History Headscratchers / VirtuesLastReward

* If everyone is already suffering from Radical-6, thereby perceiving time more slowly than it is actually occurring]], then how does it seem to happen to some people ''again'' during the story? Specifically, in Alice's route, once she's been cured, she comments on everything seeming to be on fast-forward, while the same thing happens to Sigma himself in Luna's route. If everyone and everything had already been slowed down so as not to alert anyone who didn't already know that they were on the moon and suffering from Radical-6, how did the facade break like that?

** This is all explained in ''ZeroTimeDilemma''.

** The preponderance of evidence seems to indicate that Dio is a complete idiot, but doing so would blow his cover. Dio doesn't know how many people were brought to the facility ''after'' the apocalypse]] or even who Zero is. Dio snuck" into the facility, and that information would immediately give away his identity.

** Not only implied, but actually confirmed by WordOfGod on its [[https://zeroescape.fandom.com/wiki/Answers#15_2 Q&A]].]]

* Why do the characters bother betraying each other? Obviously, this doesn't apply to Dio, because he's there explicitly to screw everyone over (and is a complete asshole), but everyone else seems to treat the Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition as a zero sum game - that if they don't make headway and pull off a few successful betrayals, they'll be left in the dust. But the Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition is ''not'' a zero sum game, and this is known to all the participants. There is no limit to BP, and therefore no limit to the number of people that can go through the number 9 door. There is no reason for anyone not named Dio to do anything but aim for everyone to get out together. But everyone not named Luna are hell-bent on getting 9 BP after just 2 rounds. Am I really meant to believe that all of these people are so callously self-serving that they would screw over everyone else just so that they can get out alone now instead of with everyone else maybe 3 hours later? Yes, most of them give the line that they are going to get help, but if you just play the AB Game a couple more times, you won't have to. I know I wouldn't want to leave that place and have to seek help completely alone, that'd be fucking terrifying! Probably the most inexplicable is Luna Game Over 1, where Tenmyouji is desperate to get Quark out, but not only is he ensuring that Quark, a currently unconscious prepubescent boy, will have to leave the facility alone, he also completely unnecessarily exits the number 9 door, to "be with him for as long as possible". Yes, Tenmyouji, congratulations, you have now ensured that this scared kid is going to wake up to the dead body of his only family, has to then leave him behind, escape the scary bunker and find help alone, and then be left to fend for himself. Instead of, you know, just staying near the 9 door so that when Quark wakes up he can reassure him and give him instructions through the door, then be reunited once he brings back help. Or better yet, don't open the fucking door and ''at least'' wait until the next round so that someone, anyone, can escape with Quark. Even when it doesn't include Dio, everyone makes a beeline for the 9 door the moment they get 9 BP no matter what, with Phi being the only one go through with it because everyone else just barely manages to talk her down. Yes, situations like Quark and Alice succumbing to Radical-6, murders stoking fear as to whether anyone can survive to the next round as well as other intrigue put a wrench into things, ''but they don't know that until they happen''. I do not, in any way, find it credible that ANYONE other than Dio would even think of betraying in the first round. I think this is the reason why the VLR cast is generally seen as unlikable when compared to 999's, because so much of the game feels like people we're ostensibly supposed to like repeatedly bashing each other over the head with baseball bats so that they can get the last slice of pizza.

* Given that they're meant to be their actual names, why doesn't anyone ever bring up the bizarre happenstance that two of the participants (Sigma & Phi) have names that come from the Greek alphabet? Given they discuss connections to why they were kidnapped quite a lot, it feels like something someone would notice and bring up at some point. For that matter, the only participant with a name that could be considered "ordinary" is Alice. K withstanding, Sigma, Phi, Quark, Luna, Tenmyouji, Dio, and Clover are all really unusual names. It'd have made sense for someone to point that out, or at least bring up the connection between "Sigma" and "Phi".

*** It still seems pretty weird that no one seems to even think of the possibility of going about the AB game in a different way other than everyone voting. Obviously most of the characters probably wouldn't want to go about it in this way in the first place, but the fact that Sigma, or Luna even, does not think of suggesting some sort of alternative plan, like having only one team vote each time, so that they'd get a guaranteed "ally" from the other team, is pretty strange. Or hell, in a scenario where Sigma is promising someone he's going to vote "ally", why doesn't he, or the person he's playing against, suggest him handing their card over, so that he has no choice? For all the options that the characters have regarding the ability to not vote, it seems bizarre that it's not utilised more. Obviously from a gameplay POV it makes sense to have the player be able to vote each time, but from the POV of Sigma's character, handing his card over to ensure a promise of an ally vote seems like it'd be entirely in-character.

*** It's stated with some characters that they wait for the door to fully open instead of ducking under it as it opens (Dio, however, does duck under it when he feels threatened). While most characters that choose to betray go near the number 9 door if that betrayal would get them 9 BP as opposed to standing with everyone else and waiting to see the scoreboard, a simple glance at the door from a more logical-focused character like Alice, Tenmyouji, Dio, or K (assuming the latter two aren't the ones trying to escape and the former isn't [[spoiler:suffering from effects from Radical 6]]) would also work for preventing that.

