Unfinished Business: A blog-based Let’s Play of 999, part 1

I’m out on a work trip this week, and have two days of blogging to fill ahead of tiem (for a change). Lucky for me (maybe for you, too?), I have something substantial to share with you all for the occasion.

Unfinished Business is once again back from the dead, and with fitting timing seeing as this sidequest of a post series was created for the 10th anniversary of Damage Control, and here we are mere weeks after the 15th.

9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors, the first entry in what became the Zero Escape series of visual novels, is one of my favorite games of all time, but it took some work to get there. It was at times a quite frustrating and unrewarding experience. But by the time all was said and done, I considered it a masterpiece that could not have been achieved in any other medium.

I was late to the game (literally), playing it in 2014 as a random GameFly rental (do I name drop GameFly or KitKats more often? Quick, somebody go count). Geoff had played it already closer to when it came out and we came up with the idea that I would start a Google doc to capture my thoughts on the mystery as I played through the game repeatedly, finding my way to the true ending. If this sounds similar to some of the content in the #gaming_progress channel in the Discord, that’s because this process was the inspiration.

We never did end up adapting the tale for the blog, and it spent many years sitting around, forgotten. That all being said, I’m not confident that a Let’s Play translates well into written form, given that people who haven’t played/don’t remember the game will easily get lost with no context. But I’m willing to give this a try and should worst comes to worst, we just don’t do it again. If nothing else, this will be interesting as piece of Damage Control history.

As you might expect, this entire thing is unblocked SPOILERS. You have been warned.

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First Playthrough

So, I played through the game taking the path of least resistance.

I took the default recommendations of first entering Door 4 (and taking the clover bookmark, though what purpose or path it might change was a mystery to me, even by my 3rd playthrough), then Door 8.

The death of Snake seemed avoidable, especially in light of the fact the only number that was unnecessary to open Door 9 was the number 9 itself (which can simply be added to any combination of people without changing their Digital Root. Given 9’s uselessness, save for allowing two people who made the root but weren’t the minimum 3 needed to enter a Numbered Door, it made sense the story automatically killed him off to prove a point.)

If I had chosen a different door, would I have found him alive? If I had searched the areas in a different order, would he also have survived? Did the bookmark do it?

In any case, Santa’s theory that somebody might have killed Snake by forcing him to authenticate and go through Door 3 alone would require the Digital Root of at least two attackers to equal 1 (to add to Snake’s 2). That would limit the possible combinations to Santa and Lotus or Clover and Seven.

But it awoke another possibility that captured my imagination. What if Zero had a wristband with a value of 0? Like the 9 band, it wouldn’t count toward a Digital Root, and could be a wildcard third person. So add Ace and Zero to the mix.

Or what about just Ace? As noted when we found Snake’s body, armbands come off when its wearer’s heartbeat stops. Ace went through Door 5, where the body of the ninth man lay. If Ace had taken the 9 bracelet, and could use it to authenticate himself twice, he could have killed Snake all by himself.

The fact that Ace was so determined to pin the blame on Zero and reject the notion that there was a plant or a murderer among us only served to deepen my suspicion.

The remaining doors found after that were 1, 2 and 6, which accounts for all the doors except 9 so long as there are no duplicates.

The game allowed me an ingenious way to select which door I go through next, and the math was not lost on me. I could use my 5 bracelet and complete the Digital Roots for Door 1 and Door 2 with the two other characters who signed up for those doors. But if I picked Door 6, the math wouldn’t work with just me added and I could jam the process.

So I picked 6. Partly because I’m a sucker for the side story with June, but also to force Ace to stay under my watchful eye while also denying him the door he wanted to go through.

I felt even more odd the way Ace kept noticing everything about the puzzles but kept “leaving it to” me. Naturally, the game wanted me to do all the dirty work seeing as I was the one playing the darn thing, but it definitely helped increase my sense of mistrust toward him.

