Got this game yesterday and I’m having so much fun. It’s unforgiving, but seems incredibly rewarding and presentation-wise it’s one of my favorite DS/3DS games; so stylish and the gameplay is very well thought out. Only negative thing is it cost a small fortune, because it’s pretty rare and unfortunately didn’t do so well apparently. Too bad, because it’s a great game.

Recently bought this on eBay (with soundtrack) and it just got this delivered today. The battle system is so much fun that I could easily see myself put hours upon hours into this game without tiring from it. Sure the story seems generic and typical of a JRPG, but it doesn’t seem to take itself seriously and that makes it that much more fun.

I’m usually not a fan of cosplay, but stumbling upon this amazing photo of Junpei (of the visual novel 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors) just made my day. The rest of the set is really good too.

I beat the game the other day and I’m currently making my way through the other endings and hopefully I’ll finally get to see the true ending in the near future. Either way, even with a very abrupt ending thus far, it’s still my favorite gaming experience on the DS, even counting my 3DS games Tales of the Abyss and Kid Icarus, which I love, so that’s saying a lot. I thought replaying the game would be a chore, but so far my second playthrough has been almost as rewarding as the first time as I’m learning so much more about different characters, though of course I expect this to lessen as I get more endings.

As a huge fan of visual novels the first game I bought (after picking up Kid Icarus with the 3DS console) was 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. Kid Icarus may be copious amounts of fun, but 999’s story and writing has already gripped me like few games have or any other medium, which is just amazing considering the fact that there’s very little interaction going on. I’m basically reading lots of text accompanied by a couple of nearly static images and the atmosphere is just unbelievable. I think the visual novel genre may actually work better on a handheld, since it’s more intimate in a way.

Anyway, I urge you to pick this game up if you haven’t already. I even wrote an email to Ghostlight and Rising Star Games basically begging either of them to bring the sequel (of sorts) Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward to Europe as it’s already been announced for North America and will be released later this year. If you’ve already played and loved 999 I hope you’ll send them an email too.