I have a very soft spot for Kotaro Uchikoshi’s games, which often blend quirky characters, rather grim mysteries, and a modern setting with futuristic elements while featuring a lot of puzzles. Even if many other games eventually followed some of their patterns, they always feel unique, and ever since I played the incredible 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, I’ve been in love with them. 

AI: The Somnium Files is Uchikoshi’s latest series for Spike Chunsoft after the Zero Escape trilogy, with NirvanA Initiative being its second game. Honestly, while I was very fond of its predecessor, I didn’t expect to see a sequel, mainly because it was standalone. Thankfully, giving the series one more entry was a good decision, and we got another great story from Uchikoshi.

NirvanA Initiative is similar to the first game, featuring a lengthy flowchart and multiple routes. One key difference this time is that the two main routes have a six-year gap between them, and solving the mystery of the murders that happened six years ago is crucial for progressing the story in the present, at the expense of making it somewhat more linear. Furthermore, Date, the protagonist of the first Somnium Files, gets more of a supporting role, and the player controls Mizuki in the present and a new character called Ryuki in the past. 

Mizuki returns, but as everything takes place nearly seven years later from the first Somnium Files, she’s more mature and experienced, serving as a contrast to Date’s less serious demeanor. On the other hand, Ryuki is a young, promising cop partnered with Tama, an AI with a very eccentric personality, and both of them offer a different perspective to the story while adding a lot of the banter that is missing in Mizuki’s route.

As far as the side cast goes, NirvanA Initiative adds plenty of new people to the already colorful cast but doesn’t shy away from the previous characters as well. Several new locations are also added, though the majority is the same. Most returning characters get minor roles, but others are greatly expanded on, which is a neat way to develop the game’s world, especially considering the six-year timeframe of the game’s plot. In general, the differences between the characters in the two routes are highlighted a lot throughout the story, and this proved to be one of the most interesting aspects of the multi-year spanning timeline.

Without delving much into the plot, I really enjoyed it and it shares a lot with Uchikoshi’s previous works. The big twist will probably not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I thought it was a rather clever recontextualization of every event in the game and thought it was on par with the likes of 999 and Virtue’s Last Reward. There’s a lot of build-up despite the story’s fast pace, and while there’s not much to see after the twist’s reveal, the resolution is decent. The writing is very competent and remains very engaging throughout the whole game.

On another note, the lengths it goes to persuade players that this is standalone and you don’t need prior knowledge of the franchise is rather interesting. As mentioned, there are a lot of connections to the previous title, especially as far as the characters go, but despite it being a direct sequel, NirvanA Initiative avoids mentioning all of the crucial story elements of the first game. In fact, it goes out of its way and asks the player whether they’re fine with knowing some of the finer details of the first Somnium Files, otherwise, it removes the tidbits entirely from it.

The tone is consistent with its prequel, but this isn’t entirely positive. While I like jokes and more carefree moments as a break and a way to not make the game overbearing, as the subject matter can get rather dark at times, the series seems to have a preference for sexual jokes and innuendos. It even feels like it doubles down on them, and most of the time they end up feeling inappropriate. Such jokes aren’t bad per se of course, though I’d prefer them in moderation, but despite the humor being very much on point most of the time, I found most of those jokes being unfunny. 

I have similar feelings towards the action scenes, which go for an over-the-top and almost goofy tone despite being focal points of the plot. The expansion of the action scenes and all the Quick Time Events (QTEs) in them are good additions, but I think their direction leaves a lot to be desired, though I can see most people enjoying them regardless. Making a serious story with lighthearted elements isn’t an easy job, and while there are instances like the aforementioned that don’t work out so well, I think generally they are successfully executed. 

On the other hand, I’m glad to see that they doubled down on the support of the LGBTQ+ community, and other minorities, with the sequel. The game is certainly not perfect as far as representation goes, and there’s certainly work to be done, but it is also one of the rare Japanese games that are very direct about it, and Uchikoshi himself has been clear about his views.

As far as the gameplay loop goes, there aren’t a lot of changes, with the Somniums, the dream-like sequences, being the main way to experience puzzles. I was rather disappointed with them in the first game because they often felt like you couldn’t solve them without brute forcing your way through them, and while this trial-and-error approach persists, I’d argue that they feel somewhat more logical this time, while a lot of hints were added too, streamlining them significantly.

Another improvement is their variety. Without spoiling much, there are some very interesting Somniums, like a quiz show dreamscape and a Pokémon GO inspired one, the latter even having its own RPG elements. There are some third-person sections outside of Somniums as well, used for investigating crime scenes, but they feel rather straightforward, though I appreciate the general effort put into interactiveness and making every part of the game feel like a game rather than a visual novel.  

Overall, I think anyone familiar with Uchikoshi’s works and adventure games will likely find something to enjoy on it. The plot has many strong beats, the mystery is there constantly until the end and the trademark twists are there to keep the player on the edge. The characters are very entertaining and the game balances the dark and serious moments with its humor and lighthearted tone rather well, though not without faults.

It isn’t drastically different from the first game, which was already a very good title, but NirvanA Initiative refines a lot of its prequel’s rougher edges and I think it’s an improvement in almost every department. Few games also succeed in incorporating so many different elements, like sci-fi and paranormal, as well as this. It took me around 30 hours to complete, and I was hooked the entire time. I highly recommend it.