When we found the gun I was damn ready to leave it right where it was, hopefully unobtainable by anybody else without first having to reopen Door 6 (though it seems to be backtrackable). Oddly, the game didn’t even ask me if I wanted to take it, so this may have been a non-choice to begin with.

Next we found Door 9, now with convenient elevator access. Two Door 9s, actually. It made me wonder if there were other duplicates down paths I did not explore. It also made me wonder if there were even more Door 9s behind Doors 1 and 2 to confuse us and force us to take a guess at what the correct door was. My character, Junpei, thought it was to allow all contestants out instead of only the maximum of five allowed through a Numbered Door at any given time. I also suspected there would be no DEAD to authenticate with after going through, forcing everybody to get outside the ship within 81 seconds to deactivate the bracelets and avoid exploding as the ninth man and Snake had.

It seemed to be in a chapel. The game teased me with a fleeting glimpse of a coffin on the dais as Jumpei left the room too soon to hear the sound of somebody pounding within it. Remembering how Snake’s remains were described as looking like “Play-Dough,” I had a fleeting hope that the corpse was a fake and we might find him alive and well, but trapped in the coffin right where we’d need him to be in order to open both Door 9s.

After regrouping with the others, Clover was missing. Without her, there were only six of us left. It would have been creepier if two people disappeared and the remaining five had a Digital Root of 9. If we had also lost Santa, that would have done it. Not that I wanted to lose Santa, he’d been genuinely helpful if a bit sharp around the edges.

To get the most people out, given no Snake and no Mr. 9, it was possible to send Ace (1), Santa (3) and Junpei (5) through one door and Clover (4), June (6), and Lotus (8) through the other. If Seven (7) had known about the double Door 9s, he’d have every reason to bump one person from each group off to ensure his own escape. Not coincidentally, the two he’d have to get rid of to get all the survivors through a Door 9 added up to his number. So it was either kill, disable or detain Clover and Santa, or Ace and June.

But Seven didn’t come with me through Door 6, and Door 9 was locked away from his notice until after Clover was already missing. So he’d have to have had insider knowledge. I hadn’t traveled with him at all, so I don’t know if he was in a position to know anything, though he did have an extremely specific guess as to the ship’s origin.

Anyway, everybody split up to search for Clover. Metagamingly remembering the pounding coffin, I decided the best place for me to search is back down on E Deck, where the chapel was.

Getting off the elevator greeted me with Lotus’ corpse. Her bracelet was missing. All clouds of suspicion on Seven dissipated. The game outright asked me who had the most to gain by taking Lotus’ No. 8 bracelet, thus proving my theory that a bracelet could be used by others once free of its original wearer. Who had the most to gain by killing the bearer of bracelet 8 just around the corner from Door 9? The person who already had at least two bracelets that, when added to 8, gave a Digital Root of 9, allowing certain escape.

Ace took the 9 bracelet. He used it to authenticate with his own No. 1 and Snake’s 2 to force Snake through Door 3, killing him.

(Though I have little clue as to what Ace’s motive was. There was no guarantee he’d be able to retrieve Snake’s bracelet if nobody went through Door 3, nor would Snake’s bracelet be of any use to him without collecting yet another bracelet. Either it was done for no reason at all, or to cover his tracks when Snake caught him doing… something. There really didn’t seem to be a motive, unless it was simply to destabilize the group. There’s another piece missing, but nobody had a better — or any — reason to take the 8 bracelet.)

Though I suppose killing Lotus and hiding her bracelet would have helped Seven. That would drop the party to five people, of which, only three could get a Digital Root of 9 and escape: Seven, June and Jumpei, leaving Ace and Santa behind. To achieve an escape by virtue of superior numbers with Clover already missing, Seven just needed to get anybody other than June or Jumpei out of the picture.

Having given the mystery more than sufficient thought, I returned to the game and started advancing the dialog again.

I was stabbed from behind and died. The game said Jumpei saw his killer, but hadn’t the decency to also show me. Then it gave me that famous Clock Tower and Corpse Party message: “Bad End.”

