This review contains spoilers
the first 60% of this was stronger than i expected, but it totally nosedived near the end and by the last couple of hours or so i stopped really caring. if ryuki wasn't there i'd probably give a lower score, but even his own character was kind of wasted at the end of the day. perhaps i'm being a little harsh, as mizuki and the other mizuki weren't particularly badly written at all- they were fine. but the plot they were shoved into was being held up by sticks. the "the timelines were actually crossed" twist was cool but in pratice kind of ended up just like a much more interesting version of "delta was there the whole time just conveniently positioned off camera." it did not help that it had to be explained to us, the player, by a possessed mama (which was responsible for moving the plot along more times than it should have been) as opposed to something baked into the general mystery. anyway this game and raincode are having a midoff.
This review contains spoilers
major spoilers for the first AI:TSF game as well as this one, discussion of "secret" nil number/ryuki diverge ending, 999 spoilers ig if you havent played/finished it
overall i want to say i didnt like it but i really really enjoyed like 80% of the time i spent playing it
its very similar to how i felt about vlr compared to 999
i was deeply interested until all the twists started getting revealed and i hit the real ending sequence and then i just wanted it to be over
high highs but extremely low lows
gameplay is overall better to me than the first game for sure
i had so so much more fun with the somniums this time (especially the later ones) and each of their unique mechanics, tearer's was a fucking blast to do
the vr segments were really fun as well, i just really liked how this game was a bit more puzzley than the first
some investigation segments with moving from place to place were a bit tedious especially when it gave you a ton of places to go to all at once but this is super minor and negligible
i couldve done without the qte segments completely though because i didnt like them at all in the first game in the first place and it totally dragged down the ending sequence. adds nothing
i noticed that some dialogue options would immediately skip you to the next scene and make you unable to select the other ones and it made me a little bit sad cause i wanted to make sure i covered everything and saw every bit of writing, i dont remember the dialogue being like that in the last game because it let you/wanted you to exhaust every dialogue option mostly
where this game falls short compared to aitsf is its story and cast. like ive said before for ZE, because uchikoshi leans so heavily on his twists (apparently he starts with the twist and writes the rest from there???), they can really make or break the story and the one in aini completely breaks it. i wouldnt say it ruined the game for me but i didnt really like or enjoy the twist at all
at first when they introduce it with mama breaking the fourth wall i was like oooooh this is cool esp with how it weaved the themes in but the way the game progressed after that, the more i thought about it, the way it justified and explained this twist, i ended up completely hating it
bibi being the biggest part of this spoils her character a lot for me. i wanted to like her but ? turns out shes not really different from mizuki date bc we spent a major amount of the game playing her and shes actually mizuki date's clone and she was boss's daughter the whole time and
it just feels really really silly and really dumb. its a twist that wasnt really hinted at (to me) and is entirely based on pulling the wool over the player's eyes and the trust they have in the timeline which sounds really cool in words like this i realize but the execution was really really bad
bibis existence as a whole and mizuki being adopted had a similar effect on the first game's story as vlr did on 999 in that it kinda retroactively ruins it and takes away the impact it had in certain plot points
of course i can still appreciate them individually as separate games and basically ignore this (because it also. doesnt really matter) but it just kinda sucks
as does uru and his connection to so sejima which felt pointless and just a way for them to tie things back into the first game in a way that doesnt really impact anything or have a significant meaning
the whole cast, new and old, suffers as a whole because of this timeline organization and the way theyre presented to us
i feel like we spent way way less time with the new characters compared to the supporting cast in the last game and because aini is also actively balancing the new characters while also having almost every single old character around (something something why nurse/chinpei da bus driver all of da sudden), the new characters feel terribly weak and not all that likable
theyre fine. of course i like some of them but theyre just overall weak
especially with the way almost all of them are shoved right alongside the existing cast with assurances that theyve known each other for years and are good friends which did not play well with me at all (gen especially)
i know thats basically what they did with the first game but that was the first game this is the sequel so it comes off much worse
the character that gets this the worst is ryuki because hes one of our protagonists but he gets sidelined pretty much after you finish his "side" in the timeline
