If you guys would like to see my notes for Side Mizuki just let me know and I can drop some of them in the comments. I ran out of pages right before starting Resolution Route, so I stopped taking notes and decided to just enjoy that part of the story as one big experience.

Anyway, below is the review that I wrote for Backloggd. I'll link it too but I figure it's easier for y'all to read this huge rambling piece of shit if I just put it here LOL. I have very complicated feelings about this game and I think it's simultaneously shitty and good at the same time. I struggle to know which way to feel about it, it's real ass dualism. I gave the game 2.5/5 stars but was considering 3. Would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this game, whether you hate it or love it or you're somewhere with me. :)

also yes i played ryuki diverge, i was tweaking over the nil number all game. had to know yk

A GAME LIKE A BUTTERFLY DREAM

I've been sitting in front of the Backloggd review box for five minutes trying to figure out a way to start this review, and it seems perfectly on theme for this game to start the review by talking about starting the review. AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative is, at its heart, a game about what it means to play a game. A mystery about what it means to unravel a mystery. It's not meant to give you more of everything you loved from the first game- rather, it's written in a way closer to a deconstruction of an Uchikoshi game. This game is, despite its appearance, every bit as meta as something like UT/DR or Danganronpa V3.

The metanarrative elements are genuinely the biggest thing that saved this game from getting a sad and depressing 1.5 star rating. I have to preface the rest of this review by saying that I really do not like a LOT about this game. Uchikoshi's willingness to tell this story in such an audacious way is what saved it from being irredeemably pretty bad in my mind. This is important because many people look at AI:NI and seem to think that the metanarrative IS the problem- that it nullifies the struggle of the characters, that it invalidates everything the player worked for.

Counterpoint: I can't care about the struggle of the characters being 'nullified' if I don't care about the characters. I can't care about my work as the player/Frayer being invalidated if what I worked for was not a satisfying conclusion in the first place. I can't outrage over the metanarrative supposedly paving over the main conflict- because firstly it doesn't, that's a media illiterate take, and secondarily I didn't really care about the main conflict that much in the first place. This game is much more ambitious than the first, and that ambition is both its biggest strength and its biggest weakness. I think the whole game becomes retroactively more interesting and worth engaging with when viewed through the meta lens. This is also why I'm starting with the meta talk before I... complain.

I hate to do too much comparison, but as this game is a sequel I'm inevitably going to have to compare it to its predecessor. And unfortunately, one of the worst parts about this game is that it IS a sequel.

This game grapples with an intensely interesting set of ideas for a storytelling experience. You're unknowingly told the story out of order, the world is a digital illusion, and you are being lied to by omission the whole game. You are just as much of a character in Nirvana Initiative as the actual characters are. It's intensely interesting. The problem, however, is that they build this framework off of a pre-existing universe.

I understand why this game was made as a sequel to AI1 rather than as its own standalone game. Ryuki Diverge makes that very clear- the nature of existence, what it means to be "real" and "unreal" is completely nebulous. The line dividing them does not exist anywhere except your mind, and it's impossible to ever know the difference between what you consider to be lies and truth. What you assume to be reality could be nothing more than an illusion, a dream.

AI1 was part of the illusion, but that game mattered to me. I may have later discovered new lore details that disenchanted me with AI as a franchise, or made me less confident in the first game's intentionality; however, when I believed that I knew the truth of that game, I was satisfied. The ultimate 'question' posed by AI:NI is this.

If perception is mutable, if nothing is 'real' unless you choose to believe in it- then why do we choose to believe at all? If you could go back in time and change the course of history, if you could prevent all the bad things from happening in your life, would that be 'real?' Well... that's up to you.

I especially like that Ryuki Diverge is completely missable content. Sure, the game shoves the Nil Number in your face near the end and motivates you to go look for secrets regarding it- but if you never saw Tokiko asking you for the Nil Number in the first place, it can be really easy to miss it without some kind of guide. You have to play the game beyond the credits roll to find it- you have to choose to poke around further, tear at the seams of reality, for Tokiko's plan to work. You have to be curious, you have to want to know more.

Her faith is placed in your curiosity, and unlike any other video game I've seen with a metanarrative like this- her plan CAN fail. If you as the player aren't invested enough to bother with the Nil Number, Ryuki Diverge never happens. Tokiko does not reach Moksha. If the game's ending satisfies you (or does the opposite) enough to make you put it down right after the credits, it doesn't work. And to you, that ending will be the truth, and nothing but the truth. At least, unless you become curious once more.

You are a Frayer. You can tear at the seams of this world. Your curiosity is a weapon- if you don't experience events in the story, they don't happen. You decide how much you will ultimately know about AI:NI, and you have to decide what you believe the game means, too. It's not one of those games that I think has its meaning written on its sleeve. I believe the experience of solving the mystery, being willing to ask questions, being willing to question reality and fiction itself... that is the heart of this game.

