The characters of 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors for Nintendo DS, Art by Kinu Nishimura

When the worlds of literature and interactive gaming combine, they form the new and innovative method to traditional storytelling; the visual novel genre. Popularized by Japan, visual novels are video games that typically focuses on blocks of text, which create a narrative, for players to read and accompanying pictures of a setting, the characters within the story, and occasional interactive moments of gameplay. The visual novel is essentially a book that becomes a game at certain points. One of the most elements of a visual novel is to present the player with choices, often times multiple dialogue responses from the player’s avatar/the main character.

Kotaro Uchikoshi, the creator and writer of 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors, made the game with the intent of exploring the psychology behind the decisions and problems players face in stories as well as other mysteries of quantum physics and philosophy, such as the Ship of Theseus, Rupert Sheldrake’s theory on morphogenetic fields, and many more. The premise of 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors is deceptively simple- Nine people are trapped in a sinking boat by an unknown captor who simply goes by “Zero” and are forced to play a game, solving puzzle rooms to obtain keys and find numbered doors, in which they must escape the ship before it sinks or before they die under the perilous conditions. But with the incorporation of multiple endings depending on which doors the player chooses, the implementation of themes of philosophy, and the constant dread masterfully given by Uchikoshi’s stellar writing, creates a gaming experience unlike any other, one that seeks to question its own reality while also creating a solid world with characters that audiences latch onto easily.

With a recent remastering, The Nonary Games, also included with the remaster of the game’s sequel Virtue’s Last Reward, I highly recommend anyone interested in visual novels, or deep, introspective stories in general, to check out this gem of a game. Just… ignore the really outlandish design for Lotus, (pictured below in the second photo). We all try to.

Screenshot of the DS version of 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors

Screenshot of the Steam port of 999, The Nonary Games

Photo of Kotaro Uchikoshi holding the game franchise’s final installment, Zero Time Dilemma, taken by William Tung

Sources:

• Spencer. “999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors Interview Gets Philosophical, Then Personal.” Siliconera, Curse, Inc., 3 Sept. 2010, accessed 28 Sept. 2017
• “Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors.” Metacritic, CBS Interactive, accessed 28 Sept. 2017