I'm grateful for the puzzles, as it's unlikely that the game wouldn't have been considered for Western release without them. Both the creators and localizers said that the puzzles were put it to help break up the story and widen the appeal of the game. It's not nearly as puzzletastic as Professor Layton (that THATS a puzzle game...and a somewhat exhausting one at that), but there was enough to help initially draw me in. I partially came for the puzzles, and stayed for the story.
Taking a break from FE1, for the FE8 draft insteadComing from a Visual Novel background, the only reason I was playing was for the story.
I actualy anticipated some of the plot twists. I was pretty sure snake was in the coffin. I found Ace to be really suspicious. I also thought June was suspicious. I didn't expect Santa at all though. Snake, I thought might have been up to something but I was wrong on that front.
Ace was the only one who wasn't provided a backstory. We knew how everyone else (except June and Junpei) were connected to the story but not him. Same reason I suspected June. Couldn't suspect Junpei via Knox's 7th. Considering Snake was assumed dead but actually alive, I figured he could've easily gone around and acted as Zero for various situations.
Knox's Decalogue for detective fiction
.
I realized at the end that 999 actually follows all 10 rules. Even Knox's 4th.
edited 1st Oct '11 8:48:59 AM by LiberatedLiberater
MAL || vndb || BlogI'm not a visual novel person and don't generally like them, because, as I noted earlier, I'd rather just read an ordinary book. So the puzzles were actually crucial in getting me to play this; I did like the story, but if it hadn't been for the puzzles, I still would've preferred to read a book. Conveying the multiple endings in book form would be Mind Screw-tastic, come to think of it...
I think I suspected just about everyone save Seven, even with the amnesia. And while I did suspect June, due to the "yeah, she's way too innocent" means of thinking, I did not correctly guess the vehicle for this, or the motivation. And while I sort of knew they were actually in Building Q from the get-go, at least once Building Q became a thing, storyline-wise, seeing it actually happen was still kind of funny.
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada
: Did you do Door 4 or Door 5 first? I did Door 5, and spending time with Seven so early on, I just got the feeling that he was a good guy. When I did Door 3 on my second playthrough, him leaking some of his backstory basically confirmed for me that he was, indeed, a thorough good guy.
That too. Seven just kind of "feels" sincere to the Genre Savvy. I was totally suspecting Lotus for a long time though... until I got her backstory too. People don't tend to make moms—mom-moms, not the kind of moms who use "mom" to denote they're an Evil Matriarch—evil in that way.
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~MadrugadaI liked the puzzles in this game, and thought they were worked quite well into the plot and the overall themes. Enough minor plot twists depended on you being absolutely familiar with digital sums or hexidecimal that the game brute-force teaching you those things via puzzles felt rewarding. Repeating previously cleared puzzles on multiple playthroughs was pretty annoying though. There probably should have been a skip option like there was for the text.
Some character names revealed
for the sequel.
Alice is pretty much confirmed, yo.
edited 26th Oct '11 11:24:51 AM by FreezairForALimitedTime
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada

For me, the puzzles aren't all that fun. And you have to do them all over again when replaying the game. But to each their own.