History VisualNovel / ZeroTimeDilemma

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: One of Mira's X-Passes is "VIRGIN". It's unlike the rest of the other passes in the sense the passes must be less than 5 letters long to fit. Similarly, Phi's "FUTURE" pass is too long.

* AnAesop: Even the smallest of actions can have disastrous consequences. Even disregarding Zero II's story of a snail leading to the deaths of six billion people, there are many instances in the game where making what seems like a simple choice will lead to results of a far wider scope. In the timeline leading to ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', [[spoiler:the Radical-6 pandemic that killed six billion people would not have gotten out had Mira not confiscated the Radical-6 vial, had she not injected the disease into Phi, or had Diana taken Phi's request to leave her behind.]] Other, smaller examples of this moral include [[spoiler:Diana pressing a button with a [[DontTouchItYouIdiot DO NOT PRESS]] button causing the ward to get blown up]] or [[spoiler:Sean deciding not to kill either Eric or Mira leading to him getting killed, and, three days later, Eric also getting killed]]. Similarly, even in the GoldenEnding, [[spoiler: Zero II [=AKA=] Delta's plan may have concluded in a timeline where the Decision Game was never played, but he still created a number of alternate timelines full of pain and suffering not just for the players, but even the entire world in certain timelines, something the other characters [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse are not willing to just let him off the hook for.]]]]

* CatGirl: A puzzle in the game has a doll of Akane as a cat girl. This is also how she is represented in the status screen.

''Zero Time Dilemma'' is a VisualNovel for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS, UsefulNotes/PlayStationVita, and PC, the sequel to ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'' and the third and final chapter of the ''VisualNovel/ZeroEscape'' series. After a viral marketing campaign involving a website made by English localization company Aksys Games, it was officially announced at Anime Expo 2015 for a Summer 2016 release, with the release date confirmed at GDC 2016 to be June 28, 2016 in North America and Europe, and June 30, 2016 in Japan.

* ForWantOfANail: Zero loves discussing this and telling stories about it. He also claims that this is his motivation, and his catchphrase, "Life is simply Unfair" is always said after he talks about it. [[spoiler: As it turns out, this is his motivation for the Decision Game and his whole life philosophy. Because of a single snail on one trail: Eric's mother died, Akane's dad was wrongly convicted and her mother committed suicide, leading to the events of ''999'', and Sean lost his life when his surgeon died in a car accident. All of this led to Brother having to deal with the grief of losing his friend, and set up the events of both ''VLR'' and this game. Because of this, Brother hates [=SHIFTers=], and considers the fact that they can jump to alternate timelines where life is better for them to be unfair.]]

** To those who played ''VLR'', [[spoiler:choosing to not inject Q-team with Radical-6 seems like the obvious choice. Nope! That action directly leads to the ''VLR'' timeline because Mira is able to then able to keep one of the injections for herself as a secret weapon. She later uses it on Phi as revenge when D-team fatally wounds her when attempting a DungeonBypass with a bomb. Not that choosing to inject the Radical-6 leads to a better outcome, as Mira suddenly murders Eric and Sean, then dons a black cloak and murders D-team before leaving the bomb shelter by herself. Assuming that Mira has lost her mind because she is infected, then Mira potentially spreads Radical-6 to the rest of the world anyway.]]

* {{Prequel}}: To ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', although it takes after the events of that game for the [[MentalTimeTravel time-traveling]] Sigma and Phi.

** If you solve a puzzle without all first having the clues, the characters will comment that you just made a lucky guess. However, the game is overly stringent about this and you can easily invoke this even if you did solve it through the information provided; you have to repeatedly click on ''every'' part of the puzzle until the characters have voiced ''all'' the thoughts they have on it for the game to deem that you have received sufficient hints.

* KickTheDog: Subverted. [[spoiler: For seemingly no other reason then to establish himself as a jerk, Delta [[ShootTheShaggyDog murders Gab]], the participants' dog companion, and presents his bloody corpse to them as good news. This does turn out to be a kindness however, because it's revealed that the protagonists must abandon this timeline minutes before the entire shelter is destroyed if they want to survive, and they (as well as the player) would otherwise be responsible for Gab's death. Though given Zero's vast resources it wouldn't have been impossible for him to build a way for Gab to escape, but that would require more compassion than Zero is capable of.]]

** The Nonary Game itself is this. In the previous two installments, the games were perfectly winnable with everyone coming out alive, though they tended to try to test the loyalties of people who for the most part were strangers. In this Nonary Game however, it is explicitly stated that 6 people ''must'' die for the door to freedom to open. There is simply no way around that. [[spoiler:Indeed, even in the GoldenEnding, all 9 players have to switch bodies with a version of themselves that were set free before the game even properly began, with those players being put in the bodies of the ones inside, with a bomb set to go off shortly that will kill them all. In order to escape, people ''will'' die.]]

** Mira, Eric & [[spoiler:Sean]]: [[spoiler:After the escape, Eric convinced Mira to turn herself in to the authorities, where she is now serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison and has since married Eric. Mira's experiences together with Eric have helped deal with her psycopathy and she has begun to show real emotions. When Eric brings Sean in to visit Mira one day, he reveals that he believes that Mira can amend her mistakes in another timeline. Using his raw strength, Sean breaks Mira out of prison, and together the three of them head for the Transporter, where they can hopefully change the past and find a happier present together.]]

* FridgeLogic: InUniverse. Akane uses ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' as an example while explaining time-travel, and brings up the question of what happened to the Marty [=McFly=] who was born and raised in the alternate timeline created at the end of the film.

** While never mentioned by name, Akane uses ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' as a means to explain multiple timelines versus one timeline theory. They refer to Marty [=McFly=] only as "M".

* DarkerAndEdgier: This DeadlyGame is so dark that Uchikoshi initially speculated it would receive a rating of CERO-''Z'', the highest possible rating a Japanese game can get. [[note]]For the uninformed, Z is basically the CERO equivalent of the ESRB's AO rating, the difference being that Z is for extreme violence and sexual situations that aren't straight-up pornography and Z-rated games can be sold on consoles and in game stores, unlike AO's tendency to be PC games only. However, Z means the game can't be bought by anyone under 18, it can't be publicly advertised in Japan and copies are legally required to be held behind counters, the best that can be done is putting up posters and flyers.[[/note]] It got a D-rating instead.

* DeathOfAChild: No one is safe. Q meets horrible deaths just like everyone else can. [[spoiler:In addition, one ending has two infants facing almost-certain death by starvation, with the only consolation being that clones of them were sent through time to survive.]]

* AnAesop: Even the smallest of actions can have disastrous consequences. Even disregarding Zero II's story of a snail leading to the deaths of six billion people, there are many instances in the game where making what seems like a simple choice will lead to results of a far wider scope. In the timeline leading to VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward, [[spoiler:the Radical-6 pandemic that killed six billion people would not have gotten out had Mira not confiscated the Radical-6 vial, had she not injected the disease into Phi, or had Diana taken Phi's request to leave her behind.]] Other, smaller examples of this moral include [[spoiler:Diana pressing a button with a [[DontTouchItYouIdiot DO NOT PRESS]] button causing the ward to get blown up]] or [[spoiler:Sean deciding not to kill either Eric or Mira leading to him getting killed, and, three days later, Eric also getting killed]]. Similarly, even in the GoldenEnding, [[spoiler: Zero II [=AKA=] Delta's plan may have concluded in a timeline where the Decision Game was never played, but he still created a number of alternate timelines full of pain and suffering not just for the players, but even the entire world in certain timelines, something the other characters [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse are not willing to just let him off the hook for.]]]]