AI Somnium Files is a fantastic new game from Kotaro Uchikoshi. This game tells the story of a detective named Date and his partner an AI Eyeball. With a cast of interesting characters, he is in for quite the investigation. Players are going to join up with Date to take down the Cyclops killer a psychopath who pulls out the left eye of their victim before killing them. It is a quite frightening way of killing people, as they are always alive when the killer plucks their eyeball. Hopefully with the player’s help Date will see the truth.
Date is part of the group Abis a special group out to help people. They use a special machine called the Psync machine which connects people’s minds. Date is a special case and is the only one to use the machine for the team. Date is also joined by his special AI-Ball known simply as Aiba. Aiba offers the detective many abilities including a large database of information. Using the Psync machine is quite interesting. Every person has their psyche so every level is distinct. Player’s might have an inkling eventually of where they are going but in dreams, things are never as they seem. It’s always a treat to pop into dreams and break down the character’s mental blocks. Sometimes it might take a few tries but, eventually, the player will figure out how to fix things, and a little trial and error never hurt anyone.
Players control Aiba in these instances though she is portrayed as a human. She is quite spunky and rather odd, doing strange things in these dreamscapes. Aiba can interact with many things and they will often affect her. Sometimes these effects aren’t the best so players will need to be careful. In Psync mode players will also have 6 minutes to complete the experience. This can lead to game overs as time is important. For every action, players will lose time. When they stand still time flies very slowly so the player can take a breath to think. Sometimes it’s best to take stock and look around. Time becomes even more intense depending on the task. Some tasks take little time but usually, the more important tasks take the most time. Players can use special items to cut time in half or more. Almost every action provides the character with one of these items. Sometimes players are granted a red skull. These red skulls can often dramatically increase the time for an activity even as much as 10x. Take stock of your time items and use them to their fullest.
AI Somnium Files has multiple endings that help tell the broader story. Some of these endings are decent endings for the characters but tell intricate details to get the true end. Plus, there is a special treat at then for the player’s that stick it out for the true ending. The true ending is worth getting too as it ties every loose end up quite nicely. I’m always a fan of solid voice acting and like other games, Uchikoshi has worked on, he has picked a great voice cast. It’s always nice to meet the new characters in this game to hear what they sound like. The story is rather intricate so having voice acting and reading along can be helpful. Anything to help the player understand the world is good by me. The music is fantastic too, it can get quite dramatic when it needs to. The music effortlessly switches between music and character themes also. The energy rises when the tense music begins to play. Plus the other songs in this game are great, and the singing of A-Set the idol at the center of it all is also well done. All in all, music helps make this game shine just a little brighter.
AI Somnium Files is a fantastic game that tells quite the amazing story. This game is worth playing simply for the story. Kotaro Uchikoshi has done it again with this phenomenal game. This game could be a good jumping point for the series to continue and I for one would love to see more games in this series. Will the player help Date and Aiba take down this killer, or will the killer continue their rampage?
A review key was provided