極限脱出 9時間9人9の扉 (Zero Escape: 999) 🗝 Week 8 (Visual Novel Book Club)

Week 8: Starting May 19th

極限脱出 9時間9人9の扉 :old_key: Home Thread!

This is being read as part of the Visual Novel Book Club.

Previous Part: Week 7
Next Part: Week 9 (starting May 26th)

Reading

This week we’re reading four scenes starting from the second branch point on the flowchart (starting point is indicated under screenshots for clarity).

Further instructions (not spoilers if you're up to date)

Since we reached the first ending last week, we’re circling back around to the beginning to replay for a different route. You are free to replay from the beginning and make any choices you like as long as you go through door 4, until you reach the choice between doors 3, 7, and 8, where guided choices will once again begin. If you don’t want to replay and make different choices for different dialogue, you can skip to the second branch point on the flowchart and begin from there. If any of this is confusing, please let me know!

Note: it’s not always obvious when a section ends, so try to keep an eye on the flowchart when you think you’re getting close to the end. Below is a screenshot of how your flowchart should look and where the section ends. Screenshots are under a double spoiler so you can unblur one at a time (minimizing spoilers).

Screenshots (potential spoilers)

Starting flowchart:

Current flowchart:

Stop here:

The next scene is an exploration/puzzle-type section so it’s more obvious when this week ends; once it flashes through a few screens and shows the following image you’re good!

General Advice

In the remastered version, novel sections have two reading modes: novel and adventure. The mode you are currently in is displayed in the top right; click on it to swap between the two. Novel mode includes both dialogue and narrative text, while adventure mode includes only dialogue. Which you read is up to you; novel mode generally gives you more information by nature of writing out descriptions of events, while adventure mode is less reading by nature of being only dialogue.

Note: the game will occasionally force you into the other mode. When this happens, you can simply click the button in the top right to swap back; however, if it forces you into novel mode, there may be a reason it does so, so proceed with caution!

Choices

The choices are under a double spoiler so you can unblur one choice at the time (minimizing spoilers). For those of you who would like to go through the game blind as to which choices matter, I am including baseline responses for all choices. However, for those of you who would like to make your own choices where it doesn’t affect story progression, whether a choice is critical or not is marked under a second spoiler below each choice.

Note: the appearance of some choices is triggered by previous choices, so if you pick different responses on ones that aren’t required for story progression don’t be concerned if you don’t see some of the choices listed below.

Choices

starting from the second branching point

淳平は覚悟を決め、答えた。
【3】の扉を選ぶ

required: yes | no

悩んで悩んで悩み抜いた末に導き出した結論はこうだった
それでもあえて【3】の扉を選ぶ

required: yes | no

≪ゼロが船内にいるという話を……≫
当然だと思う

required: yes | no

≪何か、何か言わないと……≫
『そんなバカな!ありえない!』

required: yes | no

Guides if you want to check choices yourself (beware of spoilers!)

From what I can tell it seems like major spoilers and puzzle answers are hidden, but proceed with caution!

Japanese guide
English guide

Puzzles

In case anyone has trouble with the puzzles or that just isn’t their thing, I’m including the relevant puzzle instructions. Of course you’re welcome to ask for help in the thread as well! If you are trying to figure it out I’d recommend asking for hints here first, as the guides are somewhat hit or miss with how much they reveal and how quickly.

Puzzle guides (beware of spoilers!)

シャワー室
Japanese guide
English guide

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter/part and any content in future chapters/parts.
  • When asking for help, do your best to provide context. Pasted text, screenshots, descriptions, etc. Unlike book clubs we can’t flip to relevant pages, so we may need a little help identifying exactly what is being discussed.
  • Feel totally at ease to ask questions or give your thoughts, any time! Clubs live and die by participation, and asking whatever question you have, no matter how silly it may seem, helps others who are reading it and even the answerer themselves.
  • Have fun, and do your best to interpret anything said with as much good faith as possible :slightly_smiling_face:

Participants

Mark your participation status by voting in this poll.
(Please feel free to update your status whenever you like!)

  • I’m reading along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m still reading but I haven’t reached this part yet
  • I am not reading this VN

0 voters

3 Likes

Some different instructions this week, so be sure to check out the main post here and let me know if you have any questions! Length is somewhat variable; the required reading took me about 1h 30min, and going through other things took about 1 hour, but as explained above what all you do is up to you. As always, let me know if you have any thoughts or if there’s any confusion!

4 Likes

I have a feeling this week isn’t going to go over great with @omk3 after the past comments about disliking Murasaki, haha.

Spoilers

Man I had kinda forgotten this bit; Junpei’s way of trying to force people through the door to be with Murasaki is obnoxious. That slap was totally deserved! He got off easy really.

Lotta toilet puzzles. This is a somewhat transitional week while we work towards new rooms and a different ending so not a ton of development, just Santa’s random facts and little flashback story about Junpei and Murasaki. Felt bad picking that one option when Yotsuba says Zero is one of them…the phrasing is SO intense for no reason haha.

The flowchart is super appreciated though – I always played the old DS version and not being able to skip around was pretty tedious.

6 Likes

She wasn’t at her most annoying this week, actually. Although I’m convinced that she is (spoiler for speculation) a bloodthirsty killer. She killed that rabbit back when she was a child, and now she’s killing us off one by one, all the while playing the damsel in distress. (this scenario would actually make her a bit more bearable in my eyes)

Right? That felt very out of character and needlessly manipulative. There is a darker side to sweet innocent Junpei apparently.

5 Likes

It’s that time again; I’m about to make the post for next week’s assignment which 4 scenes will work well for for reasons, but in the next couple of weeks we’ll be aiming to increase to 5 scenes so let me know how you guys feel about pacing!

How’s the section going?
  • I have a lot left
  • I’m not quite done, but I’ll probably be finished by the next assignment
  • I finished using most of the time allotted to me
  • I finished and would feel comfortable going a little faster
  • I finished and would feel comfortable going significantly faster

0 voters

2 Likes