nirvana initiative is some of uchikoshi's strongest work, but never seems to transcend or challenge his style or abilities as a writer. coming off of the far more character driven somnium files, i had anticipated that this would further break the mold and defy expectations that the author had previously set. thankfully, what's here is incredibly good because it's just more somnium files.
starting a bit after the first title, nirvana initiative almost immediately grabs the player by showing a shocking murder that seems to be unstuck in time. as early as the scenario of two halves of one corpse appearing at different moments of time was revealed as the set up for the sequel, i was very hooked. so hooked it made me play the original just to see where it went. i don't want to divulge too much narratively, but i found myself very satisfied with how the mystery played out.
the game plays pretty much 1:1 with the previous release, just with some obvious budgetary and QOL with a brand new perspective on the puzzle design. uchikoshi only wrote this game, so his trademark esoteric puzzle design isn't here. the somniums in this title are all much more varied than the escape rooms from the first title, ranging from a riff on pokemon go to stealthing around a secret lab to literally diving deeper and deeper into a cult leader's pyschosis. none of them were particularly challenging, but they all felt very inspired. only a few hours in and i could tell that what the actual mindset of what somniums are designed to accomplish in the story is entirely different than before. there are good things about this, like how they don't feel so samey in terms of how to execute them, but i had a hard time justifying why we were diving into this character's pysche at this point in the story pretty frequently, especially in Mizuki's half of the story.
the story is split (as are many things) down the middle between a few months after the first title, where a new member of ABIS and his new AIBall Tama are tasked with hunting down the half body serial killings. new victims pile up and ryuki, our hero, begins to sink deeper and deeper into an obsessive psychosis regarding the killings. after that route ends, we just six years into the future where the other half of the other victims all start popping up. here we play as Mizuki, my favorite character from the last game, who is joined by Aiba. both duos have great chemistry, but i shockingly found myself way more invested in tama and ryuki than mizuki and aiba. in keeping with the first, the game also has a downright fantastic new cast of characters along with returning favorites. greg chun is having the time of his life playing Date, and new characters like komeji and gen really hit it out of the park with a shocking amount of pathos. i only really didn't care for kizuna and lien, but they ended up being tolerable by the end so it's fine. i guess.
part of me hates to say that i was a little disappointed with the increased scope and the return to a more twist-driven story, but it thankfully doesn't go full zero escape in the ways that annoyed me about that series. there's a lot more brainy pseudoscience in here than there was in somnium files but it thankfully never drowns out the amazing character stuff or murder mystery at the core of the story. it threatens at a few points to buckle under an increasingly "unsolvable" feeling mystery, but manages to stay the course but handwaving the details away in service of letting the characters have the spotlight.
also i think more games should just end on big dance numbers. uchikoshi is unbeatable for doing it twice, that's true Playa Mindset.
starting a bit after the first title, nirvana initiative almost immediately grabs the player by showing a shocking murder that seems to be unstuck in time. as early as the scenario of two halves of one corpse appearing at different moments of time was revealed as the set up for the sequel, i was very hooked. so hooked it made me play the original just to see where it went. i don't want to divulge too much narratively, but i found myself very satisfied with how the mystery played out.
the game plays pretty much 1:1 with the previous release, just with some obvious budgetary and QOL with a brand new perspective on the puzzle design. uchikoshi only wrote this game, so his trademark esoteric puzzle design isn't here. the somniums in this title are all much more varied than the escape rooms from the first title, ranging from a riff on pokemon go to stealthing around a secret lab to literally diving deeper and deeper into a cult leader's pyschosis. none of them were particularly challenging, but they all felt very inspired. only a few hours in and i could tell that what the actual mindset of what somniums are designed to accomplish in the story is entirely different than before. there are good things about this, like how they don't feel so samey in terms of how to execute them, but i had a hard time justifying why we were diving into this character's pysche at this point in the story pretty frequently, especially in Mizuki's half of the story.
the story is split (as are many things) down the middle between a few months after the first title, where a new member of ABIS and his new AIBall Tama are tasked with hunting down the half body serial killings. new victims pile up and ryuki, our hero, begins to sink deeper and deeper into an obsessive psychosis regarding the killings. after that route ends, we just six years into the future where the other half of the other victims all start popping up. here we play as Mizuki, my favorite character from the last game, who is joined by Aiba. both duos have great chemistry, but i shockingly found myself way more invested in tama and ryuki than mizuki and aiba. in keeping with the first, the game also has a downright fantastic new cast of characters along with returning favorites. greg chun is having the time of his life playing Date, and new characters like komeji and gen really hit it out of the park with a shocking amount of pathos. i only really didn't care for kizuna and lien, but they ended up being tolerable by the end so it's fine. i guess.
part of me hates to say that i was a little disappointed with the increased scope and the return to a more twist-driven story, but it thankfully doesn't go full zero escape in the ways that annoyed me about that series. there's a lot more brainy pseudoscience in here than there was in somnium files but it thankfully never drowns out the amazing character stuff or murder mystery at the core of the story. it threatens at a few points to buckle under an increasingly "unsolvable" feeling mystery, but manages to stay the course but handwaving the details away in service of letting the characters have the spotlight.
also i think more games should just end on big dance numbers. uchikoshi is unbeatable for doing it twice, that's true Playa Mindset.