87/100

Pros:

• I adored Ryuki. He is reminiscent of Ace Attorney protagonists. And he's gay.
• I liked playing as Mizuki and other Mizuki.
• Date is a much better character when he's not there 100% of the time (I'm somewhat dreading the next game where it will probably be only him.)
• Genny, Shoma, Komeji, and Lien were great characters and a good edition.
• Less Iris was great.
• Game was genuinely better and less cringey with Date as a side character instead of main.
• Music was amazing.
• At first, I disliked Tama, but started to like her as a stark contrast to Ryuki. I also liked how she put aside any of the perverted things to take care of Ryuki first.
• In some of the dream worlds, you could float around which was fun.
• Same as the first game, the horror aspects were wonderful. I loved the videos the killer left. I love that you can scan the QR code to view the videos. They are reminiscent of popular analog horror videos. I wish they had leaned into it more. After playing all the Danganronpa games and these 2 games, it's obvious Spike Chunsoft has a talent for body horror and disturbing scenes and they should do more with it.

Cons:

• As it did in the first game, the dancing and singing always makes me cringe. Making it unskippable is a crime.
• Wish there was more Ryuki. Wish they delved more into his feelings for Date. If they're going to reveal it so dramatically, they should do something with it.
• This game was very linear compared to the first game. I thought it was cool in the first game how you could choose any path, so your first ending could be anything. In this game, they lock you out of routes using passwords you have to find in the unlocked route.
• I wish it talked more about the events of the first game. It mentions in game that this story is completely separate and you don't need to play the first game, but I feel that learning about the cast in the previous game is a necessity to understanding their character. Characters like Ota, Date, Mama, and even Mizuki would feel a bit empty if you never played the first game.
• Took me a few hours to understand the twist. Maybe I'm just stupid?? But it was very random.
• 3D models occasionally glitched out.

Overall, I enjoyed it more than the first one, and I'm almost positive it's because Iris was there less and Ryuki was introduced.

One of the issues holding back the first game was that it was playing with science concepts that the creator already used in the Zero Escape games. Thankfully, Nirvana Initiative brings some new ideas to the table making for a more exciting, mind-bending story.

The story goes much bigger this time, and stars two playable protagonists. Mizuki returns from the original game. She's 18 now working at ABIS with Aiba as her partner. She was a great character in the original game, and I still love her in this. Ryuki is the other protagonist along with his AI partner Tama. Their dynamic is like the reverse of Date and Aiba where Ryuki is the self-serious one while Tama is the perverted one. They took a while to grow on me, and even then, I don't like them as much as I like Date, Mizuki, and Aiba.

It's another murder mystery, but the murders are much stranger and potentially supernatural. The killer is cutting their victims vertically down the middle on a molecular level. It becomes more than who is doing this but also how this can even be done. Then another layer on the mystery is that only one half of the victim is found at each crime scene while their second half shows up six years later. Mizuki's side of the story is in the present day while Ryuki's story is six years ago. Both are investigating the same mystery.

Sadly, this game is still pretty perverted. Sometimes that stuff can be funny, but when it comes to adults creeping on teenagers, it's just uncomfortable.

The somniums are more varied and creative this time around. I love the one that is based on Pokemon Go with all of the characters appearing as the Pokemon for this game at different power levels. There are other fun surprise Somniums in this too. I already thought the somnium puzzles were better than the escape rooms of the Zero Escape series, and this game takes to an even more fun level.

Not so long ago I played AI: The Somnium Files just because I loved the cover, and... what a game. Great characters, great story and a lot of charm.

Therefore, when this game was released in July, I bought it at launch, and I NEVER buy at launch. I have had a lot of personal problems these months, but AI: The Somnium Files - Nirvana Initiative was probably the best time I had during that.

