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

Love the game and I hope you pick up more of these types to localize. But I am stuck, I am in the wheel house and I can't find the gear shift for the speed shifter of the boat. I think it has to do with the watch I have but I don't know how to change the hands on the watch. Anyone help a brother out and point me in the right direction?
 
RocketDarkness said:
This game took a few days to really grab me, but once it did, it didn't let go. Stayed up all night last night trying to accomplish the true ending, then stayed up 'til 3:30 AM tonight to finish the game off. I've seen all the endings except for ending #5. The plot really blew me away, though. Fantastic game.

At first, when they started talking about tapping into the future's morphogenic field, I thought they were insinuating that the "I" speaking was I, as in the player. If that was the case, I think my mind would have been blown even further, as it would have been a fantastically cool way to incorporate the idea that Junpei has the knowledge of the past branches because you're personally giving him the information through the morphogenic field. Maybe I can create my own game based on that similar premise. XD

You aren't the first one with that idea. Anything else would be a massive spoiler, so PM me if you want more details.

Duckhuntdog said:
Love the game and I hope you pick up more of these types to localize. But I am stuck, I am in the wheel house and I can't find the gear shift for the speed shifter of the boat. I think it has to do with the watch I have but I don't know how to change the hands on the watch. Anyone help a brother out and point me in the right direction?

So
you're looking for the handle? To get it, examine the wheel and compass next to the gearshift and solve that puzzle. You don't need to turn the hands on the watch yourself; they will be turned automatically when necessary.
 
A morbid little laugh concerning the Axe Ending, after seeing the True Ending...

All 3 of the main conspirators (June/Zero, Santa, and Seven) get murdered by a deranged Clover. Guess your little plan backfired, huh guys?
:lol
 

Ranger X

Member
I got it in the mail yesterday.

FINALLY!!

Now can shelve this game with peace on my mind :)

:lol (too many games started already)
 
I've just reached the end for the first time, got a question:

When saving after the ending, is there a difference between choosing "Continue" and "Begin with Memories"?

I got ending 2, BTW :D
 

Volcynika

Member
Tranced Shadow said:
I've just reached the end for the first time, got a question:

When saving after the ending, is there a difference between choosing "Continue" and "Begin with Memories"?

I got ending 2, BTW :D

Nah. Continue just goes from when you last saved (So if you got an ending, your save would put you right back at the start of the game for another run). Begin with memories is if you messed up on your save and wanted to restart the game.
 

Ryn

Member
Finally got all the endings to this game. That was one hell of a ride.

I think I slightly zoned out at the morse code puzzle behind door 9..because when the screen showed up I wasn't sure at all what I was supposed to put. And when I quit the puzzle and went back nobody gave me any worthwhile hints. I ended up wikipediaing morse code and just sat there for a while. Then I looked back at the other puzzle where you had to light up the ALL's. I was all like ALL?...3 letters...ice?...no..ICE? ALL-ICE? *look at wikipedia morse code for letters I, C, E*, puzzled solved. WHOA! :lol
 

iammeiam

Member
Just finished the true ending. All in all, the story hangs together much better than I was expecting about halfway through my various playthroughs. I got the endings in the following order:
Axe, Knife, Submarine, Coffin, Safe, True
Which I think made me enjoy the game more, because the first ending led me to believe my ultimate goal was going to be
keeping the various players from losing their shit and murdering everyone
. Second and third endings made it look more like
"Find the killer while simultaneously not driving anyone else axe-crazy.
And then the actual main storyline took over for the last three.

The characters usually acted pretty smartly, although there were a few cases of plot-induced stupidity that I found frustrating (
ALWAYS check for a pulse! Submarine ending had me scowling at my DS when they only checked Clover for deadness, then when finding June on the floor apparently didn't double-back to check on the corpses in the previous room. Also, Junpei basically going "Huh, Clover seems imbalanced and appears to have an axe concealed on her crazy self. Oh well, what could possibly go wrong!" in the hallway after the Captain's room, and their constant insistence that doors could only be used once. We see pretty early on that a door will reset to usable once the people who activated it are no longer in the area, yet every time door 9 pops up in conversation they assume only one group of people will be able to go through it. Nobody even suggests that after the other bracelets are deactivated a second group would be able to go.
)

Thoughts on the Real Ultimate Ending:

I was actually okay with the whole ALLICE thing ultimately being about a plant that had massive anesthetic properties/MASSIVE red herring about who's killing everyone in the "everyone dies, but we won't reveal the killer" endings, so Alice showing up randomly in the desert was kind of disappointing. Unless there's going to be a sequel explaining WTF, or something, I'm just going to ignore her.

