History WMG / ZeroTimeDilemma

[[WMG: The 999/VLR/ZTD verse's creator deity is LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya]]

The mission is too important, so Brother has to be directly involved. The female part is just for GenderMisdirection.

[[WMG:The fourth game will make Delta [[SchrödingersCat Schrödinger's guy]].]]

[[https://lparchive.org/Zero-Time-Dilemma/Update%2047/ There's mention of the Resonance Effect right after Junpei's proposal to Akame.]]

Perhaps the in-universe explanation of the Resonance Effect is that Carlos has subconsciously trained his abilities so much as a firefighter, that he has so much excess "bandwidth" when accessing the morphogenetic field, that it actually spills over and allows him to enhance the abilities of others near him. Which would make Carlos a stronger [=SHIFTer=] than Sigma and Phi, or at least that his ''years'' of firefighting (of which there would be crisis choices aplenty during rescues in burning buildings) was better training for him than the while Ambidex Game was for them.

[[WMD: The 999/VLR/ZTD verse's creator deity is LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya]]

Over in the Headscratchers section there's a big argument about the whole "Q isn't Sean, he's Delta who's been hiding offscreen all along" twist. The previous games in the series had twists like that, but in that case the characters involved were unaware of the twist and so they found out at the same time as the player. But in this game, all the participants know that the kid is Sean and the wheelchair guy is Q- the only person who doesn't know this is the player. Delta is the one who controls what the player sees, so who's he trying to fool? It must be the player, but Delta doesn't show any sign of MediumAwareness. So who's the player? Think about the timeline- the snail incident happened 17 years before 2028, that is, in 2011. So when Sean puts himself into virtual space and wakes up in a simulated world where the snail incident never happened, he must be back in 2011. One of the presents his parents give him is a video game system... and what game system came out in 2011? The UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS... the very same system on which ''Zero Time Dilemma'' was released. Perhaps, with all the events of the series averted in the simulated timeline, it became nothing but fiction. Delta figured this would happen and engineered the twist entirely because he thought Sean would like it (once he was old enough to play an M-rated game that is).

While it's possible that Phi was sent alone from 1904 to 2008, there's nothing to say that Delta couldn't have been sent as well and raised by a different family. On Xmas 2028, the 20-year Delta copy (let's call him Kappa) switches places with Kyle - being a clone of Sigma, Kyle is also a SHIFTer, and as Kappa is Sigma's son their genetic makeup could have been similar enough for Kyle to be able to switch their minds. Kappa uses his mind hacking ability to quickly learn about the world of 2074, which is why he knows so much about things he shouldn't know. After Kyle switches back and returns Kappa to 2028, Kappa then uses his knowledge of the future and his mind-hacking ability - the 'power to human thought to reshape reality' - to alter the outcome of the Decision Game.

While it's entirely possible that Phi was sent alone from 1904 to 2008, there's nothing to say that Delta couldn't have been sent as well and raised by a different family. On Xmas 2028, the 20-year Delta copy (let's call him Kappa) switches places with Kyle - being a clone of Sigma, Kyle is also a SHIFTer, and as Kappa is Sigma's son their genetic makeup could have been similar enough for Kyle to be able to switch their minds. Kappa uses his mind hacking ability to quickly learn about the world of 2074, which is why he knows so much about things he shouldn't know. After Kyle switches back and returns Kappa to 2028, Kappa then uses his knowledge of the future and his mind-hacking ability - the 'power to human thought to reshape reality' - to alter the outcome of the Decision Game.

Rebember? The muscle relaxant that VLR bracelets used as a killing method. We never got to see it in action,

This would turn the whole series into a massive BootstrapParadox, with Brother's actions being the result of premonitions of the event he would end up causing. It would also add an extra layer of irony to the ending, as the participants continue searching for a fanatic who they've already stopped.

** C-O-N-F-I-R-M-E-D-! Phi is born during the events of the game, and is sent back via a transporter to 2008. The bit about Diana having the brooch, however, is Jossed; she actually gets the brooch ''[[BootstrapParadox from Phi]]''.

** C-O-N-F-I-R-M-E-D-! Phi is born during the events of the game, and is sent back via a transporter to 2008.

* Plot Twist! The amnesiac is the ''smallest'' member of the cast. Though he's still the strongest of the cast (being a robot), since he's able to lift the Force Quit Box no one else could budge.

Jossed. Akane is revealed to be a more idealistic person than most players expected, and Junpei proposes to her during the game.

[[WMG: This game will continue the trend ofa protagonist being Zero. ]]

** Confirmed. Zero is brother, and we see things mostly from his viewpoint via security cameras.

** Confirmed. Zero is Brother.

This game happens in 2028, and Phi was born in 2008, meaning she's 20 years old by the time ZTD happens, and also meaning that she was alive 17 years ago, being around 3 (Phi's bracelet number in this Nonar Game, if I may add) at the time of the incident. Maybe, somehow, Phi was the cause of those incidents which killed six people total, and that those incidents later snowballed into the worldwide catastrophe present in the games.

[[WMG: Akane never realy suspected Carlos murdered Junpei when they found the head in the pantry]]
There are many words to decribe Akane but "dumb" isn't one of them. She DOES however have fondness for crazy ideas. She already suspected for a while that Carlos is an esper and she knows that being in danger can increase one's affinity to morphogenetic field. Since they had no real clues about killer's identity and fairly limited time to find him before going to sleep again(with possible scenario of another one of them not waking up), she created danger to Carlos to let him use morphogenetic field to find something about the killer.[[GoneHorriblyWrong It didn't work]]. This is also why she didn't attack him from the start and why she had "MyGodWhatHaveIDone" moment when he killed himself.

