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| 3 | %%Zero-context examples have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them. |
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| 6 | |
| 7 | [[center:[[AC:'''''Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors''''' || ''Characters/VirtuesLastReward'' || ''Characters/ZeroTimeDilemma'']]]] |
| 8 | |
| 9 | The cast of ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'', and all tropes that pertain to them. For tropes specific to their appearances in later games, see their respective character pages. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Beware for LateArrivalSpoiler descriptions for later games in the franchise. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | [[AC: Major spoilers ahead. All spoilers are unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.]] |
| 14 | |
| 15 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 16 | |
| 17 | !! The Nine Players - ''WARNING: Unmarked spoilers ahead!'' |
| 18 | |
| 19 | [[folder:In General]] |
| 20 | * AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Uchikoshi himself declared in [[http://www.aksysgames.com/999/answers#61 a Questions and Answers]] that Lotus and Seven are a canonical couple. Their interactions in-game bounce between annoyance and protectiveness, especially after Seven saves Lotus from Ace. |
| 21 | * AxCrazy: |
| 22 | ** Clover becomes homicidally insane in the Axe ending as a result of her brother's death. She grabs the axe that killed the Captain and uses it against Santa, Seven, June, and Junpei. |
| 23 | ** In the Safe ending, Snake goes berserk against Ace when the latter tells him how much he enjoyed killing Clover. And he brings Ace down...at the cost of his own life. |
| 24 | * BatmanGambit: |
| 25 | ** Junpei: |
| 26 | *** He pulls these off in a few scenes in order to force the teams to divide in a way that lets him through his choice of door. |
| 27 | *** In the Safe ending, Junpei exposes Ace by pretending that he switched clothes with Santa. Ace's inability to recognize faces caused him to fall for the trap and reveal himself as the game's villain. |
| 28 | ** Ace does this in the hospital room, forcing the teams to divide in a way that wouldn't allow anyone through Door 3. |
| 29 | ** It's eventually revealed that part of the purpose of the Nonary Game is to punish the four Cradle executives who ran the first Nonary Game. This is partially accomplished by tricking Ace, the CEO, into killing the other three. Though Ace is never ''forced'' to do anything, Zero knows him well enough to predict his actions. |
| 30 | * BigBrotherInstinct: Snake and Santa are both incredibly protective of their younger sisters. Snake is thrown into a suicidal rage when Clover is murdered by Ace, though Santa's sister is already dead by the beginning of the story (or is she?). |
| 31 | * BrotherSisterTeam: Snake and Clover. Also, Santa and June. |
| 32 | * ClusterFBomb: Everyone except for Snake and June swears like a sailor at least once in the story. Santa is definitely the primary offender, though. |
| 33 | * ColorCodedForYourConvenience: A really clever bit of both {{Foreshadowing}} here: Clover and Snake both wear red and blue respectively. Why is this important? Clover was able to transmit signals, and Snake was able to receive them in the first Nonary Game. This is the same exact color used for the figures during the examples when the theory pops up in-game. But this doesn't end there: June/Akane wore red in the first Nonary game, and she was meant to be a transmitter to Santa, a receiver. Santa himself had traces of blue in his design in the first Nonary Game, not to mention his real name, Aoi, means "blue" in Japanese. And finally, Junpei has both red and blue in his design, hinting at his ability to both transmit AND receive. June/Akane herself also wears purple, which is also the meaning of her name -- a mixture of red and blue, which could also indicate her eventual ability to transmit and receive. |
| 34 | * ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Santa and June -- that's the reason they were never reported as missing when they were kidnapped by Cradle. [[VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma Two installments later]] we get to see the actual reason they are parentless. |
| 35 | * {{Determinator}}: Nearly everyone: |
| 36 | ** In the Safe ending, Snake won't stop until he brings Clover's killer down, even if it means enduring a lot of bullets and dying along with his opponent. |
| 37 | ** Seven, who pursued the case of the first Nonary Game nine years ago, which meant tailing a dangerous organization, getting drugged and imprisoned on a ship, ripping apart an airvent hatch to sneak around the area, and delving into an ''active incinerator'' to rescue a bunch of young children, eventually succeeding and escaping alive. |
| 38 | ** June, who masterminded the second Nonary Game to both avenge ''and'' rescue her past self, even if it meant trying and failing across several timelines. |
| 39 | ** For that matter, Santa as well, who's June's brother, and who became her NumberTwo for the same reasons as her. |
| 40 | ** Lotus, who has spent nine years obsessively researching the cover-up of the children's kidnapping. |
| 41 | ** Junpei just won't rest until he escapes with June, even if he doesn't in the True Ending. It's touching in the Safe ending, where he firmly opposes Zero's intention of ending the game while claiming that he'll escape with June... only for him to be rendered unconscious from Soporil. |
| 42 | ** Ace is willing to kill as many people as necessary to escape the Nonary Game. |
| 43 | * DwindlingParty: Played with and later discussed when it's revealed that there's more than one door marked with a 9. Shame that doesn't help very much. |
| 44 | * EasilyForgiven: |
| 45 | ** On the True Ending path, Junpei and the others seem to pretty easily forgive the culprits once everything's revealed, especially since they were pretty justified in taking down the Nonary Game creators. |
| 46 | ** If Junpei goes through Door 3 (leaving Clover and Lotus behind to die just so he wouldn't be separated from June), all he gets for it when he returns is a glare and a slap on the cheek. Possibly justified, given that the team returned (subverting the "abandonment" part), they had found Snake, and they had just been through hell. This is significantly changed in the iOS version, as instead of moving on to Door 2 and the Sub ending, Clover takes her revenge on Junpei via injecting him with Soporil and drowning him. |
| 47 | * EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Early in the game, all the characters except for Junpei take a codename in case Zero just randomly kidnapped them but [[BeingWatched is keeping surveillance on them]]. Never mind that in most cases, they were probably carrying ID when kidnapped... Of course, if they'd all announced their names, Ace would have been clued in to Santa and June's true identity, Lotus's backplot, as well as Seven's story if his amnesia was an act. Which would have made Ace even more eager to backstab them, considering how quickly he moves against the 9th Man and "Snake". Not surprising Aoi and Akane went along with the idea... |
| 48 | * GenreBlindness: Santa, Junpei and June left a ''loaded gun'' inside the coffin in the cargo room and didn't make sure that Ace wouldn't take it when they weren't looking. They paid a high price for this. In the same vein, Seven trusting that Santa wouldn't take the gun is what sets off the True Ending. |
| 49 | * HiddenDepths: '''EVERYBODY.''' The director had this in mind creating the game - building the characters upon {{st|ockCharacters}}ereotypes, then {{subvert|edTrope}}ing them. |
| 50 | * RedOniBlueOni: This trope is used in almost every possible form, thanks to subverted stereotypes and numerous reveals. Some key examples: |
| 51 | ** Zigzagged by Clover (who wears red) and Snake (who wears blue). When Snake disappears, Clover's distress makes her become both onis, being alternately passionate and aloof. Clover starts as a bubbly, energetic Red Oni, but becomes a cold and detached Blue Oni after believing her brother died (until she snaps, anyway). Snake, meanwhile, begins as a calm, erudite Blue Oni but after Clover dies goes completely berserk on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge. |
| 52 | ** Santa and June, whose names are homonyms for 'Blue' and 'Red' respectively. Santa's establishing character moment in the prologue would make him appear to be a classic Red Oni, but once [[TheEndingChangesEverything all the pieces are collected]] and he drops the act, he seems to actually be the Blue Oni. June turns out to be the more emotional of the pair. |
| 53 | ** The game also makes more than one reference to red and blue creating purple, although one of these is LostInTranslation. |
| 54 | * ShipTease: |
| 55 | ** Seven and Lotus, especially when they're the first ones to protest when they, at separate occasions, attempt to perform a HeroicSacrifice. The excuses they come up with to explain their outbursts aren't very convincing either. |
| 56 | ** Various dialogues between Junpei and Clover in the Library and Cargo Room have this vibe. In the context of the events involving Clover that lead up to said rooms, Junpei giving her the laminated four-leaf clover bookmark and her [[TheGlomp glomping]] him when he inadvertently reveals that Snake is still alive, these moments can be read as Clover having developed a bit of a crush on Junpei. |
| 57 | * ShipperOnDeck: EVERYONE with Junpei and June, primarily Lotus, who repeatedly teases you about June. Twice as funny due to the boat pun you can make this trope into. |
| 58 | * SkywardScream: |
| 59 | ** In the Safe ending: |
| 60 | ---> '''Ace:''' ZEEEEEROOOOOOOOO!!!\ |
| 61 | '''Junpei:''' KAAAANNYYYYYY!!! |
| 62 | ** '''Santa/Aoi:''' does this after finding the charred remains of his sister. However, due to the SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong plot of the game, he doesn't technically end up doing this. |
| 63 | * ThemeNaming: |
| 64 | ** Everyone takes up code names based off their number, except Junpei. Ace (1), Snake (as in "snake eyes," 2), Santa ("san" is "3" in Japanese, plus he's got a few stories about "Santa" to tell), Clover (4, like the leaves), June (the 6th month), Seven (which, uh, probably sounded cool and foreign in Japanese), and Lotus (8, like the petals on the flower). Junpei is ''about'' to announce his code name but is cut off by Lotus before he can say it, who tells him it's pointless for him to have one since they all know his real name already. |
| 65 | ** The same applies in the Japanese version, where most of their assumed names either have the character for their number in them, or are similar in sound (again, except Junpei). Ace is ''Ichi''miya ("ichi" is "1"), Snake is ''Ni''(e)ls ("ni" is "two"), Santa is the same, Clover is Yotsuba ("clover" in Japanese), June is ''Mu''rasaki (the character for "six" can be pronounced "mu"), Seven is... Seven, and Lotus is ''Ya''shiro (the character for "eight" can be pronounced "ya"). Mu can also refer to nothingness in both English and Japanese... that is, zero. |
| 66 | ** Averted in that Clover's name is actually Clover, well, Yotsuba. |
| 67 | ** OddNameOut: Junpei, because he was identified by his real name before the ThemeNaming was decided on. |
| 68 | * YouWakeUpInARoom: The game starts with your character waking up in the cabin of a large passenger ship. Of the nine characters involved, however, only one has amnesia and it isn't you. In fact, Junpei only needs a few minutes to get his bearings before the player sees exactly [[HowWeGotHere how he was abducted from his apartment.]] |
| 69 | [[/folder]] |
| 70 | |
| 71 | ---- |
| 72 | |
| 73 | [[folder:5 - Junpei]] |
| 74 | !!#5 Junpei |
| 75 | !!!Voiced by: Creator/TatsuhisaSuzuki (Japanese), Evan Smith (English) |
| 76 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/junpei_8.png]] |
| 77 | |
| 78 | -> "Do any of you know what the fuck is going on here?! Who's Zero?! What's this 'Nonary Game'!? C'mon! Anybody? Anything?! What the hell is going on?! What are we doing here?!" |
| 79 | |
| 80 | The protagonist of the game. Junpei is an ordinary college student who is kidnapped by a mysterious masked man and wakes up in an unknown location with a bracelet strapped to his wrist. Although he is confused and frightened at first, after adjusting to the situation it is shown that he has a sharp mind and a skeptical outlook on life. |
| 81 | |
| 82 | His bracelet number is 5. Unlike the other eight, he does not have a codename because his real name was revealed before the group decided to keep them a secret. |
| 83 | ----- |
| 84 | * AffectionateNickname: Junpei is called "Jumpy" by his childhood friend June. |
| 85 | * AgentScully: He is a staunch (although this can vary slightly with dialogue choices) skeptic, with a habit of putting down [[AgentMulder June]]'s occult musings. He tends to be quite good at coming up with the most logical and plausible explanation for some of the more outlandish theories proposed during the game. In true Agent Scully fashion, this makes Junpei ''wrong'' about many of the phenomena presented by other players throughout the Nonary Game. |
| 86 | * AmbiguousSituation: Due to the circumstances of his mindlink with Akane, how much he's aware of other routes is unclear. The major reveals of the True Ending, for example, rely on a lot of information given through the Safe Ending, but Akane's POV during that section mentions ''she's lost contact with Junpei for a while'' before it picks up again right before the final puzzle, meaning it might be the one point in the game where Junpei actually knows and remembers the other routes. |
| 87 | * BatmanGambit: He is capable of quite a few of these, including tricking other players into choosing the door he wants and tricking Ace into revealing himself as the villain by pretending to switch clothes with Santa (Ace cannot recognize faces). |
| 88 | * BrokenTears: In the Submarine Ending, he cries to the point of [[EmptyShell unresponsiveness]] after Akane dies in his arms. |
| 89 | * CaptainObvious: Much of his dialog when exploring his surroundings can come off as this, but a few stunning examples stand out, such as seemingly thumping his chest over knowing how a shower's soap dish works since he's used a shower before.[[note]]This made more sense in the Japanese version, as baths (with a shower head used to rinse before entering the bath) are more common to standing showers, at least over there.[[/note]] |
| 90 | * ChekhovsSkill: The game goes out of its way to hammer the base36 numbering system into Junpei's head during puzzles. Later on, it turns out that the final number 9 door is actually a number ''q'' door. |
| 91 | * ChildhoodFriendRomance: Junpei and Akane have been friends since elementary school. They have deeper feelings than just friendship, however... She praises and admires Junpei every chance she gets, and his biggest concern is escaping the DeadlyGame with her. They even share sexual innuendos here and there throughout the game. |
| 92 | * {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: A mild example at least. Most notable is during the flooding cabin, where examining the right things causes him to make several ladder puns. While in danger of drowning. |
| 93 | * CompanionCube: In Door 8, have Junpei examine the mannequin more than several times for him to eventually dub it "Science Boy". His attachment to Science Boy can lead to a funny moment or two, especially after the fire breaks out. During the fire, try examining Science Boy and the door Clover went through. |
| 94 | * CooldownHug: Gives one to June when they come across "Snake's" (actually Nijisaki's) corpse in the shower room. |
| 95 | * DeadpanSnarker: Mostly internal, but sometimes, he voices it. |
| 96 | * DecoyProtagonist: An odd example: you learn at the very end that the protagonist is actually the June of 9 years ago, seeing things through Junpei's eyes. This is why you can start a new game with your memories intact, because even though Junpei dies, the June from 9 years ago can start over. Though technically this could mean they are both the protagonist. Also, June herself is actually Zero, making her both a protagonist AND antagonist. |
| 97 | * DespairEventHorizon: |
| 98 | ** Hits this ''hard'' in one of the Bad Endings. Specifically, the one where Clover goes AxCrazy. After he finds out that she murdered Santa, Seven and June, his [[HeroicBSOD mind breaks so hard]] that he actually starts to see Clover as a sort of angelic figure, and is even willing to follow her. It doesn't stop her from killing him and taking his bracelet. |
