Zero Time Dilemma review thing.
Warning: Salt, typos, spoilers.

Cons, holes, bullshit, incomprehensible stuff:

(Some of them might not be 100% accurate as I just wrote all this a few hours after completing the game for the first time)

1- Virtue's Last Reward's "Another Time" is completely irrelevant and not canon.

2- Kyle does not appear. "?" does not appear. All-Ice does not appear. Alice and Clover don't end up going back to the past.

3- Multiple things that were supposed to be answered according to the VLR Q&A weren't even mentioned. Examples: http://prntscr.com/bo0qvx

4- 999 cast barely mentioned.

5- According to Uchikoshi, we were gonna learn about what happened with Gordain (the creator of the first nonary games). He wasn't even talked about once, unless he's Delta.

6- Also according to Uchikoshi, after playing ZTD, the 999 bootstrap would make more sense. Again, not even mentioned.

7- In D-END 2, Akane doesn't come back for help. Why? Why would she leave Sigma and Diana behind? The game makes it look like she has a reason, since Sigma knew she was never gonna come back, but she didn't. She was aware of the ABProject, so it's ridiculous that she wouldn't come back for help. In addition, how did they not try to break the lounge walls even once in 10 months?

8- Kinda the same, but... why did she even leave through the X-Door in D-End 2? That was right after Junpei and Carlos died because of the smoke, so she could have tried to at least, contact the other teams through Gab.

9- In this game, the flowchart locks don't make any sense. In VLR it was justified since in order to advance, Sigma needed information from other timelines, but in this case, the game simply doesn't let you continue for no reason.

10- How did Delta figure out who his parents were? He cannot time travel, the only thing he could have done was to read people's minds in order to figure out his origin, but that'd always be before 2028, and until then, no one had ever thought about Delta's origin, so he basically had no way to figure out who his parents were.

11- Now, if he actually was able to find two people by just reading minds, he would have been perfectly able to do the same and figure out who the fanatic terrorist was.

12- In the VLR epilogue, Akane said that she didn't know what happened in the test site.

13- She also said that she couldn't do anything on her own, and that if their plan was gonna succeed, she'd also need Sigma and Phi to jump. That makes absolute zero sense after playing ZTD.

14- Junpei's and Akane's behavior make no sense. Akane was aware of the AB Project and acted like a highschool girl, and Junpei became a stupid idiot in one year. If they wanted to remark his attitude change, they needed to make him cold and distand, not a straight idiot.

15- In the Ambidex Game fragment, right before they play it, Akane falls unconscious in accident. Right after you see that the ABGame players are only Junpei and Carlos. How strange, given the fact that Akane just fell unconsciouss, almost like she knew that she didn't have to play the game. That's what I thought, at least, but no. It was a simply convinient coincidence so she didn't interfere with the game. (She also woke up early in the third outcome for no reason).

16. In ZTD, Brother was very well aware of VLR... but how? He can't time travel. He also replicated the ABGame, and built it before 2028. This is the same problem as before, since before 2028, no one had ever thought about the ABGame yet.

17- This has a simple solution, though. That Brother was the one who first invented the ABGame mechanics. That'd mean that Sigma would only rip them off. But that's pretty strange since Akane already knew about the ABGame before entering the test site and she would later tell them to Sigma, meaning that she didn't actually "learn" them anywhere. It's another bootstrap that doesn't need to exist.

18- Now why the fuck did Mira kill D-Team only once? She was free during the whole game, and only in ONE timeline she felt like killing everyone on D-Team for absolutely no reason whatsoever, and where did she even get the black suit from... She never even made noise or appeared at all, when she was awake with everyone else in every single fragment. Also, during her other interactions with Q-Team, it seems like she wouldn't just go and kill people for no reason.

19- Fuck the black nails, game. You might as well not have covered Mira's face.

20- As stated by the VLR Q&A, Brother is alive in 2074, meaning that he'd be more than 170 years old.

21- I might not be understanding this right, but does Junpei not remember anything about ZTD in VLR because of the drug Akane injected him with? That would only erase 90 minutes of his memories, and everyone seemed to completely ignore the fuck out of that drug by the end of the game, remembering everything anyway. (He also said he hadn't seen Akane since 999). (Also everyone who ever got injected fell unconsciouss instantly and fucking junpei had to keep talking for 20 seconds).