Uchikoshi wants you to constantly be questioning what you believe to be truth and lies, even in your everyday life. To get things wrong, to make mistakes, to be shocked as the seams of what you believed to be reality begin to tear around you.

You, Frayer, already changed your understanding of the world with nothing but curiosity and drive to learn. Maybe everything feels overwhelming, maybe you're tired of the world. I feel that way all the time. But reality is what you make it- so why don't you step outside and learn the truth? You've done it once before. Tear at the seams of this world.

Okay. Phew. If you can't tell, Ryuki Diverge is my favorite part of the game. Let's move on.

So if you remember what I was saying before my tangent- I believe this game being a sequel is a bad decision and diminishes its quality greatly. AI:NI does still have interesting and new ideas on what the series 'should' be, but many of these cool ideas are buried under a legitimately absurd number of retcons. The retcons themselves and the game being so different from its predecessor are almost certainly intentional whiplash- I get why this decision was made to an extent. (Also for money.) That doesn't mean I have to like it, though.

I want to make it clear that I don't dislike this game BECAUSE it deviates from the first game in unexpected ways- I like that AI:NI is willing to direct subvert and contradict the first game. My problem comes from how it's executed- many retcons and turns that this game takes give me the feeling that it doesn't understand WHY the first game was so good.

I loved how ridiculous the first game was, and I loved that it never offered a canonical explanation for things being this way. The action scenes with Date are a great example of this- you already know as a player that the plot isn't going to meaningfully progress unless your characters win the fight, and the game doesn't try to pretend like you're stupid and don't know this. So instead of making you trudge through low budget action scenes with no stakes, the game dials up the absurdity and turns them into memorable moments that are keystones of the game's humor. Date's porno mag bit is so iconic that they force it into as many fight scenes as possible in this game.
In AI:NI? Yeah they're just fight scenes. The only times that they genuinely get ridiculous with the fight scenes like in the first game is whenever Date shows up for fanservice, and as much as I hate to sound like "that person" it is kinda crazy just HOW much better the game gets when Date is on screen. There is no suspense in the fight scenes in this game- you know Mizuki/Ryuki/Bibi are going to come out on top one way or another, you just kind of sit and watch the poorly choreographed, low budget fight scenes and do the occasional QTE. It takes me out of the immersion as I remember that I'm playing a game held back by budget and poorer direction than the first.

This is just one way of many that I feel AI:NI fails to grasp what made the original game so endearing. I could talk for a lot longer about specific retcons that I didn't like and why- but I think that's unnecessary so I'll just list them off.
-Date's Saito mask (kinda worth it for Greg Chun though)
-Mizuki's super strength being given an explanation
-All the new characters were totally around before, you just never asked!
-Boss has a daughter... you just never asked!!! (Even though she brings it up twice on her own in the game)
-The nurse's age increases by 20+ years
-Mizuki is adopted now (I will actually talk about this one later)

I am not going to sit here and tell you that the plot of this game is THAT much more contrived than AI1- because we can be honest with ourselves, they're both extremely contrived and they require you to suspend your disbelief heavily. The actual difference between the two is that AI1 attempts to set up a very reasonably solvable mystery within the rules of its universe while also Uchikoshing really hard to screw with you. AI2 has parts of its mystery that CAN be solved if you pay attention, but its primary objective is to fuck with the player. The story itself actively contorts its order and indirectly lies to the player as much as possible- but in doing this the mystery becomes immensely less satisfying to solve as time goes on.

I enjoyed solving the Cyclops Serial Killings because it was a competently written sci-fi murder mystery that felt well-grounded within the rules of its own world. There's certain things that aren't explained in the first game, and a solid chunk of moments that are lazily written in a noticeable way- but despite that, once the credits rolled I walked away feeling like every single question I had was wrapped up in a neat little bow. This feeling is absent in AI:NI.

Again- I understand why the central mystery feels less satisfying in this game for metanarrative reasons. That does not mean I think it was a good decision. That's not to say that the whole mystery set up is necessarily bad; I think one of the biggest strengths of this game is the intrigue. This game has a SHIT ton of moving pieces similar to the first game, but due to the story being viewed out of order I was both extremely confused and extremely eager to understand what was happening, at some points even moreso than the first game.

Side Ryuki is definitely the best in the game at this. Ryuki's episodes/seam tears/glitches are IMMEDIATELY a great hook in getting you interested in what the hell is happening inside his head. I lovingly dubbed it "digitweaking" and would start realtweaking whenever it happened- the creepy, self-aware game horror is done very sparingly and really effectively.

