ok, cool.
my review: I LOVED most of VLR, but the last bit of story felt a little unnecessary. I still like the concepts at play and where the overall story is heading (the last scene let me off on a positive note, despite much of the ending being ridiculous.) It's got enough story content to get and enjoy most of it, but the last part goes crazy, japan-style. Not having played 999. there were some moments that didn't have as much impact on me, but just a couple things. Apparently there were connections I would've deduced earlier on, but which remained mysteries to me until much later on. And holy shit, it's long. I skipped through when I could and even used guides for many of the last puzzles, just to get through it faster-- still had 32 hours to get the true ending (which is also when you get the platinum.) I started it having no idea what to expect, then had a good 25 hours or so where my mind was just getting constantly blown and I had to see what happened next. At a certain point, I just felt like I had my fill, so the last part dragged a bit to me and was tough to concentrate on. I read some summaries this morning and understand it a bit better now though. After playing through the majority of the game, you have a lot of details floating around in your mind that you have to keep track of--then the ending dumps a whole lot of new information on top of that. You still might feel a bit in the dust after the ending, but it's easy to clarify what happens reading online (especially now that people have had the game torn apart for months.) The way it builds up is really well done, but it's hard to talk about that specifically without spoiling it, and that's most of the game. I thought I would be sick of reading a game by the end of it, but I went right into 999 after! The third one is totally on my radar now.
