Things Come In Three Sets of Three.

It’s been well known that the fear of waking up in unfamiliar surroundings is the basis for a great story. This is why there are so many movies that have you on the edge of your seat for the big reveal at the end. Nothing is more enticing and scary than the unknown, so today we encounter digital roots.

I’ve had 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors for the Nintendo DS in my backlog for some time but hadn’t played it due to reading ridiculously long books by George R.R. Martin and wanted a less “strenuous” experience while gaming. I’m happy to report that I slogged through those and am now free to read video games. That’s right, 999 is one of those digital novels that get released every week in Japan but has puzzle solving and choose your own adventure elements thrown in. Lucky for us the story is a stronger center than the puzzles.

You wake up in a room with a locked door with a big red 5 painted on it. You kind of remember being attacked by someone in a gas mask. The porthole in the wall suggests you’re on a ship of some sort. There’s a crack in the little window; water slowly starts to seep in before blowing out the rest of the glass and a torrent of ocean threatens your life. How’s that for a cold open? Solve the puzzle by figuring out digital roots and running upstairs. Digital roots were something you did in pre algebra where you add all the digits in a number together until you get a single digit. The number 786’s digital root is 7+8+6=21 and then 2+1=3; so the root is 3. On the upper deck you meet the other 8 characters.

999 relies quite a bit on its strong cast to convey the story, everyone is there for a reason and of course you have no idea where to begin. Everyone has a numbered bracelet they are identified with. This is where the genius in the story telling is, the doors in the game only open when the digital root of the people that enter match the number painted on it. This causes the party to split up based on what door you want to choose and you learn a little bit about each person as you are stuck solving puzzles with them.

The puzzles on the other hand aren’t the worst of a million “escape the room” flash games you’ve likely played on the net. Most rooms can be solved by touching everything and using every item in every way the game will let you. No cat mustaches here. Just touch the environment and if you take too long you’ll get more specific hints; when in doubt use a digital root or alphanumeric code, the game will teach you alphanumeric too. You’re stuck until you make it through the door with a “9” on it.

There are six different endings possible depending on what rooms you choose to go through. Yes, this means you have to replay the “book” multiple times; the best thing about this is that you can skip all text you’ve already seen by holding right on the D-pad! There is a metric ton of text here, that right button is your best friend. If you have to go through a room again on another play through the puzzle is exactly the same with no differences and it can be really annoying to solve the first few rooms several times.

I had a great time playing through this title, even with all of the text. The characters were strange enough to make you want to know more and the endings are radically different. If you’ve got a long commute, are a passenger on a road trip, or are out of fantasy books that double as bludgeoning weapons pick it up. It got a reprint when the sequel (Virtue’s Last Reward) came out on 3DS and Vita last year so it’s easy to find. You know you want to see where the Nonary Game goes…

Would You Like To Play A Story?

When was the last time you walked through an empty house? Remember what that felt like? Have you ever been to your parents’ new house shortly after they've moved? It’d be pretty unsettling if no one was home to greet you. Today we fight with atmosphere.

  

Storytelling has been around since the beginning of everything and we have adapted every one of our cultural advances to convey a tale. Pictures told stories before words did and actors wove tales before they were preserved on film. Until recently getting a compelling message across in a video game was difficult because it got in the way of the core gameplay. Gone Home is a recent indie release that not only manages to captivate you in its narrative but makes it the core gameplay.

You arrive in the middle of the night at the rather large house your parents and sister have moved into while you were abroad for a year in Europe. No one is home and the air is not quite right. Boxes are stacked in various places which makes the dwelling feel not quite lived in. The unease in the atmosphere is so thick that you’ll be searching everywhere for a light switch and every item has been fully rendered to the point where it can be picked up and rotated. In a time where it seems like every indie game is a callback to retro graphics it’s nice to see such realistic lighting and modeling.

The game takes place in 1994 which is a brilliant move. This was the time before everyone had regular access to the internet and calling outside of your zip code (let alone country) cost quite a bit of money. The family has recorded TV shows and movies on blank VHS tapes and music mixes are on cassette tapes; I remember living in these times and they’ve nailed the feel. The items you find in the house are extremely well thought out as almost everything is relevant, at one point you find a school assignment that was completed by your younger sister and later find the same assignment you completed years before and it illustrates the very different personalities better than any descriptive text could.

There are several plot lines running through the house. The younger sister’s is told through what sounds like journal entries as you progress room to room and feels like the front and center narrative. The incredible aspect is that the other items around the house tell you about the other situations in the household. So pay attention, this is video game storytelling at its finest.

After praising Gone Home all this time I did have one gripe about it. It’s the price. $20 for a game where everything can be seen in under 3 hours is kind of a hard pill to swallow. I don’t regret my purchase at all but I worry that people are less likely to buy at such a premium. That’s it. The experience is one of the most fulfilling game stories I've ever played through.

I was kind of surprised at how I was expecting the worst case scenario the entire time. Maybe we need to look at the other stories we pay attention to, not everything needs to get “Law and Order dark”. Take an evening and play Gone Home, there’s a reason it’s going to be talked about for quite a while.