Root Double (from the director of the Infinity series)

[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.

[rogerpepitone]

Originally Posted by VDZ

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


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.

OTOH, the doujin version is eroge.

[Elvin]

Originally Posted by GundamAce

Huh, that sounds a lot like 999. Wait... (looks up dates). Well, just lost a little more respect for Uchikoshi, now that it seems like he got the idea for 999 from Killer Queen.

If we're playing that game then you can say Killer Queen and 999 copied Battle Royale.

[VDZ]

Originally Posted by Elvin

If we're playing that game then you can say Killer Queen and 999 copied Battle Royale.

Indeed it does, but not as much as 999 rips off Killer Queen. All KQ stole from Battle Royale was 'involuntary battle of life and death against each other as a game' and the collars; the former is too broad to really call it stealing, only the latter is blatantly stolen.

[4as]

Originally Posted by GundamAce

Huh, that sounds a lot like 999. Wait... (looks up dates). Well, just lost a little more respect for Uchikoshi, now that it seems like he got the idea for 999 from Killer Queen. Still, that game sounds really interesting. I'll consider playing it myself (the Secret Game version, not the original).

In the interview (on siliconera.com) he mentions that at first, characters were ment to be handcuffed in pairs but apparently someone suggested its a common idea so they switched to bracelets.

[GundamAce]

Incidentally, Nakazawa allows comments on his blog, and frequently replies to comments. You guys feel like sending him a message or anything like that?

[TheForsaken]

Originally Posted by VDZ

Indeed it does, but not as much as 999 rips off Killer Queen. All KQ stole from Battle Royale was 'involuntary battle of life and death against each other as a game' and the collars; the former is too broad to really call it stealing, only the latter is blatantly stolen.

The same for 999, all the similarities are too generic to be called stealing. And none of them is unique to KQ.
Unoriginal? Yes. Rip-off? No.

[GundamAce]

The site will be updated by "this evening", according to Nakazawa's Twitter. By Japanese time, that would be early in the morning over where I'm posting from (the USA). Well, I will still take a look at it when it comes.

[GundamAce]

The site has been updated.

There's some new information about LABO itself, as well as several new CGs and scenes. I'll translate those in a little while. For now, here are the CG scene titles:

1: The Beginning of the Awakening and Oblivion

2: Save Her! (I've already translated this scene)

3: The Three Who Must Be Saved

4: Shadow of the Serial Killer

5: The Rescuee Runs From the Rescuers (already translated)

6: Raising Doubt and Hope

7: Yuuri's Death...? (already translated)

8: The Nightmare Isn't Over Yet (already translated)

[GundamAce]

Scene 1: The Beginning of the Awakening and Oblivion

◆September 16th, 9:00 Episode/ Route A――――

"――...tain!"
"... Captain, hang in there! Captain!"
"Wake up, Captain! Wake up!"

Hearing these sudden voices――
The man opens his eyes.

"Ah...! He's regaining consciousness!"
"Th-Thank god! I thought he was dead!"
"...?"

The man says nothing,
watching as the women in front of him speak.
"Anyway, what are you doing in a place, like this, Captain!?　
This isn't the command post, is it!?"

"Can you say your own name?
What's today's date?"

"... Eh... Ah?"
The man is thrown into confusion from being wrapped up in the storm of questions.
First, the man needs to get his bearings straight.

It seems the two women are wearing some sort of orange uniforms.
（Firefighters... no, a rescue party?)
The women's uniforms are covered in soot.
Disaster, accident, rescue――those unending images whirl in the man's brain.

"Who are... no, where is this...?"
At that time, the man realizes he is wearing the same attire as the women.
（...? Why am I...?)
He is assaulted by a strange, uncomfortable feeling.

It's as if he can't feel his own body. Why is he wearing this uniform?
"Just what... am I...?"
The man shakes his hazy head, and stands up.
His body feels quite strange.

His body and mind don't feel like they're linked correctly.
（It kinda feels like this body isn't mine...)
At the instant the man thinks that――
The air suddenly trembles.

"Wh-What the!?"
The women standing next to the bewildered man look at each other.

"Another explosion...!?"
"A fire might have broken out! Let's go, Captain!"
"No! Captain, please stay here and rest. We can take care of it by ourselves!"

※The image and text are still in the middle of development.

[GundamAce]

Here are some in-game images I found on the site:



Here, Kazami is talking about the remaining Alone Desire the team has left.



Yuuri's talking about memories and everyday life.

[GundamAce]

Scene 3: The Three Who Must Be Saved

◆September 16th, 9:00 Episode/ Route A――――

In that still image is the
projection of three children.
There's a boy with glasses and a blonde girl.
There's one more――the face can't be seen,
but it can been told it's another girl.
The three of them are wearing school uniforms.
At that time, Ena and Jun speak at the same time.

