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Spike Chunsoft launches "Nine Eyes TV" teaser website (AI: The Somnium Files sequel?)

Update:




AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows 10, and Steam in Spring 2022!

Six years ago, the right half of a corpse was discovered under mysterious circumstances. The left half was never found...until six years later, when it was discovered completely fresh with no signs of decay, as though the victim was alive until just recently. Now, newly-appointed Special Agent Mizuki and her AI partner Aiba are tasked to solve the bizarre Half Body serial killings...


Original:

Nine-Eyes-TV_06-28-21.jpg


Spike Chunsoft has launched a mysterious website that asks users to solve a series of puzzles and enter a password.

Here is the teaser text from Spike Chunsoft:

The link leads you to a strange space filled with what look like floating eyes. Clicking on one reveals that the eye lens is actually a television screen displaying a cryptic clue. Perhaps the code hidden in each clue will lead to the password…

Who created this puzzle, and more importantly, can you solve it?

Share your findings with other code crackers using the Twitter hashtag #NineEyesTV.


The password is Nirvana Initiative and it looks like this may be a sequel to mystery adventure game AI: The Somnium Files, according to comments.
 
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Hydroxy

Member
Nice, I have to say I did enjoy AI Somnium Files although so would definitely be interested in a sequel
 

Kikorin

Member
Just 100% finished AI: The Somnium Files last month and is one of the best thriller story I ever experienced in a game, I also loved how they used the visual novel structure to tell something that would have not worked so well otherwise. I'm in for sure for a "sequel" or another new project.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Nice, I have to say I did enjoy AI Somnium Files although so would definitely be interested in a sequel
I never got the chance to play AI: The Somnium Files, but I did enjoy 999 and virtue's last reward, do you think I will enjoy this as well?

Its seems character designers is same person who did No more Heroes and Fire Emblem Awakening.
 

kurisu_1974

is on perm warning for being a low level troll
Oh yes I love Chunsoft. Somnium Files, 428 Shibuya, Danganronpa are just amazing games.

Don't forget they more or less invented the Japanese adventure game with Portopia (which was a huge influence on young Hideo Kojima in 1985) and made the first five Dragon Quest games.
 

YukiOnna

Member
Please be a Somnium File sequel and double the porno mag jokes.

I never got the chance to play AI: The Somnium Files, but I did enjoy 999 and virtue's last reward, do you think I will enjoy this as well?

Its seems character designers is same person who did No more Heroes and Fire Emblem Awakening.
Highly recommend Somnium Files. It's different from 999/VLR but that trademark Uchikoshi style from those games if you like it. Twisted yet whacky and humorous yet dark. The dream sequences are amazing.
 

Hydroxy

Member
I never got the chance to play AI: The Somnium Files, but I did enjoy 999 and virtue's last reward, do you think I will enjoy this as well?

Its seems character designers is same person who did No more Heroes and Fire Emblem Awakening.
Yes you will definitely like this but keep your expectations lowered because its not as good as 999 and Danganronpa 1
 

MudoSkills

Volcano High Alumnus (Cum Laude)
I thought AI was great, although it does have the required amount of 'scenes you would be embarrassed for someone to walk in on you playing' to make it nice and awkward.
 
Extremely hyped if this turns out to be an AI sequel and it's highly likely that it is. The co-director of AI also tweeted out this puzzle and people have been digging through the sites code and found a url with "ai-nirvana." Which will presumably go up when the countdown finishes in two days.

AI is one of the best japanese adventure games I've played and one of my favorite games period in recent years. The sales seemed underwhelming compared to Zero Escape so I feared the worst. I hope it really is a sequel

Oh yes I love Chunsoft. Somnium Files, 428 Shibuya, Danganronpa are just amazing games.

Don't forget they more or less invented the Japanese adventure game with Portopia (which was a huge influence on young Hideo Kojima in 1985) and made the first five Dragon Quest games.

This isnt quite right. Portipia was originally designed by Yuji Hori and published by Enix. Who would both go on to develop and publish the Dragon Quest games. Enix would also make several other influential adventure games in the 80s like JESUS: The Terrifying Bio-Monster and Misty Blue. A few years after Enix's original PC release of Portopia, Chunsoft ported the game to the famicom. But you are correct that Chunsoft was very significant because in doing their port they changed the command interface from a text parser, where you type in commands, to a verb menu + point and click system. Which became the standard for most Japanese Adventures through the late 80s to the 90s, and is still somewhat frequently used today.
 

