Though niche when compared to more conventional survival games, Spike Chunsoft’s Puzzle/Visual Novel/Survival series, Zero Escape, commands a dedicated fan following. It’s also renowned by critics for its unconventional narrative style, which weaves suspense, puzzle-solving, and philosophical dialogue together into one fluid experience. Zero Escape also has a habit of showing up in some rather unexpected places in the real world; notably, an escape room premiered in Los Angeles, CA, this March.
Now, it seems as if the first game in the series, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (often shortened to 999), is coming to Steam and the PlayStation Vita in the very near future. Today, Spike Chunsoft posted the following cryptic tweet:
Series director and writer Kotaro Uchikoshi followed up on Spike Chunsoft’s tweet by clarifying that the ship looked like a “STEAMship.” He then corrected himself and called it a “vital steamship.”
For the record, 999 took place on a ship similar to the one depicted above.
Given Uchikoshi’s capitalization of the word “steam,” many Zero Escape fans are now eagerly anticipating a Steam release of 999. “Vital,” meanwhile, sounds eerily similar to Vita, and is otherwise out of place in that sentence.
Fans are also pointing to the fact that the latest entry in the Zero Escape series, Zero Time Dilemma, is receiving a Steam release on June 30 this year, two days after its 3Ds and Vita releases in North American/European regions and the same day as its Japanese release. Spike Chunsoft also pulled off similar PR stunts before it released both entries in the Danganronpa visual novel series earlier this year.
Leave it to Zero Escape fans to connect the dots, and you’ve got yourself a pretty solid case for 999 coming to Steam and Vita. Might the second game in the Zero Escape series, Virtue’s Last Reward, also make an appearance on these two platforms?
Expect to hear more news about 999‘s potential Steam and Vita releases very soon.