This page contains the Q&A that used to be hosted on virtueslastreward.com
Introduction
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Q&A
SPOILERS FOR REAL
Did he search for Clover for 45 years, like how Junpei still searched for Akane?
How far ahead is the series being planned?
After completing the game it seems very unlikely that Alice is the Ice-9 All-ice we learned of in the first game.
Are Alice and the ancient priestess All-ice not the same like we thought at the end of 999?
For example, in the Dio end, before escaping, he rants about throwing away the weak being “how nature works”, but when confronted on the lunar surface, he preaches about cleansing mankind’s greed and creating a world with no conflict. He claims that he finds individuality “weird”, but seems strikingly individualistic himself, being the “best of his generation” and dressing according to his “singular sense of style”.
He also refers to the Radical-6 outbreak as a “disaster”, which seems strange if it was part of Free the Soul’s agenda. He acts pretty oddly about the bombs as well. He threatens to press the bomb detonator, saying that he doesn’t fear death, but even when Tenmyouji goads him, he never actually presses it. He then attempts to kill himself with a poison pill with no hesitation, but reveals the password to one of the bombs, which seems to defeat the purpose of taking the pill in the first place.
Why would he do that? His strange behavior seems to suggest that he’s not out to kill. Is there conflict between Dio’s own values and what Free the Soul wants him to do?
The reason why he takes pride in being the top of his generation may seem a bit contradictory, but in that scene, the contradictions surfaced unexpectedly. In other words, contrary to his thoughts and beliefs, his true colors surfaced. Haven’t you ever met a clergy or a religious person whose action does not reflect what they preach? In regards to his fashion, all his brothers are all dressed the same, so it wouldn’t be unique, right? (Well, it was partially a joke, but…)
While the events of Radical-6 is indeed the plan of an organization, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a “disaster”. I believe there are references like “a disaster will come your way” in the bible too, right? It’s the same concept.
As for the detonator, I assume Dio was just about to press the button. The reason why Dio revealed the password after taking the poison is because him telling them just one password won’t do them any good. Knowing his personality, he just wanted to tease the others.
On a side note, the reason why he didn’t recognize Doctor Klim’s hologram voice is the same concept of you not recognizing your own voice when you record your voice, since it sounds different.
Why is that? I thought Snake’s robes were from when Lord Gordain ran the Nonary Games, so why is the Free the Soul symbol on Snakes’s robes?
In VLR, Tenmyouji explains to “?” at the end that even if Sigma could change the past, the timeline that they live in will remain the same.
If Sigma can stop Radical-6 in the past, this will only create a new timeline. This implies that changing the past does NOT affect the present. Don’t these games have contradicting ideas?
And let’s say VLR’s history does get destroyed. Then Sigma’s old consciousness won’t be able to return to 2028 and as a result he won’t be able to stop the Radical-6 outbreak.
Same goes for 999. The true end is where Junpei accesses the Morphogenetic Field 9 years ago and saves Akane, but if he isn’t successful, then a new timeline is created. And the extension of that history is the Junpei who couldn’t find Akane at the chapel. (*We call this end that isn’t the True End the B End.)
However, there may be some of you that will say “Hey, Akane did exist in the B End route though”. Well you’re exactly right. In that history Akane should not have existed.
So in other words, the contradiction isn’t the setting between 999 and VLR, but rather it is in the B Ending. However, if you consider that Akane had jumped to the B End route with her whole body and not just her psyche then it would all make sense…
If that is the case, then Akane did not disappear in the chapel but she just made her escape, or you can say that her whole body jumped to another time line.
Were you worried that any changes to the game, if not handled meticulously, could potentially misrepresent the game in a way that could interfere with consistencies between VLR and its sequel?
The questions Aksys asked were very, very detailed and I was confident that they knew and understood the game perfectly.
I think the reason why it did so well in the US is because Aksys was so careful and sincere with their localization. I thank them from the bottom of my heart.
K says that Dio’s killer likely broke it in order to kill Phi and K with the penalty, but Dio was killed by K himself. What exactly happened?