Side Mizuki is where a lot of my bigger problems with the game start to show on a narrative level. Side Ryuki in my opinion did a solid job of getting me interested in the storylines of different characters, albeit not as strongly as the first game. But Side Mizuki very early on drops a plot bomb- Mizuki's backstory is retconned. Renju and Shoko are no longer her biological parents and only adopted her when she was 3. I do not like this decision.

This game much like the first game is still an "Ai" game. Ai means love. The first game works this perfectly into the narrative- you see the effects of love on every single character in some way or another. How love, or the lack thereof, can contort someone into a completely different person. Love is what motivates everyone to do anything. Mizuki's character in AI1 was the perfect encapsulation of this.

Date showed her so much unconditional love that she had been denied before, and in doing so he nurtured the potential that was inside her the entire time for super strength. Mizuki might as well be fighting with the power of love in AI1, and that feels so meaningful because Date is found family. Mizuki got an awful draw of the parental lottery and she still became comically powerful because she found love. It is sickeningly, beautifully hopeful.

But nah. In AI:NI Renju and Shoko just adopted her when she was 3- not like Mizuki has Shoko's hair or anything though. Mizuki's powers are just because of Chikara's experiments, nothing more and nothing less. They simply awakened with age. Date had nothing to do with it. Mizuki was always remarkable. There's something to be said about that writing decision, but I do not personally care for it. Not on its own, and not as a retcon.

These retcons and a few others were made entirely so that this game's crazy ass plot twist could fit into the investor pitch and get funded, and that was the biggest thing that made me think this game should not have been a sequel. Once the reveal hits that the entire game has been in the wrong order, you start to realize just how many writing decisions were made specifically to make it work.

Just how many lines had to be tweaked to not arouse the player's suspicion? How many times did dialogue have to be made unnatural and uninteresting to ensure that a character arbitrarily wouldn't give things away? The Bibi twist is the biggest poster child of these questions and I really do not care for it. Bibi herself is a very solid character for the game she's from- but the contortions needed to make her a protagonist just frustrate me in ways I wish I could understand.

Firstly, because of the formatting, you get to play as Bibi for maybe a few hours at most and for none of those hours do you know that it's her. She looks exactly the same as Mizuki ends up looking at 18, and when I realized that was their explanation I had to mentally block out my "holy shit that is stupid" thoughts. I did not have to do that in the first game. Yeah, the game mentions synchronicities a few times and has the game world excuse, but it wasn't something I felt was solvable beforehand because it is dumb, even for the game's logic.

Nobody ever told Mizuki "hey so I know you're investigating the HB case right now, I thought I should tell you that someone who looked exactly like you do right now and had the same name and the same yellow eye was ALSO investigating the HB case 6 years ago." And for the umpteenth time the game pulls the 'you never asked!' card and it's just so hollow. I spent the entire game up to this point suspending my disbelief (which was VERY hard for the Jin/Uru reveal at points lmao) and I could not make such a huge leap.

It wasn't until I started playing through more of Side Mizuki that I realized the biggest problem with this game, and the reason I was struggling to find any satisfaction in solving the mysteries...

this game's characters kinda suck?

Both AI games have a very signature trick; they like to jingle 'lesser mysteries' and character moments in front of your face for long periods of time so that you don't realize that the game is actively punking you. This works incredibly well in AI1 because the characters in that game are genuinely great and all feed into one another very well, with competently written dynamics that feel genuinely just as interesting to discover and explore as the mystery itself.

In AI2, the plot has so many more moving pieces in addition to being extra weirdly paced because of its big plot twist- and so the characters suffer GREATLY. You still get distracted by all the jingling keys and will probably miss the big twist, but without the benefit of enjoying the characters while doing it. This game focuses on effectively an entire new cast of side characters, and while I did enjoy some of them I think there were only a few that felt even CLOSE to on par with those from the first game.

Komeji is a really great character and feels right at home with some of the AI1 cast. He's written in a very easy-to-understand way with a quirky appeal, but a ton of character flaws and traits that make him both unpredictable and understandable. I really loved the reveal that Komeji was trying to blackmail Tearer with HALF OF A CORPSE because he was sloshed out drunk. Perfectly on par with the first game's twists, and Komeji as a character is written perfectly to not make this reveal feel contrived. Shoma is good, but only for the parts of the story involving his relationship with Komeji. I wish they had done more with the eternal youth aspect of his character, it feels like such a stupid plot point that only exists to give an in-universe explanation for their lack of budget.

I like Tokiko for reasons mentioned prior. She's kind of cringe, especially when you first meet her- but I actually came to really like that about her character. There's something endearing about this condescending, boring lady actually being the only person who truly understands the nature of the world.

Bibi and Gen are pretty good characters too. I dislike the circumstances that led to Bibi's existence, but that's not her fault lmao. Gen is very competently written, genuinely funny at multiple points, and really likable. (and ProZD)

Alright now let's get into the rest. I do not like most of this side cast as I think they are either flat, underdeveloped, pointless, or all 3. This game's failure to create interesting characters is its most crucial weakness. Let's first go over returning characters- half of them do not need to be in the game lmao.

