This needs to be said right away: IF YOU DO NOT LIKE GAMES THAT FOCUS ON PLOT AND CRITICAL THINKING PUZZLES, STOP READING... are you still there? Good.
With that out of the way I can now say welcome to the review of one of the most brutal DS games around. The M rating is not there for show I assure you. If you allow yourself to be fully immersed in 999's ambience, you will be disturbed by the action, disgusted by the descriptions, shocked at the sudden plot turns, enraged at the mistakes you will make, and saddened towards the characters who die (sometimes). With that said lets peel back the layers of this complicated game.
In a visual novel, the plot is everything. If there is no compelling motivation to reach the end, then you don't have a game. And what better motivation than drowning on a sinking cruise ship if you don't escape in time. Enter Junpei: the main protagonist and the character you control. An explosion goes off on the middle of ship, sending the entire vessel into a tremor and waking our hero. As Junpei comes to, a window in his room bursts open sending a torrent of water, forcing him to escape from the room he is in, this is the first of many escape puzzles but fret not, for there is never a time limit to escape contrary to what the game says. But something is not right, Junpei isn't supposed to be on a ship, he is supposed to be at home. Then a memory surfaces, as Junpei enters his home he notices his window is up despite not opening it previously. As he moves to close it, he sees from the reflection a robed figure wearing wearing a gas mask. Suddenly too weak to move, Junpei collapses as he sees a white haze fill the room from a gas-can on the ground. On the edge of consciousness he hears a voice, "I am Zero. You have been chosen to play a game. The Nonary Game. Consider it an honor."
Who is Zero?
And what is the Nonary Game?
These are two of the many questions you will ask yourself as you play this game. In the Nonary Game, you are just one of 9 players who are trapped on this ship and must work together to escape in 9 hours. However, there is a catch. Each player has a bracelet with a unique number from 1 to 9 and must pass through numbered doors, also 1 to 9, to advance throughout the ship. The 9 door is the only way to escape and only 3-5 players can pass through a single door if their numbers equate to a digital root that matches the door's number. What's a digital root, you ask? A digital root is the sum of a collection of numbers followed by the sum of the individual digits of the 1st sum. For example if you take 3 players who had the numbers 6, 5, and 7 on their respective bracelets and find the sum of those numbers, you'd get 18. Then separate the digits of 18 and find the sum of that which is 9. Thus, players 6, 5, and 7 have a digital root of 9 and could open door 9 and escape. If any player violates these rules, then a bomb which has been planted inside them will detonate resulting in a fine bloody mess. Keen thinkers out there will quickly realize that not everyone will escape since only a max of 5 people can pass through the 9 door. This will result in mass conflict between the players and will force you to make choices of who to team up with and who to betray. Be careful of whom ye trust however as one false move could result in the death of everyone including yourself, but remember that no matter what you do someone will always die whether you like it or not.
On a personal note, I found this to be one of the greatest "visual novel/adventure games" I have ever played. It really feels like the game goes out of its way to present the chilling and intense ambience of this game at all times whether your solving an escape puzzle or reading conversations between the characters. One of the biggest issues of a visual novel game is the replay value, but there's no need to worry there. This game has 6 endings total, some bad, others neutral, and one good; and multiple plot branches within the game itself. The puzzles themselves are challenging but also not impossible with the hints provided despite covering intense mind-flexing topics such as hexadecimal translations, chemical balancing, and morse code just to name a few.
Overall:
Pro's:
Good Puzzles
Mind-blowing Plot
Intense Music
Good Replay
Bad:
Limited Graphics (but good for a DS game)
Repetitive Sound Effects (distracting)
No Skip button for scenes you've already seen. The text just fast forwards.
If you have a DS, buy this game. If you can get it for $20 or lower, you won't be wasting a penny.
