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AI Somnium Files needs more love, the plot is great
- Thread starter Soriku
- Start date
i was pleasantly surprised to see it make the Steam top selling list.
I love all of the Zero Escape series (including ZTD, though by a lesser margin than the rest), so I had a great time with AI once I finally got around to playing earlier this month. VLR is still my favourite of his works, and AI doesn't manage to hit that high, but it's definitely a good game nonetheless. I can understand why the humour might be offputting for some, though.
I'm like 25 hours in and I'm enjoying it mostly because it clearly has the spirit of Uchikoshi's writing and damn if I don't love the dude's artistic flair but looking at the individual elements there's not a lot positive there. The somniums themselves are trial and error without any kind of actual strategy to them and kind of limited (don't really feel like the focus of the game), the mystery hasn't really gone anywhere super unexpected/crazy thus far, and the characters are tropey without a whole lot making me care about them. The sex jokes are also hit or miss, but the fact that the protagonist makes them so much makes me kinda like him less than I feel like I'm supposed to. This is something I could easily see myself turning my opinion around on when I finish it if something insane happens but at the moment I'm just kind of enjoying it in spite of itself.
Finally started this over the past few days after jonesing for a Zero Escape style experience. It's enjoyable and intriguing so far but also a bit slow going, as OP mentioned. Not sure how I feel about Somnium mode, and the sex pest stuff is distracting. I can deal with some anime, and expect to with VN storytelling, but fanservice undermining interesting moments and characterization sucks. In for the mystery though, sounds like the payoff is worth it.
Cheers for the impressions, I had this on my Steam wishlist and just removed it. Like I'm fine with anime to a degree (heck I have a Neptunia avatar), but this level of ick along with how often everyone says it happens would seriously annoy me. After ZTD Uchikoshi needs to do an awful lot to bring me back on board, sounds like this ain't it.
Currently playing right now and loving it. Quite far into it, in fact.
I don't see the problem people have with the pervy jokes? It is true they ruin the tone of the action scenes, to the point where I just dispise them with the bottom of my heart, but for most of the game they barely intersect with the main plot. It's just a horny game.
I mean, I can see people not liking that, of course, but I don't think it's a de facto problem with the writing. I do have a few other hang ups with the game, but for the most part it's been a ride.
I don't see the problem people have with the pervy jokes? It is true they ruin the tone of the action scenes, to the point where I just dispise them with the bottom of my heart, but for most of the game they barely intersect with the main plot. It's just a horny game.
I mean, I can see people not liking that, of course, but I don't think it's a de facto problem with the writing. I do have a few other hang ups with the game, but for the most part it's been a ride.
I love great stories in games but I am not sure if visual novels are the right genre for me. I remember my experience with Steins Gate which was reading a great story but basically clicking X 50.000 times. I rather read a book instead.
Would I like this game though because there is some gameplay? How much more gameplay than Danganrompa which I played a bit?
Would I like this game though because there is some gameplay? How much more gameplay than Danganrompa which I played a bit?
It's criminally overlooked and easily one of the best games of the decade. It's absolutely right up there with 999 and Virtue's Last Reward.
The backstory for Manaka and Hitomi is some of the best character writing in any videogame ever. SPOILERS:
The backstory for Manaka and Hitomi is some of the best character writing in any videogame ever. SPOILERS:
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I agree with everything here. There were some GREAT concepts here, that were completely underutilised. I did the
A-Set Conspiracy Theory
Oh, and it ends with
a damn nonsensical Dreamworks-style dance party. Horrible ending.
I wasn't super bothered with the pervy jokes, and actually found it refreshing how Date, despite everything, largely has too much boomer energy to be attracted/creepy to anyone (except maybe the receptionist, but that's mutual). And usually I have a pretty low tolerance for "anime bullshit".
I also didn't hate the Somniums - some were a bit obtuse
, but nothing game-ruining.
The final somnium
was chillingly masterful.
Yeah, the stupid action scenes were cringy and...a choice, but I won't lie, I laughed at his delivery of "SPECIALLLLL EDITIOOOOOOOOON!"
I also didn't hate the Somniums - some were a bit obtuse
Boss somnium, Pentagram, Hitomi's
The final somnium
Where Saito methodically unlocks Date's mental locks one by one, ending in a crescendo while Date slowly drowns in a room filling with the blood of his own murderous past
Yeah, the stupid action scenes were cringy and...a choice, but I won't lie, I laughed at his delivery of "SPECIALLLLL EDITIOOOOOOOOON!"
It'd be an okay, maybe even so bad it's good at worst, game. If it didn't have one of the most misleading and irrelevant marketing campaigns in history.
These incredibly (mostly, but we'll get to that.) charming videos were released from throughout January to July. Joining the massive Vtuber trend that's been happening in Japan over the past few years.
