As Famitsu explains Zero Time Dilemma‘s grim premise in a new preview, the game’s creator, Kotaro Uchikoshi, tells fans to prepare a ‘big plastic bag.’
Longtime fans of the Zero Escape series really won’t be surprised at the premise. The first two games featured games that threatened the players’ lives, referred to as Nonary Game. While the events of Zero Time Dilemma may have occurred before the previous games, they are also life-and-death situations.
This time, the nine participants are stuck in an underground nuclear shelter, and separated into groups of three. For the participants to escape, they need to acquire six passwords, but each time a password is revealed, a participant dies. In other words, six of the participants are apparently supposed to die before the rest can escape. Or do they? Apparently the fate of all the participants, and possible alternate outcomes, are dependent on the player’s decisions.
Brief spoilers for the previous two games follow below. Skip past the next image for more on Kotaro Uchikoshi’s statement to fans.
The outcomes of the Nonary Games varied in the previous games in the series. In Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, Zero arranged the games so that everyone had a chance to survive. However, he glees in success at getting three of his enemies from Cradle assassinated. In Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward, protagonist Sigma learns he can travel through time, and so he jumps between timelines and explores alternate endings to find one that will let everyone survive. The apparent real ending among them leads to Zero Time Dilemma.
Uchikoshi shared this brief, but graphic tweet, when asked what to prepare for playing Zero Time Dilemma. Apparently there will be some graphic violence.
@SwedishNerd99 What you need for playing ZTD are the game software, machine, and big plastic bag.
— Kotaro Uchikoshi Eng (@Uchikoshi_Eng) March 10, 2016
Zero Time Dilemma will be releasing in summer 2016 for 3DS and PlayStation Vita. You can read our prior coverage of it here and here.
