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999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors |OT| RED, DEAD, Redemption

upandaway

Member
Well now that Ghost Trick's done it's this game's turn!

Thing is, though, the choices are really annoying to me. I'm a tad too OCD to be really carefree about just choosing what I want and continuing onwards. It's always at the back of my head, "if I would've chosen that there, I wonder what would've happened..." In general I'm fine with personalized experience, but when I get different content because of it, it starts to get to me.

So, is it really a different game if, say, I choose to go in
door 4 instead of 5 in the beginning like I chose?
Different puzzles and everything?
If so, I might as well borrow my friend's copy and play 2 saves simultaneously. I don't want to miss out on things that involve
June, Santa and Ace, as much as I want to be with Snake too.

If not, then I guess it's fine as it is.
 
This game was ridiculous. I wish I could wipe my memory out and replay this game in its entirety spoilerless. The story, the characters, the design, and the music all meshed together to make something insane.
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
upandaway said:
Well now that Ghost Trick's done it's this game's turn!

Thing is, though, the choices are really annoying to me. I'm a tad too OCD to be really carefree about just choosing what I want and continuing onwards. It's always at the back of my head, "if I would've chosen that there, I wonder what would've happened..." In general I'm fine with personalized experience, but when I get different content because of it, it starts to get to me.

So, is it really a different game if, say, I choose to go in
door 4 instead of 5 in the beginning like I chose?
Different puzzles and everything?
If so, I might as well borrow my friend's copy and play 2 saves simultaneously. I don't want to miss out on things that involve
June, Santa and Ace, as much as I want to be with Snake too.

If not, then I guess it's fine as it is.
Different rooms and paths lead to different puzzles and endings. As you finish each ending, you'll get a little icon showing which ending you got and when you start a new game you can fast-forward through text you've already read, but you'll have to replay the puzzles (shouldn't take nearly as long once you know the solution). You'll need to unlock a certain ending before getting the true one.

Considering all that, and that each ending gives you different bits of information of the overall story, I wouldn't suggest playing 2 different games at the same time at all. I suggest you simply just go visit all the rooms you haven't been to yet on your first couple of playthroughs. After that, if you don't want to sit and think it through you can look up the spoiler-free flowchart if you need it to figure out the path to take for the endings you're missing.
 

upandaway

Member
XiaNaphryz said:
Different rooms and paths lead to different puzzles and endings. As you finish each ending, you'll get a little icon showing which ending you got and when you start a new game you can fast-forward through text you've already read, but you'll have to replay the puzzles (shouldn't take nearly as long once you know the solution). You'll need to unlock a certain ending before getting the true one.

Considering all that, and that each ending gives you different bits of information of the overall story, I wouldn't suggest playing 2 different games at the same time at all. I suggest you simply just go visit all the rooms you haven't been to yet on your first couple of playthroughs. After that, if you don't want to sit and think it through you can look up the spoiler-free flowchart if you need it to figure out the path to take for the endings you're missing.
I'd rather not play it more than once.. at least not yet. Kind of a shame that you need to replay it to experience more of the game. I would have preferred it to be one coherent story. And I know for a fact I won't get all endings because I'm not nearly stubborn enough to invest in that.

I guess I'll try to ignore the face I'm missing content and just go with one route for now.
 

CitizenKang

Neo Member
upandaway said:
I'd rather not play it more than once.. at least not yet. Kind of a shame that you need to replay it to experience more of the game. I would have preferred it to be one coherent story. And I know for a fact I won't get all endings because I'm not nearly stubborn enough to invest in that.

I guess I'll try to ignore the face I'm missing content and just go with one route for now.

When you replay, you can skip all previously read dialogue, so it makes them go by relatively painlessly. (It automatically stops the dialogue skipping whenever you get to new text or a choice.) Towards the end I was getting through a replay in around an hour I think. I rarely replay games myself but ended up getting all the endings in this one. I got through most of my replays in only 2 sittings.

