Now Playing: 999 - Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

 Not impressed.

 So I had just played Danganronpa, and while waiting for Danganronpa 2 to arrive I began to grow antsy. I've always had 999 on my backlog, and having learned that it was made by Chunsoft, Danganronpa's developer, and that it had a similar murder-mystery theme, albeit a bit more 'Saw' rather than 'Battle Royale', I decided to take it for a spin. Plus, people consider it one of the DS' hidden gems, so, y'know, why not? Besides, Lords of Arcana is a drag and I've been barely logging playtime on it, so.......

 Anyways, I just finished the first puzzle, and man, am I disappointed. This first puzzle felt like a pixel hunt, objects that looked like background elements wound up being crucial hotspots. Compare and contrast with Danganronpa, where everything pops, and even then, you can press a button to highlight every interactive element on the background. And to add insult to injury, the text scrolls oh so slowly. I had to retry the blue briefcase puzzle a few times(TURNS OUT THAT WHITE WARDROBE WASN'T JUST DECOR!), but the game just had to explain to me how the mini-game worked over and over and over again, and I couldn't skip it. Seriously??? The same goes for the tutorial, it went on and on and on and on, and with no way whatsoever to speed it.

 First impressions? The game blooooooooooows. Hopefully I'll end up retracting my words once everything's said and done, but judging by this very first puzzle, it's not looking very bright. Still, I remain hopeful, thanks to the game's reputation and the fact that I felt Danganronpa's weakest element was the gameplay itself, so, y'know, I can permit myself to remain ever hopeful.