AI: The Somnium Files nirvanA Initiative - Timeline Summary & Final Thoughts
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- Опубліковано 7 сер 2024
- Capping off this gameplay/walkthrough of AI nirvanA Initiative with a summary of the timeline chronologically and my closing thoughts!
► More AI2: bit.ly/Welonz_AI2 | If you enjoyed the video, consider leaving a like and/or comment as support!
00:00 Intro
00:32 Timeline Summary
11:17 Final Thoughts
My AI: The Somnium Files 1 playthrough: bit.ly/Welonz_AI
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Hi, I'm Welonz! I love games with great stories, and on this channel, I primarily play titles with engaging and immersive narrative-driven experiences: anything from medieval fantasy to futuristic sci-fi, from hidden indie gems to high-profile AAA hits.
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► AI: The Somnium Files nirvanA Initiative
Official website: www.spike-chunsoft.com/games/...
Developer: Spike Chunsoft
Publisher: Spike Chunsoft
Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/14...
► AI: The Somnium Files nirvanA Initiative Story Synopsis
Six years ago, the right half of a corpse was discovered. The left half was never found…until six years later, completely fresh with no signs of decay. Now, Special Agents Mizuki and Ryuki, along with their AI partners Aiba and Tama, are tasked to solve the bizarre Half Body serial killings while unveiling the mysterious plot known only as the Nirvana Initiative…
#AiTheSomniumFiles #AiTheSomniumFilesNirvanaInitiative #KotaroUchikoshi #NirvanaInitiative #AiNi - Ігри
![AI: The Somnium Files - Out Of Context [No Major Spoilers]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Dde7mNfCZU4/mqdefault.jpg)
![AI: The Somnium Files - Out Of Context [No Major Spoilers]](/img/tr.png)
![AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative - A Full Chronological Summary [Major Spoilers]](/img/n.gif)
The survey: www.surveymonkey.com/r/2T79GXT
Buy AiNi:
Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/1449200/AI_THE_SOMNIUM_FILES__nirvanA_Initiative/
Switch: www.nintendo.com/store/products/ai-the-somnium-files-nirvana-initiative-switch/
PS: store.playstation.com/concept/10001909
Thanks for joining me on Mr. Uchikoshi's crazy adventure -- see you in the next one!!!! :)
Dunno why it took me this long, but here's what the Lemniscate's changing portrait means.
- TNY-EO
- HKOERN
- A-UVYE
If you write this vertically:
THA
NK-
YOU
-EV
ERY
ONE
or Thank-You-Everyone.
So, nothing timeline related, just devs congratulating players.
@@kvm6 Great catch
I've thought about it a lot and I think main mystery with tearer is so mundane without the timeline shenanigans is because *it wasn't supposed to serve the twist of who is the killer and what is going on*.
From the start, the mastermind was Tokiko. Her goal to slip through a hole in the world revolved around this. This is my theory given uchikoshi's previous works.
The murder of Chikada and Jin (later replaced by Komeji) was to create a "seam" in the warp and weft using their chakras. The murders were specifically planned to occur near midnight so separate halves were found on seperate days. Tokiko and Tearer both seem to know this is according to plan.
6 years later, Uru is killed and Tokiko immediately blackmails Amame, like this was expected to happen. The left half of "Jin" is placed in the football field, right where the intersection of chakra was placed 6 years ago. If you notice, our story starts here. Tokiko created a outrageous scenerio to lure a Frayer, a 4th dimensional being, [You] into this world through the seam.
The twin Mizuki and Ryuji's mental illness was used as a vessel to confuse [You], to get you invested and start unintentionally fraying the world apart by giving the characters knowledge they should NEVER know. Dahlia Boat, Almighty, pretty much the entire tearer somnium, etc.
Then, after you've been thoroughly entwined in this story to the end, you get the Nil Number, the final stroke to cut a huge gaping hole you've been scratching at the entire game.
tl;dr Tokiko was the real antagonist of this game against [You], and she won. Thats why the purple route feels so unsatisfying, because you got played and she gave you a happy ending as a consolation.
Tearer is definitely at the top of the list of worst Uchkoshi villians, at least Mr. Complex motives gave me some good chuckles. Tokiko and Chikara were great, but we know how it's not a Uchi game unless multiple people are wearing a mask with a voice modulator.
Exactly. The twist was never about the characters. That's why the game only reveals it to you, the player, specifically. The characters are merely accessories to the metanarrative that the twist served. Which is kind of a shame because Uchikoshi already used the same narrative in a way that also involved the characters. But I guess that's going to be the subject of AI3.
