The best part of this game is the 30 minutes you spend in silence starting at the blank DS screen thinking about whatever the fuck actually happened
Coming from the Danganronpa series I wasn't sure what to expect playing this game but it sure wasn't this. They both might be death games but zero escape has a different approach to the genre. A very interesting puzzle game that captivates you the instant you finish an ending and wants you to keep going for more of the endings for you to slowly find out the reason why junpei and the others are here as you find out how to escape. Learning the backstories of all the characters as you play the different routes you learn the reason why they were chosen for the game as you grow to like them. This game really surprised me as the true ending was definitely something that was different from my expectations. It's a very solid VN that makes me curious to try out the rest of the series one day
I've become convinced that there is no way to substantially improve this game, and/or its story, without drastically altering the final product and its core identity for the worse. If Spike Chunsoft's Danganronpa series is an exploration of character relationships dynamics at its most hyperbolic and brash, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors explores those same dynamics with the tact of a carefully crafted pressurized chamber. There are so many moments within each stroke and line that are created with the sole intent of increasing the dread between two characters, whether by sowing discord or pulling them together amidst almost certain death. The tension isn't overbearing at first but it builds and towers into this monolith of anxiety, to the point where its true finale brought me to tears on my first playthrough.
That's not to discount the gameplay, which is in effect perfected (for the most part) in the PC port but is just as gripping and fun in the original DS version. It's the type of escape room puzzling that I absolutely adore, fully realized and made even more gripping with the eclectic ways you craft solutions. Combining objects, altered arithmetic, careful dialogue traversal, it's all so wild and fresh as someone who plays around with this genre as a matter of habit, let alone taste—it makes me wonder just how much more developed this idea of room traversal and additive puzzle-solving can get if this game is the best I've seen the genre offer. It's such a shot of euphoria peeking through each individual notch in this labyrinth of rooms, putting together pieces and creating more puzzles. It's this type of design that makes me swoon and weep for more of its kind, even as the escape room genre wanes in its popularity little by little every year. This is the type of puzzle game I fucking adore, concentrated and purified to such an extent that replaying it was an immediate rush of dopamine and anxiety.
That's not to discount the gameplay, which is in effect perfected (for the most part) in the PC port but is just as gripping and fun in the original DS version. It's the type of escape room puzzling that I absolutely adore, fully realized and made even more gripping with the eclectic ways you craft solutions. Combining objects, altered arithmetic, careful dialogue traversal, it's all so wild and fresh as someone who plays around with this genre as a matter of habit, let alone taste—it makes me wonder just how much more developed this idea of room traversal and additive puzzle-solving can get if this game is the best I've seen the genre offer. It's such a shot of euphoria peeking through each individual notch in this labyrinth of rooms, putting together pieces and creating more puzzles. It's this type of design that makes me swoon and weep for more of its kind, even as the escape room genre wanes in its popularity little by little every year. This is the type of puzzle game I fucking adore, concentrated and purified to such an extent that replaying it was an immediate rush of dopamine and anxiety.
Spoiler free recap: Doctor Strange uses the Eye of Agamotto to confront Dormammu. He is killed over and over again, and every time he uses The Eye to come back. Over and over again, dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of times. Every time arriving with the iconic line "Dormammu, I've come to play Sudoku."
infinitely superior experience to have on the physical DS than any other re-releases where they get rid of the dual screen. zero escape is why i am better at escape rooms than anyone ever tbh
This review contains spoilers
So, lemme get this straight... Girl get's Jigsawed. Bends space time and/or uses magic to create dozens of multiple realities set 9 years in the future where SHE becomes Jigsaw and forces her love interest to save her in the past through some voodoo where they share memories... she does all that instead of just solving a beginner level Sudoku puzzle?
if you like wikipedia and video games and escape rooms then this is the game for you (it is very fun i enjoyed it a lot)
999 seems to often be recommended as some kind of entrypoint into visual novels and maybe point and click, as a mix of both, somewhat similar to Ace Attorney. Hell, it has ladder jokes so you can see the common points.
