History YMMV / VirtuesLastReward

* ContestedSequel: Not as much as other examples, but there's some debate over whether it's an EvenBetterSequel or a really good follow up that doesn't quite match the previous installment. While some prefer VLR's new mechanics and greater scope, others prefer the more focused narrative of the previous. The characters are a frequent point of contention, as many see VLR's cast as primarily a bunch on {{Jerkass}}es whereas the cast of 999 had its share of HiddenDepths.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Alice becomes this if you are on the path to her ending; [[spoiler: She comes to regret betraying you and causing Sigma's death, admitting that she made the decision out of fear of losing the Nonary Games and succumbing to Radical-6. Sigma forgives her and she tells him about her past, which in turn helps him discover the #2 bomb code after physically restraining [[HateSink Dio]].]]

** [[spoiler: Accordingly, Quark is such an innocent and well behaved child and Luna such a nice and caring woman that anyone who played the first game will become immediately suspicious and may even for a while believe Dio's story that Quark is the one who picks "Betray" against Tenmyouji. They turn out to be, respectively, even more adorably innocent and heroically selfless than initially apparent]]

* TheWoobie: Luna, especially on her ending route.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Phi is something of a secondary protagonist, but she urges you to betray in the first round, even against Luna, even after mentioning that the best way to win the PrisonersDilemma for the whole group is to ally. And if you take her advice and betray, she blames the vote on you. If you ally and you're right to do so, she still chews you out.

* ThatOneLevel: The dice puzzle in the [[spoiler:Q Room]]. Unlike the same puzzle in the Archives, it's not enough to have the right number on the top of each die, they also have to be aligned properly, which requires a specific combination of moves for each die.

** [[spoiler: In a lot of the bad endings, someone manages to escape and then promises to contact the police to come and save everyone else left behind. The problem is, as you play through all the routes you gradually learn that the world is now ''post-apocalypse''...as Tenmyouji (who knows about the Radical-6 pandemic) snarks in his own first bad ending, let's hope there's someone ''left'' out there to contact for help...]]
*** Not to mention [[spoiler: THEY'RE ON THE MOON! It'd be lucky if they ever saw another human being at all!]]
*** Made better by the fact that, somewhere [[spoiler: on the moon, there are 53 other Rhizomes, presumably filled with people that escaped from Earth]].

* TheScrappy:
** Many people were kinda put-off by how different Clover was personality-wise in this game from the first installment. A pretty ironic turnaround when you consider that Clover returned in this game because she was a [[EnsembleDarkhorse fan favorite]] in [[VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors the first game]].
** Alice is seen this way as well, mainly due to her {{Jerkass}} attitude in her character path as well as the infamous act where [[spoiler: she stealth-betrays you, leaving Sigma with -1 BP (death) unless the player had the foresight to pick betray beforehand. Ironically, outside her character path minus her ending, she is less of a {{Jerkass}} and is a helpful ally...when she's not committing suicide due to Radical-6.]]

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Luna, because she is by far the nicest and friendliest person in the cast, to the point that she never betrays you. This is an especially notable dark horse since traditionally feminine, submissive characters USUALLY tend to be unpopular in the West.

* HilariousInHindsight: If the letters on this game's title are rearranged, they are just one "l" short of being able to make up the sentence "Delta's virus, lest war". Then the sequel came, and not only was its title an intentional anagram, but it revealed that [[spoiler:Radical-6 was created by a man named Delta and used to prevent a nuclear war from happening]].

* InferredHolocaust: [[spoiler:Every single ending except the GoldenEnding almost certainly results in everyone involved dying not too long afterwards, even if they get out of the Nonary Game, as they are all infected with Radical-6. Only Alice in her bad ending has much of a chance, as she has nine points and has already been cured of the infection, although it's easy to imagine the other players not allowing her to leave after seeing her kill Sigma by accident. Quark, in his ending, has also been cured of the infection, although he's likely to end up alone in the facility after everyone else kills themselves with no way to escape.]]

