Gotta get the cash, gotta get the dough

     So January's been a kinda great month for America, gamewise. Not only did we finally get Anarchy Reigns after half a year of it being just out of reach, but still fully translated for some reason, but Ni No Kuni, the Studio Ghibli/ Level 5 RPG came out. Studio Ghibli of course are the folks behind Spirited Away, Ponyo, Laputa, and all that other good stuff, and the game somehow manages to maintain the visual style of the films with 3D graphics, which better get it some merit at the end of the year when everyone's deciding on the most impressive game released in 2013. In terms of other important stuff coming out this year, the roided out Dead Space 3 comes out next month, featuring zero horror and tension, plus a mandatory AI partner, so that'll be... something. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is finally shipping in February after its revival by Platinum games due to the gross incompetence of Hideo Kojima's team for some reason. It looks strangely a lot better, but I think that's mostly because Platinum's just the team to make a game about a crazy cyborg ninja future. Bioshock Infinite's coming out in March after being stuck in development hell with multiple delays and the removal of the multiplayer, but from what I hear the final product is just like the game that wowed everyone two years ago with those ten minutes of game footage. In terms of later releases, not much has been announced, save for the new Suda game- Killer is Dead. It has the same beautiful cel-shaded look of Killer 7, even though it's an unrelated game, apparently. This is probably the most exciting announcement this year, so I'll keep an eye out for stuff on that as it happens, surely.

#Radshit

Super High School Level Swerver

    So on the note of really kinda fantastic 999-y Japanese adventure games, Dangan Ronpa is totally a thing. It's another 2010 mystery game like 999, but it's a lot crazier. 15 high school students ranging from a star teen idol to a super wrestler girl get trapped in their new school by a weird bear... robot... thing. It's got some pretty interesting tunes and instead of 999's smaller, more valuable cast, you know pretty much everything about all the characters to begin with. There's a lot to learn, obviously, but the point of the game is that to escape the school the students must kill each other without being found out, so it's more of a murder mystery and characters are put down at a higher rate. All of the characters are very simple archetypes at a glance, but the game does some really interesting stuff with them and subverts a lot of tropes in some shocking ways. It's just a kinda cool thing. Also, it's exclusive to Japan, so there's that.

Plus all the character designs are by this sculptor guy, so they go beyond the expected anime style. 

Review- Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

     Once in a while all of us have a moment like this. A moment when we have to take a chance on something we aren't 100% sure about. A moment when every fiber of our being wants to just freeze up, but we have to make a choice. That was my experience with 999. In a lot of ways that was my experience purchasing the game as well. The prospect of a Phoenix Wright sort of game which is more of a light novel than a video game can be a risky proposition, but anyone who picks this one up is going to wonder why they ever doubted it.

     999 is an oddity, not just in its text heavy gameplay, as I stated before, but in the fact that it's an M rated DS game. Rarely is a mature title seen on a portable system period, let alone Nintendo's machine. This actually contributes greatly to the game however, as it allows the player to go on as twisted of a ride as they want. From an early perspective, the game's premise seems very simple. 9 people wake up on a sinking ship with bombs inside theme and are told the have 9 hours to escape, and that in order to do so they must plat the Nonary Game and "Seek a door that carries a 9." But then the questions begin to arise. Who is Zero, the man who put you all here? What do all these people have in common? Why these people in particular? What would make Zero want to do this? Is it just a sick game, or is there a bigger plan in store? These are just some of the countless questions you'll ask over the course of 999, and as answers are given, even more questions will be asked, and you can see the credits without having learned anything at all, based on your choices throughout the game.

The player character Junpei is a 21 year old college student with zero apparent links to the Nonary Game

     And that brings up the biggest part of 999, the choices. During the game you'll have to decide how to act around certain characters and which doors to enter, which then lead to puzzles. These might seem like small choices, but they drastically effect the gameplay. In fact, on a first playthrough of 999, you'll probably see less than a third of the puzzles the game has to offer, let alone all the dialogue, important story points and twists. The puzzles in 999 can range from making a dry ice bomb to solving math problems, most involving digital roots. Some of the late game puzzles can actually prove very challenging, and the game really requires you to dig in and think about most of these puzzles if you want to continue. There are 6 endings to 999, but each of them is required to get the full experience, and while there is only one true ending, there's a surprising amount of effort put into the other endings as well, and after a possibly unsatisfactory ending, players will want to head right back into the game from the beginning and find a different conclusion.

     Another interesting thing is the use of the soundtrack. The game will go on for long periods of time without any music, so when a track actually plays, you really feel something. The game's music fits very well with the suspenseful story, usually giving you the feeling that something is wrong. The music is used to stress the disturbing nature of the Nonary Game perfectly and can seamlessly blend from a hopeless scene to something far more tender without breaking your immersion.

     I'd really like to give 999 a perfect score. It's the best at what it does, and what it does is tell an interesting and suspenseful story in a way that most games can't.

                                                                          10/10