Virtue's Last Reward

What will it be, then? Cooperation? Or betrayal?

The second game in the Zero Escape series, Virtue's Last Reward (in the original Japanese, Kyokugen Dasshutsu ADV Zennin Shibô Desu, or roughly, Extreme Escape Adventure: Good People Die/I Want To Be A Good Person^[1]) is a Visual Novel for the Nintendo 3DS and Play Station Vita, and in turn the sequel to the DS's Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. It was released in February 2012 in Japan and in October of that year in America. No plans are in place for a European release, but the Vita version is region-free.

An average college student called Sigma awakens inside an elevator, finding himself with an odd girl named Phi who seems to know him. Along with seven others, they discover that they have been kidnapped, trapped inside a large warehouse and forced to play the "Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition".

As in 999, each of them have numbered bracelets attached to their wrists and will be killed if they break the rules. However, there's a twist: to escape the warehouse, players must accumulate points by splitting into groups of three (comprised of teams of two players paired and one player solo) and completing deadly challenges. Nine points will reward a player with freedom, but losing all their points will greet a player with death. Reminiscent of the Prisoner's Dilemma, teams can choose to betray their partnered team in order to steal points from them, but if both teams choose to betray then neither gain anything.

Be warned that like 999, this game is a minefield of spoilers, so do not read ahead if you're spoiler-averse.

Seek a way out!

• Abandoned Warehouse: Where the game takes place this time around.
• Artificial Human: K is a clone of Sigma.
• Aerith and Bob : Compared to the previous game almost everyone has a cool name (like Sigma, Phi, Quark, and Dio.)
  • the exceptions are Luna (fairly common name), Tenmyouji, K (can be spelled Kei) and Alice...
• Deceptively-Human Robots: Luna
• Driven to Suicide: In at least one ending, Alice.
• Expy: Luna, the orange-haired woman, shares a lot of mannerisms with Akane, while Phi looks a lot like a gender-bent Santa.
• Five-Man Band :
  • The Hero : Sigma
  • The Lancer : Phi and (possibly) Dio
  • The Smart Guy : Phi (again)
  • The Big Guy : K
  • The Chick : Luna, Clover and Alice
  • Tagalong Kid : Quark
  • The Elder : Tenmyouji
• Guest Star Party Member : You'll recognize Clover from 999 and you'll recognize Alice if you got the true ending
• Grumpy Old Man : Tenmyouji
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Sigma in some routes.
• Hair-Raising Hare: The avatar of Zero the Third, who appears to be controlling the game this time around.
• Killer Rabbit : Zero the Third, even though he's an Adorable AI who thinks he's King Of The World, he still has the power to kill you if you don't fallow the Nonary Game's rules.
• Stripperiffic: Clover's and Alice's new outfits REALLY bring this out. To wit, Clover is baring her midriff, while Alice is wearing a jacket, and a large Egyptian necklace, and that's it above the waist.
• Theme Tune Cameo: In the promo anime, Sigma is listening to the game's theme song on the radio when he's kidnapped.
• Evil All Along: the player character, Sigma, is the true Zero.
• Posthumous Character: June.
• Hey, It's That Voice! : Luna ferries people to Hell
• Wise Beyond Their Years : Quark
• Zettai Ryouki : Clover

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You found it!

1. ↑ It could be translated as either.