The latest issue of Weekly Famitsu Magazine discloses Chunsoft's revelation of their new games for the PS3, PSP and DS. The first game is a PS3 and PSP port of 428: In the Blocked City Shibuya, while the other one - for the DS - is 9 Hours, 9 People, 9 Doors. Sounds exciting.

 

428: In the Blocked City Shibuya was actually a Wii original It was inconspicuous enough, until Famitsu gave it a perfect review score which totally stunned everyone. A staggering 40/40 score to a game that's barely been given media mileage, at least in this part of the town.

Still not familiar with it? It's actually a "sound novel", a sort of Choose Your Own Adventure type that follows the story of several characters (unrelated, take note) through the streets of Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Basically, you play God over these characters' lives, as every decision you make has some outcome, good or bad, on their characters. Simple in context, but apparently enough substance to wow the hard-to-please Famitsu reviewers. And now it's coming to the PS3 and PSP.

This game is brought to you by the number 9.

Meanwhile, the other title is not just any other title. 9 Hours, 9 People, 9 Doors has got some heavy-hitting casts supporting its development. Kinu Nishimura of the Street Fighter series is taking care of character designs for one, and Ever17: The Out of Infinity writer, Kotaro Uchikoshi is also handling directorial and screenplay duties.

The plot: Ryohei is a normal college student. One morning, he wakes up to find himself in a locked room with the number 5 painted in bright red on the wall. Think Saw, but in Nihonggo. Now get this, he has to play the "Nonary Game" with eight other victims. So in all, there's 9 of them. And you're right, they're labeled from 1 to 9.

Keeping in theme, there are nine doors to open, with puzzles to solve inside. If they get to door number 9 and complete the puzzle goes free.

But, and this is where the simple math confounds me:

the numerical doors can only be opened by groups of three to five people, and the digital root of their assigned numbers must match the number on the door -- forcing the cast to work and compete with each other at the same time for any chance at survival.

I'll just probably dig through a tunnel and look for sunlight.

These games are said to come out in Japan this Winter. Cross your fingers, these do sound like interesting stuff. I would like for us to get it too.

---

Related articles:

• Visual novels Ever 17, Never 7 getting PSP ports next year