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AI Somnium Files needs more love, the plot is great

Soriku

Soriku

Member
Nov 12, 2017
6,905
Don't think this game has gotten a lot of attention. I'm at the epilogue now and this game has some excellent and emotional backstories for characters and some clever plot points and crazy twists at the end, while still feeling somewhat grounded, supported by good writing.

A lot of foreshadowing that you can piece some of it together, but when the game actually explains everything in one complete package and everything makes sense...*chef kiss* Game can be a bit slow at particular times, and there are one too many sex jokes, but the payoff is huge.

Also the visuals and character models are really nice and clean IMO on PS4.

For me this is a comeback from ZTD which was disappointing (but let's not get into that) in the same way that I thought Danganronpa V3 was a significantly better product than the Danganronpa 3 anime was.

Anyway if you like visual novels, or just want a very good mystery plot with some good character backstories, pick this up.
 
Herb Alpert

Herb Alpert

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,033
Paris, France
It's a great game indeed !
Some Nice characters, wacky humor and good twists.

The Somnium sections are not great though, with weird and twisted logic (ok, we're in a dream world, but still) and a timer that makes the thing more cumbersome.
 
Lord Vatek

Lord Vatek

Avenger
Jan 18, 2018
21,515
I really should try it. I haven't played a good Spike Chunsoft game since Virtue's Last Reward.
 
KOfLegend

KOfLegend

Member
Jun 17, 2019
1,795
I thought it was much better than ZTD, but nowhere NEAR 999 or VLR. Maybe it's because I set my expectations too high, I don't know.
 
Tagg

Tagg

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt-account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,717
Still waiting for the game to be discounted digitally.
 
Crono

Crono

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,478
Picked this up around black friday and just finished it. It was enjoyable just wish it had a little more puzzles to it.
 
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Soriku

Soriku

Member
Nov 12, 2017
6,905
Herb Alpert said:
It's a great game indeed !
Some Nice characters, wacky humor and good twists.

The Somnium sections are not great though, with weird and twisted logic (ok, we're in a dream world, but still) and a timer that makes the thing more cumbersome.
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The timer didn't bother me much because if you mess up you can just fast forward through all the stuff you know works / already did and get back to the same point pretty quickly

Speaking of the fast forward button, that really saves the tedium in certain scenes...like watching the Date driving the car animation for the 100th time. You would think it's there to supplement some kind of background loading, but no you can just skip through it.
 
Yasumi

Yasumi

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,575
Eh, I thought it was only a step up from ZTD, but still landed below VLR. About on the same level as Punchline, especially with that amount of needless pervy jokes. The porno mag thing was never funny.

By the end of the game, I honestly felt like I was only 3/4 of the way through. There were a bunch of minor elements that would've been a good potential setup for more major plot points, that just got handwaved away as, "Oh that's resolved, don't worry about it." In particular, the timeline hopping is never adequately explained, and could've been a nice cap to the game. Lot of missed potential.

The method to solving Somniums was also annoying, in that you pretty much have to poke stuff until it works, which it also inherited from Punchline. There's no real logic to it.

Overall, it was okay, too much dumb stuff in the middle, and an unsatisfying end. There are better VNs/adventure games out there.
 
Dice

Dice

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,363
Canada
If anyone is selling this (and not a frequent visitor to the Buy/Sell Thread)... PM me. 🤣 I wanna experience it so baaad
 
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OP
Soriku

Soriku

Member
Nov 12, 2017
6,905
Oh I forgot to mention the game is almost fully voice acted. And the VA is good too!
 
Mary Celeste

Mary Celeste

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,195
it's a great game, very well written and acted and I loved its characters to death. Switch version runs like ass though.
 
Poltergust

Poltergust

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,832
Orlando, FL
It definitely has a very likable cast of characters. While I don't care too much for Date due to all the sex jokes, the main supporting cast does a great job getting you attached to them.

The QTE segments are legitimately terrible, though. Honestly, those would have worked better as just multi-choice options. In fact, one of these segments ends in such a way, and it was a very powerful moment to choose the right option at that time.
Yasumi said:
Eh, I thought it was only a step up from ZTD, but still landed below VLR. About on the same level as Punchline, especially with that amount of needless pervy jokes. The porno mag thing was never funny.

