http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/08/25/gyokugen_dasshutsu_detailed/

Let not "The Liar" have died in vain! Vote Montblanc Noland!

Very very good game. Not quite at the same level as 999 for me (999 had me bawling my eyes out at almost every plot twist), but still a very high caliber game. Easily on par with the Phoenix Wright series. I seriously hope they decide to continue this franchise. The puzzle mechanics are amazing.

! At first only having one spirit was kind of slow, although still fun. Additionally, the story was a bit slow for the first half. Chapter 9 really ramped it up, and then the teens accelerated it into awesome-ness. With the addition of Missle, it was really good. If only there were puzzles with three spirits (Sissel, Yomiel, and Missle), then it would have been really amazing. Still, it was very good).
My only complaint is that the game was too short. Double the length would have been perfect. Still, this is pretty much a flawless game. I'm praying for a sequel.

@Holy:

! The base thing, with q, at the incinerator? The REAL reason it works is because Q = Kyu, which is how you say nine in Japanese. I haven't played the Japanese version, but I can tell when something like this is edited.
! Genius pun though, huh
! I love that kind of punnery and how perfect it is as a twist.
! The explanation in English about how 26 = Q is probably also the explanation in Japanese, but they obviously can't call it a kyu pun, so they left it out. The english explanation instead was that the door was a lower case Q, q, which looks like 9. But… I don't buy that, as much.
! I'm a bit sad that the English translation gets that instead, since Q/Kyu/9 was just so good as wordplay.

! I did realize it shortly after I finished the game, and here's the thing. In the English version, instead of wordplay, it's more pictureplay. If you saw a "q" that was positioned slightly higher that it actually is, it really does look like a 9. Remember, Zero never once physically said that they needed to escape through a door marked "9". Instead (in the English version), he gave out notes. The notes had the letter "q" on them, but Junpei, who read the notes to everyone, thought it was a "9", as he assumed it was the same as everything else going on. The only problem to this is Snake's card, as if it said "q" he would have known, although this can be explained by the fact that Snake was already being forced not to talk, so not talking about that might have been another stipulation. Or he could have thought Zero made a mistake or something.
! I wish they could have done the "Kyu" thing too (although they really couldn't have in English), but when I first figured out it was a "q", I was pretty mindblown, so I think the way they handled it worked out well.

@Holy:

My DS died in sleep mode I guess and I'm basically all the way back to right before the true ending narrative starts.

Fuck the world. I hate the idea of having to go through all of that again to get to where I was. SLOW TEXT sure doesn't bother me when it's new information, but having to slowly crawl through some of the longer cutscenes of the game is bothering me.

! Redoing the library and zero's laboratory again.
! Ugh. I'm going to have to just see a walkthrough to figure out the fastest way to wrap them up. Goddamn.
! I left off at Seven's flashback so it doesn't seem too terribly long but this sucks.

Boo, that sucks. The only puzzle I had a lot of trouble with was the "All" puzzle in the lab. The rest aren't too bad.

You're just getting into the awesomeness of the ending, though. Keep going, there's still a lot left to learn!

@Holy:

I am terrible. I am seriously on the final cutscenes, there is no more gameplay. But I just keep getting distracting. I've been… playing the final cutscenes for like a week.

I have to sit down today and knock it out once and for all.

Woot! Almost there! How'd you like that last puzzle?

@stephen: Yeah, the puzzles aren't that hard, although there's one in the True End that's actually really tough. Overall, it's more of a visual novel than a puzzle or adventure game. More/harder puzzles would have been good, but it's really not needed.

Just to bring up another topic of discussion, check out this: http://gamrreview.vgchartz.com/sales/35973/999-nine-hours-nine-persons-nine-doors/

I don't know about you guys, but I've never seen a game actually go up in sales once it started declining. That's amazing, and I'm really glad that all the talk and buzz about this game is getting it more players. Hopefully that means we'll get some more awesome games like this over here in the future.

So close, yet so far away. Unfortunately, saying anything more at this point would be a spoiler. Almost there!

@Holy:

So effectively what you are saying is

I had no reason to play the coffin ending

This suddenly explains why nobody ever included it in their list of ending orders

I am a fool

Regardless, this has been a Clover heavy playthrough so I do not mind at all, even if I guess I will end up repeating most of it later. Clover is great, her dialogue is great, her existence is great. It could be worse.

I played Coffin before Safe too, and while it certainly isn't necessary, it's something that, if played between the three bad endings and the Safe ending, makes you pretty excited to get the Safe and then True End. There is a good reason you need Safe before True though wink.

@stephen: As Tizoc said, no skipping on the first run. I've seen a lot of people complain about this, but I didn't have any problem. Maybe I'm just a slow reader, but the text never was so slow that I actually noticed it was slow. Also, endings are determined mainly by door choices, but sometimes, but rarely, by dialogue options. You can't mess up on a puzzle. If you want to play the game for maximum mystery, there is an ending order that I posted a while back that is generally considered the best route of going through all the endings. You'll need a spoiler-free ending guide, but Holy did it and said that it was a good idea.

@stephen:

Picked this up today as a Xmas present to myself based on all the hype. Haven't read any spoilers so I'm looking forward to seeing what the fuss is all about.

According to one of the spokespeople who posts on another forum, the game sold so well that they actually sold out of copies temporarily (then again, they may not have printed many based on expectations). This type of game really benefits a lot from word of mouth. When I first bought it, I think there was about 2 or 3 threads on the Internet about it. Now, I look around and on every forum there's a thread. There's tons of reviews as well. I really hope it continues to become even more popular so that they'll bring more games like it over to the states.

@stephen: Don't be shy about posting your thoughts as you go along.

@Cuddles:

Folds hands in front of face
Question:

! Using Snake and excluding Junpei, how many combinations are there that can add up to twenty-one (excluding number nine, obviously)?
You can probably tell what I'm trying to do, and I ran the numbers for the total of twelve already.

! The game does this for you at one point, so you don't have to worry about calculating it yourself. I can't remember the exact number, but I think it's 3 or 4.