It’s also an escape game… game. You are locked in places and you’ve got to figure out where to go. The game alternates between these escape puzzles and story sections where the party will progress inside the boat, looking for an exit.
The atmosphere is spot-on
You are locked inside a big boat and it’s gonna sink. The environments are modelized in very basic 3D but this works in the game’s favour because the poor 3D models make everything feel cold, alien and eerie. Similarly, the sound design is really nice. The sounds of the interface also have that eerie feel and the soundtrack manages to convey tension throughout the game.
The story perfectly captivates the vibe of being locked inside a mysterious location which you get to know through your progress in the game and your multiple runs, revisiting locations as the game centres around a few spots. It will introduce future locations early on too so you can get used to it: see that door? It’s locked, but now you know there’s a mysterious door with a mysterious symbol on it.
The puzzles are satisfying but not exceptional
999 is a hybrid between two genres and I don’t think it excels at puzzles. However, they are decent and provide a good amount of fun. I think that a lot of the puzzles are too linear and the solution comes up way too naturally: you usually can only do one thing at the beginning and you’ll easily know what to do next, until the end of the puzzle. For example, you do not get to pick up a lot of items that you’ll use later, especially because of the game’s nature where every puzzle is isolated instead of being a whole
You don’t get to visit the ship yourself but through the story, this is a pretty heavy limit and I think it does not play in the game’s favour as I would actually have loved having the freedom to do so. Linearity aside, it’s just too easy to guess what to do and the characters also give a lot of hints. Honestly, I think most hints sounded silly because the puzzles are simple enough yet you have to read all these talks where the characters are trying to figure out the solution but where at the same time the writing is trying to hide the actual answer.
A story too constrained into a single ending:
A lot of visual novels have multiple paths you can take yet ultimately a single “true” one. 999 is no exception and it comes with the flaws of the genre. The alternative possibilities in this story do not offer much and the main use is to have the player experience multiple attempts at solving the story. This ends up quite repetitive because the information you acquire through the alternative routes is eventually used in the true ending and thus had to be explained again, in a clumsy and redundant manner mostly (although there is a neat gimmick about it too).
Another problem 999 has is that it somewhat lacks a story for a good portion of the game. Because of the way the plot is designed, there aren’t many secrets to be revealed or progress to be made that wouldn’t give away the entire plot. Thus, the plot is heavily concentrated into the true ending of the game. This route is actually quite long and took me about a third of my entire playtime of the game, compared to other ending branches which would be maybe 30 minutes long.
Because the story is so concentrated, the feeling of progress is lessened and the incentives to move forward are limited. There are only little details that matter in most routes and nothing big to retain from them. You do one route, reach a dead end with no explanation of why you failed and you just got to try another path. Thankfully, the PC port has a flowchart allowing you to go back to any point in the story instead of restarting everything, this makes it very convenient to play through the entire content and I am not convinced at all by those who criticise this system.
The reason why I believe the flowchart is essential is that there’s no impact to the choices you make and your progress is up to luck. Almost all of your choices are about which door to go through and you wouldn’t know what happen ahead of time. The other choices are choices that appear pretty inconsequential yet they are required to reach two of the endings. I thought they were really bad. At one point, a character asks a maths question and I had to answer wrong to unlock a certain path: there’s no way I would guess it without indications.
That aside, I did actually enjoy the story and I think they were some very touching moments.
Pseudoscience and fun facts, I say no:
One last thing I strongly dislike about this game is how pedantic it can get. To explain this, I will try to make up a situation that didn’t happen in the game but in a way that would happen in the game:
The group finds a nuclear bomb with a timer counting down. They panic but one character manages to keep their calm and starts explaining, “this is a nuclear bomb, do you know how nuclear science has allowed us to make a nuclear bomb? It was discovered by…”. After a lengthy explanation of how nuclear bombs work, another character will reveal their expertise in this science and start adding some precisions, “hey, this is actually a 1 megaton bomb, the radius of explosion would be around 10 km. If this exploded, we’re all dead!”. After this, we finally get to see the characters do something and how it’s gonna matter in the plot.
