999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors (DS Review) by Nathan D.

999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors
Publisher: Aksys Games
Developer: Chunsoft
System: Nintendo DS
Release: November 16, 2010

February 4, 2011, by Nathan D. - On November 16, 2010, Aksys Games released 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors, a mature visual novel type game exclusively for the Nintendo DS. Led by the writer of the critically acclaimed visual novel Ever 17: The Out of Infinity, 999 has players take control of Junpei, a college student who wakes up one morning to find himself in a mysterious cruise ship. Junpei discovers that he's locked inside a small room, and the window breaks and water begins to flood the area. After he manages to escape, Junpei discovers eight other people trapped on the cruise ship and he learns that they only have nine hours to somehow escape the ship before it sinks.

999 features fantastic story-telling. Once Junpei encounters the other people trapped on the ship he's able to engage in different conversations with each of them that can even influence the outcome of the game. As the story progresses, Junpei slowly pieces together how he was kidnapped and why the mysterious, gas mask wearing kidnappers are putting the nine people through a rigorous test of life and death. The overall atmosphere of 999 is often gloomy and bleak, but it's never overly gory, unnecessarily violent, or made of low production values similar to the Saw movies.

There are two types of gameplay in 999: visual novel and puzzle mode. When in visual novel mode, Junpei is able to talk to his eight other companions and learn information about the game's story. As stated earlier, different conversation paths can ultimately influence the outcome of the game's story. It's a very cool addition to the game's mechanics, and some dialog paths can reveal a character's back story making the player feel more connected to the characters. Certain dialog paths can even kill another character in the game, forcing players to carefully choose what advice they give other characters, what they say or ask, and who they take with them.

Puzzle mode takes place when Junpei has to escape from a room. He puzzles are fairly simple early on in the game but start to ramp up as players progress further in the game. The different puzzles include number sequences, environmental puzzles, and hidden object puzzles. When in puzzle mode the game plays similar to a point and click adventure game where layers can tap different objects on the touch screen, collect items, and open an inventory menu. Various items that players collect can be combined as well, creating useful objects that can help players escape a room or be given to another character to aid them. Different actions taken during an escape attempt can kill Junpei, and if players aren't able to complete the game in nine hours, the ship sinks and Junpei dies.

999 is very replay-friendly. If players aren't able to escape the ship they can start a new playthrough and the game will let them skip past dialog sequences that they've already read, speeding up the replay process and giving the game a much larger appeal. 999 is also a great game to replay even if players are able to escape the ship since certain dialog and puzzle mode actions can kill other characters; it's always fun to see what dialog options influence different outcomes in the game.

The Verdict

Sound
12/15 - The soundtrack in 999 compliments the ambient atmosphere of the game.

Graphics
17/20 - Simple anime-style art encompasses the visual novel portions of the game, while hand-drawn backgrounds make up the puzzle mode portions. 999 looks very nice.

Appeal
25/25 - Players aren't likely to escape the cruise ship in their first playthrough, and the ability to skip past dialog that has already been read in previous playthroughs makes 999 enjoyable to play again. Even if players are able to escape the ship, different dialog options that can kill or save other characters from death gives 999 amazing replay-ability.

Gameplay
38/40 - The visual novel portions of 999 give players great information about the game's gloomy story and different dialog choices influence the overall outcome of the game. Puzzle mode works great in 999 thanks to the touch screen, and the various puzzles in the game are challenging towards the end of the game.

Overall
92/100 - 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors is an incredible visual novel adventure that shouldn't be missed by any DS owner. The may be text heavy, but the story is absolutely amazing and players will feel connected to the eight other characters, giving players a reason to engage in different dialog portions and attempt to save them if they're on the verge of death.