lifechanging. masterpiece. 10/10. out of this world. spectacular.

I had played some of the the "other" SC games before this; Danganronpa, AI, and Crystar; I knew what I was getting into: Weird back-ended VNs with a penchant for wack conceptual mechanics/references, jank game mechanics outside of the VN parts, massive exposition dumps, red herrings, inconsistent humor, unbalanced characterization, and Sequel-itis...

999 ~10-12 hours
Decent, somewhat janky divergent VN with a unique premise, with somewhat believable escape room stuff, and everything ties up with a nice little bow, even if there is definite nonsense thrown in. Good art and good VAs; overall I would give this a thumbs up...

VLR ~20-25 hours (30+ if you don't use the skip read dialogue keys)
Its a long VN with divergent paths, its a slog, many of the characters are cutouts in front of another cutout; the dreaded sequel-itis strikes, it has to make explicit references to the past game, bending over itself to force them in; and it gives "hints" that are more like giant friggin flashing signs, giving away later plot details in the first few hours of the game and continues to do so... the back-ended nature did bring resolution, but it was hollow.

The puzzles have a huge range of difficulties (imo), but are ok for the most part... but the art wasn't as appealing to me, and somewhat inconsistent?

The biggest problem was that it makes you sit through transitions and dialogue that you cant skip unless already seen... even if its just minutely contextually different; i felt my time was being wasted.

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All in all, even though 999 is decent, I'd recommend going and playing lighter VNs that respects your time or maybe some of the other SC games, maybe come to this one later, and on sale?

Annoying...

The story itself is cool: Squid Game before Squid Game is a thing. The different paths trigger the completionist in me - however i will not complete the game as the endless dialogues in between were just too much for th little bit of gameplay in between.