DS User Reviews

The game is called 999 so I put a 9 on 10 for this game. Otherwhise the game is awesome onthe nintendo DS

The best visual novel game I've ever played. Because of this game, it was so hard to be interested in the Danganronpa series, even though I played & competed 1-3, & Ultra girls despair games, & watched the sequel-prequal anime. If there is any visual novel game to try, it's this 1 to start. The bad news is that it's very difficult to find another visual game novel (besides it's sequel) top this game off. You may not like this if you went to an inner city school & focus on twerking/rioting then going to a library for once in your life.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Es un 10 en su genero.

999 is one of the best things I have ever read, and as a game it certainly has put a hold on me that not many games can say they have. I like to think of 999 as more of an experience then a game, something that can be taken with you into real life, but perhaps that isn’t all true. Either way anyone that plays this game will likely fall in love with it, its characters, and the ideas that it shows. I know I did.

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is a standout title in the visual novel genre, offering a compelling mix of narrative-driven storytelling, challenging puzzles, and memorable characters. Its gripping plot, multiple branching paths, and intense atmosphere make it an unforgettable experience for fans of mystery, adventure, and psychological thrillers. If you enjoy immersive storytelling and engaging gameplay, 999 is a must-play game that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.

Text adventure containing Resident Evil style puzzles as you attempt to escape the captivity of an unknown assailant. Some of the writing is a little clunky but it's reasonably atmospheric and intriguing enough to keep you playing to see what comes next.

A convoluted story with a lot of surprises like in Lost? Check. Interesting puzzles? Check. Cute and interesting characters? Check. That's it. So, if you like Visual Novels and room escape puzzles, this is for you.

Great beginning of great series. Puzzles are interesting, plot is breathtaking with good twist at the end

A HD remake of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, this game is a cross between a visual novel and a puzzle-adventure game. You wake up on what looks to be a ship, and your cabin immediately starts flooding with water. You have to “quickly” look around the room and try to find a way to get the door open so you can get out. This opening illustrates what the game is going to be like – you don’t know why you’re there, you don’t know what you’re doing there, and there’s a sense that someone is trying to kill you, but at the same time, the time pressure is an illusion. Which is ironic, as the game’s main theme is that you only have nine hours to escape. You find yourself with eight other people, all at the mercy of “Zero”, a voice over the loudspeakers who reads you a set of rules. You have bracelets on your arms that can open doors, but you can only open them if your numbers add up in a certain way; only 3-5 people can get through the door, and supposedly, there’s only one 9 door at the end, so some folks are going to be stuck (and, according to Zero, drown). Of course, not all is as it seems, and this group – supposedly of strangers – gradually are revealed to have certain connections, even as members of the group are killed off by the death traps, and you have to figure out some way to make it through. This is one of those games that gets a bit weird. There’s a branching path through the story, based on which doors you go through, which affects the story downstream and the endings; however, in reality, there’s actually a further layer of the plot, which you can only unlock after doing a certain ending, and then doing another ending after making all the right choices. The game helpfully has a flow chart of the scenes to help you make sense of the story and jump around after the game is complete to see all the things you missed and unlock the necessary paths to find the true ending. Overall, this is one of those games that straddles the line between intellectual and pseudointellectual; it has a lot of references to parapsychology experiments and fun ideas, but it spends so much time explaining everything it can get tiresome and take the wind out of your sails (even though it is necessary background). The characters aren’t really people, but more tools to explore ideas; they behave unnaturally, but in service to the story, a common Japanese storytelling method. And despite the game appearing to be a choices matter game with multiple endings, in reality, there’s only one real ending, and your goal is to find that amongst all the wrong ones, and figure out how to get there. Alas, this game suffers from a lack of confidence in its players. The puzzles are all very easy and the game practically explains a lot of them to you. Worse, the actual story plot is not something you can actually detective your way through – I figured out a number of the twists before they happened, and sussed out various secrets, but I couldn’t actually exploit them until the main character came across the idea on their own according to the dictates of the visual novel. As a result, this undermines a lot of the actual “gameplay” of the game, and while I liked some of the ideas, the game ended up dragging as I had to go back and try other options until I got to the path that actually let me progress to the real ending. In the end, this is okay but not great. Visual Novel fans might enjoy it, but if you’re looking for a strong puzzle game experience, this is not the thing for you. The story was okay, but not great, as I failed to really strongly connect with the characters. Overall, a shrug of ambivalence – you can do better than this game, but it’s not bad.