Quite a lot of the time, the story is interrupted by this kind of needless jargon you would hear from a high schooler trying to tell you cool science facts, if not pseudoscience. Yeah, the game also has a lot of pseudoscience and because of the way it was introduced I really wasn’t convinced. Not only is the introduction improper but the fact that all of the characters turn into some weirdos with random fun fact encyclopaedias in their head is just absurd to me.
Overall I did enjoy the game and appreciated it. It’s not the VN nor puzzle game I liked the most but I still think it has its merits.
It’s also an escape game… game. You are locked in places and you’ve got to figure out where to go. The game alternates between these escape puzzles and story sections where the party will progress inside the boat, looking for an exit.
The atmosphere is spot-on
You are locked inside a big boat and it’s gonna sink. The environments are modelized in very basic 3D but this works in the game’s favour because the poor 3D models make everything feel cold, alien and eerie. Similarly, the sound design is really nice. The sounds of the interface also have that eerie feel and the soundtrack manages to convey tension throughout the game.
The story perfectly captivates the vibe of being locked inside a mysterious location which you get to know through your progress in the game and your multiple runs, revisiting locations as the game centres around a few spots. It will introduce future locations early on too so you can get used to it: see that door? It’s locked, but now you know there’s a mysterious door with a mysterious symbol on it.
The puzzles are satisfying but not exceptional
999 is a hybrid between two genres and I don’t think it excels at puzzles. However, they are decent and provide a good amount of fun. I think that a lot of the puzzles are too linear and the solution comes up way too naturally: you usually can only do one thing at the beginning and you’ll easily know what to do next, until the end of the puzzle. For example, you do not get to pick up a lot of items that you’ll use later, especially because of the game’s nature where every puzzle is isolated instead of being a whole
You don’t get to visit the ship yourself but through the story, this is a pretty heavy limit and I think it does not play in the game’s favour as I would actually have loved having the freedom to do so. Linearity aside, it’s just too easy to guess what to do and the characters also give a lot of hints. Honestly, I think most hints sounded silly because the puzzles are simple enough yet you have to read all these talks where the characters are trying to figure out the solution but where at the same time the writing is trying to hide the actual answer.
A story too constrained into a single ending:
A lot of visual novels have multiple paths you can take yet ultimately a single “true” one. 999 is no exception and it comes with the flaws of the genre. The alternative possibilities in this story do not offer much and the main use is to have the player experience multiple attempts at solving the story. This ends up quite repetitive because the information you acquire through the alternative routes is eventually used in the true ending and thus had to be explained again, in a clumsy and redundant manner mostly (although there is a neat gimmick about it too).
Another problem 999 has is that it somewhat lacks a story for a good portion of the game. Because of the way the plot is designed, there aren’t many secrets to be revealed or progress to be made that wouldn’t give away the entire plot. Thus, the plot is heavily concentrated into the true ending of the game. This route is actually quite long and took me about a third of my entire playtime of the game, compared to other ending branches which would be maybe 30 minutes long.
Because the story is so concentrated, the feeling of progress is lessened and the incentives to move forward are limited. There are only little details that matter in most routes and nothing big to retain from them. You do one route, reach a dead end with no explanation of why you failed and you just got to try another path. Thankfully, the PC port has a flowchart allowing you to go back to any point in the story instead of restarting everything, this makes it very convenient to play through the entire content and I am not convinced at all by those who criticise this system.
The reason why I believe the flowchart is essential is that there’s no impact to the choices you make and your progress is up to luck. Almost all of your choices are about which door to go through and you wouldn’t know what happen ahead of time. The other choices are choices that appear pretty inconsequential yet they are required to reach two of the endings. I thought they were really bad. At one point, a character asks a maths question and I had to answer wrong to unlock a certain path: there’s no way I would guess it without indications.
That aside, I did actually enjoy the story and I think they were some very touching moments.