Why did Ace survive? The second game was apparently non-fatal for everyone who wasn't one of the four designers of the original experiment, but the ringleader is captured, taken outside by Santa, and then not killed? Really? Zero pretty intentionally set up at least the fake-Snake guy to be messily exploded, and door 'q' was designed to very specifically only let the innocent free, so it's not like they're shy about blood, and Ace failed to meet either of the conditions for surviving the second game, so he shoulda been dead. Or at least shot a few times.

I did like the reveal that Santa and June were related, and that June was a transmitter, since I think it makes the alternate endings easier to reconcile--Since Akane mind-melded with Junpei immediately after waking up in the game, and she has the ability to see all possible future paths, the bad ends didn't so much happen as she saw their possibilities and sent the data that could have been revealed over to Junpei in the 'real' universe. Which I like, because then I think the whole thing becomes a stable timeline, so.

All in all a very well-done game with a surprisingly engaging localization--the elevator conversation was, of course, fantastic, but my favorite parts were the ones that seemed more like people actually talking than scripted game conversations. These usually involve sections with lots and lots of swearing, because that's pretty much how I'd talk in that sort of situation.

And I got the watch from Aksys, this thing is insane. The pictures kind of made it look like something you'd get on a Fruit Loops box, but it's really well-constructed, the blue plastic tubes are much stronger than they look, practically everything else is metal, and it actually looks relatively cool displaying the time. A little too small for me to wear, but still awesome. Possibly the nicest preorder-freebie I've ever gotten with a game.
 

sundrenched

Neo Member
This probably makes me a very very bad person but I'm thinking of getting this along with Rune Factory when a true sale comes along. I still have my B2G1 games (Layton, super scribblenauts, and lufia to get).

Gah so many games! Prob not gonna get 3DS for a while till I finish these and I just got a PSP too...
 
Got my third Ending. To be continued.
I really thought I would go somewhere after being left behind door 9 instead of a blank screen. I thought I would explore the library, find snake, or at least try to find the passcode to the coffin.
Oh well, time for round four.:D
 
Akselziys said:
Another new review:

http://www.xugogaming.com/article/270/999_nine_hours_nine_persons_nine_doors_review

Haters gunna hate? haha

Least the score was still decent :)

Looks like that reviewer doesn't like to read and has little experience with the Japanese ADV genre. Unlike Western adventure games, more centered around puzzles, these types of games are centered around the written narrative, often (though not always) a branching one. I actually thought 999 had an advantage over Hotel Dusk, the game he compared it to, in that both games were linear but Hotel Dusk would give the illusion of more freedom while blocking you from doing something you knew you needed to do eventually, like picking up a pencil. Anyway, the real puzzle in 999 is trying to figure out what's really going on before the game spills the beans.

It's too bad he didn't get to the true ending, because the complaint he had about insufficient character development and conversations about nothing would be resolved if he had actually gotten through the entire game instead of just one path. And why does he complain in the final paragraph about the localization, which has nothing to do with the complaints he mentioned earlier?

But each to their own.
 

Takuhi

Member
Has anyone tried that in-game code
that lets you chance the number of your watch
on the actual preorder watch?
 
Takuhi said:
Has anyone tried that in-game code
that lets you chance the number of your watch
on the actual preorder watch?

That was the first thing I did when I got the watch! Sadly, it does nothing. Missed opportunity there.
 

