Dream Logic, Yakuza, Idols And Porn Mags - Let's Play AI: The Somnium Files

An archival space for the threads that made it.
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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.

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Last edited by TheMcD on Wed Sep 09, 2020 11:12 am, edited 20 times in total.

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So this thread's been going on for a while now before this place officially came to be. I'll start working on it again somewhere around the weekend, so that's probably when the next update will come.

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Welcome back, And I definitely wish Aiba luck in solving the mysteries.

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EDIT: Uploaded the wrong damn videos. What the fuck. Hang on a bit.

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OK, now I managed to unfuck myself. So, let's try that post again:

Alright, it's been a bit. Let's have some new videos, shall we?

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Two videos this time because it's been a while and the first one doesn't exactly end in a satisfactory way.

Now, I am currently in a bit of a spot of computer trouble and still have to set things up before I can record new footage. I still have three videos finished from before, but I might space them out a bit more until I get things settled.

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This branch is pretty grim. Seems Ota actually made a huge difference in the other path.

As I've mentioned in the other thread, this was my first branch - the information gained from Pewter definitely colored my line of thinking going forward.

So far, the killer's plan is proceeding mostly the same as in the Ota/Mizuki routes, with the exception that they weren't stopped this time.

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I guess you could say that first one doesn't exactly end in a satisfactory way, considering...

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New video!

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This time, we get to take part in the incredibly fun activity of getting to talk to the family members and friends of people that were just murdered. But we also get an absolute ton of interesting info.

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New video!

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Let's Psync with #89 and see what we find. There's a very big reveal at the end, I'll say that much.

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The structure of this whole Somnium seems to be different. Most of the green objects you interacted with stopped being green after you were done with them, objects forcibly interacted with you... It could be that the green, uh... membrane? is linked to just about everything else in the room.

So I'll be eager to see what you didn't do here.

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New video!

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I think we need to have a chat with Boss about what her involvement with #89 is.

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Okay, new theory on Date's connection to the OG Cyclops. Since Falco (names are tough here but I mean #89 previously) was a detective, he possibly psynced with the actual killer six years ago, but went over the six-minute limit. So possibly Date's body was the one that did the first set of crimes, but due to the Psync mix-up, he ended up with the 'detective' identity and #89 is the killer identity. It could explain his missing eye (#89 took it from him but didn't manage to kill him), although it's less clear why #89 has a better memory of the events under this theory. Boss might be trying to cover that up to avoid a scandal, though who she is actually involved with is a bit unclear at this point.

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New videos!

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Before we head down the only path remaining, let's check back in with #89's Somnium and see what we missed (spoilers: quite a bit) and take a look over our files.

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Honestly that's probably the best possible thumbnail image for 62-X.

One thing to note: The floor lamp wasn't interactable in the main run. The wall switch must have turned it on.

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New video!

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This is where the plot kicks into overdrive.

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New video!

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Let's take a peek into Hitomi's mind and see what we find.

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New video!

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This time, we have a more indepth chat with Hitomi and fill in a lot of blanks that have been building up throughout the game.

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Hey, in case someone is wondering, I've currently shelved this LP while I'm trying to fix an audio issue that has affected the last two videos. Once I work out what's going wrong, I'll continue working on this. I sure hope it won't take long.

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Well, at least we've got something to think about for a while.

So my guess is that Date's body is Saito if So was saying he was his father. Saito grew up to be a serial killer despite his dad's attempts to hide it. But maybe he isn't the one who stole the eyes, since that seemed to be Rohan's thing? And while I know it's there for the sake of the game's story, it seems odd that Renju wouldn't just discreetly cremate the body, since he was always at risk of it being discovered and traced to him.

The other thing is that maybe So was only saying he was Iris's father. But I thought he called Date son one time; I'll have to check on that.

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Whew, I caught up. Thanks for doing this LP, OP!

As for game chat, Saito fits the profile that Pewter gave us of the Cyclops Killer, but Falco's own account has some discrepancies in it (he starts his story with a murder he committed while a cop, but according to Pewter's information CK started killing when he was 12). Also, I thought the details Pewter gave us were just going to be background info, but by god did that backstory come back with a vengeance.

Also, it's interesting that Aiba seems so sinister in the Iris route due to "everybody watchin me" conspiracy theories, but Iris herself is extremely shady in the other routes where you trust Aiba 100%.

Mizuki's strength has not been explained at all, and I keep expecting them to.

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ryewheat wrote:
Sat Aug 08, 2020 5:52 pm
Mizuki's strength has not been explained at all, and I keep expecting them to.
I can tell you this: "Grandpa was raised by dolphins, was a god tier badass, and gave Mizuki his god tier genes" is the closest you'll ever get to an explanation on that front. Mizuki's Herculean strength just is.

In other news, apparently I might have managed to fix my audio problem, and it was a really dumb issue, if that was really it. If I have a new video out in a few days, you'll know.

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New video!

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I think I managed to get the audio problem fixed. If it is, it apparently was the fact that I was using my Bluetooth earphones instead of my wired set, and that fucked with OBS.

Anyway, this time we'll go back to Hitomi's Somnium and see what we missed.

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TheMcD wrote:
Sat Aug 08, 2020 8:10 pm
I can tell you this: "Grandpa was raised by dolphins, was a god tier badass, and gave Mizuki his god tier genes" is the closest you'll ever get to an explanation on that front. Mizuki's Herculean strength just is.
Don't get me wrong, I love how deadpan the joke is, but off the episode where the CK's backstory suddenly became foreground, I was wondering. That there isn't an explanation just makes it better. :allears:

Good to hear about the audio fix!

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New video!

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Let's see what that locked path hid away from us.

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New video!

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...I don't like this Somnium.

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New video!

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It's time for the game to talk. And it has a lot to say.

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That last Somnium pretty much made all of this plot clear, so I guess they had to have a 'let me sum it up in case you missed the details' moment. I forgot about the prototype Psync; that explains how the swapping was occurring, as well as the eye thing (more or less). And while I'm not saying I wanted it to happen, I'm sort of surprised he didn't go after Mizuki; she's pretty much the closest person to Date right now. We could have at least had a comedy parallel universe where Saito tries to do it and she knocks him out cold.

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New videos!

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First, we take a quick look at the files again.

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And then we go back to the only branch still available to us as we race ever faster towards the conclusion.

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New video!

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Let's see what happens when we're the one being Psynced with.

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New video!

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This is the big one. Strap in.

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New video!

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It's time for the epilogue. And it's a pretty long one. So long in fact that we need to split it in two.

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Hitomi Commits Tax Fraud is the deep lore I did not know I needed tonight.

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New video!

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Figure I might as well give you the second part of the epilogue right after.

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And one more time...

New videos!

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First, we take one more look at the files we've collected throughout the game, and then we end this LP the only way this game would have it.

It's been one hell of a ride, but now we've reached the end.

LET'S PLAY AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - THE END

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That was one hell of a ride.

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Alright, everybody, we're officially archived! And that means it's time to put a lock on this thread.

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And for those interested to what I'm up to next, I've started a VLP of Hearts of Iron 4, where I try to teach Ibblebibble how to play the game in a co-op campaign. Check it out, if you're interested!

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