It’s finally done! My tablet broke down so I spent some long time doing this picture to celebrate Zero Time Dilema’s upcoming release.
I hope it didn’t get too complicated to understand, I wanted to recompile details from the game, such as the teams, the fate of every character in every ending, the escape rooms everyone visits in every branch… And even how many times each character goes into a colored door with all the rest of the cast!
I hope too this serves as a guide to everyone, so if you see something wrong please make me know.
Fictional convention suggests that it’s likely someone we’ve
seen before, rather than someone entirely new. While it’s all up to personal interpretation at this stage, from where I’m standing there are only two major contenders.
I’ll start where my money is: this likely-lovely lady here.
While we know that the Sigma in ZTD is Doctor “Termites”
Klim, this is actually not their first meeting from his perspective.
VLR is just one of the potentially many ZTD bad ends. Following radical-6′s release, Diana traveled to Rhizome-9 to serve as a base for Luna. There, she would meet a presumably very different Sigma than the man she’d just played the Decision Game with – the same man in the same body, but 45 years younger.
If Sigma really did fall for Diana, that reframes a significant amount of his behavior on Rhizome-9. He didn’t design Luna at random, he built her modeled after a woman he’d fallen in love with – a woman he would want to raise his son. It also explains some of his behavior towards Luna herself – how painful would it be to see the face of the woman you love every day, knowing you’d chosen to sacrifice your chance at a life together for the sake of a better future? My personal sympathies aside, though, it does add another level of depth to Sigma’s characterization at minimum.
Beyond what we might speculate, it may also be wise to make note of what we’ve already seen from ZTD’s footage. Almost ridiculously, we see Sigma back at it again, suggesting Diana might look cute wearing certain clothing and making the occasional sexual joke in her direction. Could that just be dirty old man Termites reclaiming some of his classic fuckboi characteristics? Possibly, but it may be worth giving due consideration anyway.
Our second, less likely contender would be everyone’s favorite enigma, Phi. I find this somewhat less plausible given Uchikoshi’s strong no to their future potential here:
That’s a hard line in the sand with regard to their ‘canon’ potential, but it doesn’t negate the possibility of romantic feelings entirely.
Do I ship Sigma and Phi romantically? No. Would I be somewhat disappointed if their relationship took a turn for that direction? Yes. But I would be remiss in not at least mentioning the weight of Phi’s “I love you” to Sigma, which I discuss in greater detail here.
I may be biased in Diana’s favor because it adds a number of additional interesting elements to Sigma’s already rich character, but regardless of whatever Uchikoshi has cooking up for us, I’m sure it will be suitably heartbreaking. Sigma could be a test case for no good deed going unpunished, after all. Thanks for your question, anon!
Edited from the clearfile art that is a Japan-only bonus (just casually ignore the errors ok). Use however you’d like, no credits needed (unless you want to let people know you weren’t responsible for how bad the editing is lol)
We know from the games that Akane has a rather dirty and crude humor, I like to think she often jokes about her own death and Aoi doesn’t like it one bit but I’m bad at jokes
midnight-in-town 
