Kyokugen Dasshutsu 9-jikan 9-nin 9 no Tobira: Alterna

Light novel adaptations of things tend to be very hit-or-miss, and considering this was an adaptation of an escape room video game, I didn't have my hopes up. I suppose it was a good thing I didn't have my hopes up, because I was pleasantly surprised. The trickiest factor when it comes to adapting video games into other mediums is that there is no gameplay, which is what defines a game. When a game is defined by the player solving puzzles to escape the room, how can you translate that into text in a way that is still engaging and interesting? For Zero Escape it's especiallytough, because much of the story relies on the game's mechanics in a way only a video game can do. Thankfully, this light novel made the best usage of it's format that it could when adapting a game. There's no perfect way to translate a story relying so hard on game mechanics to text, but this LN did it as best as possible. In fact, it ended up having the main character solve a puzzle that could not be included in a video game (because most players would not be able to solve it, even if the character canonically could), thus making use of its text format, which is brilliant. It also made minor changes to the story which were absolutely welcome. If the LN adaptation kept the story 100% the same, that would make for a very boring read. I would think "why would I read this when I could just play the game instead and get all of the information the way it was intended to be given?" It still tells broadly the same story but with small new bits of information for the reader, which is greatly appreciated. The writing is competent and the story of Zero Escape is genius. It's an absolutely intriguing and well thought-out sci-fi story with endearing characters and a solid mystery. Highly recommended, forever. I would, of course, always recommend you read this after playing the game, but considering the score on this is marked as "N/A" I don't think anyone is planning on reading this *instead* of playing the game. It's good, extra content for fans of Zero Escape, and it was never trying to be anything else.