Chatin

Member
Just got my first ending. (Bad ending, obviously) How thrilling!
Once Kanny died in my arms, I knew I was screwed getting out of there. My hope was to sacrifice Lotus, and escape with Kanny and Seven. lol

Being able to speed through the text on the second run has definitely made up my mind about going for all the endings! :)
 

Akselziys

Aksys Games Dev.
Chatin said:
Just got my first ending. (Bad ending, obviously) How thrilling!
Once Kanny died in my arms, I knew I was screwed getting out of there. My hope was to sacrifice Lotus, and escape with Kanny and Seven. lol

Being able to speed through the text on the second run has definitely made up my mind about going for all the endings! :)

Well, you'd want to get them regardless, since
getting one ending would just leave you with way too many questions and a sense of being unfulfilled :D
 

kiryogi

Banned
So massive true end spoilers based off someone else's speculation.
So I've talking to my friend who just started playing 9 9 9 and trying to get an impression what what he feels the situation is thus far. And he threw this one at me that I never thought of regarding who Zero was. I mean I know who it is, but basically he said that people sometimes miswrite 0 for O. And in hexadecimal thats 24, and 2+4 = 6... Never dawned on me like that.
 
I really can't believe how great this game is. I never usually play puzzle type games, visual novel games, or room escape games at all, but this game has just dragged me in immensely. I never tend to actually like video game stories all that much nowadays either, but the story + incredible localization are just top notch. I can't believe how fun I'm having, even knowing full well I'm probably making all the wrong decisions and still so excited for a future second or third run, finding out new secrets along the way.

I honestly can't recommend this game enough
 

dream

Member
Woo, got my copy! Quick question before I go dark from this thread...

In order to see the "True" ending of the game, you have to complete two run-throughs, performing a very specific string of tasks and conversations each time.

Are those "very specific tasks and conversations" made obvious for the second playthrough?
 

Ferrio

Banned
dream said:
Woo, got my copy! Quick question before I go dark from this thread...



Are those "very specific tasks and conversations" made obvious for the second playthrough?

Not exactly.
 
Got it. So good. (I still miss Cing, but this helps.)

It's all the little things in the writing and set-up. I didn't notice it until my second playthrough, but there's actually foreshadowing in the dialogue! Not many games use the stuff we learn about in high school English class effectively.

Snake: "Do you intend to kill me?"

Also, the 9th Man.

Why does he die (or does he? I haven't seen the "true ending" yet)? Because he could have been with any group. He would never affect the digital root. So his death is actually a game design decision.

Still, there are things that make you wonder if it's an error or if it's actually explained.

The dead captain with the "0" bracelet...he's dead but it's still attached. It's assumed his heart rate is zero, why is it still on?

Got three (bad) endings, but it's still exciting. Can't wait to find out what REALLY happened. :D
 

Ferrio

Banned
someguyinahat said:
Got it. So good. (I still miss Cing, but this helps.)

It's all the little things in the writing and set-up. I didn't notice it until my second playthrough, but there's actually foreshadowing in the dialogue! Not many games use the stuff we learn about in high school English class effectively.

Snake: "Do you intend to kill me?"

Also, the 9th Man.

Why does he die (or does he? I haven't seen the "true ending" yet)? Because he could have been with any group. He would never affect the digital root. So his death is actually a game design decision.

Still, there are things that make you wonder if it's an error or if it's actually explained.

The dead captain with the "0" bracelet...he's dead but it's still attached. It's assumed his heart rate is zero, why is it still on?

Got three (bad) endings, but it's still exciting. Can't wait to find out what REALLY happened. :D

All explained.
 

Takuhi

Member
dream said:
Gotcha.

How likely is it that I'll miss getting the true ending on my second playthrough?

90+% chance you'll miss it. First you need to get one of six specific endings, then you need to make an exactly correct string of decisions. (You don't need to get the true ending immediately after getting the other ending, though.) On the bright side, the other four dead-end endings are pretty entertaining!
 

jgkspsx

Member
The beginning of the game was WAY too text-heavy not to have a text-speed setting or a way to skip to the next dialogue. I was really dreading something like, say, Again.

Thankfully, after the introductions were made, things picked up. There's lots of personality and a lot to make me smile. I really enjoy and respect the writing, which is fairly uncommon. (I do wish there were slightly fewer "explaining the obvious" moments, but they're not nearly as bad as some games I've seen.)