It's tough, yeah. Outside the general enjoyment of going through the game, the humor, etc, it's all done for you to grapple with the meta-narrative. There's so many coincidences or bait and switches that only bait and switch you, the player, that the murder mystery itself feels so woefully lacking. Your comment sums up really well a lot of my thoughts and feelings on the game too. I guess, in the end, unsatisfying endings aside, I don't mind so much because there are more than enough truly great murder mysteries to enjoy in fiction, and only one experiment in narrative as batshit crazy as this game.
Erm, maybe it isn't as unique as I thought, now that I've learned about similar plot twists in earlier works of this writer. Hm, now I don't know. And I can definitely see that if you've already played that game in question or similar ones this can feel even more devoid of weight.
TBH As much as I like Mizuki, I think she shouldn't have been the other protagonist. We could have the double Mizuki twist still, but i think Ryuki should have fully been the protagonist, and he should have been experiencing the timeline as we experience it, partly through both his own mental illness, and partly due to Glycerin Magic, which could have been really interesting to see someone who doesnt know what day it is to experience time in such a wacky way. Part of the reason is also because as you said, this could have been a Character who cares about how the bodies are moving through time, as he would be seeing Tokiko's body in the Past, and her right half in the present. despite both being in the Present, Ryuki would go crazy trying to figure it out. It would also keep up the tension caused by him being an unreliable narrator throughout. We could have him interacting with both Mizukis in the right path to also hide it, but we dont know until far later that it was actually Mizuki K on days 2 and 4 we were interacting with for example. It would also avoid the whole 'not enough time to develop' dilemma all 3 main characters kinda got in the end- I'd even argue Bibi got the best character development of the 3 despite being the one we play the least.
Very much agreed, I hang out on the AI reddit/discord server frequently and this seems to be a very popular opinion. There's a reason so many people lost interest after Ryuki's route was done. It's partly because Ryuki was the perfect protagonist for this kind of game due to his mental illness, and his route focusing more on Naix had the perfect way to set up the twist in a more organic way that also affected Ryuki's perception along with the player's, and partly because Mizuki had plenty of issues as a protagonist, most notably the retcons along with the zero room for development. In the end all three protagonists got shafted, each in different ways, especially Ryuki, as so many important things concerning his character happen off-screen. I was definitely expecting some heartwarming therapy sessions and bonding to happen with his character just like the what happened with Date and Mizuki in the previous game, so this game felt pretty cold in the emotional aspect in comparison.
Still an amazing game because of Tokiko tho.
I agree that the no spoilers was a TERRIBLE idea. Let sequels be sequels; if someone is buying 2 without playing 1, they will go back and play 1 regardless of how much they're spoiled if they enjoy 2. There was definitely a middle ground option where some character development stuff is spoiled but like the some specific murder plot twists don't have to be.
2 is already going to spoil the whole game because any character in 2 is not going to be the killer in 1. That takes all the suspense out of the game anyways
SPOILERS:@@apnwu369 Not really. Date is here and he is looking as "Saito" and while he is the main villian in AI1. And I think if you play the unspoiled version they shouldn't mention anything about face change
No spoilers in a sequel is just counterproductive, its one of the smaller flaws of this game imo, but a flaw not short of stupidity.
You put characters that people already fell in love with in the prequel, but you make them estatic, unable to progress and delve into their characters, since it would be spoiler for the prequel. The only way a spoilerless sequel would work is if you have a completely different cast of characters, specially for the main ones. But no, they brought back the ones we loved (ofc, it sells FAR more) and as previously stated made them static.
This then branches onto the flaws of AI2 that I consider actually awful, like characters like Mizuki or Aiba having their relationship with Date absolutely destroyed. Or Date himself having his character degraded onto comedic relief. Delving into their character without spoiling the original would be like walking on a landmine you set up yourself.
It just makes me sad, because, while I enjoy nirvana I feel like it killed what I loved the most of the first game, my mind is keeping it as a separate canon cause there is no way for me to make any sense of them being in the same timeline. It just ruins the first one if I do.
And, I had opinions of the first one, about some plotholes that had incredibly EASY solutions, but they are nothing compared to the flaws I see in this game (although I admit, because nirvana's experience kind of ruins the experience of the prequel that might be bias).
@@TheWWWyrm That doesnt help in any way, we play as Date (Saito) in the first game and its shown in mere trailers or even screenshots on steam, by your logic that clears him out of being the villain even as you play the first game blindly.
This game inmediately clears out Mizuki, Aiba, Iris (a big one), Hitomi, Pewter, Moma and even boss as possible culprits/antagonists as well. The whole experience of the first game is to struggle with so many suspects who have fair reasons to be the culprit. By playing this game you already clear all of those, and you know its something/someone else entirely because they are fully innocent in this one.
