I love the way Uchikoshi starts with the twist and works his way backwards, it's something that must be incredibly hard to pull off and makes him really unique imo
I know this is an old comment, but it’s pretty standard practice when writing mystery, be it a book, movie, game or anything. Only by having a clear end goal in mind from the start can you mare sure all evidence points to the right conclusion
I audibly gasped at seeing this. No one talks about zero escape nowadays. I didn’t even know about the bottom screen thing, and I played it twice! I’m looking forward to your video on Danganronpa, even though I don’t love it as much as Zero Escape, and a future where more people play Uchikoshi’s games.
Glad you enjoyed the video! And Danganronpa is half edited as we speak, though I'm jumping between that and a few other videos (one about animals that honk and one about what happens if you forget to take your food out the oven)
Ooh. My guesses are Duck Hunt, Duck Life and Untitled Goose Game none of which I'm not so confident about and Overcooked which I am certain about because it's the perfect pun. Also, before I forget, I'd like to make two suggestions for future videos that would fit right in with this one. Those two games/series are Xenoblade Chronicles and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. Xenoblade Chronicles is a very interesting game from many standpoints, with it being a massive RPG that's able to run on a wii and with it being the beginning of the transferral of the Xeno- series from Playstation to Nintendo. Then there's Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, which in my opinion is the most bizarre and highest quality spinoff series of pokemon. I'm especially fond of the second game Pokemon Mystery Dungeon:Explorers of the Sky, which is a sister game to Explorers of Darkness and time, but was the one I got initially, but I think it'd be interesting to talk about the series as a whole. The main gameplay loop isn't that great, but the story/characters have a surprisingly great sense of personality. The decision to split the games up initially, the concept, the story writing, the decline and comeback, there's lots to use. Both of them are games/series that I adore, like 999, and they're both similarly niche while also being more popular than 999, allowing for more reach.
Ooh, thanks for the suggestions! I have quite a few projects on the go right now, but I'll definitely add those to to my "possible future videos" list! Thanks!
So… *(MAJOR ZE SERIES SPOILERS)* *AKANE WAS THE NARRATOR?!!!* If we were supposed to catch that right away when she revealed herself as Zero, I don't think that the game did a very good job of communicating it, even with the Murderdoku; stories DO change perspective a ton. Still a gdlk series, though, even into ZTD; though that game's a bit too flashy and unsubtle *(EXTREEEEEEEEEEME ROOM ESCAPE DUNGEON DRAMA)* , not to mention temperamental weenie Eric animenologuing for 30 seconds WITH A FUCKING ARROW IN HIS HEART, a grenade that can BLOW THROUGH A GOD-DAMNED SAFE DOOR somehow MERELY MAKING SEAN DROP DEAD WHEN ERIC SHOOTS HIM WITH IT POINT BLANK WHILE ALSO STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO MIRA and NO, JUMPY, I'M TOTALLY NOT TALKING ABOUT BACK TO THE *::BEEP::* , WHAT EVER GAVE YOU THAT IDEA, it DOES get genuinely clever and does a nice job of tying up shit. And it had the blue golf balls to boomstick a dog, at least sort of, even though it was obviously just as a gratuitousness. (I actually think that it would've been badass if HE were the mastermind, but I'm sure that that's been meme'd to evisceration.) Oh, and Monty Hall Problem FTW. Marilyn vos Savant did a HORRENDOUS job of explaining that one. 228 IQ? Sure, and I'm a retarded boxing half-mammal with four dicks and a mullet. You go on about logic charts and aliens and horsefuck; here's the normie-sensical explanation: You stick: You pick that door. You switch: You pick ALL OF THE OTHER DOORS. That all save one of those doors are opened to reveal Zonks is a trick; it's an attempt to make you forget that _you initially picked from those doors as well._ Bang. Hey, vos Savant: if you really are that smart, why aren't you helping out scientists around the world instead of spoiling _others'_ brainteasers, being a total bitch to mathematicians, and calling little girls' wonderings about aliens "silly" when we're attempting to make serious advances in space travel OURSELVES, all for more dough than Pillsbury?! Also, morphogenesis is caused by midichlorians.
