9 hours, 9 persons, 9 doors (DS)

[trias_e]

999 starts out like this:  You're stuck in a room in a boat and you have no idea why you're there.   There's a mediocre escape-the-room puzzle made tense under the guise of rushing water breaking through a window (there's no real time limit).  Upon completion, overly verbose writing introduces you to your characters' last memory:  getting gassed in his apartment by an individual in a gas mask, and being told as he lost consciousness that he was going to have the privilege to play a game.  The 'nonary' game.  The game might not sound like much at this point.  But the nonary game is why 999 is genius.

After breaking free from your room, you are introduced to a cast of characters, all with irremovable bracelets, numbered 1-9.  You have bracelet #5.  A childhood friend has bracelet #6.  Wait, a childhood friend?   Why is she there, trapped on this boat with you?  You have no fucking idea.  Then, a voice on a loudspeaker makes the rules of the nonary game clear:  Numbered doors exist throughout the ship.  The only way to get off the ship is to venture through these doors, solve puzzles, and eventually find and pass through door #9.  The catch?  These doors can only be opened using the numbered bracelets every participant has latched onto their wrist.  You find the digital root of a combined 3-5 bracelets  (digital root of 12 is 1+2=3, digital root of 29 is 2   (2+9=11, 1+1=2).  If it equals the number on the door, the door opens.  Only those whose bracelets activated the door can go through it.  Thus the choose-your-own-adventure nature of the game comes into play.  Choices must be made as to who goes through what doors, and possibly who must get left behind when it's not possible for everyone to get through a certain area.


999 is interactive fiction at it's core, interspersed with escape-the-room puzzles.  The writing and characters might not be amazing, but they're good enough to keep it engaging.  The tension of the plot is escalated to the point where the game breaks into the psychological horror genre...and it's much more subtle and interesting than, say, the Saw movies.  The puzzles are fairly simple, 15-30 minute affairs that rarely frustrate and generally hit a sweet spot.  The alternation between interactive fiction and puzzle solving gives the game a good balance, and allows for natural character development/reveals to exist over the course of puzzle-solving gameplay that comes into play later in the story.  Ok then.  Have fun.  You've got 9 hours to get off the ship before it sinks.  Good luck.  You probably won't make it....the first time.

Good thing there's 6 endings to the game.  And here is where I have to guess a bit, as I've only gotten one ending and am working on a second playthrough.  But the replayability of this game is quite high.  The choose-your-own adventure bit works to its advantage, especially as you gain meta knowledge that your character has no idea about.  However, there is one weakness to this.  You can have fairly different playthroughs, but you will still go through some of the same material.  You can hold down the right d-pad button and blitz through it (thank god), but it still sucks to have to go the same opening puzzle over and over, and eventually I imagine you will have solved all possible puzzles and replays will be tedious to say the least.

I think this is a minor quibble.  I am off to get ending #2.  I doubt I'll put the game down again until I get them all.

Buy it.

[Margalis]

Cool, I just heard about this game for the first time the other day. I used to play a couple of the Super Famicom "sound novel" games and really enjoyed them.

[trias_e]

Finished it.  The plot turned batshit crazy by the end, but I couldn't help but enjoy it.  Other people need to play this game so we can discuss the insanity of it, not to mention various different endings.

Also, 999 involves the most intense sudoko puzzle ever.

If you do pick this up and manage to get 3 'bad' endings off the bat (like i did), its worth finding a path guide to make sure you don't play through the same endings again (which is incredibly annoying).  I can also give hints regarding finding a different ending.

[trias_e]

Games got a 90 on metacritic so far, so I guess I'm not too crazy for liking it.  I also managed to obtain the soundtrack recently...I don't know if the music will be for everyone, but I highly enjoyed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1OWJuyaN7A&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaqQhT0N6RY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9pWjksRyco

[Pagz]

I just finished this game, well worth the purchase if you enjoy visual novels, think Phoenix Wright but a lot darker.

After getting the "True" ending (after a "Oh my god oh my god fuck fuck fuck", "What is this I don't even" and a "Was- was that *actually* bad" endings mind) this game is worth it simply for the last puzzle in the game. If you like to wrack your brain over a labyrinth of puzzles and mysteries and have it actually explained in a gratifying way in the end, this is the game for you. If you are more of a give me the amazing story without the cockblockery kind of person however, if you follow a non-spoilery guide you can get the true ending on the second play through if you do everything right, although you then miss some backstory about NPC's, etc, however much better to do this then not play it at all.

They are also it seems doing a fully voice over sequel on the 3DS.

A little hint for new people playing the game for the first time (with only a slight hint of retrospective spoiler)...

And yes, would like some peoples opinions on the true ending, especially... (Obvs game ruining spoilers ahead)

[Evildrider]

Do you get to cheat on your wife while running for public office? 

[trias_e]

And yes, would like some peoples opinions on the true ending, especially...

I need to replay this so I can give you a proper discussion.  My memory is not so great and I have forgotten much about the specifics of the storyline.  Replaying this game will be fun however, I'll do it once I finish Chrono Trigger DS.  (Which is awesome.)

Do you get to cheat on your wife while running for public office?  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rTJtVyQhN0  (or in this case, I don't understand the reference)

[Evildrider]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rTJtVyQhN0  (or in this case, I don't understand the reference)

I saw the 999 thing and it reminded me of Herman Cain.

[Azuredream]

[/spoiler]

And yes, would like some peoples opinions on the true ending, especially... (Obvs game ruining spoilers ahead)

I finished the game about a month ago so I don't clearly remember everything but here were my thoughts:

[trias_e]

They are also it seems doing a fully voice over sequel on the 3DS.

So I just read about the sequel, and it turns out the new 'nonary game' being introduced in it is based on the prisoner's dilemma.  As someone who has studied game theory, philosophy, and mathematics:  Fuck yeah.  This should be fun.

[trias_e]

Also, I was considering doing a radicalthon for this game.  However, I'd only do it if people participate and vote on choices as we go through the game.  It would be quite a bit of fun for me to see what the paths the hivemind would go down.  Anyone interested in this?

[Pagz]

And yes, would like some peoples opinions on the true ending, especially... (Obvs game ruining spoilers ahead)

I finished the game about a month ago so I don't clearly remember everything but here were my thoughts:

An f13 radicalthon would be great, I'd participate if only so I can bring fun to the forums, or at least vote for the options I chose on my first playthrough. Should happen, especially so people without DS's can experience it.

[trias_e]

Someone started a let's play at something awful:

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3455023

Thus, I don't have to do one.