The Zodiac Trial

Great fun.

The Zodiac Trial es una novela visual al estilo de Zero Escape (particularmente inspirada por 999) y Danganronpa. Un juego mortal con personajes variopintos intentando encontrar la forma de sobrevivir. Todas las rutas que puedes tomar en el juego presentan escenarios muy diferenciados entre si que dan lugar a muchos juegos mentales entre los participantes de los que el autor te quiere hacer parte. Se siembran muchas pistas a lo largo del juego que estan pensadas para que las desentierres y logres ir resolviendo los diferentes misterios que hay, tanto los que solo ocurren en una ruta como el gran misterio que envuelve toda la obra. Si te gustó 999, probablemente también te guste Zodiac Trial. Y aunque no te gusten algunas de las partes mas locas de los misterios en este tipo de juegos, tal vez el estilo menos extravagante de este titulo (quitando un par de rutas) haga que puedas disfrutar de la historia. Los unicos puntos negativos que he encontrado son errores en el texto (faltas de ortografía, cambiar el nombre de un personaje por el de otro en alguna escena...) y pocos dibujos , con muchas escenas repitiendo graficos o con pantalla en negro (comprensible por ser un titulo de bajo presupuesto). Si estas pegas no te suponen un problema, ¡juegalo!

[h1] An Intriguing Deathgame Visual Novel [/h1] I've gotten all endings of The Zodiac Trial and I quite enjoyed it. Not every ending is a hit, but they do a good job showing difference facets of the characters. They all really grew on me over the course of the story. Dragon became one of my favorites even though she wasn't at first. Because there are so many endings, I feel the game could have really benefited from a flow chart. Fortunately there is a great community guide on Steam I was able to rely on to find the one or two endings that I was missing - I just couldn't remember the combinations of choices I hadn't yet explored. I really liked this game's bonus content that's unlocked after clearing the true ending. [spoiler] The interview room and bonus commentary on the main story are a real treat. I'd love to see that in more visual novels! [/spoiler] I'm looking forward to the author's future works, and I'll be checking out The Divine Deception soon. If you like the Zero Escape series and are willing to check out an ambitious indie VN inspired by it, this is worth a look.

I'm a big lover of indie VNs and of any media about death games, and The Zodiac Trial scratched those itches perfectly. What it lacks in polish it more than makes up for in a compelling cast of characters and an engaging, complex branching storyline that's remarkably ambitious for such a small operation. I couldn't put this game down until I'd seen all fifty-four endings. The only thing I wasn't totally sold on was the true ending, which I don't think quite matches up with the quality of the rest of the game in its pacing and big reveal, but I still felt satisfied. If you're on the fence about buying this game, especially if you're a fan of the Zero Escape series, Your Turn To Die, etc. you should absolutely give it a try - I think this is a hidden gem that deserves a lot more attention!

As someone who is always hunting for a good Zero Escape-esque fix, I tend to gravitate to anything I think might scratch a similar itch. And that's what a lot of these reviews will mention: similar to the ZE series but even more visual novel focused (and much more reading) with some good puzzles. Really though, the writing is what shines in this game. I am a player who DESPISES replaying games for All The Endings because so many of them fall flat, yet I was continuously intrigued by everything The Zodiac Trial had to offer. I also really adored the Writer's Commentary option you can utilize, which made the extra routes even more interesting to read through. You get to track each character shift, turning points in their decision making, and really fun facts and quips! And I love anything that spices up dialogue I would have otherwise skipped (re-reading the intro on the 6th playthrough with the commentary was a lot of fun!). Some people may throw around "the size of the cast" or particular characters being more simplistic. And to a degree, yes, there are a couple of characters whose personal routes are not as exciting compared to others, but they still provide key information to the overall plot of the story and are worth the time investment. I think my one nitpick of the game is that I wish some character elements were not as tied to the character routes. Certain characters possess traits that are not acknowledged, utilized, or focused on for over half the routes. Which, yes, they may not be the focus of the route, but sometimes the characters can fade into obscurity or just hardly react at all when some of their most noteworthy traits should provide a little more dialogue or friction, just there's only so much space that can be spared managing the 12 person crew and keeping 1-4 people front and center. For instance, [spoiler]Ox's strong sense of justice is noted once or twice but not exactly leveraged very often, which is strange since it's his biggest character trait.[/spoiler] Overall, The Zodiac Trial is one of the more interesting, captivating, and fun death game VNs I've played lately, so I can't recommend it enough.

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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.

gud

I have to say, I really enjoyed this game. I've played most of the larger budget death game type stuff (999, Dangonronpa, Raging Loop, etc) and wasn't expecting much from such a small studio, but this is actually a really good game. The backgrounds are a little funky looking and there is a crazy amount of grammatical errors, but you get used to it, or maybe just so engrossed in the game you stop even noticing. Every route is fun, and while some are maybe better than others none were significantly worse or made me want to put it down. I'm actually surprised to see I only played for 16 hours, this game must have taken up so much of my brain-space over the week I played it that I thought I played it for much more. If you're looking for a fun game with many different routes and endings, I would definitely recommend!