EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/lZNiPak.jpg)
Some of you may have seen me ranting and raving about this game recently. Good. I'm not ashamed of that. This game is fantastic in ways I can't begin to describe, and I'm kicking myself that it took me this long to finally play the damn thing (considering how much I loved its predecessor).
I've talked about games before, and how I think they're the future of storytelling. Games give an interactive depth to stories that things like books and movies can never quite match. And while VLR doesn't have a whole lot of gameplay, it utilizes the mechanics of a game to create something that would be very difficult - if not impossible - to match in any other medium.
VLR is a story-driven murder/mystery Visual Novel. The lion's share of the time you'll spend playing it will be following the story via reading or listening to the absolutely fantastic Voice Acting cast. Interspersed throughout the game are several sections of "escape from the room" type sections where you must point and click around the area to collect items, solve puzzles, and learn passwords. Nearly every puzzle in the game has a purpose, and fits in with the story and setting without feeling contrived.
You play as Sigma, a college student who finds himself kidnapped and locked inside a large facility, where he must work with/against 8 other "players" to solve the mysteries of your new world and find a way to escape. Every character gets their own share of screen time, as does your "antagonist", the hilariously psychotic AI Rabbit named Zero III.
What follows is a story so interesting that it saw me sitting up in bed until the wee hours of the morning yelling at my 3DS while I struggled to comprehend some of the things that were happening. It's like a choose-your-own-adventure novel for adults, where you get to interact with the story at important parts. The plot is chock-full of betrayal, deceit, and a-ha moments that keep you interested as you play more and more.
Of course, having choices means the things you do influences the things that happen. What ends up happening is the choices you make send you down different paths. What door you walk through, whether you betray someone or help them, which person you trust - nearly any choice you make decides which "version" of the story you experience. And while this is typical for VN type games, in VLR it matters. It's important.
![[image loading]](http://www.ricedigital.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/virtues-last-reward-flowchart.jpg)
You see, no timeline reveals every secret. And indeed, several only lead to more questions - or even your untimely death.
But this is only where it begins. That puzzle you found with no answer in timeline A? You can find a solution to it - during your searches in timeline B. And it does this without breaking the 4th wall. How, you ask? Well, that would be getting into spoilers, but trust me when I say, trying to wrap your head around the answer only raises more questions. (Which it then answers).
And because each timeline is different, the various characters you interact with can be different between each one. While Clover might like and trust you in timeline B, and give you some information about her past and the setting, in timeline D, you betrayed her trust and she hates you. It leads to a game that has multiple stories that you not only want to experience because they're brilliant, but you also have to experience to know everything there is to know.
And the game gives you the possibility to do that. At any point, you can open up the flowchart of the game and jump to various points in the different timelines, or even all the way back to the beginning of the game. You can re-experience conversations, catching new subtext with your new knowledge. You can go back a couple seconds before and choose option X instead of option Y just to see what would happen if you went with this person instead of that one. And not only is it possible, it's necessary.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/T6GXSJR.jpg)
Why am I griping on this point? Because this is important. This is a beautifully crafted example of how gaming can utilize the interactive experience to create a story that is more than just a story with action bits you control. It takes the idea of multiple routes/endings, a staple of Visual Novel style games, and uses it to tell a story about the many-worlds theory, and does it in such a way that you don't think of it as a game, you just think of it as a story that you get to be part of.
See, that's what these sorts of games should be striving towards. There are a lot of games that use gameplay to create another level of connection with the story - Telltale is great at this, Metal Gear Solid 4 did a fantastic job of it, etc - but there are very few games that use the fact that they're games to make a story that no other medium could really match.
And while that's great, it also holds that up with an amazingly written story and characters that you're interested in and care about. I mean, is it perfect? No, the puzzles can be a bit frustrating at times (especially if you want to get the secret passwords that require even more puzzle solving with more convoluted answers) and some of the explanations and prose can be a bit long winded, but for the most part it's amazing.
And the true tragedy is, while VLR is pretty much universally praised by anyone who has touched it (as was its predecessor, 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors), it currently doesn't have enough financial support for the sequel to be made. And while there are various campaigns and movements to rally support, the fact of the matter is that it just went unnoticed. Which breaks my heart, because this is the sort of storytelling that deserves to be noticed, and deserves to be praised for creating something that is not just a mind-shattering story - but is the sort of experience that I will never forget.