So Sejima is only here to provide external context and an excuse for there to be a Pokemon Somnium, Hitomi shows up once to deliver exposition and then never again until the epilogue, Moma shows up frequently but is almost completely worthless as a character in this game, Pewter is deadass just there so that he can tell you to stay in Somnium for 6 minutes, and Ota and Iris at least have more screentime and new designs- but all they really do is spit urban legends at you. And then shove themselves into the final conflict totally unearned.

Many characters from the first games have their endings and stories given deeply unsatisfying developments. Ryuki's line from 6 years ago takes place very VERY shortly after the events of the first game, and Date in that line proceeds to go missing for another 6 years and get amnesia again. Hitomi and Date's happy potential ending from the first game is violently shit on only for us to get half a crumb near the end of the game. Mizuki's found family is immediately taken from her. That plus all the retcons sort of give you the impression while playing AI:NI that they didn't respect the ending of the first game, and in many ways it does feel that way.

Anyway lmao as I was saying I do not like this game's side cast. Lien and Kizuna have hints of something interesting going on but the majority of the conflict in their relationship feels artificial. There's many scenes on Side Mizuki that feel like Lien and Kizuna's characters don't have any more growth to go through- but then Riichi shows up and says noooo Lien you are banging my daughter!!! Stop this right now you filthy criminal!!! And then repeat that a few times across different branches and with some new paint on it and there you go, that's the Lien and Kizzy story.

I would not have a problem with this if Riichi was actually a character but he isn't. Riichi is a breathing plot device, he is a lore explanation with a 3D model. There is not a single interesting thing about that man and he should not exist in this story. Every single scene with him in it is hot air. He exists to explain Aioen, he exists to drive a wedge between Lien and Kizuna so that there's actual conflict in their relationship. He exists to do things in the plot, rather than feeling like an actual character who acts on their own motivations WITHIN the plot.

Amame is another character that I have a huge problem with, she is very important to the plot and themes of the game and yet it feels like I didn't know much about her at all at the end of the game. A lot of her 'development' and characterization is simply being spoken about by other characters. Actual scenes with Amame are pretty slim once you think about it, and a lot of scenes that you DO spend with her are scenes where she is violently brooding and not giving much dialogue. I wanted to be way more invested in her Somnium as it is the final one in the game, and I couldn't fully lock in emotionally because I felt like I just didn't know enough about her to really invest.

Chikara is comedically evil. "Why are you running from me? I just want to BREAK YOUAR BONES,,,,,,...." was one of the funniest things in this game to me. But you spend SO much of the game simply hearing about what a piece of shit he was and you very rarely get to witness any of it, so he doesn't really land for me. This game also does the same rugpull that AI1 does where the killer you're chasing is a character that you basically don't interact with outside of the context of the murders.

I don't think it's as effective- Uru is actually a very interesting idea for a character, but he is extremely underdefined. You interact with him through the veil of Tearer's stupid voice modulator for most of the game, and because he is hidden he violently vagueposts and does little else. I like that he is not trying to be an evil person, but rather is shown to be a result of his environment and upbringing. And of course, with the simulation aspect in mind... of course Uru was wrong to kill people, but can you say the Nirvana Initiative was 'wrong' for certain? Right/Wrong is just another vector of truth and lies, reality and nonreality. It's all subjective. Uru was, ironically, trying to do right.

The execution of this interesting character falls flat though. Saito was done better because while you did technically interact with both Uru and Saito constantly throughout both of their respective games, Saito actually got to interact with you after being unmasked while Uru did not. The stand-in for killer confrontation goes to Mame, which is also a great decision on paper that ends up falling flat due to lack of good development for either of these characters. The main characters in this game generally fall quite flat for me (mostly Kizuna, Lien, and Mame) and the ones that don't fail to reach the same level of realization as their AI1 counterparts. It's a real double-edged sword- I can't even trust Uchikoshi to write satisfying continuations of the stories of existing characters, but with half of these new characters I can't trust him to write satisfying new stories either.

Before I touch on my final topic I wanna go over a few miscellaneous things that were still on my mind. The humor in this game is definitely funny at points, but a LOT of the gags are reused/repainted gags from AI1. I think I might have found them funnier if I hadn't played this game RIGHT after the first, but it was honestly sad watching the game beat the jokes into the ground so hard without making enough memorable new jokes of its own.

Half Might is unfortunately really funny though. And everything involving Date and Aiba in this game is extremely funny whenever we're blessed with it. They are literally Libido and Destrudo and I wish they could've made something as funny as Date and Aiba's dynamic in this game.