At any rate to get the true ending you'll have to get a specific ending beforehand. So you do need to replay the game at least twice if you want to experience that.
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
upandaway said:
I'd rather not play it more than once.. at least not yet. Kind of a shame that you need to replay it to experience more of the game. I would have preferred it to be one coherent story. And I know for a fact I won't get all endings because I'm not nearly stubborn enough to invest in that.

I guess I'll try to ignore the face I'm missing content and just go with one route for now.
This isn't a traditional game in the sense that "finishing it once" isn't really true, it's more like "you've gotten through a small % of the game." It's not like other games that have an ending and a true ending which adds a little more on top of the original ending.

You'll get one coherent, mind-blowing, awesome story after all of it. Additional playthroughs will take less and less time as you uncover more and can fast-forward through them later on. You just need to trust us on this one, playing through just once will leave you highly unsatisfied - getting a few endings should hook you in to wanting to figure out what the hell's going on though.

CitizenKang said:
When you replay, you can skip all previously read dialogue, so it makes them go by relatively painlessly. Towards the end I was getting through a replay in around an hour I think. I rarely replay games myself but ended up getting all the endings in this one. I got through most of my replays in only 2 sittings.

At any rate to get the true ending you'll have to get a specific ending beforehand. So you do need to replay the game at least twice if you want to experience that.
And even then, I'd still suggest getting some of the other endings first before those two. It will make those endings have a lot more impact if you do so beforehand.
 

upandaway

Member
Argh. Okay you got me. I'll try replaying a little too.

And even then, I'd still suggest getting some of the other endings first before those two. It will make those endings have a lot more impact if you do so beforehand.
Though I'm not gonna try and shoot for specific endings, that's a bit too much. I'll just try to make different decisions on my replays until I reach somewhere satisfactory.

After I'm done with it I'll be able to say for myself whether they did the right choice with this kind of progression. As of right now I'm not seeing it.
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
upandaway said:
After I'm done with it I'll be able to say for myself whether they did the right choice with this kind of progression. As of right now I'm not seeing it.
That's what a lot of people think at first. And then they find out otherwise. To repeat Feep:

Feep said:
In my opinion, it starts out underwhelming.

Then it is whelming.

Then it is overwhelming.

Then you realize why it HAD to be underwhelming to be overwhelming.

And the light is true.
There's a reason a lot of people wish they had played this earlier so that they could add it to their 2010 GOTY lists. You won't truly know why until you get through it properly.
 

Jintor

Member
XiaNaphryz said:
That's what a lot of people think at first. And then they find out otherwise.

There's a reason a lot of people wish they had played this earlier so that they could add it to their 2010 GOTY lists. You won't truly know why until you get through it properly.

Feep and XiaNaphryz have it spot on.
 
Honestly, I don't like the fact multiple playthroughs are required. I completely understand why it's necessary, but I think
I would've liked it better if there were more differences with each "rewind" rather than just seeing the same text again kind of like in Higurashi.
I realize this is impossible, but it's a very understandable barrier of entry and the way it is feels disjointed to me. Of course it's a very interesting novelty that probably won't be recreated (or at least not very well), so I'll forgive it.
 
cosmicblizzard said:
Honestly, I don't like the fact multiple playthroughs are required. I completely understand why it's necessary, but I think
I would've liked it better if there were more differences with each "rewind" rather than just seeing the same text again kind of like in Higurashi.
I realize this is impossible, but it's a very understandable barrier of entry and the way it is feels disjointed to me. Of course it's a very interesting novelty that probably won't be recreated (or at least not very well), so I'll forgive it.

Multiple playthroughs aren't a problem for me. Other VNs like Ever17 and Clannad also require multiple playthroughs to get to the true ending, and I find their structure very successful. The advantage they have over 999 is that you have tons of save slots that you can use anytime you want, so you never need to replay the same section to get to a decision point you want to change. I don't know if being on the DS was a problem for that, but I really wish 999 had let you save at all the crucial decision points and let you skip already completed puzzles.
 

