Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward is a science fiction, adventure puzzle video game with a dark and gritty storyline. It was developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Aksys Games in North America on October 23, 2012.
Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward revolves around the Nonary Game which takes place on an abandoned cruise ship called the “Gigantic”, which orbits around Earth. Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward was released for the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita on October 23, 2012 in Japan with a limited edition available that included a watch and an artbook. Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward is the sequel to the game Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward was released in North America on February 28, 2013 and Europe on March 20, 2013.
Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward is known for its unique graphic style that uses a combination of 2D animation and 3D models alongside a dark color palate to “provide a gripping atmosphere for the game”. Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward is a visual novel with puzzle elements similar to the “Ace Attorney” series where the player must find contradictions in suspects’ testimonies presented as animated text. Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward includes an opening animation by Gonzo and also includes the voice acting of Aksys Games employees including voice director Aaron Krohn. Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward uses the text system Spike Chunsoft has used in Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward for both dialogue between characters and during game sections where the player must find contradictions within dialogue presented as animated text. Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward is considered a visual novel where the player is presented with static images of characters, backgrounds and other still images. Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward also includes a 2D animation style during conversation between characters where the character portraits change to reflect different emotions. Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward uses a third person perspective as opposed to first person perspective used in Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward is a sequel to Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors that uses the same text system where dialogue between characters are presented as animated text with detailed character portraits shown before each text box appears during conversations.