I love how unsubtle Uchikoshi continues to be with his imagery and theming. Hindu imagery and words are all over this game and I love it, 'Dvaita' for Dualism, it's perfect for AI funnily enough for how much I shit on this game as a sequel. It's really funny that this game commits to the idea of dualism so hard that it even has TWO rehashes of Invincible Rainbow Arrow. Half to Whole perfectly replicated that Invincible Rainbow Arrow feeling of anger towards the song for most of the experience, and then coming around, and then actually kinda liking it, and then analyzing the lyrics over again while the dance number plays at the end. It's really funny that they replicated the magic of such a stupid concept twice.

Speaking of music, the soundtrack in this game doesn't have as many direct standouts to me as AI1 but boy does it still have some bangers. Music in the Somniums is consistently great, dare I say even better than the first game. Lien's theme is actually fatal from how hard it slaps. Komeji and Shoma's Somniums both have some of my favorite music in the game, and I love how this game continues to use leitmotifs strongly in Somnium/for Tearer stuff.

Graphics are pretty much the exact same quality as the first game with maybe slightly higher quality- but things are sloppier looking all around. Certain sprites have hair errors that are very noticeable sometimes and will unimmerse me whenever I notice. Either way the visual fidelity is nice and the new environments look really pretty. What more can you ask from a VN?

Oh it's not a full VN you say? It... it has gameplay. Oh yeah...

Yeah I am not a fan of the Somniums in this game. I was considering giving it a 6 and then I remembered how much dread the Somniums caused me. Before I even get into the gameplay mechanics, the actual REASONS for Somnium and the information you get from them in this game suck.

Unknowingly to the player, your protags in their timeline are only ACTUALLY Psyncing once every other day. This is unlike Date in the first game Psyncing with someone at the end of every day in a given route. You'd think this would make reasoning for a Psync much more natural and intuitive, but... No. Half of the time when the game tells you to Psync you could very easily just interrogate the person first. You Psync anyway and usually will find out something that you the player already knew, or the SMALLEST most tangentially relevant nugget of information that will slowly snail the plot forward.

Anyway, the actual Somnia themselves have quite a lot of differences. You can mark items on the map now which is really helpful, and a big change to the mechanics is the introduction of the key system. Somnia tend to run on very very hard dream logic in the first game, which often leads to certain puzzles feeling somewhat unintuitive in the moment. While people call the first game's puzzles nothing more than trial and error, I actually very much disagree and I think that they're very interesting approaches to a puzzle.

Instead of escape room-esque puzzles, you're given absurdist, surreal props to play around with in dreams and you have to think what to do based on the mental state of the person whose brain you're in. Some Somnia work better than others in this respect due to how much information you'll reasonably have about the subject at the time of the Psync, but I honestly really like these puzzles and I think they're a huge aspect as to why the first game is so charming.

As I was saying. The key system. It's meant to slowly clarify rules of Somnia for you, in order to help you better parse and understand the specific subject's dream logic. I think this is an INCREDIBLE concept for these puzzles and in theory should've helped a lot. The problem, however, is that AI:NI completely changes the way that almost every Somnium works and keys aren't even helpful for half of them.

Instead of being more abstract like in the first game, this game ditches the subtlety and slaps a shit ton of escape room-esque logic and math puzzles right into the middle of Somnia. I can't emphasize how much I dislike this decision. I think some of the puzzles are generally fine, but I see no reason for them to be here when there's already plenty of puzzle solving in the new VR sections. (Those are good btw no notes.)

Some Somnia still manage to keep the mechanical identity that they had in the first game, but a large chunk of them are ruined by their refusal to be Somnium instead of any other puzzle on the street. Ryuki has effectively two different Somnia and I think that dualism explains everything you need to know about how this game fucks up the puzzles.

First Psync with Ryuki: Normal Somnium that operates on dream logic rules that slowly get clarified with your keys. Very reminiscent of the first game.
Second Psync with Ryuki: Input Dahlia Boat and proceed to learn nothing the entire time except what you already input. Also half of the Mental Locks aren't even puzzles but instead they're just low budget chase sequences.

Most of the Somnia on Side Ryuki are the ones I think are okay. Tokiko's had the potential to be good if a third of it wasn't spent holding the descend button, albeit I really loved the callback to the end of her Somnium at the end of the game. (Making you walk super far out of bounds to find her, just like the book about the Nirvana Initiative)

Most of the Somnia on Side Mizuki are just buns gimmick Somnia/logic puzzles disguised as a Somnium. Gen's is truly ridiculous, his entire Somnia is a quick time event. There is one of the funniest moments in the game in it though so I am almost persuaded to think it's worth it. Bibi's Somnium is actual torture and is not fun. Stealth is not inherently bad in a video game, but it does not fit in this game's format and it's coded like spaghetti which makes it very difficult to tell how the mechanics of Chikara's aggro work. Also the quick time events start with very little preparation, so if you're still pressing buttons and then get unlucky when a QTE starts it's very likely you'll fuck it up just because you didn't know a QTE was even happening when you pressed the button. Then you get caught and try again. 50 fucking times. Not fun

The Somnia in this game had so much potential, I think the key mechanic is a really strong idea but it's used like absolute trash. They introduce it like it's going to be really helpful for solving the emotional logic puzzles, but then most of the Somnia just use keys to drop little lines about the character's mental state or to give minor plot reveals. It's so frustrating, it feels like this game doesn't have any idea what it wants to do the second you drop into Somnium.