¿Saw version a la nipona? Si y no. Zero Escape, es una novela visual que nos pone en mitad de un juego nonario, dependiendo de la ruta, compañeros, y elecciones obtendremos algunos de los 6 finales que hay desbloqueables. Realmente necesitaras jugar gran parte de ellos, pues complementaran los huecos de la trama que han quedado incongruentes y por fin entenderás de que va todo esto. Los plowtwists creo que son bastante reveladores y creo que algunos están al nivel de los "Ace Attorney". Los rompecabezas en si mismos no me parecen realmente un desafío excepto el Sudoku del final verdadero. Todo se basará en juegos matemáticos. Digamos que también existen una especie de líneas temporales alternativas y el flujo de estas es variable y no es constante en función del final obtenido. No puedo decir que sea del todo de mi agrado. Habrá mucho backtracking tras el reinicio de cada partida, pero si dejamos pulsado el botón derecho para avanzar todo el texto y evitarnos el tedio de repetir tramos ya completados y podremos retomar la historia justo en el tramo que aun no hemos explorado. Lineal y algo repetitivo, creo que todo el peso realmente cae en la historia. Aun así no es un mal juego y es bastante disfrutable.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

The plot just makes it. Though escape rooms are not pretty challenging, but still entertaining, the plot is just great, and storytelling is wonderful.

incredible visual novel that started an amazing series. this is one of the best DS games imo. if you liked danganronpa you will probably love this game too.

999 is a visual novel thriller mystery game. It combines many puzzle elements like escape the room, and other smaller minigames. The game has multiple endings and even a true ending based on gameplay offering many playthroughs. Unfortunately, due to how long it takes to complete a playthrough I will be unable to complete it at the moment. I would love to finish it at another time.

Fantastic story told in a clever way with puzzle segments that are not as amazing (but bearable) If you can get it on DS its probably the best choice because game makes really good use out of two screens and it was meant to be played that way.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

If you can get past the forced slow pacing of the hefty amounts of text in this game, you'll find one of the most engrossing, chilling and satisfying story-based adventure titles ever released. For those new to the visual novel genre, you will be reading a LOT in this game. If you're a fan of classic point-and-click adventures, this one is not to be missed. Multiple endings create good replay value, and the characters and dialogue are solid. I couldn't put this game down!

Una novela gráfica excelente, con una historia impresionante y personajes bien logrados. Todo esta muy bien hecho, los puzzles son entretenidos y los conceptos científicos e históricos utilizados encuadran muy bien y le dan mas realismo al juego. Sin embargo el sistema de elección de puertas no me termina de convencer en la primer entrega, no es tan claro lo que está pasando como en la 2.

this was definitely a super entertaining game, and I can't say i regret playing it, but it just seems like the actual story was put together so sloppily and there are just so many plot holes/conveniences that it's really hard for me to suspend my disbelief. Definitely one of my least favorite game endings.

La narrativa es impecable, en todo momento vas a estar en tensión de lo que va a suceder, y los personajes están muy bien desarrollados. Recomendadisimo jugarlo.