** Another thing to remember is that [[spoiler:most of the people who dash for the door are young, healthy, physically strong, and athletic. It makes sense that the heavily-armored K, the athletic Phi, the highly-trained Dio, Alice, or Clover, and so on would have a better chance of dashing out. Whereas while we're lead to believe he's a healthy young man, Sigma's body is ''in reality'' one of the weaker ones present - he has no special training and is actually an old man, making him easy for the others to subdue. On top of this, Sigma never actually dashes for the door - he always insists he will stay, giving the others more of a chance to subdue him.]]
*** Not true. [[spoiler:Clover observes that Sigma could easily overpower her if he wanted to, suggesting that even as an old man, he's relatively fit. Seeing just how buff he is in ZTD, it's not unreasonable to think that even past his prime, he's far from weak--especially since his arms are robotic and are therefore not subject to the weakening that the rest of his body would have undergone.]]
* In the leftmost path (where Sigma and Phi team up with Luna), [[spoiler: when Sigma and Phi go into the AB Room, Phi demands that they vote betray. If Sigma votes ally, Phi is upset and says something akin to "maybe this time, it'll be different" but doesn't explain what she means. Obviously, this is a reference to her ability to jump to various timelines and having seen other AB game results before, but in this particular context, this means one of two things. Either 1: Phi believes Luna will vote betray based off of information gained from other timelines, even though she never votes betray in any timeline under any circumstance against any opponent that we see, and it's highly unlikely Phi saw any timeline that Sigma didn't. Or 2: Phi believes Luna will vote ally and wants to use that to get on the fast track to 9 BP, even though if she has seen other timelines, she should know that voting betray in one round makes it very hard to get any more points in future rounds. Also, this seems to contradict her "maybe this time it'll be different" line. The only other option I can think of is that Phi has seen Tenmyouji and/or Alice vote betray when the Sigma/Phi team vote ally in round one and just assumes Luna will do the same.]]
** It's either the latter [[spoiler:(seen Tenmyouji/Alice betray and assumes Luna will do the same) or perhaps Luna somehow ''did'' betray them in another timeline. Remember, all the timelines that we see in ''VLR'' only constitute ''part'' of all possible timelines that could occur. As unlikely as it is to Luna's character, she is still capable of choosing "betray" in some unseen timelines. Heck, she doesn't even have to be the one making the vote; Luna is hooked up to the same quantum computer as Zero Jr. and it's known that Luna's access to her body can be cut off, so who's to say Zero III couldn't take over and make her choose betray? Of course, since she has to remain undercover, she wouldn't be able to explain her "motive" for betraying and Phi would assume she's intent on betraying them.]]
** Another possibility is that Phi is referring to the fact that [[spoiler:the far-left timeline is actually one of the most blatantly catastrophic for most people, excluding after-the-game-ends deaths that Phi probably doesn't stick around to learn about - almost everyone dies in that route. It's possible that Phi saw that branch, didn't see the alternative, and is objecting to the fact that you're headed towards an ending where almost everyone gets murdered. This would also mean that she wants to vote 'betray' there because she's like a player who has just seen how bad the 'ally' branch ends up and is hoping the alternative is better.]]

* Why is [[spoiler:Phi the only character who can jump really high? I can get Sigma, Tenmyouji, and Quark not being able to jump high, maybe, for age-related reasons, and K has that heavy suit of armor, but the others should be as capable of jumping high as Phi. Do they just never try at any point during the game to jump?]]
** The latter's probably it; just because they were [[spoiler: ''capable'' of jumping high like Phi could, doesn't necessarily mean it could've crossed their mind. They still believe that they are in Earth's gravity (sans Tenmyouji and possibly Quark who probably doesn't know much about the Moon's gravity) so they have no logical reason to believe they can jump that high.]] As for Phi, it seems like (''ZTD'' spoilers) [[spoiler: she is capable of jumping like that regardless of either gravity she's in; we see her jump kick Delta right in the face from halfway across the room. It seems that she is confident enough in her athletic abilities as to not have much qualms about doing such feats in the first place.]]

