Virtue's Last Reward (Nintendo 3DS)

Virtue's Last Reward
Also known as: Kyokugen Dasshutsu Adobenchaa: Zennin Shibou Desu (JP), Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward Developer: Spike Chunsoft Publishers: Spike Chunsoft (JP), Aksys Games (US), Rising Star Games (EU/AU) Platform: Nintendo 3DS Released in JP: February 16, 2012 Released in US: October 23, 2012 Released in EU: November 23, 2012 Released in AU: November 29, 2012 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences.

The initial plot to Virtue's Last Reward (of the Zero Escape series) is set up similarly to the previous game: nine people are abducted and forced to play a game. In order to escape, they must play a version of the Prisoner's Dilemma with each other. Essentially, the penalty for a person who allies others and is constantly betrayed by them is punished with death.

It makes for an interesting story, to say the least... and it should go without saying that this page may contain spoilers.

To do: Debugging functions‎ or unused code. Hidden development-related text. Version differences Platform differences PC version has extensive debug menu

Sub-Pages

Unused Models Pass the Axelavir, bro.

Unused Graphics We know you love dice puzzles!

Hidden Text

The Secrets tab under the Archive section lists... well... optional secrets and bits of story that the player can pick up when completing an escape section. Unfortunately, most likely due to oversight, at least two secrets are too long to fit on one screen. There is no way to scroll on these screens, and as a result words get cut off and are impossible to see.

The portions cut off during normal gameplay are highlighted below in green.

AB Game: 2

A round of the AB Game is played between the members of the group that went through the previous Chromatic Door together. The two members of the pair play against the single solo. Each party can choose to either cooperate or betray. The BP of each player will change depending on that choice. If you choose to ally, and your opponent chooses to ally... … You get +2 BP. If you choose to ally, and your opponent chooses to betray... ...You get -2 BP. If you choose to betray, and your opponent chooses to ally... ...You get +3 BP. If you choose to betray, and your opponent chooses to betray... ...You get 0 BP.

Principle of causality

The law of cause and effect: Specifically that a cause must precede every effect. At the quantum level, however, things aren't quite as immutable. The principle of quantum superposition holds that any physical system, such as an electron, exists at least partially in all of its theoretical states, or configurations, but when measured gives a result corresponding to only one of them. A classic example of this is the double-slit experiment, where light appears to behave as both a wave and a particle. One of the interesting implications of this is that, in a sense, you are influencing the past: By observing a system, you are defining the cause of an effect you witness, and in a way "altering" the past. Normally I would comment here that the quantum level is where "shit gets real," but given the nature of this phenomenon, it seems like it would be more accurate to say that the quantum level is where shit gets unreal.

(Source: Cuber456 (Text Rip))

Unused Scripts/Scenes

Demo Scenes

Even though a demo version for the US eShop was apparently in the works and scrapped, the final US version contains scripts and scenes in files with the name s90_90_tsu_ika_900. It doesn't appear to be an accident either since the demo has scripts to play in either English or Japanese. Since the scripts look pretty complete when compared to the European demo, it begs the question as to why the US demo got scrapped.

(Source: Cuber456 (Discovery))

Test File

There is at least one novel section in the game that is purely unused called test.lua. It isn't possible to know exactly what the file does yet but checking it out in a hex editor reveals some basic details listed below:

• Phi and Dio appear to be loaded.
• Phi and Dio apparently have 38 and 22 voice acted clip loaded, respectively.
• Most of the clips seems to be from the beginning of the game when you first meet Phi and Dio.

Given these details, it's safe to say that this file is a simple engine test to test characters and their voice clips. It should be noted that there doesn't appear to be any script file present that would display the text that either Phi or Dio says so whether or not this file could run as-is is unknown.

(Source: Cuber456 (Discovery))

Internal Project Name

The game's internal project name is "SKP2" according to the filenames of some sound files and strings in some lua files. This corresponds to the previous game in the series which used the comment “SKP game”, and the letters pronounced one by one are homophonic with “escape”.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Version Differences

To do: Differences between cart ROMs "USA Revison 0" and "USA Revision 2" (USA Revision 1 isn't dumped and isn't confirmed to exist - you can tell what revision your copy is by looking at the seventh character of the code stamped to the back of your cart. Rewrite this section based on specific title IDs and title versions - those identifiers appear to be consistent between digital and physical for 3DS

Physical VS Digital

Glitch

The 3DS version has a freezing glitch, usually triggered during the PEC escape room, although getting it to activate can be hit or miss. It becomes game corrupting if the glitch occurs while saving. A patch was never released for the physical version, although Aksys Games did provide a guide to help players decrease their chance of encountering the glitch. When the digital version released in the US, a small tweak was made to the game so that it was no longer possible to save in the PEC room during an escape and hence would avoid corrupting the only save file.

