Zero Context 3: thriving in Junpei's mind palace

The last Bad End is upon us and it sure lives up to it! Axe and Nate continue their playthrough of 999 (Kotaro Uchikoshi, 2009), working through the ax ending and all its disappointing conclusions. Elsewhere, they discuss the different mechanics of mystery vs puzzle box media, continued disappointment at who Lotus could have been, and Nathalie makes a lot of predictions that are all true (even the ones that contradict each other).

Next Time on Zero Context
The Safe Ending, via doors 5 -> 8 -> 6

Things Discussed
- Accessing puzzle answers through the morphogenic field
- How compressed the puzzle rooms have become
- Further lamentations on Lotus’ unrealized potential
- Is the death game about anything?
- 999’s collapsed imagination space vis-à-vis other adventure games
- Not trying to solve the mystery before the reveal
- Differences between mystery and puzzle box media
- Tennessee’s Titanic Museum
- Who the hell is Ace???
- The digital root of ZERO
- Junpei not understanding how sex works
- The constant sexualization of Clover, a literal child
- Miserable stock slasher ax ending
- 9 entirely true predictions

Intro: “9hours, 9persons, 9doors” by Shinji Hosoe
Outro: “Quietus” by Shinji Hosoe

Transcripts will (hopefully) be available for future episodes.

Axe (@wing_blade_) is on vacation, so production and cover art for this episode was by Nathalie (@BOOitsnathalie).

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Send your questions/comments/complaints to questions@kritiqal.com.