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kjorteoHoo boy do I have a lot to cover on this one. I love this game's story to pieces but it has so many issues in execution. It's the sort of game I absolutely could not put down on any given run (except one, which we will cover shorty,) but between runs I shelved it for months to almost years at a time because the thought of slogging through it all again was just... sigh. It lives right on the edge where if the story weren't as amazing as it was, I'd never have put up with all the glaring design issues and this would have been an ABANDONED entry instead. Of course, if the design issues weren't so horrible, maybe it wouldn't have taken me so long to get through this game which I did ultimately like.
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (or 999 for short) is a visual novel with miniature point-and-click room escape sequences in between stretches of pure reading. You play the role of Junpei, an ordinary college student and one of the titular Nine Persons who have all been kidnapped and forced to play their way through this twisted puzzle escape sequence on a very-slowly-sinking ship. Each Person has a number assigned to them from 1 to 9. Because of "it would take forever to explain" plot contrivances, the Persons must get through a series of numbered doors which will only open for sub-groups of no smaller than 3 but no larger than 5 Persons, and only if the digital root of the Persons in the sub-group equals the number on the door.
Digital Roots are when you add up a bunch of numbers, and if the sum is greater than 10, treat each digit as another number and add those up, until you're left with a single-digit number. For example, the group of Persons 1, 4, and 9 could get through door 5, because (1+4+9) = 14 and (1+4) = 5. The game is completely obsessed with digital roots and even gives you a automatic tool specifically to calculate them.
Junpei is Person 5. Person 6 (code name June) is an old childhood friend he hadn't seen since elementary school, and every other Person in the cast is a complete stranger. The cast must get to know each other and work together to solve puzzles and escape with their lives, all while working on the mystery of who kidnapped them, why them, and why this game. The overall plot is phenomenal, and no matter how much I hated the actual gameplay at times, I cared deeply about this mystery and I always wanted to know what happened and what it all meant, and that was what kept me coming back through... well....
Like I said, there are a lot of issues that drag the otherwise stellar experience down. I've been waiting to write this entry so I can rant about them pretty much since I started this project, so buckle up. Heavy spoilers, by the way.
FOR SUCH A GREAT STORY, THE WRITING IS GODAWFUL
For a genre in which reading is the entire point, visual novels as a whole are historically not great with their dialogue. Sometimes it's translation and localization issues (most of them come from Japan, and even a technically-accurate translation doesn't always capture the poetic flow of a well-written script because writing is hard) but sometimes the script itself just needs better editing. What 999 needed above all else and sorely lacked was brevity: characters blathered on incessantly even when a countdown gave them five minutes to solve the puzzle and not die, the script never settled on making a point once when it could make it five or six times, and the visual novel presentation only exacerbated the problem.
Infuriatingly, the entire game treats its chosen medium as an opportunity to show and tell, as if unable to decide whether a picture really is worth a thousand words so it had better give the player both just to be safe. An astute observer would take all of two seconds to look at the top screen and realize, "Oh, we've reached the 5 and 4 doors." For the purposes of the plot contrivances mentioned above, that's really all the reader needs, anyway. But no, let's just go ahead and describe what we're seeing with about two pages' worth of text anyway, in case you somehow missed it. This is all the more excruciating when you consider just how slowly the text scrolls in this game, and that there's no way to change it, so you spend most of your time waiting for... well, it's not that you're waiting for the game to get to the point, exactly, because it already did as soon as you had entered the room. It's more that this game has the worst case of Post-Punchline Dialogue I've ever--
Oh, you thought we were done making this particular point? Oh, honey. 999 is never done making its point.
In short,this isxyzzysqrl's Soldatorobo experience in novel form.
MUCH OF THE CAST IS UNLIKEABLE, ESPECIALLY JUNPEI, AND THAT RUINS THE ROMANCE SUBPLOT
Cranky and foul-mouthed from the word "Go," Junpei fits right in with a cast of frosty jerks who mistrust one another so strongly that they refuse to share even their names and all go by made-up code names instead. It's not the language that bothers me; if I were knocked unconscious, abducted from my own home, and left to wake up a prisoner on what I eventually learned was a sinking ship, I'd probably offer a few colorful exclamations as well. No, it's more the fact that Junpei--our player character--is a rude, cynical misanthrope for much so much of the game that I genuinely do not believe him when he actually warms up to someone.