The story is incredible, one which you probably won't be able to experience anywhere else in any other medium. There are multiple endings, though there is one ending that should be achieved if you want to get the most out of the game. The art style is great, and allows for some unique and distinct character designs, like Seven and Akane. The soundtrack is great at building tension at crucial moments. The puzzles are simple enough to solve, though they do get gradually more difficult towards the end. However, some of the puzzles are tedious on replays, which are required to achieve multiple endings. Still, overall, a fantastic experience.

if you only want a good story, then yes this is a almost decent game but other than that is pretty boring and repetitive. The nonary game starts by presenting different characters with their own story and narrative but instead of using them to create interesting different endings depending on your relationships with them, they are just pieces of the "true ending" and non of them actually matter at all. You can interact with various characters so it gives you this confusing objective in the game were you can do whatever you want but you should do what the game wants you to do, not that getting the other endings is bad but there is not a actual logical way for you to know exactly what to do which ends in you doing random options until finally you did exactly what the games wants and you get the finale piece of the puzzle. and talking about puzzle men are they **** BORING! in most endings you would have to repeat the same puzzle, if this is the case why the heck dont they just let us skip it or let us put the final answear to get out, in one of the puzzle you need to put a secret code on a safe to get the key to get out, the code doesnt change is the same number WHY DAFUQ WONT THE GAME LET ME PUT IT ON?! NO you have to do all this **** you already do 4 times to try to get another ending and if you repeat well **** to be you, you gotta do it again. And now that we are on topic why are they no safe stations? like why? this game would be 200 times less boring if i could just skip the scenes i already know YES I KNOW ABOUT **** ICE 9 OR WHATEVER PLZ JUST LET ME SEE NEW DIALOGUE THIS IS BULL****! oh and if you think you can just fast text, no they didnt put that option either... Now is not fair i only talk about the bad stuff, the story is actually pretty interesting and the "true ending" is satisfying, it gives you good enough hints so you can draw your own conclusion and find out who is causing what, the puzzle are satisfying to solve, the first time you do it, the art and the way the characters are not just one image but they actually move pixel by pixel when they talk is a great detail and gives them more life. I wish there was more and better music, but the soundtrack is not bad it does the job in setting the tune but nothing i would hear on my free time. It repeats some anime themes which is not wrong but i would preferred they explain them a bit better, because some of them just feels like out of character... like why are you even doing this you shown no sign of being capable of something like this (i am talking about one particularly ending) but most of it is on comedy so you can just lead it slide. Finally do i recommend this game? no... just look it up on youtube and save yourself the pain of finding the endings the puzzle are not even worth it SPECIALLY THE LAST ONE! (seriously all that story to end it with a puzzle you can find in the newspaper? just disappointing)

This is my first Novel based game I've ever played and one of the first games I played on my DS. I was totally blown away. The story is incredible and interesting the characters are very well made. And there are so many different paths you can take to make it your very own unique adventure and experience. A must play game for every one even for a person who never played a "game" before.

I don't normally play games of this genre (visual novel with puzzle solving) but this game does everything well the story is interesting and despite the hardware limitations of the DS the game can feel quite immersive at some points simply because it tells the story the right way. The puzzles have balanced difficulty most of the time.

If you are a fan of visual novels then this game is a no brainer. With multiple endings and fun escape the room puzzles to tie you over, 999 is a very enjoyable experience.

I have been sceptic about visual novel games. Can they even be good and are they games at all? Well, this was my first visual novel and after seeing all 6 endings I have to say yes, they can be amazing. While it's true that game goes on tight tracks and you can't do anything extra on story sections, it doesn't matter since when story gets going, it really gets going wild and you want to know what happens next. Gameplay puzzles are just a barrier then and you just want the story and explanations. I have played games since Monkey Island and Fallout 2, but this is something else, even better. 10/10 and amazing experince. My two advices for new players are "less you know about the game is the better" and "after first ending you can use guide to help how to see other ending, but leave true ending last."

Amazing game! It starts slow and there's a lot of reading but thanks to the story and big replayability factor this game just becomes better and better. Fun puzzles, amazing story, memorable characters, this is a hidden DS gem and a must buy game for every DS fan.

I played VLR first and then 999, i had no idea there was a prequel at first. I really enjoyed the game but during the true ending path, i ended being really annoyed, it was getting late and the game became more a like a freaking book than a visual novel, too many text and it goes WAY TOO SLOW, this is my only complaint with game, the slow text was unbearable during the true ending, i enjoyed the other ending more since it was never too long. Great game overall.

