Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

^@Jhiday: Ah, right, THAT scene xD I treid it out in one of my playthroughs as well, just for teh lulz. It doesn't seem to affect the endings whever you choose the one or the other choice.

If you choose door 2, you'll get another ending than the one where Santa nabs the gun; generally, whatever you take, if you take door 2 at the end, it will lead to one certain ending, I believe. And if you take door 6, then....uh...no, I better do not spoil.

It just occurs to me that in my first playthrough, nobody explored Room 2, so yeah I'll try it tonight.

[edit] Well, that was... interesting. Tons of fascinating backstory for Seven and Lotus (and the whole thing in general), and then there's this ending, which is yet again a complete WTF.

Although not as much a WTF as seeing Yuu Kobayashi credited as "Key Animator". Seriously ?

edited 4th Dec '10 4:39:03 PM by Jhiday

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, damnit Theresia is scary. Scary and so sad D: The whole Sacha thing...but now I won't be able to enter dark rooms all alone for a while. Gods those blood splattered walls everywhere...TAT

^Anyway, congrats on getting another ending :D Though I never noticed that thing with Yuu Kobayashi. Is it the very same one? Oh well. What are your plans now?

edited 5th Dec '10 11:08:34 AM by CeleS

After a bit of searching through various sources, it appears to be a different person whose name has the same romanization (although ANN conflates both of their profiles). The "other" Yuu Kobayashi has worked as key animator on CANAAN, FMA:Brotherhood, Railgun, Hayate The Combat Butler...

Anyway, my initial plan for my third run was to investigate Door 6, but then I notice I could have a look at what's behind Door 3, although it does make Junpei act as a complete jerk in the process. While the puzzle is fun, it seems to be a very bugged path, as just after it you completely ignore Doors #7 & #8 for no good reason (but somehow know there's a casino there), and get the Mercury card out of nowhere, which forces you towards Door #2 — and presumably the Submarine ending again. I'll play it to the end just in case, but next time I'll make a beeline for Room 6.

If you think it's sad now... Ooo boy. Just wait. And yu haven't even gotten to Dear Martel, either. Make sure you let me know when you finish the game. I'd like to hear how you feel about the endings.

Finished 4th playthrough, with an exploration of Door 6. Er, not what I expected, as I got the Knife ending. Again, some the clues point towards the goddarn Ace as the culprit, but I'm not entirely sure how to prevent that ending from happening.

Oh, wait, I know. (SPOILERS) My suspicion towards Ace is because he can get out with the 8 & 9 bracelets — a suspicion reinforced by the killer not bothering with taking my bracelet. If I take Room #5, Ace can't get the 9 bracelet, and I can probably avoid that ending.

At least, that's the only path where I can see things happening differently.

^@Cakman: ...I am about 3/4 through Dear Emile, so it will take a while. And...damn, there'll be more such Tear Jerker? Yaaaay....okay, I'll mention it when I finished. Don't wanna write too much about the other game in this thread xD I should switch to the Theresia thread then, maybe? XD

^@Jhiday: ...I lost track of what endings you have so far, otherwise I'd have given you a suggestion. Ah, you got the Coffin Ending already, right? Did you watch the preview video that came after that ending? It is also accessible from the main menu before you start memory/continue your save file. Or, I think you don't have the Axe Ending yet? I isn't necessary but it's interesting :D

edited 6th Dec '10 11:59:11 AM by CeleS

^ So far, I've got Coffin (4-7-1), Submarine ((5-8-2 and 4-3-2) and Knife (4-8-6). Tonight I'm trying 5-7-6, which I hope is going to do something different.

That preview video makes absolutely zero sense to me, though. Zero being Santa is in complete contradiction with what happened just before (and what I've understood of the Nonary Game), and at odds with what little clues of that person's background I've managed to gather so far.

Oh, well, I'll see.

[edit] ... and I got the Knife ending again. Not entirely unexpected, but I'm running out of ideas.

edited 6th Dec '10 12:47:52 PM by Jhiday

Okay, I cracked down and looked up how to get the Safe ending from Cele S's post at the beginning of the thread. Wow, I was quite close indeed.

This ending does explain a lot of things, although there are still a few loose ends for the "Good" ending to resolve (I still have no clue what's the deal with Guy X and the Captain and various other aspects of Zero's modus operandi).

I quite liked to see I'd correctly guessed who the murderer was, although it took me until my first go at the Knife ending to understand that Zero wouldn't kill people randomly.

Also, boo to "Preview B" for being completely misleading and impossible to figure out outside of the Safe ending. (While I get why this path is the only one to the Safe Ending, there's no excuse for Santa not opening up if you do 5-7-6, or June deciding to faint at that point.)

^These previews...only tell you what order of doors you'd need. The Preview A was showing you the order of doors for the Safe ending and Preview B should show you the order of the True Ending. ...you will notice that you have used that order once already, hmmm? :D

Anyway, almost everything will clear up when you get the True Ending, even those you are wondering about! Oh, and because you've got Safe Ending, do you remember what Ace's real name is? Forgot the exact name and I am currently busy playing Theresia without getting heart attacks afterwards. I need to correct a trope I commented wrong *whistles*...

