Review - 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors

So I was recommended this game by my little brother a while back, as mentioned in some previous posts. He claimed it was the "GREATEST" DS game, and such a praise just had to be checked. Also as mentioned before, my first impressions of this visual novel game were definitely great. The story writing in the narration is very effective and captivating, while doing a great job at putting you in place of Junpei, the main character. Finding himself trapped in a strange ship filled with puzzles set up by Zero, the man who had kidnapped Junpei and 8 others to play the Nonary Game, quickly learns that this is a serious matter of life or death. In order to escape the ship alive, he would have to win the Nonary Game by solving the puzzles placed in the ship and find the door labeled with a 9.

The graphics look good in that it portrays the story well, especially in the survival/horror aspect (and I don't mean that just because of the opening of doors. You know what I mean if you've played enough of the earlier Resident Evil games), and the animated sprites of the characters are full of color and character. The many main characters in the game have varying personalities that plays out very well in the story's settings, adding humor, mystery, and strong messages. Accompanying each situation in the game are great soundtracks that reflects the mood very well, also making use of silence as well when appropriate.

That briefly covers four major topics of Story, Character, Graphics, and Sound. What's left is the Gameplay. It isn't particularly a difficult game. At least, once you've grasped the general flow of the game. Majority of the game's content is in the story telling and dialogue. As for the rest, you will be placed in a room with multiple puzzles to solve in order to escape, or move on to the next area. In terms of difficulty of these puzzles, they are not too bad. Professor Layton games will have harder puzzles than what you will encounter in 999, at least those that are worth around 35~50 picarats. Even if you aren't good at solving puzzles, the game will give you several hints and clues as well, and are fairly straightforward, which is a good thing. The puzzles are fairly relevant to each situation in each room, and fit the context of escaping the room well.

Aside from Escape Mode, the only other important element are the choices you must make in the game. Multiple branching paths in the choices you make throughout the game will take you down different paths, and get you one of six different endings. Three of which are bad endings, one dummy ending, and two important endings. The sense of mystery you get from the bad endings are quite intriguing, and I felt that the True Ending was quite satisfying.

So, is this game the greatest DS game? It's hard to say. There have been quite a few DS games that I've really enjoyed, like The World Ends With You from the top of my head. However, I could definitely say that this was a DS game that gave a strong impact, especially as a visual novel game in a single title. I greatly appreciate good, original stories, and the impact it had on me was as strong as the epic Phoenix Wright trilogy, and that's saying something. >_>

Also, I should also mention that the game is rated M, and for a good reason. Graphic deaths and swearing is common here, and there's also suggestive sexual themes and an alcohol reference in there somewhere as well. NOT something I would recommend to little, innocent kids. However, for all other, mature audiences, this is a great title to pick up for your DS library.

Finally, I am still deciding on what to do about spoiler topics in the blog. I am wondering whether if a separate page could work, or if the initial idea of bringing over a collapsing text box with a button would be best for hiding spoilers in my posts. There are some things that I would like to comment on that are spoilers, but a review post is definitely not the place to do it at. x_o;