9-nine- Kokonotsu Kokonoka Kokonoiro (9-nine- ここのつここのかここのいろ) Review

Let’s play a guessing game first…

The protagonist is an ordinary, unremarkable high schooler. One day strange phenomena start popping up around his town. Eventually he runs into a girl and discovers she has superpowers — and she’s fighting for something too. At the same time he meets a mysterious talking creature. The creature tells him he has immense potential and power, but for the life of it can’t figure out what his ability actually is. Led along by this creature, the protagonist teams up with the superpowered girl to investigate the weirdness in town, and soon discovers plenty of his classmates are hidden espers too… and he clashes with them. As the investigation goes deeper, more and more of the shadowy conspiracy comes to light…

Figured out what it is yet?

Oh, or rather…

Have you figured out which works I’m talking about?

Doesn’t this setup feel completely worn out? Don’t you get that vibe? 11eyes, Future Diary, Madoka Magica, plus Fate and whatever else — it’s all the same damn formula, right?

The protagonist is always a high schooler. Always has a cheat inside him that hasn’t awakened. Always playing battle royale with other espers while trying to be a saint and save everyone and build a harem. The protagonist is busy! Is this some kind of template certain Japanese writers use? Did everyone just agree to write it this way?

So another game following that template is born! It’s Tsubasu Izumi’s new work, 9-nine- Kokonotsu Kokonoka Kokonoiro.

I was shocked from the moment this game was announced, because the writer is Kazuki Fumi. What’s he written? Last year he did the ghost story Akeiro Kaikitan… you know, the game where a middle school girl gets raped by a teacher, jumps to her death in despair, and becomes a vengeful spirit. Him teaming up with Tsubasu Izumi felt weird to me. Then the setting came out and sure enough, it’s psychic combat… I mean, Tsubasu Izumi games always felt like Mashiroiro Symphony or Koi Sakura to me, so doing a combat-heavy thing like this seemed odd, but also fresh — it made me curious to see how it’d turn out…

But just as that curiosity kicks in, the studio slaps you right across the face…

The game is sold in volumes…

A story-driven game sold in volumes? Who do you think you are, Ryoka? Ryoka’s volume sales made sense — she sells characters, the story doesn’t matter. But your story is the whole point! You’re selling it in volumes?

Of course, story-driven volume sales aren’t impossible. Think of the Tokeijikake no Ley Line series — splitting that up actually worked well…

With that in mind, I started the game…

As I complained at the start, the formula here is painfully obvious. The protagonist mentions right away that an earthquake hit the town and broke some sacred artifact at the local shrine. Meanwhile his classmate Kujo Miyako tells him she senses something off in town and wants to investigate. Soon enough, a “petrification murder case” hits the town.

A lifelike stone statue of a schoolgirl is found in the park. The protagonist wonders at first — what kind of artist is this good, the statue’s so realistic…

Then he touches it and sees blood dripping from the statue’s pinky finger… so he calls the cops.

Police investigate and say the girl the statue resembles has gone missing. Kujo makes a bold deduction…

“That girl statue… might be the girl herself. She ran into some petrification esper and got turned to stone.”

Wow, amazing. Funny, I was just thinking the same thing.

Then the school suddenly catches fire. The protagonist and Kujo go check it out. Kujo says an esper has gone berserk. Sure enough, a male student is spewing flames from his body. Kujo extends her hand, casts some spell or whatever, the student passes out, and the fire’s gone.

Later Kujo explains to the protagonist that she has powers, and the source is some “sacred artifact” (I think that’s it — the kana’s too long, can’t be bothered to remember). Her ability is “Plunder” — she can take ownership of anything someone else possesses, including other espers’ powers. That’s how she put out the fire.

The protagonist goes home and finds a stuffed doll in his room. The doll talks. It says it’s from another world and asks the protagonist and Kujo to help recover the “sacred artifacts” scattered across this world.

The protagonist asks if the artifacts give people powers. The doll says yep yep, you go find the espers, use Kujo’s power to plunder their artifacts, and hand them over to the doll for recovery. After all, the artifacts are from another world and don’t belong here.

The protagonist asks how the artifacts got here.

The doll explains: the earthquake the other day opened the “door” connecting this world and the other world, so these things spilled out. They have to be recovered and the door closed.

So the protagonist and Kujo start hunting for other espers, beginning with the culprit behind the “petrification murder case.” Meanwhile the petrifier kills another person.

But search and search, they just can’t fucking find him. Instead they find other espers: the protagonist’s little sister, the protagonist himself, the school senpai Kousaka Haruka, and Yuki Noa from another school who often visits the parfait shop where Kujo works. The protagonist’s sister Shinkai Sora has the ability to stealth. Senpai Kousaka Haruka’s power seems to be “Charm” — she tries to charm the protagonist into a hotel room the moment she sees him, but gets interrupted. Yuki Noa won’t say what her power is. Even when she temporarily teams up with the protagonist, she says she doesn’t want them interfering. She just says her ability “The Order” is super strong and can fuck anyone up easily.

