999 Review


999 is a game I struggled to get into on DS and eventually gave up on.  The final game in the series came out recently so I went to take another look and a friend mentioned there's a visual novel version of 999 on iOS that would fix most of my problems with it.

I tried it out and found it mostly enjoyable.  The main problem I had was with the overall quality of writing and dialogue between characters.  They never use one sentence to explain something when they could use fifteen instead.  But the plot hooked me enough to push on to the end.

And then I found out it had different endings, six in fact.  And a flowchart to let you jump around the story and get to all the different endings easier!  So, I finished all the endings and unlocked the "true" ending.

That's when the game totally jumped the shark.  A bunch of stuff happens that doesn't make any sense and then right when it feels like the game might explain itself... it ends.  With no real explanation.

So... I'm left with frustration.  I know this series has two more games but I'm super hesitant to pick them up.  If the writing and pacing is anything like this game I know I'll get frustrated by how slow moving it is.  And if they pull this kind of crap again and don't explain themselves after even more games I would just be extremely mad that I wasted my time on it.

I think for now I'm done with this series.  Maybe I'll come back another day, but at the moment I seriously doubt it.

Comments

  1. I heard so many people whose opinions I respect say amazing things about this game. I gave it a try a couple months ago and I hated it. My problem was the exact same as yours. Why use 1 sentence when you can use 15? It's so wordy, the writing is not good, the characters are annoying. There were spans when I spent 30+ minutes just tapping the screen to go through dialogue without doing anything I'd consider "playing". The story hook was interesting and I'd kind of like to find out what the real story is, but I don't even want to read it in visual novel form. I'd only want to read it in 1000 words or less wiki form.

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    Replies
    1. I was really forcing myself to play to get through the end of it. I was hoping I would get payoff for time invested but I really didn't.

      I'd much rather play some of the other interactive fiction I've found. This one is just too passive.

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