Interestingly, the PS Vita version doesn't have this glitch in any form.

(Source: Aksys Games)

Minor Changes

• The physical US version of the game contains Japanese characters. They don't get used under normal conditions and were removed in the digital version.
• Dummy files found in the physical US version were removed in the digital version.
• The physical US version contains a few text errors. These were fixed in the digital release.

(Source: Lucaboy (Discovery))

Regional Differences

Image Prerenders

K and Clover

s00_20_04_0.png

This is a picture of K holding Clover while jumping out of an AB room at the beginning of the game. While used in the JP version, it was removed from other regions completely.

(Source: Cuber456 (Discovery and Graphics Rip))

Color Chart

I20_50_00_0.png

All versions of the game have this image but it is only used in the JP version. This color chart should be used during Tenmyouji's route right after the second AB game. Instead, a similar color chart is used where some of the letters are replaced with ??? since not all players are present when Phi explains who is grouping together for the next set of Chromatic Doors.

(Source: Cuber456 (Discovery and Graphics Rip))

Other

There are simpler changes between the Japanese and US versions too. For one, the US version lacks the Cero rating (C) for obvious reasons. At least one image was renamed, too.

(Source: Cuber456 (Discovery))

Language Options

The US version has an option to select English or Japanese voice acting. This option is not present in the European/Australian version, which has only Japanese voices. This is because Rising Star Games licensed directly from Spike Chunsoft, rather than through Spike.

Special Ending: Another Time

Another Time is the special ending that lets you play from Kyle's perspective. On the flow chart, it is listed right below Phi's ending.

In all versions of the game, this ending lacks Japanese voice acting entirely. Instead it resorts to using beeps and boops for when characters are talking in the same vein that 999 did. However, this ending of the game does contain English voice acting for all the characters in the North American version of the game.

The reason why this ending lacks Japanese voice acting is because this ending was added on after the main script was written and after the Japanese voice acting was completed for the main script. Since the North American version wasn't going to be released for 8+ months, it was possible to work in the English voice acting for this ending.

The reason this ending was written in last minute was to give a more hopeful tone to the ending of the game as a result of the earthquake that impacted the Tohoku Region of Japan in 2011.

(Source: Siliconera Interview with Director (WARNING: ZTD spoilers))

Renames

Some names also change from the Japanese to the International versions, including some of the passwords. Thus, in European versions, as passwords are spelt out loud in English alphabet when found, players can hear and read the difference (spoilers ahead):

Japanese	English (International)	Note about the change
Yotsuba (四葉, litteraly "four leaves")	Clover
Zero-Usagi ("Zero Rabbit")	Zero Jr.
Zero-Boss	Zero Sr.
maindrain β	soporil β	Soporil is a real brand of anesthesic.
Haimetolin	Tubocurarine	Tubocurarine does exist.
Sterogumin	Neostigmine	Neostigmine also exists.
Claydolls	Myrmidons	The way Japanese people say "claydolls" is similar to "cradles", making reference to a group mentioned in the previous game. According to the editor, it was changed to Myrmidon as he felt "clay doll" does not have the connotations of someone controlled.
Bangle	Bracelet	Probably to fix the choice of English words.
Colored door	Chromatic doors	Probably to fix the choice of English words.
Game room	Rec room	Probably to fix the choice of English words.
Biotope	B. Garden	Probably to fix the choice of English words.
Cabin	Crew quarters	Probably to fix the choice of English words (as there are actually four cabins in that room).
Annihilation control room	Control room
Grapedoll	Jumpydoll	Lost in translation pun. In the Japanese version of 999, Junpei finds a voodoo doll, which sounds like "budo doll", budo meaning grape.
GLTM-KM506	GLTM-CM-G-OLM	506 pronounced in Japanese does sound like "golem" (go-re-mu). "KM" stands for Kansai Model; Kansai is a regional accent in Japan associated with comedy. "CM" stands for Cockney Model, a regional accent in England that's also associated with comedy.
BKZ XCN KKR	LXQ LHC NMR	When swapping each letter by its following one in the alphabet, the Japanese code reads "claydolls", and the International one reads "myrmidons", explaining why that deactivation code was changed.

(Source: VLR's wiki)