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Aksys Games to Release 999: The Novel for iOS

North American video game publisher Aksys Games announced on Monday that it will release 999: The Novel by the game series' director Kōtarō Uchikoshi as an iOS app on March 17. The visual novel offers the same story choices as the Nintendo 3DS game Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, but has removed the escape puzzles. Players can track their progress on a flow chart of the different paths they can take in the story.

Aksys Games describes the story:

Nine individuals, seemingly strangers, find themselves awakening to a rude truth – they're trapped on a ship that will sink in nine hours, and must play a deadly game in order to escape. Kidnapped by the mysterious Zero, these nine must solve puzzles and uncover the location of the elusive ninth door before time runs out. Each player is tied to a bracelet that controls a bomb within their bodies. One wrong move and they explode. However, beyond this life-or-death game lies questions that they must answer: Why have they been brought here and, more importantly, who is Zero?

The character art from the 3DS version has been redrawn to take advantage of the higher resolution. The app will cost US$4.99 and work for iPhone, iPad, and iPod devices. Aksys Games previously released Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward for Nintendo 3DS. Uchikoshi wrote on Twitter last month that financing for the third game in the Zero Escape series is not currently available.