Fantastic mystery/thriller/horror visual novel. Gives you just enough information to figure out things for yourself, but you don't have to, it's probably better to let the mystery unravel and be surprised. I gave this game a 9 because the digital root of 10 would've only been a 1... To justify the 1 point off: 1. Unskippable dialogue (Fast forwarding known dialogues should be replaced by Skip function). 2. For a game that requires you to play through 5~6 times, some puzzles, like the first one, should've been skippable. 3. 2 of the endings were not really necessary and the game could have done without them. 4. This last one is just my preference: I did not like the final revelation. Maybe I will understand/appreciate it more in the sequel.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

One of the best games you will find on the Nintendo DS. Great puzzles, fantastic story and lots of reasons to replay. Make sure to give this one a shot.

This game starts off as a simple "try to escape this place and find out who the evil captor is", but it gets very complicated, very fast. You play as a guy in college named Junpei. Once you get to the ship you're being held on you must attempt to escape by finding the number nine door and going through what follows it alive. I won't go into much more detail then that because the story is something you must experience yourself. 999 can be split into four parts, which will tell you if this game is for you or not 1. Story- The story is the main part of the game and is shown by dialogue and your characters thoughts, there is no voice acting so if hate reading, this won't be for you. If you like or at the very least don't mind reading, you'll love this. 2. Gameplay/puzzle solving- The puzzle solving is the very large majority of gameplay in this game. The puzzle style is escape the room, it is really challenging but takes a back-seat to the story which you will want to get to while playing the puzzle's. 3. Choices- The smallest part of the game, but also the most important. The choices you make will decide whether you get one of two bad endings, a very bloody and confusing ending, a sad ending, a fake ending, and the true end. All of these endings will lead to what is the final part of this game... 4. Mindf*cks- Yup, the game will be very complicated, many plot twists, and some things you really got to think about. Just because the game gets confusing, doesn't mean that the logic is flat out wrong, or starts to contradicting itself. Everything has a reason for happening, and nothing should be left not noted. In the end this is a wonderful, solid 9.6 game that's only beaten by its sequel (ps vita version to be specific.) You are doing a disservice to yourself not playing it, so go on amazon and buy it!

You'll probably start 999 by mashing the buttons to skip through text as fast as you can, but once you get to know the characters and immerse yourself in the bizarrely brilliant story, the puzzles will become the side-piece as you yearn to find out what twists are through the next numbered door. The puzzles themselves are pitched at a perfect difficulty level - challenging enough to reward you without being overly infuriating.

This game made me experience feelings I've never experienced in a video game before. The soundtrack is so shockingly good, that it actually gave me nightmares. This game can also be truly depressing, but I still recommend you pick it up.

Definitely a great visual novel. The story is gripping and kept me going throughout with mature themes and great characters. The puzzle sections are all fine but they really take a back seat to the fantastic story. As long as you don't mind the fact that this is barely a game and want a good read then this is for you. You have to also bear in mind that there are split paths in the story that mean that you can never get the true ending on the first try so at least two playthroughs are required to get a satisfying conclusion (although on the second run through you do get the ability to skip text you have already read.

This game is 90% dialogue, and I wouldn't mind except that the dialogue is really terrible. The story is not terrible, thankfully. And yes, in case you're wondering, those are two separate things: the story is being told and the dialogue is what's used to tell it. If Charles **** tells a boring story, you're not bored reading it because Charles **** can write. But the people who made 999 most definitely are not on par with Charles ****: they cannot write. Okay, I'm done bashing the writing. Here's why I hate this game: it EXPECTS you to replay it. And that's fine if you can skip all the dialogue you've heard and the puzzles you've solved on the second play through. But instead, you can make the dialogue pass by quickly (but not instantly) and you have to redo all the puzzles. I put the game down the moment it told me to re-solve a puzzle. Who in the world would make a design decision like that??? Not Charles ****, that's who.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