The one exception to Junpei's everyone-hating is a devoted attachment to June, someone he hasn't even seen since elementary school. From the moment they reunite, he acts like... well, like June is there to be his designated love interest. He showers her with protection with an underlying sense of expectation, as if this is a fated destined connection and he knows it. This, again, despite them not having the first thing in common besides their having gone to elementary school together. How many people whom you last saw when you were both ten would you consider your absolute above-all-else soulmate were you meet again now? Yet Junpei brings a sense of entitlement to this relationship and good Lord does he put June through a lot of what that entails.
Seriously, you can tell these two are perfect for each other because of how spectacularly they fail to hit it off in one of their very first interactions. She gets near-maniacally enthusiastic about all the X-Files theories like mummy's curses and the fake Titanic conspiracy that she absolutely believes, and he counters by flat-out telling her that's all crazy and stupid. You see, like any loving relationship, theirs is based on honest and open communication and a deep respect and appreciation for each other's interests.
Of course, the very next interaction--mere seconds after that one--involves June blushing like me literally just because she and Junpei were in the same room and she saw a bed that was big enough for two people. Because that's all it takes. It's really quite fortunate for Junpei that creepy possessive Redditors turn June on so much. Have I mentioned this game was made in Japan?
I like June. She is, at the very least, the sweetest, friendliest person in the cast. I don't think I'd date her myself, because I don't think we'd be a particularly good match. (I don't really believe in that kind of stuff either, and I think everyone deserves someone who supports and takes an interest in their hobbies.) However, I would at least respect that everyone has their beliefs, respect her as a person, and oh my God why is my player character such a jerkass to her, I guess is what I'm getting at here.
Then again, jerkassery is fairly common in this game, which brings us to...
THERE ARE OVER THE TOP HEEL TURNS OUT OF NOWHERE
On one hand, I feel bad complaining about this one, because it was a legitimately shocking twist, powerful and impactful, and didn't even feel over-explained to death the way everything in 999 always does. As far as sudden heel turns go, it was a very good one! And yet... I don't know. I feel like it sent the wrong message. The entire game appeared to have been setting up for some sort of moral about trust and teamwork. The game these Persons are being put through is not an elimination-based reality show with one winner; in fact, the rules of the game specifically state that you need at least three people to pass through a door even if the digital root matches. This is very obviously a team-based multiplayer Player Versus Environment game. The rooms themselves pose no danger if the game's rules are followed properly. Persons only die through various degrees of turning on each other, and there is just no reason for that. It's counterproductive, even! I picture them getting near the end, down to about three people left, and realizing, "we need to add 2 to the digital root to get through this door, is Person 2 arou... oh we killed 2 already right oops." The central conflict in this game feels like it should be that these people mistrust each other too much to even use their real names, when the message is clearly "quit turning on each other and cooperate and you'll all be fine."
Except, no, it turns out one of the Persons really is a secret supervillain who is not to be trusted. I have very mixed but mostly negative feelings about this.
It gets worse after they're unmasked, too, because at that point they just leap straight off the deep end and turn into the Toon form of Judge Doom, for no real explainable reason. I could see this Person being a cold and ruthless being with a secret to hide and a willingness to eliminate anyone who either knows too much or is in their way. Sure. Fine. But giving them a hideous slasher smile and having them go on about how exhilarating it was to feel their blade sliding into their last victim, and how they'd love to experience that feeling again? Really?
Not that Junpei has all that much room to judge, either, because....
THIS GAME BLINDSIDES YOU WITH THE WORST "OH GOD I DID NOT MEAN TO DO THAT" CHOICE REACTION SINCE [GLASS HIM]
At one point near the middle of the game, the party (which currently consists of every Person except 2 and 9) enters a hub room with doors 3, 7, and 8. They do some math, and ultimately come to the grim conclusion that there's no way that every remaining Person can go through a door and continue, and that someone (probably Person 1) will have to be left behind, at which point the others can form subgroups to get through doors 7 and 8.
First off, what did I just say about eliminating people? If 2 and 9 had been there, 1 could have gone with them through door 3 and there wouldn't have been a problem. You're doing this to yourselves, people.