i really really liked him (tama to a lesser extent but shes fine) but as soon as i was really subscribing to him as a protagonist (even w his kinda weak backstory), the game plops bibi/mizuki into my lap and forces me to play
i wish so badly he got to be developed more
he and tama are very much victims of this retconning "we were here all along actually" thing but because youre playing as him, it cancels out the jarring effect a bit
his bond with tama is not developed nearly as much as date and aibas though (or even mizuki and aibas) so it guts this relationship they expected me to care a lot about
the older characters suffer because theyre basically the same, presented alongside the new cast when their story is done? it feels like theyre just there for the players to ooh and aah at. i cant say i was all that excited to see ota or moma again but they sure are there. iris too even but shes a sweetie pie so i can forgive
boss and pewter exempt bc they work there but i do wish pewter got a little something more bc i like him
but the most major characters from the previous cast's stories just feel like they get ruined
like what do you mean date lost his memory again and wandered around for SIX YEARS what do you mean hes wearing a silicon mask
what do you mean mizuki grew up to be an abis agent and have all this responsibility and that she has a clone and oh sorry that part of the story wasnt mizuki that was bibi. Very different characters
man it felt like they wanted you to like bibi and mizuki's bond so much by the end. theyre clones, theyre tied together, theyre sisters
but i cant say i liked it much at all
a lot of the new character relationships i didnt like at all outside of ryukis
i warmed up to lien and kizuna by the end but the way theyre introduced is abysmal and amame and gen's relationship just straight up sucks
like whats an uchikoshi game without men being creepy towards barely legal high schoolers right
its one thing to have amane and gen be in love, its another thing to have him acknowledge it as him trying to treat her as a father treats his daughter before that
the perverted jokes do not get any better surrounding these characters either. i guess tama livens it up a little aiming some things at ryuki but for the large majority it still surrounds the made to be attractive women (IRIS IS NEVER FREED!!!!!!!!!!) and it is just as unfunny as it was in the first game
tama is probably the biggest pervert joke source in this game but things even come from aiba and mizuki/bibi which just felt like they were making the jokes for the sake of it
i didnt like it
shoma and komeji as a family are cool and i liked the way it added to the main plot. amame's late addition to it is whatever i didnt really care for it but her being a big sister to shoma is sweet
the true ending sequence is absolutely abysmal and had none of the tension the last game's had
qtes were a slog, the action came off as corny rather than cool, and the epilogue didnt feel good. the fake out ryuki death into them trapping him in a gift box to surprise mizuki and bibi was so dumb and just some shit to stir up melodrama
the credits dance party is good as always though... always fun :]
but what i did really like and felt was a very strong part of the game was the pseudoscience, arg elements, and main philosophical concept they presented with naix along with the way they tie this to the structure of games themselves
the idea that reality is a simulation, there are glitches in the world that reveal its true nature and we must widen the seams to escape and achieve moksha
that fucking rules. its fantastic motivation and its an insanely interesting and scary idea
the story around naix and tearer isnt all that bad even, just the way they tied everything together with most every other character was
i was a bit hesitant at first with the introduction of naix considering what iris said about them in the last game but they are fucking incredible in this game and thats thanks in part to tokikos character
mysterious, off-putting, but has a deeply interesting and sad backstory
it comes off as a bit silly and outrageous that an organization that is so deluded somehow got so powerful and is involved in these hb killings
but it becomes much more sinister when youre confronted with the possibility that theyre completely right
by far my favorite part of the game was the ryuki diverge ending you got through the nil number
this ending pretty much overshadowed the true ending for me because its so damn good and takes these concepts and wraps them up perfectly
it was fucking terrifying frankly
im a total wuss but ive always been afraid of video game glitches, errors, whatever happens when things go wrong
and to have this game play on that in the exact perfect way with the distorted music and models and having you as ryuki move out of bounds to find tokiko was so fucking cool
i absolutely adored the way the game broke the fourth wall to convey this idea of reality being a simulation by using these inherently game-y rules and addressing the player directly
in the very first playable sequence the game speaks to the player directly to ask if spoilers from the previous game are okay
i brushed this off as a little fun and silly thing but i had no idea what that would lead up to
its so so scary. especially knowing that ryuki now has to be aware of this truth, aware of the false reality, of a timeline that doesnt exist but happened somewhere, somehow
even though he uses this knowledge to "fix" things and make sure that no one else had to die, was it really right?