I see you have a time gear as your pfp! Also, did you know that the story writer of pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of darkness/time/sky is the same one as Zero escape 999?
Zero Escape is such a mysterious and interesting series so it was great to actually get a little bit behind the scenes! The music in the series is really impactful, sounds a bit weird that it was actually really easy to compose :D
At the very end I was like "yay, he resolved to a minor 9th chord!" Great video as always, I didn't know about the two sequels will have to check them out!
oh my god i didnt know the characters were based on the enneagram!! im a big fan of using the enneagram as a writing/analysis tool, so this brings a whole new layer to these games that i can enjoy. im a bit of a new fan to ze and uchikoshi, so it’s very exciting to see how these zany games were developed. great video!
I completely agree with the comment above - though through my perspective, I stumbled on Zero Escape first, and only truly discovered (and fell in love with) the Enneagram of Personality last year. Ó‿Ò I wanted, however, to elaborate on the character-to-enneagram detail Thomas mentioned at 4:19. Because the important takeaway for me this time around (seeing as the enneagram was introduced to me through 999, but it all went over my head the first time) is that despite being written as enneagram archetypes, *none of the characters' personalities (as assigned by Thomas' research) match their assigned Player Numbers.* To wit: - Ace [1] is described as an "Achiever," which in the Enneagram is actually Type Three. - Snake [2], the "Investigator," is Type Five. - Santa [3], "Enthusiast," is Type Seven. - Clover [4], "Loyalist," is Type Six. - Junpei [5], "Challenger," is Type Eight. - June [6], "Peacemaker," is Type Nine. - Seven [7], "Caretaker," is Type Two. - Lotus [8], "Individualist" is Type Four. - The Ninth Man [9], "Reformer," is Type One. Now, with it having been so long since I've seen this game in action, I am slightly confused by some of the personality assignments - Clover's buoyant personality at surface level, for example, seems more Seven-like than the typically anxious, safety-seeking Type Six - but that's probably more due to my lack of knowledge than anything there. (...Also, June being a Type Nine is mildly funny, if ironic due to spoilers - and perhaps also because I'm a 954 tritype myself and see a lot of how she carries herself mirrored in my own character) There's probably some further in-depth analysis to be derived from how the Player/Enneagram numbers are matched, but I'll leave that to more ambitious people than myself. ^_^ And if ever you see this, Thomas, I much enjoyed your video. Thanks for putting it all together!
It would’ve been nice if they gave the personalities respect numbers Type 3- Ace Type 5- Snake Type 7- Santa Type 6- Clover Type 8- Junpei Type 9- June Type 2- Seven Type 4- Lotus and Type 1- the 9th man.
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors has to be one of my favorite games of all time. This video was super well made, it was easy to follow and interesting.
Good video ! But I think you should have talked more about the link between 999 and Ever 17, which clearly is THE game that launched Uchikoshi as a writer and started his leitmotif of time travel and perspective.
Thank you so much for covering what is (to the surprise and confusion of many people) my favorite videogame series of all time. I gotta say, no game like the Zero Escape games end up with me absolutely astonished and speechless after each plotline ends. The twists and reveals can border in the absurd, but the way that they are presented are simply so effective, in the end you don't even care! I find it sad that this series had to end, but I'm glad the games came to be in the first place! I used the word end 4...er...5 times now.
Excellent video! I'm a long time Uchikoshi fan and I've always wanted to know how did he stumble with Sheldrake's theory. I'm going to add spanish captions later this evening (I know my written english is not that good, but I'm a good english translator)
While the gameplay of the Zero Escape games is often lacking - especially when story parts feel repeated - and the escape rooms are nothing special, but well-crafted, somehow it works together with an enthrilling story to create one of the greatest masterpieces in not only visual novels but all of video games that I have ever played, but also one of the most frustrating ones due to the progression feeling slow sometimes (seemingly repeating segments...)
