I picked this up during Black Friday week when Amazon had it on sale. Just finished my second play through, the game lives up to its hype and then some, the story is great, the mood is amazing, and the puzzles are very well done. I could have done without some of the excessive description and violence at times but overall the game is amazing. I think I'm going to play through one more time without a guide then use a guide to get to the remaining endings.
For anyone who hasn't played this game yet, you need to, it's everything people say it is.
Are there any other games out there that are similar (branched story with multiple endings, heavy on the story, maybe with similar types of puzzles, not necessarily with a violent story) to 999? I've played Hotel Dusk and the Phoenix Wright games and while I really enjoyed them, having a branching story where your decisions impacted the story instead of just following the story as it progressed was really interesting.