AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative Reviews
As previously noted, there’s actually no need to play the first AI: The Somnium Files before jumping into Nirvana Initiative thanks to its excellent spoiler-limiting option — you even have to prove you played the original by answering a couple of questions about its finale — but, having now played both in immediate succession, I highly recommend that you plough through both as one big project. This is an exceptionally well-realised narrative world filled with absolutely wonderful characters — and after a while, you won’t want to leave them behind.
It is hard to know where to begin when describing the experience of playing AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES – nirvanA Initiative. It is the sequel to 2019’s AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES, but requires no knowledge of the first game whatsoever and can go out of its way to hide spoilers if players have not experienced the original. The first game’s essence is still very much present in nirvanA Initiative, and there are a multitude of improvements to the puzzle-solving elements that makes for an overall superior gameplay experience. It is among the best of its genre, while also being at times completely nonsensical. It is a game of halves, while also being a game about halves.
While its ultimate resolution is not quite as satisfying as its brethren, the way it uses its cast, some higher-minded concepts, and the player themselves makes for another highly absorbing title across its twenty-plus hours.
As we said up top, there is a good mystery story at the core here, even if its complications aren’t quite as compelling as those of the first game’s. (And if you have a taste for the meta, Uchikoshi has you covered, as always.) And those Somnium sequences really are a major step up from the original. But if Uchikoshi’s work has always involved digging through the less savory or interesting elements to get to the treasure buried underneath, then Nirvana Initiative may be the biggest such pile of his career.
AI: The Somnium Files - Nirvana Initiative boasts a compelling story, along with some great plot twists that caught me completely off guard. Its investigations are intriguing, and its Somnium dungeons are both colorful and foreboding. Nirvana Initiative is an incredibly eccentric game, bursting with vibrant characters, mind-bending puzzles, and an abundance of strange sci-fi detours. And once it builds momentum, it doesn’t let up. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say I love it.