tldr; Virtue’s Last Reward is a masterwork, and anyone who wants to write a non-traditional narrative needs to study it. 999 and Zero Time Dilemma are both great puzzle/visual novels that support this middle entry well. Not only has Kotaro Uchikoshi crafted dozens of different stories taking place at the same time to the same characters, but he’s made them all interesting enough for you to want to see every instance of what could happen to your precious anime teens. You will need to find out what would have happened if you had Allied here, or chosen the 7 door there. And you will, because it is all part of the game. The true ending is seeing every possible ending. Your choices do matter in this game, maybe more than you want them to. The more choices you make, the more you feel control slipping from your hands. Does it matter what you do if everything that could happen will happen? It matters more than it ever has before.