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
I never got the chance to play AI: The Somnium Files, but I did enjoy 999 and virtue's last reward, do you think I will enjoy this as well?

Its seems character designers is same person who did No more Heroes and Fire Emblem Awakening.

Yes. The story is bat shit crazy (just like The Nonary Games) but it makes complete sense - which I think is owing to it not necessarily getting a sequel. Some of the turns in the game are just. . .they put a lot in The Nonary Games to absolute shame.
 
Extremely hyped if this turns out to be an AI sequel and it's highly likely that it is. The co-director of AI also tweeted out this puzzle and people have been digging through the sites code and found a url with "ai-nirvana." Which will presumably go up when the countdown finishes in two days.

AI is one of the best japanese adventure games I've played and one of my favorite games period in recent years. The sales seemed underwhelming compared to Zero Escape so I feared the worst. I hope it really is a sequel

This isnt quite right. Portopia was originally designed by Yuji Hori and published by Enix. Who would both go on to develop and publish the Dragon Quest games. Enix would also make several other influential adventure games in the 80s like JESUS: The Terrifying Bio-Monster and Misty Blue. A few years after Enix's original PC release of Portopia, Chunsoft ported the game to the famicom. But you are correct that Chunsoft was very significant because in doing their port they changed the command interface from a text parser, where you type in commands, to a verb menu + point and click system. Which became the standard for most Japanese Adventures through the late 80s to the 90s, and is still somewhat frequently used today.
Yeah, that's pretty good news that they are working on a follow-up. I guess because it sold well on PC compared to consoles.
 

Nautilus

Banned
Yes!I really liked the first game, and Im super stocked for the sequel!

But whats with all these Zero Escape teases?The trailer opens up with Mizuki playing 999, then the trailer says the game is developed by the Zero Escape team.The devs that developed that franchise were never referred as the "Zero Escape" team.

Could we be finally seeing a new Zero Escape game announced that finally finishes the story that started in 999?!?!?!
 
I also have Great Ace Attorney series to look forward to, this year I have pretty nice adventure games to play.
Yeah, you're in for a real treat with that one. IMO they're up there with the best in the series. Can't wait to finish GAA:Resolve, then replay the first one and see how the localizations stack up.
 

graywolf323

Gold Member
Its comming to the PS5.At least accordjng to the official PS twitter.
ah, I was just going by the logos at the end of the trailer


though it looks like it's just Xbox One & it's on Series via BC? based on the box being one of the Xbox One at the top boxes

edit: the description for the trailer doesn't mention either Xbox Series or PS5 😕

"AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative is coming to Nintendo Switch™, PlayStation®4, Xbox One, Windows 10, and Steam® in Spring 2022!"
 
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Nautilus

Banned
ah, I was just going by the logos at the end of the trailer



though it looks like it's just Xbox One & it's on Series via BC? based on the box being one of the Xbox One at the top boxes
Well, Sony is saying that it will also be available on the PS5. This is gonna get clearer as we get closer to release, but for now I'll just take their word for it
 
Yes!I really liked the first game, and Im super stocked for the sequel!

But whats with all these Zero Escape teases?The trailer opens up with Mizuki playing 999, then the trailer says the game is developed by the Zero Escape team.The devs that developed that franchise were never referred as the "Zero Escape" team.

Could we be finally seeing a new Zero Escape game announced that finally finishes the story that started in 999?!?!?!
If I had to guess, it may be because Kotaro Uchikoshi no longer works directly for Spike Chunsoft after he left to form TooKyo games with Kazutaka Kodaka (Danganronpa series creator). So maybe Zero Escape team is like some semi-independent entity for Uchikoshi working with Chunsoft again on a contract basis? Just speculating, I'm sure subsequent interviews for AI 2 will clear this up.

Also posting this hilarious video with Uchikoshi and Kodaka because why not and also hype:
 
ah, I was just going by the logos at the end of the trailer



though it looks like it's just Xbox One & it's on Series via BC? based on the box being one of the Xbox One at the top boxes

edit: the description for the trailer doesn't mention either Xbox Series or PS5 😕

"AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative is coming to Nintendo Switch™, PlayStation®4, Xbox One, Windows 10, and Steam® in Spring 2022!"
1qL0C1I.png


It's also like that on the website, pretty weird. But I'm assuming there must be some technical, behind the scenes, reason for them not listing it right now because it'd be really weird not to have a PS5 version.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Finally started AI somnium files and the 3D models is pretty good, waaaaaay better than Zero Time Dilemma.

