Karifean's Blog of Visual Novels

Okay, so I just finished up 999 and, uh, I don't even know what to say. I wish I could be all positive about it, but there's something that really, really bothers me.

This post contains spoilers for all of 999 (Zero Escape: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors). If you have not read it, beware.

Alright so since my last post was after I'd only gotten one ending, I guess I'll start by giving my overall impressions on the rest of the game leading up to the conclusion. There were good points and bad points, but on a whole I enjoyed it a lot.

The mystery was pretty fine. I'd called Ace being the bad guy back in my speculations, and those feelings were only strengthened and eventually confirmed by the other endings, but there was a lot more to it than I'd thought. And I liked that. It all felt very well thought out and only rarely did I feel like it was contrived. In fact, you can call probably all the twists of the "Safe/Letter" ending before they happen, which is something I appreciate a lot. There are some unfair points, but eh, if you don't read into them as deeply as I did they won't be as bad.

Finding the endings though. Hoo boy. I found the knife and sub endings quickly enough and eventually stumbled upon the coffin ending, but then I got too tired of doing the same puzzles over and over again, taking a good half hour to and hour every time, just to end up getting the same endings over and over again. At some point I just didn't care enough anymore to find them on my own, and consulted a spoiler-free guide. I don't regret it. Finding them is not really something you can do by just reasoning it out anyways.

Well that's about it for that. I can't say I cared for Ace's over-the-top villain portrayal in the Safe/Letter and later on the True route, though. Regardless it was very enjoyable as a whole, and did a very good job keeping the suspense up.

So what bothers me so much about 999? Enter the True Route, where the game turns pretty great for everyone but me, but mostly frustrating for me in particular.

As you surely know, the True Route is the extension of the Coffin Route, and very soon after you get to it you get to explore the library. In the middle of doing so you get Snake to talk about what happened 9 years ago. He mentions that the girl who died in the Nonary game back then was... Akane.

The problem here? From this point on, I literally called everything that was going to happen. The fact that the whole Nonary game in the present was set up to save Akane back then, Santa's involvement in it, Junpei's role in it, and how it would all be resolved. I almost facepalmed when I read the reveal that "Zero" is the "I" from the lower screen. The only thing that was missing was Akane faking her death in the Nonary game of 9 years prior, fooling Aoi and Seven into thinking she's dead, then it would've been perfect.

Am I tooting my own horn? No, not at all. It's just that I've read it all before.

Seriously. This goes beyond 'having similarities', the entire background plot is almost a direct copy of another visual novel I read. You might be able to guess which one it is, it's on my Top 10 List, but I won't say right here which one it is for those who don't know and don't want to know. And honestly... that visual novel did it a lot better and more cleverly than 999 did... which makes 999 just leave a bit of a bad aftertaste. (And no it's not Umineko)

So yeah, that's pretty unfortunate. Had I not read that visual novel before I'd have appreciated 999 a lot more, I'm sure. But oh well, Zero Escape isn't over yet. I still have Virtue's Last Reward to go through, and I'm looking forward to it.

Edit: Oh, for those too curious what visual novel I was talking about: Click at your own risk...
Ever17 - The Out of Infinity