What do you know and when did you know it in Virtue’s Last Reward

Posted by on January 17, 2013 in Games

You know that moment in a mystery when the guy who has all the answers promises to explain everything and then doesn’t? Usually this is because the phone lines are cut or he suddenly dies or it’s time for a commercial. It’s cheap, but effective. It’s a vital part of pacing. It drives episodic TV. Hopefully your show won’t get canceled before it sputters to something resembling a finale.

One of the things I’m enjoying about Virtue’s Last Reward is its approach to “I’ll explain everything later” teases. This is a mystery that begins with the intimacy of Saw — two people who don’t know each other wake up in the same room with no idea why they’re there — and quickly expands to encompass, well, a whole lot more than I expected. In most mysteries, it’s predetermined when I get to know which reveal. But Virtue’s Last Reward lets me freely work my way down the various branches of a storyline that splits apart like a narrative vascular system. I won’t get the full story until I’ve traveled the length of each of these branches. In whatever order I choose.

So that guy who promises to reveal something will reveal it, but I control when. Unwittingly, perhaps. But it was I who made the decisions that shunted the story down this particular path when I learned this particular detail, which may very well color what I hear down another path. It’s lends the mystery a gratifying sense of self-determination.

  • Pogue Mahone

    Really stoked to see more about this game! I played 999 while I was on the east coast for Christmas and only just found out that this sequel had been released, and I have been meaning to pick this up. If it’s as weird as the first game I should be in for a good time.

  • Nightgaunt

    Stray apostrophe: “Virtue’s Last Reward let’s me”.

    Also, The preceding sentence took me a few tries to parse: “The usual mystery calculates…” Might consider rewording it some.

    This is really interesting, though. The game sounds fascinating. I need to get my hands on 999 (I don’t have a VITA or 3DS to play the new one). Wish I could think of what adventure game this reminds me of, with branches of the mystery that I can solve in whatever order I want…

  • Barac Wiley

    999 emphatically doesn’t share the particular mechanic Tom mentions, alas. You have to do multiple sequential playthroughs to get all the plot branching etc, although I think you can skip -some- stuff on subsequent plays. (I’ve never even finished it once, personally, which I need to remedy.)

  • Pogue Mahone

    If I understand Tom’s article, then 999 doesn’t work exactly the same way. You have branching paths at multiple points in the game, and choosing one commits you to a path toward one of several endings. You can replay and fast-forward to a branch and choose an alternate option, possibly getting a different ending. There’s a ton of dialogue, so the fast-forward option is vital on subsequent playthroughs.

  • D.Z.

    I’ll admit I bought a Vita for this game after finishing 999 last week. Tom addresses here one of the biggest issues of 999 IMO

    999 was brilliant and got better and better over time but the tedium of going through the same rooms over and over again hoping to see everything was detrimental to the game. In particular, I thought the game voluntarily obfuscated the diverging paths way too much. I’ll admit it: I’m a flowchart guy and seeing that chart when I started playing the game yesterday made me happy.

    Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading more of Tom’s impressions. I hope it does that Matryoshka doll thing again, with mysteries wrapped within conundrums wrapped within pseudo science wrapped within a “WTF this isn’t Phoenix Wright” game.