Done with Virtue's Last Reward.
Here are my thoughts, even though only like one person will read this. Spoilers are minimized as usual.
Overall it was very good. The gameplay in general was an improvement over 999. Better puzzles and a better system and traveling through different possible scenarios. Having to replay puzzles in 999 got to be a bit tedious, even though you could speed through them. It was nice not having to replay a single puzzle. Some of them were quite tough too.
That said, I think I still prefer 999 overall though. These games have plenty of game in them, but they were definitely more story, and I think that's where 999 has the upper hand. Virtue's Last Reward had a lot more going on, especially by the end. Throughout the game it gave a sense of some impending doom just waiting to be revealed
and that's what I got. The story itself was grander than 999's. But that's actually why I prefer 999's. 999 was more character driven, and it had a greater emotional impact. When I was playing through the true ending of 999, I felt more invested with the characters and, by extension, the story. I didn't feel that as much with VLR. There was still a sense of "oh sh
it that just happened," but it wasn't as impactful.
Something about 999 was smaller and more character-focused, and I think I liked that more. It didn't try to do too much like VLR's whole
we must save the world stuff. It was more focused on an independent event that happened. The game allowed for a greater sense of emergency and desperation, in addition to dread and despair, and that's partially because I was more invested with the characters. However, I don't want to sound like I'm ragging on VLR, because it was still a superb game. The story was very inventive and it improved the gameplay substantially. I did appreciate that
they never showed Sigma's face throughout the game. I always wondered why it didn't show up every time a puzzle room started, like it did with Junpei's face in 999.So:
Gameplay: VLR > 999
Story and Characters: 999 > VLR
Overall: 999 > VLR
Both awesome. I wish ZE3 didn't look so unlikely. Maybe in a few years from now it'll happen.
