This review contains spoilers
This game is just so breathtaking.
I don't think I've played many games with a story that had me hooked straight from the beginning to the end. So many points in Ai left me speechless and shocked due to the genius writing style. Despite the abundance of comedy writing in this game, it gets dark really really fast. And it does not pull any punches.
Kaname Date is a protagonist I did not expect to compel me, especially as hard as he did after the Annihilation route kicked in. Spoilers ahead........ but once he began to realize his past and that he wasn't even in his own body, I started to feel his anger and disgust at all of the knowledge I was piecing together. Pair this with a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack and you have a masterclass narrative in place. One track that specifically defines the emotion of this game is -kokkAi- Confession (Falco's Theme). And it comes in at the most gut wrenching part of the game: Manaka's death.
This is getting a bit too specific for a review, but I'd like to just provide an example of how this game touched me on a personal level. Once I realized Manaka's corpse in the fishery warehouse was deceased for over 10 years in that fetal position, I felt my gut twist. It really disturbs me to think she was just a lifeless body that died in complete innocence, unaware of the current state of her own child. It just really makes me depressed. That's someone's mother, one that they didn't get to meet, and they've been there the entire time just cold, frozen, alone and devoid of the positivity it once carried.
And there are not really any games that have made me feel such a negative and horrified feeling. Honestly this should not be a positive, but it just shows how real this game was. There is so much more I could say, but this is what's fresh on my mind. So many remarkable and well thought-out plot twists, no plot holes, everything made sense, especially twists like the over-dosage gag that ended up being a serious plot point. I screamed in disbelief as I once mentioned how I couldn't tell if it was a gag or not, and lo and behold it ended up being crucial to a plot twist.
What a fantastic game. Definitely going into my top 10.
I don't think I've played many games with a story that had me hooked straight from the beginning to the end. So many points in Ai left me speechless and shocked due to the genius writing style. Despite the abundance of comedy writing in this game, it gets dark really really fast. And it does not pull any punches.
Kaname Date is a protagonist I did not expect to compel me, especially as hard as he did after the Annihilation route kicked in. Spoilers ahead........ but once he began to realize his past and that he wasn't even in his own body, I started to feel his anger and disgust at all of the knowledge I was piecing together. Pair this with a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack and you have a masterclass narrative in place. One track that specifically defines the emotion of this game is -kokkAi- Confession (Falco's Theme). And it comes in at the most gut wrenching part of the game: Manaka's death.
This is getting a bit too specific for a review, but I'd like to just provide an example of how this game touched me on a personal level. Once I realized Manaka's corpse in the fishery warehouse was deceased for over 10 years in that fetal position, I felt my gut twist. It really disturbs me to think she was just a lifeless body that died in complete innocence, unaware of the current state of her own child. It just really makes me depressed. That's someone's mother, one that they didn't get to meet, and they've been there the entire time just cold, frozen, alone and devoid of the positivity it once carried.
And there are not really any games that have made me feel such a negative and horrified feeling. Honestly this should not be a positive, but it just shows how real this game was. There is so much more I could say, but this is what's fresh on my mind. So many remarkable and well thought-out plot twists, no plot holes, everything made sense, especially twists like the over-dosage gag that ended up being a serious plot point. I screamed in disbelief as I once mentioned how I couldn't tell if it was a gag or not, and lo and behold it ended up being crucial to a plot twist.
What a fantastic game. Definitely going into my top 10.