Game: 9 R.I.P.
Genre: Adventure, Visual Novel
System: Nintendo Switch
Developer|Publisher: Idea Factory | Aksys Games
Age Rating: EU 12+ | US Teen
Price: US $49.99 | UK £44.99 | EU € 49,99
Release Date: October 1st, 2024
A review code was used, and many thanks to Reef Entertainment.
What Will Her Future Be…
In 9 R.I.P. we follow Misa, a seemingly normal schoolgirl who is in her second year of high school. When we meet her, she is in the middle of deciding what her career path will be. Her mother is set on Misa going to medical school, but Misa is unsure of what to do. On top of that, her best friend keeps telling her scary stories about school ghosts, urban legends, the other world, the spirit realm and even people being spirited away. Although Misa doesn’t believe in all that nonsense, strange things begin to happen around her after hearing an eerie voice that claims it wants to lead her into the darkness…
Grim Grinning Ghosts
In 9 R.I.P., we have 4 story categories. All about two different Love Interests (LIs) and different settings it takes place at. There isn’t a set route order you should follow, but story-wise, this would be my recommendation: School Ghost Stories -> Urban Legends -> Other Realm -> Spirit World. The last two reveal a lot about the overarching plot, so playing those last is essential. As for the character order in each realm, it doesn’t matter which one you play first.
School ghost stories
The first two men are part of the school ghost stories. When Misa is contemplating what to do with her career form, suddenly she wakes up in a warped version of her school. A version in which she can see, talk and touch ghosts. Misa has to find a way to revert her school to its original state, otherwise her future will be in danger…
Kureha: the Bloodthirsty Killer Kara Kara
Voiced by: Toshiki Masuda.
My sweet, sweet Kureha. He was the first route I played, and it immediately got me into the game. He is the first ghost story we hear about, and it sets the tone for 9 R.I.P. Kureha is known as the Bloodthirsty killer Kara Kara; he is dressed in traditional robes and carries a katana around. The story is that when you walk in the hallway alone at twilight, you will hear the sound of a sword dragging behind you. When Kara Kara is close enough, he will ask you a question. Give the wrong answer, and you’ll be killed.
Right off the bat, we can see that we have nothing to fear from Kureha. His chivalrous side comes out immediately, as he is eager to help and protect Misa. Kureha is straightforward in saying what he is feeling, which I love because you know where you stand with him. But what makes him a good character is that he also has a quirky, shy side to him, which makes him absolutely adorable.
Hibiki: the Ghost in the Mirror
Voiced by: Shun’ichi Toki. Same voice actor as Dahut from Virche Evermore, Leo Cavagnis from Piofiore and Tadashi Yakumo from Dairoku: Ayakashimori.
He is known as the ghost in the mirror. The story is that if you get close enough to the mirror, he will pull you in, and you can never get out. This mirror can be found in the school that Misa attends, on the main staircase between the second and first floors. After an accidental meeting, Hibiki is immediately drawn to Misa because of her warmth. It’s immediately clear to us, the audience, that Hibiki has an unstable personality. One moment he is insecure, very sweet and cheerful, the next his personality becomes gloomy and creepy.
This route in 9 R.I.P. thoroughly creeped me out. It all started with Hibiki showing his creepy side; at that point, I just couldn’t view him as a good LI for Misa. Hibiki’s back story on how he became a ghost haunted me a little, and that part probably wasn’t for kids 12 and up, in my opinion. I felt in the end, the route didn’t go anywhere. It could have been solved in 1 chapter, maybe two. It also bothered me that Misa was acting like Hibiki’s mother by guiding him through his issues. Which I guess could be a different kind of love, but it was not for me.
Urban legends
These men are a part of the Urban legends in 9 R.I.P.. They are not about a specific place but rather, are stories everybody who lives in Misa’s town knows about. As Misa is contemplating what to do with her career survey form, it blows out onto the road. Trying to grab the paper she runs on the street and is hit by a car. The day after she wakes up in her bed, but quickly finds out she is a ghost…
Koyo: Merry Mary
Voiced by: Ryota Suzuki. It has the same voice actor as Kiito Minorikawa from Jack Jeanne and Yona Murakami from Tengoku Struggle ~strayside~.
There are a few versions of the ghost story, Merry Mary. The typical one is that a girl calls you on the phone multiple times while getting closer to you. Until she stands right behind you and calls to say, “Hello, this is Mary, I’m right behind you! But in Misa’s hometown, the legend has a much sweeter story. Supposedly the Merry Mary calls are from a dead loved one, giving a final message. Koyo is this rumoured Merry Mary; his “job” is to give ghosts a chance to call a loved one to pass on a message. Koyo has made it his personal mission to help his fellow ghosts.