| 99 | ** It happens to him in the Submarine ending too. Not only does he think that everyone else on the ship is dead, he completely breaks after June [[DiedInYourArmsTonight dies in his arms]], to the point that he barely even registers Seven and Lotus' deaths. Ace probably [[MercyKill did the poor guy a favor]] in the end. |
| 100 | ** He doesn't take Snake's HeroicSacrifice in the Safe ending very well either. |
| 101 | * DidNotGetTheGirl: Akane runs off at the end and they don't get together, not until ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma.'' |
| 102 | * DisappointedByTheMotive: In the epilogue, Junpei asks Ace why he masterminded the original Nonary Game 9 years ago and forced 18 kids to play a DeadlyGame as part of an experiement on morphogenetic fields. He replies that he wanted to find a way to access the field himself... so he could finally see human faces by looking through the eyes of somebody who doesn't have prosopagnosia. Junpei's reaction is basically, "That's ''it''?!" and he immediately puts the duct tape back over Ace's mouth. |
| 103 | * EurekaMoment: The route to the Safe ending relies on him learning from Clover that Snake's left arm is fake. This means when he sees the body in the shower, which has a natural left arm, the realization hits him like a truck that this body couldn't possibly be Snake's. |
| 104 | * FriendlessBackground: If you check the ladder in the 3rd class cabin, he reveals that he had no friends after elementary school. |
| 105 | * GuileHero: He manages to get Ace to confess that he's the murderer of Clover and Nijisaki in the Safe ending through tricking him into believing he's Santa, which would prove he has prosopagnosia, and by tricking him into believing he took the Number 9 bracelet from Ace's pocket when he was unconscious. |
| 106 | * TheHero: Double subversion. He is the main playable character, you control his actions, and events play out from his perspective. Then it turns out that Akane has actually been watching him from the first Nonary Game with her psychic powers to find a way to escape the death trap she's been caught in, and you've been influencing Junpei's actions through her. Then the final puzzle comes, and you get to control Junpei for real. |
| 107 | * TheHeroDies: He dies in the Axe, Submarine, and Knife endings. |
| 108 | * IdiotBall: {{Subverted}}, as there are only two dialogue choices that will change the ending received and they don't require much savvy on the part of the player or Junpei. It's impossible to play Junpei as holding the IdiotBall or with ObfuscatingStupidity, as the game will advance regardless of your choices (the only difference being that the other characters will call you an idiot). In-game, however, Junpei and the rest of the cast spend time batting around the IdiotBall with any regard to the gun from the cargo hold, which is [[LampshadeHanging repeatedly mentioned]] to be a fatal oversight, on Seven's background, and in the Axe ending, when Junpei ''sees'' the weapon in Clover's possession. Since all of these examples are beyond the player's control, ForgotAboutHisPowers is also in play. |
| 109 | ** Only two choices in the entire game actually have Junpei hold the Idiot Ball firmly in hand and have it bite his ass: doors 3 and 2. Junpei's insistence on going through each gets a massive callout from the others and are the only doors to guarantee a bad ending no matter which main route you're on (both doors lead to the Submarine ending with no way to reverse the decision). |
| 110 | * LivingMacGuffin: Out of all the Nonary game participants, he's this, and it's the reason for his inclusion despite being the only one otherwise unconnected to the first Nonary game. As young Akane is mind-linked to him specifically as her [[FirstPersonNarration POV Protagonist]] in the second game, experiencing everything he does and learning new information consequently that eventually becomes vital for her survival in a specific scenario -- Junpei's GoldenEnding -- he's arguably the reason ''why'' the second game had to occur in the first place. Santa even alludes to this as he traps the remaining group in the incinerator and arms it as per young Akane's vision, stating that he chose his codename because Santa 'grants children's wishes', but it's up to Junpei himself to actually do so. |
| 111 | * MindlinkMates: With Akane. Uchikoshi claims their connection through morphogenetic field is particularly strong because of [[ThePowerOfLove their love.]] |
| 112 | * MoralityPet: Subverted; Uchikoshi clarified that she actually does love Junpei, but this doesn't stop her from manipulating him. After all, the point of Zero's Nonary Game was to lead Junpei into an exact copy of the original game's events so that he could save Akane, and it takes a lot of tries with a lot of suffering in each one before they get it just right. |
| 113 | * NiceGuy: A very kind and caring man who's willing to go a long length to help everyone, even the other participants he never knows much about except June who's his childhood friend who also participates. |
| 114 | * TheNicknamer: At least mentally. Before everyone chooses their own codenames, Junpei mentally assigns everyone simple nicknames, like "Lion" for Ace and "Prince" for Snake. |
| 115 | * ObliviousToLove: Innuendos and flirting from June just sail straight over his head despite him crushing hard. It varies by room. If you choose Door 4 at the start, he and June flirt quite a bit and blush during every conversation. If you choose Door 5, you won't work with June unless you force a team through Door 3 (not very romantic) or you go through Door 6 and work with her in the engine and cargo rooms, which are part of the wrong path. For example, going into door 4 has June start fussing with her hair while looking at a vanity mirror. When Junpei scolds her for wasting time, he mentions that "there's no one here to impress", and ''completely'' misses June's implication that she's trying to impress ''him'' afterward. |
| 116 | * OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: {{Inverted|Trope}}. He's the only one who is called by his real name because June blurted it out before the group decided to assign code names. |
| 117 | * OnlyOneName: His surname is not revealed in this game. |
| 118 | * ParrotExposition: Junpei has a tendency to repeat what other people say. |
| 119 | * PlayerCharacter: Double subversion. Throughout the game, you have only been controlling Junpei by proxy. The real player character is 12-year-old Akane, who has been psychically witnessing all of the bad endings during her search for a way to survive the first Nonary Game. Once you learn this, the final puzzle has you control Junpei for real. |
| 120 | * PrecisionFStrike: Junpei and Santa are both prone to swearing, but Junpei uses this variant. It usually occurs right before he TakesALevelInBadass and takes a leadership role over the other players. |
| 121 | * PungeonMaster: It's not like he's constantly making puns, but when he does, they're pretty bad, much to the annoyance of the others. It's also his self-admitted reason for not having any friends. |
| 122 | * SurrogateSoliloquy: Junpei conversing with the ladder in 3rd class cabin. |
| 123 | * UnfazedEveryman: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] with Santa in the engine room, as Santa points out that the correct response to the events they've faced is some form of a HeroicBSOD, whereas the majority of the cast has kept going through some combination of adrenaline and resolve. |
| 124 | * XanatosSpeedChess: How Junpei is able to pick which door he wants. Most visible with the door 3 selection and the choice between 1, 2, and 6, where he's able to manipulate damn near the entire cast into getting which door he wants through quick thinking and some sleight-of-hand. |
| 125 | * WrongGenreSavvy: Thinks that he's in a romance story, and that he should persevere against all odds to win over his shy, sensitive ChildhoodFriend. However, Akane is a far cry from the compassionate, innocent girl he remembers. In fact, she's [[BigBad Zero]], an AntiVillain WellIntentionedExtremist who is perfectly fine with exacting murderous revenge on those who wronged her while trying to save her past self's life. The story itself is more like a mystery/sci-fi series, with a touch of horror. |
| 126 | |
| 127 | [[/folder]] |
| 128 | |
| 129 | [[folder:1 - Ace]] |
| 130 | !!#1 "Ace" (Gentarou Hongou) |
| 131 | !!! Voiced by: Creator/TakayaHashi (Japanese), Creator/RichardEpcar (English) |
| 132 | [[quoteright:345:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ace_08.png]] |
| 133 | |
| 134 | -> "What are you going to gain by being so suspicious? That's what Zero wants, you know. This game was set up by Zero, wasn't it? Any game has a winner and loser. Whoever makes it through door [9] is a winner, and those who don't are the losers. Zero is trying to make us fight against one another for that victory. That is why we can't let ourselves fall prey to suspicion. We have to [[ThePowerOfTrust trust one another]], and form a [[ThePowerOfFriendship strong bond of friendship]]. Otherwise, we'll end up ensnared by Zero's manipulations." |
| 135 | |
| 136 | An older man with a goatee and graying hair. He generally serves as a voice of calmness and reason in the midst of the terror going on in the ship. His bracelet number is 1, and his name comes from playing cards. |
| 137 | |
| 138 | His original Japanese alias was "''Ichi''miya" (from the word for "one"). |
| 139 | |
| 140 | His true identity is Gentarou Hongou, the CEO of a pharmaceutical company that [[AllThereInTheManual (re)]]created the Nonary Game nine years ago as an experiment in morphogenetic fields. He and three others kidnapped eighteen children (nine pairs of siblings) and placed nine children on the Gigantic, and the other nine children in "Building Q", a replica of the Gigantic built in Nevada. After the initial game, he laid low for a while until the present day, where he is kidnapped by Zero and forced to play the game he recreated. |
| 141 | ----- |
| 142 | * AllForNothing: All of his murders throughout the game are done to [[HeKnowsTooMuch protect himself from being exposed as the one behind the events of the immediate plot as Cradle Pharmaceuticals' CEO]], including his murder of Clover, since she realizes that he stole the [9] bracelet and he has to keep her mouth shut about him being the one who's actively killing everyone. In the Safe and True endings, he gets exposed by Junpei anyway, meaning that his efforts didn't help himself in the end. |
| 143 | * AnimalMotifs: Lion. His hairstyle and beard are reminiscent of a lion. And he happens to be the C.E.O. of a company, which is the highest position in that hierarchy. He is technically the king of his company. |
| 144 | * AssholeVictim: Becomes this in the Safe Ending, where he is ''burned alive''. Adding more insult to his death is the fact that he is incinerated to death in an incinerator identical to the one where he trapped the young Akane 9 years before. |
| 145 | * AxCrazy: Once his fake bravado falls off, Hongou reveals himself as nothing more than a chillingly realistic portrayal of a sociopath with skin-deep stoicness, yet he is prone to extreme temper tantrums when things don't go his way. This is perfectly illustrated in the flashback sequence of the true ending, where Hongou goes screaming, yelling and cussing when he notices his test subjects have escaped, before furiously shoving the young Akane in an incinerator, laughing for her misery when she can't solve the [[GridPuzzle Sudoku]] puzzle required to escape. |
| 146 | * BadassCape: Unrealistic for an ordinary CEO, Hongou's cape tends to float in the wind. |
| 147 | * BatmanGambit: The main reason he offered to stay behind was because without him there was no way the others could enter door #3 and learn that Snake was dead, banking on the fact that they'll want to leave as few people behind as possible and go through doors #7 and #8. |
| 148 | * BeardOfEvil: He has a short beard, and he turns out to be the most despicable character in the game. |
| 149 | * BigBad: Played with. He's not Zero, but his actions in creating the first Nonary Game ultimately led to all the events that happen in the game, and he is the most evil character in the game. As well as this, he's the murderer in the present day Nonary Game, and his motives for committing them are far more heinous than those of Zero's for starting the Nonary Game. |
| 150 | * BigBadEnsemble: He tries to usurp control of the game from Zero, and is the antagonist when Zero’s not running things. He’s also the one who drove Zero to it, and by far [[EvilerThanThou the bigger threat]]. |
| 151 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: He is a quite polite and cooperative man, but he's secretly one of the main villains. A more specific invoking of this trope is right before the second set of doors; he offers to stay behind and put his life at risk (in what turned out to be moot), but this was not because he was a gentleman, but because he wanted the privacy needed to efficiently cover up his murder. |
| 152 | * ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: He betrays both his own coworkers from the previous Nonary Game and the participants of the current Nonary Game with no guilt whatsoever. |
| 153 | * CombatPragmatist: He never gives his victims the opportunity to defend themselves in the routes where he kills everyone, only thinking about his own benefit. Being unable to empathize with others, he is unable to see this as his own fault and blames his pragmatism on Zero instead. |
| 154 | * TheComicallySerious: Santa seems to have a habit of messing with him. It also shows up in the prologue when the group first chooses doors. When Lotus and Santa refuse to go through Door 5, Ace offers a hilarious "And we were doing so well." |
| 155 | --> '''Santa''': Look, Ace! It's some kind of snowman secret meeting!\ |
| 156 | '''Ace''': Those are just bags full of sand. You use them as a counterweight when you're lifting something with a pully system.\ |
| 157 | '''Santa''': Man, you're too serious... |
| 158 | * CoolOldGuy: Easily the oldest of the bunch. He is calm and collected, propagates ThePowerOfTrust and ThePowerOfFriendship, and volunteers to stay behind early on in the game. All of which turns out to be a front; he's revealed to be the BigBad (not Zero, though — he just created the first Nonary Game 9 years ago), a remorseless sociopath, and a cold-blooded murderer. |
| 159 | * CorruptCorporateExecutive: Actually the head of the company which funded the first Nonary Game experiments, which resulted in the kidnapping and endangerment of eighteen children. |
| 160 | * DeathByIrony: In one of the endings, he dies in an incinerator, as a direct consequence of throwing a little girl into it years before. |
| 161 | * DirtyCoward: In the Safe ending after Ace shoots Snake, Snake gets back up and Ace immediately starts acting cowardly by begging Sanke to get away from him and then shooting Snake five more times in the chest and Snake still getting on him with Ace begging Snake that he can save him and so he doesn't have to die. Snake lampshades this by calling him pathetic for begging for his life despite murdering Clover. |
| 162 | * DisabilityAsAnExcuseForJerkassery: He justifies ''everything'' he does, no matter how vile, due to having prosopagnosia and wanting to have it cured. |
| 163 | * TheDragon: The second game reveals that he was a prominent member of [[ReligionOfEvil Free the Soul]], the GreaterScopeVillain of that game. |
| 164 | * DramaticIrony: This will kick in ''hard'' once the Safe end is cleared. |
| 165 | * EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: While "love" may be too strong a word [[TheSociopath considering what he is]], Ace did clearly have some affection for his NumberTwo, Nijisaki, as the revelation in the True Ending that he [[MurderByMistake killed him by mistake]] clearly shakes him up, with him almost seeming in denial about the fact at first. |
| 166 | * EvilAllAlong: At first, he may appear to be a gentle, noble and altruistic man, but he is a cruel individual who subjected children to horrible experiments, and only cares about his own life. |
| 167 | * EvilCannotComprehendGood: He doesn't understand why would other players be furious at him for murdering Clover, since they barely knew her. He also has trouble understanding that avenging his sister would be more important to Snake than his own life. |