There is just no way to make it non spoilery and including the same main/important characters.
I am so grateful that you did this episode. You really don’t have to, yet you put in all the effort. Another wonderful journey with you and I’ll always be looking forward to another one.
I've watched a number of different playthroughsof this game, and yours by far has been the most enjoyable. The extra information you have shared by playing with the Japanese VA is a huge boon. And your insight in piecing parts together really was a treat to see. Thank you for this fun run with more SC content.
I've seen other summaries, but I like how this one is the most concise.
Other people have brought this up before, but the timeline twist could have been revealed through either Ryuki or Tokiko. As for Mizuki's branching route, I wish the Lien/Kizuna route merged with the main timeline. It would give Mizuki something to do other than sit around and have things explained to her.
I think that the problem with the twist is that uchikoshi already did this twist with timeline and making the player actual character in his "pure visual novels" days, before Zero Escape, and did it way better and more organically in the past. That VN is probably his most popular work, so he decided to use same tricks again to recapture same popularity again, and for this he forced story fit into his twist formula, and not the other way around, like he did first time.
It's also the plot twist of 999 (Past Akane was the player character all along!) and VLR (Player was the player character all along!) and ZTD (Delta was the player character all along!).
@@Kammereer at very least they were actually people in-universe, both Frayer and Blick Winkel are straight up otherworldly entities that don't have a body of their own and possess other characters.
@@Kammereer oh, vlr kinda did it, but Uchi retconed secret ending.
Yep its sad that Uchikoshi has stooped to just trying to remake the infinity games for a western audience instead of doing something creative
To confirm are you talking about ever 17?
Oh my god thank you for the timeline re-organization! Now I feel that it's more absurd because Ryuki got TC-PERGE and built a resistance in only a few days lmao. It's like they want to say TC-PERGE is bad news but also can easily be handled??
That aside though, thank you so much for the playthrough! I was invested from start to finish, and despite me not liking aini as much as the first ai, I still really enjoy it. My thoughts are more or less the same. I like the characters, but I felt that they're lacking compared to the first ai. When you explained it, it makes sense
But I hope ai3 will be a thing! And I hope that you'll play it! Once again, thank you for the enjoyable and insightful playthrough, Welonz!
I really don't understand why they didn't have Ryuki be infected from the start, maybe with an earlier prototype of the virus. That would easily close those plot holes of why he was already glitching from the start and why he did have a resistance. It feels like such an obvious solution, that I have to wonder if it accidentally cut or sth.
If you think about it, the vast majority of Ryuki's crazy happened before he got infected and it only got a little bit worse from it, like him confusing 6 years ago with the present a few times, but really not the major change you would expect if this was anentirely new thing.
Did you miss the part where neurons get damaged? They could deal with it if the number of people infected is low enough but if that rocket had gone off we would have "You thought there weren't enough places in the hospital during Covid? Watch this virus where even after body develops the resistance you still need to give them special medicine or use nanomachines that aren't so easy to use"
THANK YOU. i was so confused when i finished the game because i was trying so hard to focus on the timeline that was being served to me while playing, but this helped me understand what happened
Thank you for the chronological recap of the story (it must have taken a lot of time to find the perfectly fitting clips and edit it all together) and the excellent playthrough!
I pretty much agree with everything you said in your conclusion, and despite the shortcomings and what could have been, I really enjoyed this second AI a lot. There's really something about this series and these characters that, for me, carries it through despite the issues.
I think that you forget to mention that Bibi is sad at the start of chapter 2 is because she just heard from doctor that she's going to die(you learn this in Date's Residence)
In the end what was the point of Ushidera anyway? He was presented as at least Kagami level in the beginning, but he never rose that high up.
Probably he was put there only as a red herring: a suspicious character that we meet at the start of the story, so we may suspect him of being an antagonist.
@@tomaszlisek6262 I disagree. That’s too much of an overstatement
My thoughts are basically the same as yours. I was completely engrossed in this game. It made me laugh out loud for the first time in months, and I stayed up late often playing it. At the same time, I felt like there were characters they could have done more with, and I feel like I never had that desire with AI1.
Thanks for the timeline summary, that must have been a job to put together! Excellent way to end this series.
Out of all the weird, crazy, fun stuff in this game I think my favorite might be Tama's passion for comedy. Her laughing at Komeji's awful jokes always breaks me up.
One thing they never really followed up on is why the videos (QR, Nirvana Trial) make Ryuki dissociate the way he does. Tearer even weaponizes the video to knock Ryuki out shortly before Komeji is murdered, but it's never explained how this works. Is it because the videos are supposed to help "break" the simulation, and Ryuki has a special relationship with the "Frayer", an entity who exists outside the simulation?
