- Release Date: 10th December 2009
- Developer: Chunsoft
- Publisher: Spike Chunsoft
- Platform Played: Xbox Series S
- Platforms Available: DS, PC, PS4, Xbox One, Vita
Originally a DS game, the Xbox version does have some significant improvements, but the actual interface is not one of them. If you’ve never played the game before, you would probably be able to guess that it came from a DS, and navigating the menus and puzzles can be cumbersome.
That said, the main focus is the story, one that is surprisingly very engaging. 999 is very much “anime saw”: a bunch of people (nine) are trapped together and must pass through doors (numbered 1-9) in order to escape in a limited time (nine hours). Everyone is connected to the events in some way, and you have to figure it out by making different choices.
Between story segments are “escape room” moments, where you explore rooms and solve puzzles. Navigating rooms by changing the camera angle can be quite disorientating, but I found that the puzzles followed a solid logic. A big part of the game involves the digital root: For the numbers 3, 4 and 5 you would add them together (3, 4, 5 = 12) and continue adding until you get to a single digit (1+2=3). There’s a handy calculator with this function, although annoyingly you can’t access the calculator (or any notes the game has saved for you) while interacting with any puzzles.
The story has twists and turns, lots of conspiracy theories and a ton of theoretical science – some of it true, some of it not. The game has multiple endings, but you can access a flowchart to jump straight to divergent points to explore other paths.
I did find that some portions of dialogue were pointless, with characters going through what they’ve just done, with flashbacks to remind you, and when the story has a time limit it makes no sense for people to discuss so slowly (playing the game has no time limit), but for the most part it was very engaging and really picks up near the end.
Fun
