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AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES – nirvanA Initiative |OT| Exploring Uchikoshi's Somnium

Vampire On Titus

Vampire On Titus

Member
One thing I know I'll love doing is going back through all the Somnium's and Investigation parts to intentionally choose the wrong answers.
mjYPPDR.png
 
Danjin44

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Vampire On Titus said:
One thing I know I'll love doing is going back through all the Somnium's and Investigation parts to intentionally choose the wrong answers.
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I LOVE to do that as well just for interactions, some of the them between Ryuki and Tama are golden.

Tama is basically moody delinquent.
 
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YukiOnna

YukiOnna

Member
Finished all routes. What an amazing experience just like the first game and surpassed it.
Ended up feeling really emotional in some of the final somniums and as more information came to light. It was a hard road, but all's well that ends well...

I really hope there's a 3rd one and it's just as ridiculous.
 
Vampire On Titus

Vampire On Titus

Member
Finished all routes including the NIL route a day or two ago, just went back and did the bonus Somnium that recreates the first escape room of 999. I loved the game, and I'm not sure which of the two Somnium Files games I'd say I enjoy more. On one hand AI2 has better pacing, better puzzle design & variety, a more mind blowing/more Uchikoshi-esque meta narrative twist. On the other hand I might have liked the actual murder mystery in the first game better, Date & Aiba are still my favorite protag pair, and AI1 has a natural edge of being the first to establish series hallmarks. IDK it's a toss-up in my mind right now. I do appreciate how AI2 leaves a little bit of its mystery up to interpretation. Makes you want to replay it immediately so you can pick up on stray connections you're bound to miss the first time around.

I've seen some people criticize AI2's twist as being purely a narrative trick with no bearing on the actual events of the story. I don't think that's fair at all and It seems they're missing the significance of the reveal that the player is a real character AKA the Frayer, and that unbeknownst to us *the human being actually playing the game*, they're jumping to various moments in the story/messing with the simulation by using impossible information to create a tear. It's absolutely significant to the story because:
1. Tokiko knows about the Frayer and orchestrates the HB case events for them to take advantage of so she can reach Moksha, which makes her one of the craziest villains ever.
2. It reveals the existence of a hidden motivation for the Frayer to make this tear. One that is largely left to speculation but it is implied that the Frayer must have some plan by Tokiko's dialogue when you make the choice not to tell Ryuki. You could also assume that, since the final moment comes down to player choice, that the motivation of the Frayer mirrors what most actual human players want when playing a game: to get the good ending. So after seeing all these characters befall numerous tragedies related to the Half Body serial murder case Tearer decided to create a tear in the simulation to prevent them from happening.

Which does raise certain questions, like how did Tearer know Tokiko would give him that deal? Maybe he was simply trying to achieve Moksha for himself, thinking that could save everyone, but was ultimately being lead by Tokiko and chose to accept her deal? It's a lot to think about but the way some people are conceptualizing this is as if it's purely a U.I trick, rather than the appearance of a hidden character who's been arranging the events we've witnessed thus far. So there's a lot more going on than they're giving the game credit for. Also it feels like this aspect is set to be expanded on in further games.

That's my interpretation at least. I'm also wondering if Mama's premonitions were also the Frayer speaking through Mama? Something I'd have to think more about when I replay the game. In any case it was another amazing game from Spike Chunsoft, Team Zero Escape, and Uchikoshi. Looking forward to seeing what Spike Chunsoft & Kodaka are cooking up with Enigma Archives: Raincode. I'm assuming now that AI2 is out the pre-release cycle for that game will ramp up.
 
YukiOnna

YukiOnna

Member
Vampire On Titus said:
Finished all routes including the NIL route a day or two ago, just went back and did the bonus Somnium that recreates the first escape room of 999. I loved the game, and I'm not sure which of the two Somnium Files games I'd say I enjoy more. On one hand AI2 has better pacing, better puzzle design & variety, a more mind blowing/more Uchikoshi-esque meta narrative twist. On the other hand I might have liked the actual murder mystery in the first game better, Date & Aiba are still my favorite protag pair, and AI1 has a natural edge of being the first to establish series hallmarks. IDK it's a toss-up in my mind right now. I do appreciate how AI2 leaves a little bit of its mystery up to interpretation. Makes you want to replay it immediately so you can pick up on stray connections you're bound to miss the first time around.