Jintor

Member
I would have been happy with 'already completed puzzle skipping', although...

Certain story decisions do take place in the middle of puzzles, so it would have to, like, auto-complete puzzles you already did instead of straight out skipping them

Anyway, by the time I got to the true ending the glut of new content at the end helped bring me back into the game. Even though I'd already done all three rooms it required.
 
So I ordered this yesterday from Amazon on a whim; I know absolutely nothing about this game other then it's literary adventure-like. Considering I grew up on Sierra and LucasArts adventure games, and having loved the PW games and Hotel Dusk, I'm looking forward to it.

I'll keep GAF updated with my thoughts.
 
IAmtheFMan said:
So I ordered this yesterday from Amazon on a whim; I know absolutely nothing about this game other then it's literary adventure-like. Considering I grew up on Sierra and LucasArts adventure games, and having loved the PW games and Hotel Dusk, I'm looking forward to it.

I'll keep GAF updated with my thoughts.

Please do; a lot of us that have played it enjoy reading through new players' impressions. :)
 

BosSin

Member
This game was pretty awesome, does anyone have any recommendations for visual novels preferrably ones with puzzles and stuff in them or ones that have awesome storylines
 

Roto13

Member
upandaway said:
I'd rather not play it more than once.. at least not yet. Kind of a shame that you need to replay it to experience more of the game. I would have preferred it to be one coherent story. And I know for a fact I won't get all endings because I'm not nearly stubborn enough to invest in that.

I guess I'll try to ignore the face I'm missing content and just go with one route for now.
It's specifically designed to be experienced multiple times. It's the point of the game. You're not missing anything any more than you're missing levels in Super Mario World because you can only find one exit in a level the first time you play it.

Jintor said:
I would have been happy with 'already completed puzzle skipping', although...

Certain story decisions do take place in the middle of puzzles, so it would have to, like, auto-complete puzzles you already did instead of straight out skipping them

Anyway, by the time I got to the true ending the glut of new content at the end helped bring me back into the game. Even though I'd already done all three rooms it required.
Yeah, that was my problem with the game. Solving puzzles you already know the answer to is no more fun than reading text you've already read. You should be able to skip both.
 

Belisarius

Neo Member
Jintor said:
They're all terrible. Congratulations!
Then my work here is done! Thanks. :3

Jintor said:
I have another translation question relating primarily to June:
I understand her name in Japanese is something like 'purple' or 'blue', I think? So was that "After June we won't see each other again" thing (the depressing, depressing thing) in the Epilogue after the credits, was that made from whole cloth, or did that have a basis in the original dialogue? Same question about the voodoo doll, I guess

That one is a little more...complicated. That's actually probably one of the more heavily edited sections of the game.

In the original Japanese, Junpei refers to the doll that he gives to Akane as a "budou doll" and says its name is "Grape." "Budou" is Japanese for "grape", and if you stretch the sound of it, as Japanese people seem wont to do, it sounds kind of like "voodoo." That part of the joke is mostly the same—Akane says something along the lines of "Um...Are you sure it's not a voodoo doll?" and Junpei just about wets himself when he realizes he screwed up. The "For-you doll" thing is a terrible, terrible attempt by me to come up with something that kind of fit what was going on. A bit more creative liberty was taken with the "after June" stuff, though.

In the original game, Junpei also suggests that they call the doll "Junpei", but Akane says that might not be wise, considering that it is a voodoo doll, after all. Ultimately they end up calling it "Purple" (or more accurately "Murasaki", which as you probably know means "purple" and was Akane's codename in Japanese), presumably because grapes are often purple. That makes perfect sense in Japanese, of course, but it was utter nonsense in English. After a great deal of hair-pulling and gnashing of teeth, I grabbed a chunk of text form somewhere else that talked about how they would see each other after the new school year started (which is April in Japan). Since in the US we end the school year in June, that worked out perfectly. I moved that line around, changed a few others, and deleted one or two until it worked. So, the basic idea was there, but how it got from point A to point B had to change quite a bit.