But second, the game places a very clear strong emphasis on the other characters agreeing that it's the only way and there's nothing else that can be done, and even gives you-the-player an option to concur or defiantly declare that there has to be another way. They make a very big deal about finding another way. And guess what? There is! Take the subgroups proposed without Person 1 in the picture. There are several options to split up (3+4+5+6+7+8) into two groups of three such that one can go through door 7 and the other can go through door 8. All you have to do is take any configuration of those groups, and then add Person 1 to the group that has 7. There, now both groups can go through door 8. They would have to take turns, as only one group can be in a room at a time, but there is nothing in the rules about not being able to use a room more than once in a row. In fact, one of the first things you do in this game is exactly that!
The only, and I mean only complication to this plan is that there is no configuration for these groups that lets Persons 5 and 6 be on the same team, which means Junpei and June have to split up no matter what, and Junpei is being kind of mopey about that. However, the game has already proven by this point that such split-ups are temporary. The overall party also split up to get through the 4 and 5 doors earlier, but now here they are together again. We know at this point that that's how the game works.
So, at the moment of truth, you are presented with the option of whether you would rather be in the group that goes through door 7, the group that goes through door 8, or "Actually, I have another idea...." I triumphantly picked that one, confident that my math could save the entire party and get us all through.
Then Junpei's "other idea" turned out to be using "just trust me" tactics to trick the group of 3+6+7 to go with him (5) through door 3, and the group of 1+4+8 can all go fuck themselves. Rather than sacrificing one Person, Junpei was willing to sacrifice three Persons just because he couldn't bear to be apart from June for five goddamn minutes.
Sigh.
Obviously you're not canonically supposed to do this if you want the good ending, but the game does clearly want us to take information from alternate timelines into account on the "true" timeline. This is an actual plot point, and is a reason why you need to have experienced one particular bad ending (not this one though) as a prerequisite to have the information you need to solve a puzzle for the true ending. However, that just means we go right back to Junpei being a monster. Even if this experience didn't canonically happen, from it we learn that he is the kind of person who totally would do something like that. It definitely colors the other routes. In other words....
THE BRANCHING PATHS CHEAPEN ALMOST EVERY STORY POINT AND RUIN THE GAMEPLAY
Branching and alternate paths are common in visual novels, but there are right and wrong ways to handle them. Hatoful Boyfriend does them very well, for example. Hatoful Boyfriend is a dating sim with an actual plot hidden in the middle after you've been through a few routes, with everything else being treated as a sort of "What if the protagonist had completely ignored the plot and spent the entire schoolyear befriending and romancing this particular character instead" experience. The dating sim routes aren't canon, but from them we get a great deal of information about the characters that is. It's basically a clever way to do character introductions, such that when the central plot finally happens, you know who these people are and even have a good sense of the unanswered questions about them (which the central plot proceeds to answer.)
999 has an excellent use of the alternate paths toward the very end of the true route, and that particular scene was handled so well that it alone makes up for a lot of the criticisms of the timelines from the entire rest of the game. It really feels like the whole timeline experience was worth it just for that moment. However, until then....
Well, there are four main problems with the branching paths along the way.
ONE LAST MISCELLANEOUS COMPLAINT:
This game layered on plot twist after plot twist, some of which strained credulity quite a lot, but for the most part I went along with them. I was willing to accept that using morphogenetic fields to transfer knowledge from alternate timelines I'd played to the true one was canon. Alice ended up not really being used for much except for a kind of ass-pull gag in the very last scene of the epilogue, but I was going along with that throughout the game (and I'm told it becomes more important in the sequels anyway.) What felt like half the cast secretly having different numbers than what their bracelets showed was more than a little contrived, but... sure, okay. The q door and having that exact party for it was more disgustingly convenient than the orphanage scene in Final Fantasy VIII, but at least it was foreshadowed by that ball puzzle in the study, so sure, why not.
But I absolutely refuse to believe the shocking swerve that that Clover, that girl I just mentioned above, is eighteen. Sorry, but there comes a point where I just have to draw the goddamn line.
The mastermind behind this whole scheme is the time-traveling ghost of a child who died nine years ago setting up the entire experiment to make you do a Sudoku puzzle so she can crib your answers to prevent her own death? Sure!
Clover can legally drive? Bullshit.
Whew. Okay. So. That was easily the longest entry in this series I've ever done, if not one of the longest entries I've ever written period. I've been in a love-hate relationship with this game for years and I had so much I wanted to get off my chest now that I'm finally done. But... oh, God. It's over, both the game and this writeup. It's over. I... this is the most relieved I've felt to have finished a game since my Dagger of Amon Ra Let's Play.