Kind of, yeah. Ryuki was not mentally stable even at the beginning of the game. He was fixated on his brother’s death and it gave him PTSD. The injection with TC-PERGE didn’t help the case either. So whenever he witnessed something that wouldn’t make sense in his mind(at that point it was anything that happened ot of the ordinary, but it would also include half-bodies and everything that was connected to them including the videos) it would just cease to exist giving us - the player - glitches. He also greatly sufferd from thinking that he “betrayed” everyone so it made it even worse
At least that’s something most people came to while speculating because the game never gave us a definite conclusion
I think it was like an LSD video it can make the drug (or virus) stronger
Thanks for the timeline! This playthrough has been so much fun to watch. I agree on Mizuki's seiyuu killing it
I get what you mean about the plot twist not doing anything for the characters but at the same time it did catch us off guard. I mean you can't blame them for going for a new trick.
My ONLY gripe with the whole game is how they withheld Amame and Shoma being siblings. That felt cheap. There's no way you're friends with 2 people, they're brother and sister and you never heard of it for 6 years. I guess people knowing the two Mizukis and never bringing it up is also cheap but that didn't bother me as much.
All in all, great experience. I've been watching this video series for the last few weeks during lunch time and it's been great. Thanks Welonz!
Ai is one of my favourite lp's you have done, I never would have thought all these years later we would get Ai Ni!
Such good fun to see these characters again and follow along the adventure with you! Heres to hoping we get Ai 3!
I love these stupid-genius games so much. Had a blast playing through on my own, in English (Also great VO), and it's so enriching watching through again in Japanese with your insightful commentary. Thanks, as always, for filling the simulation we live in with hours of quality content.
I think the twist is interesting how it's only for the frayer, and it is just there because Tokiko made it that way. You weren't playing the game, Tokiko was playing you lol
12:15 I think the Tokiko ending really shouldn't be as hidden. After you get the number, it should be a new branch that appears or highlight the segment where you can input the number. I don't think people should be able accidentally miss that ending, as it is kind of the real reason for what was going on and improves the story alot.
For me, I was quite iffy with the timeline twist and main story/ending and not really learning enough about the nirvana initiative until that extra ending resolved it. Now I'm fine with it. Not as positive about it as I am with the twists of the first game and the 3 Zero Escapes, which were more elegant and natural imo, but good enough for it to work in my mind.
If i would have to put it in rating numbers (on a 1-10 scale), getting vs not getting that secret ending, would be around a full point, maybe even 1.5 points difference in the rating I would give.
Exactly, the nil number ending is so pivotal to the game!
Yeah, I agree that almost everything that revolves around the characters: backstory, character arca etc. - it is all to just to make the twist happen and it affects the characters and not in the good way. When I realised that when we played as Mizuki Kuranushi in the past and met Ryuki he wasn’t talking about half-bodies reappearing after 6 years, actually he was talking about the incident where his twin brother died having half of his body crushed by the car. It was very clever of them to do it this way but it made practically no sense in regards to the character development. It’s really nice to replay the game knowing these tiny bits and piece of the puzzle that you had this whole time but didn’t have some additional info that would help it “click” but in the end it just kinda goes nowhere. It was simply used to mislead the player and make the twist more shocking
But I gotta say, the whole thing with Naix and Tokiko being right in the end was very much needed. It made the game 100% better. You gotta hand it to Uchikoshi, he knows how to write a convoluted story and just end it with a bang! I’m hoping if they make another AI game they will continue this branch
Really enjoyed your playthrough and commentary, Welonz
What an amazing analysis of the actual chronological flow of events. This is great, and very helpful. Loved watching your lets play of this series!!!
A well put criticism. Thank you for the playthrough!
Appreciate the videos and all the hard work!
Thanks I needed this summary to get things straight in my mind, Loved the let’s play!!!
I think that the twist was the tearing of the seams. Tokiko somehow warped ours (Frayer's) perception of a linear story to create inconsistencies in our minds and think that the events in the game that we have seen this far can't be real.
And so in making us, a being outside of the games reality, doubt the game and drop our suspension of disbelief, it will break the reality all over. The twist makes more sense if we make the Tokiko's meta-narrative as the centre of the story. But it is not it's actual center, and that's why it doesn't work that well.
Still a great game and a great playthrough, always find your commentary so enjoyable. The 3d class cabin got me really hoping for 999 remake... I think Uchikoshi didn't loose any of his creativity over the years (and he is still a good damn sci-fi nerd) and a more modern approach could really bring thoose games into light for many people.
someone needs to get the man two horses so we can finally get zero escape 4
I've made no secret of the fact that I loved figuring out the twist and ironing out the details that make it work, but you are also correct that the twist doesn't do anything for the characters themselves, but I don't think it's a bad thing, just as an example:
Spoilers!! avoid the next paragraph if you haven't played "What Remains of Edith Finch"
in "What Remains of Edith Finch" we are from the start led to believe that we play as Edith, but near the end revealed that she's already dead, and we are playing as her son. It's pretty much the same thing, player would be maybe sad that Edith is dead too, but it does nothing for the characters (mostly because they are also already dead).