** When does Dio know that? IIRC, this information was only brought up by Akane Kurashiki shortly before and after the AB game was finished. All Dio should know is that the AB Project was going to undo Free the Soul's efforts if it was completed, not ''how'' it was going to do that. As for Brother not briefing him on the point of the AB Project, (''ZTD'' spoilers) [[spoiler: it's implied that Brother deliberately sabotaged Dio from the get-go and was working in cahoots with Akane to make the project succeed.]]
* In the yellow door-ally with Tenmyouji-blue door-ally with Tenmyouji path, [[spoiler: which features Alice committing suicide and Clover threatening to murder everyone in the game if they can't prove that none of them killed Alice: how is the information given to Clover by that point in THAT timeline not sufficient to get her to calm down, but a random page in a random journal she's never seen before, being translated by someone she clearly doesn't trust, good enough for her to calm down? By that point in that timeline path, Clover already knows about Radical-6, knows that an outbreak of it actually happened in real life, personally saw Quark try to kill himself (with the very same scalpel that Alice uses no less), knows that Quark was infected with Radical-6, and even heard Luna theorize Radical-6 caused sufferers to want to commit suicide. Despite all this knowledge, she (somewhat understandably) freaks out when finding Alice's body and blames everyone else. Maybe she forgot about the Quark subplot she was just involved in, maybe she forgot all about Radical-6, she's clearly unstable after losing her superior officer...fine. But then, Sigma (who she doesn't trust and just threatened to kill) pulls out a journal she's never seen before, gives it to Phi (who she doesn't trust and just threatened to kill), has her open to a specific page and tells her to translate it. Phi, who has a vested interest in saying whatever she needs to say to get Clover to calm down, has nobody who can double-check her translation, and who Clover already believes is in on murdering Alice with everyone else, reads off a few paragraphs of a journal detailing a plague that causes suicide, and she's good? The information the players already had at that point in that timeline had already covered pretty much everything detailed in the journal.]]
* In the Tenmyouji end, Quark [[spoiler:writes a letter to Sigma describing the nature of his relationship with Tenmyouji, seemingly in an attempt to show what a good man he is. Why did he write the letter, and why did he give it to Sigma?]]
** [[spoiler: He claims he wrote it during one of the puzzle rooms, I believe, so he wrote it before he could possibly have known that Tenmyouji was going to betray Sigma so they could escape the building. Unless Tenmyouji had planned the betrayal out well beforehand and had told Quark about it for some reason, which also doesn't make sense, as everything indicates that Tenmyouji decides to betray Sigma after finding out he's Zero. He doesn't find out Sigma is Zero until the hologram comes up in the Director's Office, which is after the last puzzle room and just before the AB round, meaning it's after Quark wrote the letter. Also, even if Tenmyouji had planned to betray him beforehand, why tell Quark? Quark could have just told the story to Sigma directly, at that point, he has no reason to believe they're going to be separated.]]
** [[spoiler: Even if you accept that Quark has the letter, why does he bother giving it to Sigma? He and Tenmyouji just found out he's Zero. They're betraying him as a screw you to him as much as anything else (everyone knows they can now play the AB game over and over with the last set of card keys, so they shouldn't be concerned about getting out first). Why does Quark care if Sigma thinks Tenmyouji is a bastard or not? They think he's the guy who trapped them in the Nonary Game and are purposefully screwing him over as revenge, why was it important for Quark to let Sigma know how Tenmyouji is such a good guy? The action only makes sense if Quark believes that Sigma is just another victim of the game that Tenmyouji is screwing over for selfish reasons and genuinely wants him to know that he has a good heart.]]
** Tenmyouji just found out who Zero is but did Quark?

* Some votes change depending on your vote - [[spoiler: this is made a big deal out of with Phi and is part of how she and Sigma realize that they're both jumping around in time. They're affecting each other from multiple timelines, so they each incorrectly anticipate based on actions in other realities. Fine, that makes sense. But Alice (and, iirc, Tenmyouji) do the same thing at least once. In Alice's case, Sigma comments on how weird it was and talks about all the causality stuff. But ''why'' did her vote change? Not just her vote but the justification she uses for it seems completely out of keeping with the Alice who in every other timeline votes Ally in Round 1 (and gets betrayed for it). I was expecting this to lead to a reveal that other characters, not just Sigma and Phi, were also jumping around in time and that this is why they were all being jerks and betraying you at random, because they all had mixed-up information from other betrayals... but instead this was never dealt with. So what was going on? Tenmyouji and Clover at least had Esper powers so it wouldn't be hard to believe they were getting a little bit of timeline bleedover, but Alice isn't supposed to. So why did her vote change?]]

** As it turns out, and by the way, ''Zero Time Dilemma'' spoilers, [[spoiler: Junpei did his fair share of [=SHIFTing=] around the Dcom test site in the events that lead up to VLR's timeline with a few other [=SHIFTers=], which in turn strengthened his ability to [=SHIFT=]. Even though he has no memory of the events that took place there, his ability to [=SHIFT=] is still usable, meaning he's in the exact same position as Phi/Sigma's Ally/Betray in this game.]] As for Alice, it's explained in VLR that [[spoiler: she was working with participants from both 999's Nonary Game and the game that took place 9 years before. As it's explained in ''999'', Espers strengthen theirs and others powers when in big enough numbers, basically boosting the potential to tap into the morphogenetic field. So Alice working with the Esper participants would certainly develop her own [=SHIFT=] ability, however small it might be.]]
* A central plot point of ''Virtue's Last Reward'' and ''Zero Time Dilemma'' is [[spoiler: the lunar eclipse on December 31, 2028. However, a gold file in-game specifically states that the eclipse can only be seen in the Eastern Hemisphere - no part of the eclipse is visible in the United States. Not least Nevada, where the test site is located. While the gold files are indeed non-canon to the plot of the game, it can be quite immersion-breaking should an astute player notice.]]
** When it comes to the events of ''Virtue's Last Reward'', this is actually supposed to act as a clue that [[spoiler:what you see in the endings where you actually leave the facility isn't the Nevada desert. Although to be specific, the game never once claims that you're in the Nevada desert at any time. Such a thing is just relatively easy for ''999'' players to assume when they see the vast desert outside the facility. In Dio's ending, Sigma specifically questions "which desert is this?" but no one ever claims they're in Nevada, at least to my memory. Outside of that, the eclipse isn't actually used for anything. I don't recall it even being mentioned in ''ZTD'' outside the occasional reference to the fact it's a thing that's gonna happen. With the radio transmission from control, if I recall correctly when the operator starts rambling to the subjects about the moon, he says "I wish you guys could see it-- Oh wait, you're supposed to be on Mars, aren't ya'?" From that, it's pretty obvious that he was wishing they could see it from where they are in Nevada. Control was probably somewhere in the Eastern hemisphere, although I admit that does sound kind of a strange set up.]]
*** [[spoiler: Actually, in ''Zero Time Dilemma'', you see the eclipse. The camera pans up to a red moon at the end of Circle of Fate (1).]]

