Wireframe - #25 - 2019

64 / wfmag.cc

Review

Rated

GENRE

Adventure

FORMAT

Switch (tested)

/ PS4

DEVELOPER

Spike

Chunsoft

PUBLISHER

Numskull

Games

PRICE

£49.99

RELEASE

Out now

Info

Review

File this one under criminal misogyny

t’s a good time for anime cops on the

Switch, even if Spike Chunsoft’s AI:

The Somnium Files doesn’t have Astral

Chain’s flashy combat or litter-picking.

This latest title is, however, as bizarre

as they come. You play as Date, who works

in a special branch of the police called ABIS –

Advanced Brain Investigation Squad. Not only

can he explore the inner minds of characters

by “psyncing” with them, but he also has an AI

eyeball (called Aiba) that

can leap out of his face to

morph into a transparent

Cyclops teddy bear. It also

takes a female form in each

‘somnium’ mind world he

visits. Sure.

These somniums are the meat of the game.

Taking direct control of Date’s AI partner, you

solve puzzles by interacting with certain objects

in the correct manner to break mental locks,

delving deeper into the character’s psyche in

order to, say, uncover evidence or tease out

a confession. You have a limited time in each

world, though, leading to trial and error until you

hit the correct sequence of events.

Otherwise, this is a narrative-heavy game that

sees Date travelling to different locations and

instigating plenty of long-winded conversations

to uncover the culprit behind a series of murder

cases, all the while flirting with his AI companion.

There are plenty of other characters he meets

along the way, including his cop boss, an idol

singer (both of whom, like Date’s AI partner, fulfil

the ‘sexy’ anime stereotype), an ‘old hag’, and

a gender-fluid bar owner who is, contemptibly,

played for laughs.

The story is preposterous, but it occasionally

touches on serious themes of family and

parenthood (Date is also the guardian of a

young girl), as well as the importance of human

intuition compared to an AI when judging

a situation. Ironically, the plot requires some

major leaps in judgement,

while we as players are

mostly robots scrolling

through the story with

minimal interaction.

With so few things to

actually do, there’s a much

greater emphasis on story and character, but

it’s difficult to empathise with a womanising lead

character who’s so horribly misogynistic. While

some innuendo in the script is at least laughable,

Date frequently comments on the breast size

of characters (he’s literally described as a “tit

man”), makes jokes about pornography, and on

occasion veers dangerously close to hitting on

much younger girls. This kind of behaviour is

sadly too frequent in Japanese games, but here,

it’s particularly distracting.

There remains some charm to AI: The

Somnium Files though, both for its eccentricity

and a few heartwarming moments. This is an

anime noir that wants to be taken seriously, but

ultimately, it just makes a boob out of itself.

I

VERDICT

Japanese eccentricity

can’t make up for a lack

of things to do and some

distracting misogyny.

47 %

 There are some intriguing
relationships between
characters wrapped up in
sci-fi clichés.
 Sometimes, the sexual
innuendo can be
amusingly wild, but maybe
it’s just lost in translation.

HIGHLIGHT

It doesn’t take long to reach an ending,

but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve

found the killer. Each ‘somnium’ has

a choice of outcomes that influences

the narrative, leading you down

branching pathways – it’ll take multiple

playthroughs to see the full story.

REVIEWED BY
Ed Nightingale

Review

Rated

“It’s difficult to

empathise with a lead

character who’s so

horribly misogynistic”

AI: The Somnium Files