YMMV / Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Who is June? A heroine justifiably seeking to save herself and give evildoers just desserts, or a villain willing to torture innocents and place them in fear of their lives to correct her own idiocy, possibly with an excessive taste for revenge? While Virtue's Last Reward keeps her moral ambiguity intact, most of Zero Time Dilemma heavily supports the former interpretation, going as far as showing that Akane's tendencies to plan murders in order to accomplish a noble goal only intensify in the ending that leads to Virtue's Last Reward.
  • Hell, June's alternative interpretations have their own alternative interpretation! Over the course of the games, it becomes clear that the version of her that Junpei longs for and that the player is most familiar with isn't the only version of her that exists across multiple potential timelines. However, that one goes on to a near-goddesslike level of psychic planning, while the other versions of her die horribly and often while knowing their death in one timeline ensures their survival in another. Does Akane eventually become numb to this as she takes the mantle of alpha-shifter, or does she simply accept it from the beginning because she's just as prepared to die for another chance at success as all her other selves were?
  • Ace. Does he deserve any sympathy due to his cognitive disorder? Were his actions during the game a Machiavellian ploy devised by a sharp-minded sociopath or simply the result of a paranoia-ridden executive whose misdeeds came back to haunt him in a most frightening way?
  • Lotus.
    • She mentions being fired from her cyber-security job and had twins who were abducted and forced to participate in the original Nonary Game. How much do you want to bet she was fired for coming close to the truth? Throughout the game, she comes off as, alternatively, selfish and flighty (selfish when she points out that not everyone can live, and flighty when she tells you not to take her seriously), but she's probably using Obfuscating Stupidity. Unless you play the Torture Room, you'd have no idea she has hidden depths — when she talks about psychic powers, she always says it's "just a story." Unless you know she's connected to the first game, it makes no sense, but once you do, it becomes clear she's trying to give Junpei and the rest valuable information without tying it to herself. She's also one of the most competent puzzle-solvers when you work with her, suggesting that she's figured out more than she wants you to know. Badass. As for her noting that only so many of the players can survive to go through the doors? She never said she wasn't willing to sacrifice herself if necessary.
    • Given that she's a (single) mother, how much of her willingness to sacrifice others to escape was born of actual selfishness, and how much was her trying to avoid leaving her kids without a mother? Even if they're teens/young adults by the time of the game, that's still no age to leave someone parentless, not for the sake of a total stranger!
  • Junpei himself. Is he an ordinary guy trying to survive an impossible situation the best he can? Or a self-centered jackass willing to throw everyone else to the wolves to save himself and his loved ones? Interestingly, his later appearances play up the latter a bit, with him often backstabbing allies to secure his loved ones' safety.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Not a boss in the strictest sense, but for all the hyping up the last puzzle got, that was one easy Sudoku. Comparatively speaking, the replacement in The Nonary Games feels much more climactic. Not that it's much harder - switch out some numbers then realize the password on the second screen is only one digit - but it ties into the game's arc a little better.
• Cargo Ship:
  • Junpei/First Puzzle Ladder.
  • Junpei/Funyarinpa Picture.
  • Junpei/Science Boy.
• Complete Monster: Gentarō Hongō, better known by his code name "Ace", first appears as a helpful and altruistic ally until he is revealed to be the CEO of Cradle Pharmaceutical(s). He created the First Nonary Game, kidnapping eighteen children and forcing them to commit numerous tasks with their lives on the line, for the sake of curing his prosopagnosia, inability to recognize faces. Hongō personally shoves the young Akane in an incinerator after an unsuccessful escape attempt where she burns alive, being too frightened and clueless to solve the Sudoku puzzle required to escape. In the Second Nonary Game, this time as a participant himself, he intends to betray and murder everyone in exchange for their bracelets, succeeding in the Submarine Ending. First, he successfully murders his three colleagues in order to hide his identity and keep his crimes from ever reaching the court. He also murders Clover in the alternate Safe Ending, later taunting her brother Snake how he loved the sensation. An utterly corrupted, delusional and sadistic man, Hongō is willing to murder anyone who stands in his way while at the same time trying to claim that he is a tragic individual.
• Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: The DS version is highly praised for taking advantage of the system's unique features in telling the game's story. The actual process of playing through each route on the DS version is tedious, however (especially when compared to the remaster's quality-of-life changes), leading some to prefer watching a playthrough of each route instead of playing them directly.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Seven. He may seem like a Scary Black Man but he's the guy who saved all the kids in the first Nonary Game, and his name is never revealed. His brash sense of humor seems to help.
  • Snake. According to a poll by Aksys he's the most popular character in the game in the US.
