Recent reviews by Athena

I'm sad about this game as it was extremely fun up until you unlock the stethoscope.

On that day, people come into the checkpoint with symptoms you can't even look for yet with the tools you have. This leads to feeling like I'm continually being punished with "poor inspection" when it's not even my fault? I had to look up the symptom I was missing (because of course, the game doesn't tell you or give you any kind of information or clue) and found out that I needed the x-ray to correctly identify the symptom the person had. But yet, I was not far enough in the game to unlock the x-ray yet. This is poor design. Additionally, the green and orange symptoms on the stethoscope sound WAY TOO SIMILAR. I tried listening to the orange stethoscope symptom in the menus repeatedly to try and figure out the difference, but the volume on it is so low that I can barely hear it at all. Like, why is the rain sound effect so LOUD compared to the actual thing I'm trying to listen to?? Incredibly frustrating. I wasted my research points unlocking the visual indicator to try and figure it out, but that made it even more confusing somehow. Pointing at the black spot yielded a green indicator, while aiming at the outer edge of the spot made it turn yellow? What? This mechanic is just terrible and confusing. I'm not sure if it's bugged or what's going on with that.

Oh, and using the cart to transport the bodies to the zombie cage made extremely motion sick. The controls on that thing are awful.

My suggestions:

- Do not allow people with symptoms that are unable to be detected with your current tools to enter the checkpoint. It's beyond frustrating to be punished repeatedly for not having access to something the game hasn't given you the option to obtain yet.
- Fix the controls on the cart.
- Use a different sound effect for the orange stethoscope symptom to differentiate it from the green and/or increase the volume on the orange. Additionally, mute the external sound effects in the game while attempting to listen in the symptoms menu.

Really hoping the game gets updated/fixed and fleshed out a bit more, as it was so, so much fun until I quit playing due to feeling like the game was repeatedly punishing me for something I had no control over. I definitely agree with others saying that the game feels like an early access title.

Overall, I enjoyed this game a lot. Yes, it does feel a bit unfinished. There are quite a few loose ends in the story that weren't wrapped up as well as I'd have liked. I did see that the developers are planning on an update to address a lot of the issues, so hopefully that will come out soon! One of the achievements is bugged (cleaning up messes in the store), which was a bit frustrating until I found that you need to clean more than the achievement states.

The writing is humorous, and I enjoyed all of the characters' distinct personalities. The townspeople are incredibly messy, and the drama and gossip amongst them was very entertaining. I also really enjoyed the gameplay loop at the store -- there were multiple times where I found myself losing track of time while playing.

You may be better off waiting for the upcoming updates before a purchase, but personally I had fun with the game and it was worth it to me!

Unfortunately, I don't feel like I can recommend this game until better options are in place.

This game made me physically ill due to the combination of forced mouse smoothing and motion blur. There are no options to turn them off in the settings. The mouse smoothing in particular doesn't respond the way I feel it should, it's really difficult to explain, but it doesn't "feel right" and is a huge issue for me. The motion blur accompanies what is already sickening in the worst way possible, and makes the whole experience a triple whammy of headaches, dizziness, and nausea. I wouldn't consider myself especially sensitive to this sort of thing, as I have *some* issues with first person games at times but can usually adapt or change settings to make it work for me. However, I literally played the game for 3-5 minutes before I needed to lie down because I felt so sick.

To its credit, the intro is very pretty and the story looks fantastic. From what I heard, the music is very nice too. However, the lack of options to turn off what the developers call a "deliberate design choice" make this game physically unplayable for myself and some others as well. I understand there are artistic choices a development team makes when creating games, but with no option to turn them off when they are making people physically ill is a bit of a slap in the face. I mean honestly, that sort of response - to me - makes it seem like you don't give a flying ♥♥♥♥ about people getting sick from your game's lack of options.

I will change my review if options to turn off mouse smoothing and motion blur are implemented. Until then, there is no possible way for me to play this game.

All in all, I'm very disappointed since this game seemed to have so much I (would) like about it, but ultimately it's unplayable for me because of the controls/"design choice" and lack of options concerning them. I really would love to play this game, so *please* consider implementing options to turn off the mouse smoothing and motion blur.

NO SPOILERS -

I've been following the Zero Escape series ever since the first game (999) was released in Japan. I was super excited for the conclusion to the trilogy, as it seemed as if this game wouldn't be made due to poor sales. After the long wait, I can safely say it lived up to my expectations.

Some plot points (and holes) seemed really strange to me coming from playing the other two in the series, but I could overlook them pretty easily considering the rest of the game is excellent. Also, it feels as if a lot of the BGM is reused from the other two games, but the music is good and there are some new tracks that I really liked as well.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending (it was a little weird to me), but I personally feel as if a game is about the entire experience, not just the ending.

It was a very enjoyable game, and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who may be on the fence about buying it. Just make sure to play the other two games in the series first, or you may be a bit lost on some of the plot and miss out on backstory with some returning characters.

The first game in the series is 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors, and the second is Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward. 999 is available on Nintendo DS and as a visual novel with the gameplay elements removed on iOS. VLR is available on 3DS and PS Vita. The three games put together are an engaging and excellent experience with fantastic storytelling.