The person who broke the bracelet was K, also known as Kyle.
Kyle wanted to test his father, Doctor Klim’s, love and created a situation where there are two choices.
Of course he did it with the possibility in mind that Sigma would find the antidote and return…
And he put Sigma to the test and wanted to see whether his father would save him or Phi.
Technically the consciousness would be young Sigma, so there would be no way that he would know the relationship between Doctor Klim and Kyle. But even then, he couldn’t help but to test his father’s love…
(There is also another round where Phi didn’t let him in the AB room.)
The only time he has Luna as an opponent is during the bomb route’s Round 1. Is that what you’re talking about?
Regardless, I think his decisions would change depending on the current situation.
And why leave her and Tenmyouji alive after handcuffing them?
Why not kill them with his knife, instead of risking them being found?
That’s why Dio pointed his knife towards Clover. The reason why he handcuffed Clover and Tenmyouji is because he enjoys the gambling feeling of it all.
Experiencing luck and winning in that type of game is the only way he can sense the feeling of “love”. Just think of it as the mentality of a messed up person.
He’s portrayed as a bad guy, but there’s something sad about him too.
What kind of person is he when he doesn’t have a sacred mission to complete? Did he really save a stray kitten?
Since him saving the cat isn’t mentioned in the main game, I’ll leave that to your imagination. However whether he saved a cat or not, I don’t think it has any relation to his morals.
For example, a murderer can have a pet rat, which wouldn’t be unnatural, right?
On the contrary, there are people who will experiment on a rat and kill hundreds of them to develop new and improved medication in order to save human lives. I think it’s a hard call.
Did Sigma/Doctor Klim have a prior connection to this woman before jumping to the past to infiltrate the test site? Or was she just someone that “original” Sigma (the very first one, before him and Akane started the AB-project and jumping plans) met and connected with at the test site?
Dissipative system, Monty Hall problem, Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, Toxoplasmosis, Folie à deux, Capgras delusion, Fregoli delusion, Sally–Anne test, and Project MKUltra.
There is no specific rule that you have to be yourself to possess a psyche.
In 999, young Akane and 21 year old Junpei communicated. The developed version is to be able to move yourself entirely, so if your frequency matches, then it is even possible to jump into another person’s body.
However, I do think it’ll be interesting if he’s the grandson of a person from 999.
So would Sigma be basing Luna on the Luna he met during the Nonary Game?
Luna is created with her as a base.
Has any decision been made about Volume 3’s art style? Will it move closer to full 3D or full 2D animation? Or will it remain a hybrid of the two?
Also, will we be seeing longer animated cutscenes for important events? (Either in 2D or 3D?)
We’re currently considering animating the event scenes at the moment.
Is this also why one of the bomb codes was different in the U.S. version (so that the +1 code would give you Myrmidons instead of Claydolls?)
I feel like Claydolls would still have been great in English because of the similar pronunciation to Cradle (Pharmaceutical).
The short version is that in a narrative for an English-speaking audience, “Clay dolls” sounds kind of weird. It’s not a word you’d ever hear unless it was referring to exactly that thing, and in this case, it’s being used in a more metaphorical sense.
This makes more sense in Japanese, because “doll” (or, more accurately, “ningyou”/人形) is frequently used as a metaphorical way to refer to someone who is being manipulated or controlled by someone else.
Unfortunately the term “doll” isn’t used that way metaphorically in North America, which makes the term somewhat awkward. Although we knew we would (unfortunately) lose the allusions to Cradle Pharmaceutical, we ultimately decided that a term that “sounded better” and more accurately communicated the nature of the organization “Clay Dolls” referred to would be better.
We ultimately settled on the term “Myrmidons” for a couple reasons. For one, it sounds cool. For two, it refers to a group of people in Greek history who were famous for being excellent warriors and loyal in the extreme—both things that describe the organization Dio belongs to. It was also used for a period of time to mean “a loyal follower, especially one who executes orders without question, protest, or pity – unquestioning follower” so the hits just kind of keep on coming.
