A scary crime scene, a woman riding on a carousel, her left eye was dug out. The broken theme park is full of rain. This is a perfect unreal opening to introduce us to the future version of Tokyo and our hero detective Kaname Date. Soon, Date was interrupted by his partner-there is really no way to make it easy for you-fully informed AI, he lives in his left eye socket, sometimes in the form of a monocular transparent hamster or a young woman. Her name is Aiba, which is an abbreviation for Eyeball.
Date and Aiba walked around, interrogating witnesses and suspects and looking for further clues. With all this, Aiba is both a cunning partner and a useful tool. She checks the information on the internet, creates a heat map of the suspects to tell if they are lying, and gives you X-rays. When one murder happened after another, Aiba and Date used another special tool in their arsenal to get the information they needed to find clues: a machine that allowed them to enter another person's subconscious and pass A dreamland called Somnium interacts with it.
These sections function like small escape room puzzles. You can directly control Aiba to interact with some mysterious objects to break the dreamer's psychological lock, thereby covering important secrets and wounds. Each action deducts time from the six-minute time limit. Some operations can save time with so-called TIMIES, but you can also use the stack throughout Somnium to collect negative TIMIES. Of the many aspects of the Somnium file that are difficult to describe, these come first, and problem solving is a very generous term for some trial and error, knocking and poking at each item.
Making decisions is basically random and can be frustrating, especially within a certain time limit, the mystery of dreams shows the main appeal of Somnium File-pure creativity. The interactive part, including some random quick events, and the visual fiction part of the story you follow, is full of moments that amaze me. How ridiculous and rare! Similar to the Zero Escape series by designer Kotaro Uchikoshi, Somnium Files also uses branch narrative paths. Depending on the decision you made during Somnium, the direction of the entire plot changes radically-usually, true fundamental. You can return later and make other decisions to follow the alternative path. No effort was spared, and it is fair to say that each path is completely different, and each path is critical to bringing the entire story together. Do yourself a favor, complete a branch first, and then return, it can better connect the various points.
In the survey breakdown, you can scan Ace Attorney-style static screens for clues and click on objects in the view-albeit with less frustration than in the Capcom series. As long as there are still questions to ask or see, you won't be able to leave the map you are on at least, which at least tells you that there are still other options. The only thing you need to get used to is that asking the same question multiple times will allow people to elaborate rather than repeat themselves. If you want to check someone's statement again, use the game log. You can also view many terms about universes in the glossary. However, this is almost unnecessary-almost everyone is drowned in repeated speeches and talk summaries.
Somnium Files contains a small number of characters, each with a unique look, and Uchikoshi spends his time building his own personal story. I wo n’t say there are people I like, I do n’t think it ’s a story about a cute character, but their motivation is cohesive, and it ’s exciting that everyone you meet, from a pink streamer Iris Sagan, your 12-year-old accused Mizuki of allegedly corrupt politician and yakuza for involvement in the case. Of course, this is due to the unique animation logic. A group of teenagers will not participate in the crime tide at all, but it is half the fun to discover the way and cause of excessive fatigue. Everyone's personality also comes from excellent dubbing. For example, the date is Greg Chun, who also expresses Iori in the judgment. For me, the only thing that would reduce the overall mysterious thriller atmosphere was dirty humor, from jokes about dating underage girls to the effects of low intensity insinuation. There is nothing excessive-just something that comes with the anime / visual fiction space.
Futuristic scenes are in line with the mood of the story, the rhythm is excellent, with new revelations and twists and turns, just like you think the action will decline. Most importantly, I think AI: Somnium Files demonstrates a great way to use branching storylines and how to make players want to go back and explore more. This is some of the best visual novel technology in its class, such as CLANNAD and Stein : Gate, too good. That's why I think Somnium Files is widely recommended-for those who are still new to visual novels, Uchikoshi fans and such game brands, and those who are just looking for engaging interactive stories.