| 168 | * EvilCripple: The story's villain who suffers from an advanced form of prosopagnosia, or "face blindness." While the condition does cause constant problems, it wouldn't normally be considered a serious disability (it's more often just a symptom of a larger condition, such as atypical autism). Ace, however, seeks a cure ''fanatically'' and ''at any cost''. |
| 169 | * EvilIsBigger: Both the second tallest and second bulkiest character in the game after Seven, and also very, very evil. |
| 170 | * EvilOldFolks: He's at least in his 50s or 60s, given he was around long ago to jumpstart Cradle Pharmaceuticals. |
| 171 | * EvilSoundsDeep: He's voiced by Creator/RichardEpcar in the port, who gives Ace a very low voice tone, fitting his evil characterization. |
| 172 | %%* {{Expy}}: Ace/Hongou looks a lot like [[spoiler:Damon Gant]] from ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney''. They are both older men who look younger than they are, they are tall, and they both pretend to be sympathetic and cordial people. Besides, they laugh like crazy when their crimes are revealed. |
| 173 | * FakingTheDead: Rather convincingly invokes this in the Submarine ending, faking his death when Junpei, Lotus, and Seven find him next to a dead Clover and Santa. When the three of them leave the room and Junpei gets distracted with June's death, he finishes off his murders by killing every other participant. |
| 174 | * FauxAffablyEvil: Downplayed. When he no longer uses the facade of a CoolOldGuy after his reveal in the Safe ending, he speaks in an unassuming tone of false politeness, even when he has committed reprehensible acts and no one trusts him anymore. However, this tone is ''completely'' unconvincing anyway since it's quite clear to everyone how evil he is by then. |
| 175 | * FreudianExcuse: His reason for holding the Nonary Game was to find a way to counteract his prosopagnosia (inability to distinguish one face from another; in this case, human faces). He conducted the Nonary Game nine years in the past to see if morphic resonance actually existed and to gain insight. After doing that, he planned on utilizing the morphic fields to get feedback from other people, said feedback describing what the facial features of humans actually looked like. Also, [[AllThereInTheManual he was himself a victim of the]] ''[[AllThereInTheManual first]]'' [[AllThereInTheManual games which Lord Gordain started and his associates continued well after his death]]. |
| 176 | * FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: When he reveals his reasoning for what he'd done in the epilogue of the True Ending, Junpei's response is almost exactly [[DisappointedByTheMotive "...That's it?"]], and when he tries to go in deeper, more "philosophical" detail, Junpei isn't hearing any of it and puts the tape gag back over his mouth. Being unable to ''see'' the faces of other human beings ultimately cannot even begin to justify treating other human beings in such inhumane ways, and it's clear that Hongou only really suffered from a wounded ego over having to live with his disability. |
| 177 | * AGlassOfChianti: He, along with his three Cradle executives had a snapshot where they held their glass of wine as a success of their project nine years ago. |
| 178 | * GoneHorriblyRight: Ace, and the rest of Cradle Pharmaceutical, set up their Nonary Game for the purpose of getting people to tap into morphogenetic fields, and control people. Ace, in particular, was extremely invested in getting them to tap into full sensory replacement. In the end, one of the children he kidnapped tapped into the fields perfectly. And she used that power to save herself from his twisted experiment, manipulate him (without using the fields on him) into killing his own accomplices, and ruin him financially and legally. The real twist of the knife is that she financed her revenge by buying stocks in Cradle. His own financial success funded his ruin. Even better, the experiment was merely to test the ability to transmit information through space alone, while Ace's destroyer learned how to do it ''through time'' as well, which she used to save her own life and get revenge on him. |
| 179 | * HatedByAll: Most prominently in the Safe ending, Ace immediately earns the hatred of everyone in the Nonary Game (who doesn't already know who he is) when he's exposed as the murderer that Junpei has been pursuing. |
| 180 | * HateSink: Perhaps the most despicable character in the game, principally a result of how he WouldHurtAChild. However, he never shows this side of himself until he's exposed in the Safe and True endings. |
| 181 | * TheHeavy: Akane is Zero, but she's only creating the Nonary Game because of Ace's actions. As well as this, he's one of the two participants to commit murder of his own volition and drives much of the conflict in the present Nonary Game, and the only other participant who ''does'' commit murder (Clover) only does so because of Ace's actions. |
| 182 | * HeKnowsTooMuch: His main motive for murder. Hongou will seek the death of everyone who knows about the experiment he planned, including the three who helped him create it. |
| 183 | * HeroicSacrifice: Offers to leave himself behind at one point when the group has to leave someone behind to go through numbered doors. Turns out it wasn't needed. It also turns out that he knew they were just going to end up back where he was in the first place. And he wanted to keep the others from entering Door #3, where "Snake" lay dead after Ace murdered him. |
| 184 | * HoistByHisOwnPetard: On two levels. As a result of conducting the Nonary Game nine years in the past, his primary victim (Akane Kurashiki) ends up conducting the Nonary Game nine years later and makes him a participant. Akane exploits his knowledge of that Nonary Game to manipulate him into killing his co-conspirators as her personal RevengeByProxy. |
| 185 | * {{Hypocrite}}: Hongou believes that his prosopagnosia makes him miserable and tragic, but he feels no empathy for the children he traumatized with his experiments. |
| 186 | * IGaveMyWord: During the original Nonary Game nine years ago, after he's captured Akane and locked her in the incinerator, he goes back to inform her that if she successfully solves the puzzle, she'll be free to go. He reiterates this when she questions his promise, pointing out that [[PragmaticVillainy the experiment won't work unless the test subject has a shot at succeeding]]. He's telling the truth; after solving the puzzle, Akane escapes the facility alive. Hongou doesn't even bother her again for the nine years she spends plotting her revenge and engineering her survival. |
| 187 | * IJustWantToBeNormal: Ultimately, Hongou is motivated by wanting to rid himself of his prosopagnosia so that he may see other human faces like everyone else. The high opinion he has of himself cannot tolerate living with anything less. |
| 188 | * INeverSaidItWasPoison: Inverted. Ace's ''absence'' of information is what gives him away as Kubota, Nijisaki, and Clover's killer in the Safe ending. Junpei disguises himself as Santa after opening the [3] door with the (5) bracelet, but because Ace can only differentiate each participant with their bracelets instead of their faces, as Ace reasons that Santa's bracelet is (3) and Junpei's is (5), Junpei realizes that he couldn't tell the difference between Snake and Nijisaki, as their appearances are similar besides their faces. However, it's played straight regarding his possession of the (9) bracelet, as Junpei tricks him into revealing that he had it in his coat pocket the whole time after killing off Kubota and taking his bracelet. |
| 189 | * {{Jerkass}}: Ace's true personality is that of a sociopathic murderer with no redeeming qualities who uses DisabilityAsAnExcuseForJerkassery. |
| 190 | * KarmaHoudini: Being confirmed as the killer of the final Submarine, there is a chance that he will get away with murdering all the participants. Although it is not entirely confirmed. |
| 191 | * KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Although he managed to avoid word of his experiment and keep his reputation clean for nine years, Hongou ended up in the game he created. In the Safe ending, he is incinerated to death. And in the True ending, he is gagged and taken to the police, and it was confirmed in subsequent games that he was arrested. |
| 192 | * KarmicDeath: There's only one ending where he can be killed... and in that ending, ''he burns.'' It's especially karmic because due to the way time travel works in this series, in this timeline he murdered a 12-year old girl by throwing her into an incinerator 9 years prior. |
| 193 | * KnightTemplar: Possibly. He cries out "I don't deserve this!" on his death in the incinerator. Although this may be more indicative of his LackOfEmpathy and being a {{Narcissist}} who only cares for himself and [[EvilCannotComprehendGood cannot understand why his actions deserve any retribution.]] |
| 194 | * LackOfEmpathy: Since he can't distinguish faces, he can't really see people as ''people'', since they all look the same to him. At least, that's his excuse anyway. |
| 195 | * MeaningfulName: In the Safe ending, he's responsible for the five requisite kills to be labelled an "Ace": Akane, The 9th Man/Kubota, Guy X/Nijisaki, Clover and Snake. |
| 196 | * {{Narcissist}}: Ace only cares for himself as he kills many of the characters in the other endings with no remorse, until the true ending where he loses and was only concerned if he got out of the Nonary Game alone. |
| 197 | * NeverMyFault: In the Safe and True endings, he blames ''all'' of his murders in the present day on [[BatmanGambit Akane manipulating him into doing so]] and not his [[HeKnowsTooMuch selfish desire to keep his past a secret]]. |
| 198 | * NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: Compared to [[WellIntentionedExtremist Akane]], who is trying to save herself from him. The reason he conducted the Nonary Game 9 years ago was to cure his prosopagnosia by linking with morphogenetic fields to be able to see faces. While this part is seemingly true, the way he went about it all implies that he's willing to go to extremes to solve this mostly ForTheEvulz, as he doesn't seem to care if he's seen as a ''bad person'' after allegedly curing himself of it. This, of course, shows he is mostly doing it more for the sake of his ego than he is anything else. And that's not accounting for the murders he commits 9 years later to hide his corruption from the participants of the second Nonary Game. |
| 199 | * ObviouslyEvil: Not in terms of his [[BitchInSheepsClothing facade]], as he is quite convincing as long as you don't question the context behind what he's saying, but in terms of his appearance, his expressions, and the ''condescending tone'' he adopts in his every line, it's quite clear he's displaying the [[TheSociopath typical false charm of your usual sociopath]]. |
| 200 | * PredecessorVillain: While the BigBad is technically Akane as the true identity of Zero, her actions only happen because of Hongou, and both of them are also the first BigBad of the franchise that the player has to defeat. |
| 201 | * PsychoticSmirk: Every time Ace grabs the gun and points at Lotus with it, his mouth slightly twitches in an evil fashion. |
| 202 | * RelativeButton: When it looks like he's won in the Safe ending, Ace decides to take some time to gloat to Snake about killing his sister. This turns out to be a bad idea. |
| 203 | * {{Sadist}}: The way he gloats about murdering Clover in the Safe Ending says it all. |
| 204 | * SlasherSmile: He gives us a creepy tooth-showing smile when he takes a peek into the incinerator where Akane was 9 years ago. |
| 205 | * TheSociopath: Hongou has an extreme lack of empathy, feels no remorse for his actions, lies frequently, has a false charisma, and always seeks to be in control of the situation. He is also a combination of a high-functioning and low-functioning sociopath. He can be skilled at deceiving and manipulating people, but if the situation is not good for him, he loses his nerve. |
| 206 | * SpreeKiller: Goes on a killing spree in the Submarine ending. He murders Santa and Clover and mortally wounds June while Junpei is working through Door 2, then kills Seven and Lotus while Junpei is distracted by June's death, then finally kills Junpei as he mindlessly stumbles to the submarine. |
| 207 | * TokenEvilTeammate: Not counting the 9th Man, who dies before the players have even formally introduced themselves, nor decided to figure a way out of the game, Hongou is easily the only one in the entire cast who is a completely and utterly reprehensible individual. While Akane/Zero and her [[TheDragon Dragon]] Santa are {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s and {{Anti Villain}}s while Clover only turns evil as the result of a trauma-induced mental breakdown, Hongou has no redeeming qualities, and is perfectly willing to murder anyone in order to cover his tracks as a CorruptCorporateExecutive. |
| 208 | * UnwittingPawn: [[BigBad Akane]] manipulated him into killing his own subordinates as her vengeance for what he did to her in the past in the second Nonary Game and he hadn't the ''slightest'' clue that this would help Junpei defeat him in another timeline. |
| 209 | * VillainousBreakdown: |
| 210 | ** Has a truly epic one in the Safe ending after Snake manages to take six bullets and is still able to hold him down and make sure he burns to death in the incinerator. |
| 211 | ** And then another one when Seven disrupted the original Nonary Game nine years ago. |
| 212 | ** And yet another one in the True ending, when he realizes he's fallen into Zero's trap and he's unable to exit the incinerator. Junpei describes him as "broken." |
| 213 | * WalkingSpoiler: Of the characters (besides the 9th Man who dies early), he's the person you learn the least about up until near the end. [[BigBad There's a very good reason for that]]. |
| 214 | * WhyWontYouDie: When Ace sets [[BigBrotherInstinct Snake]] into a RoaringRampageOfRevenge, he is not afraid because he has a fully loaded gun and Snake is at a distance. Too late he finds out [[{{Determinator}} this isn't enough.]] |
| 215 | -->"Y-You son of a bitch! You're...[[YouMonster you're a monster]]!" |
| 216 | * WickedPretentious: [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated]] beyond ''belief'', Ace is the type to wax philosophical while not really meaning any of it, and if he starts talking in that way, he'll never shut up. It gets even more pretentious when you replay the game following the Safe ending and are aware of the fact that he's the BigBad, making his speeches come off as even more pretentious. |
| 217 | * WouldHurtAChild: He put eighteen children through experiments against their will, then put them in the deadly Nonary Game. Then in a moment of desperation, he viciously grabs June by the arm and throws her into the incinerator as a last-ditch attempt to activate her abilities which although worked, was based on a completely different theory that wouldn't have worked under his hypothesis. All the while he sadistically taunts her regarding her impending death. |
| 218 | * WouldYouLikeToHearHowTheyDied: In the Safe Ending, he sadistically taunts Snake by explaining in graphic detail how he murdered his sister Clover. This proves to be a fatal mistake, as it drives Snake berserk and causes him to forcibly restrain him so they both die in the incinerator. |
| 219 | * YouCantThwartStageOne: He's on both sides of this trope: you can't thwart the original game, his murders, or his actions that prevent you from entering Door 3. It also happens ''to'' him in the Bad and True ends. |
| 220 | |
| 221 | [[/folder]] |
| 222 | |
| 223 | [[folder:2 - Snake]] |
| 224 | !!#2 "Snake" (Light) |
| 225 | !!! Voiced by: Creator/TakahiroSakurai (Japanese), Creator/TaliesinJaffe (English) |
| 226 | [[quoteright:314:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/snake_9.png]] |
| 227 | |
| 228 | -> "[[DeadpanSnarker I am shocked and appalled that guessing at random has not yielded better results.]]" |
| 229 | |
| 230 | A thin, elegant man dressed in a regal fashion. He is blind, but is quite capable of getting around easily enough. Clover is his sister, and his bracelet number is 2. His name comes from the expression "Snake Eyes", a term in the dice game craps that signifies 2. |
| 231 | |
| 232 | His original Japanese alias was "''Ni''els", using the pronunciation of "two" and the name of a favorite physicist, presumably [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Bohr Niels Bohr]]. |
| 233 | |
