History VisualNovel / NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors

* AdvancedTech2000: The Pushmaster 5000.

* TwentyMinutesInTheFuture: The game was first released in 2010 and takes place in 2027.

* TwentyMinutesInTheFuture: It takes place in 2027.

** "Don't Forget Your Towel" in ''The Nonary Games'' is probably a reference to towels in Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy (where towels are important for hitchhiking). Fitting, as [[spoiler:Alice is hitchhiking at the very end of TheStinger]].

* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Taking the counterintuitive and seemingly selfish option of going through Door 3 railroads you into the [[DownerEnding Submarine ending]] in most versions of the game. The [=IOS=] version doesn't even let you get that far and has a specific downer ending for it where Clover drowns Junpei by injecting him with soporil.
* VomitDiscretionShot: During the Safe ending, the camera obligingly focuses in on the room sign while Junpei tosses his cookies from seeing [[spoiler: the 9th Man's body again]].

* {{Area 51}}: Building Q, out in the middle of the Nevada desert, where part of the Nonary Project experimentation is carried out... [[spoiler:and also where the events of the game, unbeknownst to most of the cast, play out.]] In a nod to the real status of the site, it is a private building of a multinational corporation, rather than a government building.

He then wakes up in a third-class room on an [[UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic an early 20th-century ship.]] Upon escaping from there, he finds out that he's trapped on the ship with eight other people who were similarly chosen, and forced to play the game lest the bombs planted inside their bodies go off. Needless to say, [[FromBadToWorse things get worse]], and they're forced to trust each other and race against the 9-hour time limit to figure out what's happening and why they're on the ship.

** Another example is the Axe ending, where [[spoiler:Junpei noticing Clover's sanity slippage may have stopped her from killing them.

* YourHeadAsplode: In this case, it's your bowels. No less lethal though.

*** In the Captain's Quarters, you can't input the morse code until you get the paper that reveals it. Examining the telegraph will just not let you use it. You'll have to print the cylinder's marks on paper.
*** Averted in 3rd Class Cabin and the shower room. You need one code for the former and two for the latter, but you can input them right off the bat without having to find the clues to figure them out. You still are obliged to find the keys for the former and the keycards for the latter, though.

* HarsherInHindsight: An offhand remark from Santa in the freezer behind Door 4 takes on a whole new meaning after [[spoiler:Virtue's Last Reward:]]
--> '''Santa:''' [[spoiler: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.]]

* HarsherinHindsight: An offhand remark from Santa in the freezer behind Door 4 takes on a whole new meaning after [[spoiler:Virtue's Last Reward:]]

** Behind Door 4, when Junpei, June, and Santa are stuck in the freezer, Santa makes a remark that takes on a whole new meaning after [[spoiler:Virtue's Last Reward:]]
--> '''Santa:''' [[spoiler: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.]]

* {{Retcon}}: 999 was originally made as a standalone title. When ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'' was released, it changed some of the already-stated-by-the-creator backstory. [[spoiler:Ace is retroactively made a member of Free the Soul and Snake's robes became Free the Soul robes, erasing a plot point about Lord Gordain being the originator of the nonary games.]] Also, [[spoiler:the woman in the desert in the last moments of the True Ending was revealed to be a different woman named Alice who was in the desert for other reasons.]]

** Another example is the Axe ending, where [[spoiler:Junpei noticing Clover's sanity slippage may have stopped her from {{kill|EmAll}}[[AxCrazy ing]] them.]]

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:Everyone dies in the Submarine ending... Except the killer. Or does he? There's some controversy as to whether he gets past the 9/q door or not. Some argue that he could brute-force the digital root of 8 with the bracelets. Then again, he would need Junpei's bracelet as well and given how Junpei drowned and the bracelet went off while underwater, it would take him a long time to do so.]]

* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: In the routes that have the most plot significance, the only one whose presence isn't really explained [[spoiler:with their connection to the previous Nonary Game]] is Lotus. She just kind of exists within her dynamic with Seven, to force splitting at times (see JerkassHasAPoint), [[spoiler:and her getting captured and being taken hostage by Ace in either major ending.]] The only way you can find any relation connecting her to the major MythArc [[spoiler:is to follow a deliberately stream-lined path that only goes to the KillEmAll Sub ending, that reveals her kids were part of the game.]]

** The achievement for getting the Submarine ending in ''The Nonary Games'' is [[spoiler:"[[Music/TheBeatles We All]] [[KillEmAll Die]] By a Music/YellowSubmarine"]].