"No way, why are Tenkawa-kun and the others here!?"
"What!? Then Mashiro-chan and Louise-chan are over there!?"

"Huh, you two know them?"
"Of course! Those three are students in the class I'm working in as an assistant homeroom teacher."

"Last week, I unexpectedly became acquainted with those kids..."
"What!?"

Ukita speaks up from behind the surprised Watase.
"The truth is, I'm also acquainted with those three children."
"How so?"

"First, the boy and I are neighbors. Furthermore, the boy's mother also works in this institute. That's how."
"Then did they come to see his mother?"
"I don't know..."

"Anyway, there are several other images like this one. And the last image was at――"
"7:12, at Area 5."
When he hears those words, Watase realizes what Ukita is trying to say.

"Wait... this image was taken at 7:12, but the barrier wall was set up at 7:00, so..."
"Yes. With the exception of the six of us here, there are at least three other people trapped in LABO."
"What...!?"
Watase looks at the three in the image.
（What were they doing here?)

Did they come here to meet his mother, or was there another reason?
"Professor... what are the names of these high school students?"
"The boy is 'Natsuhiko Tenkawa'."
"The two girls are 'Mashiro Toba' and 'Louise Yui Sannomiya'."

"..."
Watase feels like he's heard those names somewhere before.
As if he's known them all this time, and he feels a sensation of intimacy.
（Could it be that... I went down underground to save these children?)

※The image and text are still in the middle of development.

[GundamAce]

Scene 4: Shadow of the Serial Killer

◆September 16th, 10:00 Episode／Route A――――

"!?"
His eyes are overloaded with red coming from straight in front of him.
The room's interior has been dyed the color of blood.
In the pool of blood at Watase's feet
are chunks from two corpses.
And――there's one more corpse
in the room.

Like Kazami, the corpses are also wearing
radiation protection clothes.
In the instant she sees them――Kazami speaks up.
"I-It can't be...!?"
"Th-That corpse is...!!"
Jun bitterly nods her head, and answers.
"It's... Dojima-senpai's."
Watase breaths in those words.

He has no memory, but the name Jun said is very familiar――
"No way, that person was our...!?"
"Yes... like us, he was a member of Team A...!"
"Why... Why did this..."
Kazami and Jun fall to their knees.
（Wh-What's the meaning of this...!?)
Having already looked at the "corpses" in the institution, Watase would have thought that he was probably burnt to death.
But this case is different.
This corpse's life was taken away by someone's hands――
This was clearly a murder.

"J-Just what... the hell happened here...!?"
――Watase's body is held down by his trembling, and he can only stare at the bloody spectacle before him.
The corpse at his feet is wearing a researcher's uniform.
Seeing a researcher in this institute is not strange.
What is strange is that the researcher's body is riddled with countless gunshot wounds.
（Was he... gunned down?)
It seems like he was trying to escape, as he lies dead at the front of the door.
There are large and small holes over his body, but there's an especially big one in his stomach, where his now discolored intestines had been forced out.
His head had been smashed and his spinal fluid had leaked out, creating a slippery stain on the floor.

（Guh...!）
He instinctively turns away from the cruel looking death he has just noticed.
But there's the other body in the room... the corpse of the rescue team member that Kazami and Jun called "Dojima".
His case is even stranger.
His limbs had been bent in unnatural directions, and his fingers seem to have been tortured before they were snapped from their very base.
His neckbones had been twisted and smashed, the skin on the back of his neck had been torn off, blood still oozing.
His facial expression had been warped with anguish, his tongue loosely protruding from his mouth.
（Wh...What the fuck is this...!? Why did he have to die this way...!?)
It doesn't feel like an act committed by a human.

It looks like a giant hand grabbed him, then casually crushed him.
It doesn't feel like this was done by a human――but rather, a monster.
But nevertheless, the situation is strange.
Even though those two were gunned down, why was he killed in a different way?
"But... why? Why did Dojima-senpai have to be killed...!?"
Jun says this with her head hung down, but Watase says nothing.

――He's not sad.
It doesn't feel real, like he's looking at this scene from behind a monitor.
Even though it's his own comrade who's lying dead there――
（... I...!）
To Watase, who has no memories, it doesn't feel like his comrade "Dojima" died, but rather some stranger instead.
Such a pitiful truth.

※The image and text are still in the middle of development.

[GundamAce]

Scene 6: Raising Doubt and Hope

◆September 16, 10:00 Episode/ Route A――――

When he opens his eyes, the side of someone's face comes into view.
It seems that she's holding him up and walking.
（That's right! I fell down...!)
When he thinks that, Watase's five senses rapidly recover.

"Sensei...?"
"Ah! You've regained consciousness?"
"Are you all right, Captain?"
"W-Where...? Sensei, why are...?"

