I had a lot of fun with this one, but it wasn't without it's flaws. The main thing I enjoyed was the "scattered" nature of the plot, with you dipping in and out at random moments in the timeline. This brought a whole new element to the game, making working out the order of events a puzle in itself. The Team switching also worked quite well. The puzzles in this game were a vast improvement from #999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, but were pretty lackluster in comparison to #Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward. There was also one puzzle typee that repeated far too frequently. Overall, I feel like they could have done with more variety and a dash more challenge. The characters of Zero time Dilemma were also a mixed bag. While I quite enjoyed Carlos and the entirety of Team D, the returning characters of SpoilerJunpei and Akane seemed wildly different from their previous incarnations, especially the former. Probably the strangest rewrite of a character and I'm not sure for what purpose. The twists in this game, while thoroughly entertaining, definitely have little consequence to the plot and suffer from some really bad writing. "Oh no, that piece of established canon? A lie of course :P" Nothing annoys me more than having a "reveal" that relies on the rewriting of established facts. The ending itself was horribly done. I found myself searching for another fragment, certain that what I witnessed couldn't possibly be the ending of the game. That's when I discovered the Files. I mean really? That's how you are going to end the series? With a couple of missable text files? It left a really sour taste in my mouth. Also where the hell is SpoilerKyle? I began to assume that he had been completely forgotten about except that his name is mentioned off-handedly in one ending. So much for being "integral" and "absolutely necessary" :/

In summary, Zero Time Dilemma is a fun, albeit mixed experience with just enough of the standard Zero Escape plot shenanigans to keep you interested, but which falls apart in it's final hours and, in all honesty, has the weakest writing in the series.