[VDZ]

Exactly. Just like I posted at the Remember11 thread once I finished 999:

Originally Posted by VDZ

999 has been released in English now, and we can see what Uchikoshi is like when he's working alone. People seem to like it, with the average vndb rating being 8.80. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I still rated the game an 8/10 because it definitely amused me, but I can't say it's a masterpiece.

Someone in this thread was complaining about a lack of consistency in R11, but I never felt such problems in R11. In 999 though...there's just too much that doesn't make sense. I won't list all of my problems with the story here, just check this thread for some of them.

But worse than the fact that there's some minor plotholes...is the total lack of originality in 999. You can describe over half of 999 by just describing it as 'Ever17 meets Killer Queen. Now, I haven't played much of Killer Queen (so there'll only be early game spoilers), so there might be more stolen elements, but I'll list what I've found here:
Killer Queen

Spoiler:

-Protagonists are kidnapped at a random time and wake up in a random room, not remembering exactly how they got kidnapped.
-All they have to determine what's going on is a small device that determines their role in the game (PDA in KQ, bracelet in 999).
-They have been kidnapped to play a game of life and death against eachother. 999 actually puts a nice twist on this by making the gameplay cooperative instead of competitive.
-They have a device on/in their bodies that will quickly kill them if they violate the rules of the game.
-Shortly after the game starts, the protagonist runs into his osananajimi, who he hasn't seen in a while. For some reason, they were both kidnapped to participate in that game.
-At the start of the game, the players get together to share their information about the rules of the game to get an idea of what they're supposed to do. Notably, in KQ everybody gets unique information, in 999 only Snake gets unique information.
-Right at the start of the game, someone's obligatory self-detonation device goes off to show everybody that it's serious business.

Naturally, the Ever17 section contains major spoilers.
Ever17

Spoiler:

-The protagonist is not the protagonist after all, it was somebody watching him the entire time.
-This hidden protagonist was the mastermind behind everything that happened.
-The mastermind's plan was to create a situation very similar to the situation X years ago.
-The person who recreated this situation and her accomplice are people who were in the situation X years ago.
-One person is present in both situations without knowing anything about the plan, and tries to figure out why the same thing is happening that was happening X years ago (E17: Tsugumi, 999: Ace).
-People send something back in time (E17: Blick Winkel, 999: Sudoku solution) to save one (or in Ever17, two) of the main characters.
-This causes a time loop with a causality paradox, as sending that something back in time causes them to send that something back in time.
-The good guys never were in any danger (2034 only in Ever17), as it was all a trick to cause a pseudo-scientific phenomenon (E17: Blick Winkel being trapped, 999: Junpei sending the Epic Sudoku solution to Akane through the morphogenetic field).
-The characters are trapped in a construction that will be flooded within X hours and must escape before then.
-You know that guy and that girl of around the same age? Plot twist, they're brother and sister! (Although the actual way it's used is completely different, so I guess I can let it slip.)
-The accomplice that helped set up the plan is actually participating in the fake situation to ensure everything goes well. Naturally, when the time comes, that person explains the vital plot things only he can tell. (Although at least in Ever17 it came out of the blue that 2034 Takeshi was the accomplice.)
-And of course, those damn evil pharmaceutical companies! They're evil, evil I tell you! (Although Ever17's Leiblich had a reason to be evil, they could've made tons of cash by researching those weapons, and they definitely got their hands onto something good with the Cure virus. Cradle's excuse? The CEO wanted to be able to recognize faces. Yeah.)

Taking this into account, if I had to judge which of the two is the better writer...Remember11 may not have been what you all wanted it to be, but at least it didn't consist for 50% of "I've seen this before" situations.

The only thing that actually pleasantly surprised me in 999's ending was

Spoiler:

the fact that the reason for the third person narration was because it was all told from Akane's perspective. Anything on the top screen was how Junpei experienced it, anything on the bottom screen was how Akane experienced it. That was neat.

I don't mind getting an ending that isn't what I expected it to be. In fact, I'd much rather have that than an ending that is EXACTLY what I expected it to be.

Uchikoshi was playing it safe in 999. I suppose there were enough people who liked it...but no, I think that a writer should always try new things, even if it means running the risk of severely disappointing/angering the fanbase.

Also, from what I heard, the doujin version is better than the remake...but I haven't played either, so I can't judge it myself.