999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors. Best DS game?

That was probably the most emotional sudoku I've ever had to complete.

The puzzle was very easy, but I guess that's expected to be for game designed for childrens rofl. Also kinda disappointed me it was not indenpendent storylines for each play like Fate: Stay Night, Secret Game: Killer Queen, Higurashi/Umineko etc. to keep things fresh.

Need to get axe + knife ending I know I left the worse for last =P.

So many theories on the game, due to the author leaving lots of "plot holes" for players themselves to fill

I've never felt so epic doing sudoku in my life.

From left to right: Endings 3+5+6 (axe/knife/submarine) should be done before ending 4 (safe), and finally ending 1 (true end). Ending 2 is a dud end, being a cutoff version of the true end; never aim for this ending.

The very end of the game, when he says he will solve this one with his own mind and you have to flip the ds over and then you realize WHY it makes sense and the implication...

one of my favorite gaming moments ever, for sure - conveyed the message far better than any text exposition ever could

having to flip the DS upside down, that was a huge FUUUUUUUCK moment for me when I realized what they just did.

I just started playing yesterday and so far I got the knife and the sub ending. I couldn't sleep last night because I kept trying to link together the two endings. I got the sub ending first and thought that there had to be a 10th person aside from the original 9. Then at the knife ending Junpei made it seem like the killer was someone in the group, whoever benefited the most from getting Lotus' bracelet. But one person alone wouldn't benefit from Lotus' bracelet since they need 3 people at least to open the 9 door, so the sum of the other 2 peoples' bracelets have to be 10 in order for the 9 door to open, so does that mean 2 killers? The only combos possible would be 4/6 and 3/7. Unless the killer wanted both Junpei's and Lotus' bracelet, which doesn't make sense to me since 5+8=13 and you need 18 for the digital root to be 9, which meant two 5 bracelets.

So this gets me wondering back to the sub ending, whether or not there was a 10th person. The only other person who could've killed Lotus/Seven were either Clover/Santa/Ace if they pretended to be dead or something. Or maybe Snake/9th man aren't actually dead and it was faked or something...

I'm on the third playthrough right now and it seems like this telepathy thing takes on some different form in each route. First I heard about the chemicals from Seven and how they communicated with eachother or something to make a hydrate, then it was about the child experiment, then the dog and lady picture, and then the Ice-9 thing. The real ending probably has something to do with this I'm guessing.

I seriously have to find out wtf is going on x_x

There is a possibility for only one person to profit from Lotus' bracelet! Is putting your hand on the terminal how you check in, or can you just put the bracelet close enough to the RED to register? Also, the true ending requires another ending to get to, which has quite a bit more exposition and raises even more questions to be answered by the true ending. Speaking of which, it's hard to know which doors you need to go through in order to get to each ending... have you checked out preview B? Then, after getting the prereq ending... you should check out preview A :p

In any case stick with it! It really is amazing and the fact that you have to go through at least one ending to get to another ends up being very important...

WHY COULDN'T JUNPEI JUST STOP CLOVER WHEN SHE GOT OUT OF THE CAPTAIN'S QUARTERS T_T

Love the commonalities in plot between this game and Ever17 made certain elements too predictable, nonetheless loved them both.

Does the Mummy Exist?


Elements of Foreshadowing

Like a short story, it seemed that every bit of text and little event in this game was super important and not just thrown in as filler. Much like in Ever17, it seemed that those "weird" stories or events (Akane's constant fever) played an important role in explaining what exactly had transpired 9 years ago.

All the allusions and stories played an important role in foreshadowing the endings as well. Ice-9, Morphogenetic Fields, the Ship of Theseus, Futility, the Rabbit Hutches, Santa's hatred for what the 4 leaf clover stood for and the Curse of the Mummy.

It also seems that all the books in the Library are huge clues to the whole story.

I can figure how each plays a role in the plot except for the Curse of the Mummy and it really, really bugs me because it creates more questions about what really happened 9 years ago the game can't answer it! It doesn't go on!


Explanation of Importance

Ice-9 and Morphogenetic Fields stories were a prelude in to the whole psychic connection through a Social Holon as per Sheldrake's research and Leibniz's seven fundamental philosophical Principles. Which in this universe, seem to be factual science.

