i really really loved this game. well, at least most of it.

i thoroughly enjoyed the plot and the relationships between these characters. i appreciate how the game feeds you information in a way so that you can actually figure out what's going on before the end. a lot of it is really quite beautiful, emotionally intelligent, and incredibly funny. i'm already pretty emotional when it comes to media, but man, i lost count of how many different moments in this game made me cry. and,,,, then there's the excessive horniness.

i wouldn't necessarily say im a prude or anything like that, but the amount of times that Date gets bricked up over nothing got kinda old eventually. some other characters get really fucking horny too and it's like-- why?? i get that Uchikoshi is just kinda like this, but i can only take so many mentions of "porno mags" before i'm praying at my screen for the section to pleaaaase just end already. the game is usually pretty good at knowing when to hit the brakes on the jokes down in its emotional moments, which is a boon of the writing. buuuut then i will still sometimes get a piece of internal monologue that can sour the mood a little bit. if the horny jokes were at least reduced by 50%, i think that i would say this game would be pretty close to 5 stars for me. definitely my biggest critique of the game by far.

yet despite that, i still love a lot of these characters. i really truly do love Date when you look past his perverted nature. Mizuki is awesome. Aiba rules. Iris is great. it's really quite a great cast when you look at it as a whole, and i think most of them compliment each other well. backstories are thorough and significant to the plot and motivations.

after just finishing Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma (2016), getting to experience character models and animations and environments that do not look like petrified burnt toast is a real treat. there's a whole lot of visual flair and style here. excellent english voice acting! everyone is so expressive and the fact that the models appear next to their textbox with the facial expressions is a really great touch, especially given that it lets us see our main character way more than we would have otherwise. even when they're not the person talking or appearing next to a textbox, characters look around and react to the things others are saying. it's a really really nice touch.

the "puzzles" are generally neat and inventive, but actually 'solving' them is sometimes annoying. it wasn't so hard that i needed to use a guide or anything, but sometimes it feels less like you logic'd out the solution and more like you just so happened to pick the correct option. the best somniums are the ones that truly lean into the wacky or emotional side of a character. they added a lot to the experience for me, especially with the branching paths.

in short: great game. loved it and most of the characters. excited to play the second one eventually! please less porno mags.

although somnium files is sort of a mess, it still does have a great narrative and (a few) loveable characters. the presentation of the story made some routes far more enjoyable than the others that started to feel redundant—and boring, depending on how much you like iris i guess. all in all, most of the independent stories were heartwarming and i would still recommend this game if you’re up for checking it out and are able to endure some parts of the ‘humor’

mizuki is my beloved, aiba and date are my new mom and dad, and the art direction and ost were banger so almost all is forgiven tbh <3 👍 if anything, play it for the end credits cutscene, it's worth it

That was very fun! I really liked the Somniums themselves the most because of the way they were designed. The Somniums also perfectly display the two halves of AI: The Somnium files which is Crime drama mixing light-hearted humor. The Psychological sense and strange design vibe in these somniums also go super hard.

The split between the more light-hearted comedy and full-on human drama might turn some people off. I thought this double-edged nature made the game more interesting and unique.

The route structure is used nicely too. Slowly uncovering different facets of the story through the use of these split-up routes made it even more enjoyable for when things came together.


Curious as to what the sequel is going to be like.
Don't have much else to say, i had a good time. Aiba <3

characters: 9/10
The characters are one of the selling points making the game stand out IMO. What hinders the characters from being 10/10 is Dante's perverseness. I thought it was quite fine, however, I can see others thinking poorly of the MC due to it.

Story: 8.5/10
The mystery part of the game, and unlocking the story as you progress are all very good. What deducts points from the story are two things: 1) Spontaneous comedic moments appearing which can break immersion. 2) Depending on the order you play chapters you could get heavy implications of the truth behind the mystery, which otherwise would be seen near the ending.
As I think the characters are one of the Big points of the game, the spontaneous comedic acts although they did break emersion, were in line and reinforced the characters' personality.

music: 8/10
As stand-alone music, I would rate the general OST as 4.5/10, however, if we combine it with the story and characters in mind then the OST fits in perfectly with the game and helps the game to stand out.

Summary: 8/10
Quite a good game, but if you want a 100% immersion mystery game this is not for you as there are scenes that break the immersion from mystery/seriousness to comedy.