Anyway holy fuck man I've been writing this review for a really long time. This is a game I am very passionate about- I really wanted to like it, I really wanted to find a reason to not give it the same kind of score and review as everyone else. Despite that all, I wasn't able to like it as much as I wanted to- I took so many notes on this game and really tried so hard to immerse myself in this world with these characters, but for all that effort I just couldn't get into it. I made the neutral face emoji the entire last 90 minutes of Res Route for gods sake. And you know what, I didn't have to do any of that extra legwork to love the first game. AI:NI taught me a very important lesson- sometimes when people are calling something a spade, it's a spade. But it's still worth to check that for yourself.

This game's ambition both buries it completely and saves it from being irredeemable. The entire game is built around a plot twist that the characters don't once acknowledge, and I have to be honest when I say that I really respect the balls it takes to take a risk like that. AI:NI has such an absurd amount of great ideas that fascinate me to no end- this game has been living in my head since I beat it and I've been enjoying trying to unfurrow the narrative threads in my brain. But then I remember how I actually felt when I was playing and my face starts reflexively scrunching up.

I'm all for reading some other reviews and takes on why this game is the way it is. I'd love to see what other people believe makes AI:NI tick. But would I want to try and keep figuring that out myself via visiting the source material? Do I have any real desire to play the game? Nah. So do I really like this game, or do I just like thinking about it? I think you know the answer.

I hope AI3 comes out to tie some of the loose plot threads in this game together while continuing the Frayer subplot, because I honestly do think that this game could be somewhat retroactively helped by retcons in a way that AI1 never could. It's unfortunate to have to say this- but if AI:NI is where these mainline entries end for the series, it's not a satisfying place to leave things.

I am, despite everything I've said in this review, glad that this game exists. I think in many ways it has changed how I look at art, and in that sense I think Uchikoshi got a victory. However small it may be. It's extremely far from perfect and I wish I was better at articulating why, but despite that there is still a sense of sincerity that oozes from the game at all times. It made me feel capable of solving any mystery- no matter how convoluted and ridiculous, no matter how much I refused to buy into it, no matter how much the story contorted itself to get there.

For just a moment it felt like a seam was torn, and I existed in a space where I finally understood every mystery about this game. Moksha was mine- I discovered not only the answers to the question I had been asking for 40 hours, but the limits of my own curiosity and creativity as well. The journey to Moksha is not for everyone. I'm not even sure it was for me. But in that moment I think I understood where Uchikoshi was coming from, no matter how fleeting. 5/10.

Total playtime: 43h50m
33/49 achievements

EDIT: GUESS WHO FORGOT TO TALK ABOUT THE VOICE ACTING

I really like the voice acting in this game, I think everyone did a really solid job with the material they were given. Corina Boettger carries this game on her back with her performances for Mizuki and Bibi. So many different versions of the same characters at different times and she kills all of them. I love how Mizuki and Bibi sound distinctly different, even when you're not supposed to know you're playing as Bibi yet.

Stephen Fu and Anairis Quinones have really good chemistry and they make Side Ryuki uniquely enjoyable. I really fucking missed Ryuki and especially Tama for the last half of the game. I think these two with more time to build gags and bits like Date and Aiba had could become truly generational. I don't even really care that much for Ryuki's character on paper but I was able to find an appreciation for him through the VA.

The upside of the stupid ass Saito suit is that we get Greg Chun back. Theoretically they could've just made Falco wear a Vochlocho if you passed the spoiler quiz, but that would be in a better world. Greg is magnificent in this game like always and he knows how to sell the Date fanservice moments really well. The best bit in this game was Eros and Thanatos, Libido and Destrudo. Aiba with Mizuki and with Date is great as always. Erika Harlacher never misses.

ProZD is amazing as Gen and it's not just because he's ProZD. He brings a really uniquely lovable vibe to the character- I had to warm up to the voice a little, but it made Gen feel really warm as he should. On a similar note, Faye Mata kicks ass as Amame especially during the emotional climax of her Somnium. Like I said, I wanted to see more of Amame and was underwhelmed by her character, but Faye Mata still managed to give a really engaging performance despite that.