The Ship of Theseus was a clue about two things and one main story element which was Snake's disappearance. Snake's prosthetic arm, his kidnapping and swapping of clothes. As well as Ace's whole prosopagnosia thing which lead to the murder in the shower. If you change a part of something is it still really the same thing? If a man starts wearing Snake's clothes does is he then become Snake like the second ship in the Ship of Theseus paradox which was built from its old wood? To Ace, the answer was yes etc etc.

Akane's story of Futility and authors predicting the sinking of the Titanic was a clue to the 9 year psychic connection thing.

I found that Akane's fever was very important. It foreshadowed the whole incinerator event, it also was a clue to Zero's identity. Her fever would arise every time Junpei seemed like he was going to fail at finding the true end or began to get stuck in a puzzle. Then she would get better near the end of the puzzles because he was getting closer to helping her with the emotional sudoku puzzle. Very much like in Back to the Future when Marty kept fading in and out of existence before he got Darth Vader to come down from the planet Vulcan to convince his parents to fuck.

The story of the rabbit hutches predicted the loleveryonedead(except for Ace; they didn't check his pulse obviously he pretended to be dead and then killed Junpei, Lotus, and Seven), in which they were the rabbits and Junpei was responsible for catching the killer.

Santa's story was quite obviously important; it showed that the number 4 or Clover could be viewed as a threat. Even in some of the puzzles like in the room like in the Lab, when you fail the puzzle it says "4 is your end", is a warning about Clover.

Ok, point is everything is important.. and on to the juicy part:


The Curse of the Mummy (Allice)

There's obviously something big here considering there's no answer as to why there was a naked Egyptian hitchhiker in the middle of the Nevada desert.

There's obviously something more to the story.

I think Lotus is some how connected to the importance of Allice. Other than the clothes being a dead give away, there are several other reasons that led me to this conclusion.

Every character EXCEPT Lotus was directly involved with the events that had transpired 9 years ago. Lotus' only connection seemed to be that her kids were abducted and that's how she was connected to all of this. I refuse to believe that she was just some additional character they threw in there just because they needed to fill an empty number slot.

The thing is... everyone's past was revealed EXCEPT for Lotus.

So now under the assumption that everything in the game is important:

I think the mummy is real and Lotus is related to it show how
When Ace was talking about how he founded his company he said when he found the coffin the only thing inside was some plant. That plant looked a lot like a Mandrake root. In Greek Mythology (valid because there were books in the library on Greek Mythology) the Mandrake root is a symbol for immortality. Mummys are immortal, undead, etc.

Is Lotus the mummy?
Frequently through out the game they keep making jokes about how old of a woman she is. A clue about a connection with the mummy?

How did the door in the freezer seal shut?
Magic mummy ice powers?

Is Lotus connected to someone through the Morphogenetic Field?
Her brute force password attack on the PC in the Lab seemed to parallel the whole trial and error through repeated experiments to produce a Holon within a Morphogenetic Field.

Why did Lotus always turn blue when she died?
Like seriously? Every other corpse was pink and bloody. She was always bluish.

One of Lotus' kids was named Nona...just a rose by any other name or does that name have any extra meanings?
Nona means 9. Nonary game. Does this mean Lotus some how "gave birth" to the Nonary game too? Was she involved in its creation?

Why did Lotus bring up prosopagnosia, amnesia, and blindness in her conversation with Junpei? Did she know that the people in the group of 9 had these disabilities? How?
I mean that cannot be sheer coincidence that Lotus would talk about prosopagnosia and then BAM that was the HUGE clue for Junpei in discovering Ace's true identity. Also the same for the others; their conditions were all related to their true identities.

Is there some significance between the comparison of Lotus to the symbol of Hermes (Mercury)?
Hermes often helped travelers have a safe and easy journey. Many Greeks would sacrifice to Hermes before any trip. Every time Lotus died, the ending was a disaster for the entire group. Could that be the only reason for the comparison? What about Hermes being known as a trickster or a messenger the gods (immortals / mummys)?

First Play: Coffin ending, wow....that was wtf
Second Play: Submarine ending, June *cries*
Third Play: Knife, I die before June :D
Fourth:Axe, Crazy girl
Fifth:Safe, wow wtf :o
Sixth: WOW

I am crying. This game has literally brought me to tears. I've never seen such a clever use of the DS. Only on this medium would the game make sense. When you flip your DS upside down to finish the sudoku Akane's reflection mirrors your own perfectly. In that one scene where you are both Akane and Junpei it's just too much. No other game has kept me so engrossed in it's story. The presentation was flawless.