Upon first meeting Koyo, he seems cool and the silent type. But further in the story, we discover he loves teasing Misa and joking around. Koyo and Kureha are good friends and go on multiple guy dates. He and Sena are also childhood friends.
Ah, this route was so lovely. Right away I loved the banter Misa and Koyo had going on, and it made me smile. Now, storyline-wise, this route had a lot going on. I would’ve never expected the story to go the way that it did, but in a good way, that is. I loved every second of playing it, and this godly ending had my heart.
Sena: Boy Gazing at the Stars
Voiced by: Tetsuya Kakihara. Same voice actor as Hametsu no Majo from the even if TEMPEST series, Keith Claes from My Next Life as a Villainess, Carmen from Bustafellows and Victor Frankenstein from the Code Realize games
Of all the ghost stories in 9 R.I.P., this one was the least scary. Sena was in a hit idol group called S-CROWN. Sena developed a heart disease, and after a while, he passed away on a grassy field, gazing up at the stars. They say that you can meet the ghost Sena at the park. Through Koyo, we find out he is Sena’s childhood friend, and Koyo has been trying for a long time to help Sena cross over. The problem with Sena is that he keeps losing his memories because he cannot accept that he is dead. His biggest dream is to still become a huge star, even in his ghost life.
I really liked Sena. He appears to be calm and very social, but when we get to know him more, he also loves to make jokes and teases Misa. He and Misa had a good dynamic going on, and Sena was especially flirty, which was a nice change of pace from the other routes. This route was very emotional to me; I kept crying throughout the route. In a good way, of course. I don’t know if it’s just me, but yeah… This one got to me.
Other Realm
The Other Realm in 9 R.I.P., more commonly known as Hell. All kinds of demonic creatures reside in this realm, as well as ghosts who have to serve their time. In Hell, there is an organisation called Hell Organisation, or HO for short. Several ghosts work there to keep the peace.
When Misa is in her classroom, contemplating just filling in her career survey, her survey splits in two. Next, everything turns dark, and she wakes up on a train filled with red lights, at the destination, Kisaragi Station. But she is not alone…
Minami: Incubus
Voiced by: Nobuhiko Okamoto. Same voice actor as Peter Flake from Cupid Parasite, Radie from Radiant Tale, Yang from Piofiore, Haiji Takumi from Charade Maniacs, Soda Manabu from Collar x Malice and Apostle from Code: Realize.
As soon as Misa arrives in hell, she dreams about a demon wanting to consume her soul. This kind of demon is called an Incubus. These creatures haunt human dreams and show them nightmares. Very quickly it is revealed that this Incubus is Minami, the other occupant of the train Misa wakes up in at the start of the route. He keeps pestering Misa in her dreams as well as in her daily waking life, making it his mission to seduce her to the dark side to make a soul pact with her.
I would describe Minami as the epitome of the word toxic. Or as toxic as can be in the Otome world. He has very intense emotions and often will switch his mood around in a second. Minami also talks a lot about hurting or killing Misa, though he doesn’t actually intend to go through with any of it. I will say that I was excited about this route because I knew that it was going to be very different from the other ones because of Minami’s darker personality. And it didn’t disappoint. Minami keeps you on your toes and makes it an enjoyable route overall. I do have one thing to note, though: his heavenly end ended very quickly, and I was confused about what actually happened.
Seiya: Grand Warder of Hell
Voiced by: Shinnosuke Tachibana. It’s the same voice actor as Henri Lambert from Piofiore and so many more, but I am just not familiar with those.
Seiya introduces himself in 9 R.I.P. as the Grand Warder of the Hell Organisation. He died some time ago, served his sentence in hell and eventually decided to work for the Hell Organisation. The organisation assists in giving punishments to those who committed sins in their life. After they have served their sentence they are free to move on or choose to stay around. Seiya finds Misa in hell after her chilling encounter with Minami and takes her in at H.O.
Seiya is very gentle and polite and immediately offers Misa help to get her home. He has a strong dislike for Minami, because of his encounter with him in the past. Although Seiya is very polite and kind, he is a hopeless romantic. And boy, does he show this off. Not only in his own route but even before that in the chapters before his personal route. I felt that the romance happened way too quickly with Seiya; there wasn’t enough build-up for me. But still overall a very enjoyable route.
