Review of AI: Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative
Subject | AI: Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative |
By | Helpfulness: 5 Vote: 5version on 2022-06-26 |
Review | THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. To be honest, I didn't really like this one as much overall. It definitely had it's moments but... it was not as good as Uchikoshi's previous games. First problem is the characters. Fiction can touch our emotions because we as human beings can sympathize or empathize with the experiences on screen. We can relate. I liked the plot lines of Shoma, Komeji and Amame because you can understand them, since even if you have not experienced the same thing as them personally, family and money struggles, wanting revenge for an injustice, guilt and losing a loved one are things that anyone can understand. But outside of those three, most of the other character arcs boil down to "I was experimented on in the torture lab as a child and now my DNA is fucked up". This isn't really tethered to anything in reality so you don't really feel anything seeing it, you know? Gen, Kizuna and Lien are different, but honestly the problem with them is that their stories are just a bit too cheesy. Like yeah I get that Gen was picked on for being different. But this story has literally been told since the 1800's. When the author does not add anything to it, it just feels tacky and clichéd. Then the "saving the world" shit. Maybe just a question of personal taste, but I don't really like stake raisers and superhero-y shit. I signed up for a mystery game about investigating a murder, not a shonen anime. I really don't understand why the hell they included this, it's so off track with anything that Uchikoshi created before. So yeah, I didn't really like the ending. Probably what left me the most disappointed. Finally the way the main plot twist was revealed. It's not that I didn't like the plot twist, I loved it! I'm a sucker for the way that Uchikoshi plays with the narrative of games. But I feel like they just gave it away with Shoma just casually talking about his dad as if he was alive yesterday, and date showing up out of nowhere in the "future". Because, when Mama gives you the multiple choice question, it just becomes too obvious. It should have been a Eureka moment where a lot of things make sense at once, but it felt a lot cheaper than that. It would have been cooler if they'd found a better way to let the player figure it out themselves. I was more of a fan of the little things that make you question the narrative. Like Ryuki being scolded way harder then he should have been for losing the culprit in the "past" and then learning in the future that he shot a civilian. Again, this game had it's moments. The three characters I mentioned earlier, the crime scene recreations, the somnium segments, some of the mysteries... But overall I still found it disappointing in a lot of aspects. |
5 points |