*** OP's point was that the red moon shouldn't be visible from within game, which it isn't. The "red moon" in VLR isn't the moon at all, and therefore if anything, the detail OP points out actually ADDS to the game, rather then breaking it's immersion. And the only time the red moon ever actually is shown in game is in a scene that involves a slow dramatic pan up to an insanely large moon, which indicates it's artistically spliced together, and not meant to be a literal pan up shot. There is not immersion breaking for anyone who isn't ludicrously nitpicky.
* [[spoiler:Okay, so the White doors were matched up with the bombs that Dio set up in Sigma's, Phi's, and Alice's endings. Well, it was revealed that the cast were infected with Radical-6 which slows down their brains to a degree of root-6. It makes sense that the doors would seem like it in the perspective of the people within it as Dr. Klim would set them up like that, but why would the bombs be like that too? Shouldn't they explode in their time limit real-time rather than Radical-6 time?]]
** [[spoiler:The only times the bombs are actually planted are in the routes where Akane was not murdered (the routes following the Cyan Chromatic Door), where Akane herself placed Dio in the AB Room and then put on the K suit. It is strongly implied that Akane slowed down the timers to compensate for the Radical-6]]. Note that the bombs do not have a clock face timer.
** [[spoiler:Not only implied, but actually confirmed by [[WordOfGod Word of God]] on its [[https://zeroescape.wikia.com/wiki/Answers#15_2 Q&A]].]]
* Just after the Security Room puzzle, [[spoiler:Sigma experiences a moment where Phi appears sped-up to him. If they're all slowed-down by Radical-6 already, how can he be doubly-slowed? (Phi couldn't have temporarily recovered either as she was messing with the hourglasses at the time and would've noticed something was wrong.)]]
** It's the same reason that [[spoiler:Quark and Alice experience the same thing during their freakout(s) in the Infirmary. Odds are, Radical-6 symptoms can become much more severe in some persons than others]].
*** But if that's the case, [[spoiler:why did Sigma and Quark both experience excessive slowdown without any symptoms of suicide? Sure, Quark becomes suicidal shortly after, but Sigma is perfectly fine after it.]]

* How in the world did Sigma not notice [[spoiler: himself getting a robotic eye, a deeper voice, and longer hair during the entire duration of the Nonary Game? Even if he was feeling "out of it", those new characteristics are ''pretty'' hard to miss.]]
** [[spoiler:The voice is something he just got used to. The hair isn't much difference either (and probably isn't that long to show off the different hair color). The eye, on the other hand, is pretty unlikely to have not been noticed though. Zero Sr. probably should have invested in a replacement that completely fits in the socket rather than the one he wore]].

** To add onto this, one could question why Sigma never notices his hands and arms being different, given the hands of a 67 year old man should logically be different from one at least 40 years younger. He should be able to see them just fine. But the answer comes pretty easily, as theyre synthetic. He may have had the cybernetics modeled after his arms back when he was in his prime, perhaps even planning on requiring this for the deception. In whichever case, his hands would look about the same, so he wouldnt notice. And if anyone else took notice, they might just assume that Sigma is a man who just took good care of his hands and arms.
* [[spoiler: What exactly is Luna doing when she's "dead" in Clover's ending? As a robot, she shouldn't be influenced by Radical-6 and would have no reason to kill herself. The only thought I can come up with is that Lagomorph took over, and have her act as a "human" by going along with the death. Though, she would be contributing a pile of white blood to the mix of everyone's red blood underneath her then...unless she didn't cut anything that bled...]]
** Odds are that it's [[spoiler:an order that Akane gave to her: "If the most/all of the players in the timeline you are in begin to succumb to Radical-6, you are to shut down immediately and not help them". To Akane, it doesn't matter if the players (including Sigma) all die, Sigma got the information he needed to gain the password in K's ending]].
** Which explains everything except [[spoiler: the pool of red blood under her. I'm guessing she was altered, or she did something to make it look like, when she killed herself, that she was bleeding red]].
*** More likely [[spoiler:Luna was the last to "die", moved one of the bodies and shut down ontop of their bloodpools to make it look like hers]].
*** If you look carefully, [[spoiler:You can see the slash wound on everyone, either on their neck or their wrists, but Luna's neck and wrists are all visible and clearly unwounded.]].
* [[spoiler: When you "ally" against Dio with the Axelavir, why doesn't Sigma think to use the Neostigmine if he discovered it was a cure for Tubocurarine in another route?]]
** Phi mentions that [[spoiler: it's not a guarantee that they will have access to all of the memories from alternate routes.]] Not to mention that [[spoiler:they didn't have the Neostigmine in that route, as the Treatment Center was never opened,]] or the urgency of the situation at hand.