everything's perfect, why does it feel so wrong?
this was naix's true victory. they, tokiko most of all, achieved their goal
it reminded me of how i felt after finishing the first game. i loved the ending but i felt like there couldve been a happier ending where everyone could live. shoko and renju could still be alive because i knew everything, so i could fix it, right? just like in 999 and vlr. everything could be fixed through knowledge from other timelines. but what did that really mean, would it really be okay to fix things just like that?
i like the way the zero escape series goes about multiple timelines in a more grounded pseudoscientific way while the AI series approaches it with a more unsettling and technological way. hopefully that makes sense
this resolution makes the rest of the game, that i disliked so much, all worth it to me. it is worth going through subpar reveals and weak character developments to reach this ending and its presentation
it put ryukis mojibake breakdowns into perspective too
is it hallucinations as the characters assure you, induced by the virus and subliminal messaging, or is it a sign of some higher realization?
these breakdowns and the mysterious naix/tearer videos were also some of my favorite parts. presented in such a cool way and unsettle me so bad
those being in one of the first sequences you play as ryuki made such a huge impression on me. still thinking about them still thinking about the diverge ending
very flawed game but has some good things that make me not regret playing it
ryuki ily
overall i want to say i didnt like it but i really really enjoyed like 80% of the time i spent playing it
its very similar to how i felt about vlr compared to 999
i was deeply interested until all the twists started getting revealed and i hit the real ending sequence and then i just wanted it to be over
high highs but extremely low lows
gameplay is overall better to me than the first game for sure
i had so so much more fun with the somniums this time (especially the later ones) and each of their unique mechanics, tearer's was a fucking blast to do
the vr segments were really fun as well, i just really liked how this game was a bit more puzzley than the first
some investigation segments with moving from place to place were a bit tedious especially when it gave you a ton of places to go to all at once but this is super minor and negligible
i couldve done without the qte segments completely though because i didnt like them at all in the first game in the first place and it totally dragged down the ending sequence. adds nothing
i noticed that some dialogue options would immediately skip you to the next scene and make you unable to select the other ones and it made me a little bit sad cause i wanted to make sure i covered everything and saw every bit of writing, i dont remember the dialogue being like that in the last game because it let you/wanted you to exhaust every dialogue option mostly
where this game falls short compared to aitsf is its story and cast. like ive said before for ZE, because uchikoshi leans so heavily on his twists (apparently he starts with the twist and writes the rest from there???), they can really make or break the story and the one in aini completely breaks it. i wouldnt say it ruined the game for me but i didnt really like or enjoy the twist at all
at first when they introduce it with mama breaking the fourth wall i was like oooooh this is cool esp with how it weaved the themes in but the way the game progressed after that, the more i thought about it, the way it justified and explained this twist, i ended up completely hating it
bibi being the biggest part of this spoils her character a lot for me. i wanted to like her but ? turns out shes not really different from mizuki date bc we spent a major amount of the game playing her and shes actually mizuki date's clone and she was boss's daughter the whole time and
it just feels really really silly and really dumb. its a twist that wasnt really hinted at (to me) and is entirely based on pulling the wool over the player's eyes and the trust they have in the timeline which sounds really cool in words like this i realize but the execution was really really bad
bibis existence as a whole and mizuki being adopted had a similar effect on the first game's story as vlr did on 999 in that it kinda retroactively ruins it and takes away the impact it had in certain plot points
of course i can still appreciate them individually as separate games and basically ignore this (because it also. doesnt really matter) but it just kinda sucks
as does uru and his connection to so sejima which felt pointless and just a way for them to tie things back into the first game in a way that doesnt really impact anything or have a significant meaning
the whole cast, new and old, suffers as a whole because of this timeline organization and the way theyre presented to us
i feel like we spent way way less time with the new characters compared to the supporting cast in the last game and because aini is also actively balancing the new characters while also having almost every single old character around (something something why nurse/chinpei da bus driver all of da sudden), the new characters feel terribly weak and not all that likable
theyre fine. of course i like some of them but theyre just overall weak
especially with the way almost all of them are shoved right alongside the existing cast with assurances that theyve known each other for years and are good friends which did not play well with me at all (gen especially)
i know thats basically what they did with the first game but that was the first game this is the sequel so it comes off much worse
