Recent reviews by TripleDan

AI: The Somnium Files is Spike Chunsoft's latest offering to the visual novel murder mystery genre, after the cult success of the Zero Escape and Danganronpa series. Fans of these series will find a lot to enjoy here, with enough differences to not feel too derivative of previous Spike Chunsoft titles.

You play as special agent Kaname Date, working as part of a secret police force known as ABIS. Accompanied by your AI partner, Aiba, you are tasked with solving a gruesome series of murders known as the New Cyclops Killings, through not only investigating the crimes themselves, but exploring the minds and memories of the individuals involved.

The core gameplay of The Somnium Files will be all too familiar to visual novel fans; you travel from area to area discussing key points around the case and getting to know the characters, relationships, and their motives. The story is exciting with plenty of twists and turns, and the majority of the characters feel well developed and interesting to get to know further as the game progresses. The interactivity of The Somnium Files comes from Psyncing, where Date enters the mind of potential suspects and key witnesses, to investigate their true thoughts and memories and discover what they're really hiding.

The Psync sections take place as timed third person puzzles, involving exploring various dreamlike (or nightmarelike) environments known as Somniums and investigating objects and clues to crack open specific locked memories. Whilst the majority of the Somniums are well designed and interesting to explore, the puzzles themselves often feel non-nonsensical and more of an exercise in trial and error to find the correct solutions. Each section is timed at six minutes, with each action using a specified amount of time before the Somnium collapses on itself. Combined with multipliers which can affect the amount of time a single action takes, some of the puzzles end up being an operation in frustration to ensure everything is done in the correct order and with the right time modifiers being saved for the right moments, as opposed to the true dream detective fantasy that it feels like The Somnium Files is aiming for.

A handful of the Somniums also have multiple conclusions, which opens branching paths and alternate timelines to be followed. One of the core concepts of the game is parallel universes, with each branching path focusing on one of the main characters and providing more backstory and insight into their personality. The parallel timelines are fun to play through, giving different perspectives and outcomes on the overall story of the New Cyclops Killings. The timelines focused on the relationships between Date and Mizuki, the 12 year old girl he is responsible for looking after, and Date and Iris, the J-pop teen idol, are particularly heartwarming and well established.

However, whilst it's an interesting take on a generally very linear genre, the execution of the multiple paths feels clunky, as completing each timeline is mandatory for the game's ultimate ending, leaving a lot of backtracking to tick off all the various paths. Having a singular "intended" ending makes a lot of the alternate paths feel somewhat pointless, with significant story events and emotional moments left almost as afterthoughts to unlock the game's true ending.

In spite of a few issues with the Somnium gameplay and the way the branching timelines operate, AI: The Somnium Files is a great way to spend 15-20 hours (potentially more if you look for all the hidden collectables and interaction based achievements). It's very easy to get lost in as you go further down each of the game's timelines and I'd recommend this for any visual novel fans, especially if you enjoy anything from Phoenix Wright to Steins;Gate. A-SET, YOU BET.

The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is a short spin-off title, set in the same universe as the upcoming Life is Strange 2. It follows a similar formula to the previous titles in the Life is Strange franchise, with a heavy focus on meaningful narrative choices, exploration, and character interaction. However, this is the first title in the series to not feature the beloved characters of Max and Chloe from the first 'season' of LiS, instead introducing the characters of Chris, aka Captain Spirit, and his father, who will presumably play a part in LiS 2.

The short story revolves around Captain Spirit spending a Saturday morning ticking adventures off his superhero to-do list, but it quickly becomes apparent that outside of his make believe world, the realities of Chris' childhood are far less joyful. It appears that Chris' mother has recently passed away in a car crash (perhaps a knowing nod towards the first LiS) and his father has gone into a downhill spiral of alcohol abuse. An early scene in the game hints at a potentially abusive relationship stemming from this, and it gives the game a genuinely unnerving and uncomfortable atmosphere to play through.

‘Walking simulator' style games often include the urge to explore absolutely everything in your surroundings, in the hope that it adds a little more to the story or points you towards a new area to discover. Whilst I wanted to poke around every aspect of Chris' home, I found myself tip-toeing around Chris' father, afraid of upsetting him and causing a potential outburst. Happening across the Nerf gun, I decided against playfully shooting a bullet at Chris’ father, for fear of repercussions. Instead of carrying out Captain Spirit's awesome adventures, I mostly spent my time trying to pacify Chris' father, cleaning up around the house and bringing him beer and food whilst he watched the big game. I carefully watched the clock count down (in real time!) on the microwave whilst making a tub of mac and cheese, to avoid giving Chris’ father any reason to be disappointed. The whole game feels like you should be constantly afraid of stepping on eggshells, which is an impressive feeling to instill in such a short amount of time.

In terms of general gameplay, Captain Spirit feels a lot more open than previous LiS titles. Captain Spirit's tasks are vaguely hinted at in Chris' notepad (replacing Max's diary from LiS); it's up to the player to piece the hints together and work their way through the list. The tasks can be completed in any order, and there is not much in the way of guidance in order to encourage the player to fully explore Chris' house. I found this to be both a positive and negative feature, whilst it was gratifying to be given the freedom and not specifically pointed towards any one objective, I ended up unknowingly triggering the end of the game before I'd completed even half of the tasks, and after reading up on the game afterwards, I feel like I've missed a lot of content and additional pieces to Captain Spirit's tale. Whilst you can continue the game afterwards and finish anything you may have missed, it somewhat breaks the immersion to just pick up where you left off to try and get 100% completion.

It should be noted how much Captain Spirit is a step up graphically compared to the previous games in the series. The colour pallet throughout the game mostly consists of muted browns and greys, continuing the depressive atmosphere, which is only increased by the wintery setting. The lip syncing on the characters feels far more accurate, and the models themselves are far more detailed than anything previously seen in LiS. The recent prequel to LiS, Before The Storm, felt like it was taking a much more cinematic approach to its visuals than the original LiS, and hopefully the improved graphics are an indicator that this will continue through LiS 2.

Overall, The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is an enjoyable short story with a surprising amount of emotional backbone. Anyone who enjoyed LiS and Before The Storm should find it instantly familiar, but with some gameplay changes that might give some hints to how LiS 2 will play out after its release next month. On a final note, if you’ve played the original LiS, take a look at the name of the author of the photo compendium hidden away on the bookcase in the family living room. These universes might not be so far apart after all...