This game has left conflicting feelings inside of me. For one part, I like it, I like the characters and thought it was fun especially when things went down, but the other part of me wishes it was better in some regards, in the script, in the world around this futuristic version of Tokyo and most importantly, in its pacing.
Like how other reviewer said in this very site, I liked it but I wish I loved it. It's a very good murder mystery, but it's no Zero Escape. It takes a very long time to set in and put you in a spot where you just want to read more and more, ESPECIALLY if you go down the right route in the first Psync sequence, it's like they never meant for you to go down there in the first place if you haven't experienced half of the game because of how lame it feels as they don't introduce you correctly to a lot of concepts and the characters.
And, about Psyncing, I'm bittersweet about it, for one part it felt right coming from Zero Escape, having these small puzzle-solving sequences to continue further in the story seemed neat, until it wasn't.
I get that the puzzles are supposed to be in a dream world where only vague reconstructions of our memories take place in, but that doesn't equal to a good puzzle-solving experience, in Somnia, everything is so bizarre and arbitrary that sometimes you don't know how to start in doing certain things while also causing confusion, and it doesn't help at all that the time system forbids you from completing all actions and just looking for all dialogue inside of these. Sometimes they felt like a roadblock in an otherwise smooth experience, when I knew I had to enter a Somnium at some point I rolled my eyes because I thought again of having to stress over saving TIMIEs and making sure I'm doing everything in order so I don't run out of time doing many actions. It feels poor and without much reason.
My problems with the script are mainly how fast the tone-shifting is in this game, you see somebody die then two scenes after Date is already lusting and doing some weird stuff, and I normally wouldn't have a problem with it but it happens so often in-between what's supposed to be serious and delicate situations that it just makes me wonder how worth it was it to keep there and not for some comedic relief in another time entirely.
I'm pretty sure an Uchikoshi happened again and he (and his team) didn't have enough budget to make a very ambitious title, as you can see they recycle the same overworld places, animations (That are very stiff, by the way! Making action scenes very awkward), models and other things, I won't blame it on him but I just wish there was more to amplify the world that these characters inhabit because moving from ABIS to Matsushita Diner to Marble got repetitive very quick, as you can see.
In the other hand though, the story was well thought out, classic for Kotaro Uchikoshi. Its not his best work but he did a good job on writing it, I just wish it did more towards the direction it was heading, the sequel looks promising just because of that, so we'll see!
Like how other reviewer said in this very site, I liked it but I wish I loved it. It's a very good murder mystery, but it's no Zero Escape. It takes a very long time to set in and put you in a spot where you just want to read more and more, ESPECIALLY if you go down the right route in the first Psync sequence, it's like they never meant for you to go down there in the first place if you haven't experienced half of the game because of how lame it feels as they don't introduce you correctly to a lot of concepts and the characters.
And, about Psyncing, I'm bittersweet about it, for one part it felt right coming from Zero Escape, having these small puzzle-solving sequences to continue further in the story seemed neat, until it wasn't.
I get that the puzzles are supposed to be in a dream world where only vague reconstructions of our memories take place in, but that doesn't equal to a good puzzle-solving experience, in Somnia, everything is so bizarre and arbitrary that sometimes you don't know how to start in doing certain things while also causing confusion, and it doesn't help at all that the time system forbids you from completing all actions and just looking for all dialogue inside of these. Sometimes they felt like a roadblock in an otherwise smooth experience, when I knew I had to enter a Somnium at some point I rolled my eyes because I thought again of having to stress over saving TIMIEs and making sure I'm doing everything in order so I don't run out of time doing many actions. It feels poor and without much reason.
My problems with the script are mainly how fast the tone-shifting is in this game, you see somebody die then two scenes after Date is already lusting and doing some weird stuff, and I normally wouldn't have a problem with it but it happens so often in-between what's supposed to be serious and delicate situations that it just makes me wonder how worth it was it to keep there and not for some comedic relief in another time entirely.
I'm pretty sure an Uchikoshi happened again and he (and his team) didn't have enough budget to make a very ambitious title, as you can see they recycle the same overworld places, animations (That are very stiff, by the way! Making action scenes very awkward), models and other things, I won't blame it on him but I just wish there was more to amplify the world that these characters inhabit because moving from ABIS to Matsushita Diner to Marble got repetitive very quick, as you can see.
In the other hand though, the story was well thought out, classic for Kotaro Uchikoshi. Its not his best work but he did a good job on writing it, I just wish it did more towards the direction it was heading, the sequel looks promising just because of that, so we'll see!