Initial Thoughts on 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors

Due to circumstances (standard barter) I got my hands on this game.  I've seen 3 endings so far (there are 6 as far as I can tell).  Each one I've seen, the protagonist has died.  I'm forcing myself to put the game down while I reflect upon the storyline.

A warning of sorts first.  9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors is a puzzle game for the DS where things go bad.  Horribly bad.  There are deaths in the game.  What follows is my thoughts into trying to figure out who did the murders -- given incomplete information.

Ignoring that the story is attempting to poison my mind with facts that could appear real, but probably aren't, I should see how much is real or fiction.  The part about the Titanic's sister ships is real -- as is the idea that the ship was cursed -- I don't know about the predicted sinking in previously published fiction or whether there is any discussion (prior to the game) that Titanic was sunk on purpose and Olympic is really the Titanic...  For all purposes, the warning at the beginning of the game should put my mind at ease: it's all fiction.  Relation to any actual occurrences is purely coincidental.

What has me more bothered is that even though I've gone through the game 3 times -- nobody really looks like the murderer.  Of course, I can make educated guesses; but each play-through has negated the possibility.

The first time I played, one character -- after going mad -- seems to have gone on a murderous rampage.  Well; the protagonist didn't survive getting axed.

The second time, while the protagonist was examining a corpse, he got stabbed and didn't see his assailant.  I assumed it was the same murderer as the last time I played the game.

The third time, the protagonist was again back-stabbed (elsewhere) and only saw the silhouette of the murderer.  This time, though, the murderer from the first time I played the game was already dead.  Doing a bit of arithmetic, I have to assume that one character pretended to be dead (in this case I think I know who -- but then that would be messed up beyond belief).  The other is the person who captured everyone and put them in the situation they are in.  The first play-through revealed the old man (who assumedly captured everyone) as dead.  I don't think anyone of the 9 captured players would actually had the chance to axe the old man.

Following that logic, there can have an 11th person on the ship (they are on what seems to be an abandoned replica of the Titanic retrofitted to become a prison)...

I want there to be an 11th person.  It makes the story easier to digest.  All the other characters seem well-intentionned (even the one that murdered the protagonist with an axe...).  It would also make the death of the second character easier to digest (or else you have to assume that the murderer is one of the 7 remaining characters)

The first time I played through this game, I was glued to the screen.  The second time as well.  The third I rushed through it; but I never realized that I'd fail again.  Is this game rigged to make us fail until the sixth and last try?