* [[spoiler: If Sigma gets the bomb code from his future self, where did his future self get the code? It's mentioned [[http://vlr0.wikia.com/wiki/Open_questions_and_paradoxes elsewhere]] that if his past experience is his only source for the bomb code, it creates a paradox because there is no original source for getting that information, e.g. from Dio.]]
** [[spoiler: They are separate worlds, an alternate timeline. If you use the analogy of the biker gang from the Another Time section, you can consider that opening a new path does not destroy what happened in the original event, but creates a different reality where all the bikers survive. Now you have two realities, one where most of them are dead, and another where they survive. Use of information from one reality to another requires specialized skill (ie Sigma's abilities), but is, according to the game's concepts on time, possible.]]
** [[spoiler: It's a little less complex than that. Someone mentioned that the password to that bomb decodes as name significant to Akane. So she probably changed the password on the bomb and the password was agreed upon before hand. Plus, this is also evidence that Akane probably tampered with the bombs' timers so that they would work in Radical 6 time. All of this was pretty much confirmed via WordOfGod.]]
** Or it could alternatively be that as revealed in ''ZTD'', [[spoiler: Akane and Brother were working together on this so the passwords are significant to Akane because Brother made them so and sent what the passwords would be in advance. It would certainly explain how Akane, the last person to be an expert in bomb defusal/tampering would be able to so easily get past its passwords and change the timer. Since Sigma did all this to prevent ''VLR'''s events he wasn't in on it, but it's not out of the question that Akane could've spun a story about how one of her future visions made her see what one of the passwords would be so he could record it. Even if she had changed the password, she would still have needed the original to do so.]]
* During Quark's route, [[spoiler: Dio threatens to smash the Axelavir if Sigma tries to tell anyone he's blackmailing him... and then proceeds to leave Sigma and Clover's side for large amounts of time. Even worse, he goes into an AB Room (which is soundproofed) before Sigma and Clover do. So what exactly is stopping Sigma from pulling one or more of the others aside while Dio can't see/hear him, telling them what's going on, and then jumping Dio the moment he stepped out of the AB Room?]]
** Simple. [[spoiler:If he's immediately cornered, he still has an opportunity to smash the Axelavir. And even if the others were let on, Dio still has his awareness. If he noticed somebody else acting unusually, he wouldn't hesitate in destroying it. And the others would most likely react desperately, especially Tenmyouji]].
** Even simpler: Dio is an idiot. [[spoiler:He falls for really simple "hey look over there" tricks from Phi and Tenmyouji, he takes Sigma's bait after only one or two attempts at denying anything, and he'll give out bomb codes just for a laugh. It seems perfectly believable that he would act this stupidly.]]
* Why is it that, in the flashbacks in K's route, [[spoiler: Dr. Klim isn't wearing the same robotic suit Kyle is supposed to wear in order not to let his muscles atrophy?]]
** Maybe it's more important for K to do so because [[spoiler: he's growing up on the moon, while Dr. Klim has been full-grown for a long time. We don't really know how moonbase environments work, so who knows, it could make a difference. Note that Akane doesn't wear a suit either.]] It's also possible that this was just a ruse to some degree, because [[spoiler: Dr. Klim knew K would have to wear a full-body disguise during the Nonary Game.]]
*** It is indeed because K was [[spoiler:born on the moon and would have otherwise had undeveloped bones. Akane & Dr. Klim had fully developed before they went to the lab]].
* Why did the Axelavir [[spoiler:cure the Radical-6 infection in Quark and Alice, but they remain sick enough to experience time differently along with everyone else until the big reveal?]]
** This is [[HandWave handwaved]]: apparently [[spoiler:"some symptoms remain" after Axelavir is administered.]] Pretty convenient!

* If [[spoiler:everyone is already suffering from Radical-6, thereby perceiving time more slowly than it is actually occurring]], then how does [[spoiler:it seem to happen to some people ''again'' during the story? Specifically, in Alice's route, once she's been cured, she comments on everything seeming to be on fast-forward, while the same thing happens to Sigma himself in Luna's route. If everyone and everything had already been slowed down so as not to alert anyone who didn't already know that they were on the moon and suffering from Radical-6, how did the facade break like that?]]
** Radical-6 was injected into everyone so they wouldn't know they [[spoiler:were on the moon. Radical-6 speeds the world up, so that you perceive it at √6 of it's normal rate. This just so happens to be roughly the same amount of difference in gravity between the Earth and the moon. In other words, as demonstrated in game, if you were to drop an object on the moon and it takes 2.45 seconds to fall to the ground, if you did the same thing on Earth, where the gravity is roughly √6 of that on the moon, it'd only take 1 second. The same thing occurs for people walking, talking, ect. If no one was affected with Radical-6, everything would appear to be slowed down, although time itself would be going at the same rate. The affects of Radical-6 balanced it out perfectly, so it appeared that everything was going at a normal speed. Therefore everyone processed time as being experienced like on Earth]]. This is what managed to break through on occasion. The fact they were experiencing everything in fast forward but not noticing due to the affects of being on the moon balancing it out. No one was "healed" or "got it again", just at times, maybe because the infection got worse or due to some other reason, some people began to notice the fact they were actually unwittingly perceiving everything in fast forward.
* In Luna's route, we learn [[spoiler: that Zero Jr was ordered to move the AB Room. This seems simple enough, it's treated as a little strange but we're quite sure it was Zero Sr who made the order. Only later on we find out Sigma is Zero. So did he make some off-hand remark that Zero Jr mistook for an order? Or was it just because of the exact variables that had to occur for the plan to succeed?]]
** It's the latter. [[spoiler:In order to completely replicate the Nonary Game as Sigma had experienced it 45 years previous, Zero Jr was ordered to move the AB Room in the event of the murder of Akane. However, in the routes where the murder didn't happen, the AB Room never moved]].
* [[spoiler: Sigma's true face is revealed when he bends down to look into the water in the B. Garden. Okay. So why didn't he notice during the puzzle in that room, where you're pretty much guaranteed to do the same as part of it? Or even just catch a glimpse of himself while waking over the bridges?]]
** This is operating under the assumption that [[spoiler:Sigma ever had a reason to look into the water, save for the Lion motif in the pond... during the day. The only time he looks at the water directly, it is dark in order to find the stars. It's reasonable there was no reason to go close enough that a reflection could be seen in the daytime anyway]].
** [[spoiler: It's dark when the stars turn on, yeah, but they seemed to give off their own light. And for something that shocking, you'd think even a little would be enough for him to notice.]]
*** [[spoiler: For a reflection to be cast on a transparent surface, such as glass or, in this case, water, a light source is required on the same side of the surface as the object being reflected. Since the light from the stars is coming from under the water, it is on the opposite side of the water's surface as the object in question, Sigma specifically, and therefore, no reflection is cast.]]
* In K's route, [[spoiler:who destroyed Dio's bracelet? The characters hypothesize it was Dio's killer...who is later revealed to be K, who would have no reason to do so. Did Dio somehow break it as he was dying?]]
** WordOfGod has it that [[spoiler: K did indeed break it, in order to see who you would save: him or Phi. Also, the bracelet is seen intact when Dio's body is discovered, so it's impossible he destroyed it posthumously.]]
* ''VLR'' does a pretty good job of covering its tracks and keeping everything in order, but there was one small PlotHole I noticed: [[spoiler:Assuming she was telling the truth about it being a pre-recorded message, how did hologram!Akane know that the players would refer to Lagomorph as Zero Jr., when he introduced himself as Zero III? Granted, it's implied she can also jump through time like Sigma and Phi, but I doubt she would do so for such a small detail.]]
** Actually, it's the other way around. [[spoiler:In at least six routes, including Phi's, K is the one who comes up with the Zero Sr/Zero Jr designations. And remember who was in K's armor in that route? Akane didn't make the recording to fit the name, she came up with the name to match the recording, and also to match the histories Sigma experienced.]]

