One of the greatest visual novels I've ever played. The game presents a wonderful mystery wrapped within its own world of supernatural science fiction.
The character writing is fantastic, and in order to demonstrate that, I'll compare it to another popular visual novel, Danganronpa. Danganronpa's characters all fall flat and only exist to serve the various murder mysteries the game throws at you. None of the characters truly feel like the grow as people, and when they attempt to they are usually punished by being murdered. Within the first chapter you understand exactly what they'll be like for the rest of the game. Danganronpa's characters are all one-dimensional stereotypes as well, meaning there isn't much interesting to learn about them, and when there is it's almost always used for some shock factor. Ultimately what Danganronpa lacks in its characters is empathy for them.
The opposite is true of 999's characters. Every single character is more than what they appear at first glance. Let's take Lotus for example, the scantily clad woman of the group. Danganronpa would've made her one character trait sexual promiscuity and would have blamed her choice of dress for the sexual advances of the male cast. Instead in 999, Lotus is shown time and time again, despite what the other character's assume from the way she dresses, to be an independent and exceedingly smart and clever individual, often working with or against the main character throughout the game as the character's situations and opinions change. 999 looks upon every character with empathy, and everyone is written equally as an individual, with their own experiences, outlooks, and choices. There aren't any one-note comic reliefs and every character experiences some amount of change by the end.
The world-building is fantastic as well, dropping hints toward key ideas throughout the various escape room sequences in the game. The game has a strong emphasis on parapsychology, which gives the game a somewhat interesting supernatural twist, however despite that it still remains grounded in it's own fiction, spinning a web that connects various unbelievable concepts into a fictional reality that compliments the narrative.
The escape room sequences themselves are also fantastic, with many tricky puzzles. It probably won't be very hard for the average Professor Layton player, however make sure to have some note taking paper around and get ready to do a lot of math.
Overall this is a game that you'll be thinking about well after you've played it. It's an impressive accomplishment in digital story telling, and a visual novel that anyone should play, familiarity with the genre withstanding. The amount of things it does so well is almost shocking.
The character writing is fantastic, and in order to demonstrate that, I'll compare it to another popular visual novel, Danganronpa. Danganronpa's characters all fall flat and only exist to serve the various murder mysteries the game throws at you. None of the characters truly feel like the grow as people, and when they attempt to they are usually punished by being murdered. Within the first chapter you understand exactly what they'll be like for the rest of the game. Danganronpa's characters are all one-dimensional stereotypes as well, meaning there isn't much interesting to learn about them, and when there is it's almost always used for some shock factor. Ultimately what Danganronpa lacks in its characters is empathy for them.
The opposite is true of 999's characters. Every single character is more than what they appear at first glance. Let's take Lotus for example, the scantily clad woman of the group. Danganronpa would've made her one character trait sexual promiscuity and would have blamed her choice of dress for the sexual advances of the male cast. Instead in 999, Lotus is shown time and time again, despite what the other character's assume from the way she dresses, to be an independent and exceedingly smart and clever individual, often working with or against the main character throughout the game as the character's situations and opinions change. 999 looks upon every character with empathy, and everyone is written equally as an individual, with their own experiences, outlooks, and choices. There aren't any one-note comic reliefs and every character experiences some amount of change by the end.
The world-building is fantastic as well, dropping hints toward key ideas throughout the various escape room sequences in the game. The game has a strong emphasis on parapsychology, which gives the game a somewhat interesting supernatural twist, however despite that it still remains grounded in it's own fiction, spinning a web that connects various unbelievable concepts into a fictional reality that compliments the narrative.
The escape room sequences themselves are also fantastic, with many tricky puzzles. It probably won't be very hard for the average Professor Layton player, however make sure to have some note taking paper around and get ready to do a lot of math.
Overall this is a game that you'll be thinking about well after you've played it. It's an impressive accomplishment in digital story telling, and a visual novel that anyone should play, familiarity with the genre withstanding. The amount of things it does so well is almost shocking.