What I was getting at was that, there are games/story that do this sorta twist, some get away with, some don't.
Personally I'd say AI:NI edges out just a tiny bit in preference to AI1, though I think a very large part of that is the fact that AI1 existed and I played and enjoyed it too. And this'll probably be a hot take, but I doubt the most awaited God of War Ragnarok would be able to make me feel things this game did, and for that reason even though the larger gaming audience won't do it, I'd personally nominate this over GoW any day.
This was a great journey! and as always loved getting your insight into Japanese culture, and I hope I was also able to teach a few things to you and viewers about Hinduism, Buddhism, and India in general. Things that the game took inspiration from and made it's story work.
Thanks for this LP Welonz!
p s. - People please don't start acting irrationally to find the seams of this world. Live your life as you see fit, don't fall into traps of cults, and definitely don't try to slice up bodies in half on your path to Moksha or Nirvana, Karma will bite you in the butt hard.
Completely agree with your thoughts and wanna thank you for talking about it and playing this game!
The twist really compromisos everything else in the story.
For example, Mame, post timeskip is still working in the same place bacause if not the twist would ve obvious.
But the worst part is for Komeji and Tokiko.
Komeji dies in day 3, wich means he can only have as much screentime in that period. But because day 2 is actually in the future he can't appear and if course he won't appear in Mizuki day 2 despite being alive during that day because that would spoil the twist.
Tokiko on the other hand dies in the second day of the present. Wich means she's alive during most of the adventure including the entire past section but won't appear past day 2 (with the exception of Mizuki day 4) because of the twist making it seem as if she died the day after Chihara. So there goes the most intersting character of the game.
You said you don't care but inshould mention the whole "these 2 people got involved in the same case 6 years appart from each other but they were dressed the same while investigating". It would have been easy to fix to be honest. Just say that Boss was the one that choosed Mizuki's clothes and hair in the present. Because she's bibi's mother It would make sense that she dressed Mizuki the same as her own daughter that's identical to her.
Also, the no spoiler thing was a shame. I wanted to see Date using his real face or idk Pewter telling Mizuki something about her father.
I hope that an hypothetical AI3 doesen't do this because that would me Bibi won't be allow to appear, after all her mere presence is a massive spoiler.
Finally there are some rumors about potential story DLC for this one.
If that ends up being the case i would like it to either fill in the gaps of Ryuki and Mizuki's investigation when you're playing as the other one of expanding a bit the other endings so they fill more complete like the ones from the first game.
(Ex Bibi using the information Ryuki got in Komeji/Shoma's route or what happens after Mizuki and Bibi met in Kizuna/Lien's ending).
I'd just like to say, the reason Bibi and Mizuki have the same clothes is because that's the Sekiba High uniform, as we see Iris, Mame, and Kizuna also wearing it at other points in the story. I would find them having the same Hairstyle though more egregious
12:41 The way I see it, this timeline plotwist was just for us. In the end we were a "character" in this story, the "frayer". But yeah I can also see how this is kinda... meh.
But yeah, this is the only way I can see the plotwist in a positive way. There's things in this game that don't really mean anything for the characters, but for us and the game kinda implies that we're part of it? So...
Thanks for the summary! As for the final thoughts I agree with you 100%. This game was soo good until they revealed the plot twist and then it was just kinda underwhelming but overall I still enjoyed it a lot! Thanks for playing and sharing it with us. I love your commentary and how you really get into the story. I've been watching and lurking since 2017 (Life is Strange before the Storm) but this time I just had to share my thoughts heh
Uchikoshi's quirky writings are definitely entertaining, albeit sometimes niche to the point of requiring a specific background.
Speaking of which… Welonz, thanks for providing explanations and guiding us through dirty puns ;)
welonz i literally love u so much
Could you please add this video to nirvana initiative playlist, so that anyone watching your AI:NI let's play months or years later would see it?
Amazing playthrough! So glad to have you around as someone who plays JP games in their native language-- you always have insightful things to say :)
Also Tomoyo Kurosawa really makes AI doesn't she LOL she CARRIED both games on her BACK!!!!!
Who is dat?
@@ridleyroid9060 Welonz said it in the video lol. It's Mizuki(s)'s japanese voice actress
17:30 Also give any games you like (or dislike) an appropriate rating on sites like metacritic, igdb and steam. Alot of people choose their games based on user ratings on such sites. Correct ratings help both consumers and developers of good games (and movies).