| 234 | He was one of the eighteen children who participated in the Nonary Game nine years ago. As a result, he knows a great deal about the game, but because Zero has threatened to kill Clover if he says anything about it, he keeps his mouth shut. |
| 235 | ----- |
| 236 | * AnArmAndALeg: He lost his left arm in a car crash as a child and has since replaced it with a prosthetic. |
| 237 | * AerithAndBob: His real name seems rather out of place when standing next to people with obviously Japanese names as his name is ''Light''. Zigzagged that it's a pun and his name in Japanese can be rendered as Raito. |
| 238 | * AndIMustScream: Snake, trapped in the coffin. If Santa, June and Junpei die, he will be there to rot. |
| 239 | * AnimalMotifs: Snake is... well, snakes. He possesses the tenacity, the calmness, and the determination of one. "Once a snake has ensnared its prey, rarely does it release it" states the narration as Snake holds onto Ace's leg, oblivious to the ''six bullets inside his chest''. |
| 240 | * ArtificialLimbs: His prosthetic left arm is conveniently able to be manipulated so that he can slip his bracelet off, though he keeps that one secret. It's also a major plot point, proving that the corpse believed to be Snake, against all odds, is not actually Snake, because it has a ''broken bone'' (the ulna) in the left arm. |
| 241 | * AxCrazy: In the Safe ending, Snake goes berserk against Ace when the latter tells him how much he enjoyed killing Clover. And he brings Ace down...at the cost of his own life. |
| 242 | * BadassBoast: He has one in the True End. "Thank you for killing the wrong man, but I can't say I like knowing that you want me dead. And even if you didn't, I would still hate you very much." |
| 243 | * BerserkButton: Harming Clover is a ''really'' bad idea, and he can be an absolutely terrifying person if that button is pressed. Ace finds out the hard way. |
| 244 | * BigBrotherInstinct: Refuses to die when clearly mortally wounded so that he can take revenge for Clover's death. |
| 245 | * BlindMistake: Downplayed as he had honed his senses enough to recognise others by voice and can competently move around on his own, the one time his blindness screws him over in the plot is him failing to recognise Santa as Aoi Kurashiki since he was going through puberty when they met during the first Nonary Game 9 years ago and wasn't able to connect the voices together until near the end of the game, which would've screwed up Zero's plans if he managed to put two and two together. |
| 246 | * CoolBigBro: To Clover. It's obvious that they're really fond of each other, and Snake will do whatever he can to ensure her protection, and, as Ace learns, he'll avenge her death in the most terrifying way possible. |
| 247 | * CruelAndUnusualDeath: In the Safe Ending; he and Ace are burnt alive in an incinerator and Snake dies while he is bleeding to death after taking in a full magazine of revolver bullets. Snake however takes it in far greater stride since he's getting justice for Clover. |
| 248 | * DefiantToTheEnd: In the Safe Ending; even after being pumped full of revolver rounds, he claw his way to Ace and keeps him pinned down, begging for his life, as the incinerator they're in powers on. Snake laughs defiantly to the end. |
| 249 | * {{Determinator}}: Takes six bullets to the chest in the Safe Ending and is still strong enough to take down Ace. |
| 250 | * DisabledSnarker: In a cast full of characters, he's the only one with an obvious disability and is by far the best at making sarcastic comments. And if you make the mistake of underestimating him for his blineness, he'll bathe you in snark. |
| 251 | * DisabilitySuperpower: Although blind, his other senses are ''so good'' that you wouldn't even notice this unless he told you. He even mentions that if you tried to attack him, it would be unlikely that you would win. He's not joking. Besides that, his prosthetic arm can be squeezed/crushed, allowing him to take off his bracelet. He only does this as a last resort to avoid suspicion. |
| 252 | * EyesAlwaysShut: Justified in that he's blind. He only ever opens them when: |
| 253 | ** In one of the puzzles, when Seven/Clover/Snake/Junpei spell "pipe" in a cheer-leading fashion. Snake has his eyes wide open as he shouts "Gimme a P and an E!" |
| 254 | ** In the Safe ending, Ace tells Snake that he killed Clover - and exactly ''how'' he did it - and Snake snaps and his eyes open as he swears to kill Ace. It's actually pretty terrifying. |
| 255 | ** When they're putting together what happened to Snake, his eyes are open in the still where he's going for the DEAD. Though as it turns out, that wasn't Snake at all. |
| 256 | * HandicappedBadass: He's blind, but that doesn't stop him from boasting he would kick most people's asses in a fight. The Safe ending shows his boasts are justified. One of the first thing he does in the game is walk into the opened Door 5 (while everyone is staring at the 9th Man's body), casually turn around and say "Are you trying to kill me? I assume you remember this door is only open for 9 seconds." |
| 257 | ** It's also revealed his left arm is a prosthetic. Still doesn't prevent him from kicking Ace's ass in a RoaringRampageOfRevenge, despite being blind and effectively one-armed, whereas Ace is wielding a revolver. |
| 258 | * HeKnowsTooMuch: Ace's main motivation to kill him is that Snake knows about the first Nonary Game, the one that Ace created. He's aware of Ace's real identity as the CEO of Cradle Pharmaceutical. |
| 259 | * HeroicSacrifice: In the Safe ending, he holds Ace back so Junpei and the others can escape. The price to pay? He burns alive with Ace. |
| 260 | * HopeBringer: He became this for the Gigantic group in the previous Nonary Game, who were panicking and starting fights until Snake spoke up and gave them a RousingSpeech alongside a four-leaf clover each he was planning to give to Clover, enabling everyone to work together and make it to the incinerator room. |
| 261 | * ILetGwenStacyDie: Snake thinks he couldn't protect Clover from being murdered in the Safe ending, and greatly blames himself for this. To make up for it, he dooms Clover's killer to burn alive along with him. |
| 262 | * InsufferableGenius: He certainly shows shades of this, as he takes no effort to hide how much he knows and how much the others don't. Subverted in that he nevertheless makes an effort to explain things as short and easy as he can. |
| 263 | * IronicName: His real name is Light, which is about the worst name you could give to a blind person. Granted, he wasn't born blind. |
| 264 | * MadeOfIron: Takes 6 bullets from a revolver in the chest, and just keeps on going. |
| 265 | * MeaningfulName: His codename comes from "snake eyes" (rolling a 2 on a pair of dice), which he notes is extra-fitting considering his eyesight is about as good as an actual snake's (in other words, terrible/nonexistent). Also, during his HeroicSacrifice and TakingYouWithMe moment in the Safe ending, he is described as a snake that "rarely lets go of its prey" as he pins Ace down, even after taking six bullets. He even has to crawl on his belly towards Ace once he can no longer stand. |
| 266 | * MurderByInaction: He's given this option by Zero from the start who left him with detailed knowledge about how the bracelets interact with the [=REDs=], [=DEADs=] and the bombs inside of them, which includes a hint that he can choose to withold this information from the others and potentially trick them into dying. This winds up happening to the 9th Man because Snake wasn't able to share this information in time as well as the fact that he suddenly took Clover at knifepoint. |
| 267 | * NotQuiteDead: |
| 268 | ** That dead guy in the shower room isn't him. |
| 269 | ** Also pulls this twice in the Safe ending. First he takes one shot from a revolver and goes down, seemingly dead. About a minute later he gets back up, takes the remaining ''five'' shots from the revolver, and goes down again. This time he doesn't even wait a minute before he starts moving again (crawling this time, as he can't stand up anymore). |
| 270 | * NotSoAboveItAll: A princely intellectual with an occasionally bawdy sense of humor. In one potential dialogue, he surprises Clover by rolling with an offhand joke she makes about "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_hypothesis reamin']]". And of course, there's the aforementioned incident where examining an unimportant pipe one too many times has everyone in the party (Snake included) spell out "pipe" in a cheerleading fashion. |
| 271 | * SacrificialLion: Other than the 9th Man, he's the first to fall victim to the Nonary Game. His death is what causes the others to suspect that Zero might be amongst them. Ultimately subverted, though, in that he's not actually dead; the corpse was someone else. |
| 272 | * SelfDestructiveCharge: In the Safe ending when he's about to give Ace a taste of his own medicine. |
| 273 | * TheSmartGuy: He's quite intelligent and unleashes withering disdain whenever others can't keep up with his logic. On top of that, he has more information from Zero than the others and is re-playing the first Nonary Game. |
| 274 | * SmugSnake: Between his snarky InsufferableGenius tendencies and swaggering confidence, it's possible to read him this way, appropriately enough, at the most up until the Safe ending. His name is Snake and he's smug, but in terms of the trope, it's ultimately subverted; he's a pretty good guy and can back his talk in even more than where his intellect's concerned. |
| 275 | * TakingTheBullet: Snake to Junpei, Seven and Lotus, from Ace in the Safe ending. |
| 276 | * TakingYouWithMe: Ace shoots Snake with ''six'' bullets but, before dying from blood loss, he grabs Ace's leg and makes him stay in the incinerator until it shoots fire. Both of them are burned alive. |
| 277 | * UndyingLoyalty: To Clover, given how she is his sister. In the Safe ending, after Ace sadistically gloats about how he murdered Clover, Snake's eye open for the first time and lunges at Ace and doesn't die till Ace is taken down to avenge his sister even if it means dying himself. |
| 278 | * ZombieGait: When he gets up after being shot the first time, he starts slowly walking toward Ace in a manner the narration describes as being zombie-like. |
| 279 | [[/folder]] |
| 280 | |
| 281 | [[folder:3 - Santa]] |
| 282 | !!#3 (#9) "Santa" (Aoi Kurashiki) |
| 283 | !!!Voiced by: Creator/KisshoTaniyama (Japanese), Creator/SeanChiplock (English) |
| 284 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/santa_9.png]] |
| 285 | |
| 286 | ->"[[MeaningfulEcho Didn't I tell you? I'm Santa Claus. It's time for me to go make a wish come true.]]" |
| 287 | |
| 288 | Santa, like Snake, is 24, and is quickly defined by his outspokenness and tendency to swear, matching his somewhat punk attire. While he often provides some amount of PluckyComicRelief, he also shows signs of TheSmartGuy and is a particularly helpful team member. Throughout the game, he's determined to keep the players moving and refuses to succumb to helplessness or in-fighting. His bracelet number is 3 and his name is derived from "san", the Japanese word for three, which was unchanged for the English-language version. (In the English version, he asks if any of the other players speak Japanese before announcing his nickname, an acknowledgment to the game's original language.) |
| 289 | |
| 290 | He was one of the eighteen children who participated in the Nonary Game nine years ago, along with his sister Akane. Due to an administrative error, both he and Akane were placed in the same testing group instead of being split up as the experiment demanded. He is fully aware of the true purpose of the second Nonary Game, having collaborated with Akane to perfectly recreate the vision that she saw in the closing moments of the first Nonary Game, and to take revenge on the people who put them through the Nonary Game to begin with. His real bracelet number is '''9''', or 3+3+3 (three threes), which may be a symbol of the multiple roles he's playing during the game. Word of God states that when Junpei hears Zero's voice, Santa is using his psychic powers to communicate with him directly. During the first Nonary Game, he is depicted as having leadership qualities and is saved by Seven, along with Snake. Snake mistakes Santa for Zero during the True Ending, but believes that Santa isn't dangerous or intent on killing them. |
| 291 | |
| 292 | ----- |
| 293 | * AdaptationalDumbass: Downplayed and only applies to one moment. In the ''Nonary Games'' port, when Junpei is using his BatmanGambit on [[BigBad Ace]] to trick him into revealing his prosopagnosia (to confirm his guilt in killing Nijisaki thinking he was Snake), Santa expresses slight confusion over Junpei's gambit when he pretends to be Santa. Disregarding the fact that he should already know what Junpei is doing and that he's one of the people who know of Ace's machinations, Santa never does this in the original DS version, showing that he's at least aware that it's a gambit. |
| 294 | * BadassBoast: He has one in the True End. "I'm Santa Claus, remember?" |
| 295 | * BigBrotherInstinct: Although he conceals it in keeping up the facade, Santa genuinely cares for his sister. Everything he does (including helping to recreate the Nonary Game) is to help save her past self, thus ensuring her existence and survival. |
| 296 | * CantKillYouStillNeedYou: He deliberately leaves Ace alive in order to finish the trap and to force Junpei to understand the purpose of the game. |
| 297 | * ClusterFBomb: He takes this trope to the point where narration simply describes him as ''using language that would make a sailor blush.'' The True End implies that he's always been blunt, but whenever he's serious, he immediately stops swearing. It may or may not be part of his ObfuscatingStupidity. |
| 298 | * TheChessmaster: He and Akane share this role. In the True End, he reveals himself as this to Ace and to Junpei. |
| 299 | * CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Underestimate him at your own peril. As a child, he was part of the original Nonary Game and trapped in the incinerator. He saved five in his cohort by telling them to go through the numbered door. Then there's the True End, in which he corners Ace, saves his sister, and goes out with a BadassBoast. |
| 300 | * DeadpanSnarker: Whenever Junpei is in a room with him, he is a veritable fountain of sarcasm and deprecation. If he isn't snarking, it's [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness time to worry]]. |
| 301 | * TheDragon: To Zero. |
| 302 | * DragonAscendant: Inverted. It's due to the BigBad Zero losing against the actual BigBad Ace that Santa steps up as Zero at the end of the Safe Ending, rather than the BigBad Ace being defeated. After June [[RetGone disappears from existence]], Santa then returns the remaining participants to their normal lives. |
| 303 | * DramaticIrony: After the True End, although the Coffin End will also cause this, due to where the game stops. It goes up to eleven in the prologue when he states that Zero has serious psychological issues. |
| 304 | * {{Expy}}: His motivations and role in the story are similar to that of Mei Kiridera from 12Riven, a previous work of the author's (who in turn was an CompositeCharacter of two characters from ''VisualNovel/{{Ever17}}'', Ryogo Kaburaki and Hokuto). |
| 305 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: |
| 306 | ** Acts like a bit of a whiny, impatient jerk to the others for a good chunk of the game. However, over time he shows genuine concern for the others, not wanting to leave anyone behind or risk sacrificing anyone. In the Safe Ending, he is just as devastated by Clover's murder as the others. |
| 307 | ** This still applies even when he is revealed to be Zero's assistant and co-mastermind of the game, as the two did not intend to actually cause the deaths of the innocent participants, lying about the bombs and placing fake detonators in their bracelets. |
| 308 | * TheLancer: The way he explains it himself, Zero masterminded the events of the game while he was merely their assistant. |
| 309 | * MeaningfulName: San is Japanese for "three". In addition, he has a few stories to tell about Santa Claus. His real name, "Aoi", is a homonym for the Japanese word for "blue". His sister's name means "scarlet"; when combined, those two colors create purple-- ''Murasaki'', the original Japanese alias for "June". |
| 310 | * ObfuscatingStupidity: Pointed out by Junpei, who didn't think much of his intellectual capabilities at first, but wonders if he should re-evaluate this opinion midway through the game. |