That was ending No. 5.

If the multiple bracelet theory is false, Seven would be stuck on the boat unless Clover was found. There was no time to find her (unless he already knew where she was), so Seven killing me was a bad plan (unless the game is a lie and he didn’t NEED to escape). Assuming Clover wasn’t dead, nobody could still escape. Seven, June and Ace would need her to get a Digital Root of 9 as Santa would fall one short.

While I’m pissed off I went down like a sucker, and that I never found out who was in the coffin in the chapel, and I still feel nobody but the ninth man actually had to die, this game is awesome because it made me think all this stuff.

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Second Playthrough

I decided to tackle this playthrough assuming that I needed to prevent Ace from picking up the 9 bracelet. If I went through Door 5, I’d not only see more puzzles, but also force Ace to take Door 4 and deny him the opportunity of claiming the bracelet.

My efforts were seemingly rewarded when the game went out of its way to point out to me that the bracelet remained on the floor after Snake and Seven had already moved into the 1st class cabin.

I also noted that if Snake was destined to die, the trip through Door 5 would be the only time I’d ever spend with him. I spent a lot of time with June, Lotus, Santa and Clover in my first go through (each was absent for only one of my Door runs, save for Clover who was absent for two), so this would also be my chance to better asses Seven, who was at times under a cloud of suspicion in my first try.

Once again, we rendezvoused at the hospital. There seems to be no alternative to that scene. Once again, Snake goes missing. Once again, I search, but in a different order, not listening to what anybody had to say, and repeatedly searched multiple areas, all to no avail.

Anxious that Snake’s death was indeed ordained by the plot, I forced a group into Door 3, finding Snake right where he was the previous time. This had the side effect of leaving Doors 7 and 8 unexplored. Without the keys from those paths, we only gained access to the way to Door 2.

Seven, Lotus and I explored Door 2, leading to a LOT of development for Seven, and new details that connected both Seven and Lotus to the ship.

We left Door 2 with the Sun key, which the party technically had at the end of my first playthrough but the search for Clover superseded the use of.

While there weren’t any new Door 9s beyond Door 2, there might be some behind the Sun door. The three of us returned to the elevators near the hospital room, but the others weren’t waiting for us.

Doing some quick math, I surmised that Ace, Clover and Santa and June could have been exploring the rooms on the Door 8 and 9 paths by using Seven’s propped-open exit (Ace, Clover and Santa could also have authenticated Door 8). This would have allowed them to find the Jupiter key, and as it so happened, the door back to the grand stairway was indeed unlocked, which would allow us to use the Sun key.

And then I saw Ace, Santa and Clover dead on the stairs, with June nowhere to be seen. So now June’s a killer? Is this something that changes based on the choices, rather than having a more strict continuity through the alternate playthroughs?

It was a gut punch to see the others had suffered a near-TPK, seemingly while the three were clustered close together, rather than picked off individually. It seemed like I was really taking charge and going to get everybody out somehow.

Oddly, the Sun door was already unlocked. Whoever we were dealing with had the resources to move as they will throughout the ship, far different from the first playthrough’s multiball bracelet shenanigans.

But it turned out June hadn’t become a completely different character as she, too, was found gutted in a room with a submarine. It was billed as a means of escape, but this was probably just another puzzle room.

Going back to Seven and Lotus proved fruitless, however, as they had been unceremoniously killed — somehow — before they were able to follow Jumpei into the submarine room.

And then I was stabbed in the back and died.

This time, I was granted the dignity of credits and the caption “The End… or is it?”

That was Ending No. 6.

So by denying Ace the chance to collect bracelets, I appear to have flushed a new character out. Was the killer, who could unlock the zodiac doors on his or her own, Zero? Was it somebody else? And was it this person who killed Snake (and also Lotus and possibly Clover in the Ending 5 path)?

[Editor’s note — At the time, I completely missed the implication that Ace was the killer; the clue was while we could see Clover and Santa’s armbands had been removed, Ace was alive and concealing his arms and skin to hide the fact.]

