Current Events > AI: Somnium Files is probably one of the best games out in the recent times

(+) Yeah! (+)

And sadly not enough people are talking about it. It's written by Uchikoshi, who did the Zero Escape series, and it's a pretty interactive Visual Novel that might remind you of what is basically a really advanced Ace Attorney.

I'll give a pretty spoiler-free run down of the game:

You play as Date, who is a partially amnesiac special agent in a special sector of the police that specializes in diving into people's dreams and extracting information hidden deep within their consciousness. Of course diving within a dream often results in having to deal with all of the subject's traumas and horrid desires, and often times you have to play far outside the standard logic.

Outside of the various dream sequences, you pretty much play out exactly as a futuristic detective would. You can just about interact with every object in the game, and occasionally the duo of Date and his AI companion Aiba or any of the people he's near will have a fun banter about that object. Date is a pretty clear fan of raunchy jokes, and the people around will often facepalm and Date's hilarious perversion. But from thoroughly questioning just about everybody you see, you gradually learn more and more about the case and the spider web of connections between all the people involved in the case. There's always more and more beneath the surface, and you dig through it by questioning one person at a time.

Of course since this is an Uchikoshi work, there is a flowchart, and usually some subtle choices you make here and there leads you to a different revelation from other routes and sometimes change the course of the case. Maybe Date doesn't get somewhere on time or he doesn't have enough information to figure out what's going on in some routes. This gets remedied by simply going back in time a bit and choosing the other option, and seeing where it all goes until most likely you learn the truth behind everything as well as yourself.

In the Ace Attorney-esque sections though, the best thing about them is most likely how free form it all is. The characters live in the environment like normal and often actually react to conversations that don't directly involve them. You can control the camera during the conversation, and you're always looking from Date's pov, so you see everything he should be able to see by turning his head. If there's a mirror, you actually see Date's head gradually turning towards the mirror as you turn your camera towards it. It adds a whole lot to the immersion, and it actually makes you pay active attention to your surroundings. Maybe somebody says something that another character finds odd. You can pretty easily miss something like that so it really puts you into Date's perspective and makes you feel like a legitimate detective.

Anyways, if any of that sounds cool to you, I highly recommend it. Seriously fucking get this game

DO IIIIIT

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I bought it for Erika Harlacher and Allegra Clark
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legendarylemur posted...

And sadly not enough people are talking about it. It's written by Uchikoshi, who did the Zero Escape series, and it's a pretty interactive Visual Novel

*topic list*
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MacadamianNut3 posted...

Erika Harlacher

Oh yeah she's terrific as Aiba. Probably the best voicing in this game.

MacadamianNut3 posted...

Allegra Clark

The boss is pretty great too lol. Honestly, I'd say most of the voices are pretty top notch. Greg Chun is also pretty much perfect as Date, and of course Iris' VA is perfect for her role (tho lol she can't really sing, but that's only limited to that one vid in Lemniscate)

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I'm a huge Zero Escape fan and I didn't even know this game was coming out. I bought it a few days ago after I saw something on Twitter about it and I'm super excited to get started on it.
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I'll pick it up when I find it on the cheap.
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LordFarquad1312 posted...

I'll pick it up when I find it on the cheap.

I've heard it's pretty long. So far I've played it about 8 hours and still feel like I'm on the surface.

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i'm sold

don't know if i'll get it soon

but i'll probably get it before the end of the year

watched a 4 minute review on it

Not really a fan of perverted humor that is so prevalent in Japanese media

but the rest looks great

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I still need to play the third Zero Escape game but I didnt even know this was coming out so soon
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Paper_Okami posted...

i'm sold

don't know if i'll get it soon

but i'll probably get it before the end of the year

watched a 4 minute review on it

Not really a fan of perverted humor that is so prevalent in Japanese media

but the rest looks great

The perverted humor is more or less entirely on Date, and in some small portion, the Boss. But it sorta comes across as Date being a total goof rather than being a straight up pervert, since there's a lot more to Date than just his perversion. Also the fact that other characters are often annoyed at Date means they're disapproving of his inappropriate jokes. It's not nearly as prevalent as some reviews say, nor are any of them too blatant.

