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AI: The Somnium Files (Kotaro Uchikoshi x Spike-Chunsoft) development updates
- Thread starter GSR
- Start date
Weird! Really curious about the video that will be dropping tonight.
A-set retweeted the Uchikoshi flying out to GDC tweet too.
A-set retweeted the Uchikoshi flying out to GDC tweet too.
I have this suspicion that today's video will be a completely innocuous video of Tesa having fun at GDC as if nothing odd ever happened.
There's also the fact we have multiple screenshots (The second one is in a Famitsu article.) of him actually attacking the Polar Bear that seemingly killed Tesa, which doesn't match up with his claims of not finding anything there.
Also, Yoko Taro (Who is a very close friend of Uchi's.) dropped out of the Vtuber market shortly before A-set resumed tweeting, though this might just be an incredible coincidence.
Also, Yoko Taro (Who is a very close friend of Uchi's.) dropped out of the Vtuber market shortly before A-set resumed tweeting, though this might just be an incredible coincidence.
If you go frame-by-frame on the opening static-y bit, it's the blood covering the screen that ended her execution video:
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It's just the GDC logoIf you go frame-by-frame on the opening static-y bit, it's the blood covering the screen that ended her execution video:
Also... The 'D' in GDC is weird af. Anyone recognise it as a symbol for something?
Damn, they're gonna send Uchikoshi to the shadow realm.
btw, what did she say from 1:15 to 1:21???
Breaking out of prison part stands out. Rewinding and reviewing footage feels like a gameplay tease. Dreamer part, game is called the insomnium files, so sleep should play a role.
"I don't even like getting out of bed [something something] international travel. What about VR?"
Oh, I looked this up before and thought it was hilarious when seen after playing other Uchi stuff:
Something a youtube comment pointed out: She normally introduces herself as Tesa, aka A-Set. This time it's reversed, she's A-Set before Tesa.
As an aside, Set is an egyptian god. wonder if that ties into her name. Considering other ties to egyptian mythology.
As an aside, Set is an egyptian god. wonder if that ties into her name. Considering other ties to egyptian mythology.
I wonder what's the deal with VR.
Something I noticed is that weird sign she does at 3:44. She covers her right eye (and we can only see her left eye in the thumbnail too). IIRC her left eye was the one they removed, wasn't it???
She completely vanishes in the final frames of the video.
Combined with the fact Naix has footage of her house, it's clear that this is a fake Tesa in some form. Be it an entirely virtual character, someone from an alternative dimension that resembles her, or any other possible option.
The question is if Ota is working with Naix on this or not, which i'm inclined to believe he is.
Combined with the fact Naix has footage of her house, it's clear that this is a fake Tesa in some form. Be it an entirely virtual character, someone from an alternative dimension that resembles her, or any other possible option.
The question is if Ota is working with Naix on this or not, which i'm inclined to believe he is.
Man, I really didn't see the apparent inclusion of parallel dimensions coming? They might just be AI simulations or something I guess, but concept overload o.o Designing a detective game that works across multiple realities just sounds like a fucking nightmare.
Knowing Uchi, we'll probably go even crazier with that stuff, with AI in the title being artificial intelligence, but also love (because Ai is love in Japanese), which means you can read the title as Love: The Dream Files (maybe all the murder memories/dreams you go into revolve around twisted love? Like stalker 'love', in the case of Ota?), and A-Set is the Egyptian goddess, but also the A 'Set' in the mathematical sense, because references to that sort of thing always show up if they're invoked...
Blah, July can't come soon enough.
There is a stupid amount of symbolism packed into her name. The whole Set thing, then her normal, non-internet name is Iris, which connects with the obvious eye motif of the game, but then it's also Siri backwards, which ties into the Naixatloz thing, AI, etc...
Knowing Uchi, we'll probably go even crazier with that stuff, with AI in the title being artificial intelligence, but also love (because Ai is love in Japanese), which means you can read the title as Love: The Dream Files (maybe all the murder memories/dreams you go into revolve around twisted love? Like stalker 'love', in the case of Ota?), and A-Set is the Egyptian goddess, but also the A 'Set' in the mathematical sense, because references to that sort of thing always show up if they're invoked...
Blah, July can't come soon enough.
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UCHI YOU FUCKING JACKASS
I can't believe he managed to top the "Tesa's not dead, guys~" tweet.
Edit: Also Ota is tweeting about wanting to meet the fake Tesa.
I still think he's in on whatever she is planning.