Wait, the previews show... ???

*checks*

Well, I'll be damned. Totally Failed a Spot Check there.

And sorry, I'm terrible at remembering names. If it comes up later in the Good Ending, I'll try and note it down.

(Right now, the game is doing its best to try and convince me that Santa is Zero, which nearly made me doubt my pet theory until I double-checked with everything I already know and confirmed it was nonsense.)

Hahaha, I didn't notice the trick with the Preview movies until someone pointed iit out at Game FA Qs either xD

Oh my theory was the same about Zero, that Santa is Zero. So we're two, and probably more, after all, the hints are there. And it might or might not be true :D

It's okay, thank you, you don't need to note it down, but I thank you nevertheless for the motion. I just noticed that the 999-trope-page has a Character Sheet!!! And the names are there, too~ Yay!

Er, no, I'm saying that the Zero=Santa theory is nonsense. This may be a side effect of getting the Coffin Ending first, but I never bought it. The game just made a very good bid at trying to convince me of it (to the point that I nearly considered that person as an accomplice to my main suspect), but it doesn't hold together.

(And no, I'm not telling what my pet theory is yet. Although I may have hinted at it obliquely in one of my former messages...)

[edit] ... And now I'm done. More than three hours of new gameplay ? That was crazy...

Anyway, that was a pretty mind-bending ending. There's still a few points I need to think over so as to make complete sense of them, but it's nice to see my theory vindicated (although Zero's actual motive did come as a complete surprise).

edited 7th Dec '10 4:21:24 PM by Jhiday

Cele S: Well... Basically, when you get to the end, and everything is EXPLAINED and examined, yeah, it gives you a sadgasm. And Dear Martel isn't much better, although... The ending... Is- Wait, no. No. I'll wait until you play them both. I shan't be a spoiler.

^@Jhiday: Yes, the True Ending takes quite a while but the final puzzle is epic, isn't it? :3 Post questions if you have any, we might have similar ones, and I still need to sort out a few things via discussions I though I could start here. Who knows, we might be able to answer each other's questions...if you have any?

^@Cakman: I think I need one or two more hours of gameplay until I finish Dear Emile. Just apparently found Emile's corpse and am outside now to unravel more memories, I guess. I'll probably go to the Theresia thread once I finish to discuss. ...wait, there doesn't seem to be any forum thread to the game?

I was a bit underwhelmed by the final puzzle when I saw it was a friggin' sudoku. And quite an easy one, at that.

Anyway, questions or things that just bug me (taking into account that I've yet to get the Axe ending) :

• What the heck was the Submarine ending about ? Did Ace just kill everybody and fake his own death when he twigged out that the Submarine exit would be unlocked ?
• How did Zero get hold of the Nevada facility right under Ace's nose ? There IS a throwaway reference to Aoi ironically getting rich thanks to his stocks in the pharmaceutical company, but that's quite a huge Hand Wave.
• There's a LOT of Xanatos Roulette in Zero's plan, although there is some internal logic to their omniscience (and of course, the various endings show it doesn't always work out). I'm still not sure what Santa taking June hostage was about, even with the in-story justifications of giving Ace more opportunities to be an asshole, and getting Junpei & co to free Snake. It was certainly an event that made me hard to believe that Santa was working with Zero, as I'd figured that Zero would be as passive as possible.
• Was Seven losing his memory genuine, or all an act from the start ?
• Why the heck does Lotus dress like a stripper ? Seriously ?

I might have more questions once I think it over.

Heh, which is why that final puzzle is so EPIC. YMMV, of course.