For starters his twin sister looks like gender-flipped Aoi. In adition many of her gestures and poses in VLR are fairly similar to the ones done by Aoi and Akane in 999. Then there is Delta's "Snail Tale". Why would he know this? The victims were Sean, the Surgeon, taxi driver, Eric's mother andf Kurashikis. The only one we know is in any way conected to Delta is Sean, but where would backtracking the case from him lead? Sean died because surgeon didn't get in time, surgeon died, because of the car accident, whoever was responsible for the accident is cause of Sean's death, end of story. Why would Delta go further and try to find who was supposed to be driver's previous passenger? If however the framed guy was his grandson(or his granddaughter's husband) it makes sense, he investigated both cases and realised they were connected and the snail is responsible for everything. Also if Mira kills Junpei, Delta kills her... but only in the timeline where Akane dies. If Carlis kills himself, Mira lives. Why? Because if Akane dies, then Mira is indirectly responsible for death of Delta's great-granddaughter, ''that'' is why Delta kills her. As a revenge. Then there is a fact that everyone we know in Delta's family is pretty powerfull esper, and so is Akane (Aoi is also an esper but we don't know how powerfull). And wouldn't it be cool if all three Zeros were related?

WARNING: As this is a WMG for ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'' speculation, there will be spoilers for the [[VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors first]] [[VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward two]] games here. Proceed at your own risk.
Marked spoilers at the bottom of a WMG are spoilers for [[VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma this game]]! Proceed with that in mind.

* Akane [[spoiler: is evil all along]]. Putting this here because I'm hoping it's NOT true.
** [[spoiler: Jossed. Akane is genuinely well-meaning and not even as manipulative as Uchikoshi painted her to be.]]

* Confirmed. [[spoiler: Albeit it's called The Decision Game and works markedly different than previous Nonary Games.]]

*** [[spoiler: Two out of three. No word on Snake, but Lotus is still out there raising her kids, and Seven continues his detective life. Still don't know his name, though...]]

[[WMG:[[spoiler:Akane is actually BROTHER and Santa is the original Left]] ]]
[[spoiler:Also the whole point of the Nonary Game(s) is actually to give Akane the same ability to "Jump" as Sigma and Phi. Akane's brother dies at some point before the world goes to hell and causes her to start Free The Soul. After seeing how fucked up the world is due to her cult, Akane organises the Nonary Game on Rhizome 9 to send Sigma and Phi back in time to save her brother, who was also one of the people who died in the Mars incident. After that Sigma and Phi are brought back she plans to "jump" to this timeline and live out the rest of her life with her brother in a good timeline.]]
* There's a problem with the timeline of this theory: [[spoiler:you find out in this game that Gentarou Hongou and Cradle Pharmaceutical were funded by Free The Soul, which means that they were active while Akane and Aoi were still alive and playing the second Nonary Game]].
* [[spoiler: Jossed. Brother and Akane are not related by blood.]]

[[WMG: Brother's [[spoiler:divine revelation will be significant in the sequel.]]]]
[[spoiler: It may turn out to have been due to esper activity.]]
* [[spoiler: Confirmed. Brother "Mind Hacked" other espers who foresaw a nuclear war that wiped out humanity.]]

[[WMG: Zero Escape 3 will have a final ending of [[spoiler:Akane fleeing the law with Junpei in tow, while Sigma and Phi marry.]]]]
[[spoiler: During Virtue's Last Reward, it is stated that Akane still has feelings for Junpei (That her life was saved by a man she loved, and that she wanted nothing more than to marry him and live a normal life with him). Now, after the events of the second Nonary Game, it's unlikely that she can entirely drop all the charges against her, but she can live as happy a life as possible by having Junpei, who wants nothing more than to be with Akane, follow her around. It's also entirely possible that the Akane that Junpei remembers and cares for still exists. K describes her as girlish in his memories, something that seems to hint at Akane being more normal that she indicates throughout the game.]]

[[spoiler: The second part lies in another note from K's ending, where Akane recounts how Dr. Klim (well, younger Sigma) had fallen in love. While K prefers to believe that the person was her, there is a lot of implication that Sigma and Phi will get more character development together. On the same stream of thought, Sigma's missing arms and eye were to protect Phi in an incident.]]
** The second part has [[spoiler:been Jossed. WordOfGod is that Sigma and Phi will never become a couple, and that the woman Sigma saves is someone he met and bonded with at the test site, and that he later based Luna off of her]].
** [[spoiler: Jossed. Sigma fell in love with Diana and had twins, one of whom was Phi. He lost his arms and eye trying to disarm a bomb to save Q, Mira and Eric. Junpei proposes to Akane, whether she has to face law enforcement is unknown.]]

[[WMG: Zero Escape 3 will feature [[spoiler: mind swapping and amnesia, real and faked.]]]]
Hints in the epilogue and from the creator suggest that [[spoiler: the sequel will have quite a few returning characters. However, if these returning characters are also participants in the test site challenge, this makes slightly easier to guess who the player's allies and enemies are. If the possibility of mind-swapping exists, it would be harder to guess who can really be trusted. The epilogue also suggests that Kyle and '?' are not the same person, and '?' is occupying Kyle's body for some reason.]]

[[spoiler: As for the amnesia, it has showed up in the first two games and could serve to cast doubt on how cooperative one of the cast members will be towards the player, since an ally with amnesia may distrust you and be more interested in looking out for themselves. In the timeline where Kyle and '?' switched, the former had not been participating in the Nonary Game and would thus not have recovered from his dose of Soporil, so it is possible that whomever his mind is occupying is amnesiac.]]

* [[spoiler: Specifically, Akane tells Clover and Alice that she can send them back in time using "Schrodinger's Cat". The most likely way this can work is for someone to create a timeline in which they *didn't* spend all those years in cold sleep - if nobody opens the treatment pod, who's to say that Clover's still inside it? So Zero Escape 3 will include a version of Clover who has no memory of what happened in Virtue's Last Reward because she hasn't lived through it (yet, or ever) - no need for amnesia.]]
* The only character (that we know of) that has [[spoiler: amnesia]] is a child. Eric does accuse him of doing... something, but other than that, he seems harmless. In fact, he seems the only sane person on team Q. Not to mention he is the playable character.
** [[spoiler: Confirmed. Players are hit with an amnesia-inducing drug every 90 minutes. Q's amnesia is sort of real, he's a newborn android similar to a Gaulem from the previous game, naturally having a blank-slate memory. Brother's esper ability is mind-reading and short-term possession.]]

