LogFAQs > #969768479

Ah good, thanks. Weird that they didn't block it out.

Well, everything I think I know about this game can turn on its head in a single gameplay session...

Clover finally opens up about her 999 experience (to an extent), and Sigma handles this pretty damn well considering how absurd and suspicious it all sounds. Clover and I head into the infamous PEC room with Tenmyouji, and patch or no there's no chance I'm saving in here!

The Zero Jr doll in here is really creepy, maybe that thing eats up your save data and it's not a glitch at all but part of the Nonary Game >_> There are nine adult suits here, so we're probably coming back later on. Our big haul is a memory card, which we listen to back in the infirmary to uncover some pretty massive revelations. A recording from NYE 2028 seems to describe the beginning of the Rad-6 outbreak, from a simulated Mars mission that Tenmyouji worked on. With what we're told here and what Tenmyouji says later on, it seems very likely now that we're decades into the future. Space travel also comes into the main story for the first time- there was the flashback Sigma had showing a bomb blowing up on what looked like the Moon, and the Moon and Sun have been recurring themes throughout, but now it's explicitly mentioned. We could very well be on the Moon or Mars right now, or like 999 it could be a simulated version of either.

We naturally select Ally in the next AB game, though Clover does some real weird shit again and tries to seduce Sigma into picking betray. Seriously what is up with her, sometimes she seems her regular self and others she seems completely different. Maybe she was always like this, I don't remember 999 well enough. Then Alice dies again (dang she's having a rough time), and Clover threatens to go murder girl as we reach another TBC. I will reach an ending in this game one of these days!!

I head back up to the first door choice and this time take Dio to the Laboratory. There's an IG replicator here which I guess can duplicate the Alexavir in the first timeline I did, but I don't remember/know what IG could stand for. Dio steals the cure and blackmails us into voting Ally. The one time I felt comfortable picking betray and he has to ruin it!

Before Sigma walks to his doom, he and Phi have a chat about the journal we found (in Latin for some reason). My robot theory starts spiralling down the drain as we learn that slow mental processing speed is an effect of Rad-6- earlier Sigma must have pulled that thought from another timeline rather than from his robo databanks. This scene is good, though I'm starting to feel pretty down about things.

Sigma enters True Hero mode and is committed to saving Quark at the expense of his own life, I can hardly make him back out at the last second. Sure enough, Dio remains a huge asshole (really why is he here!) and votes to kill Sigma and take himself to freedom. Notably K also backs out on his word and takes the chance to go to 9 himself, but there's no time to worry about that right now. Sigma is injected with Soporil Beta, and has only minutes to live. We must have to stop his heart somehow to get the bracelet off, but I don't know how. Regardless, this is a pretty emotional sequence for ol' Siggy and it seems a fitting way to end the day.

Man. I know this game's themes are dark from the offset but things are feeling really depressing right now. I'm not talking about Sigma in particular, but more... everything. All the intrigue seems inconsequential now. If Tenmyouji is telling the truth about the mission and the virus, and the glaring hints that we're in the future are accurate, then what could even await us outside the number 9 door? Humanity ravaged to near extinction by a pandemic, everyone these characters cared about long dead, we might not even be on Earth... it's hard to see how the game could reach a happy ending given what we've been told. How is there a direct sequel to this?! Of course there's every chance we've been lied to and things aren't as grim as they sound, and there's so many things that don't make sense (chief among them: why the heck are we in a Nonary Game if the world has ended), but it's hard to be optimistic here.

Some other things that I've been thinking about:

• The three cryo-pods that could have kept us in stasis for decades. Only three. If Tenmyouji came voluntarily and Quark is... whatever Quark is, that could still leave chance for a few others to be robots (or lying about being kidnapped).
• I wonder how it's decided which door is opened by the lever. Is it a meaningless mechanic to ensure the player gets a different puzzle room each timeline, or is it connected to who pulls it or who's in the room etc.
• I forgot to mention previously, but I'm sure at one point we traveled the wrong way through a one way lever in one of the many many moving montages. Maybe I'm mistaken.
• What's the deal with the start screen for the AB game? I read it closely today, and it says the door will lock once you enter your vote, but it locks as soon as you click 'start'. Maybe there's some shenanigans going on with the voting system.
• There's been no ingame discussion of timelines or multiverses. There's mentions of remembering other events but nothing like the explanations we usually get for major sci-fi ideas like this.
• New baseless theory: Tenmyouji is a character from 999 all grown up.
• I'm really liking the music.

We are still fumbling around in the dark. Hopefully things look a bit less apocalyptic next time around!