The dual screen nature. The entire bottom screen for the whole game has always contained thoughts different from our protagonist. Normal game convention would indicate that the words on the bottom screen are Junpei's thoughts but the entire bottom screen is actually the thoughts of a whole other timeline.

When the twist happens it makes you think back through the whole game and realise the bottom screen was never anything to do with Junpei's thoughts and the revelation that there was someone else watching Junpei's every move the while time hit me like a truck.

Its something that is uniquely made possible by virtue of having a second screen to portray two protagonist's thoughts. Not something that's possible quite as well in other formats. Least I think that's what they mean. Might not have put it too eloquently.

I remember when I hadn't finished neither 999 nor VLR yet I talked to someone about them because I wasn't sure if the journey was worth it, but he convinced me that they were great and that if I would think 999 had a great ending twist just wait until I see VLR which was even "More convention-breaking" but it's not. The twist is big, but the reason the one in 999 is so effective is because it transcends what is going on in the software and thematically the idea of ESPs communicating through time metaphorically translates perfectly to the dual-screen nature of the Nintendo DS. That's why 999's twist is a jaw-drop moment. Like you say, that internal monologue, this entire time, comes from the girl communicating with her powers to our main protagonist. That is damn effective and makes it feel like everything comes full circle.

Wait, I always thought that the bottom screen was just the girl narrating what she remembered, it seems like a lot of it was written in past tense, and now you're telling me that it was her communicating using her powers? Well damn, I really misunderstood this game immensely.

I thought it was more like her (from 9 years ago) narrating what she saw through Junpei, not necessarily communicating with Junpei. IIRC, she was unable to directly communicate with him until she was in the furnace. But she did have some influence over what he did; you did control the escape rooms and (I believe) choices through the bottom screen. The only thing that breaks the separation of the top and bottom screen separation is the inventory screen.

Narration in the past tense can still work in this situation (though I can't remember if it actually was in past tense or not) if you consider it like her observing something that happens and then thinking about or narrating what just happened.

I'm honestly intrigued, possibly more so than VLR. Ace's reaction to the cards, Seven getting dizzy, the Morphogenetic Field, Snake's death, and finally, Junpei's killer. I've seen a clip of the Axe ending, so I think Clover did it but she has no reason to kill Junpei at all, from what I've seen. All this boils down to is: despite the murder and death, this game gets a 10/10 from me so far

Certain dialog choices do matter if you are going for the true ending. You are locked out of the true ending if you choose incorrectly. There's also a dead end if you go for the true ending before seeing a certain other ending. But if you aren't going for the true ending, feel free to give wrong answers since they won't affect any other ending.

There's a plot spoiler free (other than ending names) flow chart here if you want full details: http://www.gamefaqs.com/ds/961351-nine- ... faqs/61438

Coffin: Door 4 (take bookmark, be interested in what June has to say in the freezer), Door 7 (tell Seven about ice-9, *give bookmark), Door 1
Axe Ending: Any combination of doors in which the last one chosen is "1", not including the coffin ending sequence. 471 is valid for this ending if you mess up one of the other dialogue choices
Submarine: Door (4/5), Door 3, Door 2
Safe: Door 5, Door 8, Door 6
True: Door 4 (take bookmark, be interested in what June has to say in the freezer), Door 7 (tell Seven about ice-9, give bookmark)

*If you save here, I'd recommend going to the axe ending first, loading your save, then finishing the coffin ending sequence to save yourself most of a full playthrough. Alternatively, just watch the axe ending after you get all of the other ones or right after the coffin, it doesn't matter. But since you already got the knife end that's the most pointless one for you to get

And yes, unlike others will say, I would say to get the coffin end

Is the Coffin ending the dead end that was mentioned, seeing as it quite literally ends with a "To Be Continued"? It's just the way that the dead end was described here implied it was just something that I needed to find information from another ending for, but I didn't expect it to be a whole separate ending, assuming it is.

number 1

First of all, who is the killer in both the Submarine and Knife ending? Was it the guy in the Captain outfit? Or Ace in one ending and Cap in the other? Second of all, if the detonators were never real, how exactly did the 9th man and Snake imposter die? Did Zero give them detonators but no one else, to lure Ace into a trap? Third of all, I still don't get how the whole "Akane is dead but is in the present" part works. Is it explained further in the other games or did I just miss something? And finally, where exactly did Snake go in the Safe ending, seeing as he was missing from one of the shots that showed the majority of the room, with only Ace in it? Was it just an error the artist made or just open-ended?

Ace is the killer in... both, I think? He's faking being dead on the floor. 9th man and imposter had real detonators, yes. She's in the present on loaned time, basically, until the second game she had planned can play out and snap shut and ensure her continued living. If not, she disappears (as seen in some endings) as present choices would then affect the past so that she did die in the incinerator after all. It's a time paradox. And if I remember correctly, the multiple world thing wasn't really a thing here as it was in VLR, it's more like Akane is watching possible timelines, with the True ending being, well, the true ending.

the Akane in the present disappears once Akane in the past dies in the incinerator, as the version in the past is experiencing her Nonary Game and the present one at the same time. If the second Nonary Game doesn't reach the point that it needs to, being that Junpei solves the puzzle in the incinerator and transmits the solution to Akane, then the past Akane dies and June disappears as a result? Does that mean that because the past Akane didn't die, June spawns somewhere in the present world, since she needs to be in it for ZTD and VLR to happen? Is that the logic I should be following?

Yes to the first part, at least to my understanding. To the second part, not as much "spawns" as stays, after the first nonary game she kept on living until the second nonary game which is basically the point where it's decided whether or not she died in the past since her existence in the presence rides on it having succeeded. So if she doesn't die in the past, her existence in the present isn't a paradox (as it would be if she actually died nine years ago) and thus she keeps on existing.

He dies with Ace in the incinerator after having been shot multiple times. What shot are you referring to?

By "shot", I mean camera shot. After Junpei, Seven, and Lotus exit the incinerator, leaving Ace and Snake behind, Junpei looks through the glass and then we see Ace standing, shouting at Zero. But Snake is nowhere to be seen: not on the ground, behind Ace, not even on Ace himself.

Ah, I see which one you meant. It's probably just perspective even though we can see a very alrge portion of the room without Snake in the picture. It does say that Junpei can see both of them, though.

He just let go of Ace after the door shut or just collapsed from his wounds and fell out of our frame of view?

That reminds me, something else I thought was strange. In the Casino, I believe, when you look at the lights, Snake reacts very strangely to it but it's never addressed in the game again. Any idea what that's about?