I’ve always loved Spike Chunsoft games as they always give off a unique and interesting vibe that you won’t see much of in other games. Titles such as Danganronpa and Zero Time Dilemma both try to give you unique experiences. Their latest game, AI: The Somnium Files; is a murder-mystery-themed investigative puzzler which follows special agent Kaname Date and his lovable feminine AI partner Aiba. Aiba is an AI ball in the shape of an eye ball in Date’s eye socket. She transmits, projects, and scans data through the connection in his brain. She also has a humanoid form used as an avatar to help Date roam and interact with the world of Somnium; a dream like state used for investigating the minds of people, which is a driving force of the story.

The story starts out with the murder of Shoko Nadami, discovered in an abandoned amusement park Special Agent Kaname Date of ABIS is called in to investigate the mysterious murder of the woman who incidentally, happens to be his best friend’s ex-wife. Date soon finds himself in a complex investigation of a string of murders, with a cast of unique characters, each with their own quirks. These characters include various archetypes including an Idol, Otaku, Yakuza and more.

The focus on the dialogue between these characters is a selling point for the game. The dialogue contains emotional, complex and funny moments which can either be really good or really awkward. The best character relationship in the game however is that of Date and Aiba. As your partner, she comes with a lot to help in your investigation including but not limited to, X-ray vision, heat sensing, zooming and scanning.

Aiba is helpful in numerous ways, but her most distinct traits are her sass and witty remarks, which she showcases constantly against Date; especially when he does foolish things you tell him to do. She helps Date gather information on characters and past events, which proves quite useful for the investigation. She also helps during quick time events, and most importantly serves as his avatar in the world of Somnium.

Somnium, is a dream like state in which you dive in as a “Psyncher” to gain more information from the mind of the character in which you Psync with. This is done by strapping a character to a Psync machine and diving into their Somnium or ‘subconscious dream’ to uncover clues and hidden secrets.

Once in Somnium, you have a limited time to investigate and solve the puzzles around you to progress. 6 minutes to be exact. Though you only use up time when moving around and interacting with objects, every action takes a specific amount of time in Somnium, the more complex, the more time it takes. If Date and Aiba can’t solve the puzzles in Somnium within the time limit, you’ll fail and have to start from the beginning or a checkpoint if you have the option to.

This is where the game has some problems. Somnium is often bizarre and confusing, things may not be as simple as they seem. An action you think is correct, might not be, leading you to waste time doing something useless. You may earn items called TIMIEs that help reduce time taken to on an interaction; however, you may also earn negative TIMIEs which significantly increases the time instead.

Sometimes you’ll be forced to use them randomly, making it more stressful to explore and solve the puzzles effectively. When it comes down to it, it is good to have the option to restart the Somnium section from the start or from a checkpoint to make the experience much smoother. Though you can only do this a maximum of 3 times.

There are other modes of gameplay including investigation sections, using Aiba to get clues around a crime scene, interrogation sections, piecing together clues to incriminate a suspect, and quick time events when Date gets into trouble.

The game has multiple story branches which all depend on the choices or path you choose to follow while in Somnium. The multiple branches all have their differences. They might seem similar at first, but by playing each story branch you’ll get to fully understand the big picture of AI. At any point in the game you can choose to follow a different story branch if you so wish, however, there will be blocked sections of that branch which will only unlock when you’ve played through the others.

AI: The Somnium Files is an amazing and fun experience with interesting characters, funny dialogue, and an engaging story. The Somnium parts still provide a fun and unique experience, despite their flaws.

                      A PS4 review copy for AI: The Somnium Files was provided by Spike Chunsoft for this review.

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AI: The Somnium Files

$59.99 USD

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Unique and Engaging Plot
• Funny and Entertaining Dialogue Between Characters

Cons

• Somnium puzzles are often too obscure
• Some Jokes and Moments often Feel Forced