I played 999 recently at @xivu-arath's recommendation, and I had so much fun that (inspired by that one polygon video) I illustrated my liveblog about it!
If you haven't played 999 and you are even a little bit intrigued by a puzzle/mystery visual novel with multiple timelines that all guide you towards wild plot twists...probably don't read the text! 999 is the kind of story that is best experienced with no knowledge besides the basic premise.
Transcript below the cut:
Cormorant: characters in this game really just say shit like "have you heard the story about the crystallization of glycerin?"
as a matter of fact i haven't, june, please enlighten me
Storm: "I know we're stuck in a freezer but. let's talk about weird mythical science!"
Cormorant: it's also killing me that junpei is dressed like marty mcfly and isn't sharing any of his jackets
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Cormorant: this game is leading me to arrive at mathematical concepts on my own. what the heck
Storm: kshgushhsg
I take it you're having a good time then
Cormorant: trying to check lotus's work and it turns out that no matter what group i arrange to take through a door, the people left behind will always have the same digital root
so to get through door 7 with snake missing, i could either send a group with sum 16 (junpei, ace, clover, and june) or with sum 25 (clover, june, seven, and lotus), but it doesn't matter because the remainder always have root 9 and can't get through doors 3 or 8! wild!
Storm: yeah the numbers and which doors end up barred to you is so cleverly deliberate
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Cormorant: i'm glad i finally checked what novel mode meant, because this is way more fun
Santa cocked his head to one side, like an inquisitive bird, and looked at them.
After several long moments, during which it became apparent that Santa had no idea what the cards meant, June took pity on him.
i'll have to go back and redo the beginning after i get to the first ending
Storm: oh yeah! as I recall that was done differently when it was originally a dual screen game... but it's much better when in novel style. gimme all the descriptions
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Cormorant: I had a long day of sitting though presentations and so I entertained myself by calculating digital roots
I discovered that adding 9 or any multiple of 9 to a number has no effect on the digital root, which is awfully interesting bc I got to the part where snake gets killed. Assuming door 3 was opened with 12 and not 21, the options are 7+3 (motive?), 6+4 (they’d both have to be REALLY good actors), or 9+1. And if bracelets work without a body attached, and if ace picked it up in door 5…
That would be a really useful tool to get around the 3-person minimum without altering the digital root
I’m also very intrigued by the theory that zero is also in the game but I don’t know what to do with that yet
Storm: forlornly having to keep myself from saying literally anything
Cormorant: Understandable, please don’t give me any hints! I’m just calling shots for the joy of being wrong
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Cormorant: and how do you know that, my traitorous friend?
Santa: “The RED doesn’t need a person, you know.”
Santa: “All I need is the bracelet.”
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Cormorant: y’know what i think he’s bluffing. he does need June specifically and that’s why he refused to consider leaving her when they first found door 9. if all he needed was a hostage, he could have grabbed junpei and forced ace to come along, and then he would be dealing with two people under duress instead of three
i peeked at a guide and apparently i found the ending adjacent to the true ending(?) first, oh well. time to see the others!
santa: i said i don't want to leave seven alone
me: bud you can't do a heroic sacrifice too, it'll mess up all the math
reader, he was not doing a heroic sacrifice
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Storm: got any character opinions or theories to share so far?
Cormorant: hmm I’ve got soft spots for santa and lotus maybe just because they were in the first group I went with. I like that the game makes a point of showing that lotus is quick with the math/technical knowledge. I warmed up to clover and seven more than I expected to! I have no evidence to mistrust ace….but I don’t trust him
Snake died before I before I could say two words to him
Or…didn’t. Forgot clover said he didn’t
I got info about the previous experiments from clover and I wonder if we’re like…reenacting the past somehow? Experiencing morphogenetic resonance with the last voyage?
Again no evidence i just wonder where the pseudoscience is going
Storm: santa was so my type as soon as I started playing that I just picked all rooms with him on my first run skugrhsghu
Cormorant: AHAHA that makes me feel better about going “yeahhh door 4 I like the cut of this guy’s jib”
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Cormorant: “the bracelet comes off when your heart rate reaches zero” interesting then that we’ve brought up cryostasis
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Cormorant: i simply don't trust him not to have a spare bracelet in his pocket!!!
They climbed into the elevator and Junpei listened to it creak and rattle its way to the bottom deck. Only Junpei, Ace, and Lotus were left.
As the elevator rumbled out of sight, Ace spoke.
Ace: “Lotus, would you be so kind as to go with me?”
Cormorant: “bad end” YEAH I’LL SAY
Storm: lkksghr yeah there's a few of those!