It also has an interesting tie, in a way, to the story Zero Sr. tells about termites, since the word “myrmidon” in Greek means, roughly, “ant people” and they were in fact supposedly created from ants. Ants aren’t technically termites, but we figured it was close enough.
So while something was admittedly lost (the clever phonetic connection to Cradle), some other connections were gained, and we got a term that sounded better and more natural in English.
It’s the same as, why can Usain Bolt run 100 meters in 9.58 seconds?
Of course it is a result of him undergoing intense training, but it doesn’t mean if everyone trains they can all run 100 m in 9.58 seconds either.
In 999, it seemed like the alternate paths were simply observed by young Akane, and didn’t actually exist. Only the “True” path was the final, since it was the only one where Akane completed her mission and was able to continue her existence.
But VLR suggests that the alternate timelines like the Safe ending actually exist. Does that mean there’s another timeline where Akane no longer exists?
I believe he was just pretending to worship the doctrine of Free the Soul in order to use the organization to get what he wants.
The person that set the timer and cancelling functionality on the bomb’s detonator was an engineer heavily tied to the MYRMIDONS. (This engineer would do maintenance on illegal machinery and customize them as a profession. He’s an underground mechanic).
Now by adding the cancellation functionality on the bomb the engineer asked “What do you want the password to be?”. It was Dio who responded.
Dio used the alphabet related to the organization and moved it over by one letter and told the engineer. And that’s how the passwords were set for the 4 bombs and handed over to Dio.
Thus Dio headed for Rhizome 9… When he went into the facility and tried to kill Akane in warehouse A, he was attacked by Phi and lost consciousness.
After that (when Sigma and Phi’s consciousnesses went back to the future) Akane took bomb 01 of the bombs that Dio snuck in and changed the password.
That password would be “BQZ・RGJ・DXR”. If you move them over by one it will be the name of Akane’s organization.
Did she end up marrying Doctor Klim or someone else?
Or is there some other meaning behind the ring?
In question 44 from your previous Q&A centered around 999, you said that the robes worn by Snake were from Lord Gordain, who “conducted strange ceremonies in the incinerator” (along with friends) on the Gigantic/Britannic, which leads me to believe that Lord Gordain was also part of Free the Soul.
But according to Seven, while talking behind Door [7] in 999, Lord Gordain died in the 1930s (1931/1932, I believe). If these two statements are correct, then Free the Soul existed at least by the 1930s, if not earlier.
So when was Free the Soul established? And how did Brother manage to keep his brother’s DNA intact/uncorrupted until the technology to clone (Dio/Left, 4th generation Myrmidon leader) him became available?
Also, when was human cloning invented in the VLR timeline, and when was the first generation of Left clones gestated?
I get an idealistic vibe from her, since she tries to save herself and the entire world while giving Alice, Clover, Junpei, and herself a chance at a normal life with Schrodinger’s Cat.
Did you envision Akane’s personality either way or did you envision it differently?
I noticed various people gave him a wonderful name on Facebook but that’s not the official name.
His name is “Seven”. Don’t you think that’s good as is?
I have to start considering from that.
How about their last name being “Field”?
And do you have an idea of what their personalities would be like?
I believe they are all very nice people. I mean if they can figure out what other people are thinking, then obviously their ability to relate to them will increase.
With Ace’s connections to Free the Soul (highlighted in some of the secret files), is it safe to say Seven was fighting Free the Soul after he rescued the children from the Gigantic, since Ace’s affiliation would ultimately lead him to Free the Soul?
For those that haven’t been revealed and show up in 999, sorry, but it will be great if you can calculate them.
For the others, I’ll leave it to your imagination.
What is the significance of “of Y”, and why was it cut?
I recall Alice said he was a pretty old man, which means he was already old in 202X. And if he has died, has a “Brother” clone taken over Free the Soul, or did someone else become the new leader
Whether he’s alive using secret powers related to his ESPer abilities or he just had the best doctors because of his financial stability to keep him alive doesn’t matter, but he is for sure still alive.
According to one theory, there are rumors that his body as a whole had time slipped to another time.
