Go Find Yourself or Whatever

When my eyes first came across the cover art of 999 in a list of recommended NDS games, it instantly got my attention: a game that combined visual novel parts with escape-the-room puzzles, that had such an interesting story and a gorgeous art style – it was something I was bound to like.

When I found myself weeping at an upside-down sudoku at three in the morning just a few weeks after, I knew that picking up 999 was one of the best decisions I had ever made.

The days after that, 999 was all I could think about. The moment when we found a dead body in the shower room, when Junpei got stabbed in the back, when Seven told the story about the first Nonary Game, when Snake (who since then becamse my favourite videogame character ever) went berserk and withstood Ace’s gunshots, when we found the Q door and everything just made sense… It just kept resonating within my brain.

I recommended the game to so many friends, and every single one of them ended up liking it as much as I did. Whenever we talked while they were playing the game, they were always so surprised by all the plot twists and yet they were so amazed about it. And even after years have passed since that, we still get so excited talking about Zero Escape when we meet.

Whenever I replay it or talk about the best moments from the games with fellow fans, I feel as excited as I did when I played them for the first time. And no matter the amount of times you go through the different scenes, you always catch something you hadn’t noticed before, you begin tying loose threads, you start theorizing on so many things… They’re the kind of games that you can play as many times as you like – you’ll never get tired of them. Not only because of that, but because they have some of the most well-thought writing and plot, as well as the most lovable characters I have ever come across.

The day in which Zero Escape 3 was confirmed to be under development was just incredible. Many of us thought the day would never come, but 4infinity gave us hope for a third and final game. I wish I had been in that room when it happened, but unfortunately I was on the other side of the ocean, staring at thousands of other fans’ tweets, flashing repeatedly in front of me. In that moment, I felt so fulfilled. I felt so happy that my favourite videogames were going to get the final game they deserved. That the fans’ love and support pushed the game this far.

Zero Escape changed me so much as a person and as an artist. It made me realize that videogames are so much more than just “kid’s games”, that they can also tell life-changing stories and make you feel things you’d never expect to feel by playing on two tiny little screens. That one day, I will be able to write stories as good as that one, I’ll be able to breathe life into my own characters, create scenarios that will someday inspire somebody as much as Zero Escape inspired me.

Thank you, to every single person who was part of ZE – to Uchikoshi for creating such a masterpiece thanks to his brilliant writing, to the artists, Kinu Nishimura and Rui Tomono, who brought the characters to life, to Shinji Hosoe for the tracks that made us tear up, to everyone at Aksys that worked on the translation and localization, and to every single person that put their work on the games that will forever be my favourite -

THANK YOU.