Question about Ace

[Battler Ushiromiya]

How did he figure out that Snake had played in his Nonary Game 9 years prior? Did he know that Clover, June, and Santa has played in it as well? If so, why did he not try and kill them like Snake? If not, why did he recognize Snake but not them?

[shadg]

He didn't recognize any of their voices since they all grew up, and of course he couldn't remember their faces. He recognized Snake because Snake was blind. Ace connected the dots and figured Snake was either in on it, or was a threat to him as he could have recognized Ace. Though I'm sure he realized Clover was there 9 years ago, he probably thought she would be no threat to him unlike her brother.

[Battler Ushiromiya]

But would he really assume that, just because he's blind, he's one of the kids he kidnapped 9 years prior? There are a ton of blind people that have siblings.

[Battler Ushiromiya]

Wait, when was the safe opened? If he opened it before he killed Snake, somehow, then that could be how he knew because it outright says Snake attended it. If that wasn't the case, I don't see why it'd say that Snake specifically attended it

[Moskeeto]

Originally posted by Juzo Sakakura:

But would he really assume that, just because he's blind, he's one of the kids he kidnapped 9 years prior? There are a ton of blind people that have siblings.

It was obvious that the game was created for revenge against Ace for what he had done, so it made sense that Snake was the blind kid from the previous game looking for revenge. Snake wasn't actually involved in the second game, but Ace didn't know that.

[alicia, sun's nemesis]

All he has to do is deduce that Snake and Clover are siblings, I guess, which is 'a blind dude whose sibling is codenamed Clover.. one of the sibling sets in my experiment was a blind kid called Light and a kid called Clover..'. I think it's easily apparent to Ace that this game is meant to ♥♥♥♥ him over for the previous game, since he knows who the 9th man is, etc.

There's no reason he'd know who Santa and June are because their names are kept secret and they're adults now, and even a non-prospagnosiac, I think, might have trouble recognising them perfectly?

So the only part left is that he never kills Clover. Snake is likelier to recognise Ace's voice and is pretty smart, so he presents a more immediate threat to take out.

But he would presumably let Clover in on it if they were ever alone together. That never happens! The only time Clover gets with Snake after they meet Ace is when they're with Ace himself. Either Ace and suspicious amnesiac Seven go with them into Door 5 or Junpei goes in instead of Clover and Ace. So they never have a chance to exchange that information. And Clover isn't suspicious of Ace outwardly, so she seemingly hasn't cottoned on herself. After all, she was a kid when she was in the first games, and most importantly: we don't know if Clover ever met him, but we know that Snake did.

Snake was on the Gigantic, and he was left behind with Akane/Santa/Nona/Seven, who got caught. Clover was in Building Q, however, and might never have had to run into Ace. Presumably Snake told Clover about this, but he couldn't tell Clover what Ace looked like. Snake 'saw' Akane get thrown in the incinerator, heard him then (brings to mind a lot of questions about what Snake remembers that I guess come down to 'the loop is resolved and Akane doesn't die and Ace is a very sad man').

It's handwaved, but I think it's plausible.

Ace should remain suspicious though because obviously Clover will have her memories of the game dredged up in the same way as him. His only chance to kill Clover is in the Axe ending. Who knows who strikes first there, since Junpei dies while Ace is still at large? The real question is why he didn't go after Clover and Junpei in the Captain's Quarters, but that might've been really hard to cover up... Would've had to do the play dead trick.

And Ace kills basically everyone in some endings anyway just to keep his hands clean.

edit: oh, yeah, the fact that Snake never confronts Ace makes him paranoid Snake is working with Zero, so that should make Clover his next target if he knows that Clover is Snake's sibling. Which is why Clover dies in the Safe Ending, which Ace admits to. He only knows Clover is a big deal because she's related to Snake.

[Battler Ushiromiya]

After beating the game again, it was made clear that Ace and Clover had never actually met because Clover was in the Building Q group.

[alicia, sun's nemesis]

Who sees the paper in the safe before Clover unlocks it? Did anyone (since there was no rust when Junpei was in Door 5 the first time around)? In the safe the note directly singles out that Snake was in the game before (person with the 2 bracelet is how it refers to him) and threatens the Cradle gang, could've been a fallback. (It's just useful for Junpei but I don't know if it makes this mystery more overtly solved)

[Battler Ushiromiya]

Originally posted by alicia, who smiles at death:

Who sees the paper in the safe before Clover unlocks it? Did anyone (since there was no rust when Junpei was in Door 5 the first time around)? In the safe the note directly singles out that Snake was in the game before (person with the 2 bracelet is how it refers to him) and threatens the Cradle gang, could've been a fallback.

I mean, if it WAS Ace, I don't see how he would have opened it. It was probably Clover who opened it, given that she had the note, which would be why she was in the room to begin with. But I don't see how she'd know there was a safe in there, as she didn't go in that room, and why it specifically said that Snake attended the game.

[alicia, sun's nemesis]

Yeah, I figured since Clover had the note and the watch-unlock thing was a new Zero thing presumably. It's not that she knew there was a safe, it's that if Ace had come across that information before, it would always induce him to kill Snake, rather than introducing uncertainty in Akane's timelines by just assuming he ALWAYS figures it out. But in Young!Akane's world, Snake and Ace just ran into each other, so I guess that's not a big deal.

The note's main utility is for people to solve the decoy Snake murder, but I guess since this is a question I often see asked, I can't help but think how convenient it would be if it was more explicitly explained, and the note could easily serve as both a motive and an explanation. Then again, joining the dots that Ace and Snake were in the Gigantic together and Clover was in Q is about one step. Also, Ace would have destroyed the note or taken it with him.

So I guess there's no way the note can do both of those. Hmm. It's a pretty resolved question, I just haven't played 999 for a long time and these details stick out. :D