| 311 | * OrphansOrdeal: He and Akane grew up in an orphanage, with him acting as a gift-giving "Santa Claus" to her. More info on their parents is explained in ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma''. |
| 312 | * PromotionToParent: As he puts it, he "had to be like [his sister's] dad" after their parents' deaths. |
| 313 | * SmarterThanYouLook: When Junpei learns that Santa is a stockbroker, he's temporarily speechless, noting that he didn't think Santa ''looked'' smart enough. He's surprisingly helpful as a teammate and shows shades of TheSmartGuy in the Kitchen. Of course, his success as a stockbroker is the result of him [[StableTimeLoop telling his past self the perfect time to buy Cradle Pharmaceuticals stock]] through Junpei and past Akane, and he's helpful as a teammate because he already played the Nonary Game once before and even helped set up this iteration of it, so he likely knows the solutions to all of the puzzles already. |
| 314 | * TheTeamBenefactor: He is revealed to be a stockbroker. He uses Aoi's future knowledge of Cradle Pharmaceutical to purchase stocks in the company right before the company develops the wonder drug Soporil, becoming a millionaire in the process. He uses these funds to found Crash Keys, an organization that helps him and June create and run the second Nonary Game. |
| 315 | * UnknownRelative: Junpei was childhood friends with Akane but is unaware that Aoi (aka Santa) is her brother, and seems to be unaware she even had a brother at all. |
| 316 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: He and June both disappear completely after locking the rest of the participants in the Incinerator Room to force Junpei to transmit the puzzle solution to past Akane. Unlike June, he does not appear in the sequels at all, though he is mentioned in ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'', confirming he is still alive. |
| 317 | * WhatTheHellHero: |
| 318 | ** He inspires this reaction in the True End when he takes June hostage. Clover is particularly devastated. |
| 319 | ** Receives this again when he reveals he is the assistant to Zero, who is actually June. |
| 320 | * WhiteHairBlackHeart: Can become this in the Coffin/To Be Continued ending, although it's ultimately subverted in the True end. |
| 321 | * WouldHitAGirl: To be precise, he would ''pull a gun'' on one. {{Subverted}} in the True End but not the Coffin ending, which leaves his villain status ambiguous. |
| 322 | * WoundedGazelleGambit: Junpei suspects Santa of pulling one at one point. It's suggested Junpei is right and that Santa is letting Ace keep control of Lotus (and the others) until Junpei arrives, so that Junpei can learn his true purpose in the game. |
| 323 | [[/folder]] |
| 324 | |
| 325 | [[folder:4 - Clover]] |
| 326 | !!#4 "Clover" (Clover) |
| 327 | !!!Voiced by: Creator/YukariTamura (Japanese), Creator/WendeeLee (English) |
| 328 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/clover_99.png]] |
| 329 | |
| 330 | -> "I would'a thought a guy your size would have bigger balls than that." |
| 331 | |
| 332 | A cheerful girl prone to rapid swings of emotion. She is Snake's sister and her bracelet number is 4. Her name comes from the number of leaves on a FourLeafClover. |
| 333 | |
| 334 | Her original Japanese alias and real name was "''Yotsu''ba", which means "clover" (literally, "four leaves"). |
| 335 | |
| 336 | Like her brother, she participated in the Nonary Game nine years ago. Unlike her brother, she was one of the subjects at Building Q in Nevada, rather than at the Gigantic with Snake, Santa, and Akane. As such, she knows a lot about the Nonary Game, but was told by Snake never to mention it to anyone. |
| 337 | ----- |
| 338 | * AxCrazy: In the Axe ending, she completely loses it and goes on a killing spree out of revenge for her brother. |
| 339 | * BerserkButton: Hurt or insult Snake and let her find out about it, and she'll let you have it. Like brother, like sister, in other words. |
| 340 | * BreakTheCutie: Clover goes through hell in the Nonary Game. If the thought of drowning at 6 AM wasn't bad enough, her brother is doomed to blow up beyond Door 3, and one of the people who carry her around the ship to investigate is his merciless murderer. No wonder she ends up going insane in the Axe ending. |
| 341 | * CassandraTruth: Zero being one of the participants among the game. The one who first suspects this possibility of which turns out to be true is Clover. While at first it's difficult to believe since when comparing the project to the people, as the page of work taken up is rather ambitious and would more than likely require an organization of multiple people spectating from the outside to finesse it, the people who are actually Zero are really two of the nine people among themselves: Akane Kurashiki (June), and her secretary, Aoi Kurashiki (Santa). |
| 342 | * CuteAndPsycho: She's a rather bubbly GenkiGirl, and also the most mentally unstable member of the cast besides the GreaterScopeVillain. The stress of being forced into a death game ''again'' and Snake being presumed dead can cause her to have a psychotic break and go on a killing spree, murdering Santa, Seven, June, and Junpei. |
| 343 | * DespairEventHorizon: She'll cross this in some way in nearly every path. It's only possible to save her from it in the True End path. |
| 344 | * DrivesLikeCrazy: The True End's epilogue, where she speeds in an SUV, making a very bumpy ride for the passengers. Justified in that they're in the middle of the Nevada desert, and there's no one or nothing around to watch out for. Ace is tied up in the trunk, feeling the worst effects of the ride. |
| 345 | * EntertaininglyWrong: In the Axe Ending, she murders Santa and Seven because she concluded that they were the only ones who could have killed Snake. Her logic is that they are the only pair of players whose bracelets add with Snake's to reach a digital root of 3 and can't be exonerated through some other method[[note]]Ace would have had to cooperate with the deceased Ninth Man, Lotus would have had to cooperate with a second Snake, June would have had to cooperate with Clover herself, and Junpei would have had to cooperate with another version of himself[[/note]], and the idea of a trio[[note]]Ace, Santa, and June[[/note]] or quartet[[note]]Ace, Santa, Seven, and Lotus[[/note]] of killers would violate OccamsRazor. However, she isn't aware that a bracelet can still be used to open doors even without its owner and that Ace pocketed the Ninth Man's bracelet, allowing him to kill Snake on his own. |
| 346 | * FourIsDeath: She, the one with bracelet number 4, goes on a killing spree in the Axe ending. She is also the first casualty among the main characters during the Safe ending. |
| 347 | * FourLeafClover: Clover uses this as her numerological motif. This ties into the clover bookmark in the second Nonary Game and Snake's nine clovers in the first one. |
| 348 | * GenkiGirl: One might get the impression she is one at first, but this is quickly subverted when her brother goes missing and is thought to be murdered, and she falls into a depression. It will only get played straight in the True Ending, when they find Snake alive and well, after which she will spend most of the last two puzzles bouncing around. |
| 349 | * GirlishPigtails: Both pigtails are at least as big as her head. Goes nicely with her status as the cute young girl. |
| 350 | * GirlWithPsychoWeapon: In the Axe and (iOS-only) Syringe endings. |
| 351 | * GivingSomeoneThePointerFinger: Her "forceful" pose has her doing this, mostly when she's frustrated or angry. Prepare to see her do it quite a few times if you go through the same doors as she does. |
| 352 | * TheGlomp: Does this to Junpei when she finds out that the dead man in the shower wasn't Snake and her brother is probably still alive. |
| 353 | * GyaruGirl: Dresses like one, down to the short skirt and huge teased hair. |
| 354 | * HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: Like Junpei, she's using her real name, but unlike Junpei, she's pretending it's an alias. |
| 355 | * KillTheCutie: The energetic and cute Clover is undeservedly chased down and stabbed InTheBack in the Safe ending. The reason? [[HeKnowsTooMuch She knows too much about the Nonary Games.]] |
| 356 | * OlderThanTheyLook: She's actually around eighteen, but her in-game portrait, seen only from the waist up, looks closer to twelve or so. She also appears in the sequel, and looks a bit closer to her age. |
| 357 | ** In ''Virtue's Last Reward'', she actually says she's 21 years old, and that ''999''[='s=] Nonary Game happened a year ago, implying her age in 999 is actually 20. Then again, she said this in response to being asked if she was old enough to drink, so she might have been lying about it. |
| 358 | ** That being said, Clover is still the youngest of the Participants of the Second Nonary Game that takes place in the Present. |
| 359 | * OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: For the entire game, we only know her as "Clover", as in the four-leaf clover. A meta subversion occurs, though: her real name actually ''is'' Clover. |
| 360 | * OnlyOneName: Uchikoshi suggested both she and Snake have the unofficial last name "[[IncrediblyLamePun Field]]" as a joke in a Q&A session. [[note]]If you don't get it, [[Film/{{Cloverfield}} say it out loud]].[[/note]] |
| 361 | * PinkMeansFeminine: Her hair and part of her clothes are pink, but that doesn't mean she's precisely innocent. |
| 362 | * PuppyDogEyes: "There wasn't a man alive that could have resisted those eyes." |
| 363 | * QuirkyCurls: Her hair gives the idea of GenkiGirl and (probably) [[CuteAndPsycho its subversion]]. |
| 364 | * RealNameAsAnAlias: Clover is her real name. It's only by coincidence that it happens to fit the ThemeNaming of the other code names. |
| 365 | * SanitySlippage: The signs are clearly there after Snake's death, but it's only in the Axe ending that she goes off the deep end. |
| 366 | * SlasherSmile: Clover gives us one in the Axe ending. She's violently insane at this point in the game, and is not afraid to chop your arm off to take your bracelet with the aforementioned axe. The shot of her unsettling smile can be quite creepy the first time around. |
| 367 | * SpreeKiller: Goes on a killing spree in the Axe ending, murdering Santa and Seven for apparently killing Snake, then June for trying to protect them, then Junpei for his bracelet. |
| 368 | * TearsOfJoy: She cries out of happiness and relief when she finds out Snake is still alive. |
| 369 | * TemptingFate: The above quote. She says this to ''Seven'' after he complains that finding the DEAD behind door number 8 almost gave him a heart attack. The very next room, she gets a good JumpScare in the form of a creepy mannequin sitting on an operating table. |
| 370 | -->'''Seven''': Heh... Well, I guess it would'a been weird if you actually ''had'' any balls. |
| 371 | * TookALevelInJerkass: She becomes abrasive after Snake, her brother, vanishes after a LetsSplitUpGang moment. She's mostly silent and depressed, but has the occasionally nasty outburst. |
| 372 | * TookALevelInKindness: Should you give her the laminated four-leaf clover, she mellows a bit after her personality switch. The {{Jerkass}} is almost completely gone once you're on route to the True ending. |
| 373 | * {{Troll}}: Uses Clover, which is her real name, as a CodeName, completely aware that the participants of the first Nonary Game who she's currently in the room with know it's her real name. |
| 374 | * {{Tsundere}}: A rare non-romantic example of a Type B Tsundere. For the most part, she's very friendly and cheerful until someone is trying her patience, at which point she turns very rude and condescending. |
| 375 | * UndyingLoyalty: Just as Snake is to her, she is to Snake. Her fall into despair is literally caused by his apparent death, and her main targets in the Axe Ending are the only people who (with the given evidence in said ending) could have killed him. Like Brother, Like Sister indeed. |
| 376 | * VitriolicBestBuds: With Seven. "Best buds" may be stretching it, but while they frequently fight with each other (verbally, at least), Clover does not even think about leaving him behind when he volunteers and Seven is just as devastated as everyone else when Clover is found dead in the Safe ending. |
| 377 | [[/folder]] |
| 378 | |
| 379 | [[folder:6 - June/Murasaki (Akane)]] |
| 380 | !!#6 (#0) "June/Murasaki" (Akane Kurashiki) |
| 381 | !!!Voiced by: Creator/MiyukiSawashiro (Japanese), Rena Strober (English) |
| 382 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/june_1.png]] |
| 383 | |
| 384 | -> "I'm not really Zero. Not yet. Perhaps you could say I am... less than Zero." |
| 385 | |
| 386 | An old friend of Junpei's from elementary school. She's always helpful and works hard to make sure no one is left behind, although she is occasionally prone to feverish spells. Her bracelet number is 6, and her name comes from the sixth month of the year. |
| 387 | |
| 388 | Her original Japanese alias was "''Mu''rasaki", from the word for "six". The word's literal meaning of "purple" also applies to her clothing, her eye color, and certain other aspects of the game. As later suggested by the real name and bracelet number of "Cap", the ''mu'' syllable can be interpreted either as "six" or "nothingness". |
| 389 | |
| 390 | She was one of the children who participated in the Nonary Game nine years ago. At the climax of her Nonary Game, Akane became psychically linked with present-day Junpei and witnessed him play the second Nonary Game. Furthermore, Akane has a unique power that let her perceive every possible variation of events in the second Nonary Game, and transmit this information to Junpei to help him out. |
| 391 | |
| 392 | This psychic link would save her life, as present-day Junpei would help her solve a puzzle that freed her from the last lethal trap of her Nonary Game. However, this chain of events caused a TemporalParadox: if the events that she had foreseen did not occur, then Junpei would never be in a position to become psychically linked with her past self and thus save her life. And so, Akane schemed with her brother Aoi to recreate the events she had foreseen in the past, masterminding the second Nonary Game to safeguard her own life while also taking revenge on those who put her through that ordeal in the first place. |
| 393 | |
| 394 | ----- |
| 395 | * ACupAngst: Heavily implied when she compares herself to Lotus and Clover when you examine her card in the Cargo Room behind Door 6. |
| 396 | -->'''June:''' I know guys go for women who look like Lotus... But! But, but! I'm trying too! I'm doing the best I can! So please, don't call me a board, or a trash can, or a cutting board-- |
| 397 | * AffablyEvil: In spite of being [[BigBad Zero]], and while her personality is ''mostly'' an act to hide the fact, she continues to be friendly to others despite the fact and doesn't drop the facade even when given the opportunity to do so. This includes just before TheReveal that she is the true Zero after Junpei recites Ace's crimes in the true ending. Along with this, [[WellIntentionedExtremist she's ultimately conducting the game for altruistic reasons, that being to save her past self]] from [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Ace]]. |
| 398 | * AffectionateNickname: Junpei calls her "Kanny". |
| 399 | * AgentMulder: Believes in occult tropes like the mummy's curse and automatic writing. Though the True Ending reveals her to be Zero, she retains these quirks in ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'', which is set after the events of ''999''. |
| 400 | * AmbiguouslyEvil: On one hand, she kidnaps 9 people, forcing them to play DeadlyGame and masterminds 3 deaths. On the other hand, she did this to save herself from being burned alive, does her best to ensure that those she ''doesn't'' want dead won't die (like faking the bombs) and those she ''wants'' dead [[AssholeVictim won't be missed]]. Combined with the fact that she's a ConsummateLiar, it's extremely hard to tell if she's truly evil or not. |
| 401 | * AntiVillain: She's behind just about everything in the present timeline, but her intentions were either noble (saving the life of her past self), or understandable (exacting revenge on the people who put her and many other children through life-threatening experiments). |
| 402 | -->'''Uchikoshi:''' My intention was to create the world's worst heroine, but how well did that work out? She's pretty bad, but there's still some sense of purity in her, and she's also noble. I guess...you could categorize her as a genius... Her motives are too grand in scale for an ordinary person to ever understand her. |
