One of the best experiences in this medium turned five in NA today

Man, 2010 was so good. We got Super Mario Galaxy 2. We got God of War 3. There was that game people with garbage TPS gameplay called Mass Effect 2.

Unknown to many, we also got Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, a visual novel about the escape of nine persons from a very dark situation. It's everything you probably don't care about in your video games on the surface - a niche, anime, visual novel initially only found on the Nintendo DS.

However, its writer and director, Kotaro Uchikoshi, wrote it with a western influence in his mind. The approach paid off; 999 commonly appears on the list of many best DS games of all time, including winning System Wars' very own Best DS Game of All Time, no small feat on a system with hundreds if not thousands of titles.

I played the game on a whim. It's a Japanese-styled game in many ways, no doubt, and its niche will no doubt rub the wrong way on even some of those willing to get past its surface. For those who want to try it to its very end, I promise you'll get one of the very best stories in gaming, one that took such advantage of the DS' hardware that its story is arguably broken without it.

I love this game. Happy fifth birthday good friend. Can't wait for the third one next year.

Will I become a full blown weab if I play this?

Liked the thread, haven't tried any visual novels yet, is this published by Nintendo? Rather give it a try on my vita than a DS, if there is a new installment coming.

best game on the ds for sure, suberb story and soundtrack

Been wanting to play this along with Virtue's Last Reward. Might need to pick these up when there's a sale.

@k--m--k: 999 is designed around being played on a DS, and I can't tell you why because it loses some of the magic.

If you're that against playing it on the DS, or somehow don't own one, there is an iOS story only version, but it's kind of like eating a half done cake.

@darkspineslayer: No I can play it on my DS, I just prefer the Vita. But since it is designed around the DS I guess DS it is then.

@k--m--k: VLR and probably Zero Time Dilema are totally great for Vita though. Enjoy 999, even if it is on an inferior system.

/charizardbait

@rektmuhface: Yes, of course.

I've always wanted to try this out. I like visual novels quite a bit, so I'm sure it would be right up my alley.

joining in the #weeaboocirclejerk, I kinda liked 99 9nites, got an easy 1000 gamerscore on it!

999 was probably the breakthrough title for visual novels in the West. Ever since 999's Western release five years ago, there's been an increasing number of VNs localized for the West (along with some VNs made in the West).

The pacing is absolutely dreadful in that game. The insanely slow text skip speed along with having to replay puzzles almost made me quit that game entirely.

Not to mention, the story goes to absolute bizarro land at the end. And not in a good way. It might be decent if it's your first visual novel, but that genre has far better experiences on PC or even PS3. Also, I think people seriously overrate the DS version. The story will still have a similiar if not the same impact with the iOS release. That version has better art and takes away all the fluffy "gamey" bullshit.

Been dying to get into this series. No time like the present.

It was ok, not what I was expecting.