AI: The Somnium Files (Game)

AI: The Somnium Files

GAME » on September 17, 2019

Nintendo Switch (Platform)PC (Platform)PlayStation 4 (Platform)Xbox One (Platform)

An adventure game set in a futuristic Tokyo about a detective trying to solve a series of murders where all of the victims are discovered with their left eye missing.

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Overview

AI: The Somnium Files is a sci-fi adventure game with a branching narrative where the player controls a detective named Kaname Date who is investigating a series of murders in Tokyo where all of the victims have had their left eye removed. Throughout the game the player can enter the dreams of suspects through the use of Date's cybernetic abilities granted by his AI-ball, a highly advanced prosthetic eyeball with an AI embedded inside (named Aiba), allowing Date to solve puzzles to reveal new information related to the case. The story is told in a nonlinear fashion, with branching paths that lead to five different endings (not counting other hidden joke endings), depending on the choices made by the player in some Somnium stages.

AI was developed by Spike Chunsoft (Company) with Kotaro Uchikoshi (Person), creator of the Zero Escape (Franchise) Series, serving as the title's writer and director. The game was released digitally in North America for the PlayStation 4 (Platform), Nintendo Switch (Platform), and PC (Platform) on September 17, 2019, with the physical release following a week later on September 24th.

Gameplay

Most of the game play is point-and-click adventure style, where the player will see through the eyes of Date (and Aiba) as they attempt to solve the case. Clicking on certain parts of the environment will provide an explanation, trigger a quip, fill in information, or give clues to the overarching case. Some action scenes will force Date to complete a Quick Time Event (Concept) to progress through the story.

Somnium

At important points in the story, Date will "Psync" with Persons of Interest, diving into their dreams with a humanoid version of Aiba as an avatar for exploring and interacting with the Somnium worlds within. Date and Aiba must clear the Somnium within 6 minutes (300 seconds) of time, or Date will lose his consciousness in the Somnium and the game will end. While exploring Somnium, time is virtually paused until Aiba moves around. Each interaction costs a certain number of seconds all at once, from 1-999. However, time can be managed by picking up a "Timie" that will allow Aiba to complete an action in a fraction of the stated time, or a specific number of seconds, giving them more leeway to try out different options with interactable objects. Some actions will insert a negative Timie into the player's deck, increasing the time an action takes, which Aiba will be forced to use on the next interaction.

Plot

Kaname Date, a blonde-haired detective working for the tiny ABIS (Advanced Brain Investigation Squad) unit of the Tokyo MPD, shows up at a long-abandoned amusement park where a woman named Shoko Nadami was found murdered, tied to one of the horses on the merry-go-round, with her left eye missing, a disturbing echo of the Cyclops Serial Killings from over six years ago, around the time Date lost his memories. In the middle of the merry-go-round, he finds Mizuki, Shoko's daughter and his unofficial roommate, but she is traumatized and unable to speak to anyone, so Date takes her back to ABIS HQ to place her in the Psync machine that will allow him to read her Somnium and hopefully gain insight on the case.

As he goes through the case, Date encounters multiple other persons of interest: Iris, the pop idol from Lemniscate which her father Renju owns. Ota, the otaku and self-proclaimed #1 Fan of Iris. Hitomi, Iris' mother. Mama, the okama who runs a bar at Golden Yokocho. So Sejima, a member of the Japanese Diet who might have connections with the Yakuza. #89, a.k.a. Falco, a prisoner serving a life sentence for murder.

Ota Route

Renju is found hanging from a fishhook in his own maid cafe at Sunfish Pocket. Date is able to stop Ota and Iris from being killed, and Psyncs with Ota's dementia-ridden mother to prove she couldn't have committed the original crime. However, So is later found dead and Iris is the prime suspect. The mystery remains unsolved.

Mizuki Route

Renju is found hanging from a fishhook in his own maid cafe at Sunfish Pocket. Date is able to stop Ota and Iris from being killed. While continuing his investigation, Date finds DNA evidence linking So to their attempted murder, but So uses his influence with the police to have Date taken off the case. Date and Mizuki decide to take on So on their own, infiltrating his manor, and Date shoots So in the head during the battle, but Date falls unconscious afterwards. Mizuki Psyncs with Date to bring him back, and Date later considers the matter closed, but the original murder of Shoko remains unsolved.

Iris Route

After seeing the body of a stabbed woman who looks like Iris in Mizuki's Somnium, Date follows a lead to a frozen warehouse where he sees So Saejima leaving. Date goes in after him to find what appears to be Iris' frozen corpse. Date Psyncs with So to get the truth, and sees Iris getting brutally stabbed over and over. With Aiba's help, Date saves the dream version of Iris. In the real world, Date and the police have no real evidence to hold So. The next day, Date is surprised to see Iris still alive. Iris suggests that Date might have seen an image from a parallel timeline. Renju goes on his way to meet Iris but gets in a car accident. When #89 says he has evidence of who the next victim will be, Date decides to hear him out in an interrogation room, but #89 knocks him out and takes Pewter hostage to escape the police HQ.

Later on, mysterious masked men attempt to kidnap Iris, but Date is there to save her. Suddenly, Iris tells Date that she's being targeted by a secret society called "Naixatloz." After Psyncing with Iris and going through her Somnium, Date decides to believe her story. However, Iris suddenly collapses from a terminal condition. Date takes her to a prototype Psync machine in a warehouse in Chiba, hoping to save her somehow, but she dies. The original mystery remains unsolved.