the character that gets this the worst is ryuki because hes one of our protagonists but he gets sidelined pretty much after you finish his "side" in the timeline
i really really liked him (tama to a lesser extent but shes fine) but as soon as i was really subscribing to him as a protagonist (even w his kinda weak backstory), the game plops bibi/mizuki into my lap and forces me to play
i wish so badly he got to be developed more
he and tama are very much victims of this retconning "we were here all along actually" thing but because youre playing as him, it cancels out the jarring effect a bit
his bond with tama is not developed nearly as much as date and aibas though (or even mizuki and aibas) so it guts this relationship they expected me to care a lot about
the older characters suffer because theyre basically the same, presented alongside the new cast when their story is done? it feels like theyre just there for the players to ooh and aah at. i cant say i was all that excited to see ota or moma again but they sure are there. iris too even but shes a sweetie pie so i can forgive
boss and pewter exempt bc they work there but i do wish pewter got a little something more bc i like him
but the most major characters from the previous cast's stories just feel like they get ruined
like what do you mean date lost his memory again and wandered around for SIX YEARS what do you mean hes wearing a silicon mask
what do you mean mizuki grew up to be an abis agent and have all this responsibility and that she has a clone and oh sorry that part of the story wasnt mizuki that was bibi. Very different characters
man it felt like they wanted you to like bibi and mizuki's bond so much by the end. theyre clones, theyre tied together, theyre sisters
but i cant say i liked it much at all
a lot of the new character relationships i didnt like at all outside of ryukis
i warmed up to lien and kizuna by the end but the way theyre introduced is abysmal and amame and gen's relationship just straight up sucks
like whats an uchikoshi game without men being creepy towards barely legal high schoolers right
its one thing to have amane and gen be in love, its another thing to have him acknowledge it as him trying to treat her as a father treats his daughter before that
the perverted jokes do not get any better surrounding these characters either. i guess tama livens it up a little aiming some things at ryuki but for the large majority it still surrounds the made to be attractive women (IRIS IS NEVER FREED!!!!!!!!!!) and it is just as unfunny as it was in the first game
tama is probably the biggest pervert joke source in this game but things even come from aiba and mizuki/bibi which just felt like they were making the jokes for the sake of it
i didnt like it
shoma and komeji as a family are cool and i liked the way it added to the main plot. amame's late addition to it is whatever i didnt really care for it but her being a big sister to shoma is sweet
the true ending sequence is absolutely abysmal and had none of the tension the last game's had
qtes were a slog, the action came off as corny rather than cool, and the epilogue didnt feel good. the fake out ryuki death into them trapping him in a gift box to surprise mizuki and bibi was so dumb and just some shit to stir up melodrama
the credits dance party is good as always though... always fun :]
but what i did really like and felt was a very strong part of the game was the pseudoscience, arg elements, and main philosophical concept they presented with naix along with the way they tie this to the structure of games themselves
the idea that reality is a simulation, there are glitches in the world that reveal its true nature and we must widen the seams to escape and achieve moksha
that fucking rules. its fantastic motivation and its an insanely interesting and scary idea
the story around naix and tearer isnt all that bad even, just the way they tied everything together with most every other character was
i was a bit hesitant at first with the introduction of naix considering what iris said about them in the last game but they are fucking incredible in this game and thats thanks in part to tokikos character
mysterious, off-putting, but has a deeply interesting and sad backstory
it comes off as a bit silly and outrageous that an organization that is so deluded somehow got so powerful and is involved in these hb killings
but it becomes much more sinister when youre confronted with the possibility that theyre completely right
by far my favorite part of the game was the ryuki diverge ending you got through the nil number
this ending pretty much overshadowed the true ending for me because its so damn good and takes these concepts and wraps them up perfectly
it was fucking terrifying frankly
im a total wuss but ive always been afraid of video game glitches, errors, whatever happens when things go wrong
and to have this game play on that in the exact perfect way with the distorted music and models and having you as ryuki move out of bounds to find tokiko was so fucking cool
i absolutely adored the way the game broke the fourth wall to convey this idea of reality being a simulation by using these inherently game-y rules and addressing the player directly
in the very first playable sequence the game speaks to the player directly to ask if spoilers from the previous game are okay
i brushed this off as a little fun and silly thing but i had no idea what that would lead up to
its so so scary. especially knowing that ryuki now has to be aware of this truth, aware of the false reality, of a timeline that doesnt exist but happened somewhere, somehow
even though he uses this knowledge to "fix" things and make sure that no one else had to die, was it really right?