By the end of the game, I honestly felt like I was only 3/4 of the way through. There were a bunch of minor elements that would've been a good potential setup for more major plot points, that just got handwaved away as, "Oh that's resolved, don't worry about it." In particular, the timeline hopping is never adequately explained, and could've been a nice cap to the game. Lot of missed potential.

The method to solving Somniums was also annoying, in that you pretty much have to poke stuff until it works, which it also inherited from Punchline. There's no real logic to it.

Overall, it was okay with too much dumb stuff in the middle. There are better VNs/adventure games out there.
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I don't think that was intended to be a major thing in this game, as the plot doesn't really need it. It's just a neat thing that was added for Uchikoshi fans and not really much else.
 
sredgrin

sredgrin

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
12,276
I think the fans oversell it.

It's solid. Has a couple good characters, and a couple fun twists, but I've found myself struggling to remember much of it already.

I find the whole idol stuff offputting though, so ymmv.
 
RedSwirl

RedSwirl

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,061
If it's as good as 999 and VLR I'll probably get it after I actually get around to ZTD. At the very least it's good to see these games keep moving up in production levels. This one has actual 3D movement and stuff right?
 
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Soriku

Soriku

Member
Nov 12, 2017
6,905
sredgrin said:
I think the fans oversell it.

It's solid. Has a couple good characters, and a couple fun twists, but I've found myself struggling to remember much of it already.

I find the whole idol stuff offputting though, so ymmv.
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I don't care for idol stuff, but one character is an idol and they sorta touch on it because some characters are fans and due to a little plot stuff, but it's nothing extensive
 

Deleted member 25702

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
370
The overall mystery and plot points are good—Uchikoshi kills it at creating intricate timelines. And the withholding of crazy stuff is so good once it unfolds. Once The Thing of the game happens, it had me out of my seat and jumping around because it's so surprising and felt just out of reach
The game has so many problems that I couldn't rank it above ZTD (which I did enjoy tbh). The character writing and interactions are okay-at-best, but was constantly bottom-barrel anime stereotypes. Not one action sequence takes place that doesn't centrally require pornography magazines to progress. Just lowest common denominator stuff. Besides that, they manage to make some good emotional bonds and play characters well off each other.
It is a bizarre decision to make a murder-mystery game where the player is constantly guessing at what to do because logic is not applicable to the dream world. It's easy enough to power through, but failing at a guessing game and having to replay sequences (especially ones you may have to play multiple times) is bad and not indicative of difficulty-by-design.
It's a shame this is Uchikoshi's next go after ZE, but better to knock out an okay one-shot than dive into another series.
 
Phoenixazure

Phoenixazure

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,444
Still gotta make my way through it. Sadly the Pervy moments stick out like a sore thumb than in previous games. I'll give it props though for one of he few times I was legitimately horrified by what happened. The warehouse was one of the most tense moments since 999 so big ups for that
 
Iori Fuyusaka

Iori Fuyusaka

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
2,901
Herb Alpert said:
And ?
Is one joke per scene "constant"?
And beyond that, what's the issue here ?
Bad jokes ? Yes, there are, that's not what will make the game bad
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I never said the game was bad. I platinumed it and it was one of my favorite games of 2019.
That said, the game is unapologetically anime and if you are not a fan of that already, you'll never get to see the great writing.
Somnium Files knows its audience and isn't trying to win over any new hearts.
 
HaremKing

HaremKing

Banned
Dec 20, 2018
2,416
From what I've found from people I've spoken to, your enjoyment of the game greatly depends on how you solve the first Somnium. For those who had to go through Aset's side first, I've found that they were much lower on the game than those who experienced Mizuki's side, and I can kind of see why as the two sides are very different from eachother and depending on the kind of experience you wanted, one side could be more offputing than the other.
 
Zolbrod

Zolbrod

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,077
Osaka, Japan
I loved it, it's in my Top 3 favorite games of last year!

And maybe the sex jokes aren't "constant", but there sure as hell are more than "a few."
I didn't mind though.
 