It was a good game, though.
Mostly.
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (or 999 for short) is a visual novel with miniature point-and-click room escape sequences in between stretches of pure reading. You play the role of Junpei, an ordinary college student and one of the titular Nine Persons who have all been kidnapped and forced to play their way through this twisted puzzle escape sequence on a very-slowly-sinking ship. Each Person has a number assigned to them from 1 to 9. Because of "it would take forever to explain" plot contrivances, the Persons must get through a series of numbered doors which will only open for sub-groups of no smaller than 3 but no larger than 5 Persons, and only if the digital root of the Persons in the sub-group equals the number on the door.
Digital Roots are when you add up a bunch of numbers, and if the sum is greater than 10, treat each digit as another number and add those up, until you're left with a single-digit number. For example, the group of Persons 1, 4, and 9 could get through door 5, because (1+4+9) = 14 and (1+4) = 5. The game is completely obsessed with digital roots and even gives you a automatic tool specifically to calculate them.
Junpei is Person 5. Person 6 (code name June) is an old childhood friend he hadn't seen since elementary school, and every other Person in the cast is a complete stranger. The cast must get to know each other and work together to solve puzzles and escape with their lives, all while working on the mystery of who kidnapped them, why them, and why this game. The overall plot is phenomenal, and no matter how much I hated the actual gameplay at times, I cared deeply about this mystery and I always wanted to know what happened and what it all meant, and that was what kept me coming back through... well....
Like I said, there are a lot of issues that drag the otherwise stellar experience down. I've been waiting to write this entry so I can rant about them pretty much since I started this project, so buckle up. Heavy spoilers, by the way.
FOR SUCH A GREAT STORY, THE WRITING IS GODAWFUL
For a genre in which reading is the entire point, visual novels as a whole are historically not great with their dialogue. Sometimes it's translation and localization issues (most of them come from Japan, and even a technically-accurate translation doesn't always capture the poetic flow of a well-written script because writing is hard) but sometimes the script itself just needs better editing. What 999 needed above all else and sorely lacked was brevity: characters blathered on incessantly even when a countdown gave them five minutes to solve the puzzle and not die, the script never settled on making a point once when it could make it five or six times, and the visual novel presentation only exacerbated the problem.
Infuriatingly, the entire game treats its chosen medium as an opportunity to show and tell, as if unable to decide whether a picture really is worth a thousand words so it had better give the player both just to be safe. An astute observer would take all of two seconds to look at the top screen and realize, "Oh, we've reached the 5 and 4 doors." For the purposes of the plot contrivances mentioned above, that's really all the reader needs, anyway. But no, let's just go ahead and describe what we're seeing with about two pages' worth of text anyway, in case you somehow missed it. This is all the more excruciating when you consider just how slowly the text scrolls in this game, and that there's no way to change it, so you spend most of your time waiting for... well, it's not that you're waiting for the game to get to the point, exactly, because it already did as soon as you had entered the room. It's more that this game has the worst case of Post-Punchline Dialogue I've ever--
Oh, you thought we were done making this particular point? Oh, honey. 999 is never done making its point.
In short,this is
xyzzysqrl's Soldatorobo experience in novel form.MUCH OF THE CAST IS UNLIKEABLE, ESPECIALLY JUNPEI, AND THAT RUINS THE ROMANCE SUBPLOT
Cranky and foul-mouthed from the word "Go," Junpei fits right in with a cast of frosty jerks who mistrust one another so strongly that they refuse to share even their names and all go by made-up code names instead. It's not the language that bothers me; if I were knocked unconscious, abducted from my own home, and left to wake up a prisoner on what I eventually learned was a sinking ship, I'd probably offer a few colorful exclamations as well. No, it's more the fact that Junpei--our player character--is a rude, cynical misanthrope for much so much of the game that I genuinely do not believe him when he actually warms up to someone.
The one exception to Junpei's everyone-hating is a devoted attachment to June, someone he hasn't even seen since elementary school. From the moment they reunite, he acts like... well, like June is there to be his designated love interest. He showers her with protection with an underlying sense of expectation, as if this is a fated destined connection and he knows it. This, again, despite them not having the first thing in common besides their having gone to elementary school together. How many people whom you last saw when you were both ten would you consider your absolute above-all-else soulmate were you meet again now? Yet Junpei brings a sense of entitlement to this relationship and good Lord does he put June through a lot of what that entails.
