At this weekend’s Anime Expo, Aksys Gamesofficially announcedZero Escape 3. During a panel yesterday, director Kotaro Uchikoshi shared more details about the long-anticipated, summer 2016-due PS Vita and 3DS sequel.
Get the details below.
Main Visual
Director Kotaro Uchikoshi brought along the game’s main visual, or the image you’ll be seeing for the main promotion of the game. Pictured are two of the game’s characters.
Before Zero Escape 3 was officially announced, Aksys Games launched a teaser site called 4infinity.co. According to Aksys, “Infinity” stood for time, and “4” stood for Mars (the fourth planet in our solar system).
All of the words that appeared on the website have something to do with Zero Escape 3. (This is excluding “CUT-HERE,” which was an anagram for “C U There.”) They should stay up on the website for the next year so when you start playing it, you can look back and see how everything ties in.
Setting
A group of people will find themselves trapped, again, at the Mars Mission Test Site, a facility that will be testing the logistics of a colony living on Mars, and the psychology that may ensue between this group of people and their interactions while living on this enclosed colony space.
There’s also going to be a dog.
Development Status
The game is in early development. Aksys Games just got the scenario text. The game will be similar to 999 and Virtue’s Last Reward—there will be scenario parts and puzzle parts. Aksys is about 50 percent into localizing the text it’s already received, but more is on the way.
Danganronpa series director Kazutaka Kodaka came up on stage for the second half of the panel, where he opened by saying Uchikoshi already told him the ending to Zero Escape 3. And while he won’t share it, for obvious reasons, he does say “it’s pretty crazy.”
“It’s probably the most out of this world ending so far,” he said.
Kodaka mentions that he and Uchikoshi are pretty great friends and work at the same company, and he hopes to one day work on a game with him. Maybe they’ll be able to get Aksys Games to release it.
According to Kodaka, Uchikoshi rarely ever works at the office in Japan, but rather sticks to getting most of his work done at manga cafes, because it’s quieter.
Kodaka praises Uchikoshi for being able to come up with the things he does without really playing or reading other manga and games for inspiration. Uchikoshi responds that while he doesn’t read, the he listens to what the manga around him are telling him. Everyone laughed.
Editor’s Note: The dynamic between the two is interesting and enjoyable to watch. Kodaka mentions that Uchikoshi loves women, and the first place Kodaka went after he arrived in Los Angeles was Hooters. Unfortunately, Uchikoshi couldn’t go because he had to stay in his hotel room. If he were spotted out and about before Anime Expo, it might’ve ruined the surprise that was the Zero Escape 3 announcement.
Punch Line Game Localization
Uchikoshi is working on another game with 5pb. called Punch Line (which is basically an expanded version of the anime with a different ending).
Aksys’ production staff assumes that one of its licensing staff is probably harassing the people working on the game, but says that they don’t actually know whether it’s coming yet as that’s not their area of knowledge.
They say they’d “love to,” so let’s see what happens in the future.