In theory, they were supposed to hint towards the events that actually happen in-game. But in practice, what actually happened was....
What makes this especially baffling is that the Western branch (The Japanese branch evidently knew what a terrible idea this was, as aside from having her host their TGS stream, they gave it no marketing outside of the videos.) of Spike Chunsoft somehow thought this shit was so important, that they basically threw everything else they published under the bus. The entire year was basically 99% AI marketing, 1% everything else.
It got a fancy collector's edition on every platform including PC, which rarely gets this sort of thing nowadays.
It got multiple streams extolling how great it was.
It got proper banner ads across the web.
(I lost the image for this, unfortunately. but i definitely remember seeing a screencap of it.)
It was even the sole focus of their damn Christmas card!
While titles that are arguably far better in every way, such as Crystar and the historically important Yu-No. were basically ignored outright.
This was a problem which could have been easily solved by having her promote the games for them, which they briefly did with Zanki Zero (Or Crypt Of The Necrodancer in Japan.) But instead the accounts are pretty much on life-support now. The Japanese account is still updating daily, against all odds, but the western accounts tweet exceptionally rarely, plus the promotional LINE stickers they pushed at the end of her last video have been missing for months at this point, and are unlikely to actually be released.
In short, if you're wondering how many of the (very few, mercifully.) games out there that have managed to make me genuinely furious due to how godawful it is, this is one of them. The fact the game deliberately goes out of it's way to ignore and otherwise destroy the cute promotional material they made managed to really piss me off.
These incredibly (mostly, but we'll get to that.) charming videos were released from throughout January to July. Joining the massive Vtuber trend that's been happening in Japan over the past few years.
In theory, they were supposed to hint towards the events that actually happen in-game. But in practice, what actually happened was....
- A-set disappears during GDC, presumably kidnapped by Naixatloz. Even uploading videos showing her supposed "death".
- A-set abruptly reappears, acts somewhat strangely, and eventually uploaded another Spooky video, then made a bunch of tweets implying she was suicidal.
- A-set reappears again, and, apparently thinking that having her vanish twice somehow wasn't enough lore. Quickly devolved into a godawful creepypasta implying the game itself was haunted. Despite it making no logical sense even pre-release.
- A-set stops uploading for real in July, with a decent gap between the actual release date due to (presumably) unrelated delays. She'd upload 2 extra "LP" videos post-release, but it's clear they're done at this point.
Literally every single plotline the videos were building up to didn't fucking matter.
The game almost certainly isn't haunted, Naixatloz is a complete fabrication caused by an abrupt reveal that Tesa has a brain tumour (But at least she isn't suicidal!!!! /s), her relationship with Ota (and any possibility of actually helping him deal with his overwhelming attachment to her. Which especially hurts considering i've spent the past 5 years coping with the same issue.) is quickly brushed off as a joke, to the point that his own route is actually about his Mom, and just to make things even more infuriating, she dies in every route that isn't the true ending!!!
The sole "connection" to the actual game, in the loosest sense of the word. Is that the whole imposter arc was actually an incredibly subtle hint that the killer is swapping between bodies. and even that makes no chronological sense when you actually think about it. In fact, the whole "twist" in general is so utterly nonsensical, that actually going with the creepypasta elements would have been an improvement! It's not even the only major inconsistency with the actual videos either, Naixatloz is described as a Satanic Cult in the videos, but in-game it's actually a completely different conspiracy theory about an Alien Satellite!
Oh and by the way, that "True ending"? Which is a borderline slap in the face considering how much godawful abuse the game throws at her and expects you to just ignore? Uchikoshi admitted that the epilogue was a last-minute addition.
The game almost certainly isn't haunted, Naixatloz is a complete fabrication caused by an abrupt reveal that Tesa has a brain tumour (But at least she isn't suicidal!!!! /s), her relationship with Ota (and any possibility of actually helping him deal with his overwhelming attachment to her. Which especially hurts considering i've spent the past 5 years coping with the same issue.) is quickly brushed off as a joke, to the point that his own route is actually about his Mom, and just to make things even more infuriating, she dies in every route that isn't the true ending!!!
The sole "connection" to the actual game, in the loosest sense of the word. Is that the whole imposter arc was actually an incredibly subtle hint that the killer is swapping between bodies. and even that makes no chronological sense when you actually think about it. In fact, the whole "twist" in general is so utterly nonsensical, that actually going with the creepypasta elements would have been an improvement! It's not even the only major inconsistency with the actual videos either, Naixatloz is described as a Satanic Cult in the videos, but in-game it's actually a completely different conspiracy theory about an Alien Satellite!
Oh and by the way, that "True ending"? Which is a borderline slap in the face considering how much godawful abuse the game throws at her and expects you to just ignore? Uchikoshi admitted that the epilogue was a last-minute addition.