Pseudoscience and fun facts, I say no:
One last thing I strongly dislike about this game is how pedantic it can get. To explain this, I will try to make up a situation that didn’t happen in the game but in a way that would happen in the game:
The group finds a nuclear bomb with a timer counting down. They panic but one character manages to keep their calm and starts explaining, “this is a nuclear bomb, do you know how nuclear science has allowed us to make a nuclear bomb? It was discovered by…”. After a lengthy explanation of how nuclear bombs work, another character will reveal their expertise in this science and start adding some precisions, “hey, this is actually a 1 megaton bomb, the radius of explosion would be around 10 km. If this exploded, we’re all dead!”. After this, we finally get to see the characters do something and how it’s gonna matter in the plot.
Quite a lot of the time, the story is interrupted by this kind of needless jargon you would hear from a high schooler trying to tell you cool science facts, if not pseudoscience. Yeah, the game also has a lot of pseudoscience and because of the way it was introduced I really wasn’t convinced. Not only is the introduction improper but the fact that all of the characters turn into some weirdos with random fun fact encyclopaedias in their head is just absurd to me.
Overall I did enjoy the game and appreciated it. It’s not the VN nor puzzle game I liked the most but I still think it has its merits.
“Yeah I, I hit the bottom. Hit the bottom and escape. Escape.” - Radiohead, (Weird Fishes / Arpeggi, In Rainbows)
Escape, the end, the goal. We all want to escape. We want to escape bad circumstances, we want to escape our past, or maybe we want to escape our fate, escape death. Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors [also known as 999] is about escape. The gameplay, and the narrative are focused on escaping. And despite how focused the game is on escaping, I found myself wanting to do the opposite by the time the final credits wrapped up and the game ended.
999, for those unfamiliar, is a puzzle escape game release originally for the Nintendo DS, and rereleased on various consoles and PC in the years following its original release. The game’s protagonist is a young man by the name of Junpei. Who is kidnapped by a mysterious person known as Zero. From then Junpei awakes upon a cruise liner and is thrusted into the deadly Nonary Game alongside 8 other individuals. All Junpei and the 8 persons are tasked with finding a door with a 9 on it in 9 hours, or else the cruise will sink.
From this point forward your character has to make it through various numbered doors containing puzzle rooms akin to those you’d find on those dingy and grimy iPad escape room games. With each door and character combination you’ll find new information that provides a wider image to what exactly is going on in 999. After entering any combination of doors you’ll find yourself at one of the 6 endings, each with their own significance upon the story of the game.
One of my favorites parts of this game is how each room combination recontextualizes the story and characters for you. With each individual playthrough you’ll find yourself rethinking what what you know and what you learned. You’ll also find yourself rethinking each character, their motives, their words, and their actions. It’s a masterpiece in storytelling by letting the player in on enough information to build suspense, confusion, and excitement. All of it builds up with an absolutely hard-hitting and thought provoking ending which absolutely flips the story on its head and fills in most narrative holes quite perfectly, there’s still stuff I’m realizing about the games story even as I write this. It is one of the most well written insane plots I’ve ever seen in a video game.
It’s not perfect though, there’s one particular big plot thread that had a majorly underwhelming conclusion, I don’t think it’ll be quite a problem the next time I play this game (because I will 100% replay this), but it still slightly irritates me. That being said, a game this narratively dense can’t be perfect in every way, and the overall story is one that doesn’t let you down in the slightest.
I almost forgot to add, but if you look like June dm me. That is all.
I give this game a GIVE ME A P, GIVE ME AN I, GIVE ME A P, GIVE ME AN E. WHAT DOES THAT SPELL?!/10
Escape, the end, the goal. We all want to escape. We want to escape bad circumstances, we want to escape our past, or maybe we want to escape our fate, escape death. Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors [also known as 999] is about escape. The gameplay, and the narrative are focused on escaping. And despite how focused the game is on escaping, I found myself wanting to do the opposite by the time the final credits wrapped up and the game ended.
