For this critical play of Puzzle-based games, I chose to play the award-winning escape-the-room visual novel Zero Escape: The Nonary Games on the 3DS platform. The game was developed by Spike Chunsoft and received very high ratings from its player base.
The game follows a group of interesting characters trapped in an unknown facility and is forced to play a series of death games to determine who wins the game and escape the facility. The progression of the game is based around escape-the-room type puzzles that player must complete. Throughout the story, the player also gets to make decisions that impact the ending of the game. However, the stories branch off non-linearly and allows the player to explore other narratives and outcomes through the game’s timeline hopping mechanic.
The Zero Escape trilogy invokes Challenge and Narrative type fun and the target audience is players who are into puzzles, mystery, and narrative.
