I'm just going to come right out and say it starting off.....
IF YOU OWN A DS, BUY THIS GAME!
Now that that's out of my system, onto my review of the game.
For those that haven't heard, this oddly titled game is a visual novel/escape the room game from the guys at Chunsoft. You may remember them for some other visual novels, or more likely, Dragon Warrior 1-3. It's incredibly lucky this game had come stateside (as most games that have the words "visual" and "novel" anywhere in the genre field usually don't) and man is it incredible. Now before this one, I wasn't much of a fan of visual novels myself, so I really went into this one unsure of what to expect. Well let me tell you, my doubts were relieved within the first few minutes.
The storyline here (which is very important for this game) is probably the best storyline I have ever seen in a video game. It will scare you, you will laugh (maybe a few times), you will cry, your jaw will drop at some of the things that occur. Basically, you're playing as a boy named Junpei who was kidnapped by someone named "Zero" and put on a sinking ship, forced to work with 8 other people to escape from it. The ship is set to sink in nine hours, so Junpei and everyone must work together to escape. On top of that, they all have these bracelets with numbers 1-9 on them. Junpei is number 5. There are a total of 9 doors on the ship, and their goal is to find the #9 door. The other doors are numbered 1-8, and to enter a door, there must be 3-5 people who's combined digital root (taken from their numbers) is the number on the door. This digital root stuff is explained in game, so fear not if you're confused already. Basically, here's an example of it.
To enter door #4, you need 3-5 people who's digital roots would come out to the number 5. A few possible combinations of people (by their bracelet numbers) would be:
3568
3168
If these conditions are met, and too many or not enough people go through a door, then a bomb inside their stomach will detonate!
The characters in the game are all very interesting. You might think they all cater to anime stereotypes, but you'll see that you'll be proven wrong by that later. The game is full of puzzles, behind every door there are sets of puzzle rooms that you have to figure out a way out of. The puzzles are very clever and challenging, but not so ridiculously difficult.
Probably where this game really hits home though is the storyline, and the way your choices impact your ending of the game. You will definitely want to play this game multiple times, because there are six endings. It sounds repetitive, but it's really not that bad, because subsequent runs add hours of additional content you didn't see before. You can also hold right on the d-pad to fast-forward through stuff you have already seen. There is a LOT of reading in this game, but you honestly couldn't expect to go in a game labeling itself as a "visual novel" and not expect that. I can guarantee you that the reading in this one will not bore you though, as you'll be wondering constantly just what these characters will do next. I will have a spoiler section below where I will give my opinion on the endings, but I really can't say much more on this subject other than "GO PLAY THIS GAME!". Part of the fun here though is going through the game on subsequent runs and trying to think about which choices will get you the desired ending (or at least will hopefully get you there!).
Alright, below this line is going to be a big spoiler tag, where I will discuss the spoilers. If you haven't played this game, steer clear of this section! It's for your own good, you really don't want to read the spoilers on this one.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: BUY THIS GAME WHILE YOU STILL CAN. It's without a doubt one of the best games on the system, and something every gamer needs to experience, I can guarantee it. Telling you why would be mostly going into spoiler territory, but you'll just have to trust me on this one, you won't be disappointed!
IF YOU OWN A DS, BUY THIS GAME!
Now that that's out of my system, onto my review of the game.
For those that haven't heard, this oddly titled game is a visual novel/escape the room game from the guys at Chunsoft. You may remember them for some other visual novels, or more likely, Dragon Warrior 1-3. It's incredibly lucky this game had come stateside (as most games that have the words "visual" and "novel" anywhere in the genre field usually don't) and man is it incredible. Now before this one, I wasn't much of a fan of visual novels myself, so I really went into this one unsure of what to expect. Well let me tell you, my doubts were relieved within the first few minutes.
The storyline here (which is very important for this game) is probably the best storyline I have ever seen in a video game. It will scare you, you will laugh (maybe a few times), you will cry, your jaw will drop at some of the things that occur. Basically, you're playing as a boy named Junpei who was kidnapped by someone named "Zero" and put on a sinking ship, forced to work with 8 other people to escape from it. The ship is set to sink in nine hours, so Junpei and everyone must work together to escape. On top of that, they all have these bracelets with numbers 1-9 on them. Junpei is number 5. There are a total of 9 doors on the ship, and their goal is to find the #9 door. The other doors are numbered 1-8, and to enter a door, there must be 3-5 people who's combined digital root (taken from their numbers) is the number on the door. This digital root stuff is explained in game, so fear not if you're confused already. Basically, here's an example of it.
To enter door #4, you need 3-5 people who's digital roots would come out to the number 5. A few possible combinations of people (by their bracelet numbers) would be:
3568
3168
If these conditions are met, and too many or not enough people go through a door, then a bomb inside their stomach will detonate!
The characters in the game are all very interesting. You might think they all cater to anime stereotypes, but you'll see that you'll be proven wrong by that later. The game is full of puzzles, behind every door there are sets of puzzle rooms that you have to figure out a way out of. The puzzles are very clever and challenging, but not so ridiculously difficult.