ZTD had really nice 2D art in the cover but the actual 3D models was damn right ugly and animated poorly.

They made the right choice bringing Yūsuke Kozaki as the character designer for this game.

Mizuki "Skill" is she can emotionally attack Date....I love this!
 
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Famitsu Article with a few extra details about Nirvana Initiative
The new game "Ai: Somnium Files - Nirvana Initiative" will be released in spring 2022. The sequel to Kotaro Uchikoshi's mystery adventure is coming.

Full Article (Translation via DeepL):
Spike Chunsoft has announced that their new adventure game, Ai: Somnium Files - Nirvana Initiative, will be released in Spring 2022. The game will be available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, Windows 10, and Steam.

Spike Chunsoft's teaser site, which unexpectedly appeared the other day, showed a countdown timer after solving a riddle, and the keyword you had to enter after solving the riddle was "Nirvana Initiative".

"Ai: Somnium Files Nirvana Initiative" Overview:
You tore my AI apart.
The sequel for the Ai: The Somnium Files game series
Ai: Somnium Files - Nirvana Initiative is here!

Ai: Somnium Files Nirvana Initiative is the sequel to Ai: Somnium Files, which was released in September 2019. The previous title, Ai: Somnium Files, was an adventure game set in a Tokyo that seemed to be in the near future, and featured the story of special investigations detective Date Kaname, who pursues a murderer with his AI-powered partner, Aiba.

From the main visuals and prologue shown below, it seems that Mizuki (Okiura Mizuki) and Aiba, who appeared in the previous game, will appear in "Ai: Somnium File Nirvana Initiative" again this time.

The main staff has been carried over from the previous game, with Kotaro Uchikoshi of the "Zero Escape" series in charge of the scenario again this time. Masashi Okada, who worked with Uchikoshi on the "Zero Escape" series and was the director of " Ai: Somnium Files", is also the director this time.

Prologue:
It was six years ago when the "right half of the body" was first discovered.
At that time, no matter how hard they searched, the left half was never found.
Six years later, the missing "left side of the body" was found.
It had not decomposed at all, and it looked as if it had been alive just a moment ago.
Mizuki, a newly appointed ABIS special agent, begins to investigate this "half-body serial murder case" with her autonomous AI robot, Aiba. ......

Trailer:
---

Staff:
Director: Masashi Okada
Scenario: Kotaro Uchikoshi
Character Design: Yusuke Kozaki
Sound: Keisuke Ito


Game Spec:
Title: Ai: Somnium Files - Nirvana Initiative
Platform: Nintendo Switch/PlayStation 4/Xbox One/Windows 10/Steam
Release date: Spring 2022
Suggested Retail Price: Price TBD
Genre: Adventure
Number of players: 1 player
CERO: To be reviewed

TL;DR it confirms that all the principle creatives are reprising their roles for development including the director, character designer and composer. Awesome news.
 

YukiOnna

Member
Finally started AI somnium files and the 3D models is pretty good, waaaaaay better than Zero Time Dilemma.

ZTD had really nice 2D art in the cover but the actual 3D models was damn right ugly and animated poorly.

They made the right choice bringing Yūsuke Kozaki as the character designer for this game.

Mizuki "Skill" is she can emotionally attack Date....I love this!
Be sure to do every single branch!
 

Faithless83

Banned
I just started playing this game myself and I really liking it so far and to me its not really trying to be 999, its kind of it own thing.
I really liked it. It's just as you described and I'm glad it got a sequel.

Thanks again for the 13 Sentinels OP, amazing game.
 

Graciaus

Member
Care to elaborate? It wasn't 999, but far from a disappointment to me.
The story is not good and most of it is very predictable. It's told trying to be complex but is boring until the last few hours. There are a couple twists but for the most part it lays it on thick trying to foreshadow. The characters are all mostly unlikable (some flat out horrible) and the actual character art ranges from decent to bad.

It starts off as a murder mystery but forgets that pretty quickly. Instead of getting a story wrapped up in 5 hours we are dragged through almost 20 hours. There are multiple routes for no real reason other then the Nonary games did it. If you happen to go toward the right at first like I did the story is awful. The tone of the game is also all over the place with ridiculous things happening and odd choices of humor.

The actual gameplay is not fun at all. A trial and error guesswork with a time limit. No real reason involved in correct guesses and just a time waster. After the great gameplay in the trilogy this is garbage in comparison.

PC port is also annoying and crashes all the time unless tweaked.
 

