Introduction

So, what's all this then?

This is AI: The Somnium Files, a visual novel / puzzle type game by Spike Chunsoft, released for the PS4, the Switch and the PC in September of 2019. It was directed by Kotaro Uchikoshi.

That Uchikoshi?

That Uchikoshi - most known for directing the Zero Escape series and mind-melting plots and twists therein.

So what's this game about?

Well, as far as gameplay is concerned, we're looking at a game that mixes the investigation segments from Danganronpa (look around an area from a fixed position, checking out items in the scene and talking to people) with strange puzzle segments where you have to search for solutions to problems in people's dreams, with all the bizarre dream logic that follows from that. It actually works really well.

As for the story, you play detective Kaname Date, an investigator with a cybereye that has a revolutionary AI named Aiba (short for AI-Ball - get it, AI-Ball, eye ball?) in it that helps him in his investigations. Date and Aiba begin the game investigating a murder, and things just repeatedly escalate from there. It's an Uchikoshi game. Expect shit to get nuts. Also expect lots of AI / eye puns.

And what about the LP?

In a departure from what I usually do, this LP will be done in video form with subtitled commentary. I thought a lot about it, and I eventually came to the conclusion that this format has more benefits than a standard VLP (the voiceacting is really good and the game is a lot more "active" - there's a lot going on that is more difficult to convey in screenshots) and also avoids some serious drawbacks (the dialogue headshots use the same 3D models as the characters themselves, meaning there is no sprite rip, meaning I would've had to manually cut out all those expressions, meaning I would've thrown myself out a window halfway through). I will obviously be editing when necessary.

Spoiler pol-

NO NO NO NO NO! NO SPOILERS EVER! And don't even think about being cute about it. I can tell. I've been that fucker that gets cute about spoilers. I've been him several times within my own LPs. I know. No spoilers, not even under tags.

Anyway, with that said, let's get going.