* Sigma not noticing [[spoiler: that he's actually in an old man's body]] is consistent with the fact that most of the mirrors and water you discover in the various rooms are mentioned to be broken or dirty, thus he couldn't see his reflection. Though the above example of the pond in the garden could be justified by saying he probably didn't have reason to look in the pond directly/for long enough to notice, but... The puzzle in the Crew Quarters includes a sheet of aluminum foil that's said to be really reflective. So reflective that it's part of solving the puzzle. How did Sigma notice its super reflective properties without catching so much as a glimpse of his face?

* I always assumed [[spoiler:Luna and K's endings acted out pretty similarly, at least in regards as to what happened to Tenmyouji and Clover. Until last night when I went back to play it just for fun. In K's ending, the group specifically splits up into pairs. K and Sigma go to the Infirmary first, then the Treatment Center, then the Floor B warehouse where Phi implies she and Dio had been waiting awhile. They then proceed to go to the Rec Room, reveal Dio as a murderer and bring him straight to the Treatment Center. Dio had no opportunity to do away with Tenmyouji and Clover. The only possibility is if, as soon as you left the Infirmary, Dio split up from Phi and murders the two of them (which, if it happens the same way as in Luna's ending, involves going to the Crew Quarters too before having a time consuming confrontation in the Infirmary) and get back to the Floor B Warehouse with enough time to spare for him to have seemingly been waiting for Sigma and K with Phi for awhile. Which seems incredibly unlikely given the fact that Phi never mentions she and Dio split up for any reason. Clover and Tenmyouji would have to agree to split up for some reason too. Any way I look at it, Dio seems innocent of their deaths in K's ending, meaning Clover and Tenmyouji just fell into a plot hole.]]

** Plus, considering [[spoiler:the moon's lower gravity and lack of atmosphere, an explosion would likely carry further than an equivalent force on Earth]].

** As for the Lounge and other rooms, it's likely that Zero III was ordered to give the password in the event any puzzle was rendered unsolvable. For example, K and Dio enter the Director's Office in the [[spoiler:Luna end route]], and the puzzle in there requires a female face to be scanned. Since neither can solve that puzzle, it's likely Zero allowed them to bypass the puzzle or gave them the escape password outright. [[spoiler:Luna was also probably told the passwords to each safe, so she could step in if all the alcohol was lost in the Lounge, for example. Akane would have known the puzzle solutions too]].

* Why does nobody ever try to [[spoiler:open the big door on the Floor B warehouse after escaping through the Number 9 Door? It can be unlocked from the outside after the game ends, and it would ensure that everyone escapes. So why does nobody ever try it outside of the True Ending?]]

*** Dio [[spoiler:has no reason to help anyone in the facility once he escapes - besides, opening that door for them would delay his mission. Plus, what difference does it make whether some imperfect "humans" die inside Rhizome-9 or elsewhere?]].