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Artbook for the special edition is ehhh for anyone curious

It's a softcover 30 page book. That or figurines are the only reasons I buy special edition version of games. The Xenoblade Chronicles 2 one was good though
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I love the zero escape trilogy and didnt know this game was coming out somehow
I want to play it but got to finish three houses first
I also got to finish ZTD
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MacadamianNut3 posted...

Artbook for the special edition is ehhh for anyone curious

It's a softcover 30 page book. That or figurines are the only reasons I buy special edition version of games. The Xenoblade Chronicles 2 one was good though

Yeah the FE3H one was good too. I didn't get SE for this one though, but I don't regret it too much... kinda. I kinda love this game atm so maybe I'll regret it by the end

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MacadamianNut3 posted...

Artbook for the special edition is ehhh for anyone curious

It's a softcover 30 page book. That or figurines are the only reasons I buy special edition version of games. The Xenoblade Chronicles 2 one was good though

I wouldn't have bothered with the SE for AI if Amazon didn't screw up and accidentally have it set to the regular version's price for a day. I was going to get the game either way on release so this was just a bonus.

But yeah, looking forward to the game and have been hearing really good things. Probably going to play it next.
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FridgeBeard posted...

I wouldn't have bothered with the SE for AI if Amazon didn't screw up and accidentally have it set to the regular version's price for a day

Lucky son of a gun lol
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thinking about getting this next week. i've enjoyed a lot of spike chunsoft games
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Thanks for the reminder.
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Been playing it for a few days, pretty interesting.
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added to wishlist. i am so busy because there are so many RPGs coming out this month and the next
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I will say that I fucking hate Ota, Iris, and Mizuki. I can't truly praise the game because of those three.
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Isn't this a VN?
I'm deathly allergic to those.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Isn't this a VN?
I'm deathly allergic to those.

That's dumb. Danganronpa 1 & 2 are great, as is the Ace Attorney series.
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dave_is_slick posted...

I will say that I fucking hate Ota, Iris, and Mizuki. I can't truly praise the game because of those three.

Bruh, Ota and Mizuki are probably 2 of my fave chars. Well once you do their endings, you'll understand them more.

Ota's route legit made me tear up a bit, and Mizuki's route is the most heartwarming so far. At least the one that feels the most like a good ending. Date is best daddy, all I'm gonna say

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legendarylemur posted...

dave_is_slick posted...

I will say that I fucking hate Ota, Iris, and Mizuki. I can't truly praise the game because of those three.

Bruh, Ota and Mizuki are probably 2 of my fave chars. Well once you do their endings, you'll understand them more.

Ota's route legit made me tear up a bit, and Mizuki's route is the most heartwarming so far. At least the one that feels the most like a good ending. Date is best daddy, all I'm gonna say

I did finish Mizuki's route when I made that post. Still don't like her. I'm not heartless, I know how heartwarming it is, but it doesn't negate her awfulness. However Ota's route is kinda changing my mind. Some of this hurts.
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It's a slow burn. As I'm bouncing between this and Astral Chain, I find myself more drawn to the latter.

That's not to say I'm not enjoying Somnium, just that it will take me a while to get through. :)
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dave_is_slick posted...

I did finish Mizuki's route when I made that post. Still don't like her. I'm not heartless, I know how heartwarming it is, but it doesn't negate her awfulness. However Ota's route is kinda changing my mind. Some of this hurts.

She had a rough childhood and is slowly going into puberty. It should take a lot to break her out of the shell and she does it for Date, basically

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"Pooooornoooo maaaaag? Wheeeeeere?"
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CyricZ posted...

"Pooooornoooo maaaaag? Wheeeeeere?"

God I love Date!
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CyricZ posted...

"Pooooornoooo maaaaag? Wheeeeeere?"