Probably where this game really hits home though is the storyline, and the way your choices impact your ending of the game. You will definitely want to play this game multiple times, because there are six endings. It sounds repetitive, but it's really not that bad, because subsequent runs add hours of additional content you didn't see before. You can also hold right on the d-pad to fast-forward through stuff you have already seen. There is a LOT of reading in this game, but you honestly couldn't expect to go in a game labeling itself as a "visual novel" and not expect that. I can guarantee you that the reading in this one will not bore you though, as you'll be wondering constantly just what these characters will do next. I will have a spoiler section below where I will give my opinion on the endings, but I really can't say much more on this subject other than "GO PLAY THIS GAME!". Part of the fun here though is going through the game on subsequent runs and trying to think about which choices will get you the desired ending (or at least will hopefully get you there!).
Alright, below this line is going to be a big spoiler tag, where I will discuss the spoilers. If you haven't played this game, steer clear of this section! It's for your own good, you really don't want to read the spoilers on this one.
Every single ending in this game is mindblowing. I'll discuss my opinions on the different endings, from far right to far left.
Knife ending
This was actually the first ending I got, so I didn't have too much of a clue why all this had happened at the time. After getting a different ending though, it seemed to explain what was going on here. I'll discuss more on that below.
Axe ending
Clover really scared the crud out of me in this ending! That face you see on her when she's holding out her hand to Junpei and then walking away with the axe was just plain creepy! When I was leaving the captain's quarters, the thought crossed my mind that the "long stick" thing she picked up was the axe, but before that I assumed it was just the 0 bracelet. It was even weirder that she seemed so smug about it when she said she killed Akane, Seven, and Santa. This also explained what happened in the Knife ending though, I noticed before Clover came back, Ace asked Lotus to go with him, because he wanted to show her something. That would explain why I found her dead in the knife ending, and who stabbed Junpei.
Submarine ending
The first time I saw this one I wasn't sure what to think. My theory (along with everyone else's) is that Ace wasn't really dead and just got up after Junpei left to go stab him. The fact of being so close to escape, yet stabbed right there was so tough!
Coffin ending
What is the code?! What is the code?!
Safe ending
All this stuff about telepathy is really starting to make sense as to how it ties into the rest of the game. Snake is crazy when he's angry, and Ace killing Clover like that was just plain messed up. The riddle of figuring out the button combination was just awesome though! Before when I went into that room, I knew there had to be something about that safe, I just didn't know what! After this though, I was ready to go take on the True ending.
Akane ending
Wow, just wow. This was incredibly mindblowing. I will never think of games with multiple endings or games on the DS the same way again. Only this game actually revealed that the non-personified narrator was actually a character! Then the game turned itself upside down for the last puzzle, but I realized exactly why. It was because Akane was on the bottom screen, and Junpei was on the top screen, and this time she needed his help. Since the top screen isn't a touch screen, flipping the system upside down would solve this. Who knew that "June" was faking it the whole time, with her naivety and all, as she planned the entire thing! What an incredible ending!
Knife ending
This was actually the first ending I got, so I didn't have too much of a clue why all this had happened at the time. After getting a different ending though, it seemed to explain what was going on here. I'll discuss more on that below.
Axe ending
Clover really scared the crud out of me in this ending! That face you see on her when she's holding out her hand to Junpei and then walking away with the axe was just plain creepy! When I was leaving the captain's quarters, the thought crossed my mind that the "long stick" thing she picked up was the axe, but before that I assumed it was just the 0 bracelet. It was even weirder that she seemed so smug about it when she said she killed Akane, Seven, and Santa. This also explained what happened in the Knife ending though, I noticed before Clover came back, Ace asked Lotus to go with him, because he wanted to show her something. That would explain why I found her dead in the knife ending, and who stabbed Junpei.
Submarine ending
The first time I saw this one I wasn't sure what to think. My theory (along with everyone else's) is that Ace wasn't really dead and just got up after Junpei left to go stab him. The fact of being so close to escape, yet stabbed right there was so tough!
Coffin ending
What is the code?! What is the code?!
Safe ending
All this stuff about telepathy is really starting to make sense as to how it ties into the rest of the game. Snake is crazy when he's angry, and Ace killing Clover like that was just plain messed up. The riddle of figuring out the button combination was just awesome though! Before when I went into that room, I knew there had to be something about that safe, I just didn't know what! After this though, I was ready to go take on the True ending.
Akane ending
Wow, just wow. This was incredibly mindblowing. I will never think of games with multiple endings or games on the DS the same way again. Only this game actually revealed that the non-personified narrator was actually a character! Then the game turned itself upside down for the last puzzle, but I realized exactly why. It was because Akane was on the bottom screen, and Junpei was on the top screen, and this time she needed his help. Since the top screen isn't a touch screen, flipping the system upside down would solve this. Who knew that "June" was faking it the whole time, with her naivety and all, as she planned the entire thing! What an incredible ending!
I've said it before and I'll say it again: BUY THIS GAME WHILE YOU STILL CAN. It's without a doubt one of the best games on the system, and something every gamer needs to experience, I can guarantee it. Telling you why would be mostly going into spoiler territory, but you'll just have to trust me on this one, you won't be disappointed!