22- In various points of the game, the team leaders remember the other teams' executions. Just... how? They had no way to see them, so they couldn't have "remembered" them. This also made me believe for a while that there would be three Zeros.

23- Why did the team leaders sometimes not remember their execution vote? The other team members remembering different things kinda makes sense because of the morphogenetic field, but the leaders had no reason to forget their vote.

24- Phi in VLR said to "?": "If I tell you what happened inside the test site, the timeline where Radical-6 doesn't escape would disappear"...What?

25- In the Radical-6 fragment, Zero said he could see the future. First, the flowchart structure makes that whole scene a hole to begin with, since its past will always be the same (unlike with VLR's K), but Zero specifically said later that he couldn't see the future, so what kind of sense does that whole fragment even make?

26- Phi in VLR also said "It took me three months to finally understand my purpose on all this". Again, doesn't have anything to do with what happens in ZTD.

27- Sigma and Akane made it sound like preventing the Radical-6 from getting out would be super hard, and that they weren't even sure how to do it. Sigma in the D-End 1 says "I'll let the next sigma do it". So... first, why the fuck doesn't old Sigma tell young Sigma exactly what to do? Second, why doesn't that same old Sigma just jump back to before Mira injects Phi and prevents it? It is very easy yet they make it sound super complex.

28- My biggest complain with the game are Q's actions (Delta's). EVERYTHING he did made no sense. Why did he make the three Wards be the same? What did he gain with the Decision games? What did he gain with the memory erasing drugs? What did he gain with putting himself in danger being with Q-Team all the time? What did he gain with making the three teams not happen at once? Of course, nothing. For him it would have been much better and simpler to make everything like what it seemed. The three teams happening at once, and him controlling everything, and moving the bodies once they fall asleep. He would never have died, which is a stupid thing to do in purpose, and his main goals would have been accomplished as well.

29- Also just why would he put random buttons that make the whole facility explode? One of his goals was to make Diana and Sigma have sex, fine, so why would he intentionally prevent that in most of the timelines?

30- The Radical-6 mortality rate is absolutely bullshit. Zero justifies it by saying "Its mortality rate is 75% because it killed 6/8 billion people." But that's already known to be false, since only a third part of those 6 billion died directly because of the radical-6, and EVERYONE who got infected died, so the mortality rate is definitely 100%, and it killed 2 billion people.

31- Bigger picture complain: Uchikoshi said that the 999 bad ends are simply "what if"s. Now, if you assume that's true, it means that the VLR timeline is also a "what if", since there Brother and Phi were never sent to the past. If you instead assume that the 999 bad ends are not "what if"s, the problem doesn't disappear, since in the Safe Ending, Akane does disappear out of nowhere, so right after ZTD, both Brother and Phi should disappear as well, once it's decided that they were not gonna be born. If you still want to insist, then you contradict VLR's time travel, since when Sigma and Phi go back to the past and save Akane, she's only in the suit in those timelines where you go back, not in every single one, so the same case would have to apply to Brother and Phi.
Easier way to see it: In the timeline where they win the coin flip, Delta should not have been there.
Also, zero escape has already confirmed multiple times that simple paradoxes don't exist, so Delta didn't have to recreate the whole decision game. He was already born, so applying the rules the games built, nothing would have happened if he hadn't redone the whole thing again.

32- What was Akane doing with Free the Soul robes in the VLR epilogue? Kinda mentioned, but not explained.

33- The game's files say "The Monty Hall probability will be explained in the game", and it never was. Not only the game does not solve basically any VLR loose end, but it doesn't even solve its own.

34- Brother definitely didn't need to create the whole thing in order to just infect the world with Radical-6.

35- Easier puzzles than 999's, but if you get stuck, don't count on the characters for hints. There are basically none at all. It's also very easy to get stuck in the flowchart for no reason.

