This one was pretty hard to find for a while, but taking advantage of Amazon's $20.99 Deal of the Day, I'm finally going to pick up the ChunSoft developed/Aksys published "9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors." 

Anybody played this one?  I've heard nothing but great things about it, not in the least that it's a visual novel-based title that's on par, and in some cases, better, than the Ace Attorney and Hotel Dusk series.

I just finished this and thought it was pretty darn good.  The story is very engaging, the puzzle sequences are fun, and it's just overall a nice package.  I'm not sold on the final explanation of the plot (won't go any further with that to avoid spoilers), but the characters and most of the story are excellent.  My main gripes are that there NEEDS to be an option to make the text scroll faster for those of us who don't read. that. slowly., and I wish you could just skip entire scenes and puzzles you've solved before (instead of just fast forwarding and then having to go through all the motions for the puzzle rooms again) when you replay for different endings.

Strongly recommended that you go through a number of different endings and then go for the "true" one after seeing all that there is to offer from the others.  I feel like the story would be lessened, otherwise.

Yeah, this was a great game. still working on it, but it definitely had me engaged! I'm hoping the sequel/successor gets localized too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHMhHA5a6v8

Plus, the soundtrack from the first (by Shinji Hosoe) really elevated the mood for me and from the sounds of it, he'll be reprising his role as composer.

This game has caught my eye several times now and based on what I'm seeing here I think I may want to give it a try. I need some way to satisfy my visual novel cravings! Especially without any Ace Attorney games on the horizon.

Looking forward to hearing more and maybe picking it up if I have some extra cash.

I'm obsessed with this game and wrote a 4-part love-gush thingy on my personal blog about it.

http://gameosaurus.com/roahr/2011/04/99 … vangelism/

(part 1 is the only spoiler-free of the four articles).

Like Don, I'm psyched about the sequel(ish) and I love the music to this game.

I played the first several hours of it before getting sidetracked by something else. It's impressive if you like the genre, very well-written.

This has been my focus for Halloween this year, and I can say with confidence that Capcom is full of crap when they say such games aren't worth the trouble of translating. If anything, revisiting this sort of game for the first time since the first Edgeworth last year only reinforces how much more involving and addictive these games are.
I've gotten two sour endings so far (respectively the fifth and third pictured on the file screen, if you're curious), but that's OK, because taking the different paths gives you informatiion you don't get otherwise (taking notes is a must, by the way). I've a pretty good guess on who the MC is now, but there's still a lot of lingering questions.
The art is nice, and the script is solid with a couple of moments of cute humor, a boatload (ha) of interesting tangents, and a couple of bits that have made my hair (such as it is) stand on end. I'm even impressed with the music, which might be the first thing by Shinji Hosoe I actually like.

Excellent game.

SP,

So glad you're enjoying the game. I finally got the soundtrack in the mail. And I bought this game like 4 times in the last few months, giving it to people to play. Right now my wife is playing through the game (still on first playthrough, in the second half of door 4). I think this game is just so good and I cannot wait for the sequel.

And Capcom is insane. I'm glad they were willing to localize Ghost Trick, but the lack of Gyakuten Kenji 2 makes me a sad panda.