*** Quark, in Luna's bad endings, has no reason to return to the facility - [[spoiler:Tenmyouji is dead]], and Quark wouldn't care if anyone was still in the facility.
*** Luna, [[spoiler:betrayed by Sigma and Phi, has no reason to help them escape with her and Quark]].
*** Sigma [[spoiler:goes through the Red Door with Alice and Clover, and thus never sees the Floor B door. It therefore wouldn't cross his mind that such a door would exist]].
*** If [[spoiler:the other participants DO escape without Sigma in Sigma's bad ending, the group would be highly unlikely to want to open the door for him - even if Luna and Akane insisted.]]
** Plus, even if the [[spoiler:Floor B door]] is unlocked along with the other doors, there's no way to open it from the inside without the help of [[spoiler:Zero III, who was likely ordered not to]].
* When Sigma learns in a timeline that K's identity is [[spoiler:Kyle Klim, his son/clone]], he jumps to another timeline. So in the Phi ending, he and Phi learns that, in that timeline, the identity of K is not [[spoiler:Kyle]] but [[spoiler:Akane]]. I wonder, why in these 2 timelines the words the clone and Akane say are the same before the timelines diverge? It's strange that 2 different characters say identical things.
** You have to look at it from a fourth dimensional perspective. The idea is that they're both [[spoiler:Akane and Kyle at the same time]]. Both of those possibilities exist inside that suit of armour before Sigma makes his first choice. The reason they say the same thing is because the events are only happening once. There are not separate versions of the opening timeline, it's the one branch the splits off. It's those splits that effect's who K is. The idea is essentially that they say the same thing because while they're saying it, they're both [[spoiler:Kyle and Akane]] at the same time. On another level, it would also be weird if, after having his choice, the opening events are randomly altered in everyone's heads depending on what's been chosen. They've seen it, so it's what was said.
*** If you want a less complex explanation... I guess you could just say that [[spoiler:Akane]] was purposefully saying the exact same things she knew [[spoiler:Kyle]] would have said, given [[spoiler:she's an esper and all]].
*** Not to mention that [[spoiler:Akane knows what's going to happen anyway. She could even have a teleprompter in there.]]
** And what about [[spoiler:the key attached to Sigma's ankle]]? Are you telling me that if Sigma does all the things to get to the true ending, he always has [[spoiler:the key to his ankle]] and that if he makes other choices, like going to the yellow door before AB Game 1, he doesn't get [[spoiler:the key]]? [[spoiler:The key]] cannot at the same time exist and not exist for Schröedinger's Cat.
*** [[BluntYes Yes, it can.]] In the timelines that [[spoiler:Akane dies]], the key is likely [[spoiler:still on her body. There's every chance it could have been found after the KURASHIKI card in Quark's ending, but Alice succumbing to Radical-6 conveniently interrupted.]] Failing that, it's also possible [[spoiler:Dio looted it as part of his contingency plan, but left the card once he learned the username and password]]. Plus, it's likely Sigma would never notice [[spoiler:the key in the first place, since the gravity of the moon would make it lighter and less intrusive]].
* Tenmyouji: [[spoiler: I did have a difficult time accepting that his full name is Junpei Tenmyouji. Tenmyouji sounds a bit unusual for a Japanese surname; you would think Clover and Alice would have pressed him about it. Hell, there could have been a scenario where they would ask him about a guy named "Junpei" and he could have easily lied by telling them he's his grandson.]]
** Tenmyouji is Japanese and, since the rest of the cast [[spoiler:except Akane, who knew anyway]] aren't Japanese, they almost certainly wouldn't be familiar with Japanese family names. Alice and Clover have no reason to trust Tenmyouji (or anyone else) isn't Zero, so they wouldn't ask (or even expect him to know) about the [[spoiler:events of ''999'']] without Tenmyouji raising the subject, which he wouldn't. Then, consider the matter of his name from Tenmyouji's own perspective:
*** Quark [[spoiler:Tenmyouji is his grandson, and never refers to him as anything other than "Grandpa"]]. Quark would never violate Tenmyouji's trust by betraying such a personal secret, and was probably told by Tenmyouji not to say anything while Sigma and Phi were solving the Elevator puzzle.
*** Clover and Alice [[spoiler:would not recognise him due to his age, and don't know his surname. Zero ordered Tenmyouji to keep quiet about the fate of the world on the threat of his and Quark's life, and revealing his name to them would endanger Quark's life.]]
*** Luna [[spoiler:bears an uncanny resemblance to Diana, one of the Dcom participants.]] Tenmyouji has no way to tell whether or not she is [[spoiler: actually Diana]], a relative, or someone unrelated.
*** Phi [[spoiler:to Tenmyouji, has come straight from the Dcom test site and]], like Clover and Alice, wouldn't recognise his surname.
*** Sigma [[spoiler:is Zero, and ordered Tenmyouji directly not to give anything away that could compromise the AB Project. From Tenmyouji's perspective, Sigma already knows who he is, as the two met 45 years prior at the Dcom site]].
*** Except Tenmyouji couldn't [[spoiler:remember much if anything from the Dcom test site after being hit with a large dose of the memory-wiping drug.]] It's certainly likely if anything that he [[spoiler:doesn't know Zero Sr.'s identity and had he met him in person, it would've likely been done disguised.]]

*** K [[spoiler:is Akane, who knows who Tenmyouji is. Or, in other timelines, is Kyle Klim and]] has amnesia. Since Tenmyouji has no way to know who K is or if his amnesia is genuine, then the safest bet for him is to use his surname.
** Finally, let's not forget that [[spoiler:Junpei Tenmyouji joined a detective agency after the events of ''999'', frequently risking his life on missions and also building notoriety with Free the Soul]]. That, coupled with his Japanese heritage and [[spoiler:nearly a half-century of living in the post-apocalypse]] has probably influenced how often Tenmyouji has needed to use his first name in the first place.