36- Junpei's plan to get to the dice game over and remember the passwords makes fucking 0 sense, as they could have done the exact same thing with the ABGame they were about to play. They only needed one death more in order to get 6 passwords, so they could have killed someone with the ABGame, go back, get everyone to 9BP, and have 6 passwords in a much easier way.

37- The Physical Time travel plot device can go fuck itself. I am honestly very upset that it was a thing, and it explained the "six of us are dead" mystery in the lamest way. I felt insulted when I realized that was gonna be the solution. (Also just what the fuck was that random flowchart, how does it "branch off")

38- Game, are you seriously saying that Brother, the leader of a religious cult, tricked all of its members and the Myrmydons by saying that he'd create a new world only for them, when he was just trying to save fucking 2 billion people?

39- The last fragment seemed to be ripped straight from [game], and the villan from a comedy cartoon.

40- The foreshadowing of the game was a joke. They basically explained the Phi twist 5 times before it actually happened (red hair, familiar scent, TWIN password, also the random orange eyebrows that didn't exist in VLR), and the snail backstory and its characters involved was 100% predictable the first time. Zero didn't need to repeat it 10 times.

41- In the Mira and Eric escape end, they totally leave Q behind like a dog, and decide on it without even trying to argue.

42- So at the beginning of the game, Carlos went all "I know... you're..." to Zero. That in itself already makes no sense, since he had no way to know that Q wasn't in another cell (and Sean was close to a wall so he wouldn't have seen him).

43- But anyway, let's imagine that he did actually figure out that Q was inside Zero's costume. At the end of the game, everyone remembered that there was a story where they won the coin flip guess. Of course, that also means that they remembered the coin flip scene. So, why did Carlos, and no one else not remember that Q wasn't with them? At least definitely Carlos should have.

44- What even was Gab's purpose? (Zero's, other than making the player believe the three teams happened at once).

45- Who the fuck even wrote the "Anagram" Gab letter? Most likely Delta, but it seems totally pointless and the game should have at least mentioned it.

46- What was Sean's reason to be there? Zero did not use him at all (at least the body that was with Q-Team). If Zero actually wanted to be with Q-Team all the time, why was Sean there as well? It would make much more sense if he just left Q-Team to be [Q, Eric and Mira] without adding Sean, since he was never the leader to begin with.

47- The first half of the game was VERY repetitive and dull, and you can play it in an order for you to enjoy more/less the game. Basically every decision game was the same (either choose someone to die, or press a random button), and after the escapes rarely something happened.

48- Some very cool details of the game were not even mentioned (CQD being the titanic SOS message, CQD being also the three parts of the game (Quest, Decision and Cinema), DECIsion game, X door both mean 10), Phi's foster mother being her old self, and a bunch of other details that they just didn't explain and would have been cool to see within the game.
Whenever Q team was executed, that is, Delta was killed early on, there was no exact "Decision" game involved with the participants, not the way it was for the other timelines. They all became probability-based instead, mostly relying on luck. If you knew the outcome from another timeline, you could adjust the outcome. However, it wasn't a puzzle to be solved, in most cases. The Decisions were as follow: Which is the antidote (the most puzzle one)? What is the AB game outcome (Betray or Ally, hoping the other person is truthful)? Dice roll and hope to land all 1s (no way to actually make a decision for that one)? Gun vs. Incinerator (hope for a blank)? Find the mask (hope you get the right one).

49- Left was completely irrelevant, and Carlos looks a whole lot like him for no reason.

50- Fuck the fragment thumbnail spoilers, seriously.

51- Akane's and Junpei's relationship makes no sense, changes a lot depending on the fragments, has a lame ending, and they don't seem to be the same 999 characters at all.

52- M I N D  H A C K   S H I F T   A L I E N  C I V I L I Z A T I O N   H E A R T  R I P P E R   C O M P L E X  M O T I V E S

52- Mira totally attended the Dcom experiment because of her own free will (If Delta MIND HACKed her, it should have been explained). (yes i do realize there are two 52s but I'm not changing all the numbers now)

53- What the fuck was the killing Gab deal at the end.

54- Fuck using the same hospital backgrounds for both Maria and Sean, made me think he'd be Maria for a while.