Seriously, you can tell these two are perfect for each other because of how spectacularly they fail to hit it off in one of their very first interactions. She gets near-maniacally enthusiastic about all the X-Files theories like mummy's curses and the fake Titanic conspiracy that she absolutely believes, and he counters by flat-out telling her that's all crazy and stupid. You see, like any loving relationship, theirs is based on honest and open communication and a deep respect and appreciation for each other's interests.
Of course, the very next interaction--mere seconds after that one--involves June blushing like me literally just because she and Junpei were in the same room and she saw a bed that was big enough for two people. Because that's all it takes. It's really quite fortunate for Junpei that creepy possessive Redditors turn June on so much. Have I mentioned this game was made in Japan?
I like June. She is, at the very least, the sweetest, friendliest person in the cast. I don't think I'd date her myself, because I don't think we'd be a particularly good match. (I don't really believe in that kind of stuff either, and I think everyone deserves someone who supports and takes an interest in their hobbies.) However, I would at least respect that everyone has their beliefs, respect her as a person, and oh my God why is my player character such a jerkass to her, I guess is what I'm getting at here.
Then again, jerkassery is fairly common in this game, which brings us to...
THERE ARE OVER THE TOP HEEL TURNS OUT OF NOWHERE
On one hand, I feel bad complaining about this one, because it was a legitimately shocking twist, powerful and impactful, and didn't even feel over-explained to death the way everything in 999 always does. As far as sudden heel turns go, it was a very good one! And yet... I don't know. I feel like it sent the wrong message. The entire game appeared to have been setting up for some sort of moral about trust and teamwork. The game these Persons are being put through is not an elimination-based reality show with one winner; in fact, the rules of the game specifically state that you need at least three people to pass through a door even if the digital root matches. This is very obviously a team-based multiplayer Player Versus Environment game. The rooms themselves pose no danger if the game's rules are followed properly. Persons only die through various degrees of turning on each other, and there is just no reason for that. It's counterproductive, even! I picture them getting near the end, down to about three people left, and realizing, "we need to add 2 to the digital root to get through this door, is Person 2 arou... oh we killed 2 already right oops." The central conflict in this game feels like it should be that these people mistrust each other too much to even use their real names, when the message is clearly "quit turning on each other and cooperate and you'll all be fine."
Except, no, it turns out one of the Persons really is a secret supervillain who is not to be trusted. I have very mixed but mostly negative feelings about this.
It gets worse after they're unmasked, too, because at that point they just leap straight off the deep end and turn into the Toon form of Judge Doom, for no real explainable reason. I could see this Person being a cold and ruthless being with a secret to hide and a willingness to eliminate anyone who either knows too much or is in their way. Sure. Fine. But giving them a hideous slasher smile and having them go on about how exhilarating it was to feel their blade sliding into their last victim, and how they'd love to experience that feeling again? Really?
Not that Junpei has all that much room to judge, either, because....
THIS GAME BLINDSIDES YOU WITH THE WORST "OH GOD I DID NOT MEAN TO DO THAT" CHOICE REACTION SINCE [GLASS HIM]
At one point near the middle of the game, the party (which currently consists of every Person except 2 and 9) enters a hub room with doors 3, 7, and 8. They do some math, and ultimately come to the grim conclusion that there's no way that every remaining Person can go through a door and continue, and that someone (probably Person 1) will have to be left behind, at which point the others can form subgroups to get through doors 7 and 8.
First off, what did I just say about eliminating people? If 2 and 9 had been there, 1 could have gone with them through door 3 and there wouldn't have been a problem. You're doing this to yourselves, people.
But second, the game places a very clear strong emphasis on the other characters agreeing that it's the only way and there's nothing else that can be done, and even gives you-the-player an option to concur or defiantly declare that there has to be another way. They make a very big deal about finding another way. And guess what? There is! Take the subgroups proposed without Person 1 in the picture. There are several options to split up (3+4+5+6+7+8) into two groups of three such that one can go through door 7 and the other can go through door 8. All you have to do is take any configuration of those groups, and then add Person 1 to the group that has 7. There, now both groups can go through door 8. They would have to take turns, as only one group can be in a room at a time, but there is nothing in the rules about not being able to use a room more than once in a row. In fact, one of the first things you do in this game is exactly that!