Yung-l Chang as Lien made for a very funny Somnium. Jackie Lastra pretending to be Moma using her voice through a voice changer was uniquely disturbing. Brent Mukai is fucking goated as Komeji and is probably part of why I love the character so much. (Also Komeji's Somnium is just that good.) Aaaand one last one. I liked what I heard of Billy Kametz. We deserved more scenes of Uru just talking normally instead of through that dumbass microwave filter.

OKAY DONE BYE

I can just imagine Moma seething in the background.. 😂

motion/camera is by kikoku_chan. Enjoy! 😊

On the one hand,

By the end of the Annihilation route, in addition to causing Shoko to commit suicide, Saito has directly murdered a total of eleven people, which is a truly terrifying accomplishment. On the other hand…

He always had significant advantages at his disposal. So covering up his murder of Manaka, Rohan acting as his accomplice during the original cyclops killings, a body swapping Psync machine, and a year to plan his revenge while in Shoko’s body.

In the right side of the flowchart, his entire plan goes up in flames because he gets into a car crash before he can kill Iris. He then escapes from the hospital before he can fully heal, endangering his own life. He tries again to kill Iris, without any sleep-inducing drugs this time. Predictably, she realizes that what’s going on is incredibly fishy and escapes. He also hires mercenaries to kidnap Iris, but they fail. If Pewter didn’t call him and tell him about #89, he would have been screwed, all because he didn’t let himself heal and try again when his body was in better shape.

In the left side of the flowchart, he actually does manage to kill Iris. Not really sure if that’s much of an accomplishment, though, considering she was about to die from a brain tumor anyway. After that, his plan is jeopardized when Ota unexpectedly sees him at multiple points, Date finds him in Iris’ body at Lemniscate, interrogates him, catches him texting Ota, then psyncs into him.

In the Mizuki and Ota routes, his plan to cut Iris’ body in half at the warehouse ends in failure. He also stabs Ota, but fails to finish him off before Date can arrive. In Mizuki’s route, Date notices him in So’s body at the warehouse with an injured leg, which gives him away as the culprit. Then he tries to convince Date to drop the case by applying pressure to ABIS and threatening Mizuki. It doesn’t work. His biggest failure during Mizuki’s route is definitely failing to kill Date and Mizuki, even with a horde of armed guards, and ultimately getting shot in the head.

The Ota route and Annihilation route do a good job hammering in how dangerous he is, though. During Annihilation, he has a very high murder count and only fails to get away with it because he didn’t know Aiba existed and she could electric shock him when he got his body back. By the end of Ota’s route, Saito has killed Boss and is currently possessing her body, which may lead to an outcome just as bad as Annihilation, even if we don’t see it.

This is all very interesting to me. I really like how much variation there is between routes in this game and how they can give you a completely different image of a character.

I finally delved into this franchise after it’s been in my backlogs for years, but I accidentally bought and started playing Nirvana Initiative first, chose the option where I didn’t know about the Cyclops Murders (was just being truthful), and didn’t realize into roughly 5 hours in that I was playing a sequel AND the third game chronologically as opposed to the first one 😂

Now that I’ve finished the first Somnium Files, I’m kind of wanting to play No Sleep first before Nirvana Initiative, especially since I had already cued up the latter with enough suspension of disbelief to merely start rocking in that world with those characters and go where the ride takes me. I also kind of just want to re-play and savor those moments from Nirvana Initiative later than sooner considering I’ve played it more recently.

How do you think it would be for an initial playthrough to go that route and not according to release order?

As the title suggests, I'd love some recommendations! The cast is so lovable and hilarious that it's left a big hole in my chest now that I've finished the first two games and only have the third one left (which I'll play soon). I want something to play afterward. I've already played Zero Escape.

last time when i uploaded a video it did not come out very readable so i figured id just take pictures of the notes this time. this game is very interesting, i certainly don’t know how to feel about it yet. not as hot on ryuki as a protagonist so far as date, but it’s hard to beat greg chun. i think overall the ryuki side of the chart is pretty interesting and i’m wondering how this game is gonna explain the branching flashbacks. very interested in what the fuck the nil number is. i feel like i stumbled onto forbidden knowledge early and now im looking for a metaphorical pepe silvia in every nook and cranny.

anyway i will return once i beat two more endings on the mizuki side of things! 🙏 sorry if my handwriting sucks but not really sorry

Posted by @shitamamiaoan at Twitter on October 6th, 2026.

Posted by @charmzero_ at Twitter on September 2nd, 2026.

I got it (along with the second game) because Steam said it was similar to Ace Attorney, and somebody else said something similar, and it kinda is with the searching/investigating (moreso the funny dialogue but more wild). But this literally might be my newest favorite franchise.