* [[spoiler:Why are some people put in treatment pods and others were called directly from Earth, i.e. Quark and Tenmyouji?]]
** [[spoiler:I'm assuming you're asking "Why are some characters put in the treatment pods while others were brought from Earth". In which case, it's because the plan requires the AB Game to be exactly how Sigma remembers it, which means it requires Tenmyouji to be an old man, but Clover and Alice to be young, so Sigma put them in the treatment pods to freeze them. It's also possible that Clover and Alice don't survive the Radical-6 outbreak - just look at how often Alice succumbs to the disease in the Nonary Game]].

* Why does [[spoiler:Dio never attempt to sow chaos into the group? Considering his goal, this should be the ''first'' thing he plans to do once he plants the bombs, but he never does anything of the sort. It's not like there aren't any chances, either. He could say that no, the Radical-6 newspaper isn't fake and proceed to explain everything that's really been going on (or even lie to make it seem worse than it is), but he just denies its existence and plays along with everyone else. Instead, his attempts to disrupt the game amount to...betraying everyone in the AB Game.]]
** The preponderance of evidence seems to indicate that [[spoiler: Dio is a complete idiot]], but doing so would blow his cover. Dio doesn't know how many people were brought to the facility [[spoiler: AFTER the apocalypse]] or even who Zero is. Dio [[spoiler:"snuck" into the facility, and that information would immediately give away his identity]].

* Why does everyone [[spoiler:not do anything to a character that isn't Sigma when they have enough BP to open the number 9 door? While it would be very hard to stop K, and they do admittedly occasionally put in a token effort with Dio, everyone seems content to merely yell at the person to stop...unless they're Sigma, and even if Sigma openly has no intention of leaving, as seen in Phi's bad ending where they knock him out as a "precaution". They even refuse to help Sigma keep Dio in during Quark's ending, despite the former having a death grip on the latter's leg. While it ''was'' part of Sigma's plan, having someone at least do more than gawk would be nice.]]

*** Yes, but given that the shoot of the moon in that scene has it be unrealistically massive, this can be chalked up to artistic license for the sake of dramatic flair.

*** [[spoiler: Actually, in ''Zero Time Dilemma'', you see the eclipse. The camera pans up to a red moon at the end of Circle of Fate (1) when.]]

** As it turns out, and by the way, ''Zero Time Dilemma'' spoilers, [[spoiler: Junpei did a fair share of [=SHIFTing=] around at the Dcom test site in the events that lead up to VLR's timeline with a few other [=SHIFTers=], which in turn strengthened his ability to [=SHIFT=]. Even though he has no memory of the events that took place there, his ability to [=SHIFT=] is still usable, meaning he's in the exact same position as Phi/Sigma's Ally/Betray in this game.]] As for Alice, it's explained in VLR that [[spoiler: she was working with participants from both 999's Nonary Game and the game that took place 9 years before. As it's explained in ''999'', Espers strengthen theirs and others powers when in big enough numbers, basically boosting the potential to tap into the morphogenetic field. So Alice working with the Esper participants would certainly develop her own [=SHIFT=] ability, however weak and unusable by normal standards it may be.]]

** Trying to keep the second keycard would be more trouble than it's worth. Voting betray in the AB game already makes the others distrust the betraying player enough, if someone were to take one of the keycards and refuse to hand it over, they'd pretty much be outing themselves as someone who's going to betray on the spot, and good luck if your opponent decides to tell everyone about the fact you've screwed them out of a vote: you'd have to find a way to avoid getting found by everyone before the AB Game starts just in case they decide to take the keycard from you by force, and in-game it's shown the AB Game can sometimes be an hour or two away at times. The risks would be too high, and it's possible the idea did occur to one of the players, they just realised shortly afterwards that it's a bit too risky.

* Why does nobody even mention the possibility of refusing to give your opponent the keycard to their AB room? Dio is happy to grab a vial in one timeline, but in ''any'' timeline, if you prevent your opponent from getting their AB keycard or take it away from them, they can't vote that round and are forced to default to 'Ally' - and the keycards are found in a safe, in a situation where one team always outnumbers the other, yet everyone always politely hands the second keycard to their opponent. Obviously there are risks and drawbacks to trying to keep it, but it seems odd that the possibility never even seems to occur to anyone.

** In Tenmyouji's route, Clover and Alice hide behind the partition of the infirmary talking about "connections", even mentioning that there's even a Zero. The most rational conclusion a 999 player would jump to at first is that they're talking about the previous Nonary game, which they are. But perhaps they're also talking about the fact of Tenmyouji's name being identical to Junpei's last name. So if anything, they would appear to have suspicion, but not enough to confront Tenmyouji about it.

** Another thing to remember is that [[spoiler:most of the people who dash for the door are young, healthy, physically strong, and athletic. It makes sense that the heavily-armored K, the athletic Phi, the highly-trained Dio, Alice, or Clover, and so on would have a better chance of dashing out. Whereas while we're lead to believe he's a healthy young man, Sigma's body is ''in reality'' one of the weaker ones present - he has no special training and is actually an old man, making him easy for the others to subdue.]]

*** Not to mention that [[spoiler:Akane]] knows what's going to happen anyway. They could even have a teleprompter in there.

** Five out of the nine players would know that they were on the moon, and taking into account the nature of K's Schrodinger's Cat situation, technically four if K is Kyle. Not to mention, K's jumping could be attributed by the players out of the loop to the suit he's wearing. Going further, Tenmyouji and Quark have no idea if the inside of Rhizome-9 has artificial gravity similar to Earth's, since they've never been there before and from their perspective it feels almost the same. In fact, the only person who would have no qualms about jumping high if he were bothered would be Dio.