The only, and I mean only complication to this plan is that there is no configuration for these groups that lets Persons 5 and 6 be on the same team, which means Junpei and June have to split up no matter what, and Junpei is being kind of mopey about that. However, the game has already proven by this point that such split-ups are temporary. The overall party also split up to get through the 4 and 5 doors earlier, but now here they are together again. We know at this point that that's how the game works.
So, at the moment of truth, you are presented with the option of whether you would rather be in the group that goes through door 7, the group that goes through door 8, or "Actually, I have another idea...." I triumphantly picked that one, confident that my math could save the entire party and get us all through.
Then Junpei's "other idea" turned out to be using "just trust me" tactics to trick the group of 3+6+7 to go with him (5) through door 3, and the group of 1+4+8 can all go fuck themselves. Rather than sacrificing one Person, Junpei was willing to sacrifice three Persons just because he couldn't bear to be apart from June for five goddamn minutes.
Sigh.
Obviously you're not canonically supposed to do this if you want the good ending, but the game does clearly want us to take information from alternate timelines into account on the "true" timeline. This is an actual plot point, and is a reason why you need to have experienced one particular bad ending (not this one though) as a prerequisite to have the information you need to solve a puzzle for the true ending. However, that just means we go right back to Junpei being a monster. Even if this experience didn't canonically happen, from it we learn that he is the kind of person who totally would do something like that. It definitely colors the other routes. In other words....
THE BRANCHING PATHS CHEAPEN ALMOST EVERY STORY POINT AND RUIN THE GAMEPLAY
Branching and alternate paths are common in visual novels, but there are right and wrong ways to handle them. Hatoful Boyfriend does them very well, for example. Hatoful Boyfriend is a dating sim with an actual plot hidden in the middle after you've been through a few routes, with everything else being treated as a sort of "What if the protagonist had completely ignored the plot and spent the entire schoolyear befriending and romancing this particular character instead" experience. The dating sim routes aren't canon, but from them we get a great deal of information about the characters that is. It's basically a clever way to do character introductions, such that when the central plot finally happens, you know who these people are and even have a good sense of the unanswered questions about them (which the central plot proceeds to answer.)
999 has an excellent use of the alternate paths toward the very end of the true route, and that particular scene was handled so well that it alone makes up for a lot of the criticisms of the timelines from the entire rest of the game. It really feels like the whole timeline experience was worth it just for that moment. However, until then....
Well, there are four main problems with the branching paths along the way.
- The branches are largely based on what door you go through, and there is nothing signifying the right answer. In the scene mentioned above, picking door 3 leads to a bad end because of Junpei's deception, so you have to accept the choice of leaving Person 1 behind and going through either door 7 or door 8 with the others. Which one, though? Well, if you're on the path for the true ending, you need door 7. Door 8 can lead to the prerequisite ending you need for the true ending if you also chose door 5 in the previous hub room (otherwise you're on your way to a choice of three "rocks fall everyone dies" endings.) This kind of madness is near-omnipresent throughout the entire game. At one point on the true ending route, one of the other characters (upon discovering that there are actually two 9 doors) remarks that they must both be correct and either should work, because the game up to this point has been fairly set up with hints leading to puzzle solutions, and that the person who set this all up wouldn't just make them flip a coin and hinge a life-or-death result on a pure blind guess. It was very hard not to laugh out loud when they said this.
- Starting over for each alternate path is a chore. See the above point on the complete wasted run after accidentally turning Junpei evil, and the further above point about the game's writing, and imagine me slogging through through several extra hours of this game knowing that my current file is a lost cause. All that extra time just to hurl myself toward the "ending" (which was more like a glorified game over) for no sense of accomplishment or satisfaction or anything at all except "Well that sucked for everyone involved. Maybe next time won't be quite as awful if I make different choices." Heaven help you if you do decide to play this game repeatedly, though. You have to start over from the beginning and do all of the room escape sequences again, with no shortcuts or skippable content whatsoever. Your only concession is that New Game Plus mode gives you a "tap to make the text skip to the end of the current line instead of slowly scrolling there" button, and even that's only for text you've already seen (it doesn't work on any new content.) Yes, they're being needlessly stingy about a feature which, in general, isn't even as good as just setting the text scrolling speed to Instant (having to tap to make it speed up is extra effort and can make you miss lines if you tap too close to the end of one,) and instant text speed should be a standard feature on all game dialogue, period. This isn't Final Fantasy Tactics. I have l i t t l e p a t i e n c e for this kind of game design in the modern era, yet 999 will gladly make you go through it for nothing because of one wrong decision you have no way of knowing is wrong. Not that I'm going to be bitter about that run for the rest of my life or anything.