everything's perfect, why does it feel so wrong?
this was naix's true victory. they, tokiko most of all, achieved their goal
it reminded me of how i felt after finishing the first game. i loved the ending but i felt like there couldve been a happier ending where everyone could live. shoko and renju could still be alive because i knew everything, so i could fix it, right? just like in 999 and vlr. everything could be fixed through knowledge from other timelines. but what did that really mean, would it really be okay to fix things just like that?
i like the way the zero escape series goes about multiple timelines in a more grounded pseudoscientific way while the AI series approaches it with a more unsettling and technological way. hopefully that makes sense
this resolution makes the rest of the game, that i disliked so much, all worth it to me. it is worth going through subpar reveals and weak character developments to reach this ending and its presentation
it put ryukis mojibake breakdowns into perspective too
is it hallucinations as the characters assure you, induced by the virus and subliminal messaging, or is it a sign of some higher realization?
these breakdowns and the mysterious naix/tearer videos were also some of my favorite parts. presented in such a cool way and unsettle me so bad
those being in one of the first sequences you play as ryuki made such a huge impression on me. still thinking about them still thinking about the diverge ending
very flawed game but has some good things that make me not regret playing it
ryuki ily
Once you get past the fact that this game is... not a very good sequel to the first AITSF, it still has the same strengths at its core. The characters are extremely entertaining, the dialogue is funny, and of course the mystery part is always thrilling. AINI takes its concepts further than the first game at the cost of, at least for me, being a whole lot more difficult to follow as well, but once it finally clicks it goes BALLISTIC. I still prefer the first AITSF for being an overall more digestible narrative but considering I have both at 5 stars it's not by a significant margin.
The first one is better.
The sequel is overall less funny and my experience of the plot was bitter, like many reveals felt cheap but I have to give credit for it being more ambitious overall, the recontextualization of a few characters that were present in the first game was unexpected and the new characters are charming enough in new ways
The sequel is overall less funny and my experience of the plot was bitter, like many reveals felt cheap but I have to give credit for it being more ambitious overall, the recontextualization of a few characters that were present in the first game was unexpected and the new characters are charming enough in new ways
A step up from the first game, really loved both protags and switching the stories, the twist at the end was incredible too! I really hope there is a third game.
not as peak as the original game and it had a lot of flaws and inconsistencies that annoyed me but i still liked it. also added a lot of cool features the original didn't have like unlimited psync or wink psyncs. fun! ryuki on his own bumps this rating up a lot he's fucking amazing. my son who has every disease (no joke i do lobe how his character is handled and how raw his trauma snd mental issues are depicted but also. hes silly)
Not a big guy of visual novels, but this game really made me love the series
i love both the protags and the new characters, mizuki is my literal spirit animal
although certain plotpoints i disagreed with, and the ending has me slightly mixed
i am excited for a third game!
i love both the protags and the new characters, mizuki is my literal spirit animal
although certain plotpoints i disagreed with, and the ending has me slightly mixed
i am excited for a third game!
As the young kids would say, “let the man cook.” But in this case, the kitchen is on fire, and the food has turned to burnt charcoal. Mizuki being the protagonist in the sequel was a highly anticipated change narratively, as I personally liked her despite the weird anime tropes attached to her character. However, my excitement quickly turned to disappointment. As a standalone title, the game is messy narratively. It prioritizes surprising plot twists over coherent storytelling and character development. The game's attempts to be clever with its plot often fall flat, leading to a lack of cohesion in the overall narrative.
The biggest issue is its obsession with "The Big Reveal," sacrificing what could be satisfying character arcs and self-contained storylines. The writers tried to balance the inclusion of beloved characters from the first game while making the sequel accessible to new players. This resulted in a disjointed narrative where no character arcs or threads from the first game are meaningfully followed up. Returning characters are retconned or subjected to bizarre creative decisions.