* WritersCannotDoMath: At one point, Santa says there's no way they're on a ship that's "almost a hundred years old", despite the fact that this game takes place in 2027, 115 years after the sinking of the ''Titanic'', and 111 years after the sinking of the ''Britannic'', the real-life ship the ''Gigantic'' is based on. Likely a side-effect of the fact that the game was released in 2009, and it taking place in 2027 wasn't settled on until [[{{Retcon}} after it came out]].

* FireAndBrimstoneHell: [[spoiler:The ship's incinerator.]]

* CommonalityConnection: As the game progresses, it transpires that despite their different backgrounds, personalities and professions, 8 of the game's participants are all connected directly with [[spoiler:the first Nonary game experiment with Cradle Pharmaceuticals, two of the participants having designed and overseen the experiment, four of them being past test subjects, one of them having their children kidnapped to participate in the experiment and one of them being a detective who interfered on the Gigantic test site and helped the kids there escape]]. The sole exception to this is [[spoiler:the protagonist Junpei, who is only indirectly connected through having known test subject Akane as childhood friends and having given her a doll, with her attempt to recover said doll during their escape resulting in her getting recaptured and dragged into the ship's incinerator room to die if she couldn't solve the final puzzle though using the morphogenetic field Cradle Pharmaceuticals were trying to exploit... and it turns out that Junpei's inclusion in the second Nonary game is because he's actually [[LivingMacguffin the most important participant]] that it's all built around, as him being in that ''exact'' situation is what allows him to transmit the Puzzle's solution back through time to the nine-year old Akane when she 'linked' with him through the field, thus necessitating present Akane to start the second game to [[StableTimeLoop re-create the conditions that enabled her past self's survival]] to avoid CessationOfExistance]].

** The iron-plated windows slightly hint at [[spoiler:the team not being on a ship at all; if they could see outside, the illusion would be broken.]]

** Santa, at one point, says that you shouldn't trust anyone in the Nonary Game, because the person you trust most will turn on you. [[spoiler:The person Junpei trusts most is Akane. She turns out to be behind the whole thing.]] Also, [[spoiler: the one most persistent on everyone trusting everyone is Ace, the guy that did the original Nonary Game.]]

* FirstPersonPerspective: We see the action happen from Junpei's perspective, except static pictures here and there where he appears doing something. [[spoiler:However, it's later revealed that Young!Akane is watching all that through Junpei's eyes in the future, and that every interaction with the present is done by kid Akane.]]

** In the Coffin/True ending, the players could go on through [[spoiler:Door 9]], but the digital root wouldn't fit unless they left Seven behind. Unlike the other situation, however, no one wants to do it, even those who agreed previously. Then [[spoiler:Santa]] [[TakeAThirdOption takes a third option]]: leaving Seven ''and'' two other people (namely Junpei and Clover) behind. How does he convince them to listen to him? By [[spoiler:pulling out a gun and taking June hostage threatening to blow her head of. Of course, since Santa is working with Zero, he knows that Snake is alive and the remaining three and Snake can take the other door]].

** [[spoiler:[[Franchise/MetalGear "Snake!]] ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Snake!"]]'']]

** June's reference to [[spoiler:heaven ("I'll go to heaven") out of the blue whilst talking to Junpei about drowning (in the elevator scene)]] could allude to ''VisualNovel/{{Ever17}}'', where [[spoiler:characters certainly drown and go to "heaven".]] Just a coincidence? The writer of ''[=Ever17=] did'' lead the design team of ''999''...

* ShownTheirWork: The Gigantic? That one's mostly real. It was to be the intended name of the third ship Britannic. William Thomas Stead is also completely authentic. The mummy, however, is a debunked legend, just HistoricalFiction.

* WritersCannotDoMath: At one point, Santa says there's no way they're on a ship that's "almost a hundred years old", despite the fact that this game takes place in 2027, 115 years after the sinking of the ''Titanic'', and 111 years after the sinking of the ''Britannic'', the real-life ship the ''Gigantic'' is based on.

** The Coffin Ending, which stops you in your tracks if you go for the True Ending before the Safe Ending.

* TheTetrisEffect: Play through the game often enough and you may start calculating digital roots out of impulse. Alternatively, numbers begin taking on more meaning.

