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| Title | 9 R.I.P. sequel |
| Developer | Idea Factory/Design Factory |
| Publisher | Idea Factory International |
| Release Date | October 27th, 2026 |
| Genre | Otome, Visual Novel |
| Platform | Nintendo Switch |
| Age Rating | Teen |
| Official Website | |
I’m always looking forward to any sequel or fandisc for an otome I’ve played before. In a lot of titles, it can feel like the really good romance content, especially in an otome that’s more plot heavy, is very sparsely sprinkled throughout and thus, the sequels usually contain a lot more. It’s hard to believe it’s already been two years since I reviewed the first 9 R.I.P. game. Knowing that 9 R.I.P. sequel was coming out soon, last month I revisited the first one and did the few leftover routes I hadn’t finished and also got some of the alternate endings I missed. After refreshing my memory on a lot of the story and different romances, I was really looking forward to jumping into the sequel.
9 R.I.P. sequel contains a Heavenly and Godly Route for all eight of the original love interests, as well as a somewhat unique ninth route that’s a bit of a combination of the two, for a continuation of the first game’s final secret route. In the first game, most characters had both a Heavenly End and a Godly End. Neither end was necessarily bad, but the Godly Endings were definitely the best ends to get. In this sequel, obviously the Heavenly Routes follow up on the previous Heavenly Endings. They’re mostly full sized new routes with new challenges for Misa Isshiki and her chosen spouse to take on. To be honest, this was my favorite content in the sequel. While yes there are various brand new challenging situations to overcome, I feel like the included romance and overall content was much better in the Heavenly Routes.
I found the Godly Routes to be a bit unique compared to other otome games’ sequel and/or fandisc content that typically follows up a title’s best endings. Rather than showing you a continuous series of new romantic events with each partner, 9 R.I.P. sequel’s Godly Routes jump around a lot. Most of them take place a number of years after the first game, after Misa has become an adult. But rather than completely showing you what her life is like in the future, she’ll end up reminiscing with the respective love interest about different things that happened before the present time where the sequel route begins. I just wasn’t a fan of how it jumped around and it felt like the romance in these Godly Routes wasn’t as enjoyable as what the Heavenly Routes included. The present time they take place in is really dragged out as the guys reminisce with Misa.
I saved all of the Godly Routes for last, really looking forward to them, but then found myself a bit disappointed by each one. Each Godly Route only has one ending. The Heavenly Routes, being more full sized and full of new challenges, come with two endings each, aside from the potential abrupt dead ends that is. Every choice you make will lead you closer to either a Pure Ending or a Deep Ending. Once again, I don’t think either ending is necessarily bad. The Pure Endings did seem like they would be considered the best endings though, but there were quite a few Deep Endings I actually preferred. One character in particular it felt like was really loved by the devs, because he’s the only LI that gets a significantly unique end credits, which differs from the others. It really is a fantastic ending and while he’s not my favorite guy in this one, I loved the credits bit and his Deep Ending the most. Obviously I’m not going to spoil who this character was. And ultimately, every character has great content in 9 R.I.P. sequel, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed no matter who your favorite is.
I’m honestly not really sure anymore who my ultimate favorite 9 R.I.P. guy is. Well actually, I suppose I’m still mostly a Koyo lover. But I like so many of the guys in this series. Koyo, Koharu, Kureha, Sena and Seiya are all favorites of mine. Also, there’s a new character who’s an old friend of one of the original eight, who I kinda wish had gotten his own route. I would have loved to have a chance to go after him. As far as extra unlockable content is concerned, there is some extra content in the menu to enjoy, beyond the usual CG gallery and music unlocks I mean. There’s a voice menu where you can unlock certain lines for each LI based on the endings you get. Some of these lines will give you a bit of an additional look at different events that happen after certain endings. And every character has a little story to unlock in the same section, some of them revolving around the character’s urban legend that’s spread across town. Also, there’s a Nine Wonders feature where through playing each Heavenly Route, you’ll unlock Nine Wonders across Narimigahama for Misa to investigate on behalf of her best friend, Sayaka. I’ve unlocked all of the extras except, I think I’m missing the ninth wonder. I’ve only found eight so far after spending over 50 hours total on the game.
Unfortunately, 9 R.I.P. sequel was not my favorite otome sequel. It didn’t fully satisfy my yearning for more from this IP. Also, there were a number of grammar mistakes this time…though not too many, it wasn’t crazy. Still, in the end I had a lot of fun with it anyway, there was some good stuff to experience regardless. Also, it has the same fantastic atmosphere as the original 9 R.I.P. release and everything looks as great as it did before as well. I enjoyed the new music and appreciated all the returning tunes too. If you loved 9 R.I.P., you’d be making a huge mistake passing up on 9 R.I.P. sequel. If you haven’t played 9 R.I.P. before, the first title absolutely has to be played first. Feel free to also check out my review of that one, which I linked above. My previous review contains more info about 9 R.I.P.‘s overall plot and whatnot. I didn’t want to spoil anything plot wise in this review, being that it is a direct sequel.
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