Anime Expo 2018 is in full swing this week. In addition to the awesome cosplays to be seen and merchandise to be bought, there have been a ton of announcements and reveals for video games. One such reveal was at the Spike Chunsoft panel yesterday. They revealed that Zero Escape series Director/Scenario Writer Kotaro Uchikoshi latest game called AI: The Somnium Files.
At the panel, Spike Chunsoft gave the following overview of the game:
AI: The Somnium Files is a detective adventure game in which you investigate the mystery behind a series of murders in a technologically-advanced modern day Tokyo, Japan.
The game starts out with a bizarre murder case where a body is found with the eye gouged out of the skull. Players take on the role of a detective named Kaname Date on the trail of the serial killer behind this murder. Date’s left eye is an artificial eye with an AI unit within it that he uses to solve crimes.
If Date is investigating a case and finds a key witness or suspect, people will not always give up information freely, so Date can enter their memories and extract information. These memories are kind of like dreamscapes. The latin word for “dream” is “somnium,” so in the game the dreamscapes you enter are called somnium.
Since this is a detective game, there will be a wide cast of characters involved in the mystery. Iris, an 18 year-old high school student, is one of those characters. In the story, she is essentially a YouTuber who makes viral videos where she records herself dancing and singing, as well as Let’s Plays.
The game’s title can be broken down like so:
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AI: Artificial Intelligence
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Eye: The pronounciation of “AI” and main theme of the game
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Love: “Ai” also means “love” in Japanese
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Somnium: “Somnium” means “dream” in Latin
AI: The Somnium Files does not have a release date yet, but it has been announced that the game will be released worldwide on PS4, Switch and PC via Steam.