It would be fun to see which character is which character.
On the Tenmyouji route, Tenmyouji uses a picture of young Akane to activate it. On the Phi route, Clover, Luna and the unconscious Alice go into the Director’s Office, and on the Luna route, K and Dio go in along with Alice’s bracelet.
Were they able to use the facial recognition device?
Therefore it shouldn’t be an issue in the Phi route. In the Luna route, maybe Dio’s face was misinterpreted as a female or Zero Jr. changed the settings.
Where did this come from? I don’t recall seeing it mentioned in the game.
Does he know that it can be used to counteract a penalty? In the K Game Over, K opens the nine door, but Dio doesn’t attempt to escape himself.
If he knows what it does, then why doesn’t he use it to go through the door? If he doesn’t, then why does he want it so badly?
Does he also take the Neostigmine gun during the other timelines where he goes through the green door?
In terms of why he wanted the neostigmine gun, it wasn’t a matter of what medication was in that gun, but I think it’s only natural that you want possession of any kind of gun.
On a side note, on the Alice route Dio entered the Treatment Room with Phi and Tenmyouji. Since Phi and Tenmyouji got to the safe first, Dio never got the neostigmine gun.
What exactly are Alice’s and Clover’s roles in this organization? What kind of work do they do that required their choices in clothing?
Alice and Clover’s role would be comprehensive investigation on criminal and terrorist organizations.
As for their outfits, can you even imagine or believe that they would be top secret agents based on what they wear?
Even if they say, “Hey, I work for a secret organization” people will just laugh them off. That is what the organization was hoping for.
There are rumors that some of the members of the organization would dress up like Elvis or Lady Gaga, and even some agents dressed up like Captain America.
The very few people that know of the organization are said to be teasing them by calling them “State Of InsanitieS”, or that’s what I hear.
Along with how the characters reacted to their circumstances, this made me feel a little more comfortable and less paranoid. Overall I felt VLR had more of a “puzzle” feel to it.
What inspired the shift in tone between the two games, and which of those two moods do you enjoy writing more?
As a result, the higher ups had given me orders to make the next installment more light. So with that I made the penalty of the Nonary Game “death with poison injection” as opposed to being blown up. And overall I tried to make the vibe less gloomy.
The Japanese version’s title is also made to be a bit of a pun. I also tried to make the conversation during the escape parts more light and witty.
And just between you and me…for the Japanese title, I’m honestly not happy with the higher up’s instruction on making it “light”. But if I don’t comply, they won’t allow me to make the game, so what can I do, right? This is the downside for a creator.
I heard in the movie industry there are cases where the production company will give orders and would even change an ending of a movie. (For example, “I Am Legend”). Please go ahead and think something of that sort happened with VLR.
So with that said, I’m sure you guys can conclude which mood I’d enjoy writing for more.
As a result ironically, the spread of Radical-6 stopped and the pandemic came to an end. Tenmyouji spends 45 long years after that living through the aftermath. So I assume he would never have imagined that Quark would be infected with Radical-6, which has been gone for so long.
If so, why did he not expose him then and there? And if not, who did he think Zero was?
Maybe he didn’t tell the others because he could have potentially assumed that the others were in on it as well.
I assume he told Clover the truth after they escaped, since she escaped with Tenmyouji.
And the reason why he said “I know Zero very well” is because he realized that Sigma, who was present, was Zero, but he also remembered that he had met Sigma 45 years prior at the test site when he was still young.
That is why he had stated that he knows Zero very well. And the reason why he wanted to punish Zero is because he wanted to leave Zero/Sigma behind and trap him.
Were these events engineered purposefully? The part about his girlfriend seems particularly suspicious, as he says she broke up with him through e-mail and that he wasn’t able to contact her at all afterward.
Luna’s ID is “GTF-DM-L-016”. Evidently, the “GTF” would stand for “GAULEM Type Female”, but what does “DM” stand for? I’ve heard that it’s “TM” in the Japanese version.
In the Japanese version it is “TM”, but that is our mistake. “DM” would be the correct title.
