I’m going to make these posts a bimonthly feature. They’ll go up every other Sunday, to fit with CIB Sunday on Twitter. CIB stands for complete-in-box, and it’s commonly used to describe video games. If a game includes the cartridge, case, instruction booklet, and everything else it originally came with, it is considered to be CIB.
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is a Nintendo DS video game about nine strangers who wake up in an unfamiliar place, without any memory of how they got there. Even more odd, each person has a bracelet on their wrist, displaying a number from 1 to 9. Soon, the abductees find out they have only nine hours to escape their prison, and to do so, they must go through nine special doors. If they fail, death by drowning awaits.
From what I can remember, this is the first visual novel style game I ever played, and it was definitely the first Mature rated DS title I played. It also happens to be one of my favorite games in general. The game features an interesting, complex story, full of twists and turns. Many of the plot points focus on real life scientific and philosophical theories, like Schrödinger’s cat. I thought these story threads were really fascinating, and I enjoyed learning about them.
In addition, it contains several different endings to unlock. I believe there are six total, and you have to get the previous five endings to unlock the final true ending. I remember spending hours and hours on additional playthroughs, just to get all the endings. I tried various dialogue choices, attempted different character combinations, and spent actual days to achieve this goal. It took forever, but was so worth it. That’s how much I loved this game.
Moreover, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors mainly has puzzle based gameplay. To be perfectly honest, I’m not that great at puzzles, but this game made me like them much more. I like to think I got better at solving them, too. Some of the puzzles were quite challenging for me, but I still made it through.
Overall, this title has so much going for it; an engrossing story, unique characters, engaging puzzles, and a beautiful art style. All these factors hooked me right away, and to this day, they still haven’t let go. I truly love and treasure this video game. It’ll always have a very special place in my heart.
Another interesting thing about this game is the various available editions. My particular copy is part of the first edition printing, so it has the original case art. From what I understand, there’s now a second edition copy with different artwork, and the original copy is a bit difficult to find. So, I’m incredibly happy to have the first edition in my collection.
If you’d like to get your own copy of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, you can do so here on Amazon!
Disclaimer
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Introverted Creativity 
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