As for the protagonist’s ability, even he doesn’t know. The doll says he has a powerful ability too but doesn’t know what it is either — maybe it hasn’t awakened.

The story has a branch. The first playthrough forces a Bad End. The reason: the protagonist asks the doll what happens to a person after Kujo plunders their artifact…

The doll says the “sacred artifact” is tightly bound to the person. If you plunder it, that person dies…

So Kujo has already indirectly killed a male student without knowing it. The protagonist doesn’t plan to tell her.

Later, when the protagonist needs Kujo to prove her innocence to Yuki Noa, he asks Kujo to temporarily plunder his memories and read them. Kujo ends up reading the information about her own killing… Devastated by guilt, she gives up on teaming up, goes after the petrifier alone, finally finds him one day, loses the one-on-one, and when the protagonist finds her she’s already turned to stone. Dead…

Of course, the second playthrough can change this Bad End. The turning point is the protagonist not asking the doll whether plundering powers kills the person. Later, when his memories are read, Kujo doesn’t learn about it — instead she learns that the protagonist likes her.

So the second playthrough comes with a Kujo romance route. I’ll skip the romance and just talk about the final pursuit of the petrifier.

The petrifier’s artifact is the “Evil Eye.” The protagonist finally tracks him down with the team, but when they find him, all that’s left is a stone person. The stone person left a note saying his petrification power is too terrifying, one day he won’t be able to control it, so he killed himself…

What the fuck, this is obviously fake, right?! But the protagonist and co. just accept this ending…

You’re telling me you chase the boss for ages and when you find him he’s already killed himself?

And then the game? It’s over!

The last thing it shows is a CG of a blonde person standing on a rooftop with a lecherous grin, and then it’s over!

This first volume explains jack shit, doesn’t it? Nothing’s made clear at all!

So I went to look at the volume release explanation, and reading it made me even angrier.

“Our game is split so that each volume is a standalone story with its own heroine.”

What? Standalone story? Then where’s the main plot?

Then I remembered what the doll said in the game: “Looks like Kujo didn’t die in this branch. Thank goodness.” Then it tells the protagonist it can actually see content from many world lines, including the fact that Kujo died in another branch…

So the game’s premise might just be an endless loop showing different branches. And since the split is described as “standalone stories,” that means the next game might be the exact same timeframe with a different heroine…

So where’s the main plot? I don’t know which dumbass company started this shitty formula of “force a Bad End on the first playthrough, then loop over and over so you can experience different routes.” Can’t you just tell a story from beginning to end? Will you die if you don’t loop?

So for 9-nine- Kokonotsu Kokonoka Kokonoiro, the daily dialogue and comedy are high quality, but the story-centric setup, thanks to the stupid volume split, barely explains anything. The art is decent — it’s Izumi, after all. Voice acting is good too; the little sister voiced by Kiritani Hana is a highlight, except this volume gives her jack shit to do… Music is extremely cheap — only a few tracks. The HCGs do use Emote, but that can’t hide the fact that the game itself is a ripoff. If you were a simple little nukige like Ryoka’s stuff, I wouldn’t complain.

But this clearly looks like a story-driven work, and you cut it up like this? That’s a bit much. And comparison really is cruel — comparing it made me realize how excellent the Tokeijikake no Ley Line trilogy’s split was. Same volume sales, but at least their story had a “to be continued” feel. This game feels more like “to be continued (with bullshit).” And then slapping on that ridiculous chuuni title — Kokonotsu Kokonoka Kokonoiro — when it should’ve just been called Koko kara Koko made Koko de Owari (It Starts Here, Ends Here, and That’s It, Game Over).

Oh right, besides the art, there’s one more highlight: the protagonist’s VA is actually Abe Atsushi in disguise — you know, the guy who voices Kamijou Touma. And the doll Sophitia’s VA sounded super weird the first time I heard it — way too much like Satomi Arai. Then I checked the VA name: Arai-san. I was wondering how to look up that alias…

Then I realized, “Arai-san” is pronounced Arai-san, and written in kanji that can also be… Arai-san (新井さん).

So this game is the first 18+ game in history to feature both Kamijou Touma and Shirai Kuroko. Does that count as a selling point? Oh right, this game keeps reminding me of the dead Lashitsu company — a lot of the battle descriptions have an 11eyes vibe, especially the setup where the protagonist has a powerful ability but hasn’t awakened it…

Wonder if Palette will follow in Lashitsu’s footsteps?