Last week, in a heartbreaking series of tweets, game director Kotaro Uchikoshi wrote that he hasn’t been able to greenlight the third planned game in his Zero Escape series. The numbers just haven’t worked out.
Those words might mean nothing to you, but Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward, released in 2012 for the 3DS and Vita, is totally fascinating and way under-appreciated. It’s a gripping, twisty visual novel that is part terrifying and part heartbreaking, and I nominated it as Kotaku‘s 2012 Game of the Year because it deserves the honours. (The first game in the series, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, is also worth your time.)
VLR also ends on something of a cliffhanger, so fans aren’t reacting well to the news that Uchikoshi might not be able to make another game to resolve all those loose ends. But there’s hope: Kickstarter, the best and worst website on the planet. Uchikoshi has expressed interest in crowdfunding his third Zero Escape game, and just today, he promised that they’re considering new options for making it happen.
Fans have started a Facebook group to build support and Get Out The Message for Virtue’s Last Reward — you can join it here — and they’re putting together all sorts of cute images and memes, like the mosaic on top of this post. The good news — unlike some of the higher-profile fan campaigns, this one is likely to actually accomplish something. Uchikoshi wants to make this game, and thanks to the power of crowdfunding, that might just be good enough.
Comments
7 responses to “Fans Fight To Bring Virtue’s Last Reward Back To Life”
loved virtue’s last reward on vita and would love a big budget console sequel. I’ll happily chip in my $1.05 on kickstarter
This is awful news. If this guy does launch a kickstarter I will absolutely back it. If it wasn’t for this game I never would have even considered buying a visual novel game. Now I’m pre-ordering Dangan Ronpa 1 & 2.
>If this guy does launch a kickstarter I will absolutely back it
Ditto. 999 and VLR were both brilliant, I’ll be devastated if we’re not getting the 3rd game…
Yeah, he was asking about Japanese companies who’d used kickstarter recently, we were all linking everything we could. Make it so! Please T_T
I saw that, what is the issue with Japanese Kickstarters?
Something KS have in their Terms or what?
Yeah, not 100% sure. He was saying he couldn’t see support for Japan in the terms, and it seems that other Japenese companies that did kickastarters had workarounds, like US branches and such. I’m sure with the support thats popping up that a solution can be found for this though? By I’m sure, I mean I hope 🙁
“Meanwhile, project creation is currently available to individuals in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand who meet the requirements below.”
There’s the problem, Japanese can’t run campaigns.
Give me a kickstarter and I’ll give you all my money. That is all.