* GenerationXerox: Take one look at Nona and you'll immediately see her as [[spoiler:a young Lotus]].
* GenreBlindness: Santa, Junpei and June left [[spoiler:the 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, [[spoiler: Seven trusting that Santa wouldn't take the gun is what sets off the True Ending.]]
* GoneHorriblyRight: [[spoiler: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, [[spoiler: 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.]]

* ParrotExposition: Junpei has a tendency to repeat what other people say.

* RedOniBlueOni: This trope is used in almost every possible form, thanks to subverted stereotypes and numerous reveals. Some key examples:
** Clover and Snake, with the colors to match. [[spoiler:When Snake disappears, Clover's distress makes her become both onis, being alternately passionate and aloof.]]
*** FridgeBrilliance: [[spoiler: 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.]]
** [[spoiler: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.]]
** The game also makes more than one reference to red and blue creating purple, although one of these is LostInTranslation.

* RelativeButton: [[spoiler: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.]]

* RunningGag: Lotus tends to get quite abusive when mentioning that she is a ChristmasCake or, well, abusive. Expect some comic relief scene for most of the time.

* SanitySlippage:
** [[spoiler:Clover]] in the Axe ending.
** [[spoiler:Ace]] in the Safe ending.

* ScarsAreForever: WordOfGod reveals that Seven got his scars from an incident [[spoiler:after the first Nonary Game]] before. He fought a large evil organization.
* ScaryBlackMan: Despite not being black, Seven, at first.

* SelfDestructiveCharge: [[spoiler: Snake]] in the safe ending.

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: [[spoiler:The reason behind the game is to save Akane in the past.]]
* 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.
* ShipTease:
** Seven and Lotus, especially when they're the first ones to protest when they, at separate occasions, attempt to [[spoiler:perform a HeroicSacrifice]]. The excuses they come up with to explain their outbursts aren't very convincing either.
** 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, [[spoiler: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.

* SkywardScream:
** In the Safe ending:
*** [[spoiler:Ace: ZEEEEEROOOOOOOOO!!!]]
*** [[spoiler:Junpei: KAAAANNYYYYYY!!!]]
** [[spoiler: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.
* SlasherSmile: [[spoiler:Clover]] gives us one in the Axe ending. [[spoiler: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.]]

* SneakyDeparture: A villainous example: [[spoiler: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 villains).]]

* SurrogateSoliloquy: Junpei [[spoiler:conversing with the ladder in 3rd class cabin.]]

* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler:Snake to Junpei, Seven and Lotus]], from [[spoiler:Ace]] in the Safe ending.
* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler: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.]]

* ThemeNaming:
** 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.
** 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"). [[spoiler: Mu can also refer to nothingness in both English and Japanese... that is, zero.]]
** Averted in that [[spoiler:Clover's name is actually Clover, well, Yotsuba]].
** OddNameOut: Junpei, because he was identified by his real name before the ThemeNaming was decided on.

* UnfazedEveryman: Junpei. He seems to be the only one without some horrible back story.
* UnknownRelative: Junpei was childhood friends with Akane but [[spoiler:is unaware that Aoi (aka Santa) is her brother.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:Ace, of all people, has one in the Safe ending.]]

* WouldYouLikeToHearHowTheyDied: [[spoiler:Ace does this, detailing how he killed Clover to her big brother Snake and all the excitement he felt about it. Needless to say, that activated Snake's BerserkButton.]]

* WhyWontYouDie: Result of the above trope. [[spoiler: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.]]]]
-->"Y-You son of a bitch! You're...[[YouMonster you're a monster]]!"

* 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.]]

* GuileHero: Junpei, by making it so that he can [[spoiler:get any result he wants in the door lottery]].

* HiddenDepths: '''EVERYBODY.''' The director had this in mind creating the game - building the characters upon {{st|ockCharacters}}ereotypes, then {{subvert|edTrope}}ing them.

* 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.

* ILetGwenStacyDie: [[spoiler: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.]]

* InformedDeformity: Other characters keep commenting on how old Lotus is. She doesn't ''look'' old.
* InnocentInnuendo: Besides the Saturn elevator example above, there's also the frozen chicken in the kitchen freezer beyond door 4. If Junpei examines it, June will say his "chunk of meat" is "really hard." Junpei will ask her to repeat the "really hard" part multiple times.

* 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'' - [[spoiler: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.

* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler:The energetic, cute Clover is undeservedly chased down and stabbed InTheBack in the Safe ending. The reason? [[HeKnowsTooMuch She knows too much.]]]]