The facility’s on the Moon, so it can’t be just an ordinary shelter. Is it another Rhizome?
Also, who are the people inhabiting the shelter and how is Dio acquainted with them? If they’re survivors from the Radical-6 outbreak and reactor explosions, it seems strange for them to be on friendly terms with someone from Free the Soul.
It’s a lot bigger than Rhizome 9 and there is a very comfortable living environment. By the way, each Rhizome is actually connected with an underground road. However, Rhizome 9 was abandoned, so the road to the other Rhizomes was closed off.
In Rhizome x there are various people from various nationalities living there. The kinds of people include millionaires who paid large sums of money after the April 2029 tragedy, government researchers and officials, chosen children, etc.
However, 45 years have passed since and most of those people have returned to Earth. The people that remain currently are eccentric people who enjoy living on the Moon, researchers, scientists, laborers who are mining the Moon’s rare minerals, and those who lived so long on the Moon that they couldn’t adjust to Earth’s gravity.
It has nothing to do with Dio really. He knows a few people here and there. And even to those that know him, he hasn’t revealed that he is a believer of Free the Soul.
And besides, only a handful of people know that the tragedy 45 years ago was Free the Soul’s doing.
Did he always keep the detonator with him when the bombs weren’t set? Sigma doesn’t find it when he searches Dio’s pockets for the Neostigmine gun in the K end.
Also, where does Brother get his information from? Does someone transmit it to him?
However, old Akane’s consciousness can freely jump to different histories, futures or pasts.
Brother gets his information from himself. He too is an ESPer.
The reason why I had him join the SOIS is because I figured Clover wouldn’t join unless he did.
At the test site Tenmyouji found out about the great burden imposed upon Akane. I think he wanted to free her from her burden, so that is why he was looking for her.
While she was wearing Kyle’s armor, did she take the opportunity to tease Tenmyouji a little even though he didn’t know who she was…?
Well, it’s hard for us to define what the feeling of “love” is for her but… Actually there is no guarantee that your definition of “love” and my definition of love, and anyone else’s, are the same too…
Does it require incubation by a human surrogate, or is it all done artificially somehow?
Up until now I’ve always used the setting that they were born from a surrogate mother, but for VLR I have set it so they were born from an artificial uterus.
On a side note, the water tank in the Laboratory wall is in fact just that.
If someone on the outside is alerted to their predicament, are they rescued?
They hold him for over ten years, then just brutally murder him? Was that really just to scare Alice?
And what about the other scientists who were mentioned having been abducted? And how did Brother make all of them do what he wanted?
In this world there are heartless people, as well as cruel, inhumane organizations that go beyond our imagination.
I mean just the other day there were atrocities in Algeria. The problem is that the terrorist group who kidnapped the hostages, and the Algerian troops who bombed the terrorists and hostages, were all working in the name of justice.
I’m sure neither party felt that what they were doing was cruel. The same is the case for Brother. And again, the same goes for Akane.
They are just doing what they think is the right thing to do. So what does that leave us? Are the things we do on a daily basis really the correct course of action?
It’s a very difficult concept. All we can do is pray that such tragedies will never happen again.
There is no way I can write them all here. But what I think is that there was a tranquil and majestic silence between the two of them.
Maybe just looking into one another’s eyes was enough for them.
For everyone who took the time to play 999 and VLR, thank you so very much.
And I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for all the questions you’ve thrown my way.
This time I have answered in the form of a Q&A. However, what I’ve written here is an answer, but at the same time it isn’t.
A piece of work, whether it be a movie or a novel or a game, what is written and disclosed is all there is to it.
My cherished theory is, “Once a piece of work leaves the hands of a writer, it becomes the readers’ work, who is the receiver.”
So just because the writer says something as supplemental information, I do not want you guys to think that is the right way to interpret it.
What I have written in the game is all there is to it. So anything other than that I leave to the imagination of the reader.
I encourage all of you to let your imagination run free and add to the areas that have not been written yet.
And the answer that is born in your mind is the true answer.