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Alice becomes this if you are on her path to her ending; [[spoiler: She comes to regret betraying you and causing Sigma's death, admitting that she made the decision out of fear of losing the Nonary Games and succumbing to Radical-6. Sigma forgives her and she tells him about her past, which in turn helps him discover the #2 bomb code after physically restraining [[HateSink Dio]].]]

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Alice becomes this if you are on her path to her ending; [[spoiler: After you ''betrayed'' her the second time when she's responisble for your death by -1BP when picking ''ally'', she will eventually regrets about this decision out of fear of losing the Nonary Games and succumbing to the Radical-6, Signma will forgive her and learns about her past which in return, she will help him discover only the #2 bomb code after physically restraining [[HateSink Dio]].]]

%%* CounterpartComparison: To ''VisualNovel/{{Ever17}}''.

* RetroactiveRecognition: VideoGame/Persona5's [[JamiesonPrice Sojiro]] voice comes through quite distinctively in this game, as random speaking roles like the Detective example of the Prisoner's Dilemma given by Phi and, more importantly, [[spoiler:Zero Senior]].

* AwesomeMusic: We have the full list [[AwesomeMusic/VirtuesLastReward here]], but three of them come to mind:

* SelfPlagiarism: Of ''VisualNovel/{{Ever17}}'', wholesale. Literally every plot twist is reused or reimagined in some way, except for [[spoiler:the recreation of a past event as a means to facilitate TimeTravel in order to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong by saving a person who died in the first event]] (and that one was used in ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'').

* RetroactiveRecognition: VideoGame/Persona5's [[JamiesonPrice Sojiro]] voice comes through quite distinctively in this game, as random speaking roles like the Detective example given by Phi and, more importantly, [[spoiler:Zero Senior]].

** The game's Japanese title was generally translated as ''Good People Die'', but it also could be read as ''I Want To Be a Good Person''. To preserve this double meaning, the English title was changed to ''Virtue's Last Reward'' to play off the phrases "Virtue is its own reward" and "The last reward" (death). The scenario writer liked it so much he had the game's main theme on the soundtrack renamed to "Virtue's Last Reward".

* HateSink: Dio has almost no redeeming qualities whatsoever, but unlike Clover or Alice, he's clearly intended to be hated.

* CounterpartComparison: Once again to ''VisualNovel/{{Ever17}}''.

'''Instead:''' [[spoiler: They never do this, and they're forced to risk either Sigma dying, or Quark to never have any hope of being cured from Radical-6]]
** There is also no option to point out to [[spoiler:Dio that if you told others and he did smash the Axelavir, most if not all of the other players would want him dead after that, with nothing to hold them back.]]

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Not in the game itself but in one of the Golden Files. While Sigma's cat pun habit is just innocent quirk, the story ''behind'' this quirk is ridiculous even by ''Zero Escape'' standards and never reference outside this file.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: According to Ben Bateman, who was involved with the English localization, [[spoiler: he has said that he found Luna a fascinating character because she treats the ThreeLawsOfRobotics as more of a belief system.]]

* {{Narm}}: K's "shocked" animation pose has him clapping his hands to face not entirely unlike the iconic ''Film/HomeAlone'' cover. His pupils turn vertical too. It looks more silly and adorable than shocked.

* BigLippedAligatorMoment: Not in the game itself but in one of the Golden Files. While Sigma's cat pun habit is just innocent quirk, the story ''behind'' this quirk is ridiculous even by ''Zero Escape'' standards and never reference outside this file.

** You would be very hard-pressed to find anybody who are genuine fans of Dio. Put simply, he's a tremendous, unceasing {{Jerkass}} who doesn't have much in the way of redeeming characteristics, even more so than Alice (who is also covered below). So if you see someone rejoicing over his death in some routes or picking the "Betray" option any time the player is given the choice to side with him, make no bones about it, [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential it's likely more out of spite for the guy than anything else]].

* ShipTease: Sigma could reasonably be shipped with every single named female character in the game, since to get the OmegaEnding he must be emotionally close to each one of them in at least one timeline and at least one of them is strongly implied to have feelings for him. Can reach squick territory after TheReveal, though, and ''worse'' squick territory after ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma''.