AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES

This game is wack. Like, hella wack
Firstly, this game is genuinely insane. Looking at screenshots and trailers, you’d think it’s a really serious, deep, and thrilling game—and it is... eventually. What the trailers don’t show is that the game borders on comedy. For instance, the protagonist has superpowers that activate when he thinks about a certain adult magazine. Yes, this is canon—I’m dead serious.
That said, this style of humor actually makes the genuinely good story, twists, and characters even more engaging in a weird way. The soundtrack, art style, and gameplay inside the somnium are top-notch. The visuals aren’t the best, but they’re passable. However, the facial animations could definitely use some work.
But damn... the story is so good. It even managed to make me tear up, which is something the Zero Escape series never did. I’ve heard people say this game is better than Zero Escape, and for me, it’s on another level. I’d prefer this game over all Zero Escape games combined.
I’d highly recommend this game to anyone who can tolerate some weird humor.

It would take a hundred M. Night Shyamalans to come up with a story like this. I was on the edge of my seat from the first minute to the last, and my jaw dropped several times. This game is a miracle. Even with probably over a thousand crime books, movies and games under my belt, I was still blown away by the twists and turns and the clever writing, presented in a flow chart, leading through multiple endings via deja vu (or not?). They say the best stories are born out of real life, but this story is not (yet) possible, it has some subtle sci-fi elements, completely made up by the writers, which makes it even more captivating. I have skipped the lore element in many games lately after realising how badly they are written, in Somnium Files I didn't skip a single dialogue or commentary, and I clicked on every interactive item every time. The humor is absolutely my taste, I laughed out loud several times during my playtime.
Besides the story, the presentation is also remarkable. The manga characters are masterfully animated and the soundtrack takes the experience up a notch. This is one of the few Japanese games where I recommend the English voiceovers, all the actors did a fantastic job. The user interface and design is clean and works very well. It's almost an insult to label this game a visual novel. All the gameplay elements are fun and engaging. This is certainly a fleshed out game that imposes a lot of ideas that are translated in a visually stunning way.
This is a massive recommendation for anyone looking for a good crime thriller with strong emotions. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be angry, you'll be sad, you'll be relieved, you'll be shocked, all mixed together in a carefully crafted way. I guarantee the characters will be etched in your mind forever and stay with you for the rest of your life. Upset! Regret! A-set!

AI: The Somnium Files was a game that I went into not sure how to feel about it. A friend of mine originally let me borrow it on the Switch, and I can still remember thinking, “I’m not quite sure I will even really like this game.” Well, my opinion changed majorly!

Almost all character interactions were so engaging, and I genuinely loved the music so much that I had to add it to my Spotify playlists. The intricate plot weaves together elements of mystery, science fiction, and psychological thriller, making it a truly immersive experience. Each revelation and plot twist adds depth to the narrative. I truly believe if you enjoy mystery visual novels and pop culture references, you’ll definitely enjoy this VN!

Great game that gets dragged down by its god awful anime humour. Every 5 minutes they feel the need to add some terrible porn joke that it almost feels Pavlovian. The action scenes could be completely removed from the game and be swapped with a black screen that says "And then I beat everyone" that it would be better than whatever the game comes up with.
But when they actually decide to take things seriously, it's quite a captivating story, made even better by its excellent soundtrack. The English Dub is also of very high quality.
For the best experince, please go with the left cage when you get presented with a choice, and stick with it.

On it's own, the game's an easy 8.5/10.
The real issues stem from 3 things, mainly, while they don't ruin the game, they could certainly be improved.
1. Pacing, the pacing of the general story line is fine, especially if you go for the left flowchart before the right flowchart. But only then. The game also has issues when it comes to exposition dumps, unfortunately this is a recurring problem with Visual Novels in General, but whenever you're given a piece of information, you're repeatedly told that piece of information over and over again, to really hammer it in your head. It'd be fine if it was just one or two things, but this game does it CONSTANTLY , with details that might not even matter. In this case it comes in the form of 'flashbacks' via Aiba's vision.
This game could easily be cut by a solid 30% if they improved on this one aspect of it alone.
2. This game can't tell if it wants to be 'read', or 'solved', they seem to be in a constant clash with each other where the writers go out of their way to explain certain details to the audience when they could've easily pieced it together themselves, or at least taken a good guess at. At it's core, this is supposed to be a detective game, but judging by how often the game has characters tell you the solutions to certain 'problems', or just give you info you could've pieced together instead, and judging by the lack of any real Interrogation scenes which are standard for detective VNs, (There's a few, none of them are noteworthy except the one, which is also easy to solve) it would appear the writer has little to no faith in the audience to come to their own conclusions and instead has characters spell it out for them. this is further reinforced by the main villain explaining every single detail to you, effectively the writers deciding this game isn't made for an audience that wants to think.
3. Inconsistencies with the plot. There's a few noteworthy ones, the most 'annoying' one is how utterly alone Date is.
He has the backing of an entire secret police organization behind him and more, and yet whenever he's faced with an emergency he's the only one to show up. It feels extremely unnatural and forced.
Other than that, the game's great, the main mystery's awesome and the characters are memorable. I'd suggest trying to solve this game on your own, it feels much better then.

I dont often go out of my way to write reviews but my god does this game deserve it
without hyperbole I said to myself "what the **** is happening" about 6 distinct times throughout my playtime.
and somehow it lays itself out in such a way that you don't get lost and can string everything together by the end.
some genuinely good writing too, some scenes had me on the verge of tears and others had me outloud laughing to myself.
Kaname date may be one of my new fave characters. love my pathetic detective.

This plot is insane. At times it feels like the writers are trying to extract my soul from my body. Playing this for extended periods makes my brain feel like it's melting out my ears.
I cannot recommend this enough, 12/10.