Kotaro Uchikoshi's latest visual novel, this is from the same guy who created the Zero Escape trilogy of games, which were great for the most part, published by Spike Chunsoft and expanded my interest into visual novels with strong writing.
AI: The Somnium Files has lots of voice acting, very pleasant animation models, a slick interface, and tons of paths with different endings. It's flowchart system is very similar towards his previous games, and only if you discover the true or best endings, then you will get the most quality and fun out of it, which is a typical trademark.
You play as Kaname Date, a detective assisted by an AI partner Aiba, and they will investigate and interrogate different scenes and events in order to hunt for the truth, or several truths, out there. And as I predicted I reached a bad ending first during my first playthrough.
Aside from the main gameplay being reading a lot of text and choosing dialogue, the other part is interacting in dreamlike worlds where you will attempt to reproduce the event that happened in there, in a kind of surreal, abstract way.
Although these moments were out there and standing out at the same time, sometimes the trial and error was a bit too much for me. Admittedly, I also did not pursue all of the flows or paths in order to see all of the endings, because I felt that the game was playing too long for my interest to hold up.
AI: The Somnium Files is a recommendable visual novel with plenty of references towards pop culture, for the most part likable characters, and a pleasant presentation in overall. The storyline is not as mind blowing, plot twisting or clever as Zero Escape, but you will have a good time anyway.
Rating: 7.8
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