The Zodiac Trial

I’ll begin by addressing what will likely be a deciding factor for most people. If you’re looking for gameplay that’s a collection of escape rooms in the same vein as the Zero Escape series, or seek interactive crime scene investigations, gathering evidence and piecing it together to figure out the murderer akin to the Danganronpa series, then you’re best clicking away now. While both those series are visual novels in their own right, The Zodiac Trial is all visual novel. There are plenty of puzzles and crime scene investigation, but they’re all built around words, leaving you to figure things out in your own head and select the correct options in a series of choice boxes. So as long as you’re good with getting your entertainment exclusively through reading, then good news, you get to read on! There are three things I look for in a death game: 1 - a cast of big personality characters each with a secret to hide 2 - a game with defined rules aimed at bringing out those secrets 3 - a gaming arena that’s interesting to explore The Zodiac Trial delivers on the first two with merit, and while the setting likely suffers from budgetary constraints, it’s good enough in light of how…

This is very similar to Danganronpa in story but it's more like a visual novel with a ton of routes. It doesn't necessarily have the most bespoke writing or plot but I found it pretty enjoyable nonetheless. It's fun to iterate through the different paths and see all the different bad ends. Some of the puzzles I didn't find too hard but the main route solution is scattered around the routes so you might just want to look it up at some point. Just make sure you write down names and dates when you see them.

gud

A surprisingly deep and well-written visual novel, and my introduction to Themisian's bizzare world. Sorely lacking in production value but held up by a strong story and characters. As far as the writing goes, I have only a few complaints: namely, that locked room mysteries are stupid and I hate them, and that the ending is kind of dumb. Also, I'm pretty sure some of the math in the puzzles is wrong. Still, I had a lot of fun with this game and got deeply engrossed into its story. 7/10.

A solid mystery visual novel with about a dozen routes. The premise is that 12 people find themselves locked up together being forced to compete in a death game, "The Zodiac Race", with each participant representing an animal from the myth of the same name. It quickly becomes apparent that the participants were all connected to an old court case involving a murder several years ago. It also becomes clear that those competing in the race are not afraid to kill if they deem it necessary to win and escape. As you complete the routes, you uncover bits of the bigger picture. It's about 20ish hours if you're looking to 100% it and see all the endings. It's a little rough around the edges in some spots, but it was written by only a single person, and it was still a fun read.

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