Faithless83

Banned
The story is not good and most of it is very predictable. It's told trying to be complex but is boring until the last few hours. There are a couple twists but for the most part it lays it on thick trying to foreshadow. The characters are all mostly unlikable (some flat out horrible) and the actual character art ranges from decent to bad.
I've enjoyed the characters, they are a different mix and I found the story a different take on things done in the past.So I've enjoyed it for that.
It starts off as a murder mystery but forgets that pretty quickly. Instead of getting a story wrapped up in 5 hours we are dragged through almost 20 hours. There are multiple routes for no real reason other then the Nonary games did it. If you happen to go toward the right at first like I did the story is awful. The tone of the game is also all over the place with ridiculous things happening and odd choices of humor.
Interesting, I don't remember you could do the right path in the first playthrough. I was on the right path and there were the roadblocks preventing me from going straight to it. It explained a lot of things on the other paths related to motivations and flashbacks. Also it served as a way to flesh out the characters.

Did you play "on youtube" by any chance?

I've enjoyed a lot of the humor for what it was, specially in the wokeness that's going on. It goes the opposite direction and it felt fresh for what it did.

The actual gameplay is not fun at all. A trial and error guesswork with a time limit. No real reason involved in correct guesses and just a time waster. After the great gameplay in the trilogy this is garbage in comparison.

PC port is also annoying and crashes all the time unless tweaked.
I'll give you that, some of the gameplay was a bit obtuse, but not enough to end up as just guessing work. There was logic involved and apart from one or two dream sessions, it felt a lot more easy than some of the nonary games puzzles. So much so that I've recommended the game to a friend who is not that found of puzzles, as one of his first VNs and he really enjoyed it.

I keep saying this and not just to troll PCMR: PC ports are a way to extract more money out of the software, never the focus, That's why I'm not upgrading my PC this gen (this and the insane prices).

I've played it on base PS4, it ran like a charm, no crashes at all. Considering it runs on unity, that's a win.
 

Graciaus

Member
I've enjoyed the characters, they are a different mix and I found the story a different take on things done in the past.So I've enjoyed it for that.

Interesting, I don't remember you could do the right path in the first playthrough. I was on the right path and there were the roadblocks preventing me from going straight to it. It explained a lot of things on the other paths related to motivations and flashbacks. Also it served as a way to flesh out the characters.

Did you play "on youtube" by any chance?

I've enjoyed a lot of the humor for what it was, specially in the wokeness that's going on. It goes the opposite direction and it felt fresh for what it did.


I'll give you that, some of the gameplay was a bit obtuse, but not enough to end up as just guessing work. There was logic involved and apart from one or two dream sessions, it felt a lot more easy than some of the nonary games puzzles. So much so that I've recommended the game to a friend who is not that found of puzzles, as one of his first VNs and he really enjoyed it.

I keep saying this and not just to troll PCMR: PC ports are a way to extract more money out of the software, never the focus, That's why I'm not upgrading my PC this gen (this and the insane prices).

I've played it on base PS4, it ran like a charm, no crashes at all. Considering it runs on unity, that's a win.
I couldn't stand the idol and the fanboy which takes up most of the story. You can't completely do the right path but it mostly focuses on the characters instead of the mystery if I remember correctly. I'm not sure what you mean by youtube I didn't watch someone else play or stream it. The humor I enjoyed but objectively the perverted MC doesn't mesh well with the murder/mystery setting for me. I didn't need the puzzles to be easy but these were just not fun. Don't need the port to be the focus but not crashing every few minutes during the puzzles is kind of required. But if you lower the anti-aliasing it stops it I found.

Judging by reviews I have a minority opinion and that's fine. But the game was nothing like I wanted.
 

Faithless83

Banned
I couldn't stand the idol and the fanboy which takes up most of the story. You can't completely do the right path but it mostly focuses on the characters instead of the mystery if I remember correctly. I'm not sure what you mean by youtube I didn't watch someone else play or stream it. The humor I enjoyed but objectively the perverted MC doesn't mesh well with the murder/mystery setting for me. I didn't need the puzzles to be easy but these were just not fun. Don't need the port to be the focus but not crashing every few minutes during the puzzles is kind of required. But if you lower the anti-aliasing it stops it I found.

Judging by reviews I have a minority opinion and that's fine. But the game was nothing like I wanted.
I understand the disappointment, maybe I had my expectations in check when I played it. Was just looking for something fun and even though I have a huge backlog I wanted something different. That happened to fit the bill.
 
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