55- Akane mentioned the espers number was increasing. That would mean that it'd never stop. The resonance would get bigger and bigger, along with the total number, so by 2074, there's no way anyone wasn't an esper. They went through plenty of dangerous situtations (Radical-6 pandemic), yet in VLR there were still non-espers.

56- Apparently Sean was a super strong robot, since he was able to lift the Force Quit Box like nothing. Yet Mira "killed" him without problems, and Carlos couldn't. Also some of the fragments where Sean dies make no sense. They end right after that, like the other ones, excusing "well the leader died, so say goodbye to this fragment" but in a lot of those, Q still lives so the fragment should not end.

57- Everything about Mira's and Eric's backstory is dumb. Mira's behavior is super irregular and contradictory throughout the whole game.

58- What was Phi's purpose other than to exist?

59- Everything about the Quantum Computer was a joke. The transporters were a joke. Brother not being able to shift is a joke.

60- The flowchart structure, the watch times, and the shower fragments gave away the teams "twist" within 20 minutes of gameplay.

61- Of course, Q being with Q-Team all the time is pathetic. Even if it creates some nice foreshadowing moments, it's not credible at all that no one talked about him at basically any point (other than in the like, the two foreshadowing scenes where they actually did). The wheelchair made no sound at all, and Eric was super suspicious of a random kid but never questioned an old dude with sunglasses following them all the time.

62- Even worse; if Q was really supposed to be blind, deaf and mute, how the fuck did he follow them during the whole game? Why did no one try to move the wheelchair since Q wouldn't know when they started moving to another place?
It is somewhat avoided sometimes, since there's usually a fadeout transition when Q-Team changes between rooms, but not always.

63- The perspective END might be cool and all, but why did they not freak out right after Q started talking?

64- Why did Eric know Sean's actual name? Sure, he might have told him off camera, but game, EXPLAIN the stuff.

65- Old Sigma's personality doesn't match his Zero Sr. personality at all. Phi's personality seemed super forced.

66- If the camera was supposed to be Delta controlling the facility cameras through his sunglasses, why did the game not stop right after Q was dead in every instance? What even were the flashbacks about? There are also situations where that theory makes no sense, like in the first scene, where Zero appears with the coin. Why would he be controlling the cameras like that at that point? Also in every fragment where Q had been executed. (But no, a Quantum Computer to act as a morphogenetic field for non-espers is gonna be there to solve everything!) And also, why would Delta never look to himself through the cameras?

67- Brother's identity is very disappointing. It definitely should have been a previously known character. (Also Delta's design/model is not even nice to look at).

68- By far, the weakest cast of characters of the triology. The game's mechanics made the characters not be able to develop, every dialogue felt scripted, and... wrong.

69- HE IS SIXTY SEVEN CAN YOU PLEASE NOT DO THIS GAME? Poor Diana Also HEY YOU TWO HAVE A SOFA RIGHT THERE WHAT ARE YOU DOING INSIDE THIS POD

70- The game is shit

71- They pretty much never talk about Diana and Sigma being Phi's and Delta's parents. They do acknowledge, hug and all that and roll with it like it's nothing. At least it would have been cool to see them go "wwwwwwwhat the fuck dude" after everything they went through in VLR.

72- Bootstrap: The Game. Some of them are acceptable, but... bootstrap mementos? UCHIKOSHI NO

73- Uchikoshi mentioned that Dio was going to be in the game but "not as the man we knew".

74- Why does Eric let Sean vote in the execution fragment when he knew he was not the leader? He doesn't even mention later that the leader didn't vote and nothing happened. Also during that part, he's still very suspicious of Sean, yet he let's him do it.

75- Awful and unnecessary epilogue. Akane and Junpei married, Mira forgiven (and she somehow changes), Sean gets to live a life outside the bunker... Is this actually Zero Escape 3?

76- Very minor complaint, but it doesn't make sense that the oxygen mask locker position changes if you jump back to the fragment after having done it one time, since you're basically jumping at the exact same position as before.

77- It's not credible at all that Diana and Sigma survived there for 10 months straight (and with twins).

78- Diana secretly grabbing the electroshock weapon without telling Sigma and Phi is completely out of character.

