zero escape: nine hours, nine persons, nine doors

review

i find 999 tough to talk about.

it’s not a game that should blow me away. i find a lot of pseudo-scientific stories pretty annoying, and this game leans into that pseudo-science pretty hard. i am also a massive wimp, so psych-horror games aren’t always my cup of tea. 999 shouldn’t be a game i enjoy to the extent i do… but here we are.

999 doesn’t stand out through completely unique tropes. it stands out by manipulating your expectations and creating unique situations out of those tropes.

even the premise seems derivative, at the start: you’re on a sinking ship, in the middle of the ocean, and the only way to escape is to play some masked man’s twisted games. sounds like 8 other games you can think of, right? hell, it probably reminds you of 8 other games from spike chunsoft themselves.

but it takes that simple concept of “death game” and expands on it in ways i’ve never seen done again. it seems that this game is oddly tuned for the vast majority of its players to survive, through its mathematical nature. each set of doors seems to allow everyone to move on, in one way or another. at some point, you realize this isn’t a death game, it’s a finely tuned mission with 9 specifically selected people, all of whom have links to one another.

that set of 9 characters is also fantastic, which helps. junpei is an every man, but he’s not bland. he’s motivated, willing to do whatever it takes to get out, ideally with his childhood friend akane. santa and lotus don’t always get along, but their characters share a lot of overlap, with their shared loss pushing them further into despair. ace seems to be a nice mentor figure, which the group desperately needs, and seven, despite his brutish nature, is an extremely friendly figure, who only seems to dislike lotus’s often sorry attitude.

999 tells its story through 5 branching paths. this, on its own, is nothing new, especially for visual novels; that kind of storytelling is what makes a lot of visual novels interesting. but it takes that kind of story and twists it, connecting each branch together through scraps of information. you’ll learn about various items throughout each path, or unique information about each character, or how to manipulate each branch to get the desired outcome, and take that information to achieve new endings.

but even that style of game has been done before, so it takes it a step further. now, the story ties into that information gathering. the main character starts to regain the knowledge alongside you, and through that, learns the real reason they’re trapped in this situation in the first place. it sounds like a mess… and it kind of is, but it’s what makes this whole game so interesting. it’s a complete mess that somehow connects itself back together at the end.

and i think it also does that by not delving too much into the pseudo-science. sure, sometimes there are moments where too much time is spent on the how instead of the why, but overall, most of the game is spent on each character grasping the situation they’ve been placed in. that balance allows for richer character development without the game feeling sluggish.

each character is given time alone with junpei, or in a smaller group, to open up about their past, or their motivations, or even just to talk. you watch how each character adapts or breaks under different contexts, and how their mindset warps to justify their actions. after a couple of playthroughs with different routes, you begin to understand their actions as their motivations unfold. the game gives you enough time to care about these characters, and that makes every decision you make that much harder.

i haven’t even mentioned the escape sequences yet, because they’re… fine. they’re the main “gameplay” segments of the game, being room-based puzzles reminiscent of old point and click games. i really like the presentation, as each room is a diorama-like set up with set camera angles, and there’s some really cute character interactions in each, but the actual puzzles could be balanced a little better difficulty-wise. at the start, they’re too easy, and by the end, you’re cracking the weirdest shit you’ve ever seen. either way, this game shines in its story, and these puzzles are nice breaks from the storytelling action.

999 shines, especially in an age where this type of game is more popular than ever. it’s a unique take on a genre that tends not to deviate too much in its formula, with some fantastic characters and one of the most incredible final twists i’ve ever seen. it’s worth your time.

its sequels? yeah, maybe skip those, though.

score

9/10

notes

• developed by Spike Chunsoft
• published by Spike Chunsoft
• released in 2017
• played nonary games port
• played on pc
• crossposted to backloggd