How can akane exist in the present if she died in the past?And if she didn't die in the past, then why does she need to create a second nonary game to ensure that she lived? I think what the developers are trying to say is that akane lived by talked to junpei in the future, but that doesn't make any sense. That's like going back in time and having sex with your mom to become your own dad. =/ The game was awesome, don't get me wrong, but that's such a ridiculous plot device.

indisputably, the storyline of "im in the present and you have to connect to the past and then fix it for childhood me so that i can be saved instead of destroyed so that i can be here now, and i know how all that has happened even though i am alive now so i must not have been dead then, but if i am alive now what would be the point of going back?" is a train wreck. BUT, that being said, the presentation, the build up, and the cast of characters, the dialog, as well as the integration of the nonary number lock system and the murder mystery makes the game really fucking awesome.

if the plot was a bit more solid, i would be overjoyed. But as it is, despite the plot failings, everything else was flawlessly executed.

You're pretty much correct; Akane lived by communicating with the future Junpei. However, all it allowed her to do was cheat the timeline; unless she could bring about the exact chain of events which resulted in her past self being saved, a paradox would occur and she would cease to exist. Until the point at which her past self's life was saved, her existence in the current timeline is artificial.

If anything, it seems more unreal to me for Junpei to receive information from another continuum's version of himself at virtually the same point in time (when he suddenly knows what to do with his watch at the coffin).

I played Ever17. The general plot is the same. But.
Ever17= weak/ confusing build ups, awesome and amazing ending.
999= awesome build up, weak ending

morphogenetic fields.

For people saying the storyline does not make sense with time paradox, i think you probably need to see the thoughts "travelling" from junpei tu akane as Blick Winkel in Ever17. Like something that is above everything and that can see all the possible timelines and parrallel universes. That's really how i managed to get a decent explanation out of it

memories or not

Everyone dying and Junpei dying at the room with the submarine. The first time I just happened to choose the door with "2" on it, since I got a choice. This time I didn't even get to choose, I forced myself to the door "3" (that was the one where Snake was found dead) and eventually just had to go to "2" again. I guess I shouldn't force myself to find Snake the next time, just go for the other doors and in the drawing just choose another door.

I gotta say, quite frustrating to have complete the game twice and I still know so little about the story. Oh well, another round coming up later in the evening.

http://www.aksysgames.com/999/answers

just got through the 1st puzzle with the blue/red suitcases and the door.. took me a while

Killed by an axe

Thought I was doing all good, then boom, stabbed in the back (this Jumpy person can't even hear someone walk up behind him t.t) and "bad ending." I'm only a little ways through my 2nd try. Speeding through text you've read already is nice.

Wowwww just got another "bad ending" where I die. At least this time I got to see my killer... I feel like you make so few choices too, one of my qualms is that most decision don't seem that important, the most important ones being which path you take.

Finally finished the safe, and true endings. It kept me up thinking last night. The ending is good, really good, but I can't say it was the ending I truly wanted.

I thought Ace was suspicious, by virtue of him not having his backstory explained at all. By the same logic, I thought June and Junpei were suspicious. I didn't suspect Junpei because of Knox's 7th. I didn't expect Santa at all though, and I was suspicious of Snake. I was half/half on whether it was his body in the room since it said his head was half destroyed. It didn't specify whether his face was recognizable. Assuming he was alive, he could've been responsible for a lot of what happened. I did figure that it was his body in the coffin. The time paradox spoiler, I didn't even imagine.

1) The June being alive for the second nonary game is a freaky paradox, right? I mean, it's a stable time loop (she gets saved by Junpei as a child then goes back as Zero and runs the second nonary game in order to make Junpei save her), but I still get confused thinking about it. At least it means that all the non-true ending are impossible to happen, they're just "what-ifs" accessed by Junpei's/June's powers.
2) Are Junpei and June both transmitters and receivers? I understood that since Santa was a receiver, June was a transmitter, but she managed to connect to Junpei. Power of love ?
3) What's up with the sub ending? The sub just seems to not make any sense in the original nonary, which had the children going for the door 9. It's strange that the children would have an alternative way to get out. At least it means getting in a sub in the desert means the killer (probably Ace, the one with the knife and the soporil) is doomed.