so, i played through this game with a close friend and then revisited some pivotal moments on my own after completing some of uchikoshi's previous work, namely never7 and ever17. this was my first uchikoshi game proper, and upon revisiting it, it's still pretty cool, but very much bleeds his issues and lovable incompetence as a writer passionately from time to time. i've come to label uchikoshi lovingly as 'a hack, but my kind of hack', and that's more prevalent here than in any of his other work i've yet to experience.
the actual gameplay of 999 is pretty dope. i think the puzzles are generally pretty interesting and very adv-game-on-the-ds-y feeling like a hodgepodge of ace attorney and flash escape room games in just the way for it to feel comfy and right at home. the presentation is superb for the ds, with really lively sprites and artwork. soundtrack's solid but definitely not as memorable as ever17's, though in all fairness that's in the upper echelon of vn soundtracks in my book.
the biggest issue with 999 lies in the fact that uchikoshi basically has no one reeling him in, and considering he might simultaneously be one of the best ideas guys and one of the worst pacing guys in visual novel history, you will constantly be barraged with walls of text, worse as the game goes on, about high-concept theories or phenomena that don't actually end up affecting the plot in any meaningful way. it becomes clear in retrospect that for as cool as much of it is, only about a third of the things the game slows to a crawl to bring to your attention is actually relevant. and considering the fact that the plot is as time-demanding as it is considering the circumstances of the cast, that can border on destructive to the tone at its worst moments. the cast is relatively balanced in coverage but that said it definitely feels as if some characters essentially had to have a purpose shoved in at the last second - particularly lotus, clover and 9th man. this is all without mentioning some pretty egregious shaggy dog jokes around sex or whatever. i would've expected this more out of ever17, or ESPECIALLY never7, but no, it's at its most egregious in zero escape, thus far. and i don't mind a pervy joke or two, but christ alive, 999 takes like 10 minutes to get its overwith at an otherwise incredibly pivotal moment in the story.
for all this game allegedly steals from uchikoshi's previous work, more specifically ever17 (which i don't deny the obvious overlap with) it often misses the context and point of those ideas or moments existing in the first place. and certainly, this wasn't a game that was designed to, or needed, a sequel - i'm more than happy with this being my first and only excursion into zero escape for the time being. while i've been pretty critical of it, i do really genuinely enjoy this game a lot - i'm just familiar enough with uchikoshi's work at this point to give it an honest lookback and compare it to his previous releases.
the actual gameplay of 999 is pretty dope. i think the puzzles are generally pretty interesting and very adv-game-on-the-ds-y feeling like a hodgepodge of ace attorney and flash escape room games in just the way for it to feel comfy and right at home. the presentation is superb for the ds, with really lively sprites and artwork. soundtrack's solid but definitely not as memorable as ever17's, though in all fairness that's in the upper echelon of vn soundtracks in my book.
the biggest issue with 999 lies in the fact that uchikoshi basically has no one reeling him in, and considering he might simultaneously be one of the best ideas guys and one of the worst pacing guys in visual novel history, you will constantly be barraged with walls of text, worse as the game goes on, about high-concept theories or phenomena that don't actually end up affecting the plot in any meaningful way. it becomes clear in retrospect that for as cool as much of it is, only about a third of the things the game slows to a crawl to bring to your attention is actually relevant. and considering the fact that the plot is as time-demanding as it is considering the circumstances of the cast, that can border on destructive to the tone at its worst moments. the cast is relatively balanced in coverage but that said it definitely feels as if some characters essentially had to have a purpose shoved in at the last second - particularly lotus, clover and 9th man. this is all without mentioning some pretty egregious shaggy dog jokes around sex or whatever. i would've expected this more out of ever17, or ESPECIALLY never7, but no, it's at its most egregious in zero escape, thus far. and i don't mind a pervy joke or two, but christ alive, 999 takes like 10 minutes to get its overwith at an otherwise incredibly pivotal moment in the story.
for all this game allegedly steals from uchikoshi's previous work, more specifically ever17 (which i don't deny the obvious overlap with) it often misses the context and point of those ideas or moments existing in the first place. and certainly, this wasn't a game that was designed to, or needed, a sequel - i'm more than happy with this being my first and only excursion into zero escape for the time being. while i've been pretty critical of it, i do really genuinely enjoy this game a lot - i'm just familiar enough with uchikoshi's work at this point to give it an honest lookback and compare it to his previous releases.