Spirit World
This world is the total opposite of the Other World. This is the realm of spirits, gods and tengu’s. After a mysterious spirit communicates to Misa to go to the Shrine, a priest there performs an exorcism on her. This priest believes she is haunted and wants to make the spirit go away. But instead of exorcising the spirit, she now can see a spirit called Yukimaro and a Tengu called Toka.
Thinking she has gone crazy, she takes her friend’s advice and uses a spirit board to get answers on how to make these spirits go away. But on accident, she lifts her finger off the coin, thus messing up the ritual. A spirit called Koharu comes forth and tells her he has to haunt her for her mistake. How will she deal with the three spirits she can now see in her life?
Yukimaro: Guardian Spirit
Voiced by: KENN. The same voice actors are Shelby Snail from Cupid Parasite, Nori Tainaka from Sympathy Kiss, and Limbo Scott Fitzgerald from Bustafellows.
Yukimaro is a Guardian Spirit in training. A Guardian Spirit is a well-known figure in Japanese folklore. They are known to bring wealth and good fortune to the household they live in. Immediately upon meeting Misa, Yukimaro announces he wants to be Misa’s Guardian Spirit. He wants to help her decide on her future and will not leave until she is happy.
This route in 9 R.I.P. was a change of pace. It didn’t have any big conflicts or other dangers to deal with. So It was just about Misa figuring out what she wanted to do with her future, with the advice of Yukimaro en Koharu. I didn’t really see the romantic potential between Yukimaro and Misa, except for the last chapter. But although he could be childish sometimes, he did have Misa’s best interest at heart. He would take her to do something fun or unexpectedly give her advice.
Koharu: Spirit Board
Voiced by: Youhei Azakami. It’s the same voice actor as Ion from Radiant Tale.
Throughout Koharu is known as the spirit from the spirit board. A spirit board can answer any question you have by placing a coin over a paper with letters and asking it the question. The same concept as a Ouija board. But if you lift your finger off the coin at any time during the ritual, the spirit board will come and haunt you. And of course, this is how we meet Koharu, who will now have to haunt Misa.
Right away, when starting the Spirit World chapter 1, I knew that Koharu was going to be my favourite of the two LIs. He is the tsundere type, which means he is not honest about his feelings and will say things he actually means to the opposite. But deep down, he is so kind and really cares about all the people he has haunted in the past. He and Misa get along so effortlessly, and Misa takes the lead in this relationship which I love. I think this was the most wholesome route of them all.
Visuals and Sound
The visuals were stunning once again. A lot of times I can already see if an Otome game is going to be good, based on the artwork. 9 R.I.P. is one of those cases. Since the game is about ghosts and strange other worlds, a lot of the artwork had something creepy in it. The character design is also where the game shines. Every character had its own unique design, while the two characters in each world still had some cohesion.
The opening theme of the game is “Horizon” by Pluto. This is a great theme and fits with the ghosts/creepy theme the game has. Each story category also has its own ending song, fitting the two characters in it. I liked that they put in the extra effort of making multiple ending songs.
The BGM for 9 R.I.P. was good, nothing special, but really what the name implies; good background music. There was one song though that played at emotional moments. Mostly at the end, which I really loved. It fit the sad romantic moments perfectly and sometimes made me cry.
Overall thoughts
Something I noticed early on were the happy endings in 9 R.I.P.. We get two happy endings in every route. A heavenly end and a godly end. It depends on which route you take for high affection and low affection. In almost every route, I liked the godly end best. I don’t know if it was designed this way, to show us that being obsessed with a love interest is not always the best thing, or if they just didn’t notice. Either way, I liked almost all the low affection endings better.
And talking about endings. A lot of routes ended too quickly. The writers didn’t take enough time to properly finish some routes and it sometimes left me confused on what happened. And sometimes, the conflict at the end ended too easily or too quickly for my liking. This didn’t stop me from liking the routes, though.
One negative for me on the visuals is that I would have liked to have seen CGs. I think we got about 8 per Love Interest, but in my mind, it was less. Maybe that’s just one downside to having so many LIs to play. And by the way, why didn’t Kureha have an after-credit CG? Every other character had it, so it’s strange that he didn’t have one.
Conclusion
All the feedback above aside, 9 R.I.P. has a special place in my heart. It has been a little while since I played another otome game, and this game lit my fire for it once again. I think fall and Halloween are the perfect moments to play this game and really embrace the ghost romance stories. Everyone has a storyline for them in the game due to the many realms we play in. 9 R.I.P. feels like it has multiple games rolled into one!
Final verdict: I Like it a Lot.
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