Takuhi

Takuhi

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,307
Does it get better? Because I did one arc of it (or whatever you call it, where it tells you can't go any farther and have to replay from one of the AI sequences) and so far the story is just beyond stupid. Date is the worst detective ever, the policies and protocol of his agency make no sense at all, and all the "suspects" are people who seem to keep getting involved in the case, against all logic, for no other reason than the game only having a cast of like six people. I'm really struggling to take it seriously.
 
pbayne

pbayne

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,377
It had its highs and lows. It kind of sucked the life out of me constantly revisiting the same places and characters regardless of the situation, especially when id say a good 60 odd percent of those scences didn't progress the plot even a little bit. The
branching timelines
were really poorly implemented too, it just didn't make sense for this game to have them really
The strengths were definitly the character plus the humour at times and then the odd really good story beat.
 
OP
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Soriku

Soriku

Member
Nov 12, 2017
6,905
Takuhi said:
Does it get better? Because I did one arc of it (or whatever you call it, where it tells you can't go any farther and have to replay from one of the AI sequences) and so far the story is just beyond stupid. Date is the worst detective ever, the policies and protocol of his agency make no sense at all, and all the "suspects" are people who seem to keep getting involved in the case, against all logic, for no other reason than the game only having a cast of like six people. I'm really struggling to take it seriously.
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Yes. Not sure what you mean on Date and his agency, but I know what you mean on the suspects and yes there are important intertwined reasons why these characters are involved, without getting into endgame spoilers...

That said in murder mystery plots they normally set up the main cast pretty early/fast anyway and they're the ones supposed to be involved just so the story doesn't pull stuff out of nowhere.
 
HaremKing

HaremKing

Banned
Dec 20, 2018
2,416
Takuhi said:
Date is the worst detective ever, the policies and protocol of his agency make no sense at all, and all the "suspects" are people who seem to keep getting involved in the case, against all logic, for no other reason than the game only having a cast of like six people.
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There's around 20 voiced characters that are part of the cast.
 
Horned Reaper

Horned Reaper

Member
Nov 7, 2017
1,560
Great plot, mediocre writing, bad puzzles. Overall a decent game/visual novel.

Takuhi said:
Does it get better? Because I did one arc of it (or whatever you call it, where it tells you can't go any farther and have to replay from one of the AI sequences) and so far the story is just beyond stupid. Date is the worst detective ever, the policies and protocol of his agency make no sense at all, and all the "suspects" are people who seem to keep getting involved in the case, against all logic, for no other reason than the game only having a cast of like six people. I'm really struggling to take it seriously.
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Not really. The game stays goofy and is very incosistent when it comes to the rules of the world, so you have to take everything with a sizeable amount of salt.
 
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Soriku

Soriku

Member
Nov 12, 2017
6,905
pbayne said:
It had its highs and lows. It kind of sucked the life out of me constantly revisiting the same places and characters regardless of the situation, especially when id say a good 60 odd percent of those scences didn't progress the plot even a little bit. The
branching timelines
were really poorly implemented too, it just didn't make sense for this game to have them really
The strengths were definitly the character plus the humour at times and then the odd really good story beat.
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The revisiting is what I mean on the slowness, that said I disagree on the plot not moving with these scenes now that I've gotten to the end. The plot is constantly moving, you just may not realize it immediately especially when there are multiple branches to the story.
 
Takuhi

Takuhi

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,307
Horned Reaper said:
Not really. The game stays goofy and is very incosistent when it comes to the rules of the world, so you have to take everything with a sizeable amount of salt.
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Ugh... Yeah, I just completely checked out after
the Yakuza tried to murder Date (and probably wiped out a city block) with a gatling gun
and he was like "LOL, whatever!" and then was grilling
A-set
over the thinnest of leads two scenes later.

And don't get me started on the whole
"this is a copycat murder and even though we've chosen you to investigate it we can't tell you any details about the murders that are being copied because reasons, and also your eyeball who can hack every security camera in the world and review all of their feeds within 2 seconds for some reason can't even, like, wikipedia it for you."
thing. UGH. I really hope the payoff is worth it.
 
ara

ara

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,018
I mostly enjoyed it, but I sort of forgot about it as soon as I was done with it. The humor was pretty dreadful and the twists never hit me quite as hard as they did in many of Uchikoshi's earlier works. The dream sequences were terrible trial and error stuff. Definitely well below 999, VLR, E17 and R11, probably about on the same level as ZTD.
 
