AI: The Somnium Files – nirvanA Initiative Review

AI: The Somnium Files – nirvanA Initiative Review – Slicing Between Weave

Sunday, July 7, 2024

Genre - Sci-fi, Mystery, Thriller Play Time - 18 hours Developer - Spike Chunsoft Steam VNDB

Split In Half

Where do you go with a story after all the lose ends of the original game have been tied up in a nice neat knot? This is the dilemma which nirvanA Initiative faced and the solution it chose was to split its play time between two new protagonists. Indeed the idea of division permeates every element of its structure and narrative from the way the murderer splits their victims in half to the way the new characters come in pairs. There is a well thought out consistency to the presentation of the game’s themes and ideas allowing for the creation of a compelling mystery where everything appears to have significance. However, this transition has not been without issue as the older cast members inevitably get under explored and there are some questionable plot twists which seem to exist for the sake of having them. Is nirvanA Initiative able to balance these weaknesses or does it forever live in the shadow of the original title? Let’s dive into the subconscious and find out.

A Tale of Two Detectives – Narrative and Themes

Choosing to have two protagonists opens up a variety of opportunities for interesting narrative presentation and differing angles on the same information which nirvanA Initiative takes full advantage of during its play time. On the one hand you have Ryuki and on the other Mizuki, each one offering their own thoughts on the mystery while showing the consequences of past actions and foreshadowing future revelations. Binding them together is the Half Body serial killings where only one half of the victims body is found at a time posed in a twisted fashion. The shear oddity of these murders instantly captures the player’s attention and maintains the uncertainty right until the big reveal. Focusing on dual perspectives helps this along through adding an additional layer to the reliability of the information the player is being given as Ryuki spirals wildly down a deteriorating mental path and Mizuki is having to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of his failure. As the game progresses it is careful to give out just enough breadcrumbs for theories about the truth to be formed and yet it never truly shows its hand until the moment the curtain is pulled back. It is the same delicate dance of anticipation which defined the original title and is alive and well here in its new form which will delight returning fans while existing in a new context so as to not alienate any new players.

Two perspectives shapes the game's structure

Character drama has a far more important role in nirvanA Initiative than it did in the original game. Both titles are character centric, but, where the original used them as a means to supplement and enrich the narrative, nirvanA Initiative relies of them to maintain the player’s interest over the length of the story. Part of this difference is due to the majority of the victims of the murderer being people who are framed in a negative light or have appeared suspicious and so there is little reason for their deaths to hold any interest outside of the mysterious circumstances of their demise. As such the emotional tension has to be generated from other sources or else the player will rapidly become detached from the events in front of them. The method nirvanA Initiative chooses to combat the shortcoming is a strong through a current of character drama. Each one generally involves a pair of characters who somehow relate to the protagonists and the game follows them as they wrestle with their emotions under the strain of murders going on them around them. Their arcs all deal with the theme of the characters being half of a whole and it is only through overcoming their doubt and fear to be honest with each other that they can be happy. In doing so their lean into the idea of division the game pushes and puts them on the opposite end of the spectrum to the murderer with their obsession with pulling people apart. A player’s overall enjoyment of nirvanA Initiative will rely heavily on how much they find these dramas interesting as a fairly large amount of time is spent focusing on them.

I do love me some cults

It has been a while since there has been a game with plot twists which are so elaborate and yet completely meaningless as this one. The twist is so complex that the title feels the need to break the fourth wall and sits the player down to explain it to them in detail through a sequence where all sense of immersion is broken. There was clearly some fear on the part of the developers that the player would not be able to properly understand the twist if it told to them in universe so they took them aside to talk them through it. As a result the revelation feels irrelevant to the plot itself and the characters who are living it since it only really matters on the player’s end and the characters are the same both before and after its reveal with no meaningful change resulting from it. In general it is just an odd choice as once the story resumes it is fairly easy to forget about what is meant to be a major element of the narrative given nobody talks about it and the game immediately moves on to its action packed climax without so much as a backwards glance. Maybe the developers felt the need to include a big twist because the original title had one and they wanted to recapture the magic of those big moments, but lacked the proper space within the story to so. This does mean that it is relatively inoffensive and is not likely to effect the player’s overall enjoyment of nirvanA Initiative since it is such a once and done affair. However, for those invested in the build up to this reveal it might be a betrayal they cannot tolerate.