[[spoiler: Santa/Aoi Kurashiki was more or less the other Zero is the second Nonary game of 999. If that's so, where is he for the AB game? Wouldn't he be valuable to Akane to help her with this project? Also, isn't it a little uncanny how much Phi and Santa look alike? There is little to no mention of him, let alone his involvement in the Nonary Game. Isn't it a bit odd how he seems to have just fallen off the radar while Akane is taking the full initiative? Keep in mind that he too was on the run after the second Nonary Game.]]

* One possibility that comes to mind: [[spoiler:Santa was at the Mars Test Site, and he was one of the ones who didn't make it out alive. This would explain his absence in VLR, and give Akane yet another reason to try to avert the BadFuture. Plus, if he's at the test site, then it would enable possible plot twists where he gets confused for Phi, or the other way around, due to their resemblance.]]

* As it turns out, [[spoiler: Aoi is working with Akane, but did not join the Dcom project. He's completely irrelevant to the plot and is never actually seen.]]

Phi is actually from [[spoiler:the successful timeline where the earth isn't destroyed. That's how she knows to volunteer to be frozen, who to go to, and why she's so essential to stop Radical-6.]]
* [[spoiler:Furthermore, Alice and Clover both mention that bodies can be sent back in time as well, so Phi could have actually been born and lived in that successful timeline, though it isn't strictly necessary for anything in the game to happen.]]
* [[spoiler:Largely {{Jossed}}. The GoldenEnding specifically says that it was older!Phi who went to Alice to be frozen -- as in, the Phi who had already experienced the AB Project.]]
** [[spoiler: Sort of confirmed. Phi is born during the events of the game, during a timeline where there's no Radical-6 outbreak. She's sent back by a transporter to 2008.]]

Considering all the talk of [[spoiler: ants, termites and hiveminds]].
* [[spoiler: Jossed.]]

[[spoiler: The ending of VLR suggested that K/Kyle somehow managed to jump back to 2028 despite not existing at that point. This suggests that it might be possible for someone to jump into someone else's body under the right circumstances. Also, WordOfGod has hinted that we'll find out what happened to some of the other characters from 999 in the BadFuture, suggesting that we'll be revisiting that future and the game won't take place entirely in 2028.]]

[[spoiler: Perhaps one of the big twists in the third game will be that there are two (or more) identical Nonary Games going on at different times and places(one at the test site in Nevada, plus another). The protagonist of that game will end up jumping between the two games at random (maybe without even realizing it at first), allowing for surprise twists when characters act differently than they should because they're actually different people.]]

* That does seem pretty interesting. Given the evidence we have for now, the most likely locationss for the Nonary Games would be [[spoiler:the Mars Mission Test Site, natch, as well as the Chemical Plant that Alice & the SOIS was planning to attack on Christmas Day]].
* It's been hinted that K[[spoiler:yle can swap consciousnesses with Sigma, as he was originally created to be a spare if something happened to Sigma.]] So this may be possible.

** [[spoiler: Jossed. There's only one location to the Decision Game.]]

[[WMG: Brother is [[spoiler: Lord Gordain]]]]
[[spoiler: The symbol on the robes from the first game had what was later revealed to be the symbol of Free The Soul on it. This suggests that Gordain and his compatriots were involved with the cult in some way. It'd be an interesting callback if the ultimate villain of the series turned out to be the creator of the very first Nonary Game. Perhaps Left's death is also tied to the Titanic sinking that Gordain was in.]]

[[spoiler: Of course, Gordain is said to have died back in the 1930's, while Brother is still alive in the 2020s. Of course, Brother was said to be ancient enough to be virtually immobile, and only top members of FTS had ever seen him in person. Plus, WordOfGod suggests that he'd survived into the BadFuture of 2074 through some sort of psychic shenanigans. Perhaps this means he faked his death at some point, and kept his body alive through suspended animation (maybe with Ice-9) while directing the cult through his psychic abilities.]]

* [[spoiler:Left either died before or after the sinking of the Titanic in this case; the body was found by police elsewhere]]. Other than that, [[spoiler:Gordain being Brother]] does make for an interesting theory. Perhaps he [[spoiler:used the field to jump into someone else's body in the future (which creates some NightmareFuel in that someone else, most likely an innocent, died in Gordain's decrepit old body) or used "Schrodinger's Cat" to transport his body through the field]].
** [[spoiler: This isn't the most sound theory: It's said that whoever killed Left bribed the police not to investigate. Gordain was a multi-millionaire, not to mention a LORD. It's unlikely that the police could be bribed off such a high profile murder case.]]
*** [[spoiler:This scenario would occur back when Gordain was young, presumably before he became rich or gained his title]].
*** [[spoiler: Jossed. Lord Gordain is not mentioned in the game, while Brother's identity is clearly revealed. It is highly unlikely that "Lord Gordain" was an alias of his either, as Brother was only 10 years old when the Titanic sank.]]

[[WMG: Brother was [[spoiler: a participant in one of Gordain/his successors' Nonary Games]]]]
[[spoiler: Alternatively, perhaps Brother and Left were both participants in one of those first Nonary Games, and Left was one of the unlucky losers to meet his end in the incinerator. It would explain why his murderer was not prosecuted, and it would provide a bit of a parallel to Akane's situation.]]
** Partially Jossed, [[spoiler:Left was mentioned being found dead & covered in bruises. Hard to be examined by the police when Gordain's games ended with the losers being incinerated]].
** [[spoiler: Jossed.]]

* [[spoiler: In-game, he is said to be a supporter of Free the Soul. More importantly, the Myrmidons all share a face, which might be a little jarring to some, but not someone with prosopagnosia who can't differentiate between them anyway. Brother is also the mastermind behind the first Nonary Game.]]
** [[spoiler: Jossed.]]

In the original 999, there are flashbacks to the first Nonary Game, in which you can see [[spoiler:Akane, Aoi, Light, and Nona]], but being the Nonary Game there are still 5 people who never get introduced, two or three of whom are guys. Given that Brother [[spoiler:has the ability to access the morphogenetic field]], it's not impossible that he was present in the original Nonary Game, as was his brother. None of the other children shown look like Left, so he was likely in building Q.

* [[spoiler: Jossed. Brother is male.]]