| 403 | * BatmanGambit: Her whole plan to have Ace (Gentarou Hongou, CEO of Cradle Pharmaceuticals) kill his own subordinates relies on her knowledge of his need to protect his true identity from the other participants of her Nonary Game. Inevitably, he falls for her tricks every single time and in fact ends up killing them, like she planned him to from the start. |
| 404 | * BecauseDestinySaysSo: Alternate explanation of her motive to revenge. 9 years ago, Akane saw a single specific way of saving her own life, which included deaths of three {{Asshole Victim}}s. Regardless, if Akane wanted their death, to fulfill her vision, she had to ensure it the way she did. It should be noted that in the timeline where Junpei saves her, she does not end up killing the worst of her four targets - the man who would have killed her 9 years ago - and is by all accounts content with him being arrested. |
| 405 | * BeneathTheMask: She shows the player her dark side as Zero in the True ending. |
| 406 | * BigBad: Plays with this in a surprising way: the current [[DeadlyGame Nonary Game]] is being run by Zero/[[SamusIsAGirl June]]/[[LoveInterestTraitor Akane]] and [[TheDragon her secretary]] Santa. As it turns out, they are actually {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s trying to punish the four men responsible for the first game and to get Junpei to save June's life. Time travel loops and all that. So the actual Big Bad ends up being Ace, or rather, Gentarou Hongou, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive CEO of Cradle Pharmaceuticals]], creator of the original Nonary Game and murderer of past Akane, as the person who set everything into motion. |
| 407 | * BigBadEnsemble: However, she’s masterminding the game to get back at [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Ace]], and save her past self from him. |
| 408 | * BreakTheCutie: Akane seems greatly affected by their situation and the mistrust within the group. The events of her Nonary Game traumatized her so much that she resorted to extreme, coldhearted means in order to set things right. |
| 409 | * BrokenBird: Implied to be her true nature, caused by the first Nonary Game traumatizing her so much. There are hints of this throughout the game too, like her FreakOut upon discovering the body in the shower room, with her reaction akin to a PTSD trigger. |
| 410 | * TheChessmaster: The last person you'd expect, due to her ability to see and communicate with the future and its infinite timelines. She shares this role with Santa, as they both pose as participants of the very game they've been masterminding the whole time. |
| 411 | * ChildhoodFriendRomance: Junpei and Akane have been friends since elementary school. They have deeper feelings than just friendship, however... She praises and admires Junpei every chance she gets, and his biggest concern is escaping the DeadlyGame with her. They even share sexual innuendos here and there throughout the game. |
| 412 | * {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: June is ''quirky'', to put it mildly. Some of her comments when searching rooms with Junpei make her sound like a straight up {{Expy}} of Maya Fey from the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series. After listening to her talk about automatic writing and possession, Junpei develops a headache. She seems to consider being trapped in a freezer the perfect time to talk about imaginary substances and chemistry. Justified, as the crazy superstitious talks are hints to the fact that she's a walking supernatural phenomenon. |
| 413 | * ConspiracyTheorist: While exploring puzzle rooms, she idly comments that she believes in the existence of precognition and cursed mummies. Although given the reveals set later, this wouldn't seem like a unreasonable stretch for her. |
| 414 | * ConsummateLiar: Her mask never drops, even when she must fake concern for the man who nearly murdered her as a child. |
| 415 | * ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Explains her connection to Santa and why her death was never properly reported after the rest of the children were rescued. |
| 416 | * CovertPervert: Her first thought when Junpei examines a bed in one of the cabins? Blushing and muttering, "Haha, no... it's much too soon for that..." She also teasingly suggests that they shower together when looking over the same cabin's bathroom. |
| 417 | * CreateYourOwnHero: Hongou forcing Akane to be a test subject for his experiment on morphogenetic fields 9 years ago leads Akane to manipulate him into killing his subordinates and creating the second Nonary Game to save herself from him BecauseDestinySaysSo. |
| 418 | * CuteIsEvil: Akane is an unsuspecting cute girl, and a legitimate NiceGirl to boot. Reaching the True ending eventually reveals that she is the real Zero, but only because [[ForcedIntoEvil she was required to do so]] in order for Junpei to connect with the psyche of her past self during Ace's Nonary Game nine years ago. |
| 419 | * DeadAllAlong: In the True ending, you are told that the girl who died in the first Nonary Game was named [[WhamLine Akane Kurashiki]]. Ultimately subverted, though, because she never died thanks to Junpei being able to save her through their mind link. The people who told you she did either are lying or don't remember correctly. |
| 420 | * {{Determinator}}: Will do ''anything'' to achieve her goals. 'Anything' includes causing the deaths of herself and other people. |
| 421 | * DieOrFly: Esper abilities are heightened by fear and trauma. Being kidnapped, trapped in an ''incinerator'', and being forced to solve a sudoku puzzle on pain of death by burning will do it. |
| 422 | * DiedInYourArmsTonight: June dies in Junpei's arms in the Submarine ending, thanking Junpei as she reflects on their childhood memories together. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc1xTLMXbQI song]] accompanying the scene doesn't help. |
| 423 | * DiscOneFinalBoss: She's Zero, but the biggest threat is Ace. |
| 424 | * DyingDeclarationOfLove: As she bleeds to death in the Submarine Ending, she tells Junpei that she's "always liked him", making him break down even further as he tries in vain to keep her alive. |
| 425 | * EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: She continues to love Junpei even after becoming Zero. |
| 426 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: She may be willing to kidnap 9 people and orchestrate murders of [[AssholeVictim Cradle Pharmaceutical staff]], but she doesn't hurt people for no reason. Players who weren't her targets did not have detonators in their bracelets nor bombs in their bodies. Once they completed the game and escaped the "ship" (in actuality the Nevada base) they were even given transportation back to civilization. |
| 427 | * EvilAllAlong: She is Zero, which you only learn about long after finding out Ace is the reason she created the current Nonary Game. |
| 428 | * ExpendableAlternateUniverse: Is willing to screw over the participants of the Nonary Game (including Junpei, Santa and herself) many times over multiple continuities until she can bring about a timeline where she gets exactly what she wants. |
| 429 | * FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: She acts like a sweet and goofy young lady, but is secretly the manipulative and vengeful Zero. The story is ''built'' on subverting the reader's expectations, and the revelation of Akane's true nature may well be the biggest surprise it has to offer. That said, it's downplayed since she truly loves Junpei, her primary motivation is to prevent her twelve-year-old self from horrifically burning to death, and the four people she wants revenge on ''really'' have it coming. |
| 430 | * FalseCrucible: As Zero, she subjects all the game's participants bar Ace and the 9th Man to this. There was neither a bomb inside their bodies, nor a detonator in their bracelets. That being said, this doesn't prevent any of them from being killed by other means, such as murdering each other (as all the [[DownerEnding bad endings]] show). |
| 431 | * ForcedIntoEvil: An example as a result of circumstance rather than direct outside intervention. If she doesn't recreate the Nonary Game exactly as she saw it nine years ago and put Junpei and co. in life-threatening danger, the StableTimeLoop that saved her life will fail to close and she will die horrifically. |
| 432 | * FreakOut: Has one when you force your way into Door 3, with her, Santa and Seven, and run into Snake's body. Or rather, what is left of it. Everyone is shocked, but June produces a scream that is described as "not entirely human" and begins to tear out her hair, until Junpei manages to calm her down. Endgame revelations indicate one of two possibilities for interpreting this: either it's all an act since she knows that the body isn't Snake's and she had planned out his death, or she's having some kind of PTSD flashback to being locked in the incinerator, the extreme reaction compared to any other times explainable by the fact that if this scene happens, you're headed for a [[DownerEnding failed outcome for everyone, guaranteed]]. |
| 433 | * FreudianExcuse: Akane wanted to save the life of her past self and take revenge on Cradle Pharmaceutical, the corporation who ruined her life. |
| 434 | * FromNobodyToNightmare: Was originally a sweet little orphan girl who the first Nonary Game's creators thought they could easily dispose of. One TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening later, she is alive, angry, and out to kill her enemies for what they did to her. |
| 435 | * GasMaskLongcoat: When she’s dressed as Zero. |
| 436 | * HeWhoFightsMonsters: In order to escape the original Nonary Game and punish the original game's creators, she masterminded her own Nonary Game, subjecting many innocent people to trauma and possible death. |
| 437 | * HiddenInPlainSight: Akane is Junpei's childhood friend, and is the only one among the participants who has an explicit connection to another participant. Somehow, this goes unnoticed as a hint that she's the mastermind and set up the current Nonary Game because of an event involving her past relations to him, said event being that she got caught in Ace's trap in the past when she returned to pick up a doll that Junpei gave her. |
| 438 | * HiddenVillain: She's Zero, meaning she's the reason everyone is stuck inside the Gigantic. |
| 439 | * IAmNotPretty: In the Cargo Room (Door 6), checking her own card will cause her to say that she's not attractive to guys, unlike Lotus and Clover. |
| 440 | * IdiotBall: Her decision to run back for a memento of her childhood sweetheart rather than escape the deathtrap and approaching psychopath causes her to be trapped and all the fallout it brings on others. |
| 441 | * IronicNickname: In a sense. She's based off the Enneagram's Peacemaker archetype, but she's not very at peace with herself or the world. |
| 442 | -->'''Uchikoshi:''' [[http://lparchive.org/999-Nine-Hours-Nine-Persons-Nine-Doors/Update%2080/ She's the sort of woman who'll do whatever it takes to achieve her goals. Even though she seems like a nice girl, she's always plotting rather cold things.]] |
| 443 | * IHaveManyNames: [[FourIsDeath Four,]] to be exact. June, Akane, Kanny, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick and]] [[BigBad Zero]]. |
| 444 | * InnocentInnuendo: Invokes this a lot, bordering on TheTease. Though given she knows everything about Junpei's actions, it may not be so innocent... |
| 445 | * KarmaHoudini: Masterminds everything and gets away with all of it. Even most of her victims completely forgive her in the True Ending. This is justified by the whole 'precognition' thing- she can see the outcome and potential flaws of any plan she makes before it even happens, and also by the fact the Nonary Game eventually answered questions all of them had. And subverted by [[VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma the third game]], where she gets put through the wringer. [[TheManyDeathsOfYou Repeatedly]]. |
| 446 | * ALighterShadeOfBlack: Akane is the confirmed mastermind of the current Nonary Game, but she's certainly better than Ace, who pushed her to becoming a villain as a result of his fundamental apathy and callousness towards the lives of other people, and only targeted the people who ruined her life directly for the sake of vengeance, while leaving those uninvolved out of the question, as opposed to Ace who targets people indifferently and has no regard for the life of anyone whatsoever. |
| 447 | * LoveInterestTraitor: PlayedWith; she is Junpei's primary love interest, then is revealed to be Zero, the one who put the events of the game into motion. But even if she does take him into dangerous situations because of what's needed to save her life, nothing ever suggests that her feelings for Junpei were anything but genuine. He seemingly doesn't hold her motivations against her in the end either. |
| 448 | * LoveMakesYouDumb: During the first Nonary Game, she decided to run ''towards'' a murderous psychopath so she could retrieve a gift Junpei gave her. This nearly cost her her life. |
| 449 | * MaidenMotherAndCrone: Each of her names represents a different side of her personality. Akane is who she ''was'', and is used in reference to her innocent child-self. June is who she ''is'', the false mask she puts on during her Game. Zero is who she ''will'' be, a killer who has largely lost her innocence. |
| 450 | * MindlinkMates: With Junpei. Uchikoshi claims their connection through morphogenetic field is particularly strong because of their love. |
| 451 | * NarratingThePresent: She's the narrator of the story through Junpei's eyes. |
| 452 | * NiceGirl: Very kind, warm and selfless when she retorts against Lotus's cold-hearted suggestion to abandon others to save their own skins. Even when she is revealed to be Zero all along and the mastermind of the current Nonary Game, nothing suggests that her niceness towards the others was an act, though she does feel genuine malice primarily towards [[BigBad Ace and his cohorts.]] |
| 453 | * NominalVillain: Zero is forced to run the second Nonary Game as she previously foresaw its existence, and her life depends on information obtained from that foresight. She is fully aware that it's an evil act and tries to minimize the impact it has on innocent people, but is still forced to become a fugitive afterwards. If Junpei takes entirely the wrong path and disrupts the future game, Zero surprises the player with the declaration, "You misunderstand. You haven't lost... I have lost." |
| 454 | * ObfuscatingStupidity: Acts like a CloudCuckoolander, is actually the mastermind behind the whole game. |
| 455 | * PayEvilUntoEvil: Orchestrates three murders on Cradle Pharmaceutical staff and makes sure their CEO spends the rest of his life in prison because of what they did to her and 17 other kids. |
| 456 | * PluckyGirl: She is optimistic and hopes for everyone to gets along, and strongly disapproves of Ace's attempt to sacrifice himself. |
| 457 | * ThePowerOfLove: Uchikoshi states that the reason she is able to BOTH transmit to AND receive from Junpei through the morphogenetic field, and across time in addition to distance, is due to the strength of their love for one another. |
| 458 | * RetGone: Certain bad endings (like the Safe/Zero Loses ending) result in June mysteriously disappearing, presumably because Junpei failed to save her past self, which means her present self never existed. |
| 459 | * RoaringRampageOfRevenge: One of her motives for creating the second Nonary Game is to punish the four men responsible for the first one, which nearly got her killed. |
| 460 | * SamusIsAGirl: The masked villain Zero proves to be the female June. |
| 461 | * SanityHasAdvantages: In comparison to Ace, Akane seems to be driven by wrath towards her enemies, but she knows what she's doing is ''wrong'' and is even able to outsmart Ace in the process, getting him trapped in a version of his own Nonary Game and using it against him. Meanwhile, when Ace's treatment of ''her'' in the past became apparent, he was so AxCrazy even back then that she came to realize that he was a threat to her life and took the measures required to save herself from him in the future. Granted, this is under a situation of BecauseDestinySaysSo, and said destiny eventually ends up leading her moral compass to be [[SanitySlippage skewed to the point where she's fine with letting herself die multiple times over even MORE than she is in this game]] if it's to save the world from a virus. |