"41205, just a number that I really like"

what the fuck was up with that ending ong like first you make me bawl like a baby and then you do that

ai the somniun files was on my watch for some time now due to me actually having been accustomed to kaname date porn on rule34 and actually wanting to explore more of this character apart from him getting railed like a slut

that being said this is an investigative game made with 2 dimes and a beer to anyone who's interested in doing the character animation which is very bare as I can tell but not for that reason less charming

while I do think this game has a lot of rough edges and the pacing isn't always the smoothest (just a few points though so nothing of note) this was such a fucking treat for its 20 hours runtime what the fucking hell

you play as date who's a hunk of a man absolutely delicious looking pervert tit aficionado part of the police department in the subunit of abis where they explore human minds through dreams via a machine that acts as a bridge for the investigator consciousness to creampie the host

that's easier when you play it than it is to explain it but basically this is just the usual excuse for some investigation tricks and minigames and a damn good plot device for the entirety of the mystery at hand I have never seen paprika till now even though I probably should but I think the main premise is basically the same but paprika doesn't have kaname date so clearly it's the lesser experience

now this plays a lot similar to a danganronpa game but without the over the top character designs and writing substituted by a more muted cast of characters who are some degree of insane or quirky or mad like the pretend they're not danganronpa characters but if you dig deep enough you will find that everyone can be matched with a character in danganronpa sick trick

you investigate you try to solve the mystery I don't have to tell you how a danganronpa game works the investigative parts are passable at best being more of a point and click affair more similar to a visual novel type of deal yknow ace attorney and shit and then the somnium segments who at first I thought were really good soon became a 999-puzzles type of deal where I just began to get irritated by them and look for a guide because they have no real cohesion whatsoever youre like lemme see what happens if I blow on this fan and then 120 seconds will go away and its not even the right action like how am I supposed to know what to do when this shit is completely insane

somehow I can say that they're pretty charming for how out there they are like some weird shit is gonna happen to aiba and youre gonna laugh but since its actually a dream its all good then you can steal the informations from the bad guys and alls well that ends well

so I guess that's the main gameplay loop it's not entirely my thing but I can live with that I definitely preferred the investigative bits because I'm more of a visual novel guy I like to sit back and see the story rolling instead im just not that much of a puzzle lover so the somnium stuff was kinda interesting but not entirely my thing and I actually struggle to call it puzzle because of the fact that its more trial and error-y than I'd like it to be honestly

while the investigative stuff is defo the highlight the characters actually tend to take the spotlight in this one since youre gonna have a lot of deep dive into the characterisation and psyche of these pixels and they all casually move around date I wonder what that means and mind you my favorite pals are iris being my sweet little ray of sunshine and mizuki being my sweet little sumo wrestler and aiba being my sweet little artificial intelligence I love the gals in this one I cannot lie and boss is also a good dominatrix to boot

story wise this can get a bit convoluted and stupid but DAMN is it not gripping and entertaining from beginning to end this one of those multiple endings type of narrative games but the catch is that it's more linear than I thought it'd be if you get in a route where you're not supposed to know some stuff the game is gonna gatekeep you from moving forward and you're gonna have to try and find the right route to unlock that one and then unlock another one and so on pretty good actually and you also get a flowchart I love flowcharts

so one second SPOILER TERRITORY I want to fuck falco also since this is the nick I use all the time it was pretty weird seeing the characters talk about this guy since I thought they were talking about me but at one point I was like wait I didnt have to put no name in the beginning and then the realisation that the guy is falco so as I was saying yeah I want to fuck him so hard but i mean he's also date but date is not date because he's the son of the congressman and date is not falco anymore because it's his deadname now LISTEN this game gets fucking convoluted I enjoyed a lot the little progression and the series of murders and shit here and there but the final revelation of the body swapping gets real confusing real fast sure it's pretty charming and fucked up and needs you to do a lot of suspension of disbelief to actually get ingrained into the whole affair but it pays off uchikoshi wrote a real treat of a sci-fi flavored crime mystery and I cannot really say any bad words about it

some routes hit more than the others or have more meat in terms of story than the rest but when you put them all together you can understand why this game was such a hit honestly and to zero escape fans returning this is gonna be up they're alley

while the body swapping thing gets real crazy I actually digged the whole falco backstory with iris and hitomi that shit was fire and made me lose all the hair on my head im not gonna fuck with you here those were some real good story beats

this is such a fucking ride from beginning to end its so serious at times and so incredibly silly at others but that's the charm of it all youre gonna get somebody talking about terminal illnesses and date will say oh my god boobs also what's up with date being a sex freak while I'm literally here waiting for him to ride me I don't get it

that being said the highs are high and this game makes you care for its characters too damn much you could find me crying for half of the endings in the games because theres nothing that hurts me more than making me emotionally attached to a character and then seeing them suffer through every evil in the world why would you make me so sad and thats without putting into the equation all the falco x hitomi x iris scenes with all the backstories and shit likeeee it's so fucking sad don't talk to me

final consideration the music is bomb

side note I find it very funny that mizuki has the orichalcum trident in the mermaid cafe and then I realised that's because she's been neglected by her family and she just kept going there not to be alone and then it wasn't funny anymore

and ota route HIT

I read about someone bashing sex humor don't you ever say that to me ever again sex humor is the funniest shit ever don't @ me

"i had a beautiful dream" iris i just wanted you to be happy

This game is such a mess, and it makes me sad because it has a lot of charm and great ideas.