• The question also is, why is there a Submarine in the first place? It must be a Red Herring, since it is NOT how you can get out of the Nonary game-setting. WHY that Red Herring? Maybe to yet again crush every hope of getting out of this game without playing according to the rules. So as why did they all die in the ending? I also have a question. Does Ace know that this is the Nevada building? He must know it is NOT the Gigantic since that one rests on the bottom of the ocean, but he might as well assume this is a replica of the Gigantic. Nevertheless he must be determined that by the end of the time limit they will all die inevitably like it was the rule in the original game set by him. If I remember correctly they did not have too much of time anymore after exiting from Door 2 and Ace knows fully well that one of the other doors were needed to get the key to the 9-doors and more time would be needed to clear that door and door 6 to get to door 9 and further to the incinerator. No time if he waited for them all and tried to waste his breath convincing them without making himself suspicious. Killing is faster, plus he can get all bracelets this way. After all, Ace killed them while Seven and Lotus were Door 2 with Junpei. He did not kill them all by realizing that the Submarine is discovered, but planned it ahead already. He killed June in the submarine-hangar-thing knowing that Junpei would go in there and stay there, so he would seperate the three remaining survivors that way. What I am puzzled about is why he could open the door to the Submarine in the first place. Hm...right now, my explanation doesn't make much sense to myself, so continue asking and I try coming up with explanations along the way...
• ...I missed that reference. Damn. But if that's the case, it isn't much of a Hand Wave, because with money you can do a lot, including, say, bribing or buying the facility under a fake name or a fake company or whatever. Since Ace and the four others apparently laid low after the incident nine years ago, they also probably did little with that facility. No mentions or more experiments with this, which is what bothers me more than the fact that Aoi gains the facility without problems. Anyway, they do, so all Aoi has to do is to fake a name, a company or something (if that is realistic is another story) that says they are interested in the experiment or something and want cooperation, maybe even that they want to do the thing over again and buy the building. Sadly, no evidence for this, it's mere speculation.
• These actions, like Santa taking June hostage or June being passive is to make Junpei do all the work like Akane intends him so from nine years ago. And if you think about it, Santa needed Ace, Lotus and Akane to get through that one Door 9 to keep up the act of everything being life-and-death. Junpei was supposed to be the one in the incinerator with Seven, Snake and Lotus (who Santa could have dropped in the incinerator) to solve the sudoku for Akane from nine years ago and to escape the q-door, which is the one different thing about the present game and the game nine years ago. Well, and because Akane saw her brother acting like that so he WOULD be acting like that.
• Seven is most likely a co-conspirator. I mean, he was on the trail of the pharmacy without being able to nail them down all those years after the incident. The last scene does hint that he never lost his memory in the first place, after all and that his memories about the dead girl from the past he told everyone was a fabricated story to make Junpei believe even more so that he needed to solve the puzzle at teh end so taht the girl would not die...without knowing that the girl never died but to keep the reality from being a Temporal Paradox the entire present-day-game needed to occurs exactly like Akane of nien years ago experienced in her link to Junpei of the present-day-game. Whan I wonder about is if SNAKE is also a co-conspirator. He also "remembers" hearing a girl die, but it would make much more sense if he was just playing along, never telling Clover the truth so that she would not act differently. No proof for that, though...but that would make Aoi's and Akane's life easier to cause the Clothing Switch and locking Snake into that coffin.
• No idea about that, either. Fanservice? Maybe also to give some Egyptian flair due to the All-Ice-woman, and otherwise for no reason whatsoever? Really, I think it's just because of the Fanservice.

Honestyl, while trying to come up with (not-really-plausible) answers, more questiosn started popping up, so do not expect to have any questions answered when I am involed...*shot*

I finished. Theresia. All I need to do now is to read through the diaries in the main menu once again, maybe that will answer some questions? A scary, yet beautifully sad game...

About Point 2 : in Room 4, when Santa offers you the bookmark, take it and choose to talk about stocks. You'll get that reference then.

Oh, and I got the Axe ending I was missing. It's a bit of a shame I got myself spoiled on it, since it blunts the effect, but it's still very creepy...

edited 12th Dec '10 9:51:24 AM by Jhiday

Okay, I've got all the other endings under my belt now. I'm embarking on my final playthrough.

...Well, actually, erm, I haven't gotten the coffin ending yet. Is it going to make me play through it twice even if I have the safe ending already?

Okay, I apologize for the double post, but I have just gone from slightly annoyed to mystified.

I just got past the coffin ending part of the true ending and am now a bit angered. Every female character in this game got taken hostage at some point. EVERY. FRIGGIN. FEMALE. CHARACTER.

I know I just sound like an AHR sockpuppet now, but this severely annoyed me. MAYBE if a guy was taken hostage, or threatened with a friggin weapon at SOME POINT, I could pass on it, but EVERY FEMALE CHARACTER. EACH ONE OF THEM GOD DAMN IT.

It is really hampering my enjoyment of this otherwise interesting game.

It's indeed grating, but there's a reveal later on that changes things quite a bit. (I had already guessed most of it by then, so it didn't annoy me that much.)

....noticed the very same thing. Though it is subverted BIG time for Akane, after all. But I think she deliberately plays up the Distressed Damsel role to make Junpei relally go into the role of the Hero who will save her (well, her from nine years ago).

And congrats on finishing the game. And you have noticed it, you won't need to replay the Coffin Ending if the Safe Ending is done already. After all True Ending is just the continuation of the Coffin Ending, which makes the path practically the same.

edited 17th Dec '10 2:05:50 PM by CeleS

Just completed the true ending. I will state as my final opinion: I love the game, and the plot was brilliant Lol Alice. What the fuck are you doing. But sweet Jesus, the female characters. Clover was at least tolerable, and June was admittedly... I'm not sure of the word. Believable? The only solace I take is that it might be explained a bit in that she was sort of 9 years old. Sort of.

But dat final puzzle. SUDOKU OR DEATH. MAKE YOUR CHOICE.

edited 18th Dec '10 11:03:53 PM by Cakman

I hate to derail the discussion, but...am I the only one who thinks that Junpei looks eerily similar to Marty McFly?◊

...

ಠ_ಠ

I knew that fucking stupid getup was familiar somehow.