- The branches cheapen what could have been powerful and impactful plot twists through repetition. If a character dies in a story, that can be a big moment for that story. In 999, a character dying mostly provoked a reaction of "Oh, hell, I guess so much for this timeline, then. Maybe I can save them next time." If any character still died even on the true route, it was mildly disappointing but by then I'd already seen their death scene three times. Of course, once again, see the section on the game's writing; diluting a powerful line into three or four subpar ones is kind of the quintessential 999 experience.
- The entire true ending route felt deeply uncomfortable after witnessing the other Person's heel turn from the prerequisite ending and Junpei's from one of the bad ones. I knew what these people had done or at least were capable of doing, which harmed my ability to look at any of the repeated scenes the same way. As much as I loved this story, it was hard to remain invested in it when I spent half the game side-eyeing two characters almost every line they had, one of whom was the actual villain and the other of whom was me. Seriously, there's a part in the true ending where Junpei comforts Clover, a frightened and heartbroken little girl, which leads to them bonding and her sharing some critical secret information about a sinister organization. It's supposed to be sweet, but as I said above, I just cannot believe Junpei being sweet after what he did in that one route and how he treats June in all routes. Instead, Junpei buttering up this girl had a distinct "I have free candy in my van, you know" feeling to it, which was... not good.
ONE LAST MISCELLANEOUS COMPLAINT:
This game layered on plot twist after plot twist, some of which strained credulity quite a lot, but for the most part I went along with them. I was willing to accept that using morphogenetic fields to transfer knowledge from alternate timelines I'd played to the true one was canon. Alice ended up not really being used for much except for a kind of ass-pull gag in the very last scene of the epilogue, but I was going along with that throughout the game (and I'm told it becomes more important in the sequels anyway.) What felt like half the cast secretly having different numbers than what their bracelets showed was more than a little contrived, but... sure, okay. The q door and having that exact party for it was more disgustingly convenient than the orphanage scene in Final Fantasy VIII, but at least it was foreshadowed by that ball puzzle in the study, so sure, why not.
But I absolutely refuse to believe the shocking swerve that that Clover, that girl I just mentioned above, is eighteen. Sorry, but there comes a point where I just have to draw the goddamn line.
The mastermind behind this whole scheme is the time-traveling ghost of a child who died nine years ago setting up the entire experiment to make you do a Sudoku puzzle so she can crib your answers to prevent her own death? Sure!
Clover can legally drive? Bullshit.
Whew. Okay. So. That was easily the longest entry in this series I've ever done, if not one of the longest entries I've ever written period. I've been in a love-hate relationship with this game for years and I had so much I wanted to get off my chest now that I'm finally done. But... oh, God. It's over, both the game and this writeup. It's over. I... this is the most relieved I've felt to have finished a game since my Dagger of Amon Ra Let's Play.
It was a good game, though.
Mostly.
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Date: 2017-04-23 04:41 pm (UTC)Thank you so much for struggling your way through this :) When I was so enthusiastic about getting you to play it so long ago, I hadn't realized that it would turn into an effort equal to Amon Ra. But it was spectacular to see your thoughts as the game progressed, to imagine what I was thinking with my incomplete information as it unfolded - and now, to be able to talk to someone about the increasingly insane storyline. What I love about it is how it seems to go towards a resolution in the Safe/Confusing Ending, giving you a lot of background before suddenly breaking apart, and then going completely Bad Boys Love in the true route and building on what you know while also taking it in a completely different unexpected direction. At the start of the game I had no idea where it would go, but I know I would never have guessed that Doctor Who multiple timelines solution, or the revelation that the narrator had actually been Akane the whole time... I remember thinking that Hatoful Boyfriend had had an unexpected turn, but are all Japanese visual novels like this?