999 is, simply put, a visual novel. It's a lot more reading thank actual gameplay, so if you dive into this game expecting a string of puzzles with the bonus of a story, your disappointment should be less. While the core idea of the story is interesting, it simplified the fundamental psychology/theories the game is based upon to try and appeal to a larger audience, like adding water to strong coffee. The puzzles themselves aren't really a challenge if you're familiar with the brain teaser genre, but they're enough to keep you occupied without losing too much interest if you're familiar with the Layton series, I would offer that the puzzles in this game are fewer and generally less challenging This game might not be for you if you're looking for in-depth exploration of your environment, fast-paced action, or a connection with the characters. As a native Japanese speaker the dialogue didn't bother me too much, though I do have to agree with other reviewers that, yes, some of the English is a touch unnatural, though it's made an honest effort compared to other translated titles. Overall it's an entertaining game with a slightly new spin on things, but if a lot of reading and few choices is something that turns you off from a title, you may want to look elsewhere.

I simultaneously love this game and hate this game. I hate it because I had to play it four times (with a guide for the final two times) in order to get the good ending. I hated the idea of needing to play the game multiple times in order to get the right ending until I got a better grasp of the theme of the game; then it made more sense. I wish that you could fast-forward through the puzzles just like you fast-forward through conversations. My last issue with the game is that most of the decisions that actually are important to the game (which doors to go through) have no hints as to what choice you should actually make. The decisions and conversations that you need to have feel arbitrary, as do the endings that you receive based upon your decisions. I fail to see how “choosing this door” means “My character will get stabbed later”. To have come up with the solution on your own seems nearly impossible. Other than that, the game is well-written, presents a great plot that gradually gets fleshed out (even though the meat of the plot is thrown at your just when you’ve hit the end of the game). I really enjoyed the complexity of the math involved, given that the characters were forced into certain situations just because of the doors that were available. I enjoyed getting to know each of the characters and trying to unravel what their connection is. Beyond that, the gameplay is pretty boring (you have to figure out what the game wants you to do, not what you think should be done), but some of the puzzles are fairly exciting and complex. Cheers to that. I give a 7 because of its audacity in coming up with such a complex idea, but I'm a bit appalled by the execution.

A gem for the DS as literally the only DS game with a horror genre that is executed to perfection. If you are not a fan of visual novels, the story may seem slow-paced. However the plot is very deep, and the dialogue can also be amusing at times. The game also has a lot of replayability with the numerous endings you can get.

Both the narrative and soundtrack were very good, and the plot was captivating. My only beef with the game was the fact that you had to replay the puzzles you already did to advance.

Have you ever wished you could erase part of your memory just so you could experience something amazing for the first time again? 999 is the epitome of that. It's a title anyone with a DS should pick up. Excellent music, great characters, the puzzles are all solid and keep you thinking, but the main selling point is the plot. Keep in mind, this is more of a visual novel than a game, but the plot pretty much makes the entire thing. 999 has the best plot out of any game I've played hands down. While playing it you might think the concept is too ambitious to have a decent ending, but prepare to have your mind ****. My only complaints are that they should have added a timer for the last puzzle just to make things more intense, and the lack of voice acting but this IS a Nintendo DS title so expecting that is kind of unfair. Overall, if you have a DS and enjoy a good story DEFINITELY PICK THIS UP!

The story shows potential but is constantly ruined by moronic dialogue, poor character design and unrealistic behavior. The game is rated as mature yet the dialogue and overall deduction skills of all characters are childlike at best. There is very little actual gameplay but somehow it still gets interrupted by random story elements at the most random times. Also the 9 hour time limit is there just for cooler title purposes characters love wasting time and you as a player aren't pressured in any way. But if you like being 500 steps ahead of the main character's tiny chicken brain and like yelling "Just shut up already" at the screen, I wholeheartedly recommend this game. And by game I mean visual novel.

More of an interactive novel with some little puzzles to solve thrown in than a traditional game, but it's an engaging one that is definitely worth it. The only reason I've even heard of this game is that I bought a Vita and was looking at well-reviewed games for it. The sequel to this game is on Vita, but a lot of people said to play 999 first. I'm glad I did. I can't wait for the sequel.

