That's putting it mildly. VLR is especially confusing while playing and it's only by the end that it even starts to make perfect sense.  

Eeyup. Pretty much. Been a long while since I've played them but they're definitely stories that I look back on often. Now we just need dat Zero Escape III.

Yes, Dat ending. I'm really glad that Junpei (young) might probably be in the third one

I concur! This game has some of the most epic writing I've ever seen! And in a video game, no less!

I have logged in so many hours on Zero Escape 2. In Fact, after beating the game and seeing the true ending, I intentionally clear the data to play "completely fresh". So, During my 2nd completely fresh play-through, I went through the endings in a recommend order found on thonky.com. Then, I cleared the data and play-through fresh a third time, carefully making my choices to end up encountering the plot-locks BEFORE witnessing the events that unlocks any given lock. It's wasn't easy and short! I've only used a spoiler-fee walkthrough to get me through the puzzle rooms and didn't spoil any plot twists!

RECAP:

1st Playthrough: Over 50+ hrs. according to the save file by the time I've seen ALL THE ENDINGS. 

2nd Playthrough: Almost 30 hrs. Following Thonky.com's recommended ending list

3rd Playthough: Over 30 hrs. Carefully encountering the "Plot-Locks" FIRST BEFORE witnessing the "keys" to unlock them!

Now, I shall wait 'till the third game to resolve all this!