[[WMG: Brother will [[spoiler:use esper powers to make Radical-6 appear on Earth.]]]]
[[spoiler: Radical-6 is a disease from Mars. There exist another timeline where humanity travels to Mars and astronauts on that mission are infected with Radical-6. It was quickly contained in this timeline since it was on another planet. However, Brother is a very powerful esper and takes advantage of the Mars Mission Test Site. Since it simulated a manned Mars mission, Brother was able to pull astronauts from the future timeline into the test site and infect all of humanity. And how did Brother do it? By creating a Schrodinger's cat scenario and manipulating the perspective of the most powerful esper in the world, the Protagonist of Zero Escape 3. This means that one timeline branch in the third game will be on the Test Site and another timeline branch will actually be on the planet Mars.]]
* [[spoiler: Jossed. Brother isn't mentioned to have a direct involvement with Radical-6's discovery or development.]]

[[WMG: The epilogue of VLR [[spoiler: ''does not'' take place in the BadFuture.]]]]
[[spoiler:Or, more accurately, it both does and doesn't, thanks to the Schrodinger's Cat effect.]]

[[spoiler:If Sigma and Phi succeed in stopping the Radical 6 outbreak, then where would their consciousness go when the second time jump happened? One theory springs to mind: in the "good future" where the disaster is averted, Sigma and Akane reinact the AB Game to perform the time jump, in order to prevent a time paradox. Of course, to do that, they'd have to create the illusion that the apocalypse had happened. This brings things back to the whole Schrodinger's Cat theme: the disaster both happened and didn't happen.]]

[[spoiler:The "red earth" could have been staged through a few methods, such as a red lens between the earth and moon. Plus, most of our information about the outbreak and disaster comes from Tenmyouji. Given his true identity, it's very plausible that Junpei could have been working with Akane the whole time. Of course, the wild card in this theory is Dio: if the disaster had already been averted, then why would Brother send Dio to prevent the disaster from being averted?]]
* [[spoiler: Unless Dio's true purpose wasn't to sabotage the AB Project, but to [[NiceJobBreakingItHero hijack it]] by time-jumping into another Left clone at the test site to ensure [[StableTimeLoop the outbreak]] ''did'' occur.]]

[[spoiler:Both the Mars Test Site and Building Q are located in Nevada. This can't be a coincidence. Therefore, perhaps the two sites are connected in some way, and we will end up returning to the Gigantic replica for at least part of the third game. It would be fitting to bring the final game back to WhereItAllBegan.]]
* [[spoiler: Jossed. The DCom building and the underground bomb shelter are clearly distinct from Building Q.]]

* [[spoiler: According to WordOfGod, the letter 'Y' represents the Eye of Horus.]]
* [[spoiler: Zig-Zagged. Phi is Brother's sister, while Left is his adopted brother.]]

[[WMG: Phi is actually [[spoiler:two different people, whose minds have swapped places.]]]]

[[spoiler:The Phi we see in 2074 is actually not the same one from 2028 who was cryogenically frozen, but an entirely different person. The story about cryogenic freezing was actually a ruse set up by Akane to make us believe that they were the same person so that their minds would be able to switch places. After all, K was able to send his mind back to 2028, even though he wasn't born yet. Maybe that revelation was foreshadowing that other people can swap minds.]]

[[spoiler:1. In the scene where Sigma returns to 2028, we never actually see Phi in person, since she's already in the cryo chamber. Perhaps this was done to hide the fact that 2028 Phi doesn't look like 2074 Phi.]]

[[spoiler:2. At one point, Phi mentions that she's twenty years old, though Sigma thinks she looks younger. That, along with the C-cup joke, could be hints that Phi is in the same boat as Sigma, in that what she thinks she looks like and her actual appearance are very different. After all, Sigma didn't notice his mechanical eye until it was pointed out to him.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed. There ''are'' multiple Phis, but not for that reason. Every time you use the transporter, it sends a copy of you through spacetime but doesn't affect the original. Since Phi transports multiple times, there are multiple copies of her. They're all the "same person," though.]]

[[WMG: Phi is [[spoiler:Diana, the girl who Luna was based on.]]]]
[[spoiler:As a corollary to the above WMG. While the fact that Diana is supposed to look like Luna appears to Joss this theory, it could be re-opened by introducing the idea that there are two Phis who do not look like each other, but managed to swap minds. Perhaps there's some misdirection at work here.]]

[[spoiler:After all, the recording of the Mars Test Mission we found suggests that only three people survived. Sigma and Phi have to survive the mission in order for the mind jump to work, and it's heavily implied that Tenmyouji/Junpei was there as well. WordOfGod also suggests that Diana is supposed to survive the mission, since she and Present Sigma have to meet after the mission in order for him to build Luna. That leaves four people.]]

[[spoiler:There's two possible explanations for this: either the recording was made at a time when Sigma was believed to be dead(he did lose his arms and eye in an accident at the test site), or Phi and Diana are in fact the same person, and the developer's comments on Luna being based on Diana are intended as misdirection.]]

[[spoiler:Of course, there is one hole in this theory - Phi doesn't seem to have any special reaction to seeing Luna, the way Sigma does when he sees K's true face.]]

[[WMG: If [[spoiler:Gentarou Hongou...]] makes another appearance, he will be against Free the Soul.]]
His original goal was to gain the ability to [[spoiler:differentiate faces]], while one of the results of Free the Soul's goal will be [[spoiler:the remaining population all having the same face]]. The two don't seem compatible with other.
* Doesn't disprove this theory, but they can be compatible - if everyone [[spoiler:had the same face]], then everyone would [[spoiler:have the same impairments Ace had - instead of giving himself abilities he doesn't, he'd be making everyone else's abilities useless, putting them on equal footing anyway.]] However, WordOfGod said that [[spoiler:Gentarou didn't believe in Free the Soul anyway and was just feigning it to get their support in his projects, so he's already not really "with" them.]]
* [[spoiler: Jossed. Ace is never seen.]]

* At a point early in VLR, Sigma is wondering "Why me?" And lists a bunch of things that he might have done, including the above three things, as well as "Start a fight with a frightening and Mysterious new religion." Well, we know he's doing that, [[spoiler:He kind of already has...]] so maybe the other things are things he'll do too.