A virtue (and, perhaps for some, a vice) of the game is that my common-sense deductions usually result in solved puzzles. There's very little ridiculous item combination going on. On one hand, that makes the puzzles (so far) more or less trivial, and takes away the "aha!" factor of figuring out what the hell the designers had in mind.

On the other hand, I don't feel the need to smash the DS, or have that awful empty feeling when I realize that the puzzle had been hard because of designer laziness.

Still haven't gotten my first ending yet, so I've mostly been avoiding the thread. I think I'm getting close, though. I'm eager to find out what happens next.
 

Akselziys

Aksys Games Dev.
jgkspsx said:
The beginning of the game was WAY too text-heavy not to have a text-speed setting or a way to skip to the next dialogue. I was really dreading something like, say, Again.

Thankfully, after the introductions were made, things picked up. There's lots of personality and a lot to make me smile. I really enjoy and respect the writing, which is fairly uncommon. (I do wish there were slightly fewer "explaining the obvious" moments, but they're not nearly as bad as some games I've seen.)

A virtue (and, perhaps for some, a vice) of the game is that my common-sense deductions usually result in solved puzzles. There's very little ridiculous item combination going on. On one hand, that makes the puzzles (so far) more or less trivial, and takes away the "aha!" factor of figuring out what the hell the designers had in mind.

On the other hand, I don't feel the need to smash the DS, or have that awful empty feeling when I realize that the puzzle had been hard because of designer laziness.

Still haven't gotten my first ending yet, so I've mostly been avoiding the thread. I think I'm getting close, though. I'm eager to find out what happens next.

Keep it up :D! I'm excited to see you progress!
 
I have to post on page 9. XD

I'm so psyched to see all the positive reviews this game is getting, I was worried that it would be subject to the "I have to read in a visual novel? WHAT THE HELL!" attitude that so many adventure games get saddled with by reviewers. Thankfully, it seems more people are understanding what the genre actually is.

But where are all the "big name" video game media reviews? This game needs more mainstream attention.

*Stares at the mailbox*
 
why don't we make a list of games\movies\comics\etc similar to 999? Any suggestions?


I'll start:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395585/

House_of_nine.jpg
 
True Ending Get. :D
Really enjoyed this game. I did not expect to see the alternate timelines, time linking to occur. I also did not expect them to be in the building, though looking back, considering the ship sunk 9 years ago, it makes sense. I love how the top screen was the present and the bottom screen was the past. Glad to see the eight made it out alive. The ending picture was amusing.
My favourite character in the end had to be Clover. She had the most interesting dialogue and interactions with the characters, and I liked how your actions determined her choices in the game. I wonder whose idea it was to let her drive in the end? If I was in the vehicle, I would be sitting by the window for when I would vomit. I was amused when she said she was okay with switching bodies with Snake and Junpei, but not Seven.

Really enjoyed my time with this game. Just want to say thanks for localizing this game Aksys, you did an amazing job.
 

Nekobo

Member
Haha, page 9! I'm still slowly going through my first playthrough (been sick and wasn't too keen on coughing up phlegm all over my DS :x ). I just finished the second escape room and I'm enjoying the game's atmosphere so far. It makes me feel this sense of urgency even though there isn't a running timer.

At the end of every year I submit a list of notable games to Asia Pacific Arts (www.asiapacificarts.usc.edu) for its year end Best of Lists...I'm definitely putting 999 in the video games portion. Visual novels represent!
 

Akselziys

Aksys Games Dev.
Nekobo said:
Haha, page 9! I'm still slowly going through my first playthrough (been sick and wasn't too keen on coughing up phlegm all over my DS :x ). I just finished the second escape room and I'm enjoying the game's atmosphere so far. It makes me feel this sense of urgency even though there isn't a running timer.

At the end of every year I submit a list of notable games to Asia Pacific Arts (www.asiapacificarts.usc.edu) for its year end Best of Lists...I'm definitely putting 999 in the video games portion. Visual novels represent!

Visual novels represent indeed :D! That's awesome of you, thanks! ;D
 
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