No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES is an Adventure game, made by the wild minds from Spike Chunsoft. They’re behind not only this series, but many others like Danganronpa and Stein’s Gate. Basically, most of my favourite story telling adventure games came from this company. No Sleep for Kaname Date is the third instalment of the AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES series and launches today (25th July) on Steam. As someone who’s invested over a combined 80 hours from the first two alone, this was actually an amazing addition.
Remember, when you’re feeling sad or lost, just pick up a Porn-o mag to wash away the pain.
When it comes to the timeline of the game, this one take place between both the first game and nirvanA Initiative. Getting to do the puzzles so blind that I had no guides to fall back on, was honestly wonderful. Though, unlike the last two games, this one felt a bit lacking. But, let’s put that to the side and begin this psync and somnium scan.
Gameplay
You start off as the protagonist Kaname Date, an agent of ABIS with his trusty partner Aiba. Date is being chased by a group of bald, black suit wearing men that literally all look alike. Date trips while one of the thugs come swinging his fist to make contact with his face, only for the first QTE to appears where we dodge the hit. Though, fast forwarding a bit, after dealing with that crazy scenario, we find ourselves seeing the thugs get abducted.
Alien space ships then appear and start taking people with one of them being Iris. A close friend of Date from the case in the first game. She screams his name while floating into the ship. Afterwards, we go through the opening of the game and truly see what Iris got herself into. So, with the last two instalments of the game, they would introduce a new mechanic we might use a few times.
Puzzling
In this case it was the combing items together that will further unlock different parts of the puzzles during the escape portion. There are various portions that made it somewhat obvious as to what two items you had to combine to move forward. Which I believe is great that Spike Chunsoft choose to take this route of thinking. Especially the puzzles I’ve come across made me really think outside the box, burn the box and enjoy the cindering. I honestly believe Spike Chunsoft has not lost their edge on the puzzles after the craziness in the nirvanA Intitiative.
Generally, this series isn’t only known for their story and puzzles. There’s also the crazy sense of humour that makes this series an amazing addition to anyone’s collection. Although some of the jokes are a bit crude or crass, some have excellent execution. There’s even the beautiful use of puns and play on words to show that not all jokes need to be lewd.
Graphics
When it comes to the appearance of the game, some of the locations are reused assets from the previous games. However, we did get some amazing new areas and trippy effects that got me wanting more again. Saying that, even with the work done to both the 3d model and environments, I feel as though the developers forgot to edit key details. For example the character portraits being brighter than the game, which sadly e can’t adjust it in the settings. As I played pre-release, I’m hopeful this gets a fix with a day 1 patch.
The work done to the UI and attention to details when making sure the puzzles for the escape portion was greatly executed. Having players look around the entire environment while in the escape game was always rewarded with an answer to the puzzle. Curious minds will really enjoy checking every nook and cranny while getting an eye full on the details. I honestly loved the fourth escape room because of tricky, yet clever that puzzle ends up being because of it’s visuals.
Audio
Now, the audio in peak form. Not only did we get both old OST from the last to games still being fun to hear, but even the new soundtrack was enjoyable to listen to. Particularly when doing the escape portion of the game. This game series has a tradition of having a music video like ending. I always look forward to seeing the, ,and this was no different. It legitimately had me standing up and pumping my fist in the air because of how catchy it is!
Lastly, the voice actors involved in this game I swear are having a blast reading for these characters. There are scenes in which either a character says something stupid or out of place with so much emotion behind it. Who knows how many takes until they got the final line got in the game. Seriously, Greg Chun if you’re reading this please tell me how you manage to scream “porno mag” to the top of your lungs. Do you do this a lot, or are you just Date in the flesh? But seriously, the whole cast is amazing and I don’t know if there is someone who can replace them in this series.
Longevity
No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES is about 20 hours long if you’re just aiming to blaze through the whole game. Yet, there is a sliver of content to explore and acquire that are both funny and shocking. For example unlocking the alternate endings from the story and then additional alternate endings in the bonus. There are even the photos you can unlock from rising through the ranks that make me wonder who was in charge of this. Because that person definitely needs a raise.
I also forgot to mention the stickers. Now beware, if you don’t pay attention to the environment, you’ll miss them. It took me some time to locate some of them, while others will be waving in front of your face. There’s also the crazy amount of searching you’ll be doing in every area you visit to get a unique conversation between Date, Aiba and whoever else is around.
Final Thoughts
No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES is just an amazing addition to the series. The fact they kept this hidden from us for so long until the Nintendo Switch 2 direct is amazing. When I saw that we were getting another entry into the AI series, I nearly fell out of my chair with excitement. I hope the developers go on to make a fourth game or by some miracle this series gets an anime like Danganronpa did.
I give No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES the Thumb Culture Platinum Award
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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