[[WMG: [[spoiler:Clones can jump back into the same body as their original host]] ]]
This is pretty much the only way I figure the GoldenEnding Epilogue makes any sense at all. [[spoiler:Kyle and Sigma share the same DNA, and perhaps even the same soul. Something Kyle saw in his 23 years of life is important for the Mars mission test run, and jumps back so his memories are shared with Sigma's. It's the only way he can really make the jump to 44 years before his birth.]]

[[WMG: Phi is [[spoiler:Sigma's daughter.]] ]]
* [[spoiler:The woman (Diana?) who Sigma fell in love with as a young man is Phi's mother.]]
* [[spoiler:Shortly after Phi's birth, she either died in the Radical-6 pandemic, or she didn't die at all, but only disappeared as a result of something to do with the events at the test site.]]
* Phi's esper abilities [[spoiler:were inherited from Sigma.]]
* [[spoiler:Her name is a result of Family ThemeNaming.]]
* [[spoiler:WordOfGod says she and Sigma will never be romantically involved, and aside from some general lechery on Sigma's part, they haven't really had any ShipTease.]] This explains why.
** [[spoiler: The exact statement referenced above (in Answer #24 of VLR's Answers) was "No, they won’t be a couple… I can’t tell you any more without it being spoilers, so please look forward to the 3rd game." This makes the theory much more plausible.]]
* [[spoiler:It also explains the "connection" that Phi and K feel with each other. Neither can define it, but they describe it as a feeling that they're "similar" somehow. In fact, they're both Sigma's children. Note that this comes up on Luna's route, and Luna was created to act as Kyle's mother, while the woman she was based on was ''actually'' Phi's mother.]]
* As Phi tells Sigma [[spoiler:in what will turn out to have been a nice bit of dramatic irony, she has no idea who her father is or what he looks like, or whether he's alive or dead. Also, she lost her mother very young and doesn't have anything of hers except that brooch, which suggests that she doesn't know what her mother looked like. That's why she doesn't recognize Luna, Sigma, or Kyle.]]
* [[spoiler:The fact that Phi is only a little younger than Sigma at Point A on the timeline might not be an issue. She could be inhabiting another person's body - we know that time traveling espers can jump into other bodies. She could be a clone of herself, created in the past - we know that cloning technology has existed long enough for the fourth generation of Lefts to be adults in 2074, plus this would be another reason for her to feel a connection with K. And there's undoubtedly a lot we still don't know.]]
* [[spoiler:The woman at the test site will have the brooch.]]
* As far as physical appearances are concerned, Phi has [[spoiler:red/ginger eyebrows (indicating that her white hair is dyed) and blue eyes, the same as Diana]].
** [[spoiler: C-O-N-F-I-R-M-E-D-! Phi is born during the events of the game, and is sent back via a transporter to 2008.]]

** [[spoiler: Jossed.]]

** [[spoiler: Zig-zagged. It's mentioned that more espers are being born than before, and in the end, two distinctly non-esper characters gain esper-like abilities due to resonance, but not on an all-of-humanity scale.]]

* [[spoiler:Think about it. They have a common enemy now: Free the Soul. I can definitely see Akane putting aside her hatred for the man to work towards saving the world.]]

*** Pharmacology, knowledge of [[spoiler: FTS and its organization]], maybe his inability to recognize faces can function as a DisabilitySuperpower?
* [[spoiler: Jossed. Ace is never seen.]]

[[WMG:[[spoiler: Dio's plan to sabotage the AB Project was designed to fail]]]]
[[spoiler: Brother, as another esper, is more aware of how the MentalTimeTravel mechanics work than we're led to believe. Therefore, he leads Akane and Klim to believe his plan was to have Dio sabotage the project by either killing Akane or setting the bombs. Yet, Dio proves to be rather obvious as a villain, and is eventually defeated in the timeline where the project works.]]
* [[spoiler: Confirmed. For Brother's plan to succeed, old Sigma has to be sent back in time to the events of ZTD. To do that, Dio has to be there and fail.]]

[[spoiler: But what if this plan was actually a KansasCityShuffle designed to distract us from the real plan: to have Dio hijack the time jump and jump into a Left clone at the test site to ensure that the Radical 6 outbreak happened as planned? After all, we've seen that Sigma and Phi weren't the only ones to go back in time; K apparently jumped back into the past as well.]]
* [[spoiler: Jossed. Dio is never even mentioned in ZTD.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed.]]

* Plot Twist! The amnesiac is the ''smallest'' member of the cast. [[spoiler:Though he's still the strongest of the cast (being a robot), since he's able to lift the Force Quit Box no one else could budge.]]

[[spoiler:Perhaps the very act of escaping this game's Nonary Game (or whatever equivalent is going on) is what causes Radical-6 to infect the world (because the participants are already infected). This then lays out the SadisticChoice - is stopping the outbreak worth letting the participants die? This will be especially brutal if most of the cast are returning characters. Of course, the GoldenEnding will involve finding a way to save everyone and thwart Brother's plans, though it may need the help of the mysterious entity in Kyle's body in the epilogue of VLR.]]

** [[spoiler: Zig-zagged. In the ending that leads to VLR, Diana has the option to take a heavily injured Sigma to the surface, leading to a Radical-6 outbreak. The player has no choice in the matter and she goes through with it anyway.]]

*** [[spoiler: Confirmed - there is a 10th participant in Q team.]]

Put simply, looking at the Japanese voice actor reveals, Sigma's voice actor is not the same VA as in VLR. In fact, it's Daisuke Ono this time, who did the voice of K's suit in VLR. He however was not the voice of the person inside the suit, as [[spoiler:Kyle (young Sigma) and Sigma (old Sigma) share the same VA.]] This can lead us to believe that the current entity inhabiting Sigma's body is something else, possibly related to the K suit. If we put on our tinfoil hats, maybe "?" was connected to the suit throughout VLR, and has taken over Sigma's body? Tinfoil hats off now, this development would make more sense, as then some strife would be injected into the group of Diana, Sigma, and Phi. If all three of them are the same as we know them, then there won't be any problems or dilemmas between the three of them, cutting out quite a bit of possible drama. But if one person isn't who we think they are, that makes everything much more volatile...
* [[spoiler: Jossed. The returning characters all have secrets we haven't heard before, but none of those is related to their identity.]]