79- What even was the point of the AB Project when there was a machine that let them physically time travel to other timelines in the past? Apparently Brother grabbed his from a research facility in 2009, so it makes no sense that Akane and Sigma didn't have one by 2074.

80- The reused songs ratio is incredibly high, and the remixes are barely remixes. Fuck the escape room remixes, they're basically the same.

81- Game, please, stop using Blue Bird Lamentation everywhere.

82- Everything about Sean's actual identity and its reveal is pathetic.

83- I feel like Delta could have tried to cooperate with Sigma, or tell him his plan. There was no need for the games.

84- Why does Delta call himself Zero?

85- Why did Delta wait until 2028?

86- What did a Mars Mission Test Site have to do with anything?

87- Radical-6 was really just a plot device of VLR, and barely a part of the ZTD story.

88- Very repetitive puzzles, they don't have a consistent difficulty at all, and are not very clear at points.

89- VLR had a way to excuse its advanced technology (being in 2074), but ZTD doesn't. Fuck the lounge walls, fuck the Quantum Computer, fuck the robots...

90- Awful english dub

91- Sometimes, when Sean died, he did not bleed white. (One instance is in D-Team END 1, I think)

92- "I... forgive you... Now hurry up and take my heart, small girl that just murdered me".

93- Zero Time Dilemma's ending is out of this world. -Danganronpa director/writter

94- Zero Time Dilemma is a masterpiece that solves every single VLR mystery. 10/10. -A bunch of reviews
http://playstationinsider.com/2016/06/zero-escape-zero-time-dilemma-review-vita/
http://wegotthiscovered.com/gaming/zero-time-dilemma-review/

95- Got rid of the "Seek a way out" melody for no reason.

96- A lot of the rooms are reused from VLR.

97- In my opinion, the fragment system was bad, not fun, and poorly executed. It also prevented that the characters could even have the chance to develop. (Decision game system was as bad).

98- It's the third game, and the third time they used the "Well we made this because in order for you to jump you need danger" excuse.

99- Seriously, what the fuck was the point of the puzzles? Why would Zero include them? They at least had a purpose in the previous two games. For example in the locker room, why did Zero lock Sigma and Diana? They only had to find the golden door within the room, so it seems entirely pointless.

100- Very short overall. Take a look at this joke: https://twitter.com/Aksys_Danny/status/725832005301080065

101- No actual Zero reveal.

102- "There was a point... A woman's life was in danger. You risked your life to save her, and you lost your arms and your right eye" -Akane.

103- Q's presence wasn't even explained in the game.

104- What did Maria even have to do with anything?

105- Reverie syndrome completely irrelevant

106- No actual "final" puzzle room. The last decision game is a joke.

107- What even was Carlos' reason to be there? He wasn't important, Maria wasn't important, nothing he did was important. (Same with Rebecca, and Diana working at a pharmaceutical company, potentially Cradle).
Basically, why was everyone there besides Diana and Sigma? They never explained their reasons (other than resonance, I guess).

108- How are Eric, Mira, Carlos, Junpei and everyone else able to jump retaining all their memories in their first jump when the main goal of VLR was to be able to do that, and it took forever? (The game says it's thanks to the resonance effect, which is absolute bullshit as VLR also had a bunch of espers around). Plus, in VLR Clover said that strong espers "absorb" the power of weaker espers, so if you apply that rule to ZTD, nothing would work.

109- What was Dio's purpose in VLR? They said Brother sent him in order to stop the AB Project, but he would definitely not want to stop it since that would create a paradox, and it would prevent him from being born. (I imagine Brother sent dio in order for the plan to succeed, not for it to fail, but eeeeehhhh...)

110- What even was the deal witht he "I love you" Phi line?

111- Even if there will actually be a total lunar eclipse the day ZTD takes place, it will not be visible from USA (they were in the Nevada desert). Uchikoshi even acknowleded this fact on twitter a few months ago when someone asked him, and it ended up not meaning anything.

112- How did Akane and everyone from Crash Keys even know about Sigma and Phi before 12/25/2028?