Holy cow what an amazing story. Music was phenomenal and played a key factor in story telling. I have never seen such a good Visual Novel before. Time to move on to the sequel.

Pros: - Interesting Story - Superb Puzzles - Great Difficulty - Wonderful Character Development Cons: - Although interesting, story feels as though it "doesn't know what it is" until the end

Engaging story and the puzzles were pretty manageable for the most part. I was hooked, and wanted to find out everything in the story. Great music that accompanied what was going on in the game.A lack of a flowchart to pick where you want to start from again was annoying since you had to skip text for a chunk of time. This is a must play for the DS.

If you hate story driven games and screens filled with words, static images, few animations and basically no action, go away and never return: I say this because it's basically a visual novel game, and in that regard it can be either hated or loved by people depending on their tastes. So, with that said, this game is really well done and I really loved the plot of this game, probably one of the most exciting plots and with MANY twists that can be either silly, or just mind blowing. The game, like I said, works like a visual novel and you'll basically never move on your own, except when you have to solve puzzle, in which you have to explore in a first person perspective, and go along with the story and once in a while you'll have to choose either dialogues, and most importantly, doors, which are basically the prerequisites for the 6 (not 9?) endings you can get. The setting is thrilling and I loved the fact that it's a deadly game setting instead: it's very refreshing and kinda overlooked, and the plot itself has so many twists that even mentioning half of them can probably be a spoiler. The 9 characters (technically it's 8, since one dies RIGHT at the beginning. No real spoiler) are either likeable and **** that's really more up to the player's taste to either like one specific character or not since each one of them has his own behaviour and his own twists that will hook you in or just lure you out (I hated Clover for **** if you play in a specific way, you'll see why). Even the main character, which is "really" annoying, I could never get to hate him because he was just a normal person and his stupid sentences and selfish dialogues weren't really about being offensive: he basically was a normal guy trapped in a ship (although they go very often into the swear words department...). Great setting, great story, great dialogues (for the most part), great **** the rest fails hard, although I can't really consider them game breaking: the graphics are mediocre and they don't particularly shine, but in a "visual novel" style game it's hardly an issue...although even similar games like Phoenix Wright, which has still images too, has much more detail and color (although it was a drawing there, and it's 3d cg graphics here). Characters are well drawn and have very few but good animations and they are well different and immediately strikes your eyes for their own look (ESPECIALLY Lotus....), but we won't ever see them outside still images cutscenes and dialogue screens, which is a true pity. The puzzles are so mindblowing easy too (except the very last one, but it's still easy) and we could have used much more effort in making them at least hard the first time playing the game and give us the possibility to skip the puzzles, since we will have to finish the game at least once in order to unlock the true ending and the game itself is very short and you'll spend most of the time waiting for the text to finish on your first play. Yes, no text skipping on your first playthrough, but after that you can skip any text "you have already read" until new dialogues or scenes will occur, which is actually good. But yeah, even your first time won't last that long and won't probably clock over 5 or 6 hours (not 9?!) and much less if you are skipping all of the old dialogue. But it is a visual novel style game and reading the game is essential here, and while I'm no expert in these kind of games I really loved the story, the characters, the setting and pretty much anything despite the small flaws. If you love story driven games but don't mind reading a lot of text, you'll just love the story and will hunger for more (there's a sequel afterall). Probably not the best on a "visual" side, but on the "novel" side it's just great. If you like thrilling stories, give it a try. As long as you like to read...

A masterpiece. Just like Saw, where one person captures others for a "survival game" with puzzles, so is this game. The characters are all very different and interesting. One very good thing I just have to note about it is that you will probably not get stuck in this game. Being good on puzzles will help you solve them faster, and if you take too long to solve a puzzle the characters will have a say in their own perspective about the puzzle(aka hints). The longer you take, more hints, so even if you aren't very good at puzzles, you will eventually solve them. You are given multiple choices throughout the game, something that encourages replays. In conclusion get this game, it's amazing.(P.S. contains some bloody events)