Brooklyn11218
Active Member
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is an interesting game. It could actually be considered more of an interactive storybook instead of a game. With long spans of story, all text, in between small amounts of actual user interaction.
Plot
The plot of the game is akin to a Saw movie. You wake up in a room with no idea where you are or how you go there. Shortly after, you meet your 8 companions and learn that you all have been kidnapped and made to play the life and death game of "Nonary."
The premise of the Nonary game is to survive. You must solve puzzles to enter and escape rooms all while searching for the doors marked with red paint. Each door is numbered one through nine and the ninth door is the exit. The nine participants in the game have exactly nine hours to get through the nine doors (hence the name of the game) or the bomb inside each of their small intestines will explode.
While the plot is pretty interesting, I feel most American gamers do not have the patience to sit through the twenty plus minutes of story text in between puzzle segments. There were many times I wanted to skip the dialog and just get to the next door. I couldn't do that however because the game prevents players from skipping the story on the first play through. With good reason too, every bit of information in the game is important. Every choice you are asked to make is vital. It all affects what ending you get. With three bad endings, two normal endings, and one true ending the game requires many playthroughs to fully complete it. Unlike other games though, the second and third playthroughs are not tedious. Every deviation from the previous playthrough vastly affects the storyline, so you're constantly exploring new areas and discovering new facts to the story.
Characters
The characters all have their own back-stories that you will slowly unravel during your journey through the game. Each character has a bracelet with a number on it that they use to enter through the painted doors. It also serves as the detonator for the bomb in their bellies. Not wanting to share their real names, they come up with code names based on their numbers. Here is a quick run through of the main characters:
[float=left]
[/float]1. Ace: Taking the codename "Ace" after both the playing card and the 1 on his bracelet, Ace is a kind older gentleman that is both wise and self-sacrificing.
[float=right]
[/float]2. Snake: Snake chooses his code name from the dice term "snake eyes." He feels it represents him well because his number is 2 and because he is blind. Snake might be blind but he is by no means handicapped. He is very intelligent and with his heightened senses he can hear things the others cannot.
[float=left]
[/float]3. Santa: Santa takes his name from the Japanese word "San" which means "3", the same number on his bracelet. Santa is a hyper, foul-mouthed boy that puts on an air of being dumb but is actually hiding a keen intelligence.
[float=right]
[/float]4. Clover: Clover takes her name from the plant, a four leafed clover. Clover is Snake's sister and is fiercely loyal to him. She is a high-spirited, strong-willed girl that is not afraid to speak her mind, even in the company of 7 strangers far older than her.
[float=left]
[/float]5. Junpei: Junpei is the man through whose eyes we view the game. He is the only character to use his real name instead of a code name. His bracelet number is 5.
[float=right]
[/float]6. June: June is a childhood friend of Junpei from elementary school. Her name comes from the 6th month of the year, though in conversations between her and Junpei, he uses her real name Akane. June obviously has feelings for Junpei and your choices in the game affect how their relationship develops.
[float=left]
[/float]7. Seven: Seven takes his name directly from his bracelet number. Seven is a very large and strong man that supposedly suffers from amnesia. Junpei questions it at times because of the obvious fact that Seven is hiding something.
[float=right]
[/float]8. Lotus: Lotus, taking her name from the 8 petaled flower of the same name is a beautiful older woman with a dangerous will to live. Lotus is highly cunning, quickly figuring out that she needs to thin the competition if she expects to survive.
[float=left]
[/float]9. 9th Man: Not much is known about the 9th man because he gets himself blown up early in the game by ignoring Zero's rules.
[float=right]
[/float]0. Zero: Zero is the man that set up the Nonary game. He kidnapped everyone,setup the doors, planted the bombs, and set the puzzles. Nothing else is known about him.
Audio
There isn't much to say about the audio. It does its job of creating an atmosphere that correlates to the story while managing to avoid becoming an annoyance.
Playtime
The first playthrough is the longest, but even so the game is still short. That works in its favor though because the developers built it to be replayed multiple times. On any subsequent playthrough after the first, you are allowed to skip through dialogue you've already read. Not only does this add to the replay value by significantly cutting down on the playtime, but it lets impatient gamers like myself move quickly through the story.
Overall I would recommend this game to anyone with a DS and a few hours to kill. It isn't the best game in the world, but it's a great time waster and helps to exercise the puzzle solving portion of your brain. Sitting through the super long story segments can get tiresome at times but that is fixed in subsequent playthroughs. The background and mystery of all the characters is sure to pique your curiousity and I'm fairly sure that if you play the game to completion once, you will re-play it two or three more times. I am on my third playthough now, still seeking the elusive "true ending" and I don't intend on putting it down until I get it.
