I’m late to the party by a few years, and I don’t usually play visual novels. But 999 got some rave reviews, acclaimed as one of the best DS games, so I figured I’d give it a try. And it was worth it.
Story
999 is a mystery. The main character and 8 other people (the titular “nine persons”) are stuck on a ship, and sets up the “what the poop is going on” vibe early. The plot is driven not only by trying to escape the ship, but also figuring out what’s going on.
As you progress, you learn about the other characters. Pasts are revealed. Relationships are formed. But the game is designed so you can’t get the good ending on the first try (and even a satisfactory ending is hard to get if you’re not following a guide). But the bad endings taunt you and tease you, but they make you want to play again. And again. And again. Until you get that good ending.
And that ending was worth it. Without spoiling anything, I was expecting some ridiculous over-the-top MGS2-esque ending. But 999’s ending was more than just ridiculous and over-the-top. It was mind-blowing, and at the same time made complete sense, and at the same time threw a few new curveballs into the mix.
Gameplay
The puzzles start fairly simple. They start with simple lock and key puzzles and finding clues to open the combination lock puzzles. As the game progresses, the puzzles get more interesting and more complex. Some of the later puzzles are full-fledged brain-teasers in their own right, and it’s a blast trying to solve them.
The one flaw with the game is that the cutscenes aren’t really skippable. (There’s a fast forward button, if you like holding down a button for a few minutes to fast foward through all the cutscenes.) And the game really wants you to play through it several times, which means watching or fast forwardint most of the cut scenes multiple times, and playing through the same puzzles multiple times. And most of the puzzles aren’t interesting the second time around. (Except maybe to see how quickly you can complete them. But even then, it’s definitely not interesting the third time around.)
Still, the story is amazing, and the good ending is worth it, so it’s easy to overlook 999’s few flaws.
Final Score: 8.5 out of 10