AI: The Somnium Files GDC Preview – Kill That Like Button

While at GDC last week, I had the chance to preview the latest project from the director of the Zero Escape series, Kotaro Uchikosi, AI: The Somnium Files. This new project revolves around Kaname Date, a detective in a near-future version of Tokyo, as he hunts down a serial killer who gouges out their victims left eyes. Using his cybernetic eye, Date can see through the eyes of his suspects and gaze into their memories. Date has a companion named Ai-bo, who is an anthropomorphic eyeball that helps you investigate crime scenes. There’s a lot to take in, and all of it is weird as hell, but the strange creativity of AI has piqued my interest ten times over.

For fans of Uchikosi-san’s previous work, I saw a lot of Zero Escape’s DNA in my preview of AI. Nothing lifted or copied, but the generally tense atmosphere and peculiar characters are intact. I’d argue that AI gets even weirder than Zero Escape. At the beginning of the demo, there’s a cutscene of a polar bear who’s lowering a buzzsaw towards a YouTuber/virtual idol. Another part of the demo showed off a freaky version of the carousel we were investigating, assumedly as a result of Date’s eye.

While it’s been clarified in previous interviews that the puzzles will be a bit less difficult than they are in Zero Escape, I’m not particularly worried. What I saw of AI seems to focus more on investigating murder scenes and dead bodies than combining items and using math to open doors and safes. This makes me think AI is going for a different sort of difficulty than the Zero Escape series, which I find to be an exciting idea.

The viral marketing campaign for AI, which I asked Uchikosi-san about during our interview, is another interesting feature that plays into the full game. A YouTuber/virtual idol, A-set, seems to be a fairly prominent character in the full game. Through real life social media channels, Spike Chunsoft has made A-set into a “real” person for people to follow. Before GDC, her account began to get stranger and creepier, hinting at AI’s reveal. I really like this type of advertising when used to compliment the tone of the game it represents, so I’m looking forward to seeing if this creepy blurring of the line between “real” life and AI is in the full game.

I can’t wait to play AI: The Somnium Files, as its tone seems like the perfect combination of weird and dark, with some neat investigation thrown into the mix. AI: The Somnium Files releases on July 29th worldwide for the PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. For more GDC coverage, stay tuned to MonsterVine.