The Zero Escape games, as described by one anonymous fan on our staff, are basically "a cult favorite visual novel-'escape room' series for the Nintendo DS/3DS with a plot that seems like nonsense until it all comes together and makes you go whooooaaa." The original, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors—999, for short—came out on the Nintendo DS in 2009, followed by Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward in 2012, and Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma in 2016, both on the 3DS. Zero Time Dilemma was also released for the PC last year, and now the first two games have come our way in a bundle called Zero Escape: The Nonary Games.
There's no indication about how, or even if, Virtue's Last Reward has been updated for release on Steam, but 999 will boast "hi-res graphics" and new features including voice acting in both English and Japanese. In both games, players must solve puzzles and search for clues that will help them escape locked rooms and unravel the mystery of "who Zero is, why everyone was kidnapped, and the shocking connection between the Nonary Games."
The description on Steam makes it sound an awful lot like Big Brother meets Saw, which is actually a fantastic idea for a game: "Kidnapped and taken to an unfamiliar location, nine people find themselves forced to participate in a diabolical Nonary Game by an enigmatic mastermind called Zero. Why were they there? Why were they chosen to put their lives on the line as part of a dangerous life and death game? Who can be trusted? Tensions rise as the situation becomes more and more dire, and the nine strangers must figure out how to escape before they wind up dead."
Zero Escape: The Nonary Games is available now on Steam for $45/£30/€42. The modest system requirements are below.
- OS: Windows 7
- Processor: Intel Core i3-530 CPU 2.93 GHz or better
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: DirectX 9.0 compatible GPU with at least 1GB of VRAM
- DirectX: Version 9.0
- Storage: 4 GB available space
- Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