  • Polls show that Clover's the most popular character in the game in Japan, and is second only to her brother in the US.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: The upbeat "love conquers all" vibe becomes Fridge Horror when you realize main character Junpei is unable to stop loving the person who effectively tortured innocents to survive and murdered those who wronged her, and who leaves him without a word. In the Virtue's Last Reward timeline, he even becomes disillusioned after unsuccessfully chasing her for the rest of his life. However, the Golden Ending of Zero Time Dilemma ultimately subverts this, as Akane is given a much more sympathetic characterization, and her and Junpei end up forming a close relationship, both professionally and personally. And to be fair, you can consider Akane's actions an extremely bizarre form of murder in self-defense. Young Akane needed someone to connect with in the exact same situation. Junpei or Santa wasn't just going to stumble into a Nonary Game. The only future she found where Junpei was in the same proper frame of mind was one where she put him there. Word of God confirms that Junpei would have been willing to save a girl's life had he been asked, just the situation kind of forced it to be involuntary. And deaths surely helped Junpei be in the proper Nonary Game setting to connect with. Considering that these bastards are going to kill Young Akane if she doesn't kidnap them 9 years later and thus save herself.... Also, look at what Junpei does to ensure he enters Door #3 if he insists on taking that path. He certainly understands being a Magnificent Bastard to get what you want, and thus is less likely to hold Akane's actions against her, especially considering she had a much more understandable reason for her actions (read: escaping imminent death and exacting vengeance on the ones who put her through hell) than Junpei did (read: possibly condemning three apparently innocent people to death because he wanted to stay with June).
• Fashion-Victim Villain: The 9th Man is making a rather bold fashion statement, wearing a gray vest over a larger black vest, over a pink dress shirt, over a white dress shirt, with striped socks tucked into boots and layered over what appear to be some sort of combat pants (with kneepads!).
• Faux Symbolism:
  • June's story of the rabbit hutches predicted the deaths of the players, except Ace in Submarine ending, in which they were the rabbits while Junpei is responsible for catching the killer.
  • In the True ending, Ace explained that he only found a mandrake root inside the coffin. In Greek mythology, Mandrake root symbolizes immortality and whoever eats that plant, they went to sleep and never woke up. Other folklore claims that mandrake root links sexual behavior or as a worship to the devil.
  • Hermes, the Greek god on whom Mercury is based, is a messenger of the gods, and a god of trickery and travel. He also guided the dead to the underworld, and famously blinded Argus the watchman. In the Ax and Submarine endings, the mercury symbol at the elevator represents a dead end to the entire group.
• First Installment Wins:
  • The majority opinion among Zero Escape fans is that 999 is the most memorable of the three Zero Escape games, due to a combination of its graphics, story, setting and atmosphere. VLR undeniably has its fans and is a competent title (while ZTD is the most controversial of the three), but both sequels have received criticism for changing the personalities of some of the characters in 999 (Clover in VLR, Junpei and Akane in ZTD), as well as downgrading the graphics and moving the story started in 999 into sci-fi territory.
  • 999 is also a case of First Version Wins. Several aspects of the game simply lose the impact they had on the DS when played on the single screen of a console or PC. The twist of Akane being the narrator in the bottom screen, while Junpei's POV is the top screen isn't really possible to replicate in a single screen, and the workaround the developers came up with - Adventure and Novel Mode - is only somewhat effective^note As many players of the port stick to one mode and don't interact with the other mode until it's plot relevant. And the game's climax, the moment of turning the DS/3DS upside-down to help 9-year-old Akane solve the Sudoku puzzle to escape the incinerator, is much less impactful on a single screen and with a different puzzle. Ultimately, while the Nonary Games rerelease has some very welcomed improvements (namely, the Flow chart) that very few people will argue against, and is far more accessible than the DS original, a lot of people will still recommend you play the original DS version of 999 first to get the full unaltered experience.
• Fridge Brilliance: Loads of it.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: This game sold much better in the States than it did in Japan. According to an interview about the sequel, Chunsoft analyzed that 70% of the viewers for the promotional video are English speakers. In fact, one of the reasons they greenlit a sequel was because of the International fanbase. Germans love David Hasselhoff indeed!
• Harsher in Hindsight: An offhand remark from Santa in the freezer behind Door 4 takes on a whole new meaning after Virtue's Last Reward:
  Santa: At any rate, we're not gonna have to worry about the end of the world unless we can get out of here pretty damn quick.
• Ho Yay: Some of Snake's dialogue suggests he's kinky and prefers men. Either that, or he's really good at trolling Junpei.
  • If Junpei enters Door 5, then examines the bed multiple times, Snake will comment on it.
    Snake: Junpei, I cannot help but notice your interest in the bed. Perhaps you are hoping we will spend time on it, together...
    Junpei: Gah! Y-You—! I— Don't say stuff like... damn! That's not a mental image I want!
  • In the Safe Ending, Snake's death is one of only two deaths in any of the bad endings that causes Junpei to completely flip his shit, to the point that he has to be physically restrained, then punched in the gut and carried out by Seven to keep him from running to Snake and locking himself in the incinerator. The only other character whose death has ever evoked that kind of extreme reaction is June, Junpei's childhood friend and love interest. On the other hand, this the only other time someone died directly in front of him, particularly in such a brutal fashion, so he might have acted similarly to someone else being killed in a similar way.
• Iron Woobie: Snake... and possibly Akane, depending on your interpretation of her character.
