Juniata High School

In the AI: The Somnium Files series, AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative,  Mizuki and Ryuki are the main characters instead of Date. The game takes place a year after the first game and switches to five years after the first game. You play as Ryuki for most of the first half of the game, and you play as Mizuki for the other half. For this game, timelines aren’t matching up in the cases, so it’s your job to investigate. Somnium also gets a bit of a rework. You get hints about the puzzles and somniums that take longer to finish. You still have 6 minutes to investigate the Somnium, but there are many more mental locks to figure out. When investigating a crime scene, you go into a virtual reality scene to see every possible detail that may or may not be seen by the naked the human eye. This is possible because of the AI balls provided by ABIS. You can check out the scene with x-ray vision, normal vision, and thermal vision. You also get to meet a variety of interesting, new characters. Old characters return, but they don’t get as much screen time as the new characters. We also get to see new and old scenes to investigate. I loved this game even more than the first one. Some aspects were better than others in both games, but this one takes the cake. Characters are much more lovable and interesting because they have depth to them. We get to see how each character is so important in the other's stories. We also get to see Date’s AI ball, Aiba, become Mizuki’s AI ball. We get an introduction to Tama, who is Ryuki’s AI ball. I like how they put a lot of effort into making the AI balls have different personalities and looks. The plot twists are better in the first game because they weren’t as predictable, however. This game makes the story much easier to understand and investigate, although this feature can change if you switch the settings at the beginning of the game. Even though the plot twists aren’t good, the story makes up for it. It’s a pretty cliché ending, but I loved it. The easter eggs in this game are great too. At the end of the game, you will find your unique number (the nil number) that unlocks an alternate ending to the game. After you finish the short alternate ending, you’ll unlock a short escape room mini-game. The same team that made the game “Zero Escape” worked on this series, too, so you’re playing a short version of a “Zero Escape” game. Overall this game is a 10/10, and I suggest you play this if you enjoyed playing the first game. Playtime is at least 25 hours, although it depends on how long you play the somniums and timelines. You can find this game for $60 on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!