Last September, I interviewed Aksys Games’ Editor Ben Bateman and Producer Frank “Bo” deWindt II about their visual novel, 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors.

I’ve finally found time to give the game the attention it deserves, and I’ll be sharing my full review later in the week, so I figured this was the perfect time to dust off the interview and get it back up on the site.

There's a lot of reading, but 999 isn't a straight-up visual novel.

What’s the balance between puzzle-solving and story like?

For starters, there are three sort of “parts” to the game: Escape, Novel, and Minigame. The “Escape” sections are what you played in the demo: you’re stuck in a room, and you have to get out. The “Minigame” sections are individual puzzles during the Escapes that you have to solve to get something. The “Novel” sections are straight-up text — you talk with the other characters and the story advances, motivations are revealed, plots thicken, etc.

The demo showcases all of these sections to some extent, and should give you a fairly decent idea of how they’re balanced in the game itself, with the possible exception of the Novel sections. The demo has less of the “Novel” stuff, largely because it’s a demo. No spoilers!

999 seems similar to the Saw franchise, which went to great lengths to explain the Jigsaw Killer’s motivations. Does 999 explain why Zero created the Nonary Game?

Ahahahahahahahahaha. Yes. Yes it does. I’m trying to think of a way to explain more, but I can’t without spoiling anything. Suffice to say that if you play through the game enough times, you’ll know exactly what the reasons are for the Nonary Game.

How much do players’ decisions affect the game’s storyline? Are there multiple endings?

Significantly, and yes.

Is the game forgiving when players make bad decisions? Will they end up hitting dead ends or “game over” screens?

That’s… complicated. You have no “health”, and you don’t “die” immediately for making bad decisions, but there are ramifications. Frequently, however, they aren’t immediately apparent. Just like in real life, sometimes you don’t realise that you made a mistake until you’re taking an axe to the face.

Play the game enough times, and Zero's motivations will become clear.

999 is only the eleventh DS game to get an “M for Mature” rating. Why do you think other developers are so reluctant to include adult content in their games? Do you think this is changing?

Getting an M rating on your game virtually guarantees lower sales by limiting your demographic, especially on a system like the DS which generally skews younger. If games that were rated “Mature” actually had mature, adult content, then it might not be such an issue, but by and large games are rated “Mature” simply because of graphic content or language. In other words, the visuals are “mature”, but the content is juvenile.

If this weren’t the case, if “Mature” titles actually had compelling stories and mature ideas, then I think the market for mature games would be much larger. Ultimately, though, it’s pretty much the same reason you don’t see a lot of R or NC-17 movies — it’s just not a wise financial decision.

Presumably, the visual novel market is small outside of Japan. Is it difficult to sell visual novels in the western world?

It is difficult… Visual novels are very much a niche market in the United States, and presumably the rest of the western world. I attribute this to the US’s disappointing literacy rates, and the proliferation of reality television.

In all seriousness, however, I think that the western market still has yet to become accustomed to the idea of paying $30 for a video game with very little “game”. Given time, the right venues, and the right stories, I think visual novels could certainly gain a foothold on this side of the ocean, and some already have — Phoenix Wright is the obvious example. Unfortunately, right now there is only a small number of people who know about them, let alone buy them.

However, 999 isn’t really what I’d consider a straight-up “visual novel”. There’s a good deal of gameplay, in addition to all the text you’ll be reading.