| 462 | * SatelliteLoveInterest: Is this until she's not; most of her screen time up until the finale relies on her being with Junpei with not much else in the department of having dynamics with the other players. Of course, the True Ending reveals that she is neither a mere love interest nor a flat character. |
| 463 | * SaveScumming: Her past self uses this to guide Junpei towards the true end. [[ExpendableAlternateUniverse She treats the other timelines (where things generally ended badly for the most, if not all the game's participants) as inconsequential, only caring about bringing about a continuity where she survives and gets her revenge.]] She's essentially murdered the ''entire cast'' by proxy in at least one timeline. |
| 464 | * SecretIdentityVocalShift: Her mask has a voice modulator to disguise her true identity when she's acting as Zero. |
| 465 | * SecretlyDying: PlayedWith. Her current self isn't dying, but her past self will die from being incinerated by Ace if she can't save herself by matching the PsychicLink she had to Junpei in the past within the present Nonary Game. ItMakesSenseInContext. |
| 466 | * SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: The reason behind the game is to save Akane from being killed by Ace in the past. |
| 467 | * SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: She has been in love with Junpei ever since childhood, due to his kind and selfless nature and his sense of virtue and justice (as shown when he confronts bullies who engage in [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals animal cruelty]] and threaten Akane). Despite being revealed to be Zero, her love for Junpei is genuine, as confirmed by [[VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward the]] [[VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma sequels.]] |
| 468 | * SheIsAllGrownUp: Santa wasn't kidding when he said she was "cute as a button" as a kid. And just look at her now. |
| 469 | * SixthRangerTraitor: She is the last participant of the Nonary Game that is introduced to the player, but is also part of the BigBadEnsemble and is the reason the participants are trapped in the ''current'' Nonary Game. Or much rather, Ace is the reason she is conducting ''this'' game to save herself from ''him''. |
| 470 | * SneakyDeparture: During the final puzzle, present Akane and Santa somehow manage to leave the incinerator without anybody noticing (admittedly, it helps that Junpei - the only one who fully realizes what's going on - is busy saving past Akane, and everybody else A.) Thinks they're about to die, and B.) Don't know that Akane and Santa are the masterminds). |
| 471 | * StepfordSmiler: Combination of B and C, depending on your interpretation of her personality. Throughout the game, she acts cheerful and kind, but she's actually a vengeful soul, out to take revenge on those who have wronged her. |
| 472 | * TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: Akane looks like a completely ordinary person, and even acts like it too, but she's the one conducting the Nonary Game in the present to save herself from [[BigBad Ace]]. |
| 473 | * TimeyWimeyBall: Her 21-year-old self has to set up a DeadlyGame to save her 12-year-old self's skin. If Junpei makes choices such that he cannot transmit the way out to young Akane, old Akane goes bye-bye. |
| 474 | * UsedToBeASweetKid: She has no qualms about killing 3 people who ruined her childhood and putting innocents in danger to save herself (though not as much danger as she would have them believe). |
| 475 | * VillainProtagonist: She sets up 3 people to die and instills massive panic in innocent people, and her younger self is the true protagonist of the game. |
| 476 | * WalkingSpoiler: Like all the characters, she is not who she seems to be. Mainly, she’s [[BigBad Zero]]. |
| 477 | * WeDoNotKnowEachOther: She and Santa are siblings, and working together to facilitate the Nonary Game. They hide this, of course. |
| 478 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: Her desire to live is understandable. The murders she orchestrates to achieve that goal, however, reveal another, darker motive for her actions. Namely, {{Revenge}}. She's also willing to [[ExpendableAlternateUniverse sacrifice alternate universes]] in order to save her past self. Uchikoshi even admits she'd be perfectly fine with killing someone as long as it benefited her. |
| 479 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: She and Santa both disappear completely after locking the rest of the participants in the Incinerator Room to force Junpei to transmit the puzzle solution to past Akane. She makes a return in [[VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward the]] [[VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma sequels.]] |
| 480 | * WoundedGazelleWarcry: Acts more afraid than she really is to make Junpei feel motivated to protect her, and to shift suspicion off herself from the others, especially [[BigBad Ace.]] |
| 481 | * XanatosGambit: The ''entire'' Nonary Game is an elaborate plan to save her life in the past! In this case, because of the multiple timelines, (here's where the Gambit comes in) its failure condition is also its success condition. |
| 482 | * YamatoNadeshiko: As described by Kinu Nishimura. It's all a facade of course. |
| 483 | [[/folder]] |
| 484 | |
| 485 | [[folder:7 - Seven]] |
| 486 | !!#7 "Seven" |
| 487 | !!! Voiced by: Creator/KentaMiyake (Japanese), Creator/EdwardBosco (English) |
| 488 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/seven_3.png]] |
| 489 | |
| 490 | --> "[=H2O=]... H must mean "hot", and O probably stands for "orphans"... So [=H2O=] must be made of 2 hot orphans..." |
| 491 | |
| 492 | A towering mountain of a man wearing a beanie and suffering from amnesia. Despite his bumbling nature, he is very dependable and well-equipped for solving problems. His bracelet number is 7. His name comes from... the number seven. |
| 493 | |
| 494 | His original Japanese alias is also the English word "Seven". |
| 495 | |
| 496 | He is a detective that searched for the missing children that were forced into the Nonary Game nine years ago. He was caught and locked in a cell in the Gigantic, but managed to escape and also save many of the children in the process. After these events, he attempted to track down the mastermind Gentarou Hongou to bring him to justice, but never found him. |
| 497 | |
| 498 | He claims that he was unable to save Akane, and that she was the only child to die in the original Nonary Game. However, this contradicts the chain of events that led up to the creation of the second Nonary Game. Considering that he is one of the only eye-witnesses to the events of the first Nonary Game, it is very likely (but not confirmed) that he is either collaborating with Zero, or that Akane tampered with his memories using her Esper powers. |
| 499 | ----- |
| 500 | * AmbiguouslyBrown: His skin is a tad darker than everyone else's, but he otherwise doesn't have much to indicate a sure ethnicity. He is Japanese though, as confirmed in VLR. |
| 501 | * AmbiguousSituation: In the final moments of the story, Junpei realizes there is a discrepancy in Seven's story about 9 years ago. He said that he saw Akane's charred corpse after the incinerator went off. However, as Junpei saved Akane from being incinerated, there would have been no body for Seven to see. Snake, being blind, wouldn't have been able to see it, but Seven definitely would have. Junpei briefly wonders if the past somehow changed, but then he sees that Seven's expression seems calmly content and wonders if perhaps Seven had been in on the plan from the start as well. It would certainly explain his EasyAmnesia as being faked. No answer is given. |
| 502 | * {{Beergasm}}: He drinks the booze from the Casino and was about to drink pure ethanol in the Operating Room. |
| 503 | * BigDamnHeroes: Saving the children on the Gigantic nine years ago. He also throws himself at Ace in the True End, freeing Lotus and disarming Ace, so the present as well. |
| 504 | * TheBigGuy: Easily the largest of the group, and possibly also the strongest. Whenever force needs to be applied to something, the other characters mostly turn to him. |
| 505 | * CowboyCop: Described as being one. |
| 506 | -->Seven was a lone-wolf detective, who valued his own code over the rules, [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight doing what was right over doing what you were told]]. |
| 507 | * DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength: When Junpei likens the Mercury symbol to Lotus ("the woman symbol with devil horns"), Seven laughs and tousles Junpei's hair in what he likely thought to be a friendly manner, but Junpei feels his neck is going to snap, even though it was clear Seven did try to keep his strength in check. |
| 508 | * EasyAmnesia: Seven doesn't remember things concerning his identity. Unlike most examples, it's {{justified|Trope}} in that it's probably a side effect of the gas. This type of amnesia goes away in a couple of days. However [[ExactTimeToFailure there is that pesky nine hour time limit]]. Hinted to be a subversion in the True Ending, because he says that Akane died 9 years ago, yet she's alive and well in the present. |
| 509 | * FaceOfAThug: He's a bit of a brute, and the beanie and scars probably don't help either. Lotus in particular wants nothing to do with him... at first. He's definitely one of the good guys, though. |
| 510 | * GeniusBruiser: He comes up with the idea to use tools and other items to hold doors open so that the party can backtrack without having to use the numbered doors. He used to be a detective as well. |
| 511 | * GentleGiant: Seven's size and stature rarely comes into play; he is a very polite, and surprisingly academic, detective. He did physically need to keep Junpei back when he tried to save Snake. |
| 512 | * GratuitousEnglish: On how he chose Seven as his codename in the Japanese version. |
| 513 | * HeroOfAnotherStory: He saved the children from the first Nonary Game on the Gigantic nine years ago. |
| 514 | * LogicBomb: His head "feels like it's about to explode" after he regains his memories and realizes that Akane had been present... despite having died 9 years prior. |
| 515 | * MyGreatestFailure: His failure to save Akane nine years ago. |
| 516 | * NoNameGiven: Even Uchikoshi states that he didn't really think of Seven's real name, unlike Lotus's semi-official name. Even in ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'', Junpei still calls him Seven despite having spent the past year working with him as a detective and having plenty of time to learn his real name. |
| 517 | * ScarsAreForever: The creator revealed that Seven got his scars from an incident after the first Nonary Game. He fought a large evil organization and took some nasty hits. |
| 518 | * ScaryBlackMan: Subverted. He looks the part, but he's actually a pretty nice guy (though he can be quite a smart ass). He's not actually black either. |
| 519 | * SpannerInTheWorks: His interference allowed the participants of the first Nonary Game to escape. |
| 520 | * VitriolicBestBuds: With Clover. "Best buds" may be stretching it, but while they frequently fight with each other (verbally, at least), Clover does not even think about leaving him behind when he volunteers and Seven is just as devastated as everyone else when Clover is found dead in the Safe ending |
| 521 | * YouAreNumberSix: Well, he's named Seven instead of Six. Goes for all characters in a sense, but Seven is the only one who simply picks his number as his nickname. In the Japanese version, he chose "seven" as it was pronounced in GratuitousEnglish; it would be the equivalent of having himself named Sieben. |
| 522 | [[/folder]] |
| 523 | |
| 524 | [[folder:8 - Lotus]] |
| 525 | !!#8 "Lotus" (Hazuki Kashiwabara) |
| 526 | !!!Voiced by: Creator/RieTanaka (Japanese), Valerie Arem (English) |
| 527 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lotus.png]] |
| 528 | |
| 529 | -> "Junpei, are you just screwing around?" |
| 530 | |
| 531 | An older woman dressed as a belly dancer. She has an abrasive and aloof personality, and tends to act only towards her own self-interests. Her bracelet number is 8, and her name comes from the number of petals on a lotus. |
| 532 | |
| 533 | She is an incredibly intelligent computer hacker, working as a digital security consultant, who only dresses like a belly dancer because she likes the fashion. She has two daughters, both of whom were involved in the first Nonary Game. |
| 534 | |
| 535 | Her original Japanese alias was ''Ya''shiro, from the word for "eight". |
| 536 | ----- |
| 537 | * AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: As revealed in the Submarine path, she has twin daughters who are roughly Junpei's age, which surprises Junpei and Seven. |
| 538 | * AllThereInTheManual: Only her last name is mentioned in the game itself. A Q&A on the official English website states her first name is Hazuki, but even that is just a "possibility" more than an official name. |
| 539 | * BerserkButton: When Lotus is called old or otherwise, such as being called an "exhibitionist grandma." She, at different points, kicks the shit out of Santa and Seven. |
| 540 | * ButtMonkey: Since her (8) bracelet is necessary for Ace to leave the Nonary Game with his (1) and the 9th Man's (9) bracelet, she dies or is targeted in pretty much every ending where he slips past the other participants in his scheming. |
| 541 | * DamselInDistress: Gets taken hostage at gunpoint in two of the endings and is murdered in two others. |
| 542 | * DeathGlare: While trying to solve the laboratory puzzle, Junpei calls her an old lady. [[http://lparchive.org/999-Nine-Hours-Nine-Persons-Nine-Doors/Update%2037/44-115.png This is Lotus' reaction]]. |
| 543 | * DebtDetester: Uses this as justification for not wanting Seven to sacrifice himself in the "Coffin" ending. |
| 544 | * GenerationXerox: Take one look at Nona and you'll immediately see she looks like a young Lotus. |
| 545 | * GlamorousSingleMother: Uchikoshi states that she's divorced from her ex-husband Ichiro Kawashibara. |
| 546 | * HiddenDepths: Though she seems to be self-serving, she's willing to sacrifice herself if it helps the others and gets her closer to the truth of what happened to her daughters. |
| 547 | * HiddenHeartOfGold: She starts out as brash and initially doesn't seem too concerned with sacrificng someone when the situation asks for it. While she never loses her directness, the game hints that her aloof and detached behavior are mostly a front, which begins to crack as you get closer to the true ending. Just compare the Lotus that proposes to simply leave people behind with the Lotus who rather stays behind herself than, say, leave behind Seven. |
| 548 | ** She may have manipulated Clover into voting for her favour when deciding on a person to sacrifice in order to continue with the game, but Lotus is the one to punch Ace in the face, upon discovering that he was the one who murdered Clover during the ''Zero Lost'' route. |
| 549 | * HollywoodHacking: Surprisingly averted. When a console needs to be hacked, said hacker writes a simple program to perform a basic but valid operation, namely brute-forcing the password. Unfortunately, programming does not work that way, especially on what is basically a DOS Prompt that is locked, but at least it refers to a real-world concept. Furthermore, even basic computer security would either impose a time limit until you can try logging in again or outright block you after several failed login attempts to prevent precisely this kind of hacking. |
| 550 | * InformedDeformity: Other characters keep commenting on how old Lotus is. She doesn't ''look'' old. |
| 551 | * InsufferableGenius: Is an IT wiz, and gets very short with people who aren't. |
| 552 | * JerkassHasAPoint: Lotus bringing up the fact that - for anyone to survive the game at all - people will have to be left behind, thus sparking conversation on who it will be. It was brutally pragmatic, but also ''necessary'' - nobody knew at the time that everyone could escape the game. She was just trying to solve a bad situation the only way she knew how. And given the tense situation they were in, it's perfectly reasonable that Lotus would want them to decide on who they'd sacrifice as soon as possible. Letting time pass would only make it worse. |
| 553 | * LockedOutOfTheLoop: She spends most of the true end being held hostage by Ace, and as a result has absolutely no idea what's going on in the final confrontation. |
| 554 | * MamaBear: She's been investigating the Nonary Games to find out what happened to her daughters who she fears were traumatized by said events. |