Thomas I love your vids, always quality. That being said the effect at 15 sec would look a lot cleaner with a couple added game covers so that the same one is never on the screen more than once at a time. Keep up the great work
I don't really play rated M games, but I made an exception for the Zero Escape series. They're absolutely fantastic. Very intriguing, lots of awesome twists and time travel, and I love how they use real-world conspiracies and scientific theories.
let me guess, you barely play M rated ones because most are "bang bang shoot and blood"? that's the issue with the higher ratings just being because of certain factors and not like "hey this is complex"
Picked up the entire trilogy for dirt cheap during this last Christmas/New Year sale. I wanted to play something different, and oh boy did I get it with 999. I had no idea the story would be so deep.
What's funny is 999 I believe was meant to be stand alone, it's story technically is self contained but then sequels happened (that's why i think VLR and ZTD are more connected than 999 was to the rest)
Thomas Game Docs I’ve been a fan of the Zero Escape series and when I saw you made some sort of announcement for it sometime back, I got really excited. I really appreciate your research into all these games. Can’t wait to see what you do next! :D
It's definitely still on my list! I've got quite a few things planned that I should really finish before I start work on that one, but I'll almost definitely make it at some point, hopefully not too far in the future!
It's a shame 999 for DS wasn't released in Europe or re-released for 3ds. When European players got offered only VLR some of them probably ditched it because it was a second game. I played the first two games on Nintendo and I think this is the best way, since the plot twist you mentioned and memo writing (I was replaying the games on ps4 recently and writing passwords in memos? Ugh, I couldn't read them and had to look them up on wiki). If they did that, they would probably sold better and ZTD wouldn't be in trouble.
not surprised at ALL that he creates a twist and then tries to build a story after the fact lol. love the series but it's painfully obvious that he paints himself into a corner all the damn time.
Could you maybe also make a video like this about the ds pokemon mystery dungeon explorers games? Since Uchikoshi also wrote the storyline for that game ^ ^ (Also Zero escape 999 is one of my favourite games. Together with Pokemon mystery dungeon and Solatorobo: Red the hunter)
watching this after playing ai the somnium files: nirvana initiative...... oops. uchikoshi has started just thinking of the twist while completely ignoring the story lmao
Actually, Shakespeare used "persons" as well. In Twelfth Night, when the young squire Cesario is revealed to be a pair of identical faced twins - a boy and a girl - the Duke Orsino says, "One face, one voice, one habit... and two persons!" There is also the term "Persons of Interest". It's a very old-fashioned way to say people. It's possible that persons is used to refer to the 9 different personas that the writer described. They are all based on different personalities.
Oh no, that's the only I've I haven't played yet! I hope it's not completey awful! (also no spoilers please unless you want to end up at the bottom of the ocean)
IdleChris Agree with you there, although ZTD didn’t make 999 or VLR any less of a masterpiece. It wasn’t the ideal finale I wanted, but I’m glad we got it anyways. I just hope he improves from ZTD with AI and DMC.
@@ThomasGameDocs Ah ha. Well, I'd still recommand playing it, if you're a fan of the series but yeah; a bit of a mess. My main issues was the change in style (distracting Full VA and 3D models), the annoying UI and the rushed feel of the story and puzzles. It's not bad but I can't help but think would have been so much better if they spent more time on it. Like the game's potential wasn't fully realised But if you go into it with lower expectations, I think you'll still enjoy it
@@ThomasGameDocs It was ok/good, just expect that the budget was smaller than normal so they had to do some cuts. There are still twists and turns that make it worthwhile playing! Also, I really like the topics you use in your videos, most of them are bit nieche or partly forgotten, but you give them a fresh new look to appreciate them more! Great work dude!
Honestly I believe I will unsub to DidYouKnowGaming since at least you talk about not known games. Hope you can do one on Guilty Gear, Blazblue and/or KOF.
I have not played ZTD but VLR was pretty good and I enjoyed it, plus iirc 999 was made to be it's own thing before the sequels were made, thus 999 having loose connections to the rest since.... wasn't made to have much to continue with