Virtue's Last Reward Review - Pie Reviews

[Elliot]

Virtue's Last Reward is unique amongst all Vita games in the West, as there's nothing like it. Typically, publishers shy away from releasing visual novel games in Europe and the Americas, and I've never been able to understand why - yes, they're a niche product, but there are substantial groups of people crying out for games of this type who would buy them in a heartbeat, as it's such an undersaturated genre. As such, I'm grateful for the existence of Western versions of this game, and I'm glad that it got as much exposure as it did though being free to play with Playstation Plus. That being said, did it represent the genre well, and whet player's appetites for more?

 

The game is about three quarters visual novel, and one quarter unconventional puzzler. If you're not familiar with a visual novel, then it's probably what you think it is - lots of text, lots of talking, but with pictures to add a visual aspect to it. If you dislike reading, then you're not going to get much joy from this game, because it's what the player spends most time doing. If, however, you have the patience and the desire to experience a story, then you won't notice as the hours fly by as you absorb the atmosphere, flick your eyes across the words on screen and reflect on the many questions the game raises throughout its course. I describe the puzzle aspect as unconventional as it's a far reach from your typical Tetris / Bejeweled / Sokoban fare. The idea behind all of the game's puzzles is that you're in a purposefully designed trap room and you have to escape using only the things made available to you by the puzzle master, and this allows for some very ingenious, occasionally borderline evil puzzle design that requires some decent creativity and brainpower to solve. There were numerous "aha" moments when the solution finally occurred to me after a ten minute bout of pondering and head scratching, and it's very satisfying. The pacing between the puzzles and the story is nicely done too, breaking up each section into chunks that never go on for too long.

 

The game presents you with choices to make, most of which will branch the storyline significantly, with a total of 24 endings available, but it's the ways in which it ties all of these branches together (which I'm afraid I'm going to be deliberately vague about, because it's a very key plot point) which raises the plot from being good to being truly great. Each of the branches will feed you different information that allows you to piece together an idea of what's going on, but no one branch will make total sense without the others - however, once you've seen all that the game has to offer, everything will "click" in a sudden, wonderful moment of clarity. One of the rules of fiction is that for a story to be convincing to a reader, the author is allowed one significant deviation from the real world, and all of the plot points must stem from this - any more than this and the plot seems contrived and fake. Virtue's Last Reward sticks to this rule surprisingly well for a plot that's so ambitious in its direction, and Chunsoft ought to be lauded for this.

 

The presentation of the game is at times clunky, with relatively few different images and almost no real animation, and the 3D models of the characters used could be better - I certainly would have preferred 2D art for the most part, superimposed onto the 3D environments, but this is a consequence of the tiny size of the developer, Chunsoft. It's certainly no less than the other VNs that I've played, but given those were all free to download permanently, and many PS Vita players will be used to the copious and colourful artwork of big, blockbuster games like Gravity Rush and Uncharted, this might be a bit of a system shock to discover a game whose novel portions could basically be captured in an illustrated choose your own adventure book. If you accept the quirks of the format going into the game, this isn't at all a detriment to the experience, but it would be remiss not to mention it. The clunkiness occasionally extends to the controls, however, which feel a little odd at times - things don't work quite as well as they could, and there are a few missed opportunities for things like touch-drag and multitouch on the Vita's beautiful screen, but I think these issues stem from the fact that it was a 3DS title as well, and that machine's resistive touchscreen isn't nearly as featureful or responsive as the Vita's. Much of the same can be said for the audio design - there's a lot of repeating music and sound effects that show the game's limited budget, but what's there, whilst it might not stand out as incredible in its own right, does serve quite well to further the atmosphere of the game, to the point that I was still inclined to play with the sound on when playing through different branches despite having heard all of what's on offer before.

 

I question the wisdom of launching this game as a full-price competitor to the big names in gaming that it was forced to compete against, but as it ages and becomes cheaper (it's only about £17 or regional equivalent on Amazon at time of writing), it's getting to the point where I'd strongly recommend the game to anyone who's not immediately put off by the game's genre and its accompanying quirks. I can't stress enough how wonderful I thought the plot was, how satisfying I found the resolution, how many interesting ideas were explored and how well they were, too. It's a game that is flawed, as most great games are, but that's so interesting that it's worth the time of everyone who considers themselves a thoughtful gamer, beyond one who simply plays the latest FPS game. I hope you will give it a chance, and I hope that its ideas will leave a lasting impact on you as they did on me.

[CasaDeBen]

Very well written and if it wasnt one of my favourite vita games youd convince me to play it.

[Kirbz]

Ellie, you should do video reviews!

[Sun_emperor1]

If you have a nintendo DS and are interested in this game you could consider getting the prequel 999: nine hours, nine persons, nine doors ^^

[Artemisthemp]

If you have a nintendo DS and are interested in this game you could consider getting the prequel 999: nine hours, nine persons, nine doors ^^

 

Keep in mind the DS version of Virtue's Last Reward have a game breaking glitch

[greensmurfy]

Very nice review. When I started playing this game I knew nothing about it, but it has quickly become one of my favorites. Games like this make PS Plus a steal. While I thought the ending was fantastic, I admit some parts were over my head. It got a little convulted in sections that I wish I understood better. The story was incredibly engorssing though. Top notch. The only minor complaint I have is with the map. It was very repetitive to watch the dot travel all over the map when the map was too simple to understand which sqaure belonged to which room anyways. Minor complaint though. Fantastic game!

[Satoshi Ookami]

Keep in mind the DS version of Virtue's Last Reward have a game breaking glitch

The PEC room glitch can unfortunately appear in Vita version as well.

It does not damage the save as the DS version one, though.

[HowIPendragon]

Am I the only one who found the controls in this game to be god-awful?

The input lag that occurs when you scroll across the screen is one of the most severe examples I've ever seen in a game. And I found myself tapping on items more than once because the game wouldn't even register my touch.

And I tested this on 2 Vitas to make sure mine wasn't going nuts.

 

I've grown to completely hate this game solely for the horrible controls. I can't even bring myself to complete it.

Edited February 22, 2014 by rsoto1125

[Satoshi Ookami]

Am I the only one who found the controls in this game to be god-awful?

The input lag that occurs when you scroll across the screen is one of the most severe examples I've ever seen in a game. And I found myself tapping on items more than once because the game wouldn't even register my touch.

And I tested this on 2 Vitas to make sure mine wasn't going nuts.

 

I've grown to completely hate this game solely for the horrible controls. I can't even bring myself to complete it.

I don't know if you are the only one but me and my 2 friends who played this had no problems with controls...

I believe this shouldn't stop you from finishing it... just think of story

The only bad part in terms of control was when you had to put the pieces into ornament.

[Elliot]

Am I the only one who found the controls in this game to be god-awful?

The input lag that occurs when you scroll across the screen is one of the most severe examples I've ever seen in a game. And I found myself tapping on items more than once because the game wouldn't even register my touch.

And I tested this on 2 Vitas to make sure mine wasn't going nuts.

 

I've grown to completely hate this game solely for the horrible controls. I can't even bring myself to complete it.

Yeah, in fairness there's a noticeable delay, and it seems pretty unnecessary for such a powerful handheld, but it's not a game that demands timely input. I found it quite easy to be patient with the controls because it didn't lower the pace of the game at all, it played out in pretty much the same manner as it would have had they responded immediately. I certainly wouldn't recommend it for speed-running though, given the issue.