Plot
The plot of the game is akin to a Saw movie. You wake up in a room with no idea where you are or how you go there. Shortly after, you meet your 8 companions and learn that you all have been kidnapped and made to play the life and death game of "Nonary."
The premise of the Nonary game is to survive. You must solve puzzles to enter and escape rooms all while searching for the doors marked with red paint. Each door is numbered one through nine and the ninth door is the exit. The nine participants in the game have exactly nine hours to get through the nine doors (hence the name of the game) or the bomb inside each of their small intestines will explode.
While the plot is pretty interesting, I feel most American gamers do not have the patience to sit through the twenty plus minutes of story text in between puzzle segments. There were many times I wanted to skip the dialog and just get to the next door. I couldn't do that however because the game prevents players from skipping the story on the first play through. With good reason too, every bit of information in the game is important. Every choice you are asked to make is vital. It all affects what ending you get. With three bad endings, two normal endings, and one true ending the game requires many playthroughs to fully complete it. Unlike other games though, the second and third playthroughs are not tedious. Every deviation from the previous playthrough vastly affects the storyline, so you're constantly exploring new areas and discovering new facts to the story.
Characters
The characters all have their own back-stories that you will slowly unravel during your journey through the game. Each character has a bracelet with a number on it that they use to enter through the painted doors. It also serves as the detonator for the bomb in their bellies. Not wanting to share their real names, they come up with code names based on their numbers. Here is a quick run through of the main characters:
[float=left]
[/float]1. Ace: Taking the codename "Ace" after both the playing card and the 1 on his bracelet, Ace is a kind older gentleman that is both wise and self-sacrificing.[float=right]
[/float]2. Snake: Snake chooses his code name from the dice term "snake eyes." He feels it represents him well because his number is 2 and because he is blind. Snake might be blind but he is by no means handicapped. He is very intelligent and with his heightened senses he can hear things the others cannot. [float=left]
[/float]3. Santa: Santa takes his name from the Japanese word "San" which means "3", the same number on his bracelet. Santa is a hyper, foul-mouthed boy that puts on an air of being dumb but is actually hiding a keen intelligence.[float=right]
[/float]4. Clover: Clover takes her name from the plant, a four leafed clover. Clover is Snake's sister and is fiercely loyal to him. She is a high-spirited, strong-willed girl that is not afraid to speak her mind, even in the company of 7 strangers far older than her.[float=left]
[/float]5. Junpei: Junpei is the man through whose eyes we view the game. He is the only character to use his real name instead of a code name. His bracelet number is 5.[float=right]
[/float]6. June: June is a childhood friend of Junpei from elementary school. Her name comes from the 6th month of the year, though in conversations between her and Junpei, he uses her real name Akane. June obviously has feelings for Junpei and your choices in the game affect how their relationship develops.[float=left]
[/float]7. Seven: Seven takes his name directly from his bracelet number. Seven is a very large and strong man that supposedly suffers from amnesia. Junpei questions it at times because of the obvious fact that Seven is hiding something.[float=right]
[/float]8. Lotus: Lotus, taking her name from the 8 petaled flower of the same name is a beautiful older woman with a dangerous will to live. Lotus is highly cunning, quickly figuring out that she needs to thin the competition if she expects to survive.[float=left]
[/float]9. 9th Man: Not much is known about the 9th man because he gets himself blown up early in the game by ignoring Zero's rules.[float=right]
[/float]0. Zero: Zero is the man that set up the Nonary game. He kidnapped everyone,setup the doors, planted the bombs, and set the puzzles. Nothing else is known about him.Audio
There isn't much to say about the audio. It does its job of creating an atmosphere that correlates to the story while managing to avoid becoming an annoyance.
Playtime
The first playthrough is the longest, but even so the game is still short. That works in its favor though because the developers built it to be replayed multiple times. On any subsequent playthrough after the first, you are allowed to skip through dialogue you've already read. Not only does this add to the replay value by significantly cutting down on the playtime, but it lets impatient gamers like myself move quickly through the story.
Overall I would recommend this game to anyone with a DS and a few hours to kill. It isn't the best game in the world, but it's a great time waster and helps to exercise the puzzle solving portion of your brain. Sitting through the super long story segments can get tiresome at times but that is fixed in subsequent playthroughs. The background and mystery of all the characters is sure to pique your curiousity and I'm fairly sure that if you play the game to completion once, you will re-play it two or three more times. I am on my third playthough now, still seeking the elusive "true ending" and I don't intend on putting it down until I get it.