BGYNR.jpg
 
I wanted to thank Volcynika for the wonderful OT for this title and Akselziys for all his effort.

I had seen it in passing before, but I didn't pay it much mind until late december. I decided to take a chance based on the user comments at the time and pick it up. I was floored by this game. It was incredibly addictive, and it was great that each way the game progressed would actually build the characters, world, and
overall plot.
The music was perfect, characters were intriguing, story was engaging, and I could go on. It just struck a certain sweet spot for me.

I managed to talk a friend into getting it as well, and he was so blown away by it that he got a friend of his to buy it. Once again, thanks so much for this great topic for recommending me this gem of a game. And thank you, Aksleziys, for putting so much effort into interacting and answering things for the community.


999 is certainly one of, if not, my favorite handheld games.

Edit: oh, and Belisarius too, of course! Thanks! : )
 

Akselziys

Aksys Games Dev.
Typographenia said:
I wanted to thank Volcynika for the wonderful OT for this title and Akselziys for all his effort.

I had seen it in passing before, but I didn't pay it much mind until late december. I decided to take a chance based on the user comments at the time and pick it up. I was floored by this game. It was incredibly addictive, and it was great that each way the game progressed would actually build the characters, world, and
overall plot.
The music was perfect, characters were intriguing, story was engaging, and I could go on. It just struck a certain sweet spot for me.

I managed to talk a friend into getting it as well, and he was so blown away by it that he got a friend of his to buy it. Once again, thanks so much for this great topic for recommending me this gem of a game. And thank you, Aksleziys, for putting so much effort into interacting and answering things for the community.


999 is certainly one of, if not, my favorite handheld games.

Edit: oh, and Belisarius too, of course! Thanks! : )


Aww, you're very welcome :D

Both Belisarius and I love to interact with our fans, so we're very happy we could help in any shape or form ;)

And also mad props to Volcynika for creating the OT :)
 

Volcynika

Member
Akselziys said:
Aww, you're very welcome :D

Both Belisarius and I love to interact with our fans, so we're very happy we could help in any shape or form ;)

And also mad props to Volcynika for creating the OT :)

Woooooooooooo!

Aksys and Chunsoft be awesome.

Also probably the OT of mine that stands out as having the most spoiler tags ever. :p
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Regulus Tera said:
oi what the hell, I have to do the puzzle sections again? BULL
It shouldn't take you that long to redo at all. You can just jump straight to opening stuff with the combinations without having to look for all the items. If you don't remember them, look em up and write them down - you'll be replaying that prologue a couple times.
 

Instro

Member
Regulus Tera said:
She can go die in hell for all I care.

Do I choose "Continue" or "Begin with Memories" now?

Doesnt matter which you choose at the end of a game, "continue" will start you at the beginning of the game as well. Only difference is that Begin with Memories will start you a new game with your memories if you dont feel finishing your current playthrough.
 
Regulus Tera said:
oi what the hell, I have to do the puzzle sections again? BULL

On the next few playthroughs you'll probably be doing different puzzles anyway since you'll be going into different rooms.

That said, by the end you can really fly through some of the puzzles after having done them a few times.
 
damn that's nice said:
So is it safe to say this game is like a mixture of Phoenix Wright and Saw? I'm gonna be picking it up tomorrow if that's the case.
The writing is much more descriptive than Ace Attorney. And the characters are more similar to the ones found in Hotel Dusk/Persona who are more grounded and lifelike than AA's wacky characters. And the setup is similar to Cube/Saw but it goes quite a bit deeper than that into The realm of psuedosciences. You won't be able to piece it together, I'll tell you than much. Trust me, you'll love it I'm sure.
 

Jintor

Member
Belisarius said:
That one is a little more...complicated. That's actually probably one of the more heavily edited sections of the game.

