This review contains spoilers
This is a game I'm glad I sat on for a while before writing anything about or rating because what initial strong positive feeling I had after just finishing the game have mostly faded away now. nirvanA Initiative isn't a bad game but it's definitely one that gets worse the more you leave it to stew in the back of your mind.
First, the stuff I liked! The writing in general, like the first game, gave me plenty of laughs over the course of the playthrough. Sure, there's the incredibly immature and pointed sex jokes about boning and boobs that I always appreciate but also some of the bizarre jokes and non-sequiturs that either have incredibly confusing punchlines or just go nowhere also had me laughing. I don't know if Uchikoshi just wanted to be Weird sometimes or if the translators just had an aneurysm trying to localise some of the jokes and just absolutely couldn't so they just left them as raw as possible...either way, the writing in that back department kept me entertained throughout.
The new characters are also generally good with the two BIG highlights being Tokiko and Bibi/Quartz/Oh No There's Two of Them. Tokiko is cool because mysterious unhinged simulation theory cult leading older lady who is proven correct is an idea that you write on a napkin to make a billion dollars with later and Quartz's reveal was probably the hypest moment for me. I really enjoy Mizuki's character in the A.I. Somnium Files games and so for there to be TWO of the exact same person but one is a bit more dry and sarcastic was the Lucky & Wild pairing that I didn't know I needed. The reveal was such a pop off and I really hope the two Mizuki's become the main focus of any potential future Somnium Files games. Heck, give em a spin off where they just solve crimes together. Fuck Date, fuck Aiba, fuck Ryuji; all the hands on the clock point to Mizuki.
In general though I wanna make it clear that nirvanA Initiative is good. Punchy dialogue, tap drop of twists, endearing characters and some more adventurous somnium gameplay sections keep the game going until it's finale where everything explodes and people use superpowered scooters to save the day against the evil menace. The problems with it though start to set in the more you think about it afterwards and ultimately make the game feel a lot more hollow. Like for instance, the big twist in this game.
If there's one key skill that Uchikoshi can put onto his CV is that he can write twists into his video-games. Guy loves em. He knows I do too! In general I think most of his big plot twists have been fruitful, if they aren't totally smart they at least affect the plot and the game itself in some way, the one in 999 comes to mind as being wonderfully done. The plot twist in nirvanA Initiative though feel likes it was written because Uchikoshi has to write some sort of twists into his games now as it all feels entirely empty.
So obviously massive spoilers ahead but the main set up for the game is that you play as two different characters who experience two different set of events 6 years apart from each other and their timelines are presented as being parallel to each other on the in-game menu. The big twist is that actually instead of being parallel, the two different timelines actually INTERSECT and so some of the events in the first timeline happen in the present day and some of the second timeline events actually happen 6 years in the past. When this got revealed I actually paused the game for like an hour and tried to defog my brain of the television static that suddenly buzzed into my mind, throwing up old cabinet files, looking over past events in a caffinated state trying to make sense of what I was looking at...it was a pretty cool moment in said moment. Problem is the more you start to play the game and see how the twist turns out the more you realise that it doesn't actually matter at all. The twist itself doesn't actually change anything ingame, the events still took place and everybody still experienced their own time linearly it's just that YOU the player (yes you) got duped! Except that...also doesn't really change anything! For you! At least in a major way, some events start to make a bit more sense looking back on them but the problem is that after the twist is given to you, the characters just completely ignore it and go back to finishing the story the same way they would've even if the twist never happened. It's totally irrelevant to the game itself! The game even seems to make this clear by having the twist be revealed not through some ingame discovery or plot drop by a relevant ingame character, they just dump it all on Mama to tell it to someone who isn't even a real character in the game during some side sequence. It's weird. I might be missing some grand revelation here that makes it all seem a lot deeper or affecting than it is but at the minute, from my memory of playing it last September, it didn't really do anything. Answers on a postcard if you have any corrections for me.
And one of the largest problems with the plot twist being totally limp, outside of it being bad, is that the entire game's structure suffers for it because the game has to be built around it so meticulously to the detriment of the pacing. There's definitely a point 2/3rds of the way through Ryuji's playthrough where I got a little tired of the sluglike pacing of the game that I might have dropped it for an entire week to get it out of my system before returning to it.
Also the twist implications mean that characters can't grow naturally over six years because they need to be the same as they were in both past and present as not to reveal the twist to early. Plus dudes just do some really stupid or illogical stuff to keep the twist hidden, like did both Mizuki's just so happen to have the exact same dress sense?...whatever, I know I'm talking a lot about the twist here but it has to be said how much it kinda ruins the game. Sure, the writing was maybe never that deep to begin with that even with the twist gone this wouldn't have been that amazing of a game anyways. There's a list of general smaller problems I have that I won't get into because this review is already too long (everyone just so happens to be related to each other, hey remember when we just walked into the super secret naix offices wtf), so yeah this game would always have been maybe a 7/10 max or something but it's upsetting how poorly handled the twist is to mangle the entire project.
The only thing I can think of that could really, genuinely save this game retroactively is if this whole simulation theory revelation feeds into a larger plot in a sequel where the twist in this game actually becomes something relevant going further. Like, maybe Somnium Files 3 is based around the character Mama reveals the twist to in this game and they're some sorta worker at the company that manages the Wadjet System and something something they also have tech that manages multiple universe or something idk.
