Topic: 999

@1upsuper For a whole day after finishing the true ending of 999, the character names and the Titanic, etc. were swirling in my mind. I couldn't sleep. I agree, it really is an amazing experience. There are other games with great stories though, don't worry about it.

My favourite character is probably Lotus - and for reasons which aren't so obvious unless you've played the endings other than the true ending. I like Snake and Clover a lot as well. I like Ace too. Sheesh, they're all incredibly well-written.

Why is it that half the time a new game interests me, it is not coming out in Europe. One to import I guess.

This is the kind of reason the 3DS should remain region free, by the way.

@Ristar42 The way things are looking, the 3DS is going to be region-locked. :/

But definitely get 999. It has one of the best stories I've seen in a game.

I'll be getting this if it goes on sale. Which I imagine it will, since it probably doesn't have wide appeal.

@HolyMackerel - Bah, most annoying the way they updated the Wii to prevent the use of the GC Action Replay for imports.
Then they give us rubbish 50Hz versions on the Wii and dont release stuff like Contra 4 on the DS! Excuse the rant
Yep, will import this as looks ace.

Grrr, can't find this game anywhere! But once I do I will definitely pick it up

same here, Kid_A, I have NEVER seen it in stores, I'm trying to get it online right now.

I was wondering where all you adventure/visual novel fans were. I need people to talk with about this game! Soooo much to talk about. So many theories! But I won't spoil anything. I'm a little envious that you'll get to play it through for the first time. I wish I could forget the story and play it afresh. Ah well.

It's a very different experience from Phoenix Wright, mind you. Very chilling, emotional, thoughtful and even a little disturbing, although it has its fair share of humour too. You really become invested in the storyline since you're in the thick of it, essentially fighting for survival - whereas with PW you're the attorney and external to events since you're working for your clients (mostly). Hope you guys really enjoy the heck out of it!

Oh, and FYI you're meant to play it multiple times. You'll know when you reach the true ending because A) you won't be scared witless, and B) it won't feel unsatisfactory like it ended too early.

Also DON'T use a FAQ or walkthrough for your first play, whatever you do. It will spoil the game like nothing else. Play it naturally.

I haven't even played the game yet, only the demo, and Im still hooked and immersed in the game! Im ordering it now as having it come as soon as possible.

@HolyMack - I know what you mean by the fake endings being unsatisfactory. I got one of them and this was my reaction: "Really? You couldn't do ANYTHING about that?" At least there's 5 more to acheive, and hopefully the 4 other fake endings aren't as poorly written.

SPOILERS

@Birdman13 The Axe ending? I don't think it was poorly written. What was poorly written about it? it was an intentional slasher flick ending. I'd certainly say that's the "worst" ending of the lot, but remember that this is a game where you're supposed to see all the endings. Essentially Junpei had lost all hope by that point in the story, which is why you had no control whatsoever. It does clue you in on a number of important things about the characters involved though. Think about it from the perspective of what caused that outcome and how you could prevent it next time. When you get some more endings it will all make a lot more sense, trust me.

P.S. If you're looking for the best experience of the game and you're playing through everything using the ending chart, I recommend this order of endings, without duplicating the ending you got naturally of course:
Natural Playthrough -> Axe -> Knife -> Sub -> Safe -> True

Really? I though SUB was the worst of the bad endings (not in quality but outcome) and I got that one a lot! Looking at the relatively spoiler free game map on gamefaqs there are lots of different ways to end up at the same ending. What about the 'Coffin' ending? Don't you think that should be included?

Also when you reach the 'true' ending it makes you realise how horrible the 'Axe' ending truly is.

@y0ss4ri4n Best to mark spoilers on this game. One slip and the whole game could be ruined for someone. The coffin ending is the true ending, just abruptly cut short. It's not worth it unless you get it on your first playthrough since you don't get anything unique out of it.

ENDING SPOILERS

And yes, the sub ending is probably the very worst ending in terms of what happens. But we were talking about writing quality though and I have yet to see any poor writing in the game at all. Apart from... one part with Santa which was just ridiculous (the two Santas, wtf), but then it was so full of Japanese misconceptions that I could let it pass. As for the true ending... yeah, the axe ending seems like it's just shock value until you do the true ending and realise what a crying shame it all was.

SPOILER ALERT

@HolyMack - I got the coffin ending, and it pissed me off because there were still 1.5-2 hours left, and the characters did nothing but just accept their fate that they were going to die. I mean, if I was in that situation I would've tried smashing open the coffin with the help of Seven's brute force, not just sit around twiddling my thumbs until the bombs went off. That's what pissed me off about it.

END SPOILER ALERT

I guess I am one of the few (maybe even the only one) who wasn't impressed by this game. Yes, I know that it's more like a novel, but there's just so much reading, and yet so few gameplay choices and a ridiculously overrated ending for my taste. I want to be more involved in a game than this. :S

^Did you get all of the endings?

@Nightwalker: How many times did you play the game? You can only really appreciate the game's story by seeing every one of the six endings. They really do tie together brilliantly.

@Nightwalker How many endings did you get? Did you get the true ending? I found the true ending immensely satisfying. The non-true ones were abrupt and unfulfilled, but considering they were intentional bad endings I could put up with that. And finishing all the endings with the true ending last brought everything into such clear focus, it was fantastic.

If you don't like the fact that you had to read everything, well that's not the fault of the game. The nature of visual novels is that they substitutes animations and visuals with textual narration. Nothing about the reading was hard or out of place imo. The writing and translation were excellent. In fact, the gore scenes seemed to me more visceral and violent when described than if they were simply pictured. If you're not satisfied by that then... well, maybe you should read more books. Or don't, and never play any more visual novels because they're obviously not for you.

But if so, how did you even reach the ending? Were you not drawn in by the unique setting, the vibrant and dangerous characters, the pseudoscientific theories, the tension? Or was it a plodding, oh-god-more-text affair where you forced yourself to finish? You shouldn't have bothered if that was the case.

I can't imagine how you couldn't get more involved in a game like 999, actually. Sure, the story-changing choices are few (but it makes sense that they involve the doors) but considering the amount of effort and additional text and graphics there are for each branch... well, let's say it would be unreasonable on the developers for you to demand that every choice in the game is truly significant. I don't think the number of story branches is too little. Did you look up the plot chart before playing? That would completely ruin the sense of tension and exploration you should have had.

Still, I noticed that even without the story-changing choices you can find out (or miss) bits of important information and backstory. And even if you took out all of the story branches, its plot is still as good or better than other adventure games' plots.

SPOILERS: TRUE ENDING

The true ending also wraps up absolutely everything (except ALLICE, I guess lol) and even explains why there are multiple story branches and what the hell happened during your multiple playthroughs. Major mind-blowing paradigm shifts occur in the true ending. I'd hardly call that overrated. I'd call that excellent writing. Seriously, can it get any better?

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Yes, I reached all of the 6 endings. And I didn't say that I disliked the game, I only said that I was far from impressed (although I find stories to be very important in games), and by that, I wanted to make it clear that I consider the DS to have far better games, some of them also similar to novels. For example, I love the Phoenix Wright Series.

^But PW is a P'n'C, not a visual novel.:/