999, for those unfamiliar, is a puzzle escape game release originally for the Nintendo DS, and rereleased on various consoles and PC in the years following its original release. The game’s protagonist is a young man by the name of Junpei. Who is kidnapped by a mysterious person known as Zero. From then Junpei awakes upon a cruise liner and is thrusted into the deadly Nonary Game alongside 8 other individuals. All Junpei and the 8 persons are tasked with finding a door with a 9 on it in 9 hours, or else the cruise will sink.
From this point forward your character has to make it through various numbered doors containing puzzle rooms akin to those you’d find on those dingy and grimy iPad escape room games. With each door and character combination you’ll find new information that provides a wider image to what exactly is going on in 999. After entering any combination of doors you’ll find yourself at one of the 6 endings, each with their own significance upon the story of the game.
One of my favorites parts of this game is how each room combination recontextualizes the story and characters for you. With each individual playthrough you’ll find yourself rethinking what what you know and what you learned. You’ll also find yourself rethinking each character, their motives, their words, and their actions. It’s a masterpiece in storytelling by letting the player in on enough information to build suspense, confusion, and excitement. All of it builds up with an absolutely hard-hitting and thought provoking ending which absolutely flips the story on its head and fills in most narrative holes quite perfectly, there’s still stuff I’m realizing about the games story even as I write this. It is one of the most well written insane plots I’ve ever seen in a video game.
It’s not perfect though, there’s one particular big plot thread that had a majorly underwhelming conclusion, I don’t think it’ll be quite a problem the next time I play this game (because I will 100% replay this), but it still slightly irritates me. That being said, a game this narratively dense can’t be perfect in every way, and the overall story is one that doesn’t let you down in the slightest.
I almost forgot to add, but if you look like June dm me. That is all.
I give this game a GIVE ME A P, GIVE ME AN I, GIVE ME A P, GIVE ME AN E. WHAT DOES THAT SPELL?!/10
do NOT try out autistic pussy ‼️
an interesting premise fails completely to make any part of this experience enjoyable at all. at some points it just makes zero fucking sense - the mystery is so poorly constructed that i was able to correctly guess the culprit through completely incorrect logic. not an unironic way to solve the mystery i suppose, considering the many moments where i yelled at my laptop out of frustration considering just how fucking stupid some of the reveals here really are. characters are completely underdeveloped as well, and depending on your choices the game can be extremely poorly paced - just overall a really not good - yet entertaining - time. whatever.
This is a really good VN with a solid story, well written characters and a good setting that I am gonna pretend that I understood all of what they were talking about. Jokes aside this game is great and delves into many different themes and theories. The only issues that I had with this game seems to only appear in the Nonary games bundle so I won't dock any stars for that.
God what a beautiful game. The big twist at the end hit me hard. i was sobbing my eyes at the end. it’s so tragic yet hopeful and perfect. i immediately wanted to replay it after finishing to catch every bit of foreshadowing. Uchikoshi is a mastermind when it comes to writing more personal self contained tragic stories.
i didn't mark this with a spoiler warning, and i don't think this review really spoils anything, but i do discuss how i feel about some parts of the game (ending-related) without going into specifics or saying anything explicit about the plot.
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i really liked this game. the escape room puzzles are pretty decent: nothing too difficult, but still moderately thought-provoking. having played the original DS version, i didn't have the in-game choices flowchart or any other real quality of life features in the newer versions, so it was definitely a bit of a grind to get all of the endings. the premise of the game is extremely unique, and it does a lot with it. loved the final ending, and while most of the other endings feel "unecessary," i don't think you can really do away with them for the way i felt in the final ending having experienced the others. i kinda popped off.
i will say, i don't like how arbitrary the way you get to some of the endings is. looking at a flowchart of all the possible ways to get each ending, it feels kinda random why doing certain permutations of choices leads to the endings they do. usually, the only real reason the game steers towards different endings because the characters just kinda decide to do different things that you could not possibly expect, such as going down a different corridor that they don't go down at the same point in time on another path. also, sometimes you will be in the exact same situation you have been in before but because you did something different earlier that playthrough, some characters will just suddenly have different things to say for some reason, which feels weird even though it should not affect them in most circumstances. if there's reasons why characters decided to say different things at different times or why they decide to go to X door instead of Y door when you had done different things in the past, i didn't get them.
everything really comes together in the end, but i would probably have never found all the endings if i had not looked at a spoiler-free/spoiler-light flowchart that explains how to get them all. i'm sure it's much better to do so in the newer releases. loved it overall. some stories you really can only tell through videogames.