Annihilation Route

Renju is found hanging from a fishhook in his own maid cafe at Sunfish Pocket. Date is unable to save Ota and Iris from being killed. Pewter reveals that the original Cyclops Serial Killings were done by two people, one of whom was now-dead Yakuza boss Rohan Kumakura, who was somehow involved with So Saejima. Date calls in #89 into the interrogation room, where he tells a story about his past life as a contract killer before falling in love with Iris' mother Hitomi. However, Date suspects he's still hiding something about the current case, and so Psync's with #89's mind, and sees both Rohan and the Boss in his Somnium. Afterwards, he receives a video of what is clearly Boss shooting So in the head. [The last part of this route is blocked off until the first three routes have been cleared]

Date rushes to Hitomi's house, as she is the one remaining link, only to find her missing, while Boss leads a SAT team in to arrest him. With Aiba's help, Date is able to incapacitate Boss and take her back to HQ, where he Psync's into the Boss's mind. Inside her Somnium, he sees visions of the other recent murders, followed by Boss herself threatening Hitomi, and has enough information to put together that Boss's body contains the real Cyclops Serial Killer: Saito Saejima, So's missing son. Saito used a dangerous feature of the Psync machine, Psyncing with his victims longer than 6 minutes, to essentially swap bodies with them, murder the previous body, and then continue with the next connected victim, all for the sake of getting revenge on Date for using Saito's body. Seeing video of Hitomi strapped to a bomb, Date has no choice but to swap bodies with Saito. Saito, now in his original body, laughs as Hitomi is blown up anyway, shortly before he gets knocked out by Aiba. Though Date found the real killer, nearly everyone he knew is dead and he is now trapped in Boss's body.

Resolution Route

After seeing the body of a stabbed woman who looks like Iris in Mizuki's Somnium, Date follows a lead to a frozen warehouse where he sees So Saejima leaving. Date goes in after him to find what appears to be Iris' frozen corpse. Date Psyncs with So to get the truth, and sees Iris getting brutally stabbed over and over. With Aiba's help, Date saves the dream version of Iris. In the real world, Date and the police have no real evidence to hold So. The next day, Date is surprised to see Iris still alive. Iris suggests that Date might have seen an image from a parallel timeline. Renju goes on his way to meet Iris but gets in a car accident. When #89 says he has evidence of who the next victim will be, Date decides to hear him out in an interrogation room, but #89 knocks him out and takes Pewter hostage to escape the police HQ.

Later on, mysterious masked men attempt to kidnap Iris, but Date is there to save her. Suddenly, Iris tells Date that she's being targeted by a secret society called "Naixatloz." After Psyncing with Iris and going through her Somnium, Date refuses to believe Iris' story, shattering her delusions instead. The following day, Date visits Hitomi and discovers from her that Iris has a brain tumor that will kill her at some point within a year. Date tries to contact Iris again but she goes missing, leading Date to go back to the frozen warehouse, and he sees Iris corpse again. With Aiba's help, Date discovers the corpse is not Iris, but Iris birth-mother Manaka from 18 years ago. Hitomi later confesses to Date the truth about Iris, the corpse of Manaka, and how she was a witness to the murder when So found out that Manaka was carrying his child out of wedlock. Hitomi decided to raise Iris as her own mother, with Renju assisting on the legal details, and hoped that So wouldn't find out.

Date follows another lead with Hitomi's help to a warehouse in Chiba where he discovers a prototype Psync machine. However, #87 is there and knocks him down with a stun gun, the electric shock partially disabling Aiba's functions. [The last part of this route is blocked off until the above routes have all been cleared] Having indirectly gained knowledge from other timelines, Date realizes that he's been strapped to a prototype Psync machine, that #89 currently contains the mind of Saito Saejima and is Date's original body, while Date is riding in Saito's body. Saito uses the Psync machine and both men switch to their original bodies.

As Date slowly regains consciousness, he remembers fragments of his real past as Falco: working as a cop, moonlighting as an assassin with the Kumakura gang, being told by Rohan to kill Hitomi and Iris if he wanted out, asking the Boss for help, getting the Boss's help to swap bodies with Rohan, but Rohan used Falco's body to escape and shoot Hitomi before Falco and the Boss could stop him. Hitomi managed to survive and Falco as Rohan told the gang that Hitomi and Iris were off limits. Then Falco attempted to get Saito to confess to the Cyclops killings, but Saito saw through his ruse and instead tortured Falco until he gave up the location of the Psync machine. Falco found himself in Saito's body and escaped, but his memories of everything up to that point were erased. The Boss found Falco in Saito's body and gave him a new name: Kaname Date.

In the present, before Saito can finish killing everyone else, Date's allies rush to his rescue, freeing Iris and fighting off Saito. However, Saito reveals he has Hitomi at gunpoint, and demands Date either throw down his gun, or make his one shot count. If Date refuses to shoot, he gets a message from Aiba to say a code phrase that will cause her to self destruct in Saito's head. He manages to do so, saving Hitomi from being shot.

Afterwards, Date and a healed Iris go around town, reminiscing with their friends and allies. Even Pewter, who turns out to have remade Aiba at the Boss's request/demand.

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