(And user ratings are usually more reliable than the "only played for 30 minutes" / "If we rate this AAA game poorly the publisher will make things difficult for us" / "Just doing this as a job" or bought type of critic ratings.)
One area that I think this game is alot weaker than the 3 Zero Escapes and the first AI is being a mystery game. I remember for all of the other 4 games there were always inbetween mysteries going on that I could speculate on and kept me hooked from start to finish. "Who's suspicious?" "What's going on with that detail?" "Will they vote betray?" They were very engaging from a mystery solving perspective. Meanwhile in this one there really weren't those opportunities. The main mystery you just couldn't do anything with for the longest time and there was nothing inbetween, like have some extra suspects for the killings for a bit, so for a very long time the only question I had was "Where is this going?".
Made the whole thing feel much more passive, like watching a movie vs being more actively engaged in figuring out the mysteries for me. It's actually the most simple and straight-forward story out of those 5 games. With the first 4 my mind was always racing. With this one it only started to jog a bit after we switched back to Mizuki and then sped up a bit towards the very end with only the final Tokiko ending reaching the high level of the previous games.
I haven't fully decided how to rate this game yet, but I don't think it will join the "masterpiece" pile of those other 4 games for me. Primarily because it just didn't have that constant stream of engaging mysteries and wtf moments that still all manage to click into place and make sense at the very end and doing so pretty naturally and elegantly (within the established universe rules) without major plot holes or plot conveniences or forced contrivances.
Overally it just doesn't have as much, done as tightly for mysteries as the others. Just the main mystery and twist instead of that plus several smaller inbetween ones to keep you going the whole time.
Thank you, that was bugging me so much. In 999, vlr and Ai my mind was CONSTANTLY racing like, what is happening, who can I trust, I was constantly given clues. Ai2 felt flat
Just my 2 cents.
Things I liked:
- some of the somniums were pretty creative (Amames life choices, Tokikos being empty)
- voice acting was on point
- the story was engaging; sometimes thrilling, sometimes funny. As you said, it was enjoyable which is in the end the most important thing
Things I didn't like:
- the twists felt cheap. Like really cheap. Amame never mentioned Shoma being her brother, someone should have noticed Bibi and Mizuki being related especially since everyone is from the same orphanage lol.
- the insane amount of plot holes. A restaurant with a locked freezer for 6 years and they can run their business? No police backup when investigating a secret room or investigating anything at all for that matter? Mizuki and Bibi just having the same scooter and crow bar? Lien is the only locksmith in town?
- I just do not share a sense of humor with Uchikoshi... I felt like some endings were just too bizarre to take seriously. I also just don't really like the porno magazine fighting scenes either... (please forgive me fandom)
Still really enjoyed watching this play-trough! The game is enjoyable so I will be back if there is a third.
Completely agreed with all mentioned.
I think you summed it up pretty well, I enojyed this game greatly, I enjoyed getting fooled by the twist and going from "ok there is no way this makes sense" to mulling it over and thinking "wait actually it *does* make sense???" and i enjoyed seeing more of a lot of these characters that i fell in love with, but the game is made to serve the twist at the expense of most the characters.
I dont know if i would really call it worse than Ai 1 like some people, i think the somniums are greatly improved and the low points of this game felt a lot less of a slog to get through than the low points of first game, but the overall plot is most definitely weaker, so i think it kinda balances them out and puts them on about equal ground for me.
I think what kills me the most is just how complicated and complex the parts surrounding this story are... just for it to pretty much mean nothing in the end. I've heard a lot of people say this about V3 in the past, and I will defend that game to the death because it's themes are what carry it from the beginning to the end. Here, it's just like... What was the point?
What was the point in having a sequel to a game that didn't need a sequel, yet trying to make that spoiler-free to the game preceding it? Why was it necessary to absolutely destroy ("retcon") Mizuki's backstory from the first game for a twist that doesn't even affect her ( or anyone) to begin with? Why was it necessary to include characters from the first game if you're not even gonna do anything with them? Which leads to my biggest point, and pretty much the one that has me just wishing this game didn't exist at all: why was this sequel even necessary to begin with?
With how the characters were handled in this game, attention split between fan service 1st game characters that don't contribute to the plot, and new characters not given enough development... this really shoulda just been a standalone game. You can really tell that the world has been stretched thin with just how many characters are included yet how shallow they all are. There's just too much going on, and with a plot that's simultaneously trying to ride the nostalgia of the 1st game yet trying to do it's own thing... it's just a major fail all around. Really wish they just made this it's own thing. Less baggage, more characterization, more cohesive storytelling. Hopefully Uchikoshi can do better in the future. He really excels at telling new stories, not so much telling sequels. Especially for a game that wrapped up almost perfectly and absolutely didn't need one.