Cormorant: santa was really quick to declare that he, june, and seven needed to go with clover. waht's his game
june and ace could have done it just as easily
Storm: they could have! good catch
maybe he just thinks seven is cooler than ace,
Cormorant: i'm imagining clover taking all her grisly trophies to the door only to find it already engaged, because lotus needed no persuading,
and regarding the true ending requirements, it's also funny that santa's like "i hate this bookmark! get it out of my sight!" and this is a huge help in junpei befriending the girl who's otherwise about to snap
Storm: load bearing bookmark
Cormorant: good thing you threw that tantrum bud or you would have been killed with an axe
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Cormorant: in my suspicions i forgot a critical detail, which is that he didn't actually go into the door with the body this time
of course seven has been propping doors open, so it really could have been anybody
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Cormorant: "where have these 16 boys and girls disappeared to?" eight for each game and then an experimenter? again with the idea that zero might be in the game...
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Cormorant: bad endings complete! on to the normal ending, which hopefully has less of junpei getting stabbed to death
puzzling over who could have done all those murders, especially in the sub ending...or did everyone get killed? clover thinks that snake's death was faked. or did snake do all the murders, since he was the only one unaccounted for?...and then i remember what kind of game i'm playing. can't discount the ice mummy as a suspect.
Storm: you truly cannot ignore the possibility of the ice mummy
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Cormorant: ah no, so santa's sister was the kid that died...
i can't figure out the connection between events! why did the last games have the veneer of a science experiment, while this one has no context given? why was it all kids last time, and a random mix of ages this time, with some repeat subjects?
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Cormorant: called it!!!!
Junpei: “Ace, Guy X, and the 9th Man’s bracelet.”
Junpei: “That was all you needed to open door [3].”
Cormorant: called it before i even got to an ending ehehe
what i’ve been saying!!
Ace: “(9) is a potent ally in the Nonary Game.”
Ace: “Adding (9) to any set of numbers won’t alter the digital root.”
Ace: “As you can see, (9) is a very useful number here.”
Ace: “With it, one can go anywhere, with anyone.”
Ace: “It is, I suppose you could say, a game changer.”
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Cormorant: okay, normal ending finished! junpei did not get stabbed but we also didn’t resolve much…I’m now thinking that ace with his pocket drugs could have easily played dead in the sub ending
glad to see that snake is okay and hopefully can stay okay in the true ending. where did clover get that riddle, and will she still have it?
0=6. how much do I read into this
still don’t understand how we get from here to santa hostage situation. he’s been so consistent about not even considering betraying or abandoning people, so either he’s a better actor than ace…or it’s staged. are he and june in cahoots
Storm: augh so close now!! soon I can actually say things
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Cormorant: O FUCK
Seven: “Santa’s always in the room with her. That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?”
Snake: “Yes, that’s right.”
Clover: “What about it…?”
Snake: “That’s quite simple, really.”
Snake: “You told me that the first time you came to this room…”
Snake: “…Santa was the first to refuse to leave June behind.”
Snake: “Now, doesn’t that beg the question “why?” Why would Santa do such a thing?”
Snake: “The answer is easy.”
Storm: B)
Cormorant: i've been thinking of them as a pair because it makes the math easier! if you've got 3 + 6 + 8, just cross out the ones that make 9 and don't even bother with the addition, your root is 8
Storm: B) B) B)
Cormorant: but god!! they are a pair, do not separate (or the jig is up)
Storm: they hid it soooo well
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Cormorant: was wondering when we would see the last cradle guy and oh duh, he was guy X
i did think it was odd that santa phrased it as "i need to leave two of you behind" rather than "i need three of you to come with me," but if he was responsible for everything (most things?), he knew that snake was there, and he was setting up a group that could follow him. excited to see where this is going!
[dreamy sigh] this game is so elegant. what a little puzzle box
Storm: yeah it is, it's just so wonderfully crafted. so little is wasted!
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Cormorant: oh boy [akane vision label]
"through the morphic fieldset we were resonant, and we were as one" i don't think i've mentioned it before but i'm constantly pleasantly surprised by the narration in this game. it's not flashy but it's evocative in a way that's really working for me
Storm: this is where the port falls short a bit of the original version... the ds really worked well with this aspect
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Cormorant: the number of times i thought "this will be totally wrong but i'll say it to storm anyway"
hello??? [arrow pointing back to the message “I wonder if we’re like…reenacting the past somehow? Experiencing morphogenetic resonance with the last voyage?”]
Storm: Y E A H
Cormorant: laser-guided spitballing
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Cormorant: man i said that 4+6 would have to be really good actors if they were the ones that opened door 3...and while they didn't kill snake, i sure underestimated our queen of the stage akane kurashiki
the baseline was NOT where i thought it was
Storm: no one does it like her