• Magnificent Bastard: Zero a.k.a. Akane Kurashiki; see the main series YMMV page for details.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The Funyarinpa.^Explanation What? An explanation? You don't know about the Funyarinpa already? That's-that's practically blasphemous! Apologize to the Funyarinpa at once! ... A random word that Junpei comes up with on the spot. When the other characters don't know what he's talking about, he says more or less what you just read.
  • Upside-down sudoku.^{Explanation (spoilers)} The final puzzle of the game is just a sudoku puzzle, but you have to flip your DS to see it upright due to the nature of the later twists.
• Memetic Psychopath: Clover is treated this way mostly due to the Ax Ending when she goes on a murder spree, despite not being like that elsewhere.
• Moe: Clover. When she hasn't gone crazy, that is. Or even then.
• Narm:
  • Junpei in the Safe ending, with his scream of "KAAAAAANNNNNNYYYYYYYYYY!" The pose doesn't help much, either.
  • The Ax ending is mostly rightly horrific save for the one shot of Junpei's face◊, which just looks unintentionally hilarious.
  • Seven, in the flashbacks of his rescue of the kids. His facial expressions while he's opening the grate are... amusing, to say the least, in sharp contrast with the situation.
  • Just before this, we have Snake's response to being told that his sister's been murdered - "No, that's not true! That's impossible!". It's again such a wildly inappropriate reference to make during what's otherwise a horrible scene.
  • The mostly excruciating Safe ending also provides one of the most inappropriate moments imaginable for a Metal Gear joke to make itself. I guess we can assume that "Snake! Snake! SNAAAAAKE!" would sound better if we could actually hear Junpei's voice. (And we can if playing the remake.)
  • The localization is mostly excellent, but its extensive use of similes comes off as inappropriate during certain moments, such as Nijisaki / "Snake"'s death, which has his corpse compared to spaghetti and pizza dough. Justified, since this is the perspective of a child Akane who wouldn't know many ways to describe a corpse in that state.
• Never Live It Down: Clover will always be remembered for completely breaking down and murdering everyone in the Ax Ending.
• No Yay: Ace/Clover, what's with him musing how easily his knife slid between her ribs and other squicky shit.
• Player Punch:
  • Snake's (fake) death, if you chose room 5. He is one of the most awesome characters in the game, and one of the most useful.
  • Snake's (real) death in the Safe ending. It's brutal, and the description (and accompanying sound effect) of Ace kicking Snake's face and upper body is cringe-worthy.
  • Santa taking June hostage may come as a bit of a shock, especially after he shares a bit of his past and the reason for his cynicism, and after he shows blatant (and apparently genuine) concern for June when she collapses. It's only later that it's revealed that his concern truly was genuine; taking her "hostage" was part of the plan, and his best chance at saving her.
• Retroactive Recognition: Believe it or not, that's Alastor as the voice of Seven.
• Shipping: Akane and Junpei, obviously. There are some moments for Junpei and Clover, but not as much as with Akane. Also Lotus and Seven. The UST is so heavy you can feel it. Lotus/Seven has since been confirmed by Word of God. Also Santa and Clover – when he starts getting all excited about the stairs you're climbing and how they'd be perfect for looking up skirts, he immediately demands that you bring Clover over.
• Superlative Dubbing: Most of the dubbing in the rerelease is considered just okay at best, but Junpei is generally agreed to be a stand out, especially during the more comedic scenes. Evan Smith is definitely more emotive than he was in Zero Time Dilemma, although this is quite justified given that Junpei Took a Level in Cynic between 999 and ZTD.
• The Woobie: Damn near everyone, with the obvious exceptions of Ace and the rest of the Cradle Pharmaceutical guys.
  • Snake and Clover were kidnapped as children and subjected to inhumane experiments that they only barely survived, get kidnapped again in order to secure another survivor's escape through time travel, and have to suffer through believing (correctly or otherwise) that their sibling has been murdered. Snake is generally an Iron Woobie who takes the crap in his life in stride, only breaking down when confronted by his sister's murderer, while Clover turns into a ticking time bomb who will completely snap and go on a killing spree if it can't be proven that the corpse in the shower room isn't Snake's.
  • June was kidnapped along with her brother as a child, subjected to inhumane experiments, and only escaped death by incineration with the aid of information she obtained in the future by creating a second Nonary Game, getting dangerously close to becoming no better than the monster who tormented her in the first place, and personally betraying two of her fellow survivors, the detective who helped save her life, and a very close childhood friend. She then has to commit all of these crimes in her present to send that information to the past, or the Stable Time Loop that saved her in the past will fail to close and she will retroactively die a horrific death at the age of twelve.
  • Lotus. While they are no less innocent, at least Snake and Clover have experience with the first Nonary Game. Lotus, Seven and Junpei are the only ones that have absolutely no clue why someone would kidnap them and subject them to this game, at least until Seven gets his memories back. What potentially puts her even higher than Junpei is that she had the horrible luck of landing bracelet number 8, making her Ace's counterpart in creating a digital root of 9 - she is either killed or threatened by him in almost every ending so that he can escape. She's also a single mother, her two daughters having been kidnapped to participate in the first game, something she could never bring herself to ask them about directly.

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