I was cracking up so hard at that scene. The guy literally becomes the Flash when it comes to porn

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Another ending done, and I had to take the other route to see where it was going and welp

I can't stop =_=. It's actually amazing how far choosing differently in a somnium can actually take you. 1 case really ends up feeling like 4-5 different cases. I'm already starting to understand the full story behind the right side of the flowchart, however

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I don't know what it is but I actually like Mizuki.

I think it's a combination of her voice actor making a great effort of sounding like a pre-teen girl with the fact that Date is kinda scuzzy so her frustration with him is totally justified.
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Once u get to the last two endings stuff starts getting wild
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Got the true ending, fucking awesome mystery game, still hate Mizuki with a passion. Iris has been downgraded from hatred to highly annoying.
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Just stopping in to shout out how incredible this localization is.

Like, high levels of incredible.
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I reached the true ending as well, and that was one of the best ending sequences ever lmao.

All I'll say is I used to hate that song, now I love it

But yeah I think this is easily the most well put together Uchikoshi title. After I let it sit with me for a while, I think this is the best story he's written so far, too. You could've generally figured out the ending before it actually happened. Some things are a bit of a stretch to figure out, sure, but they laid down all the groundwork. He also uses as little magic mumbo jumbo as possible, though they still exist. However, the story is not confined in a small maze like area and even has area to area conversations to hear the involved characters' thoughts about what just occurred. That's a pretty big step considering Uchikoshi's last 4+ games have all taken place in an enclosed area considerably smaller than the district in which AI's case takes place in. Despite that, the story feels really well put together and sometimes flows better than the likes of VLR or ZTD or Ever17.

One thing I will say though is that I wish there was something to indicate what Date has already experienced and knows at the time when you start jumping around routes a bit. Sometimes I kept asking, wait... does he know about this or that in this route? It sucks when you've not played for a bit and forgot the giant web of routes

Date though, pretty easily my favorite Uchikoshi protagonist. I think back to all of them but none of them were as interesting and funny as Date. In terms of main companion, Aiba is up there as well. Aiba is absolutely adorable, and her english VA completely nails some of the cuter line deliveries

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Finished the Ota ending.
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Got the "Girlfriend" ending, lol.

Didn't expect that.
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Rofl yeah I was so taken aback by that ending. Amazing stuff

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I really want to play this, I've heard fantastic things!

Also not that I mind but this is the horniest flipping game Uchikoshi has made.
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Error1355 posted...

I'm a huge Zero Escape fan and I didn't even know this game was coming out. I bought it a few days ago after I saw something on Twitter about it and I'm super excited to get started on it.

I had the exact same thing happen. Had no idea till I saw something on here about it. Now my copy should be arriving tomorrow.

CyricZ posted...

Also not that I mind but this is the horniest flipping game Uchikoshi has made.

I love how "There's a receptionist at the desk." slowly morphs into "There are huge breasts behind the desk."
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CyricZ posted...

Also not that I mind but this is the horniest flipping game Uchikoshi has made.

Yeah lol though there is a plot reason for why Date is raunchy. But the likes of the Boss are just plain ol perverted. I'm glad a Japanese media out there even acknowledges that people outside of the age of 22 exist in the real world tbh

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Date's thirsty 24/7.

Boss has husbandos and needs Date to perform various acts on her feet.

Neither Mizuki nor Aiba let Date forget about Reika the cabaret girl.

Ota needs Iris' personal effects for reasons.
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Moma got robbed. He deserved an ending

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my copy arrived today. bit busy with other stuff, but i can probably make some time on lunch breaks or before bed
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Got Mizuki's ending last night.

Needed a moment.
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I've yet to get started (I wanna finish Danganronpa 2 before I move on this this one) but I can't stop clicking into this topic when it gets new posts.

I'm gonna spoil myself if I keep doing that ahh!
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I'm trying my best not to post spoilers (even shaded ones).

Echoing a tweet I read last night, Uchikoshi has a real talent for having a nice small manageable cast and putting them in varied situations to observe how they'd react and interact.
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You'll definitely get to see more of Mizuki and even Ota outside their routes. Knowing what you know of that route, it also actively enhances all other routes since you know how certain characters actually feel about another deep inside and can't be honest about it

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