Best ofFeatureThursday, 30th March 2017 by Mike

The Nonary Games’ Novel and Adventure modes completely change how 999’s story feels

I finally managed to get my hands on Zero Escape: The Nonary Games today and, no, I didn’t shell out £55 to get it from the PlayStation Store. Brand-agnostic advice: Second-hand shops are quite good.

Having played through the opening sections of the first Nonary Game, 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, which initially came out on the Nintendo DS way back in 2009, I was surprised how different the experience feels this time around.

And it’s not because of the shiny, HD visuals or countless quality-of-life improvements that’ve been made to the ageing visual novel. It’s the game’s re-edited text that’s making me feel so different.

Unlike the original game, The Nonary Games gives you the choice of playing in Adventure or Novel mode; Adventure mode is the default, but you can switch at any time with the press of a button. Novel mode, with its reams of detailed description and exposition, is as close as you can get to the classic 999 experience – while Adventure mode replaces most of the descriptive writing with additional dialogue and a first-person perspective, making the game more consistent with its successors, Virtue’s Last Reward and Zero Time Dilemma.

Let’s take a look at how one scene – where main character Junpei meets the Nonary Game’s other participants – plays out in the Nintendo DS version of 999, and in both of the remastered version’s new modes.

Nintendo DS version

He took the stairs 2 at a time, not entirely sure where he would find himself. Just as he began to wonder where, in fact, the stairs did lead… Junpei saw another person out of the corner of his eye.

He stopped short, nearly tripping over the next stair, and looked. It wasn’t just 1 person he’d seen… On the landing to the left of the stairs, there were 4 people staring at him… And on the right side, 3 more. All told, there were 7 of them.

It looked as though they had been on their way down the stairs. They’d stopped short when they saw Junpei, their eyes wide.

He’d done the same of course, and now they stood there staring at one another. Junpei didn’t move, one foot placed awkwardly on the next step, in the middle of a stride. Who were these people?

This entire interaction lasted only a matter of seconds. The woman spoke to Junpei, and time began to move again.

Dancer: I guess there’s another one of us now.

The woman was dressed, Junpei thought, rather like a [dancer]. Her clothes covered very little, and her prodigious jewelry little more.

Dancer: Hey! You! Come on! Hurry!

With no further ceremony, she ran, straight past Junpei and toward the doors behind him.

The sudden proximity of a woman with such striking assets left Junpei momentarily stunned… But the others wasted no time, and quickly followed the strange woman.

Remastered version – Novel mode

He took the stairs 2 at a time, not entirely sure where he would find himself. Just as he began to wonder where, in fact, the stairs did lead…

Junpei: What…?

Junpei saw another person out of the corner of his eye.

Junpei: People…?

He stopped short, nearly tripping over the next stair, and looked. It wasn’t just 1 person he’d seen… On the landing to the left of the stairs, there were 4 people staring at him… And on the right side, 3 more.

Junpei: A lot of people…

All told, there were 7 of them.

It looked as though they had been on their way down the stairs. They’d stopped short when they saw Junpei, their eyes wide.

He’d done the same of course, and now they stood there staring at one another.

Junpei: Um…

Junpei didn’t move, one foot placed awkwardly on the next step, in the middle of a stride. Who were these people?

Junpei: …

This entire interaction lasted only a matter of seconds. The woman spoke to Junpei, and time began to move again.

Dancer: I guess there’s another one of us now.

Junpei: Eh…? A-A dancer…?

The woman was dressed, Junpei thought, rather like a [dancer]. Her clothes covered very little, and her prodigious jewelry little more.

Dancer: No, I’m not. You better get moving!

With no further ceremony, she ran, straight past Junpei and toward the doors behind him.

Junpei: Well okay, then…

The sudden proximity of a woman with such striking assets left Junpei momentarily stunned… But the others wasted no time, and quickly followed the strange woman.

Remastered version – Adventure mode

Junpei: What…?

Junpei: People…?

Junpei: A lot of people…

Junpei: Um…

Junpei: …

Dancer: I guess there’s another one of us now.

Junpei: Eh…? A-A dancer…?

Dancer: No, I’m not. You better get moving!

Junpei: Well okay, then…

You can see how Adventure mode makes things move at a much faster clip which, in a series like Zero Escape that involves constant backtracking, definitely isn’t unwelcome. But the need to imbue Junpei’s dialogue with explanatory power has made him look like a bit of a simpleton. And certain scenes – like when the remains of the first character to die are discovered – definitely don’t benefit from being glossed over.

The new Novel mode script works reasonably well, I think, but I’m not entirely convinced the added (and replaced) dialogue doesn’t interrupt the flow of the storytelling. It’s worth mentioning, too, that Novel mode doesn’t always display as well as Adventure mode – in my first hour with the game, one paragraph dropped off the bottom of the screen and failed to show altogether, while others sometimes got in the way of the character animations.

I’m definitely still excited to replay the first two Nonary Games in HD, and I’m looking forward to sharing more of my thoughts with you soon. But I’m left wondering whether 999’s new story modes are both just a little bit worse than my memories of the DS version.