Mizuki, who was a promising protagonist that I wanted to really enjoy, ends up being flat and boring. She lacks the depth and complexity expected of a lead character following up from the first game. The game does her a disservice by not exploring her character development adequately, which is mostly caused by poor writing and a lack of meaningful progression in her story. Her role feels diminished, and she comes across as a one-dimensional character. In the original game, Mizuki was a compelling supporting character, adding depth to the story with her interactions and backstory. However, she feels like a shell of her former self. The writers missed an opportunity to delve deeper into her psyche and growth, which is disappointing for fans who were excited to see her take the lead.
The returning cast from the first game also suffers from poor treatment. Major characters in the previous game who had significant development and interesting arcs are reduced to mere shadows of their former selves. Their roles are either minimized or altered in ways that don't align with their established personalities. This flanderization is frustrating, as it feels like the game is ignoring the progress these characters made in the first installment. The new characters introduced in the game are a mixed bag. While some show flashes of potential, most are unlikeable and fail to leave a lasting impression. The game tries to make these new characters integral to the plot, but their development feels rushed and shallow. The villains, in particular, are poorly written and lack depth, making the big reveals feel underwhelming.
Once again, a big reason for this is the game's fixation on plot twists. These twists often come at the expense of character development, making it hard to connect with the new faces. Relationships that should be crucial to the story are either glossed over or handled superficially. The focus on surprising the player detracts from the emotional depth and complexity that made the first game so engaging.
The problems from the first game that I had with too much innuendo and anime clichés are also exacerbated, which makes it seem like the writer doubled down way too much. Here’s my tinfoil hat theory: I feel that the writer worked backward, starting from the big reveal and smaller twists into the actual core narrative structures. This is a huge gamble because it can seem so disconnected, especially as a sequel with already established characters.
Go play the game if you feel you want a watered-down version of the original game.
The biggest issue is its obsession with "The Big Reveal," sacrificing what could be satisfying character arcs and self-contained storylines. The writers tried to balance the inclusion of beloved characters from the first game while making the sequel accessible to new players. This resulted in a disjointed narrative where no character arcs or threads from the first game are meaningfully followed up. Returning characters are retconned or subjected to bizarre creative decisions.
Mizuki, who was a promising protagonist that I wanted to really enjoy, ends up being flat and boring. She lacks the depth and complexity expected of a lead character following up from the first game. The game does her a disservice by not exploring her character development adequately, which is mostly caused by poor writing and a lack of meaningful progression in her story. Her role feels diminished, and she comes across as a one-dimensional character. In the original game, Mizuki was a compelling supporting character, adding depth to the story with her interactions and backstory. However, she feels like a shell of her former self. The writers missed an opportunity to delve deeper into her psyche and growth, which is disappointing for fans who were excited to see her take the lead.
The returning cast from the first game also suffers from poor treatment. Major characters in the previous game who had significant development and interesting arcs are reduced to mere shadows of their former selves. Their roles are either minimized or altered in ways that don't align with their established personalities. This flanderization is frustrating, as it feels like the game is ignoring the progress these characters made in the first installment. The new characters introduced in the game are a mixed bag. While some show flashes of potential, most are unlikeable and fail to leave a lasting impression. The game tries to make these new characters integral to the plot, but their development feels rushed and shallow. The villains, in particular, are poorly written and lack depth, making the big reveals feel underwhelming.
Once again, a big reason for this is the game's fixation on plot twists. These twists often come at the expense of character development, making it hard to connect with the new faces. Relationships that should be crucial to the story are either glossed over or handled superficially. The focus on surprising the player detracts from the emotional depth and complexity that made the first game so engaging.
The problems from the first game that I had with too much innuendo and anime clichés are also exacerbated, which makes it seem like the writer doubled down way too much. Here’s my tinfoil hat theory: I feel that the writer worked backward, starting from the big reveal and smaller twists into the actual core narrative structures. This is a huge gamble because it can seem so disconnected, especially as a sequel with already established characters.
Go play the game if you feel you want a watered-down version of the original game.
I'm half the person I was before I started playing this game :3