Unlike Uchikoshi's previous titles, this presents itself as a "detective game", but it is so in name only. Investigating the murders takes a backseat to the rest of the game for some reason, and when it does focus on it, it does with such little tension, just to drop one or two pieces of evidence of you, the characters will stay silent for a second and nothing will be addressed until the end of the game. This kind of setup is only possible if there's a source of tension, like in all Zero Escape games. There's 0 tension for 90% of this game.
There's no deduction involved in the actual gameplay or sense to the flow of the investigation. Every time you're left to free roam, you'll find almost nothing of interest for the whole section. This makes it feel like most of the game is just filler to reach the final twist of the story.

The runtime filler is also assisted by the route system, which I wonder if Uchikoshi put in the game just because he felt he had to instead of the game benefitting at all from it. It's just used to repeat information and replay situations to fill the runtime. Also, unlike in the Zero Escape series, it is never formally explained aside from some characters mentioning parallel universes. Aside from the endgame routes, every other route has a character focus, which would be good if they didn't ditch the murder mystery entirely.

Characters are really hit or miss. I liked Mizuki a lot, but I couldn't like Iris at all for how much they shove her in the game. I also like Aiba but she has no arc at all so I didn't care much about her. Everyone else is boring or unlikable.
And then we get to Date. I really like him too, but he was written inconsistently as fuck. The irresistible need for Uchikoshi (and almost every japanese mystery vn writer while we're at it) to insert sex jokes every 3 lines of dialogue fucked Date's character hard, and the game as a whole while we're at it. There was quite a bit of that too in the Zero Escape games but it feels like there's NOTHING here but that. This and the slapstick action scenes make the game's tone terribly inconsistent and it suffers hard from it.

Somniums are a cool concept and I liked the time management dynamic. However, they are very badly thought out: they are designed as metaphors for the characters psyches, so they are meant as foreshadowing first, and everything else after. This results in the player having no idea of what the line of reasoning in each somnium is, so the only way to advance is trial and error, which meshes terribly with the time management thing. These sections are basically the only interactive part of the game, so they making no sense to the player is pretty bad. Investigating somniums also makes no sense for the characters, because it almost never helps the investigation in any way.

On the artistic side, I'll say I love Yusuke Kozaki's character designs for this game, and that some somniums look cool. The music is a bit underwhelming, which is pretty sad considering most of these kind of games have banger soundtracks.

To finish off, I'll talk about the story. This game lives and dies by its final twist. Everything in the game is a setup for it. Everything after it only rides on said twist. It's not a particularly interesting twist or it is hard to see it coming. It's convoluted, but actually tame for Uchikoshi's standards. The last 5 hours of the game are okay-ish, but they are so to the expense of the rest of the game.


I was so disappointed on this game that I started thinking fondly of Danganronpa games and Zero Time Dilemma. And if that isn't a bad sign, I don't know what is.

It's one hell of a game. Great mystery that blends in comedy and drama quite seamless. Date and Aiba are a great pair together to help you find clues....and Mizuki is a great character in itself.
The gameplay is like walking point and click game, and it's done with Aiba...who is your eye, lol. She can create an area where she can see what happened in a certain area or get clues, it makes for an interesting time. AI also has a whole bunch of branching paths that give you multiple endings, and one main ending after you do everything.
The biggest compliment is the writing itself, it's so cleverly written whether it's when you find out about certain plots in the story, and the hilarity that happens with Date...he's quite the strange character who's a bit...uh...lewd, lol. He has some of the funniest scenes I've seen in a game.
I have to recommend this to everyone, its an awesome story with large replayability with the branching paths and just an overall good time!

Initially, I was interested in the series due to having the same writer as the Zero Escape series and in that I was not disappointed. The game is funny and largely light-hearted, despite being centered around brutal murders and a serial killer on the loose. The story has good twists and turns with some being more surprising, but more obvious when you look back with foresight.
On the topic of the story, I think it has a good balance of keeping the comedy and serious aspects appropriate. This may not be the case for everyone, but for myself, I was never bothered when the transition happened.
Gameplay can occasionally get too silly or perverted which distracts from what your goal is, but the options during the Somniel portions are always entertaining, even when you screw up.
All in all, this game is good for those who enjoy murder mysteries and do not mind silly anime nonsense. It separates it, both positively and negatively, the degree in which is subject to the viewer.

Played on Switch (it was in sale for 8 bucks a year ago, I’m late) so I’ll get out of the way that the sheer volume of frame drops from AI sight or flashback triggers SUCKED. And I’ll warn people up front that if gore, particularly eye gore (getting yanked out, open sockets) is a trigger, you’ll probably need to deliberate on if this is for you. I’m specifically triggered by eye gore (not trauma, just always have been) and didn’t know how prevalent it was in the game on the outset, and obviously I managed to enjoy it a ton in spite of it. But it’s. A lot. And I think it’s fair to warn people about it. Beyond that? There’s an exceptionally written story that’s heartwarming and psychologically thrilling, and pretty funny. There are plenty of jokes that are distasteful, but MOST are done at the expense of the characters who are being total degenerates. It’s a shock that I was able to get so attached to a MC who’s an unabashed pervert. Excellent game that I couldn’t put down.