Divided Personalities – Characters

To further the idea of two halves which nirvanA Initiative pushes as its central motif, the new characters all come in pairs. Kizuna and Lien for example, they are joined by a common uncertainty about the future and a concern that they will never be more than they currently are which they can only overcome through their combined strength. This quality is a trend among all the new cast members and the changes they undergo between the perspectives of the two protagonists reinforces both their connection to each other as well as the gap between their hearts. Many of the routes focus in on one of the pairs in order to dive into their relationship while giving the player a sense of who they are at their core. These are careful to place the cast into situations specifically tailored around their weaknesses in order to ensure they are have the chance to express what defines them in a sympathetic manner. Despite this intimacy the developers still manage to maintains the possibility that any of them could be the murderer in order to keep tension high in the player’s mind as they are torn between the humanity they have witnessed and the suspicion in their mind. It is through playing this line that nirvanA Initiative crafts such a memorable new cast to fuel the mysteries around them.

The new cast stand out in interesting ways

When it comes to the returning characters there is a much wider divide in terms of quality. The majority of them are static for the duration of the story since their arcs have already reached their conclusion and as a result they feel shallow when standing next to the new cast. In order to avoid drawing too much attention to this fact, the game makes sure to never focus on them for too long and ensures the player is never given an opportunity to compare them side by side. They exist as a nod to the events of the original that can satisfy old fans while not causing new players to be confused their their sudden appearance. Only two exceptions to this level of quality from the old cast and they are Mizuki and Date. Mizuki has been promoted from secondary character to protagonist and as such gets the improved characterisation and development expected from that role and it enhances an already strong personality with the depth needed for it to easy to place oneself in her shoes. It is clear a lot of thought went into how a more adult version of the Mizuki from the original game would behave and the result is a believable and human character who can pull at the heart strings. On the other hand, Date is a manifestation of everything wrong with the original’s sense of humour. As part of his personality he has always been somewhat of a pervert which is where a lot of the original game’s jokes came from, but it was always kept in check by the serious nature of the murders he was involved in as well as the character arc he went through. In nirvanA Initiative all of that nuance is gone and all that remains is a series of gags about how much of pervert he is and this quickly becomes irritating and repetitive. He is a shadow of the person he was at the end of the original and it feels as if the nirvanA Initiative wastes his old characterisation just for a cheap laugh.

In Dreams And Reality – Visuals, Audio and Technical

From an audio and visual standpoint there is a continuity with the original game’s near future sci-fi aesthetic and tone. Many of the areas found in game are reused with just enough new ones to give nirvanA Initiative its own identity, but integrated cleanly so as to appears as if they were always a part of that universe. The music is a similar story as it has a new soundtrack which mixes parts of the original’s sound with the tang of fresh material to balance out the flavour and remind people that this is its own title. As a sequel it only has a little room to manoeuvre in terms of what unique aspects it can bring to the table. It still manages to make these elements stand out through leaning into a glitched universe style to contrast with the otherwise clean and familiar spaces which make up the world. There is the obvious manifestation of this as a part of the Somnium sections where these errors reveal more about the people involved, but it is also taken further with it leaking out into the real world and creating a visual sense of uncertainty designed to unsettle the player. Combined these elements ensure there is no mistaking nirvanA Initiative for the original game while allowing it to utilise what made the original tick in a new and exciting way.

Crime scene investigation is by far the best new addition

On the gameplay front, the biggest change comes in the form of the crime scene investigation segments. These take the Somnium mechanical elements, remove the timer, and places them within a VR representation of the real world where the player controls the protagonist rather than their AI companion. They focus on the idea of reconstructing the events surrounding the murder and presents the key evidence before asking for it to be linked in order. While these section are not particularly challenging, they do add some much need variety to the game’s otherwise binary structure. Previously it swapped between the real world and Somnium sections and the two never really interacted with each other, now the investigation sections act as a bridge where the line dividing them becomes blurred. This is important for keeping the player engaged through a back and forth with the game as it asked them to have a greater awareness during the real world sections than before. Beyond this new addition, nirvanA Initiative more or less follows the same design for its Somniums as the first game and while the wink psync is a neat way to peer into characters’ minds it ultimately does not change much about how a player interacts with the real world sections.

Conclusion

As a sequel to a complete experience, nirvanA Initiative does its best to live up to that legacy while carving out its own identity even if you can feel it struggling at times. The use of dual protagonist allows for the game to offer vastly difference angles on the murders while casting doubts on the reliability of each of their testimony. Couple this change with the increased focus on the new cast and their pairings and the result is a very character centric narrative where everything takes on a personal quality. There have also been some important additions to the gameplay and aesthetics side with a leaning into a glitchy presentation and crime scene investigation sections which help give the game its own style. It is a shame how much it is undermined by the main twists of the story being so irrelevant to the narrative and instead existing only on for the player rather than for the characters in the world. Even with this issue there is more than enough to enjoy about nirvanA Initiative to make it an easy title to recommend to fans of the genre.

Verdict –

nirvanA Initiative is a riveting murder mystery which keeps you guessing from beginning to end while it hooks you with its fun cast. It is brought down only by its reveals being weak and some odd character choices.