Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Who is June? A heroine justifiably seeking to save herself and give evildoers just desserts, or a villain willing to torture innocents and place them in fear of their lives to correct her own idiocy, possibly with an excessive taste for revenge?
  • Anticlimax Boss: Not a boss in the strictest sense, but for all the hyping up the last puzzle got, that was one easy Sudoku.
    • Unless, like Akane/June, you've never played Sudoku before, and aren't even entirely clear on how it should be played. In which case the "Final Boss" certainly starts off as frustrating.
    • Try solving it following the time limit. All the other puzzles only had the titular 9 hours to solve them, save the cabin, and the freezer, which would have taken longer to expire. This is the only puzzle in which Akane had a time limit, and such a short one at that.
  • Anvilicious: Not obvious at first, but after the game's ending, there is a clear theme running through this entire game: Do not judge things based on your immediate perception. Almost every single thing in this game is devoted to this theme, from the premise and ending down to tiny details such as how you perceive characters and how the puzzles are designed. This whole game is designed to subvert your expectations, and it WILL succeed, spoilers or not. This makes it clear that the developers really wanted people to be able to see things from multiple points of view, and refraining from judgment until you know the facts.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: Out of and in-story too. It renders the entire cast speechless. In the last scene in the true ending, you see Allice (Alice) standing on the side of the road hitchhiking. And then the story ends.
    • And the whole All-Ice fiasco could have easily been cut, and the game would've made as much sense. The Non Sequitur Scene of it all seems slightly intentional...
      • Well considering she's in the sequel now...
  • Complete Monster: Ace, but later we found out that he had reasons to do so, as well as the other three founders of the Nonary Game.
    • Lord Gordain, who is the original founder of Nonary Game qualifies this according to the Word of God, and having a torture chamber doesn't help.
  • Counterpart Comparison: June, to a lot of Ever17 characters. To go over which ones would be spoilers for both games.
    • Takeshi/Coco for having to be saved in the past. Relates more to Coco, for obvious gender reasons, as well as June's similar tendencies to disappear when no one is looking.
    • BW for doing the saving, and Coco again for helping to awaken this realization in the first place (through the use of her ESP, as opposed to morphogenetic fields in this game).
    • You'haru for having to orchestrate the whole plan. In this sense, Santa can be seen as Kaburaki.
    • In short, she's the savior, the saved, and the planner all in one character. Of course, she had help.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Seven. He may seem like a Scary Black Man but he's the guy who saved all the kids at the first time, not to mention that his name is never revealed.
    • Snake, as well. According to a poll by Aksys he's the most popular character in the game in the US.
      • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Possibly. He's only as high as fourth according to a Japanese poll (although he does remain the most popular male character).
    • Similar polls show that Clover's the most popular character in the game in Japan, and is second only to her brother in the US.
  • Esoteric Happy Ending: the upbeat "love conquers all" vibe becomes Fridge Horror when you realize main character Junpei is unable to stop loving the person who effectively tortured innocents to survive and murdered those who wronged her, and who leaves him without a word. Word of God says he chases her unsuccessfully for the rest of his life.
    • Well to be fair, you can consider it an extremely bizarre form of murder in self-defense. Young Akane needed someone to connect with in the exact same situation. Junpei or Santa wasn't just going to stumble into a Nonary Game. The only future she found where Junpei was in the same proper frame of mind was one where she put him there. Word of God confirms that Junpei would have been willing to do save a girl's life had he been asked, just the situation kind of forced it to be involuntary. And deaths surely helped Junpei be in the proper Nonary Game setting to connect with. Considering that these Complete Monsters literally are going to kill Young Akane if she doesn't kidnap them 9 years later and thus save herself...
    • Also, look at what Junpei does to ensure he enters Door #3 if he insists on taking that path. He certainly understands being a Magnificent Bastard to get what you want, and thus is less likely to hold Akane's actions against her, especially considering she had a much more understandable reason for her actions (read: escaping imminent death and exacting vengeance on the complete monsters who put her through hell) than Junpei did (read: possibly condemning three apparently innocent people to death because he wanted to stay with June).
