999 is a REALLY good game. Good art, good music, good story, good characters. Not too repetitive and even then it's not too annoying to backtrack for stuff if you really need to for the true ending. I enjoyed it a LOT.

Virtue's Last Reward, on the other hand, has a really good story when it's not painfully repetitive and likable characters. The game looks terrible and I am REALLY sick of watching doors open and close. If you didn't fall in love with the franchise with 999 I'm not sure it would be an enjoyable experience. I'd still recommend it but only to people with more patience and a higher tolerance for bad 3D models and animation errors than I.