999: Nine Doors, Nine Persons, Nine Hours

What will you do if you wake up inside an unknown ship only to find out that you are trapped with the other 9 unfamiliar faces and you have 9 hours to solve the puzzles in 9 different doors for you to find your freedom and seek behind the truth about all this? Friendship, betrayal, and truth will arise.

My first visual novel game. Yay! It was a recommendation by a friend so I thought I’ll give it a shot. A recommendation alone was not enough to be engrossed in the series so I dug some information about the game on the net. I’ll first give a (brief, yes I’ll try to be brief. :D) review about the game. Then, of course, my rants about it. Meaning, the spoiler part. 😀 Lots of you have played this one by now, but I’ll still post it here. XD

In the game, you play as a college student named Junpei and you are forced to join the  Nonary Game, where your life is at stake. You will get to interact to the other characters/players and together, you’ll answer the puzzles behind those numbered doors and the truth behind the game. The game has 6 endings. I recommend doing the 3 bad endings first then the safe/normal ending and lastly, the true ending. I was supposed to take the safe ending then bad endings and then, the true ending <- may initial plan. I changed it and appreciated the game more. 🙂

999 has lots of “F” words and other curses, as it was rated M. It’s quite bloody and gory in terms of its visuals. But it was descriptively creepy. The writer used lots of adjectives that sometimes it felt oppressive and overwhelming. That is the only thing I didn’t like about this. The overall plot is superb. Once you have started playing and as it continues, you’ll be more intrigued and drawn to the story and the characters. The puzzles and idea of Nonary game were enough to creep the hell out of me. I felt my heart thumping hard with every scene and its twists and turns. After you got one of the endings, you can skip through the texts that you have already encountered before; so as you are nearing the true ending, everything will be a breeze. About the puzzles in this game, some can be quite tricky; if not all. So be careful. Take all the hints. The characters are stereotypes; at least, that is what they want to show. However, do not be deceive by their appearance. Each and every one of them has something up on their sleeves. Quoting my friend, this game is wickedly awesome!

From this onwards will be my comments, rants, whatsoever. In short, SPOILER. You have been warned. 😀

I’ll start with the characters. They will according to their number on their watch.

Ace – My first playthrough, I thought he’s the kind and dependable guy. At the end of the 1st bad ending I did (axe ending), I was surprised he was not the one who killed Junpei. I was suspicious of him while we were searching the Door 1. From then on, he became smug and smirks a lot. Even when I saw Clover having that axe and my instincts were telling it will be her who will kill at the end, I really couldn’t shake the feeling that Ace will be up to something evil. Well, he looked uhm, cool (?) in the CGs where he is the bad guy. XD

Snake – I wonder what his real name is. One of my fave character in this game. His knowledge and awareness can be on par with those who can see. He is graceful and dignified which made me like him more. Plus his younger look is really cute. Haha!

Santa – I like his real name Aoi since it is the color blue in Japanese right? He is the laid-back guy in the game. Cool enough for me. 😀 He is straight-forward and his actions often caught me in surprise. Are these enough reasons to make him my most favorite character in 999? 😛

Clover – She is really creeeeepy in the Axe ending. Wickedness all over her. I didn’t really think much about her at the start of the game. But she played a great role to know the mystery behind Zero and the Nonary Game

Junpei – The protagonist. You barely see his face in the CGs since the story is through his point-of-view. One point for him, he’s cute. XD As the protagonist, he did a good job in telling and describing everything about the game. He is quite a dependable guy though plain looking.

June – I did not expect that in the true ending O.O. Even if I don’t like her much, I still can’t hate her or think ill of her. It’s not that killing people are good. But,uh, how should I put this, I like how cold and cruel she is to do that kind of thing. What she did to Ace is fine by me too. I just dislike her flirty and damsel-in-distress like state in the game. I like her more while she was younger, though.

Seven – I can’t pinpoint what made his look 9 years ago different in the 2nd Nonary Game. >_> I also can’t see why some are pairing Lotus with him (I prefer Lotus to be with Ace IMHO).

Lotus – She wowed me in that puzzle in Door 8. I didn’t think she is like that. There is more to her really. Fierce, intelligent, and a nice body to boot, I didn’t think she has twins; same age as Junpei. You go girl!

When I was playing this, different scenes from different series came to my mind. The idea of a game where your life is at stake sounds like The World Ends With You (which reminds me, I’m still not finished with this one). The game where children are the players, a ship is their playground, and the prize is their lives. Audience? Oh those atrocious rich men in the society. Reminds me of episode 2 of GOSICK. Parallel universe is almost as Higurashi no Naku koro ni, Umineko no Naku koro ni, and Clock Zero (haven’t played this one, I’ve just read in Rin’s summary XD). The endings are the different universe and what I’ve learned on those will be adapted to the real ending. I felt like I was Akane since I’m the one feeding Junpei with information.

999 is surely a game to buy. Everything is interesting. Not to mention, the creators did a hell out of research for the story. With everyone’s good reviews about this, why would you want to be left behind?

Walkthrough: (I have another one I use but I forgot the link so I’ll give the alternative walkthrough I used)

http://faqs.neoseeker.com/html/200465/

999 answers: http://www.aksysgames.com/999/agegate