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!

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.

It's a complex and well-made game. Merely calling it a visual novel doesn't do justice to AI: TSF. It took me over two years to complete as I got distracted by other games. Still, I always had this game in the back of my mind nagging me to put it up again and tie up all the loose ends. Finally after revealing all the plot twists I can pride myself to be one of Tokyo Metro Police's cold case specialists.

without a doubt one of the best if not the best story telling game i've ever played, everything about this game is amazing, from super intense and mysterious main plot to the funny humor writing style (DATE PORN MAG ON THE GROUND) XD & orgasm soundtrack of it, even gameplay never felt boring either which is a W. this game was so intense and weird (in a good way) at some points of story that i legitimately couldn't control myself from going and watching lore videos and ending before even finishing the game itself but glad i didn't, this is legit how good the story is, another plus about Somnium files is the characters, every single character is compelling and has lots of charm and personality behind them, whether its positive or not. not to mention how adorable Aiba is & i def do need a huge Aiba plushie after knowing her, AND YES IM IN LOVE WITH IRIS, SHES SO CUTE (after sexy mama obv) ^W^, thank you so much for your recommendation Mayu, i will forever cherish this materpiece of a game that you enlightened me with.

I always appreciate a game that is genuinely funny to the extent that it makes you burst into laughter countless times. I'm impressed at the level of care that went into translating the frankly ridiculous number of puns while still sticking to the original meaning as much as possible. As always you should of course be playing with the japanese VA but you can tell a lot of work went into the translation.
As an added bonus Date is a horny freak which is immensely relatable.

AI: The Somnium Files is a mystery detective visual-novel-type adventure developed by Spike Chunsoft who are also known for the Danganronpa series which is more or less similar to this game. It's quite a girthy title in terms of length, but every line of dialogue is voiced and you have the option to either stick with the original Japanese VO or have a go at the English dub, which is serviceable at best as it's often the case with anime-anything.
The story is broken down into multiple routes, all of which can be accessed via the flowchart option, but you are technically forced to go through them all if you want to view the true ending anyway. There is quite a bit of mystery and the biggest twist is, well, twisted enough to consider it as such, but the writing just comes off as weird and tactless at times: you've got the gritty stuff and then you've got the over-the-top "japaneseness", there are so many scenes where it's supposed to be an emotional setup, only to have one of the characters crack a sex joke, I'm all for innuendos and the like but the awkward timing really ruins the vibe.
Aside from the questionable remarks at inappropriate times, there are possibly all QoL features one could think of that I wish most VNs would have by default: you've got characters dossiers and all the other trivia neatly listed in a separate menu, the flowchart not only allows you to quickly jump from one route to the other but it also grants accesst to every single checkpoint, if you've missed something specific. Cutscenes can be sped-up and an autosave is created upon every scene switch, manual saving is available at all times except during some cinematics. The first-person exploration aspect where you can scan the environment for clues and additional commentary as well as the somnium segments are the reason it's not just another VN where you simply hold down the spacebar, the somnium levels in particular are the most creative and fun bits in the game since you're constantly left wondering what the next one is going to be like.
I've played the whole thing on the Deck from start to finish as I thought it was made perfectly for such a handheld, it's ran at clean 60fps but it's advised to launch the game via desktop mode to avoid any unnecessary crashes. If the aforementioned issue in the narrative department doesn't bother you, it can easily be recommended.