[[WMG: Q is [[spoiler: Dio (or at the very least a clone of Left) as a child]] ]]
[[spoiler: The reason why he helped Luna on the last game was because he met a girl like her before; Now we have Diana.]]
* [[spoiler: In the trailer, we saw a pig fetus. Normally cloning is associated with sheep but pigs may have been cloned too. Q is wearing a pig mask.]]

Granted we know that [[spoiler: Dio supposedly helped Luna because had an affair with a girl that looked like her; but that doesnt mean that she was the only girl that looked like Luna he has met]]

** [[spoiler: Jossed. Q is an android and Left is not in the game.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed. The [[IncrediblyLamePun question]] of ? is never addressed, [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse or even acknowledged]].]]

** [[spoiler: Zig-zagged. They are at the same location, but not awake at the same time. The 3 wards of the base are actually one and the same.]]

[[spoiler: Jossed. Akane is revealed to be a more idealistic person than most players expected, and Junpei proposes to her during the game.]]

* [[spoiler:Jossed. In the VLR timeline, Akane wipes his memories with the amnesia drug. The GoldenEnding changes history so VLR never happens.]]

** [[spoiler: Jossed. They transport themselves from another timeline after their original selves perished in that timeline.]]

** [[spoiler: Jossed. The bracelets are still a drug-injection device, and also serve as wristwatches. The X-door is opened with passwords, not the bracelets.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed. Junpei is Junpei. In fact, all returning characters are exactly who they claim to be.]]

* [[spoiler: Zig-zagged. The VLR timeline is completely averted in the final ending, so there's nothing to explain. In the ending leading to the VLR timeline, this is basically true, though Akane specifically gives Junpei an additional dose so he won't remember her at all.]]

* [[spoiler: Confirmed. In multiple pathways it's a plot point to defuse his anger by revealing who did it before he kills someone.]]

* [[spoiler: Zig-zagged. Sadistic choices abound, and the morality of swapping places with alternative timelines, throwing their selves from that timeline under the bus, is brought up, but not once is saving lives a "wrong" option.]]

[[WMG: This game will continue the trend of[[spoiler:a protagonist being Zero]]. ]]
[[spoiler: It may be any of the three player characters, or Zero's body will be revealed as ?'s being hijacked by brother]]
* In the trailer, [[spoiler: Zero looks down on the protagonists through bars. However, this is from first person, which means it's also from OUR view.]]
* In Virtue's Last Reward, [[spoiler: ? is mentioned to be necessary for the Mars Mission Test Site. So he might be Zero, in a roundabout way.]]
* [[spoiler: This could explain the mystery of the sixth death as it could be Zero himself. Also note how this is the first time that Zero appears in the cover art separate of any other character(aside from the 999 rerelease).]]
** [[spoiler: Confirmed. Zero is brother, and we see things mostly from his viewpoint via security cameras.]]

** [[spoiler: Jossed. Q is an android.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed. Phi survives in that timeline -- in fact, she's PatientZero for Radical-6, so her survival ''creates'' that timeline.]]

* [[spoiler:Jossed, although at one point Carlos loses his perfectly fleshy arm and his bracelet with it.]]

* [[spoiler: Partially confirmed. Carlos loses an arm, and his bracelet with it, but he isn't declared dead.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed. Zero is Brother.]]

* [[spoiler: Confirmed. Team C tries to pull that trick, and the passwords are rejected, notably declaring that alternate histories' passwords don't work.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed.]]

* [[spoiler: Possible, though it should be noted that Free the Soul is trying to ''prevent'' human extinction (albeit at horrible cost) not ''cause'' it.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed. He remains composed throughout the entire game.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed. ? never comes up.]]

** [[spoiler: Actually Jossed. Schrodinger's Cat is oddly never mentioned despite the trophy]].
** While it's not mentioned, it's indeed present. [[spoiler:Carlos plays an AB game against Junpei that goes exactly as it did in VLR]].

** [[spoiler: Confirmed. It's only used once, however and never mentioned by name.]]

** [[spoiler: Confirmed. Akane says basically this in one of the timelines. Although it has nothing to do with Radical-6.]]

* [[spoiler:Jossed.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed. We never learn Left's identity.]]

* [[spoiler:Jossed.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed. Alice is never mentioned by name in the game.]]

Something that has been bothering me is the response Akane gave to him at the end of VLR. I recall the conversation going something like[[spoiler:?: "So [Kyle] is in my body?" to which Akane responded "something like that".]] I believe that this indicates that ? could be something that doesn't necessarily have a body such as an AI.
* [[spoiler: The ? plotline is never resolved, or indeed mentioned.]]

* [[spoiler: Unresolved. She shares some affectionate moments with Diana, but it's revealed Phi is her daughter.]]

* [[spoiler:Jossed. FBR may or may not even exist. It's only if Q-Team does inject Radical-6 that things go to shit.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed. Q isn't short for anything and we never find out anything about ?.]]

...And this would explain the "Not just these six" people being dead line given by Diana, which has been pointed out to contradict the apparent number of survivors as of VLR. In both 999 and VLR, the cast of nine encountered other people in the facility who were not directly part of the game. In 999, you had [[spoiler: the two other Cradle Pharmaceutical Execs, who ended up being killed by Ace]] and in VLR you had [[spoiler: Akane, as the old woman who is killed by Dio, in the routes where she is not acting as K]]. It's possible they will find other people inside the facility - who are possibly already dead when they find them - and they are counting those extra people in their death count, throwing off the numbers.

* [[spoiler: Diana is simply incorrect. It's possible to travel physically between timelines. The main timeline's Junpei and Akane die, then another timeline's Junpei and Akane arrive without Diana's knowledge.]]