Yu Narukami

Yu Narukami

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,151
I have to praise the fact that practically the whole game is voiced in English which is rare for this type of game.
 
aspiegamer

aspiegamer

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,460
ZzzzzzZzzzZzz...
My one line for this is "It's Phoenix Wright, if he were rated MA and had his trials in other people's dreams," and I mean that in the kindest way possible as I just finished the original trilogy remaster recently. I'm very glad I ran into this game. The core dream gameplay loop is clever. Interesting LQBTQ+ tones. Extremely satisfying ending. Uniquer games like this need to exist.

The anime~ness is really painful at times, namely a couple of the weird action sequences. It wouldn't have taken THAT much different writing to keep the protagonist AND the bad guys away from........... magazines. This got cringey versus the delightfully bleak overall setting and plot and how extremely serious it gets at the end.
Yu Narukami said:
I have to praise the fact that practically the whole game is voiced in English which is rare for this type of game.
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It's a good dub, too! The scrpit just wouldn't work the same way without it, with a lot of puns and other quirks. Outstanding example of localization vs translation.
 

Deleted member 14735

Oct 27, 2017
930
Avalon said:
That said, the game is unapologetically anime and if you are not a fan of that already, you'll never get to see the great writing.
Somnium Files knows its audience and isn't trying to win over any new hearts.
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Yea. The plot is good, a step up from ZTD. I think people have overhyped it a bit, it isn't on the level of 999 or VLR but it was good and a return to form for Uchi to be sure. But the humour and perviness are awful and overbearing and honestly ruined it for me. Ruined attachment I might have felt to the characters, ruined the tone (I'm quite alright with tone shifting normally but it's pretty different when that shift is to literal cartoon hijinks that break any immersion you might have had). Rob it of its weight. You really, really need to be on board with this sort of "anime" style of thing to be into this game. Which I guess most people that want to play it are apparently because I've seen barely anyone else who shares my feelings about it lol

I really wish I liked this game but when it comes down to it I think I honestly prefer ZTD. At least that one was unintentionally funny. I'm not sure if Uchi was the sole writer on this but I wonder if he needs a co-writer to reign in some of these aspects of his work, I didn't play it but just knowing he also wrote Punch Line like.. even if we just went back to 999/VLR levels of anime, and those two were already pretty dang anime
 
Feep

Feep

Lead Designer, Iridium Studios
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
4,603
Crossposting my post from the OT:

- As mentioned ten trillion times before, Uchikoshi undercutting wildly serious and dramatic stakes with idiotic cuts to porno mags is an absolute disaster. At one point, a dramatic shootout where a twelve-year-old child's LIFE is in danger is resolved by shooting a bra off a line, causing the mercenaries to abandon their objective to go look at women's underwear. This shit made me physically *angry*. This trash runs through this entire game, even the very end, where
Date secretly hopes a girl less than half his age, the adopted daughter of a woman he was deeply romantically involved with, and one that he partially helped raise at age 12 would make out with him.
Come the fuck on.

- The Somniums were an absolute disaster. Trial and error illogical nonsense. Occasionally, due to how completely unknown future time requirements would be, you'd get into a situation where you'd *have* to restart the entire thing from the beginning due to the "three diamonds" mechanic. Every time I entered one I literally considered stopping.

- Pacing was rough, especially in the Iris route. More wasn't better, here.

- Many things unexplained, including
Mizuki's strength and any kind of connection between parallel worlds. You could kind of take the parallel world thing for granted, considering it's just Uchikoshi's thing, but great care is given to narratively justify the mechanic in previous entries, and it kind of bothers me.

- There were some positives, however. The central mystery was well done, and Mizuki and Moma (minus occasional pervy breakdowns) were excellent characters. The voice acting was fantastic overall.
 
Axisofweevils

Axisofweevils

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,841
AI was released at the wrong time with too many titles competing for attention. One of the most slept on titles of 2019 imo. It is my personal GOTY.
 
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