I mostly agree with you in the game review. However, I diverge on two points :
1) I think amnesia and identical twins are cheap ways to make a story work. So I have some slight problems with the main plot twist.
2) The characters really don't evolve. I felt really bad for Hitomi after everything that happened in AI 1 and now she is unable to stay with the man she loves.
Gameplaywise AI 2 might have been better, but storywise I prefer 1 by a margin.
*Speculation:* Assuming a 3rd AI game, I think Aiba will be partnered with both Date and MIzuki at the same time, as in there will be 2 Aiba AI-balls instead of a 4th new one. After all she herself is in the cloud and there's really not much reason why she shouldn't be able to run on 2 local copies that both synchronize with her cloud main-mind. Could also lead to some interesting situations where Aiba can talk to herself and, if unsynchronized also disagree with herself about what's going on. It would also allow both Date and Mizuki to have Aiba, not upsetting anyone who wants to see more of either of the pairings.
I expect so much from Kotaro Uchikoshi, with Zero Escape Virtues Last Reward being one of my favourite games of all time, and Remember 11 (also by him) had me hooked in a way few visual novels succeeds at. This game however felt alot like a chore, with the payoff and the plot-twists feeling really underwhelming and patchy. A prefer the orginal AI game by quite a lot, but now I would really like to see Uchikoshi try something new. I really dont want another sequel in this series
I just wonder how Tokiko knew all of this was going to happen in the future. Maybe she saw it all when she tried to kill herself but failed???
My conclusion is: Mr Uchikoshi is pretty much Shyamalan of video games in a sense that he cares the most about THE TWIST, and everything in his stories is built around THE TWIST. It is also not enough to have THE TWIST - it has to be THE MOST MIND BREAKING BRAIN FUCKING TWIST POSSIBLE, which makes everything around it suffer, because characters are slaves to the twist and subplots are slaves to the twist. It also does not help that THE TWIST is a metatwist - it is only a twist for the player, but her zero relevance to the characters of the story being told.
All in all, I would prefer if this story was simpler, without timeline jumping shenanigans and MIND BREAKING TWISTS - just regular cyberpunk crime mystery story starring interesting and sympathetic characters. Uchikoshi is definitely able to write characters like that, thats the reason we are playing those games, but for him, this is only a step towards building THE TWIST, which I simply am not a fan of.
He got super famous by using Nakazawa's ideas in Ever17. So that what he still does to this day, use Nakazawa's twists over and over
I’m so conflicted on this game. There are some aspects I love: had some great Sominums, the whole Niax conspiracy, how thrilling it could be at times, etc. But I feel like the big twist really didn’t work as well as it could have, and all the characters didn’t get the development they needed. Just a few changes and the game could’ve been fantastic.
tbh i was really only engaged in this game only for ryuki and tama lol. lot of the reveals and twists were meh or just an eye roll to me. wished ryuki wasn't pushed to the side near the end of mizuki's route though
Maybe if you want play Later Alligator?)
I think that the route map is a little too vague. Trying to remember what happened in each chapter block based off the image or brief summary it gives you is basically impossible. Also it's not like a regular VN where you can just fast forward through to get the gist of what happened because you routinely need to physically interact with elements of the UI. Definitely feels like they wanted you to play through the game again, but I don't think there is enough there besides the occasional "aha" moment to justify another 15 hours of re-reading the whole game.
Definitely agree with this. The twist did literally nothing for me, I didn't understand it and I didn't register what it actually meant. Like welonz says the game should be pointing it out to you. I played it over a number of months because it didn't grab me like the first game, and I had no real concept of how the timelines interacted, and honestly I didn't care. Compare this to all the other Uchikoshi games where I pored over every detail and marveled at their structure and twists. This twist was not revelatory, didn't really change anything in how I perceived the plot and was just too confusing to map out with so many events in different timelines to piece together. Kudos to welonz for actually taking the time to piece it all together though!
Wanna try Fate/Extra someday?
Will you continue danganronpa series?
17:10 Odd that these games sell better in the west than in japan. Half the jokes are lost in translation. I always imagined these games to be even better if you know japanese because of that, which they probably are, but it's odd for that to not translate into better sales there aswell.
Uchikoshi was a writer on one of the best visual novels of all time Ever17. He reuses the twists from that game (and Remember11) over and over in his games. That's why people in japan who have played that game don't like him and people in the west do like him (cause they've never played it)
Thanks for all the great videos. Uchikoshi doesn't do well in Japan because he is notorious for reusing twists from his previous games like Ever17 (one of the greatest visual novels of all time). This "timeline twist" is also used in that game but done infinitely better there. It has an immense effect on the story and characters unlike Ai 2 where it is just a twist to be a twist.
