The Nonary Games and Trigger Happy Reload
It was around four months ago at this year’s Anime Expo where developer Spike Chunsoft and publisher Aksys Games announced their intention to release the Zero Escape games on more platforms. From there, existing fans made a few guesses about where the ports would land. Zero Time Dilemma, the third and final game in the trilogy, had just released on 3DS, Vita, and Steam at the time. So, logic dictated that Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (formerly “999” before the rebranding — which I’m still calling it for short) would hit Vita and PC, while sequel Virtue’s Last Reward would hit PC. And before anyone panicked, the version of 999 being ported was immediately confirmed to be the DS iteration, and not the puzzle-deprived mobile one.
The reality of those system choices for the ports is a little different, but nonetheless intriguing for anyone who wants to play the titles on a non-Nintendo platform. Aksys confirmed that Zero Escape: The Nonary Games, a two-pack containing both 999 and VLR, will be coming to PS4 and Vita in spring next year in digital and physical forms. Separately, Spike Chunsoft will publish the package on Steam themselves in the same timeframe, despite the PlayStation Blog post mentioning how it’s “exclusive” to the PlayStation platforms in the second paragraph. While VLR will be an upscaled port of the existing version, it’s the enhanced version of 999 that sticks out here.
The new 999 will have enhanced portraits and backgrounds retrofitted for HD resolutions, which could make solving some puzzles a little easier alongside making the experience prettier. The in-game artwork will receive the same polish, as seen in some screenshots. Those screens also show it will have a flowchart to make it easier for players to see which story patch they’re on, the good holdover from the mobile version. The game has to be played multiple times to see multiple scenarios and obtain every ending, and though it wasn’t hard to determine which path the player was on before, there’s nothing wrong with making it easier.
The biggest feature showing how much effort they’re putting into this port is the addition of voice acting, which will be available in English and Japanese. Basically, all the presumptions about the subtle hints Aksys dropped at AX regarding everything about this port were right. You can get a better impression of this from the trailer released featuring both games, including a better look at 999’s enhanced backgrounds and English voice acting.
To a lesser extent, the system choices here are also interesting. PlayStation 4 owners will receive 999 and VLR, but will be left in the cold regarding ZTD — initially, at least. They could always port it down the line, though it will tougher to sell separately compared to this collection unless it’s properly discounted. This collection also means Vita owners will have to buy VLR twice if they don’t already own it, making it a somewhat bizarre decision to bunch them together for the platform. “Somewhat” because it’s clear they’re aiming towards luring in a new audience with this collection, and expanding the fanbase for future Spike Chunsoft visual novels; but some of them would have liked the opportunity to purchase the new 999 separately.
It’s not just this Zero Escape collection that will expand that base, as Danganronpa 1•2 Reload for PS4 will also help. As the title insinuates, these will be ports of the first two Danganronpa games in one package for the console, previously released on PSP (in Japan only), Vita, and Steam. Details suggest they’ll be no-frills ports whose sole purpose is to expand the audience to PS4 before New Danganronpa V3 releases for PS4 and Vita. Though the third title has yet to be confirmed for anywhere outside Japan (where it will release in January), you can think of this as indirect confirmation. Not that anyone should have doubted it in the first place.
I’ve established that both packages are targeted towards expanding the developer’s base, but there’s another interesting fact about them: Neither has been confirmed for Japan. For the Danganronpa series, Spike Chunsoft likely feels the games are on the best system for the country’s gaming audience, since some Vita titles still sell more than their PS4 counterparts. The Zero Escape series, on the other hand, never took off in Japan. It wouldn’t be a surprise if both eventually released in the country, but that they weren’t announced simultaneously speaks volumes about who they’re prioritizing.
Both collections are planned for release sometime in spring 2017, so hopefully Aksys and NISA are working together to prevent them from overlapping. These collections will mark the first opportunity for some people to play these games, and I hope they can avoid the morass of spoilers readily available on the internet until they arrive.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
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I fumed at the PlayStation blog saying that this will be 999 “as it was meant to be played.”
I know it’s empty marketing speak, but a single-screen experience couldn’t be further from the designers’ intention.
Hmm, this makes me wonder how they’re going to handle *that* particular moment at the end of the game. It may not come off as ingenuous.
It’ll fall as flat as the order to “Look for the door with the kyu.”