Watase's memories cease in the middle of when he was chasing that girl.
In his memories, there's a wide, gaping blank just sitting there.

"You collapsed inside the building circuit, and Moribe-san carried you to the emergency staircase. Right now, Moribe-san is with Tachibana-san, extinguishing the fires on the second underground floor. They asked me to bring you to the control room."

(TN: I think that "building circuit" is supposed to refer to the hallways that connect the individual buildings. Kinda like the ones in LeMU.)

"So that's it... by the way, what happened to that girl?"
"Sannomiya-san... Moribe-san said that it seems like she got away. She says that she was nowhere to be found in the circuit's contamination zone."
"Did she run to another Area...?"

Watase doesn't know where the girl ran off to.
But just before he fell, he feels that he saw her retreating figure――
Right after that, he has an intense headache, as the memories of that time have vanished.
But it's a fact that the girl ran away.

"I wonder why she ran away..."
"... I don't know. Do you have any clues?"
"None..."
But he remembers that when he first met Yuuri, she was also frightened.
Maybe it's because from where she was being rescued, Watase's face looked very scary?

（No, could it be...?)
She had seen those corpses from before――was that why she was afraid?
He doesn't know the truth.
Watase sighs, and moves away from Ena.

"Can you walk?"
"Yeah... Anyway, she ran into the contamination zone... it's possible that she's been exposed to radiation."
"Wait. Concerning that, there might be a little bit of hope."
Ena says this, and takes something out of her breast pocket.
It's an already used cartridge of AD.

"What's that?"
"It had fallen by the staircase. If the one who used it was Sannomiya-san, then she is guaranteed some extent of safety."
"I wonder if she got through the contamination zone all right..."
But he can't be optimistic. It's likely that that girl doesn't have a Procyon.
As he thinks this, Ena speaks next.

"It's all right, Captain. The truth is, that girl is a prodigy who excels in everything."
"A prodigy?"
"That's right. She'll look through every way possible to find a definite method to keep herself alive."
"I see... that's certainly hopeful."
But it's nothing more than a faint hope――that's what Watase believes.


※The image and text are still in the middle of development.

[GundamAce]

More on Beyond Communication:

Spoiler for Beyond Communication:

It's the ability to transmit thoughts from very long distances, so it could be considered a form of telepathy...
There are many different meanings to it,
but the most direct one is "The power to tie minds".
A form of communication that doesn't require words,
"A new method to convey one's will".

（This "ability" will be explained in the next update.)

[GundamAce]

Incidentally, Scene 2 is a 9:00 Episode, Scene 5 is a 10:00 Episode, Scene 7 is a 1:00 P.M. Episode, and Scene 8 is a 2:00 P.M. Episode.

[ramengud]

Thanks for translating these.

[VDZ]

His body and mind don't feel like they're linked correctly.
（It kinda feels like this body isn't mine...)

Speculation, go!

[GundamAce]

Originally Posted by VDZ

Speculation, go!

Yeah, I agree. I've already come up with 3-4 different theories on what could be up with Watase.

[GundamAce]

Here's the part about the City Gates

Spoiler for City Gates:

City Gates
There are gates at the entrances to Rokumei City.
Along the boundaries of the city, there are six "town gate" points.
By continuing into the six paths in the city (there are no other roads where you can enter the city), you can see these gates are connected.
Along the boundaries of the city is a high fence that surrounds the city, much like the ones found in military institutions, and there are surveillance cameras set up at important places, designed so that they shine brightly in your eyes.
There is an inspection office at each gate, where security guards thoroughly check the belongings of anyone going in or out.


It is impossible to get out of the city by creating tunnels to go under the fence.
Even if a suspicious person carefully tries to break out, the security guards can simply close a barrier wall in the tunnel, so it's not easy to illegally get out.
There is a system that allows the police and security departments to quickly find out about the barrier walls being closed.

Each of the main city gates are named after one of the Four Chinese Symbols (Seiryuu, Suzaku, Byakko, Genbu), and each of the six gates are indicated by their own color.
The North Route Entrance is the "Genbu Gate" (Color=Black).
The East Route Entrance is the "Seiryuu Gate"（Color=Blue).
The West Route Entrance is the "Byakko Gate" (Color=White).
The South Route Entrance is the "Suzaku Gate" (Color=Red).
The Southeast Route Entrance to the rural districts is the "Rural District Gate" (Color=Green).
The Southwest Route Entrance to the Research Institute Zone is the "Research Gate" (Color=Grey).
... They each lead to a different zone.
The one in this picture (there's a picture of one of the gates on the main site) is the west Byakko Gate.
Byakko represented "Metal" in the yin-yang Chinese Five Elements――the Holy Beast who dealed with minerals and metals, with metal indicating a cool-headed, strong, and reliable nature.