Image via Idea Factory International

When Idea Factory and Otomate released 9RIP for the Switch, it put together a “horror” otome game focusing on ghosts and gods. Was it ever actually scary? Honestly, not so much. But the effort to make urban legends romantic resulted in some good stories and fun bachelors. Now 9RIP Sequel is exactly what someone might expect from a follow-up and fan disc. However, the downside to this visual novel is that it is really more for folks who preferred the Heavenly endings from the original game and not the Godly ones.

Every run of 9RIP Sequel starts the same. We see a quick refresher of what Misa went through in the original game, and make selections that determine which character’s epilogue story and ending we’ll see continued. Now, the Godly and Heavenly endings from 9RIP weren’t exactly good or bad. They tended to just determine if Misa was alive or dead at the end and if she was or wasn’t still able to see and be with her otherworldly love interest as a result. The prologue here ends with a blatant Godly or Heavenly choice that will offer essentially a one sentence synopsis setting the stage for those two routes with that love interest.

Is the prologue handy? I suppose! Frankly, I’d have preferred a tidy menu that let us select the love interest and then Godly or Heavenly, since the execution means seeing the opening movie (you can skip it, but that still takes time) and answering questions again. Also, if you don’t remember whether your favorite guy was on the “spirited away” or “suddenly able to see spirits” route, then you need to do some rewinding/reloading to make sure you get to who you want. 

As for the routes themselves, the Godly ones are very straightforward! These tend to only have one ending per character, even though there will be dialogue options, and sort of show events in different seasons. They’re fine, but it feels like a quicker “here’s what happened next” wrap-up for those possibilities. I enjoyed some of them, especially the Kureha and Koyo follow-ups. But don’t go in expecting tons of details and especially lengthy follow-ups. These might not even take you an hour to read, which is a bit of a pity.

That’s because Idea Factory and Otomate put so much more effort into the Heavenly storylines. Those involve choices that could prioritize Depth or Purity for the love between Misa and the bachelor for different endings, or even odd choices that lead to premature endings. I also appreciated that the Heavenly routes acting as epilogues in 9RIP Sequel feel more like the character storylines we saw in the original horror otome game in terms of their execution. We’ll have moments where we see the POV from the guy she’s with briefly. In addition to choices, there might be opportunities to choose different places on a map to visit. There are good array of CGs in them too! In almost every case, these felt like meaningful extensions of the Heavenly endings. As these are far more substantial, I found the ones I read ended up being between four to six hours each. These also can feel sometimes even a little spooky and scary, keeping with the tone of the original, while I didn’t get that as much from the Godly routes.

Speaking of the “horror” element, I feel like 9RIP Sequel doesn’t come across as being as spooky of an otome game since a lot of the element of surprise from the original game is gone. We know who all these love interests are. We’re aware of the deal with the supernatural, heaven, and hell. While there can be some situations that can be unsettling in tone or deal with darker topics, the developing relationships and showing how things turn out for Misa with the guys is more of a priority. This is not a bad thing at all. If anything, I’d call it a natural consequence. I will say that Idea Factory and Otomate did keep the theme going rather well, so the same ambiance is present. Everything remains true to established lore, based on the routes I saw, and the cast developed well.

As with any otome fan disc, 9RIP Sequel does feel made for fans of the game and who enjoy romances with supernatural and spooky elements. It looks good, and there’s some good character development here! The catch is that it really does tend to prioritize the Heavenly endings from the original 9RIP, setting those up as “canon,” which might leave some players who enjoyed the Godly outcomes feeling a little left behind.

9RIP Sequel will come to the Switch on October 27, 2026. 

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