Otomate can always be trusted to find some way to repurpose the established otome formula for a visual novel that at least feels a little different, even if functionally it’s not. 9 R.I.P. lands at the perfect time for Halloween, and even though it’s Otomate playing it safe with the structure, the ghostly theme does give it a good jolt of energy.
This time around you play as Misa. She’s a sweet thing with a heart of gold who just wants to make her way through school, though she’s dealing with the stress of a parent trying to push her into a career path that she’s not interested in.
Misa goes to a school that has seven supernatural mysteries, including killer ghosts. If you’ve played many Japanese games then this concept probably sounds familiar enough. Schools having urban legends grouped into “seven mysteries” is such a common trope that it’s impossible to miss them. But that’s okay. It’s a trope because it works, and after Misa has a near encounter with one of the mysteries, your interest will be well and truly piqued.
Then something happens out of nowhere and the next day Misa wakes up to discover that she’s dead. No, it’s not a spoiler. That’s the opening chapter’s big, key moment. Suddenly no one in the real world can see or interact with her, but ghosts are popping out of the woodwork to introduce themselves to her. It’s just as well for her that all these ghosts happen to be rather pretty boys too because hey, a ghost girl’s got urges too!
From there 9 R.I.P. splinters into quite a few different routes, each set in a different “spiritual world.” Some of these are more benign than others, and the game does end up trying to strike a surprisingly wide range of different themes. One minute it’s being silly and funny. The next it’s gunning for genuine tension and horror. There’s sadness in many of the stories, and then there’s also romance to swell the heart. In totality, it’s eclectic and odd, and tonally genuinely different. Thankfully it’s also written quite well and while I won’t say that the game quite nails the deep divides between all the themes that it’s trying to strike, it’s at least cohesive enough that you’ll be able to enjoy the personalities of the various boys and each of their arcs with Misa. None of the stories is a dud, either.
But it’s not just the writing that makes 9 R.I.P. so appealing. The character designs come from Yuuya (the same character artist behind the brilliant Cupid Parasite mob), and while this game lacks the overwhelming and spectacular application of high-contrast bright colours like that, the best otome of all time, does, it does share a love of overwrought, richly decadent colour, particularly with its interface design. Key art scenes really pop and those moments where the game does aim to infuse some horror are all the more memorable for the aesthetics. If only Otomate could take a break from traditional otome and take a hard swing at an out-and-out horror game. Death Mark would finally have some competition.
That digression aside, Yuuya is quickly becoming the top name in otome character design, and 9 R.I.P certainly benefits from that, supported by an excellent interface and some solid background work.
As mentioned, the developers haven’t done too much to try and bend the otome structure with 9 R.I.P. There are several different “types” of decisions that you can make at intervals, which can affect your relationship with the various spirits, but also the “sanity” of Misa and that can also affect the way the narrative plays out. There are also maps that pop up from time to time to give you options about where to visit next. I love maps in visual novels, though their application here seems to be pretty arbitrary and unnecessary.
All of that “gameplay” is par for the course, and by now Otomate has really nailed everything from the paying of decisions in visual novels to the way a story will somehow remain gripping even over 50+ hours, as 9 R.I.P. manages to be. Really the biggest issue that I have with 9 R.I.P. is that I do think Idea Factory mischaracterised it a little. In the promo material, there was a definite emphasis on the horror side of things, with lines like “Can you survive, and maybe even find romance in the face of horror?” Yes, there were some scenes that could be considered “horror”, and even one or two attempts at jump scares, but it’s nothing that’s going to make you reach for the safety blanket.
There are moments where the story deals with heavy themes like abuse, self-harm and suicide, and those are self-evidently dark, horrific themes, but 9 R.I.P. is not even as transgressive or adult as some of Otomate’s other work, like Piofiore (you know, the one with extreme torture and sexual violence from Italian mobsters) or Olympia Soiree… or of course Virche Evermore (that visual novel, in particular, will forever haunt me, I think). All these visual novels are like they were written by Marquis de Sade in comparison to this latest one. 9 R.I.P is gorgeous, well-written, and consistently entertaining, and yet it’s hard to shake the impression that Otomate really held its punches with this one. It could have been much (much) more, and that’s a pity, because if there were any Otomate game that really needed to hit at the gut hard, it’s this one.
But then perhaps you’re not in the mood for a gut punch, and just want a high-quality story with a bit of ghostly theme and something as close to “feel good” as possible, given the context. 9 R.I.P. is, ultimately, a playful take on urban legends and more akin to that classic film, Ghost, than something more visceral. If you’re out there looking for proper horror with a similar theme, Death Mark 2 is going to be a better recommendation for you. But it’s okay that Otomate didn’t make that game, either. After all, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to get it on with a hot ghost, even if 9 R.I.P. missed the opportunity to make one of these boys look like anime Patrick Swayze.