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i really liked this game. the escape room puzzles are pretty decent: nothing too difficult, but still moderately thought-provoking. having played the original DS version, i didn't have the in-game choices flowchart or any other real quality of life features in the newer versions, so it was definitely a bit of a grind to get all of the endings. the premise of the game is extremely unique, and it does a lot with it. loved the final ending, and while most of the other endings feel "unecessary," i don't think you can really do away with them for the way i felt in the final ending having experienced the others. i kinda popped off.
i will say, i don't like how arbitrary the way you get to some of the endings is. looking at a flowchart of all the possible ways to get each ending, it feels kinda random why doing certain permutations of choices leads to the endings they do. usually, the only real reason the game steers towards different endings because the characters just kinda decide to do different things that you could not possibly expect, such as going down a different corridor that they don't go down at the same point in time on another path. also, sometimes you will be in the exact same situation you have been in before but because you did something different earlier that playthrough, some characters will just suddenly have different things to say for some reason, which feels weird even though it should not affect them in most circumstances. if there's reasons why characters decided to say different things at different times or why they decide to go to X door instead of Y door when you had done different things in the past, i didn't get them.
everything really comes together in the end, but i would probably have never found all the endings if i had not looked at a spoiler-free/spoiler-light flowchart that explains how to get them all. i'm sure it's much better to do so in the newer releases. loved it overall. some stories you really can only tell through videogames.
I love the fuck out of this game. Maybe it was my first visual novel -albeit it isn't fully a vn- and I got completely engrossed in its story even in that time when I couldn't care less about the medium.
Yes the story can get really silly and there are plot points that are straight up stupid, but it also can have such amazing moments. The use of the numbers as a way to drive the plot is managed in such a genious way when it could have been easily hindered by its complexity.
It's kinda sad that this story never got a proper ending, but just how good it is it's worth it. VLR is worse and better at the same time. I heavily recommend it too.
Yes the story can get really silly and there are plot points that are straight up stupid, but it also can have such amazing moments. The use of the numbers as a way to drive the plot is managed in such a genious way when it could have been easily hindered by its complexity.
It's kinda sad that this story never got a proper ending, but just how good it is it's worth it. VLR is worse and better at the same time. I heavily recommend it too.
Yo dawg I heard you like nine so I put nine persons in nine doors in nine hours so you can escape while you zero.
jumpy listen to me the birds are secret cameras installed by the government. the government is spying on everyone with birds. do not waste your seeds and crumbs of food on them jumpy. they don’t deserve your pity, they are using your human compassion against you in order to receive free food. they are spying on us and STEALING OUR FOOD jumpy you don’t understand the severity of this jumpy why are you opening the door oh jumpy please don’t leave this is very important
Absolutely great setup for this kind of game. There is an infinite amount of creative situations that the Nonary Games' setup allows for, and the rest of the game doesn't disappoint. It is extremely rare to find a mystery this well-crafted. I managed to actually just straight-up anticipate certain reveals without them being obvious at all, that's the mark of really consistent writing imo. Also the escape rooms are really fun. I think there's a couple of minor issues (text speed is way too slow, some of the number-related twists at the very end are a little goofy and i feel like getting the true ending without looking it up would be pretty rough) but yeah this is a really good game. NieR Automata if it was good fr fr
Please, if someone for some reason is reading this review before playing this game, play the DS version, later in replays yu can play them in pc or other consoles
Nope. Nothing smart to say. This is the best video game to ever exist. It may have ruined every game I ever play because the story, cast of character, voice acting, ambience & settings, music, big brain gameplay never comes close (or so I thought... I've gotten better at not comparing and just appreciate how we can experience such good games for a few bucks these days).
