I also really loved 999, I actually played it twice. Way back when all of a sudden I got killed and didn't know what just happened. If felt kind of strange having to replay parts after so I dropped it but the game and the story always stuck to me wanting to revisit and finish it. Many years after I did and went a different route still not getting the final ending but reaching a lot further. Watching the full ending on youtube was really worth it. I absolutely love original stories like that game.
Now I really want to start the 2nd game Virtues Last Reward as I heard it's arguably even better. The 34+ hour time required so far has made me put off from it though.
I also notice for myself a big gap in time required to finish games as I'm slow and kind of want to see everything at the start instead of rushing through. I guess that adds to the problem not being able to finish. Another one is Resident Evil 7 which I played in VR, It's just too scary. I feel I have played it for 6-7 hours at least already while the walktrough video at the point where I am at is around 1 hour and 20 minutes of the 5 hours and 20 minutes total.
You should totally play VLR!! It's mind blowing, the whole game kept me at the edge of my seat for hours and hours, it's a great experience to go thru, even better than 999. I really want to replay 999 and VLR (cuz I still haven't done so ) but I got the final game Zero Time Dilemma left so I should go with that one before replaying the other two.
And yeah, I understand what you say about the time while playing games, it's hard keeping up with something if you still haven't got to a point in the game where to hang from (even if you are interested in the game ), but then when you do get to that point and you get to finish the game and you love it, you start feeling like you regret taking so long to play it all hahaha, it all feels like a curse sometime, but if you look at it from the bright side you get to maximize that play time and so can enjoy (or suffer(?) depends on the game you're playing I guess lol ) that game even more. ^^