999 Delivers on ALL Fronts!
I completed the game with all the endings during a weekend marathon and it was a AMAZING experience. This is one of the most well-written, well planned and most thought-provoking games I've played this year. In fact, it's probably one of my all time fave games in the patheon of awesome story-focused games. Why? Let me explain.
The game is filled with a cast of amazing characters and concepts that will make your head spin. Not only are the characters all distinctive and interesting, but they're also very well developed. What makes them great is that they're all not as they seem. They're unpredictable and what they say or do completely breaks apart the tropes we're used to. These characters are smart and that is refreshing to see. They make smart suggestions and comments with the tasks they're given. Characters that have common sense? Yea, it's unusual and great to see here. There is a lot of great dialogue too and some really great humor which is sparse but welcome. The game is very dark and creepy at times so any bit of humor helps. I have to tell you that some of the sexual innuendo and puns are fantastic. Great localization!
The puzzles are also great (most of the time). The majority of them are basic logic and problem solving. They're not the type of puzzles that you would see in Layton save for a few handful. The majority are puzzles that require detective work in examining the locations and items you find. They make sense and made the puzzles fun to figure out. I HATE math and I even enjoyed the puzzles that involved numbers which surprised even me. Maybe a small handful of puzzles stumped me and they were because they're a type of puzzle I always hated and avoided. But other than that, it was fun.
Before I end my impressions, I have to tell everyone who plays this game to get ALL the endings. DO NOT PLAY THIS ONCE, especially if you get a bad ending. The multiple endings are integral to the overall story. The branching paths will give you a ton of info and insight into the characters and situations you were probably confused about at first. But once you find all the regular endings and get the True ending, it'll all make sense. OH MY GOD, what an ending! Be prepared to have your mind blown and have your brain messed with. It was amazing and totally worth it. By the time it ended, I was thinking about everything I experienced. I even went to look up all the real world theories and lore they mentioned in the game. It's really intriguing stuff.
Overall, amazing story, amazing characters and spectacular writing. One of the best games this year and one of the best experiences I've had with a game of this type. If you loved games like the Ace Attorney series or Hotel Dusk but with a more mature darker theme and some wild twists, then check it out. MUST PLAY.