Only regret is that I'm giving it full score and not funny 9 rating.
Only regret is that I'm giving it full score and not funny 9 rating.
I don't think I've played anything else that writes an unreliable narrator as well as this game does. The entire game does a truly commendable job at developing all its characters across different playthroughs, and compels you to ask deep questions about everyone's role in things as it casts suspicions equally across everyone.
That plot though... sure is something.
That plot though... sure is something.
Say, Junpei... Have you ever heard of [Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors]? They say it's a game where you can solve puzzles... And they're actually really good... But not only that... The story is also supposed to be really good, too! It makes me wonder... What if the words I'm saying right now... Aren't even real? What if I'm not even a person... I could just be a [fake character] in a [pointless bit] at the beginning of a [Backloggd review for 999]! I'm not saying I believe that, of course... It's just something to think about.
I'm not as good at exposition dumping about pseudoscience as Kotaro Uchikoshi, but you get the point. Zero Escape's writing is easy to joke about, because it's very silly. The silliness, though, is targeted. It's crafted to serve a purpose, to build out a series of ideas that, over time, take shape as something with real meaning, and even beauty. You begin the game by chuckling over speeches about Ice-9 and glycerin. You end the game sobbing over a game of sudoku.
That's the thing about Kotaro Uchikoshi, the reason why he is my single favourite writer of video games. He doesn't just write deep characters and beautiful, thematically coherent narratives - he goes about it in a way that nobody else would ever even think to do. Nobody, nobody else is writing something like 999 but him. Nobody else is crafting a game in which the artificiality of player choice is expressed as an act of love. Nobody else is turning exposition into an inherent source of comfort and meaning. Nobody else is going to make you cry by asking you to physically flip over your Nintendo DS.
I'm not as good at exposition dumping about pseudoscience as Kotaro Uchikoshi, but you get the point. Zero Escape's writing is easy to joke about, because it's very silly. The silliness, though, is targeted. It's crafted to serve a purpose, to build out a series of ideas that, over time, take shape as something with real meaning, and even beauty. You begin the game by chuckling over speeches about Ice-9 and glycerin. You end the game sobbing over a game of sudoku.
That's the thing about Kotaro Uchikoshi, the reason why he is my single favourite writer of video games. He doesn't just write deep characters and beautiful, thematically coherent narratives - he goes about it in a way that nobody else would ever even think to do. Nobody, nobody else is writing something like 999 but him. Nobody else is crafting a game in which the artificiality of player choice is expressed as an act of love. Nobody else is turning exposition into an inherent source of comfort and meaning. Nobody else is going to make you cry by asking you to physically flip over your Nintendo DS.
evan smith as junpei might have been the greatest casting choice of all time he sounds like some random guy who just walked into the booth. it’s peak
Hey, you, who hasn't played the game, reading this. Play it on a DS. please. thanks!
While I finished most endings around April, I finally unlocked the true ending and it was incredible! The puzzles, the dialogue, the conspiracy theories and the information in the game were incredible. Loved the cast of characters and I didn’t see the twists coming at all. Well done and I can’t wait to play the sequel
When I first played this game five years ago, it completely changed how I view and think about fiction, and gave me a deep interest in stories that could only be told in a very specific medium. Replaying it now, I still love it all the same. A very personally important game for me, and one I recommend to anyone with an appreciation for nonstandard methods of storytelling.
Danganronpas lesser known older brother, as well as a much more serious and cerebral experience in comparison. Despite taking a bit of time to get to the point, this game pulls off some pretty impressive narrative concepts.
Was so LOCKED IN I felt like drake after he took a sip of sprite.
#ThankYouTony
#ThankYouTony
Hands down, this is one of my top favourite games EVER. The story, the music, the characters, the puzzles... EVERYTHING is amazing! I can't stop recommending it to people!
the emotional climax of this game is fucking sudoku how can you NOT like it