All I can say is that if that ever happens, the Mizuki Twins better be there.
First, the stuff I liked! The writing in general, like the first game, gave me plenty of laughs over the course of the playthrough. Sure, there's the incredibly immature and pointed sex jokes about boning and boobs that I always appreciate but also some of the bizarre jokes and non-sequiturs that either have incredibly confusing punchlines or just go nowhere also had me laughing. I don't know if Uchikoshi just wanted to be Weird sometimes or if the translators just had an aneurysm trying to localise some of the jokes and just absolutely couldn't so they just left them as raw as possible...either way, the writing in that back department kept me entertained throughout.
The new characters are also generally good with the two BIG highlights being Tokiko and Bibi/Quartz/Oh No There's Two of Them. Tokiko is cool because mysterious unhinged simulation theory cult leading older lady who is proven correct is an idea that you write on a napkin to make a billion dollars with later and Quartz's reveal was probably the hypest moment for me. I really enjoy Mizuki's character in the A.I. Somnium Files games and so for there to be TWO of the exact same person but one is a bit more dry and sarcastic was the Lucky & Wild pairing that I didn't know I needed. The reveal was such a pop off and I really hope the two Mizuki's become the main focus of any potential future Somnium Files games. Heck, give em a spin off where they just solve crimes together. Fuck Date, fuck Aiba, fuck Ryuji; all the hands on the clock point to Mizuki.
In general though I wanna make it clear that nirvanA Initiative is good. Punchy dialogue, tap drop of twists, endearing characters and some more adventurous somnium gameplay sections keep the game going until it's finale where everything explodes and people use superpowered scooters to save the day against the evil menace. The problems with it though start to set in the more you think about it afterwards and ultimately make the game feel a lot more hollow. Like for instance, the big twist in this game.
If there's one key skill that Uchikoshi can put onto his CV is that he can write twists into his video-games. Guy loves em. He knows I do too! In general I think most of his big plot twists have been fruitful, if they aren't totally smart they at least affect the plot and the game itself in some way, the one in 999 comes to mind as being wonderfully done. The plot twist in nirvanA Initiative though feel likes it was written because Uchikoshi has to write some sort of twists into his games now as it all feels entirely empty.
So obviously massive spoilers ahead but the main set up for the game is that you play as two different characters who experience two different set of events 6 years apart from each other and their timelines are presented as being parallel to each other on the in-game menu. The big twist is that actually instead of being parallel, the two different timelines actually INTERSECT and so some of the events in the first timeline happen in the present day and some of the second timeline events actually happen 6 years in the past. When this got revealed I actually paused the game for like an hour and tried to defog my brain of the television static that suddenly buzzed into my mind, throwing up old cabinet files, looking over past events in a caffinated state trying to make sense of what I was looking at...it was a pretty cool moment in said moment. Problem is the more you start to play the game and see how the twist turns out the more you realise that it doesn't actually matter at all. The twist itself doesn't actually change anything ingame, the events still took place and everybody still experienced their own time linearly it's just that YOU the player (yes you) got duped! Except that...also doesn't really change anything! For you! At least in a major way, some events start to make a bit more sense looking back on them but the problem is that after the twist is given to you, the characters just completely ignore it and go back to finishing the story the same way they would've even if the twist never happened. It's totally irrelevant to the game itself! The game even seems to make this clear by having the twist be revealed not through some ingame discovery or plot drop by a relevant ingame character, they just dump it all on Mama to tell it to someone who isn't even a real character in the game during some side sequence. It's weird. I might be missing some grand revelation here that makes it all seem a lot deeper or affecting than it is but at the minute, from my memory of playing it last September, it didn't really do anything. Answers on a postcard if you have any corrections for me.
And one of the largest problems with the plot twist being totally limp, outside of it being bad, is that the entire game's structure suffers for it because the game has to be built around it so meticulously to the detriment of the pacing. There's definitely a point 2/3rds of the way through Ryuji's playthrough where I got a little tired of the sluglike pacing of the game that I might have dropped it for an entire week to get it out of my system before returning to it.
Also the twist implications mean that characters can't grow naturally over six years because they need to be the same as they were in both past and present as not to reveal the twist to early. Plus dudes just do some really stupid or illogical stuff to keep the twist hidden, like did both Mizuki's just so happen to have the exact same dress sense?...whatever, I know I'm talking a lot about the twist here but it has to be said how much it kinda ruins the game. Sure, the writing was maybe never that deep to begin with that even with the twist gone this wouldn't have been that amazing of a game anyways. There's a list of general smaller problems I have that I won't get into because this review is already too long (everyone just so happens to be related to each other, hey remember when we just walked into the super secret naix offices wtf), so yeah this game would always have been maybe a 7/10 max or something but it's upsetting how poorly handled the twist is to mangle the entire project.
The only thing I can think of that could really, genuinely save this game retroactively is if this whole simulation theory revelation feeds into a larger plot in a sequel where the twist in this game actually becomes something relevant going further. Like, maybe Somnium Files 3 is based around the character Mama reveals the twist to in this game and they're some sorta worker at the company that manages the Wadjet System and something something they also have tech that manages multiple universe or something idk.
All I can say is that if that ever happens, the Mizuki Twins better be there.