmary - The results of allying with Tenmyouji, and the final rules of the game.
- Story: After Treatment Center
- Story 15-1 - Dio, Clover and Sigma head into the laboratory.
- Story 15-2 - Leaving the lab, Sigma learns something unpleasant about Dio.
- Story 28-1 - Under pressure from all sides, Sigma allies with Dio.
Endings[]
Reaching the end of a route will display an appropriate ending. There are several types of ending:
- "END" endings where the story comes to an end (good or bad). These are the crucial endings that you need to get in order to complete the entire game. You'll know you've gotten one of these if a character portrait appears on the flowchart and in the description of your save file. The credits will also roll after one of these.
- "GAME OVER" endings: "The number nine door has closed. This ends the Nonary Game. Thank you for your participation. As the game is over, all doors other than the number 9 door have been unlocked. Escape is not possible. Please enjoy your stay..." These endings occur if Sigma ends up trapped in the complex as a result of someone else completing the game and escaping. Usually, these endings are gotten by making an incorrect choice in the immediately preceding AB game. They usually do not unlock plot locks nor help you progress, so they are not necessary - but there is at least one occasion where they do..
- Off-flow endings: these occur in a few rare circumstances where you are asked to enter a password and you enter it wrongly. They are the only endings which do not appear on the flowchart. In all cases, these are effectively Plot Locks: you need to obtain the correct password from another route.
- "TO BE CONTINUED" endings: are not endings. They're Plot Locks. See above.
- The two final endings, which don't appear on the flowchart until they're unlocked.
- END or BEGINNING - appears after viewing PHI; END.
- Another Time END - appears after viewing END or BEGINNING and having all puzzles completed on Hard mode.
Interpretations, analysis, and questions[]
Virtue's Last Reward leaves an awful lot of questions open, even after the final endings. This section is for fan-created content concerning the events and story of the game.
- Analysis of the Ambidex Game
- Open questions and paradoxes - beware, this page contains spoilers for the entire game, plus the prequel 999.