I've seen some people criticize AI2's twist as being purely a narrative trick with no bearing on the actual events of the story. I don't think that's fair at all and It seems they're missing the significance of the reveal that the player is a real character AKA the Frayer, and that unbeknownst to us *the human being actually playing the game*, they're jumping to various moments in the story/messing with the simulation by using impossible information to create a tear. It's absolutely significant to the story because:
1. Tokiko knows about the Frayer and orchestrates the HB case events for them to take advantage of so she can reach Moksha, which makes her one of the craziest villains ever.
2. It reveals the existence of a hidden motivation for the Frayer to make this tear. One that is largely left to speculation but it is implied that the Frayer must have some plan by Tokiko's dialogue when you make the choice not to tell Ryuki. You could also assume that, since the final moment comes down to player choice, that the motivation of the Frayer mirrors what most actual human players want when playing a game: to get the good ending. So after seeing all these characters befall numerous tragedies related to the Half Body serial murder case Tearer decided to create a tear in the simulation to prevent them from happening.

Which does raise certain questions, like how did Tearer know Tokiko would give him that deal? Maybe he was simply trying to achieve Moksha for himself, thinking that could save everyone, but was ultimately being lead by Tokiko and chose to accept her deal? It's a lot to think about but the way some people are conceptualizing this is as if it's purely a U.I trick, rather than the appearance of a hidden character who's been arranging the events we've witnessed thus far. So there's a lot more going on than they're giving the game credit for. Also it feels like this aspect is set to be expanded on in further games.

That's my interpretation at least. I'm also wondering if Mama's premonitions were also the Frayer speaking through Mama? Something I'd have to think more about when I replay the game. In any case it was another amazing game from Spike Chunsoft, Team Zero Escape, and Uchikoshi. Looking forward to seeing what Spike Chunsoft & Kodaka are cooking up with Enigma Archives: Raincode. I'm assuming now that AI2 is out the pre-release cycle for that game will ramp up.
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I'm surprised People thought it was a simple UI trick or has no significance on the story, the entire point is that everything matters or happened. The entire simulation theory ends up being real and is directly tied to what Naix and Tokiko's basis is. Not to mention, Ryuki's glitches create major gaps in his events and affect him and how he feels depending on your choice. It's a lot to think about it and it isn't so easy to say the Diverge Ending is a "good" one even if you are attached to everyone like myself either.

It felt like we only scratched the surface of it. We never got the background of where this came from and Tokiko's ambiguous dialogue during the Nil route.[/ispoler]
 
Vampire On Titus

Vampire On Titus

Member
YukiOnna said:
I'm surprised People thought it was a simple UI trick or has no significance on the story, the entire point is that everything matters or happened. The entire simulation theory ends up being real and is directly tied to what Naix and Tokiko's basis is.
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I wouldn't have thought so either, until I went through some spoiler thread on the steam forums after completing the game, like this one.

YukiOnna said:
It's a lot to think about it and it isn't so easy to say the Diverge Ending is a "good" one even if you are attached to everyone like myself either.
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I don't mean that in the sense of a person's subjective evaluation of the ending's outcome. I'm not sure if I'd personally consider it "good" either. Since it basically ensures the true nature of the HB case will never be discovered and the entire cast is trapped in a fake world. Rather, in the sense of AI2's metaphor of the simulation as a game, abnormal behaviors are glitches, etc. In this metaphor the diverge ending would be the archetypical video game idea of a "good end."

Since it's fair to assume a continuation of AI2's trend, relating the simulated world to gaming, viewing Frayer's potential motivation through that lens could makes sense. Considering that Frayer is the player character, and the Japanese standard for multi-ending ADVs is to try to get the "good" or "true" end by playing multiple routes, my assumption is that Frayer's goal was to get that "good end" for some reason.