113- Apparently Phi was the cause of the Radical-6 pandemic, being the first one infected. If that's the case, why did she not die? In VLR's epilogue, Akane says that she was put into cold sleep on April 11th, and there was definitely no Axelavir then. (I am still not gonna believe the 75% mortality ratio).

114- Why the fuck did Delta kill Mira that one time, only in one timeline? If he actually had some random reason, why did he not use the M I N D  H A C Ks on her, avoiding the shitty small fight they had?

115- The AB Project was a complete mess for no reason. Akane herself said in ZTD that she "forced young Sigma to jump to the future". If she actually had a way to do that, why wouldn't she just do it without the need of the AB Project at all?

116- Gab came out from his room, at the correct timing, making it seem like the messages he had were actually just sent by the other teams. How did Zero time it (At least the Q-Team instances)? Please no mind hacks on poor gab.

117- In the Trash Disposal room, the one where Diana has to shoot Sigma. If she pulls the trigger and fires a blank, both Phi and Sigma live and they leave the room, but discover they have been poisoned. Then Gab brings the antidote and they are fine.
But in the timeline where Diana does nothing and Phi dies in the incinerator, Sigma and Diana contiue on for 10 months without the poison showing up again.

118- Why did Akane never mention the 8 billion people dying thing in VLR?

119- Who even is the announceeeeeeeeeeeeer?

120- The game has a bunch of convinient details to make everything work, for example, the transporter needing 10 months to cool down, and only letting one person travel per pod.

121- In the library, they need to kill one more person, that way, they'd be able to get one password more and leave. Well why did Eric point his "gun" to Sean, when he knew he wouldn't get a password off of him? In fact, why didn't they all just point their weapons to Q?

122- I'll kill all of you! That way I'm sure to kill Mira's killer! ...except deaf guy, he's definitely not lying"

123- Passwords like FUTURE and VIRGIN are not possible to input, as are 6 characters long. It basically gave away that you weren't gonna input them every time they got revealed.

124- Deleted you will never know what point 124 was

125- Didn't answer why Phi didn't question her high jumps in VLR.

126- Why the fuck did they send Phi to 2008? If it was an experiment, why didn't send her a few months forward?

127- If I did that, I couldn't have met you guys.

128- How did C-Team and Q-Team get to the transporter room in the last fragment to pick up the cards? Isn't the only way to get to Ward D through the golden door, and you can only open it from Ward D? I might be understanding this wrong...

129- The acid should have melted the bomb in D-END 1

130- Why did the watches display the time? It never was usefull for anything, and the time wasn't accurate in the first place. Why did Zero delay the other teams' watch times other than for the players not to notice the twist? It's not like they were gonna go "Oh our times are two hours behind the other teams', that must mean that we are all awake at different times". If something he should have left all the times the same, so when the teams met they wouldn't notice they were different.

131- There's no way Gab could have brought three antidote vials with how big they are http://prntscr.com/brebo2 And the game only shows him with one http://prntscr.com/brectr.

132- Main conclusion: the first 75% of the game is boring and repetitive. There's about 10 mins of story in between escape rooms, they're easy and also repetitive. The decision games are no fun, Uchikoshi promised we'd think really hard about what to choose, but as expected, it doesn't matter at all since you can simply go back and choose something else. When the game starts to pick up, it tries to solve 10% of the VLR mysteries with PHYSICAL TIME TRAVEL, which is the worst thing they could have done. Some other stuff that happens is also incoherent (for example, jumpei's dice plan). You then get to the "reveal" of the three teams, and realize that it doesn't make any sense because Zero wouldn't gain anything from it, then you see Delta, you want to end your life, and the game ends ripping off the already bad [game] end, and destroying everything zero escape had built with a mess of a story.

133- The animations (and the black lips) / http://prntscr.com/boyq33 Where are you looking at

Pros:

1- Zero's design

2- Blue button game over

3- Credits song

4- Carlos, Gab

5- Concide, Triangle

6- Eric's ice creams

7- http://i.imgur.com/1GY2Qr3.png http://imgur.com/lBqYYGi

I usually dislike reviews that don't give a concrete score to the game, so I guess I should do that. 3/10