CWs for Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors: blood, graphic injury, sexual harassment, kidnapping, sedation, child death.
Uchikoshi's directorial debut is maybe his best version of his one trick. A touchdown of a DS exclusive, 999 plays on reader assumptions based in game logic, hardware, and UI to neatly wrap them into earnestly pulpy character beats. The feelings of piecing together a mystery for someone doing 0 detective guesswork have never been mechanized better. There are no end goals or bigger statements, but the metanarrative moves are evocative enough that the whole game is supported.
I've been tricked into podcasting about this franchise! Listen to our episode closing out 999.
Uchikoshi's directorial debut is maybe his best version of his one trick. A touchdown of a DS exclusive, 999 plays on reader assumptions based in game logic, hardware, and UI to neatly wrap them into earnestly pulpy character beats. The feelings of piecing together a mystery for someone doing 0 detective guesswork have never been mechanized better. There are no end goals or bigger statements, but the metanarrative moves are evocative enough that the whole game is supported.
I've been tricked into podcasting about this franchise! Listen to our episode closing out 999.
2 Comments
@alagoa (idt tagging works on here but trying anyway since you won't get a push notif either way haha)
Hey thank you for checking out the show! I'm also totally okay with Uchi having one trick because theoretically it should mean it gets better each time but it also just makes his games easier to talk about after playing more than one haha. The point about film makers doing it too is a good pull because games with larger duration and repetition like Uchi's or just longer JRPGs are just way more successful at cinematic devices than David Cage or Telltale-like clip show games.
And yeah I also feel that Ever17 feels like the best version in my memory (despite only playing that horrible first translation lol) because it's pretty subtle about it and doesn't do a lot of the bespoke turn to camera type shit that's come into practice since like late 2000s freeware/post-Undertale demo.
Hey thank you for checking out the show! I'm also totally okay with Uchi having one trick because theoretically it should mean it gets better each time but it also just makes his games easier to talk about after playing more than one haha. The point about film makers doing it too is a good pull because games with larger duration and repetition like Uchi's or just longer JRPGs are just way more successful at cinematic devices than David Cage or Telltale-like clip show games.
And yeah I also feel that Ever17 feels like the best version in my memory (despite only playing that horrible first translation lol) because it's pretty subtle about it and doesn't do a lot of the bespoke turn to camera type shit that's come into practice since like late 2000s freeware/post-Undertale demo.
alagoa
1 year ago
Although the pacing is much better on 999, I'd argue Ever17 is the best version of Uchikoshi's trick. I feel like I connected much more to those characters and the story wrapped up much better imo
It's interesting you mentioning his "trick", some people hate it that he does the same thing over and over, but I can't get enough of it! Some of my favorite movie directors do this too, you can find tons of similar scenes throughout the filmography of Lynch, Rohmer or Hong Sang-soo, for instance.