I felt this game was much weaker than Ai 1, I felt so bored during the middle part of the game where nothing was being revealed. In Ai 1 I never felt bored at all. I loved Tokiko and the Naix stuff but the other character stuff was mostly boring until the very end. Loved Tama and Ryuki but Mizuki and Aiba felt off since most of his jokes rely on a pervert/idiot and a "straight man". Having two straight men together was just not as fun to play as.
The twists overall were not that great, it just seemed like he took the twists from Ever17 and then tried to write a story around the twists but messed up the execution. I really hope he can get some creativity and think of some new twists for his next game.
This game was fun but not a good game. That's about the best I can say about it. I give it a 5.5 out of 10. But the lets play was great. Thank you.
The fake deaths of Mizuki Date and Ryuki at the end pissed me off so much in the moment that those alone kind of ruined the entire game for me, heh. I even liked ZTD the entire way through lol. Where that game was super dumb yet hilariously entertaining, this one felt kind of the opposite for me. Yeah, it all makes sense - but just like you mention in the video - "so what?". Feels like an overcorrection stemming from the criticism around Zero Time Dilemma specifically. I feel like the first AI hit a much better balance on that front.
First one here, hhh
I appreciate your take Welonz, but for me this game was a massive disappointment mainly for the reasons you mentioned.
Twins, amnesiacs, costume-switchers, secret siblings everywhere all just to confuse the player and make the twist work. Soo laaaame.
The story, when told chronologically, makes very little sense. Character motivations are non-existant and nobody seemingly changes anything in their lives over the span of 6 years.
And don't get me started on Date (wearing a freaking mask because of no spoilers policy), who we see being crushed under massive pile of rubble, gets away unscathed, except for conviniently losing memory until the plot needs him again. It's atrocious.
It was so bad that it soured the previous game for me, and I loved the previous game.
At this point I'm hoping for some new IP from them instead of AI3
Zero Time Dilemma Spoilers
...
Not that there was a lot great stuff in ZTD, but the timeline twist they nailed, and the AI2 twist feels just like a worse version of that
I think this game was bogged down with way too many character "routes" that try to tug at your heartstrings but end up just being massive wastes of time and dont serve the mystery well.
TC perge explaining Ryukis freakouts I felt was a copout. It tried to do the Uchikoshi subversion that Ai1 did with Iris route, where it teases some crazy bullshit but then is like "no no this has a normal explanation dw. This isnt zero escape". Except this time it was weird, it was half "virus lol" and half "woah simulation" and it is kinda ehh.
I was overall not as hooked into this game as I was for any other uchi work, but I enjoyed the 2 main characters and their partners (really liked Tama and Ryuki) and I enjoyed Tokiko a lot, she was the best part of the game.
Amame I felt was a neat twist but I felt that she could have been more well explored and more well nuanced as a character, I feel like she should have been tearer fully, not Uru. She could be an akane tier antagonist.
Ai2 feels jumbled but I still enjoyed it. I hope ai3 does happen and that it is better.
I completely thought the same thing about it. It would’ve been better if Ryuki was in the player’s shoes with the twist, but it’s just treated as a known fact for everyone. I liked the Nil Ending in a vacuum, but overall I felt like a lot was lost for the sake of a twist is rather cheap instead of smart, compared to 999 or SF. I also didn’t enjoy any of the three side endings, especially Gen and Amame’s.
Overall it’s still a solid experience, a 7.5/10. Just not close to as good as the masterpiece of Somnium Files
im youre biggest fan wellins its a shame you hated the game think abot lotus its flower and it grows from mud the beauty is the flower not the mud please remember the lesson of life welolons stay calm
I thought AI The Somnium Files was Uchikoshi's best game. AI 2 was his worst. I'd go as far as to call it one of the worst stories I have ever seen. It's a mystery story that only works by constantly lying to the audience and relying on mad coincidences, told badly. Uchikoshi is obsessed with breaking all of Ronald Knox's mystery rules, and he never once pulled it off. This is on top of using the same premise (everything is a simulation to make the Player time travel) and plot twist (POV character is not who you think it is) for the sixth time. It was alright when he did it for the first time in Remember17, two decades ago. It is no longer alright.
AI 2 was a waste of time.
Wouldnt go so far but I agree on ai2 being his worst, but I think Remember 11 is his best, followed by vlr, followed by 999, followed by ever17 and then followed by Ai.
I liked AI somnium more and the rubber bullet machine gun is so stupid