| 555 | * MsFanservice: If there's one blatantly attractive and {{Stripperific}} woman in the cast, it's her. Her large boobs and lack of clothing get a lot of attention, [[LampshadeHanging even from characters]]. |
| 556 | * OlderThanTheyLook: She's actually in her 40s, despite appearing to be in her 20s. |
| 557 | * PlayfulHacker: About the only time she's happy throughout the Nonary Game is when she's figuring out a computer, and she's ''really good'' at it. |
| 558 | * PrecisionFStrike: Drops one after she has had enough of hearing about the things she doesn't get after being LockedOutOfTheLoop. |
| 559 | -->'''Lotus:''' ''What the hell''?! What! The! Hell?! What in God's name are you talking about?! It's "9 years" this and "9 years that" and when it's not 9 years something then you're talking about some sort of fucking "experiments"! You aren't making any sense! |
| 560 | * RapidFireTyping: Junpei likens it to machine-gun fire. |
| 561 | * RunningGag: Lotus tends to get quite abusive when mentioning that she is unmarried or, well, abusive. Expect some comic relief scene for most of the time. |
| 562 | * SmarterThanYouLook: She's actually one of the most competent puzzle solvers in the game. And that's not even considering what happens when you put a computer in front of her. She also shares her knowledge of morphogenetic fields, which proves quite valuable to Junpei. The fact that she even knew about it seems to impress even Snake. |
| 563 | * {{Stripperiffic}}: Her outfit leaves very little to the imagination. {{Lampshaded}} by Seven and Santa, who call her an exhibitionist. |
| 564 | * SultryBellyDancer: She's dressed like one because she likes that style, according to the Q&A. It's one of her hobbies, in fact. |
| 565 | * TeenPregnancy: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. She was around 19 years old when she gave birth to twins, Nona and Ennea. |
| 566 | [[/folder]] |
| 567 | |
| 568 | [[folder:9 - The 9th Man]] |
| 569 | !!#9 "The 9th Man" (Teruaki Kubota) |
| 570 | !!! Voiced by: Creator/NobuoTobita (Japanese), Creator/CamClarke (English) |
| 571 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/9th_man.png]] |
| 572 | |
| 573 | -> "A-Ah... Oh my God, oh my God, there's no time left... Listen! I was lied to! He lied to me! He put me in here! It was him! He killed me! It was him!" |
| 574 | |
| 575 | A jittery and nervous man with glasses who seems to know more than he should. His bracelet number is 9. Although written with different kanji, the first syllable of his family name is a homonym of the word for "nine". |
| 576 | |
| 577 | His true identity is Teruaki Kubota, one of the four men responsible for the first Nonary Game nine years ago. While Gentarou Hongou was the mastermind behind the project, Kubota was the one who designed the technology used in the Nonary Game. With that in mind, he attempts to break away from the group to escape on his own after Hongou (as Ace) tricks him into believing that the [=DEADs=] were changed so that only one person had to verify them. He dies soon after, and his death immediately serves as a lesson on how deadly the game truly is. |
| 578 | ----- |
| 579 | * AdvertisedExtra: Appears frequently in promotional material and is advertised as one of the main characters of the game, yet he dies in the first act of the story soon after being introduced. Possibly justified too, due to the AnyoneCanDie nature of the game, where no one can be fully trusted. |
| 580 | * AssholeVictim: Initially, the others are absolutely horrified of his gruesome death, but it is easy to ''not'' feel the slightest amount of pity for him when his true identity is revealed later on. |
| 581 | * BrokenPedestal: He had a great respect for Ace/Hongou, because he was his boss and in a way, his friend. But when he discovers that his boss doesn't feel the same respect, it's too late for him. |
| 582 | * ChekhovsGun: His number 9 bracelet and knife get taken by Ace for use later on. |
| 583 | * CorruptCorporateExecutive: At least he's not as bad as Ace. |
| 584 | * CruelAndUnusualDeath: He is trapped behind door number 5 alone, sobbing and begging for his life while being unable to disable his bracelet which eventually ''detonates the bomb in his gut''. The game goes to explicit lengths describing his gruesome remains. |
| 585 | * TheEvilGenius: He was the man who prepared the technology behind the Nonary Game 9 years ago. The bracelets, the [=REDs=], the [=DEADs=], the numbered doors... He got all these to work. You find out in the True ending. |
| 586 | * ExplosiveStupidity: He REALLY shouldn't have trusted Ace when he told him that the DEAD only required one bracelet to deactivate the bomb in his gut. And he ''designed'' the system in the first place! |
| 587 | * FaceDeathWithDespair: Within the first half hour or so of the game, the Ninth Man dies after locking himself behind a door from the rest of the main group. His final moments are spent in panic and confusion as he's about to be exploded by the bomb in his stomach. |
| 588 | -->''"..T-This wasn't supposed to happen! This is wrong! This is wrong! O-O-O-Open the door! Please! I'm begging you! Help me! Please, get me out of here! Get me out of here! A-Ah... Oh my God, oh my God, there's no time left...! A...Aahh... Aaahhhh... Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaht--!"'' |
| 589 | * HeKnowsTooMuch: One of the reasons Ace wanted him dead is that he knew about Ace's identity and criminal past. |
| 590 | * HisNameIs: Before he dies, he warns the other 8 people about "him" lying to the 9th Man. It's unknown whether he was referring to Ace or Zero, but in the former case, Ace makes his last words a lot clearer during the confession. |
| 591 | * HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: He believed Ace when he stated that the doors only require one person to go through and deactivate, this gets him killed. |
| 592 | * KilledOffForReal: Out of all the participants, he is the only one who dies no matter what since his death comes before any route splits off. |
| 593 | * MadScientist: Sort of. He was one of the men behind the original Nonary Game and responsible for developing the necessary technology. |
| 594 | * NeverTrustATrailer: He ''seems'' like he's going to be much more relevant to the plot in the promotional material. However, he dies in the prologue. He does serve a bigger purpose in the backstory, though. So he's pretty much still considered one of the main characters, even if he only has an indirect appearance. |
| 595 | * NoNameGiven: He doesn't even get a nickname as he blows up very early in the game. You actually do find out his real name later, though. |
| 596 | * ObfuscatingStupidity: He only plays speechless for a few minutes before pulling a knife on Clover. |
| 597 | * ObviouslyEvil: The moment he's introduced, the 9th man appears the most suspicious and creepy of them all, being and stuttering, panicky mess of a human being and too nervous to even properly introduce himself. It doesn't take until a minute or two before he pulls out a blade, threatens Clover and blackmails himself into a trap that was set up for him. |
| 598 | * PosthumousCharacter: You only get to know his real name and backstory long after his death. |
| 599 | * SacrificialLamb: Exploited. Zero uses him to trick everyone else into believing that they too will explode if they don't follow the rules. In reality, the only ones carrying bombs are himself, Guy X, and ''possibly'' Ace, the people responsible for the first Nonary Game. |
| 600 | * SmallRoleBigImpact: At least in regards to the current Nonary Game. The 9th Man gets all of one scene before his death. Said death shows just how serious the Nonary Game is, his bracelet and knife become major [[MacGuffin MacGuffins]], and the motives behind his murder are later explained when Ace shows his true colors. |
| 601 | * StarterVillain: The first person to blatantly antagonize the others besides Zero, and he's dealt with quickly. |
| 602 | * StoryBreakerPower: Why he's a SacrificialLamb. The number 9 can be added to any combination of numbers without changing the digital root, allowing for an easier time escaping all the numbered doors. |
| 603 | * TimeBomb: He gets tricked into setting off his timer, which explodes in his stomach, killing him. |
| 604 | * TooDumbToLive: Sure, you could attribute his buying Ace's lie about the reprogrammed [=DEADs=] to simple gullibility... until you realize that he would have just gotten stuck at the next set of numbered doors anyway, rendering his gambit to go through Door 5 on his own pointless. Even worse, as one of the designers of the original Nonary Game, ''he of all people should have known this''. Just what the hell was he thinking? |
| 605 | * UnwittingPawn: Ace convinced him to go through Door 5 alone by telling him that the DEAD no longer required everyone to identify. He died in an attempt to escape on his own, just like Ace wanted. |
| 606 | * WeHardlyKnewYe: Out of all the main characters, he is the least developed as he dies very early on and his death is unavoidable on all routes. |
| 607 | * YouAreNumberSix: Or rather, You Are Number 9. The 9th Man is the only thing the rest of the cast calls him. |
| 608 | [[/folder]] |
| 609 | |
| 610 | !! Others - ''WARNING: Unmarked spoilers ahead!'' |
| 611 | |
| 612 | [[folder:Zero]] |
| 613 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zero_escape.png]] |
| 614 | |
| 615 | The mastermind of the Nonary game, who kidnaps the players to force them to participate. Can be heard over the speakers. |
| 616 | |
| 617 | See Akane Kurashiki for more details. |
| 618 | [[/folder]] |
| 619 | |
| 620 | [[folder:The Captain]] |
| 621 | !!The Captain (Kagechika Musashidou) |
| 622 | [[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/8be0c36d_e290_4a57_808a_d02399dc0f65.png]] |
| 623 | |
| 624 | Not actually the captain, but a man dressed as one. His true identity is Kagechika Musashidou, one of the four men responsible for the first Nonary Game nine years ago. He was the one who financed the Nonary Project. Hongou was given a note in which he was asked to confess, and be released. Musashidou was brought in as a witness, although this was just a BatmanGambit by Akane to have him killed off by Hongou. |
| 625 | |
| 626 | ----- |
| 627 | * AssholeVictim: He was responsible for funding the First Nonary Game and his death is mourned by none. |
| 628 | * CorruptCorporateExecutive: One of the masterminds behind the first Nonary Game. |
| 629 | * FatBastard: He is fat and helped finance Hongou's experiment. |
| 630 | * HeKnowsTooMuch: He knew about Ace's identity and role in the first Nonary Game. Ace feared that he could pose a threat for him as he was poised to tell the truth about the Nonary Game, and killed him. |
| 631 | * PosthumousCharacter: The players only discover him as a corpse behind the #1 door. |
| 632 | * RedHerring: A corpse dressed like a ship's captain wearing a #0 bracelet. Obviously, this is Zero, right? No one is fooled, and it's such an obvious red herring that Junpei feels like Zero is mocking him. |
| 633 | * WalkingSpoiler: As you'd expect, considering he first shows up as a dead man and for no particular reason. |
| 634 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: An encounter between Clover and him happens offscreen in the leadup to the Safe ending, but he himself is not mentioned, nor what happened to him afterwards in that timeline. |
| 635 | [[/folder]] |
| 636 | |
| 637 | [[folder:Guy X/Mr. X]] |
| 638 | !!Guy X (Nagisa Nijisaki) |
| 639 | [[quoteright:269:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7ec289e5_d9e6_4fe4_9cd4_c334efff0496.png]] |
| 640 | |
| 641 | His true identity is Nagisa Nijisaki, one of the four men responsible for the first Nonary Game nine years ago. He was the second-in-charge of the Nonary Project. He is killed by Hongou, mistaking him for Light. This was orchestrated by Akane, who swapped his clothing with Snake's. |
| 642 | |
| 643 | ----- |
| 644 | * AssholeVictim: He was never interacted with but given his status as Hongou's right-hand man already establish that he was definitely not a nice guy. |
| 645 | * BodyDouble: You think Snake actually died behind Door 3? Turns out it was this guy, and the killer couldn't tell who they killed. |
| 646 | * CorruptCorporateExecutive: One of the masterminds behind the first Nonary Game. |
| 647 | * CruelAndUnusualDeath: Suffers the same gruesome fate as Kubota, being trapped behind door 3 where the bracelet detonates the bomb in his gut. His remains are so grisly that Junpei and the others can't even ''tell who it is'' aside from wearing Snake's clothes. |
| 648 | * HeKnowsTooMuch: He knew about Ace's identity and role in the first Nonary Game. Even without the "Snake's clothing" deception in play, Ace would have likely killed him. |
| 649 | * IdenticalStranger: Downplayed and ultimately Subverted: At a glance, it wouldn't be impossible to mistake him for Snake, given their similar lean frames, sharp facial features, but on closer inspection, the finer details of their facial features are extremely different, not to mention their hairstyles. This is the key feature that implicates Ace: Anyone could recognize his face was completely different, but not if the killer had prosopagnosia, the inability to process faces, which Junpei tricks Ace into admitting about himself. |
| 650 | * LeanAndMean: He is as thin as Snake, and participated in the creation of the nonary project. |
| 651 | * MurderByMistake: He was wearing Snake's clothes, so his murderer mistook him for Snake. This fact helps to prove the identity of his killer, since a person who couldn't tell faces apart would have easily fallen for the ruse. This is also PlayedWith, as his murder was only a mistake on Ace's part; [[BigBad Zero]] very intentionally set him up to be murdered in such a specific way. |
| 652 | * NumberTwo: He was the right-hand man of Gentarou Hongou, the CEO of Cradle Pharmaceutical. Hongou killed him because he thought it was Snake, who knew his past as the creator of the Nonary Game. It makes sense he mistook him for Snake, though, as Hongou can't differentiate human faces and Nijisaki was dressed as Snake. |
| 653 | * PosthumousCharacter: We learn about his existence long after his gruesome death. Partly because he was injured so badly that he was unidentifiable and mistaken for Snake. |
| 654 | * SomethingAboutARose: Has a rose in the photo of him and the other executives. |
| 655 | * WalkingSpoiler: Like the other two characters here, his existence and involvement in the story is a massive spoiler. |
| 656 | [[/folder]] |
| 657 | |
| 658 | [[folder:Lord Dashiell Gordain]] |
| 659 | !!Lord Dashiell Gordain |
| 660 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0375e128_f368_42b7_9895_a11db1dedec2.png]] |
| 661 | |
| 662 | The creator of the original Nonary Games. An English eccentric millionaire, he was a survivor of the Titanic's submersion and later [[CollectorOfTheStrange obsessively attempted to purchase everything related to the Titanic]]. He purchased All-Ice and the Gigantic (after its incident in WWI). He is the creator of the original Nonary Game- he would take young Englishmen who'd accumulated massive debts and force them to play Nonary Games on the ship, and he would enjoy the show with his millionaire friends as they bet money on who would survive. All the losers were burned in the incinerator as a sacrifice during a ceremony (which the robes Snake woke up in were used for.) After many years of this, Gordain died of old age, but the games were continued by his successors. Ironically, [[BigBad Ace]] was kidnapped during the last game. |
| 663 | |
| 664 | ----- |
| 665 | * AllThereInTheManual: Most of his information was uncovered by [[http://www.aksysgames.com/999/answers interviews with the director himself]], Question 44. |
| 666 | * EvilBrit: Ever since he created the Nonary Game. |
| 667 | * EvilDebtCollector: Taken to the logical extreme in his backstory. |
| 668 | * GreaterScopeVillain: Gordain introduced Gentarou Hongou to the Nonary Game concept, which inspired Hongou to make the Nonary Game that would set the plot of ''999'' proper in motion. |
| 669 | * ManOfWealthAndTaste: Well, he ''was'' a lord... |
| 670 | * PosthumousCharacter: He's only mentioned in passing once throughout the game, being long since dead. |
| 671 | * WalkingSpoiler: Get a load of this guy. Although he's far too busy being dead to be walking in a literal sense. |
| 672 | * WhenItAllBegan: He created the trend of the Nonary Game. |
| 673 | [[/folder]] |
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