  • Faux Symbolism
    • June's story of the rabbit hutches predicted the deaths of the players, except Ace in Submarine ending, in which they were the rabbits while Junpei is responsible for catching the killer.
    • In True ending, Ace explained that he only found a mandrake root inside the coffin. In Greek mythology, Mandrake root symbolizes immortality and whoever eats that plant, they went to sleep and never woke up. Other folklore claims that mandrake root links sexual behavior or as a worship to the devil.
    • The Roman God Of Mercury, Hermes, is a messenger of gods and he often guides travelers to go on safe journey. He's also served as a trickster that's why many Greeks wanted to sacrifice for him. In the Axe and Submarine endings, the mercury symbol at the elevator represents a dead end to the entire group.
  • Fridge Brilliance: Loads of it.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: This game sold much better in the States than it did in Japan.
  • Hell Is That Noise: Yes, the sound effects. From the cadenced beeping to the ominous creaking of doors.
  • Magnificent Bastard: June, a.k.a. Akane who masterminds the entire plot and shows a considerable ruthless streak in disposing of enemies.
    • Junpei, usually classified as a Guile Hero, shows that he is capable of Magnificent Bastardry as well; he's just lacking enough opportunities to prove it. So go ahead, give the guy a chance. Insist on taking Door #3.
  • Moe: Clover. When she hasn't gone Ax Crazy, that is. Or even then.
  • Narm: Junpei in the Safe ending, with his scream of "KAAAAAANNNNNNYYYYYYYYYY!" The pose doesn't help much, either.
    • Seven, in the flashbacks of his rescue of the kids. His facial expressions while he's opening the grate are... amusing, to say the least, in sharp contrast with the situation.
    • The mostly excruciating Safe ending also provides one of the most inappropriate moments imaginable for a Metal Gear Solid joke to make itself. I guess we can assume that "Snake! Snake! SNAAAAAKE!" would sound better if we could actually hear Junpei's voice.
  • Player Punch: Snake's (fake) death, if you chose room 5. He is one of the most awesome characters in the game, and one of the most useful.
    • Snake's (real) death in the Safe ending. It's brutal, and the description (and accompanying sound effect) of Ace kicking Snake's face and upper body is cringe-worthy.
    • Santa taking June hostage may come as a bit of a shock, especially after he shares a bit of his past and the reason for his cynicism, and after he shows blatant (and apparently genuine) concern for June when she collapses. It's only later that it's revealed that his concern truly was genuine; taking her "hostage" was part of the plan, and his best chance at saving her.
  • Selfish Good, Selfish Evil: Lotus approaches Junpei with a plan of her own to escape and also suggests leaving behind someone out of necessity. Her logical way of thinking, however, suggests that she's looking more at the bottom line rather than her own needs. In fact, in the True Ending, when it seems that Lotus would be the one left behind, she's actually rather accepting about it.
  • Shipping: Akane and Junpei obviously. There are some moments for Junpei and Clover, but not as much as with Akane. Also Lotus and Seven. The UST is so heavy you can feel it. Lotus/Seven has since been confirmed by [dead link] Word of God. Also Santa and Clover – when he starts getting all excited about the stairs you're climbing and how they'd be perfect for looking up skirts, he immediately demands that you bring Clover over.
    • That's probably just for foreshadowing reasons; June is in the boiler room, and yet Santa doesn't invite her up the stairs...
  • Temporal Paradox: It's pedantic, but technically nobody but Akane dies in the Bad Endings. Either Young Akane rewinds the events, so none of it happened; or Young Akane doesn't get the message from Junpei, dies in the incinerator, and never becomes Zero - so the second Nonary Game never happens, and everyone but her lives - presumably reappearing unharmed in their apartments once the timelines resolve themselves.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Ace points out that his prosopagnosia needn't necessarily make him a bad person... right before the game implies his Lack of Empathy comes from his inability to tell people apart.
  • The Woobie: Everyone! Except for, you know, the Cradle Pharmaceutical guys. In particular, Clover, Snake, and Akane.
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