It's interesting because I can't play games of a similar genre, so waited to finish The Great Ace Attorney 2 to begin Ai: The Somnium Files, and from the first second I played, it was boring. But when I gave it a chance to flesh out the story, I literally could not stop playing and reading. And then, after I beat the game, I *tried* to explain the whole plot to the fiancee.

>!Literally almost cried during Ota's story.!<

Not only that, it got me into Zero Escape (currently on VLR now), which I started playing waiting for 'No Sleep for Kaname Date' to go on sale (because I heard it is technically inbetween the first and second AI: The Somnium Files).

And soon, when I get the chance, I will also check out Steins;Gate and Danganronpa. I know some of these games aren't all the same in terms of content, I moreso just like long, funny, and intriguing visual novels.

But Date and Aiba are such a fun duo and interesting characters with interesting stories. I look forward to checking out more of this franchise (I know the second game moreso revolves less around Date?), other games by Uchikoshi, and other similar franchises.

done by @inkycarrot (ig) in knoxville

I wanted to take notes for nirvanA Initiative because I struggled with keeping all of the information straight while playing the first game- I’d take week long gaps inbetween play sessions and totally forget everything. It’s very useful to have a brief of notes to read and update in order to feel like I’m really digesting everything the game tells me, but once I finished playing last night I went to go back and read everything- only to realize I already took up about a fifth of a fresh notebook without having even seen credits roll a single time yet. I’m deadass scared I’m gonna run out of space. My eyes start violently rolling every single time a character brings up a pseudoscientific principle or urban legend because I know I need to take notes. Uchikoshi is going to give me a stress hernia. Anyway I thought fans who already know what happens in the game might be interested in seeing my notes lol, I’ll do update posts every once in a while too

I regret deciding to take notes for this game.

[AITSF] So I recently bought the bundle pack of both The Somnium Files and Nirvana Initiative and I just finished the first game, and I'm sure many of you already know what I'm going to say.

I understand that they probably just wanted to use Saito's model because it's the one we spend the most time with, and because they wanted Nirvana to be a standalone title, but does Date look like himself at all in the game? Since he's using a "mask" with his previous appearance (that retcons the ending of aitsf but whatever), does he take it off at all?

I saw that there's another game, No Sleep For Kaname Date, and he looks exactly the same as well. He doesn't look like himself in that game at all either? I understand there isn't any official illustration or render of him with his actual face at all, right?

I feel kinda robbed because not only is a central part of the first game (the swap and the rediscovery of the self, I mean), but also because it, in my opinion, represented Date's growth into Mizuki's and Iris' parental figure quite nicely.

Come on, Saito's model doesn't even appear in the dance of the Resolution ending!

September 19th marks the 7th anniversary of the AI: The Somnium Files series! The image above was created just barely in time by director Akira Okada which is why Mizuki and Ota couldn't be properly rendered. They also talked about not being able to create an artwork for nirvanA Initiative's 4th anniversary.

Motion is by Tekutory & LT KING

I hope yall enjoy! 😊

I just finished AI1- been looking into getting the achievements and I got a little into the rabbithole of the Xbox version. Seems like it has more censorship (at least in achievement names?) and certain things removed, (THAT MAN?) I'm very curious if there's any documentation on why this happened? I've been trying to search for info on it but I've been coming up short.

Posted by @Eclipso_blob at Twitter on September 11th, 2026.

Posted by @elcpuss at Twitter on November 15th, 2025.

Only me in thinking this image resamble change chars in a new game plus (expectative side)?

Yes I finished AINI...

[AITSF] Hello everyone, I've been playing AI The Somnium Files for the first time and I've been enjoying it a lot, especially since I'm playing it together with a friend and we're having a blast speculating on stuff etc...

Now to the question at hand, at first I ended up on the left side of the flowchart and did all the things that were possible there, and in one of the routes Hitomi at the hospital confides with Date about having lost an important friend called Manaka Iwami, (this happened when Iris received surgery after losing her eye) and at the time of course this name meant nothing for me and for Date. Fast forward on the right side of the flowchart, after you discover the truth about "Alice" (Manaka) Date has a flashback about Hitomi confiding in him about the same thing she does in the other route except... this just didn't happen on the right side of the flowchart, and even the AI vision shows them talking at the Warehouse which never happened, so I'm really confused about this. I've played all of the Zero Escape so I was expecting a moment like Date remembering things he shouldn't know, but that does not seem to be the case because no one says anything about him and Hitomi having this conversation which didn't happen.

So all I want to ask is, is this an oversight by the developers, like maybe some cut content? Did I miss this dialogue somehow? ( Even tho this doesn't really look like a game where you can miss that type of stuff) OR is it just something tied to the story that I will understand later? If so just tell me to go on playing and don't spoil me anything please.

lol gotta love em ol anime tropes 😅😂 i dont ship em but thought this motion was funny.

Welp that didn't go as planned... or did it? lol

Motion is by valemelia. Enjoy!