Considering the fact the epilogue is flat out the only way you know her tumour was (somehow) cured, this means that Uchi probably wasn't intending for to live at all.
What makes this especially baffling is that the Western branch (The Japanese branch evidently knew what a terrible idea this was, as aside from having her host their TGS stream, they gave it no marketing outside of the videos.) of Spike Chunsoft somehow thought this shit was so important, that they basically threw everything else they published under the bus. The entire year was basically 99% AI marketing, 1% everything else.
It got a fancy collector's edition on every platform including PC, which rarely gets this sort of thing nowadays.
It got multiple streams extolling how great it was.
It got proper banner ads across the web.
(I lost the image for this, unfortunately. but i definitely remember seeing a screencap of it.)
It was even the sole focus of their damn Christmas card!
While titles that are arguably far better in every way, such as Crystar and the historically important Yu-No. were basically ignored outright.
This was a problem which could have been easily solved by having her promote the games for them, which they briefly did with Zanki Zero (Or Crypt Of The Necrodancer in Japan.) But instead the accounts are pretty much on life-support now. The Japanese account is still updating daily, against all odds, but the western accounts tweet exceptionally rarely, plus the promotional LINE stickers they pushed at the end of her last video have been missing for months at this point, and are unlikely to actually be released.
In short, if you're wondering how many of the (very few, mercifully.) games out there that have managed to make me genuinely furious due to how godawful it is, this is one of them. The fact the game deliberately goes out of it's way to ignore and otherwise destroy the cute promotional material they made managed to really piss me off.
It'd be an okay, maybe even so bad it's good at worst, game. If it didn't have one of the most misleading and irrelevant marketing campaigns in history.
These incredibly (mostly, but we'll get to that.) charming videos were released from throughout January to July. Joining the massive Vtuber trend that's been happening in Japan over the past few years.
In theory, they were supposed to hint towards the events that actually happen in-game. But in practice, what actually happened was....
So, a bit of a bumpy road, but it's fine. Surely the game will release and everything will make sense, right? Right?
- A-set disappears during GDC, presumably kidnapped by Naixatloz. Even uploading videos showing her supposed "death".
- A-set abruptly reappears, acts somewhat strangely, and eventually uploaded another Spooky video, then made a bunch of tweets implying she was suicidal.
- A-set reappears again, and, apparently thinking that having her vanish twice somehow wasn't enough lore. Quickly devolved into a godawful creepypasta implying the game itself was haunted. Despite it making no logical sense even pre-release.
- A-set stops uploading for real in July, with a decent gap between the actual release date due to (presumably) unrelated delays. She'd upload 2 extra "LP" videos post-release, but it's clear they're done at this point.
Literally every single plotline the videos were building up to didn't fucking matter.
The game almost certainly isn't haunted, Naixatloz is a complete fabrication caused by an abrupt reveal that Tesa has a brain tumour (But at least she isn't suicidal!!!! /s), her relationship with Ota (and any possibility of actually helping him deal with his overwhelming attachment to her. Which especially hurts considering i've spent the past 5 years coping with the same issue.) is quickly brushed off as a joke, to the point that his own route is actually about his Mom, and just to make things even more infuriating, she dies in every route that isn't the true ending!!!
The sole "connection" to the actual game, in the loosest sense of the word. Is that the whole imposter arc was actually an incredibly subtle hint that the killer is swapping between bodies. and even that makes no chronological sense when you actually think about it. In fact, the whole "twist" in general is so utterly nonsensical, that actually going with the creepypasta elements would have been an improvement! It's not even the only major inconsistency with the actual videos either, Naixatloz is described as a Satanic Cult in the videos, but in-game it's actually a completely different conspiracy theory about an Alien Satellite!
Oh and by the way, that "True ending"? Which is a borderline slap in the face considering how much godawful abuse the game throws at her and expects you to just ignore? Uchikoshi admitted that the epilogue was a last-minute addition.
Considering the fact the epilogue is flat out the only way you know her tumour was (somehow) cured, this means that Uchi probably wasn't intending for to live at all.
What makes this especially baffling is that the Western branch (The Japanese branch evidently knew what a terrible idea this was, as aside from having her host their TGS stream, they gave it no marketing outside of the videos.) of Spike Chunsoft somehow thought this shit was so important, that they basically threw everything else they published under the bus. The entire year was basically 99% AI marketing, 1% everything else.
It got a fancy collector's edition on every platform including PC, which rarely gets this sort of thing nowadays.
It got multiple streams extolling how great it was.
It got proper banner ads across the web.
(I lost the image for this, unfortunately. but i definitely remember seeing a screencap of it.)
It was even the sole focus of their damn Christmas card!
While titles that are arguably far better in every way, such as Crystar and the historically important Yu-No. were basically ignored outright.
