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Personally, I would say one of the biggest reason for the lack of closure as compared to the 2 previous works in the Infinity series is due to the change of scenario planner. N7 and E17 were both conceptualised by Uchikoshi, while R11 was conceptualised by Nakazawa. Both have their own style of conceptualising as shown from how the story progress.
A Q&A with Uchikoshi regarding 999's development:
Q: The characters and plot are all really well done in this game. I was just curious as to how you developed them all so well. What do you work on first; plot or characters? How do you know when they're complete? Where do you draw inspiration from?
A: For me, I first start by creating a rough draft of the characters' personalities. Then I make a sort of rough draft of the setting. Next, I figure out the "twist" for the story, and work toward that by coming up with a plot that fits that particular twist perfectly. So the "twist" comes first, basically. Of course, the characters and the setting that I come up with early on almost always end up drastically changed. I write a rough draft, then draw a line, then erase my rough draft, then draw a new line... It's just that process over and over. I don't know when it's "done" until I finish writing the whole script. I always write my stories thinking "I wonder what's going to happen to these guys afterwards?" Overall, I don't change the "twist", but I will change the story A LOT to get to it. So far as inspiration goes, all that I can say is that it mostly comes from me, while I'm writing my drafts. I believe that when I concentrate very hard on writing, all of my worldly thoughts just go away, so perhaps that has something to do with it. Also, this particular idea is in the game as well, but I need some danger to have that moment of clarity and inspiration. The closer I get to a deadline, the more I'll think "Crap! The deadline is coming up!" and that helps me come up with great ideas. So I'll try to work myself into a corner like that, and I also have the product manager and the other people on the team to help me out by getting me into that mode of thinking.
Assuming he does this also with N7 and E17, he thinks up the twist 1st before writing up the scenarios. This results in an explosive twist since the whole story is built around it, but it affects the story in a way that sometimes it feels too forced or too slow in the early to mid stages.(Evident from N7,E17,12R and even 999 to a certain extent)
I'm assuming(from the chinese translation of the booklet), Nakazawa thought of a setting 1st, before sitting down to write. This results in a great storyline, but since the twist was not clearly thought of before that, he digs a hole too large for him to fill, creating an inproper ending . IIRC, there were talks on the development budget as compared to development time which limited them. Not surprising if you look at the complicated system inside R11.
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