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Third Playthrough

I decided that the object of this playthrough would be to see the puzzles I had yet to go through. That meant taking Doors 7 and 1. I surmised that the possible turning points on my second playthrough were either (or both) taking Door 5 and especially Door 3. I thought I could follow more or less the same story as my first playthrough, but then substitute Door 7 and still cause the scene in which the party divides to take on Doors 1, 2 and 6.

I let Ace take Door 5 at the beginning, as it allowed me to do one other thing differently: refuse to take the bookmark Santa found behind Door 4. I still have no idea if it means anything.

Everything ran like clockwork, and when the time came to choose, I got to go to Door 1. It did occur to me that choosing Door 2 at this point might have given me a different group than Seven and Lotus, and it might have progressed slightly differently. I’ll have to make a note of that possibility for the next go through.

Going to Door 1 not only helped me keep an eye on my old nemesis, Ace, it also meant I might be able to have a shorter leash on Clover, so she doesn’t disappear and get Lotus and I killed after the party regroups.

Once past Door 1, Ace got the upper hand on me, sneakily sticking me with, apparently, another dose of the anesthetic he used on himself in the hospital room. While I thought shit was getting real, it was simply a power play.

I can’t help but wonder what the heck Clover was thinking watching it all happen, waiting for me to wake back up after who knows how long, and acting like it never happened.

We finally made it to the second puzzle room, and found the apparent corpse of Zero, complete with the No. 0 wristband I theorized would exist in the possible “Ace and Zero” combo kill of Snake.

So if it really is Zero, if the head of the beast is cut off, then we’re all in big trouble. He might have been a load-bearing criminal mastermind (or emcee) for the final leg of the escape. This, of course, made the possibility of there being an 11th person on board who could open any door and had a penchant for killing much more real, even if 11th person was merely Real Zero.

Though I wonder why in the path to Ending 5 that Lotus, Seven and Clover, who went through Door 1, never mentioned finding Zero, alive or dead.

We found a key that would grant us access to a library on the bottom deck, a room not seen when exploring that area’s Numbered Door. The game also went out of its way to call out a creepy smile by Clover. This had damn well better not be foreshadowing. We freed ourselves from the captain’s quarters, but not before Clover picks up some suspicious bulges in her pockets. I immediately suspect she has pilfered Zero’s bracelet.

The game returns us to the grand staircase, where we find the others … alive. The mystery 11th person hadn’t caused any more off-screen deaths yet. They found Door 9 like they should have, and we all go to it.

Then Clover stops us, and tells us we should still explore Door 2. I’m personally a big fan of taking my win and going home; I don’t even want to check the bottom-deck library. I just want to hit Door 9, even if it meant ditching Seven. I’d be pleased as punch to save six of us.

Jumpei (and everyone else) were not like me. They didn’t object to Clover’s plan. So Clover took Seven, Santa and June to Door 2, leaving me with Lotus and Ace. Ace then told Lotus he wanted to show her — and only her — something. He promised to show me too after they returned. It’s gonna be Ending 5 all over again. Ace is going to kill her. And then he’s going to kill me. Oh my Goooooooooooooooooood.

While I was waiting for the game to kill me, Clover returned alone. She had Zero’s bracelet, as I had suspected, but also the 3, 6 and 7 bracelets. She killed them all. She said it was revenge because only Santa and Seven could have killed Snake. Despite possessing the 0 bracelet, she did not think of an Ace/Zero team-up.

Clover was completely ax-crazy and it seemed nobody took the Door 6 gun. She killed me, too, just because.

Bad End indeed. This was Ending 3.

As Clover had gone through Room 1 in my first playthrough, she had access to the 0 bracelet and the ax then, too. It could have been her and not Ace who killed Lotus and me. However, the game clearly described the murder weapon as a knife. And Clover had nothing to gain from stealing the 8 bracelet. On the other hand, Clover also had access to the ceramic knife.

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To be continued… tomorrow.