I didn't suffer a lot of the complaints that you did, but reading your summary over, I still completely agree with them. I had forgotten how awkward skipping text was (and how nonexistent it was the first time through) - and having to do the same puzzle rooms again is pointless, particularly as the game prevents you from entering the solution codes in a lot of places unless it knows you already know the answer. The example on the top of my mind just now is in the kitchen, where it makes sense to force you into the freezer before you leave so you can have the needed conversation - but that could have been handled more smoothly. And of course I noticed the ridiculous verbosity throughout - that part with the operating room which is an operating room was the point where I nearly chewed my 3DS in half.
Not having accidentally turned Junpei evil the first time through (I assumed door 3 would be an evil path because I hadn't noticed the alternative solution that you did, and I avoided it the first time), I came out with a better impression of him than you did - without betraying everybody the first time around, I interpreted his subterfuge more as desperation and understandable mistrust rather than actual malice. (I most recently played this game on the iOS version, which clumsily cuts out all the puzzles - but it adds a new bad ending to make the door 3 choice end much earlier instead of getting you to keep going.)
But I definitely rolled my eyes so hard I had to run and get them from across the room when Akane came down the stairs and he was instantly in love with her - it was such a forced entitlement to romance. Now that I know the whole story, I understand it more as a massive diversion, but it still felt uncomfortable.
The next game, should you feel like tackling it, fixes a lot of problems that this one had. I'm sorry that this one was so vexing compared to how I remembered it, but it's great to know that you at least enjoyed the storyline once you uncovered it.
no subject
Date: 2017-04-30 04:46 am (UTC)I feel so torn on the way this game handles the multiple timelines... on one hand, I know this post went over a lot of varied and miscellaneous complaints (and of course much of it was either the writing or Junpei's unlikability) but I had four different reasons why I hated what having to replay the game did to the overall experience with how this particular game handled it. And yet... the reason for the timelines is brilliant. It leans on the fourth wall, takes my frustration with "Oh come on I know it was Ace because he laid out his entire Bond villain monologue in the other save" and made it an actual in-game plot point, and that's incredible. I just wish it didn't put you through so much of a slog to get to the payoff, even though the payoff really is phenomenal. It's... yes, I do think how it handles the repeated plays is worth... having to do the repeated plays, but the extent to which I hated the repeated plays and loved how they all came together gives me something of an unstoppable force/immovable object dilemma when I try to weigh them against each other.
I didn't think you'd need to see Junpei go through door 3 and openly turn on the group to realize he's kind of a jerk anyway! Cutting out mountaints of endless narration in between his actual lines, the literal first words from Junpei's mouth in a new game are, and I quote:
Junpei: Ow!
Junpei: OOOOOOWWWCHGODDAMNIT! Gah! What the hell!?
Junpei: Where...
Junpei: ...Am I...?
Junpei: [5]...?
Junpei: What's this [5] mean...
Junpei: Hey! Hello? Is anyone there!?
Junpei: Open the door!
Junpei: What the hell is this...
Junpei: (5)...
Junpei: That's...that's the same as the door...
Junpei: Urrrrng!
Junpei: Damn! Ugh! It's no good... Damn thing won't come off!
Junpei: What the hell is the deal with this thing?!
Junpei: Where am I!?
Junpei: And why the hell am I here!?
Junpei: Why! Why!?
Junpei: What the hell happened to me!?
Junpei: What...? Wait... Am I in a ship?
Junpei: What the--!? ...You gotta be kidding me!
Junpei: Wh-What the hell is going on here?!
Junpei: WHAT THE HELL! GODDAMN IT!
Also, the utter disdain he shows for June's X-Files beliefs and the out and out rudeness he shows to her for daring to have them are appalling. I mean, to be honest, I don't believe in any paranormal nonsense either, but come on. She's supposed to be your designated "because I saw her and instantly there was a Hallmark card filter on the screen" love interest. At least be polite.
As to the iOS door 3 ending... that's both good and bad, mostly good. It does mean you miss out on Lotus's backstory (which was like the one thing you actually get from the Sub ending) but at least the doomed timeline is over sooner. I had mentally checked out of that entire run from the moment the door 3 turn happened, so mercy-killing it immediately afterward is probably for the best, yes.
I loved the storyline once I uncovered it, and I am eager to continue with it after a few other games on the to-do list... this was a fantastic mystery at its core and I am delighted to see where it goes from here. Of course, I'm even more delighted to hear that later games fix all this stuff. :)