We have, again, a great cast of charming characters. Even if most of the characters of the previous game return, a new and fantastic cast appears. And those new characters have (with a few exceptions) more importance in the plot than the old ones. The plot is excellent again. A mix of murder thriller with sci-fi. I can't decide if it's better than the first one's plot, but I can assure that both are great and unforgettable stories. I have to add, if someone who hasn't played the first game read this, that this game can be played without playing the first one.

With its excellent characters and plot, the game worths it completely, but there are more reasons to play it. The comedy in the game is hilarious. It's impossible to not laugh a lot of times. The gameplay in somniums has been improved since the first game, with more intuitive and interesting puzzles, and the visuals and sounds are a little better too.

So I think I have nothing more to say. This story worth to be experienced, it's incredible and mind-blowing. These characters are unforgettable. And the game itself is fun. Just play it. You won't regret it.

Woaaahaaaaaa story of undertale.

While not tightly interwoven like the first game, and there are plenty more of cyberpunk clichés this time, also it kinda drags on more than the first game there are interesting ideas scattered about. It's pacing is a bit off, like I've mentioned it drags a bit, not only that but there is a Metal Gear Solid 2 Raiden situation happening, and it is really just a character introduced to fail, unlike MGS2 though they do follow up on their promise of getting to play the character.

On the other hand, it feels like you get to play 2 episodic releases of a game duct taped together, it doesn't have the best pacing but what can you do. The writer probably just made this all up out of boredom during the pandemic, this is a pandemic written game of "Damn, I should probably write more on that universe I made"

That and the game looks better than first one for sure, it feels as if they are runnng on a bigger budget or on one of those Unreal engines. Of course I guess a bigger budget means less restraint at how many dance segments or far-fetched MCU-like fight scenarios happen. I don't remember the first game being this liberal with it's use but this entre just cannot stop with it's tone issues, if you thought the first had tone issues this one follows almost no rules as to how silly it will get, to say the least the greatest offender of asking my suspension of belief has to be the worse than stormtrooper-like confrontations from goons.

I remember the first game having a over the top ending with Mizuki, the action-packed ending that didn't exactly feel canon, or am I confusing it with Ota's ending? Anyways, what I am getting at is that this game doesn't have just one over the top action filled path but numerous ones. After-all I've personally theorized that this whole series was made for the more laid back non-serious story ideas of Uchikoshi, this is the less rugged thing to ever come from them, plus they did not direct this one as much as the first entre so.

Hated the 2 arrows puzzle though and I don't get how some got the design of it, so in case anyone is confused: Basically follow the left arrow first and continue following it to the end. Another hint: It is multiplication vertically.

This game is uniquely weird, there hasn't been many games that feel like this in a while, in the sense that it feels both high budget and low budget at the same time, it is bordering on a "So bad it's good" thing, yes the first game was a bit silly, but this one really jumps the shark and you may by the end just be like "Yeah sure whatever" as a the thousandth dance segment happens followed by metal gear solid action but with worse fighting.

The funny thing is, this is a visual novel that isn't that long if you go through it but... It feels LONG. It feels like you watched 4 seasons of an anime and plot points introduced seasons ago are finally coming to a close, unlike the first game I really felt as if I was pushing myself to finish this game and just slogging through it just so that I could get to the satisfying plot twists that go to explain the lil things. Cuz that's the real meat of the story! The twists, the big fun. But what about the story when it is not satisfying twists? It is a lot of a story being intentionally muddled and vague, and while the first one does this, it was more fun about it rather than, let's say someone ripped apart pages around of a book you were reading. Quality is all over the place but I would argue the start and the ending is where it's really going.

No but really mild spoiilers, the whole thing feels like a joke, like it is a parody of itself and comes close to either X-men written by Stephen King or anime visual novel MCU, this is Uchikoshi in his Silly Era and really does feel like he is just making fun of his tropes while still having some fun ideas. What you are you seeing is a writer just go: Fuck it! Let's try and recreate the fuckery of metal gear solid and all of thee other sci-fi game tropes within 1 game. You beat it all and what you get as a reward is seeing a lil anime girl say: GAY RIGHTS!!