Virtue's Last Spoilercast

thank you for covering this series!

It took me this long until I beat VLR but I finally did yesterday!

Now to go read forums for a few hours and find that anime short...... Shit I have work to do today..... oh well.

Hearing "a kane" really made my ears bleed...

But I am thankful to Patrick for pimping these games, as it made me check them out.

Loved 999, liked VLR. The sequel had superior visuals (Vita version here) and great Japanese voice acting, but the puzzles were more miss than hit. Seems like they went for quantity, not quality. The touch interface was pretty bad too (again, on the Vita).

Overall VLR could have shaved about 10 hours off, it really felt way too long. Even though you could skip text, the game still forced you to read through stuff that you already knew, for about 10 more times, simply because a name or something had changed in it.

The cleaner, more sterile and more futuristic setting made VLR feel like Cube 2: Hypercube to 999's original Cube.

I finished VLR the other day and loved it but also did have kind of a problem with the ending. It just left me saying ...thats it? I thought there would have been a new timeline I could have jumped to so it would have more of a complete ending other than just the part where you play as K.

I have the same pair of headphones.

waste of time

all i could think about after watching the intro was i really wanted a amnesia or silent hill pyramide head plushie.

@patrickklepek you have to make the "mask" in to a pillowcase

this is why patrick is amazing.

I'm not gonna watch this because I'd really like to play this game...I got all the endings in 999 and found it morbidly enchanting. Is there ANY chance this is coming to iOS? I don't have a 3DS anymore and I sure as heck don't want a Vita for one or two games...

@patrickklepek First off, thanks for the bonus coverage. I don't have a handheld, and don't plan on buying one anytime soon, but I am intrigued by the story outlined here.

I heard you refer to Ice-9 several times as some sort of plot point, and being a huge Vonnegut fan, this peeked my interest. Are there are other references or homages to him or any other classic scif-fi authors or stories? Or is the name Ice-9 just a coincidence?

@Harabec said:

Kind of weird having a Six-Shooter replica. Are you trying to animate dolls using dark magic Patrick?

Puppet Master is prolly my fav horror series! Well, I dunno. Up there with Hellraiser and Nightmare on Elm St, anyway.

Kind of weird having a Six-Shooter replica. Are you trying to animate dolls using dark magic Patrick?

@NoelVeiga: Then lead with that, not "HOW COULD THEY NOT KNOW THIS FROM THE THING THEY NEVER PAY ANY ATTENTION TO?" lol.

Hey, @patrickklepek! Thanks for answering my questions, and sorry for the spoiler tags. I didn't know they were so iPad unfriendly.

And you pronounced my username perfectly :P I usually just say "raven", but in Norwegian it is actually "ra-bn", AFAIK.

Patrick is the best. Patrick for Best Patrick in 2013!

haircut? haircut!

This was fun to listen too. I wish the GB guys did more of these, they've all been pretty great even when I don't care about the story(Modern Warfare 2) or even like the game to begin with(MGS4).  A lot of discussion on the bombcast is hamstrung because no one ever wants to get into specifics.  
 
Can't wait for the VLR2 spoiler cast.
 

@Danin

Ah-kah-nay, not Ah-kayn.

Hey @patrickklepek is that fucking Six-Shooter from Puppet Master sitting on your end-table?

You have exquisite taste.

oh man, oh man, Six-Shooter!! I wonder if he has all the rest hanging around somewhere.

Ah-kah-nay, not Ah-kayn.

I have no intention of playing this game so I will go ahead and listen to this. I have nothing else to listen to today and this might be interesting.

@MordeaniisChaos said:

@NoelVeiga said:

If nothing else because it's such a common name that you hear in so much anime.

Because the Giantbomb staff watches SOOOOOOOO much fuckin' anime...

Well, there's that and the fact that the game is voiced and they keep saying the name out loud.

Even though I felt most of the twists coming in VLR, I thought everything about it was better, including the story. I liked the characters in the first game, but I didn't love them like I did in VLR. Alice and K's endings were so crushing. And I adore that they addressed the idea that each branching time line continues to exist no matter what. I also thought the writing in 999 was generally very amateurish. The improved hardware allowed a lot of the story to be told visually this time, which was nice.

Alice's clothes were really distracting. They could maybe have justified it if she had been trying to seduce people in order to get information as she was kind of a secret agent, instead she is basically just topless the whole game which is weird as fuck.

Did anyone else happen to examine the liquor bottles in the lounge? Phi blushes and swoons when she's thinking about the booze. Really cracked me up for some reason.

This has fast become a favorite franchise of mine. I'm so excited to see where this goes.

Thanks for doing this Patrick. I think you're dead on with getting outside your comfort zone. It's an admirable pursuit.