What that reason is? I can't say for sure. Continuing the metaphor it would make sense that Frayer wants to save the characters the same way the average player would want to "save" the characters in a regular multi-ending ADV by getting the "good end." But it could be something else, too. It's interesting to think that maybe Frayer's motivation is to trap the players in the simulation. Maybe he's one of the people who would rather thrive in the simulation rather than escape it.
 
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YukiOnna

YukiOnna

Member
While I think Date is still the indisputable best protagonist. Ryuki and Mizuki were just as good and great carries for the focal point of the story. They each had traits of him anyway and I hope they return with the story revolving around them in a 3rd game, too.
Vampire On Titus said:
I don't mean that in the sense of a person's subjective evaluation of the ending's outcome. I'm not sure if I'd personally consider it "good" either. Since it basically ensures the true nature of the HB case will never be discovered and the entire cast is trapped in a fake world. Rather, in the sense of AI2's metaphor of the simulation as a game, abnormal behaviors are glitches, etc. In this metaphor the diverge ending would be the archetypical video game idea of a "good end."

Since it's fair to assume a continuation of AI2's trend, relating the simulated world to gaming, viewing Tearer's potential motivation through that lens could makes sense. Considering that Tearer is the player character, and the Japanese standard for multi-ending ADVs is to try to get the "good" or "true" end by playing multiple routes, my assumption is that Tearer's goal was to get that "good end" for some reason.

What that reason is? I can't say for sure. Continuing the metaphor it would make sense that Tearer wants to save the characters the same way the average player would want to "save" the characters in a regular multi-ending ADV by getting the "good end." But it could be something else, too. It's interesting to think that maybe Tearer's motivation is to trap the players in the simulation. Maybe he's one of the people who would rather thrive in the simulation rather than escape it.
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Oh yeah, in that sense and if you put Ryuki aside, it really is. Since Tearer genuinely believed Tokiko's teachings I don't think he was under the belief of thriving in it like the Order of %. I do like that it's open for interpretation with his language though.
 
Vampire On Titus

Vampire On Titus

Member
YukiOnna said:
Oh yeah, in that sense and if you put Ryuki aside, it really is. Since Tearer genuinely believed Tokiko's teachings I don't think he was under the belief of thriving in it like the Order of %. I do like that it's open for interpretation with his language though.
Click to expand...

My bad, I meant to type Frayer.
 
Claus Grimhildyr

Claus Grimhildyr

Vincit qui se vincit
Completed it! Platinum and all.

Amazing game, but it does have the same issue as the first where there are a few lines that bastardized the original japanese intent to push the localizer’s personal politics. Really tired of that shit. Almost ruined the game, but thankfully it only happened twice in this one.
 
Claus Grimhildyr

Claus Grimhildyr

Vincit qui se vincit
krat6 said:
That's inexcusable, what kind were they?
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The typical minority/LGBT wankery. Original japanese is much more subtle and nuanced versus what they changed for the localized version. I am fine with the core message being told, but the way they localized it makes zero sense for the characters, situation, or context of the scenes. It pulls you out of the experience.
 
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Vampire On Titus

Vampire On Titus

Member
So people datamining the games code for tidbits of information and notes have found various different story confirmations:
Embed isn't working for some reason so link to thread here (spoilers for entire game ofc)

One of the most interesting findings of which is an unused DLC menu (not connected to the costume DLC currently available) suggesting there may be AI2 story DLC coming at some point.

AI: The Somnium Files – NirvanA Initiative Fan Discovery Potentially Teases Scenario DLC - Noisy Pixel

Recently, dataminer @robotortoise accessed the debug mode for AI: The Somnium Files – nirvanA Initiative and dug through various...
noisypixel.net noisypixel.net
 
MudoSkills

MudoSkills

Member
I finished this yesterday and really enjoyed it. I haven't played the original since it came out but remember it being far less linear - there's only one route here that I had to stop because I needed to see other information first, and I think I remember that happening a lot more often in the first game.

I'm glad Ota was sidelined for most of it.
 
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