Update: Aksys has confirmed the news via Twitter. The release window for Zero Time Dilemma on PlayStation 4 will be Fall 2017 in North America, not August as previously indicated by Amazon. There will be both digital and physical versions of the game.
Original story: Recently a compilation of the first two Zero Escape games, 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, graced both PlayStation 4 and Vita in the form of The Nonary Games. We reviewed the escape-the-room redux and found it to be an excellent package, sprucing up each original title and even bringing full voice acting and HD graphics to 999, features its original Nintendo DS version lacked.
With all of this, there was only one problem – the third game in the series, Zero Time Dilemma, was nowhere to be found on PS4. It's not exactly a good situation for those trying out the series for the first time with The Nonary Games on that very platform.
Clearly developer Spike Chunsoft and US publisher and localization house Aksys realized this, and as such there's been a logical development: Zero Time Dilemma is headed to PS4 this summer. Much of what we know about the PS4 edition comes from a recently-published Amazon listing, including the details below.
- Excellence in Narrative Puzzles – Kotaro Uchikoshi is back with diabolic new puzzles and fully animated story sections that push boundaries of interactive storytelling!
- Meet Our New Contestants – New comers and familiar faces round out a robust cast of characters. Find out who will live and who will die in this epic clash of wills.
- Beautiful HD PS4 Graphical Experience – Zero Time Dilemma has been beautifully remastered with impressive new HD along with both English and Japanese voice over options to flesh out the narrative.
- Vast Branching Paths – Multiple endings and non linear story mechanics will keep you coming back for more!
As series fans will be able to tell, these appear to be fairly standard descriptors of the game; in other words, no major changes for the PS4 edition that we're aware of so far. If there's one glaring flaw to Zero Time Dilemma that could theoretically be fixed-up its the English lip syncing (it matches the Japanese voices even with the English dub enabled), but given that Zero Time Dilemma nearly never existed due to budget problems, it was understandable at the time. Now that the series is headed to PS4, though, it would be great to see such a thing corrected.
Amazon lists Zero Time Dilemma as arriving on PS4 August 18th of this year. In the meantime, be sure to check out our review of the original game, as well as the recent Nonary Games package.