This was a problem which could have been easily solved by having her promote the games for them, which they briefly did with Zanki Zero (Or Crypt Of The Necrodancer in Japan.) But instead the accounts are pretty much on life-support now. The Japanese account is still updating daily, against all odds, but the western accounts tweet exceptionally rarely, plus the promotional LINE stickers they pushed at the end of her last video have been missing for months at this point, and are unlikely to actually be released.
In short, if you're wondering how many of the (very few, mercifully.) games out there that have managed to make me genuinely furious due to how godawful it is, this is one of them. The fact the game deliberately goes out of it's way to ignore and otherwise destroy the cute promotional material they made managed to really piss me off.
Now you made me curious about Crystar.
The stupid jokes were awful and omnipresent. In one of the final scenes the mafia guy requests to motor boat the underage idol. And then they let him do it on the fat unconscious dude instead. Come on. It was not even funny. It was awful.
They were not constant?
What about the mermaid cafe?
What about the secretary at the agency?
What about Date's superior asking him to lick her shoes repeatedly?
The story was great and I liked the character design - everything else about the game can go die in a fire, ESPECIALLY ShovelForge.
Crystar is pretty neat. It looks absolutely gorgeous.
and has a beautiful soundtrack.
They did translate a couple of joke comics (By this decently popular Japanese artist.) to slightly promote the game.
But....
- While fairly amusing, they're not super well representative of the actual game.
- They were quickly drowned out by the constant Somnium Files promotion, in fact, they dumped the game onto store shelves a month prior.
- They didn't even translate all of them, there's a few post-release ones on the official Japanese site that they never bothered with.
A bit slow but worth considering the portability. It runs and looks quite better than 3DS ZTD.
I loved this game but yes the sex jokes DID happen constantly and they were mostly terrible. Honestly I think the fact that I managed to love it in spite of those says a lot about how enjoyable everything else was. Mizuki was a fantastic character and the route focusing on Mayumi hit me pretty hard. Also, I don't care what anyone says,
the dance number finale was great.
It's not great but I wouldn't say it's THAT bad. I did get frustrated towards the end because the game likes to do flashbacks and other sorts of things that requires it to frequently load in other scenes and it usually pauses a moment to do the loading. In a conversation where that happens a lot, it can be really obnoxious. I've heard this problem exists on other systems too, though.
It does get better, and the main plot will probably surprise you, but the execution overall remains lacking. the writing style changed compared to the writer's previous works, his writing was more mature and believable in the past.
It is a good game overall but one of my least favorite works by Uchikoshi, and he is still re-using the same ideas even though he changed the genre this time (from Escape Room to murder mystery), but I won't mention which ideas even in spoiler tag, to not spoil the biggest reveal.
I'm surprised how much people exaggerate those things.
The game runs fine most of the time, it slows down sometimes but it rarely happens. watch any Youtube video and you will see it is more than fine.
Saying something is "too anime" is just a shitty generalization though. Just say you don't like the art style. At least it's easier to pinpoint what you mean.
Regarding your spoiler,
There is no timeline jumping, which is itself the twist. Date is just remembering things he already knew as his memories begin to bubble back up.
In the true end he references memories that he couldn't have, like being hospitalized for Mizuki, which never happened.
I've never seen a game so strongly believing in the power of human horniness.
Good game still, but the sudden tonal shifts can be a bit jarring at times.
Good game still, but the sudden tonal shifts can be a bit jarring at times.
It has intriguing ideas that seem like they fail to ground themselves enough the more the game goes on. It has the same issues I had with VLR, that the longer it goes on the more its core focus seems to branch out into irrelevant tangents and the endgame seems more and more muddled. Not a great story imo so much as it's really well executed individual beats in a story that ultimately don't come to that greater whole you're expecting for a conclusion.
To be fair this is not timeline jumping. Date (and Saito) are just accessing to their respective share mind across timelines.
OP
OP
Not that he's not creepy, but Iris is 18 so she's not underage.
I adored every moment of this game. The characters do an amazing job of selling the funny and the serious moments and honest to god this is one of the best dubs I've ever heard.
In every scene I checked every possible item around the room just to get more lines of dialogue. Boss's office constantly delivered the best ones and for anyone playing I'd definitely recommend checking everything in her office. This game is definitely my favorite of Uchikoshi's works by now and has my favorite cast in any of his games, at least since E17.
I couldn't believe how fucking blown away I was by the tone change in a certain character's voice in that scene.
In every scene I checked every possible item around the room just to get more lines of dialogue. Boss's office constantly delivered the best ones and for anyone playing I'd definitely recommend checking everything in her office. This game is definitely my favorite of Uchikoshi's works by now and has my favorite cast in any of his games, at least since E17.
I know there's that one instance, but I feel that was more a joke than a definitive evidence of timeline hopping.
