#finaposting

To quickly explain it, some characters in Zero Escape (including every protagonist) are able to 'SHIFT' their consciousness between timelines, basically swapping places with the version of them that exists in the destination point.

The worst game in the series represents consciousness as a blue orb/jellyfish thing.

So. The Espers/SHIFTers can effectively travel between points of multiple timelines, but only their consciousness travels with them. All physical realities of that moment: the things on their person, who is alive and who is dead, which doors have been passed through- None of that can be changed directly by time travel. But by moving consciousness, you can transfer knowledge to other timelines.

Sometimes, keys and locks aren't in the same place.

Seem familiar? Mechanically, the experience of the characters' consciousness traveling through time aligns with the way the player travels through time with the scene selection. The structure of Zero Escape as a visual novel means two things for the player's ability to travel: 1. Knowledge cannot be taken from the player. The game does not have the ability to edit your mind. It can say things, but it can't un-say them if you jump to a prior scene. 2. Items cannot be taken with you. There simply isn't a way to create a cohesive, semi-linear story that also accounts for Junpei suddenly having a gun, or the relevant key for a door, in any scene. So, what does this mean for the plot, and the meta-puzzles?

Just when you thought you were safe... (ending)

Most of the major players in Zero Escape are trying to prove time travel exists, experiment with it, or otherwise exploit it for their own ends. As such, there are several puzzles that exist with the explicit purpose of being unsolvable in their own timeline. The Safe, as well as the Coffin, are both examples of this. The information exists in all timelines, but the means to obtain it (Truth had gone, and truth had gone, and truth had gone) is obfuscated from the characters and player in the timeline that it is needed in. Safe/Coffin endings are both routes where information can be used, but is not gained. They require the characters (and, by extension, the player) to have seen a route where the information is gained but cannot be used. Doing so proves that information can be passed between arbitrary points in time, and, crucially, the answer for Akane's puzzle can be passed back to her nine years ago.

Yeah, she's never guessing this on her own. Akane is... ultimately the strangest example of this, actually. Her existence in the present Nonary Game creates a sort of grandfather paradox, which I don't fully understand, myself. The later games get extremely convoluted, particularly Zero Time Dilemma, but ASIDE FROM ONE MOMENT IN THAT GAME, ultimately they do stick to the idea that time travel in their universe is purely a mental phenomenon that cannot influence physical conditions.

I'm specifying crafting mineral so no gold/nitra/hollomite take that elsewhere Which one of the crafting minerals would you most want to eat if given the opportunity? I ask this one to my stream chat a lot and want some fresh takes