*** Q being Quark is still a possibility, because this game HAS been known to use 'unlikely' theories and seemingly contradictory facts as part of the plot. Say, someone made a theory that [[spoiler:Tenmyoji is actually Junpei on the VLR WMG page before the game was released. Everyone would've been like 'impossible, VLR takes place two years after 999 since Clover is only 2 years older.' And they would've been wrong.]] Who's to say that they can't pull off a similar plot device in this game as well? This game IS about the unexpected!

* [[spoiler:Jossed. He's a robot.]]

* [[spoiler: If this is true, it's never mentioned in the game. No explanation is ever given for Q's name, though from a [[WatsonianVersusDoylist Watsonian]] perspective it's probably intended to remind you of Quark and reinforce a misconception among players.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed. There is no mention of ? in ZTD. The player is Zero, just like in 999.]]

* [[spoiler: Confirmed, though in two cases the game is gimmicked to automatically give you a specific outcome. You always win the initial coin toss on your first try, and you always win a later random event on the third try. The rest are legitimately random, and you may have to make several attempts to get every result.]]

* [[spoiler: Phi does end up going all the way back to 1904, but that's not why.]]

* [[spoiler: Confirmed. They even have children during the game and are confirmed to have been in love in the VLR timeline as well.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed. Diana was indeed at Rhizome-9, but she wasn't hiding her identity.]]

* [[spoiler: Nope. K makes no appearance, and the GoldenEnding erases him from history. He still exists in his own timeline, of course.]]

** [[spoiler:Confirmed. Zero is Brother.]]

* [[spoiler:Jossed.]]

* [[spoiler:Kinda confirmed; he is trying to close a StableTimeLoop that results in both his and her births. She's not the snail, though; the snail is an actual snail.]]

* [[spoiler:Jossed. He basically gets everything he wanted in the end.]]

[[WMG: Phi is [[spoiler: Santa after a sex change]]]]

** [[spoiler: Phi is participant number 3. The same number Santa had in the first game]].
** [[spoiler: They both look similar which Uchikoshi gave contradictory explanations why: Nishimura preferred that or she was requested to make Phi look like a female Santa]].
** [[spoiler: Jossed.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed.]]

[[WMG: Carlos [[spoiler: is actually Santa/Aoi Kurashiki from the first game.]]]]
It makes sense when you consider that [[spoiler: his ill girl sister is Akane. Whether or not Carlos knows about this is a different issue entirely]]
* Problem with this is that [[spoiler: it may over-saturate the game with returning characters and considering Diana and Q, it's most likely a brand new character that doesn't know what's going on.]]
* [[spoiler:Jossed.]]

Based on the trailers, Zero mentions how "a single snail can make the world go extinct". In the 9-minute video, Zero tells the story of an incident that happened, where 17 years ago [[spoiler: a woman was killed and a falsely-accused man was sentenced to death, leading his wife to suicide. Another related incident speaks of a cab driver who got into an accident caused not only his own death, but that of a woman and her child.]] Zero indicates that both those incidents were caused by a snail. He mentions that the incident would lead to global extinction.[[spoiler: Moreover, he starts talking about this when Phi is trapped inside the incinerator, and Diana has to choose about whether or not she's going to shoot Sigma.]]

* [[spoiler:Jossed. The snail is just that, a snail. The falsely accused man and his suicidal wife, are, however, Akane's parents, and the real culprit is Mira.]]

In the incident described above, a woman is murdered, a falsely-accused man is sentenced to death, his wife kills herself, a cab driver is in an accident with a surgeon, and a child dies. [[spoiler: The child is likely Q, and the surgeon may be Dr. Sigma Klim. The falsely-accused man and the wife could easily be Junpei and Akane or Eric and Mira, and Akane/Mira may kill herself because of Radical 6.]]

* [[spoiler:In actuality, the snail was literally a snail that drove a woman to jog down a path where a budding SerialKiller was waiting, leading to... a whole host of problems.]]

* [[spoiler:In actuality, the snail was literally a snail that drove a woman to jog down a path where a budding SerialKiller was waiting, leading to... a whole host of problems.]]

* [[spoiler: Zig-zagged. Depending on how the scene plays out, he either commits suicide thinking he killed Junpei, or Akane cuts off his hand before he manages to subdue and kill her.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed.]]

* [[spoiler:Jossed.]]

* [[spoiler:Jossed. Either Diana pulls the trigger or Phi burns.]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed. Phi is indeed killed by the incinerator.]]

* [[spoiler: Zig-zagged. Some random choices are rigged, some aren't.]]

[[WMG: After the events in the Golden Ending Sigma will [[spoiler:re-create Luna, K and Lagomorph.]]]]
[[spoiler:In the game he mentions that he thinks of them as if they were their own children so he will Re-create Luna and Lagomorph. Kyle is probably gonna be different because he can not be programmed and because diverse life circumstances will make him a completely different person (maybe he ends up being Sigma and Diana´s third child instead of a clone). So he also programmed Kyle to jump to his new body in the ZTD Golden Ending so it ends up being the same Kyle from his memories, but what happened to the child that swiches places with Kyle, that would make him "?" an esper that may have both the abilities Mind Hack and Shifting and no physical body of his own since he lost it. With both abilities and no body he pretty much becomes a being in a higher plane of existence who can "possess" anyone in the multiverse since his conciousness was never attached to his original body due to the quick change with Kyle so he doesnt have such a limitation, a being who is searching through the multiverse for his unkown origin. A being that will end up being the player himself and will have a mayor role in the 4th game to either stop the religious lunatic from killing humanity, or helping everyone stabilize another time loop (because that is pretty much guaranteed with 3 games doing it) while he discovers his origin. This would also explain why they never tell "?" anything about what happens in ZTD or the possible 4th game, if "?" learns his origin too quickly then history wont be exactly as it should be and the time loop may not go full circle.]]
* [[spoiler:It's generally said Luna is based on Diana, but since Sigma experiences VLR and then sets up the base for VLR ''before'' switching places with his old body for ZTD, he had never met Diana by the time he met Luna on that timeline.]]

Phi mentions that an elderly couple raised her, and implied that [[spoiler:they worked at the research facility with the transport devices.]]