One thing I wanna know Patrick. How's that ring treating you? Get used to it yet?

EDIT - I just want to state I am really down with your quest to expand the frontier of game real estate on the Bombcast. I think this alone is a worthwhile contribution beyond what you started with on the news commentary.

Cool mask.

@patrickklepek Your cowboy puppet is really creepy. Good job.

I like these post-game discussions. You guys should consider doing a call-in livestream for story games like 1-3 months after release.

@Ehker said:

@AMyggen said:

@DeF said:

@planetfunksquad said:

If the rest of the staff were as committed to producing content as Tricky is this site would be even better. The fact that Patrick is in everything these days is just an indicator that the rest of the staff need to step up their game.

Scoops, I applaud your commitment. Keep it up man.

Woop Woop!

Word up! :D

+1

True. Between all the QL (majority?), written content, interviews, and just here alone with over an hour on the couch, that's some schedule...

agreed.

also much thanks patrick for answering my question, didnt think you would since its kinda off topic, but always appreciated.

I think there is some logic in the Metal Gear games. It is just buried under layers of bullshit :p

@patrickklepek The name of the game in Japan translated is "Good people die". They wanted to go with something a little more subtle in America and named it VLR. Virtue's last reward is death.

Patrick, play Ghost Trick if you haven't already. Thats a game where all the pieces at the end fit together perfectly, I highly recommend it.

Don't like being that guy, but it was a little annoying every time he pronounced Akane wrong, but whatever.

I believe that in a twitter post, Uchikoshi alluded to the person in the Kyle secret ending being Blink Winkel, a 4th dimensional being, so yea.

@patrickklepek Thanks for doing these not having people to talk to about this stuff is annoying, so listening to you talk about it is awesome.

This was a really excellent feature Patrick! More spoilercasts.

@amlabella said:

Thanks for another spoilercast Patrick, this a series that just begs to be talked about more.

I second that Ghost Trick recommendation, I think you'd definitely enjoy it considering how much you like 999/VLR. For some reason I'm reminded of it while thinking about VLR even though Ghost Trick isn't a visual novel and it's not ridiculously crazy. But it does have a great story and some really fun puzzles unlike most of the ones in the Zero Escape games.

I agree. Ghost Trick doesn't sound like the type of game that would have an amazing story, but it was made by the Phoenix Wright team. It also has one of the crazies endings I've ever seen in a game.

The Lamp is everything!

Should have worn the mask/bag the entire spoiltercast.

I might play both of the games. I don't know if I should watch this. I'll start and see if I pause it.

EDIT: Okay, I just heard some stuff about a character named Junpie. There is a Junpie in Persona 3 so I can't forget that name anymore. Done watching. Man, I think I might end up playing 999.

@Paindamnation said:

@Humanity said:

I didn't play either of those games but I still listened to an hour of this

i dont know why, but i did also.

Hell, I'll send you a bottle of a decent single malt for your next spoliercast of whatever.

Dewar's? Pah.

:D

this is the 2nd one?

how the hell did i missed the 1st, and why isn't there an mp3 version : (

Thanks for another spoilercast Patrick, this a series that just begs to be talked about more.

I second that Ghost Trick recommendation, I think you'd definitely enjoy it considering how much you like 999/VLR. For some reason I'm reminded of it while thinking about VLR even though Ghost Trick isn't a visual novel and it's not ridiculously crazy. But it does have a great story and some really fun puzzles unlike most of the ones in the Zero Escape games.

I'm not a bad person, people! I just like saving the best content for last. It's not like I took any sick pleasure in betraying Luna... (<3 Patrick)

Every time you lean in, Patrick Klepek , it feels like you are about to hug me. I have mixed emotions about this...

Love your stuff, in all of the content Patrick, keep it up!

Great game, was able to get a platinum trophy on it also.

As someone who never played those games, this spoilercast is complete non-sense. Still great though.

@Humanity said:

I didn't play either of those games but I still listened to an hour of this

I didn't play either of those games but I still listened to an hour of this

@AMyggen said:

@DeF said:

@planetfunksquad said:

If the rest of the staff were as committed to producing content as Tricky is this site would be even better. The fact that Patrick is in everything these days is just an indicator that the rest of the staff need to step up their game.

Scoops, I applaud your commitment. Keep it up man.

Woop Woop!

Word up! :D

+1

True. Between all the QL (majority?), written content, interviews, and just here alone with over an hour on the couch, that's some schedule...

@Breadfan said:

Watched about 30 minutes out of interest, but stopped because I have no idea what is going on.

Yeah I did the same. Started watching this, then came to realize I had no idea why I'm watching a spoilercast about a game I know nothing about.