In the original Japanese, Junpei refers to the doll that he gives to Akane as a "budou doll" and says its name is "Grape." "Budou" is Japanese for "grape", and if you stretch the sound of it, as Japanese people seem wont to do, it sounds kind of like "voodoo." That part of the joke is mostly the same—Akane says something along the lines of "Um...Are you sure it's not a voodoo doll?" and Junpei just about wets himself when he realizes he screwed up. The "For-you doll" thing is a terrible, terrible attempt by me to come up with something that kind of fit what was going on. A bit more creative liberty was taken with the "after June" stuff, though.

In the original game, Junpei also suggests that they call the doll "Junpei", but Akane says that might not be wise, considering that it is a voodoo doll, after all. Ultimately they end up calling it "Purple" (or more accurately "Murasaki", which as you probably know means "purple" and was Akane's codename in Japanese), presumably because grapes are often purple. That makes perfect sense in Japanese, of course, but it was utter nonsense in English. After a great deal of hair-pulling and gnashing of teeth, I grabbed a chunk of text form somewhere else that talked about how they would see each other after the new school year started (which is April in Japan). Since in the US we end the school year in June, that worked out perfectly. I moved that line around, changed a few others, and deleted one or two until it worked. So, the basic idea was there, but how it got from point A to point B had to change quite a bit.

Ooooh, very interesting. Thanks very much for answering my question. :D

/edit
So just to confirm, the implications of the phrase "So we won't see each other after June" was not from the original? I realise this is a bit of a futile hope since the author already said something about Junpei spending the rest of his time chasing after June, but there's still the possibility he was kidding around.
 

Belisarius

Neo Member
Jintor said:
Ooooh, very interesting. Thanks very much for answering my question. :D

/edit
So just to confirm, the implications of the phrase "So we won't see each other after June" was not from the original? I realise this is a bit of a futile hope since the author already said something about Junpei spending the rest of his time chasing after June, but there's still the possibility he was kidding around.

The original translation was this:
"Anyways... So what's up with this gift? Why are you giving me this all of a sudden."
"Well...uh... Y...you know how come April, we won't be able to see each other too often? I mean...we'll be in different school districts..."
"You're right... We'll be going to different...Junior highs..."

Although it's not in exactly the same place. I had to move the lines around a bit to make it fit.

So far as Uchikoshi saying that Junpei spends the rest of his life chasing after June, I prefer to think he was joking. Or that he was implying something like this. :3
 

LProtag

Member
I'm sad I didn't have enough time for a lot of playthroughs of this. I just used a guide for the paths. I don't think it ruined too much for me, I took it more as a narrative experience rather than a game experience, as in, 'this is the way the movie is supposed to go'.

Still was a great experience for me.
 

bluehat9

Member
Ok, just played through it once. Now what do I do?


I don't think this stuff is a spoiler, it's just
menu screen stuff
and not related to the ending I got or anything, but I'm blacking it out anyway just to be totally safe.

Menu screen has: 1. Continue, 2. Begin with memories or 3. Memories of the Escape? I don't know what any of the options mean or what which I'm supposed to pick to go through the story again

Help please?
 

hank_tree

Member
bluehat9 said:
Ok, just played through it once. Now what do I do?


I don't think this stuff is a spoiler, it's just
menu screen stuff
and not related to the ending I got or anything, but I'm blacking it out anyway just to be totally safe.

Menu screen has: 1. Continue, 2. Begin with memories or 3. Memories of the Escape? I don't know what any of the options mean or what which I'm supposed to pick to go through the story again

Help please?

Begin with memories lets you play again from the start but with the ability to skip text you've already seen.
 

AwesomeSauce

MagsMoonshine
Gotta say i freaking loved this game. It's been a long time where i played a game that made me read a lot, but man were my hands sweating and heart racing during those intense moments.

I loved every moment of the game and thanks to the spoiler free guide i was able to get all the endings in order after playing my first playthrough without a guide which i highly reccomend as i was so blown away with the outcome.
Got knife ending on first play
.
 
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