Aksys Games, known in the games industry for specialising in localising Japanese games, are bringing something interesting to the U.S. The sequel to the highly popular Nintendo DS graphic adventure game 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, now officially titled Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward is set for release in late 2012. The game will be released for both the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita, with each version having some minor differences due to the nature of the hardware. The game features a couple of returning characters from the first game, but it is intended to be a largely self-contained story. Aksys made their announcement about the localisation a little earlier in the year, but further details have been released more recently. The U.S version will feature both the original Japanese voice acting, as well as a new English dub, a rare feature in a game published by Aksys. The first game featured a handful of different endings, but Zero Escape will offer players 24 different conclusions.

So, why should you care about a game that will only be released in the U.S? Firstly, if you look around the internet, it’s not hard to see that there were a lot of people outside the U.S who imported the first game. So Aksys’ new project will be of interest to quite a few people. Secondly, the game will be released for PlayStation Vita, which is a region free console. That means that you’ll be able to easily import a copy, and play it on your Aussie console. Aksys have also released the official box art for both versions of the game:

That’s all we’ve been given so far, but in the meantime, here’s a trailer for the Japanese version of the game to give you an idea of what to expect:

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There are currently no plans for a release outside of the U.S, as Aksys do not publish games outside of their home country. A few of their previous projects (such as the BlazBlue fighting series and the PSP RPG Fate/Extra) have been picked up by other companies though.