[[spoiler:Shifters in the series as far as ZTD lets you understand, tend to live many years and can only truly die out of old age since they keep jumping to the better timeline, lets call it the Golden Timeline. A Mind Hack esper can achieve the same result if they read the mind of a Shifter. 1904!Phi lived nearly 100 years because of this and she may have helped prolong his brother´s life like this. After her death he could have already aquired one of the kids from the original Nonary Game to keep his "Timeline Vision".]] This is the reason why he is still alive in ZTD, as for VLR [[spoiler:He probably used the Transporter, as long as an intact Transporter exist at the destination he can copy himself there. So the proccess goes as this: 30-50 year old Delta who is the founder of Free the Soul at this point learns of the Future because of unexplained reasons. So he copies himself to 40-50 years into the future where his now 100 year old self greets him and lets himself be Mind Hacked. He then kills his old self and waits 9 months for the Transporter to charge and sends his 31-51 year old self another 40-50 years into the future. He repeats this proccess 3 or 4 times and should be reaching VLR at the biological age of 33-34 but with the memories of over 150 years.]]

From a story standpoint this happens because neither Carlos, Q/[[spoiler:Sean]] or Diana go there themselves so its not for us to see. The other main reason is because [[spoiler:Brother could have revealed to Akane a mayor plot point for a Zero Escape 4 game which he learned from his Mind Hacking ability, Akane then proceeds to follow Brothers instructions by making sure VLR plotline goes exactly as planned to close the time loop but adding the appearance of "?" after the timeline stabalizes for the next game.]]

In instances where the player character made an obviously bad decision, the character claims to have not done so of their own free will. In the final endings, [[spoiler: Delta reveals that he has the power of mindhacking, to take over their actions. Except it was the player who made those choices for them. In addition, when Delta is revealed by Q, he points at the camera to the player. By extension, this means YOU are responsible for killing 6 billion people and causing the events of ''Virtue's Last Reward''! It also means that the ambiguous ending, where we don't see whether Carlos kills Delta or not, the game/authors ultimately cannot decide whether to blame you for all your bad choices in light of your good ones.]]
* [[spoiler: We do play the game from Zero's perspective, but Zero is still a character in the game universe. The game screen shows what he's seeing or what images are being beamed to his vision from the security cameras. This is made clear in the ending where Zero's identity is revealed.]]

...Is because it would almost certainly have to reveal the result of the final Decision Game, given the status of one of the characters involved in it relative to D Team. It would probably also be awkward to have the three [[spoiler:maybe four, talk to each other and come to terms with the fact that they're all related]].

The fanatic is real, but Zero is actually unaffiliated with them. [[spoiler: there were no Lefts or anyone even looking like Dio in ZTD.]] Zero knew that Akane was trying to track down Free The Soul thanks to their involvement in the background of 999, so he just used that knowledge to provoke Akane and goad her into taking the actions she does in the VLR timeline.

This explains why [[spoiler: Delta could live to be 124 years old, and possibly much longer than that]] in the VLR timeline. It also helps explain how Phi could jump-kick [[spoiler: Delta]] despite being on Earth rather than the moon, and may have possibly factored into [[spoiler: Sigma surviving the bomb explosion as well, despite the fact that it killed Eric and Q (and Diana, in the timeline where she tried to disarm it) instantly.]]

[[WMG: ? is [[spoiler: Delta]]]]
The unknown consciousness from the Another Time Ending is actually [[spoiler: Delta]]. At the end of VLR, ? said that Kyle swapped places with his body on 2028. Maybe that means the [[spoiler: 'Delta']] that we see in ZTD was actually Kyle all along, in [[spoiler: Delta's]] body.

* In that case, Eric is the best candidate for Brother. [[spoiler: He is very much upset about his brother's death, enough to make him incredibly sensitive. Furthermore, he has been shown to act violently toward basically anyone who isn't Mira.]]
* But Delta is [[spoiler: so old that he's had plenty of time to reconcile his brother's death. It's been decades.]]

[[WMG: Mira[[spoiler:'s clone is Eric's mother]]]]
Why did Eric and [[spoiler: Mira's first victim]] say the same line? Even more suspiciously, how is it that Eric never notices [[spoiler: Mira's faked affect due to her being a sociopath[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disorder]]]] despite the fact that he very clearly understands that there are different kinds of smiles and can tell the difference between them? And why does she remind him of his mother, anyway? Easy. In the epilogue, [[spoiler: she atones for her wrongdoing by sending herself back in time, in order to prevent herself from ever having killed anyone. However, she doesn't arrive at the right time and never meets herself, so she decides to live her life without killing anyone anymore (after all, she has already learned what the heart of a person who loves her is like). She settles down with a man who reminds her of Eric, and has two children with him...but inevitably meets her younger self, getting killed by her.]] It is almost certainly the case that each instance of using [[spoiler: the transporter]] results in a stable time loop with no changes from the original timeline, so the only alternative is that [[spoiler: something she did when she returned to the past caused her younger self to become a killer.]]

[[WMG: The identity of the religious fanatic is [[spoiler:[[Franchise/DanganRonpa Junko Enoshima]]]]]]
Hey, both ''Franchise/DanganRonpa'' and ''Zero Escape'' are owned by Spike Chunsoft; it's not out of the question. Plus, it fits the few facts we know about the fanatic: [[spoiler:Junko]] is a seemingly ordinary high-school student, so it would make sense that Delta can't find her; and while [[spoiler:Ultimate Despair]] isn't exactly a religion, it ''is'' a cult-like organization dedicated to bringing about the destruction of humanity. Effectively, the actions of Delta in this game bring about the events of ''Danganronpa'', partially mitigating the effects of the Tragedy and preventing it from spiraling into an all-out nuclear war as predicted by Delta. It's even possible that Crash Keys ends up evolving into the Future Foundation, seeing as ZTD ends with Junpei and Akane pledging to use its resources to hunt down the fanatic.

** [[spoiler: Actually Jossed. Schrodinger's Cat is oddly never mentioned despite the trophy.]]

Rebember? The muscle relaxant that VLR bracelets used as killing methods.

There might be a SchrodingersCat component to the plan, as well: As long as the incinerator isn't opened after it activates, she will be able to escape because the possibility of her finding a way out still exists.