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Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma Discussion (Nintendo 3DS) [game]
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07/04/15, 01:06 Edited: 07/07/16, 22:14
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Over the last few years, I've pre-ordered several 3DS games from Best Buy (people keep giving me gift cards there *shrug*). 2 of the last 3 trips to pick-up said pre-order resulted in the nice employee sheepishly telling me that they had zero (+1 to the "zero" count in this thread) copies of the game in the store, but that they could order one and deliver it to my house. The third time it looked like they didn't have a copy but they found one hidden in some mysterious box in the back room. Fine. No harm done. Just the further adventures of a second class, read: Nintendo, gamer. I've gotten the hint that Nintendo fans have to pre-order 3rd party games in order to guarantee being able to buy them in brick and mortar stores.
But, as listeners of the podcast will know, I somehow got completely confused about the release date of this game that I have been EAGERLY awaiting. Somehow I thought it was coming out towards the end of July and not the end of June. So, today I went to a Gamestop hoping to find a copy. I was pretty much expecting them to tell me that they had sold through their pre-orders. But, I was hoping they could point me to the one store in town that usually has a random copy or at least order me one from the website and ship it to my abode.
Sure enough, they had sold through their 3 pre-orders and not ordered any more copies. They checked the other stores in the area and they all had the same result. They had fulfilled 2 or 3 pre-orders each and then not carried any more. Hence, the entire city was devoid of any copies. They apparently could not even order the game through the website. For some reason it was not letting them. This game was simply not available beyond pre-order through Gamestop.
What really got my goat was the Gamestop manager then telling me "this is why Nintendo fans have to pre-order their games. Cuz Nintendo sucks." Ouch. Like, ouch, dude. Harsh. He then did the requisite Gamestop move of asking if I was interested in anything else. He opened with "do you have a PS4 or XBox One?" When I said no he gave me a look like "well I can't help you if you refuse to help yourself."
So, I took leave of the store and went to a Best Buy. They also had no copies, and were unable to order any from the warehouse -- something they admitted was unusual for games. I walked next door to Target. The employee in their electronics section was not very concerned with my plight. She looked up the game in her little book and said condescendingly "that game isn't out yet. It comes out on December 31st." She clearly was not aware that placeholder dates are a thing and that her book was out of date.
In the end, I had to order the game off of Amazon like some kind of hip, young person. That's fine. But, Nintendo has a problem when this is the state of their 3rd party software at retail. Admittedly, it's a niche game. But, the severity of this particular experience and the frequency of similar experiences illustrates a problem. I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about and can feel my pain.
I mean, is it so much to ask for a game to be available on store shelves? I'm not asking rhetorically. How many sales are lost simply because people who don't watch the internet like a hawk will literally never know games like this exist? As I said, I was VERY eagerly awaiting this game and even I messed up the release date!
ugh.
#getoffmylawn
/rant |
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Put in a couple more hours. The puzzle rooms have been pretty good so far, puzzling and a bit stymying, but doable with some persistence. I miss the Gold Files from VLR though--is there anything like that this time around? Some of the presentational issues aren't bothering me as much--namely when there's a lot of action (like when two characters get really paranoid and try to off each other).
That said, I still really miss the visual novel approach. I like controlling the "flow" of dialogue, and while I can pause here, it's kind of odd, like pausing a movie. I just vastly prefer the pacing of being able to tick through the dialogue myself; I think it also contributes to some of the weaker voice-acting this time around. I theorize that the actors had to squeeze their lines into particularly lengths of time (anime-style) to work with the cutscenes' camera.
I don't know what to think about the character designs. I liked the creativity of the prior games'. ZTD kinda makes Sigma and Junpei more bland-looking, and the newcomers--Carlos and Eric especially--just sort of look like regular people in shirts and pants. The girls fare slightly better (I'm digging Phi's new look), but the cast is weirdly uninteresting-looking to me this time around. Q is the lone exception, I quite like his design. But I'm missing visually-striking characters like Clover, Snake, 9th Man, K and Dio.
Also, Eric has made an awful impression on me so far. What a whiny, milquetoast, slow-witted, whiny, jealous, whiny character. There were some characters I loved to hate in past games (VLR BIG SPOILERS) such as that oh-so-punchable d-bag, Dio, but Eric is the kind of guy you...well, hate to hate. Maybe he'll grow on me but I've found nothing redeeming about him so far.
Early impressions have me favoring Phi, Q, Diana and the bodacious old terrier Gab.
Despite my complaints, I'm pretty hooked. The flowchart is confusing so far and deaths feel less "permanent" in each game of this series, but they kinda try to compensate for that lack of actual choice-making by ramping up the intensity and violence. No one feels safe, and you'll often end up with grisly results for the characters if you're not careful. So far, I've seen two characters attack each other with a chainsaw and axe, that infamous original piece of art where a character has to fire a possibly-loaded gun at another character's head in order to save a third character, and a diabolically disturbing puzzle element utilizing the dismembered parts of someone you later find out was dead. The series is really embracing its Saw-ness, and while it's kinda gratuitous, it's effective in making me tense as heck throughout. |
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