I can't believe he managed to top the "Tesa's not dead, guys~" tweet.
Edit: Also Ota is tweeting about wanting to meet the fake Tesa.
I still think he's in on whatever she is planning.
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LOL
Yeah, basically. A character from the game is an in-universe internet celebrity, and has been making videos. References to what is seemingly an in-game satanic, Illuminati cult have slowly infiltrated the videos too, etc.
That sounds rad. Fuck.
Would rather it have sounded lame because now I'm missing out
You can easily start reading this thread from the beginning to get pretty much everything. The videos are very short, and you'll get all the tweets in order.
One of us might have to make a clearer thread that summarises what's happening, since a lot of folks who would otherwise be interested in it don't seem to know it's going on.
So: Uchikoshi's responses on twitter today.
He was at GDC but never dropped his phone.
He never met Tesa there.
He was at GDC but never dropped his phone.
He never met Tesa there.
Timeline:
13th March: Tesa tweets about heading out to San Francisco.
14th March: Mysterious video showing Tesa's empty house. Ota can't get in touch with Tesa.
18th March: Ota tracks Tesa's phone to a warehouse in Tokyo.
21st March: Ota investigates warehouse. Finds nothing, not even Tesa's phone. Uchi spots someone who looks like Tesa in SF. Video apparently showing Tesa being cut in half uploaded.
27th March: Tesa tweets about being back from SF. Claims to have met Uchi there, and uploads video about her time there. Seems somewhat disoriented but claims due to jetlag. Uchi claims that he never actually met up with Tesa at GDC, and that he never lost his phone as shown in the video.
28th March: Ota meets up with Tesa, claims she's fine.
Tesa doesn't appear to be reporting the GDC coverage first hand, "looks like he went to a lot of meetings," so the only thing to suggest she actually was in SF is Uchi seeing her from a distance. Kind of hard to mistake pink hair and cat ears though.
So a 12 day gap where Tesa is mysteriously gone. If Ota is to be believed she, or at least her phone, was in Tokyo up to the 18th. Technically still time for her to have gone to GDC for the 21st after that, but with her haziness in the video, and not meeting Uchi, probably not.
Haziness also makes me think of the tagline in the trailer "where dreams and reality intertwine." Could her going to GDC have been a dream?
And that's not even touching on the being sawn in half video.
13th March: Tesa tweets about heading out to San Francisco.
14th March: Mysterious video showing Tesa's empty house. Ota can't get in touch with Tesa.
18th March: Ota tracks Tesa's phone to a warehouse in Tokyo.
21st March: Ota investigates warehouse. Finds nothing, not even Tesa's phone. Uchi spots someone who looks like Tesa in SF. Video apparently showing Tesa being cut in half uploaded.
27th March: Tesa tweets about being back from SF. Claims to have met Uchi there, and uploads video about her time there. Seems somewhat disoriented but claims due to jetlag. Uchi claims that he never actually met up with Tesa at GDC, and that he never lost his phone as shown in the video.
28th March: Ota meets up with Tesa, claims she's fine.
Tesa doesn't appear to be reporting the GDC coverage first hand, "looks like he went to a lot of meetings," so the only thing to suggest she actually was in SF is Uchi seeing her from a distance. Kind of hard to mistake pink hair and cat ears though.
So a 12 day gap where Tesa is mysteriously gone. If Ota is to be believed she, or at least her phone, was in Tokyo up to the 18th. Technically still time for her to have gone to GDC for the 21st after that, but with her haziness in the video, and not meeting Uchi, probably not.
Haziness also makes me think of the tagline in the trailer "where dreams and reality intertwine." Could her going to GDC have been a dream?
And that's not even touching on the being sawn in half video.
4 page article in this week's Famitsu including a 2 page interview with Uchikoshi, Okada (Designer) and Iizuka (Producer). Most of the information was already covered in previous interviews, quick summary of what's new:
- How they came up with the idea for the game:
The idea came about roughly three years ago, planning began during production of Nonary Games Double Pack. The three of them have been close since working together on ZE3. During that time, Iizuka talked about wanting to do a detective game next and that sparked the idea.
- About game flow and progression:
Main protagonist is a police detective for a special unit, chases a serial killer, Investigation and Somnium Parts, the branching story will depend on the decisions you made in the preceding parts and lead to the next case:
＊Investigation Parts: You investigate crime scenes and search for suspects and witnesses. They often won't share freely what they know. This is where you use a machine/mechanism known as "psync"[note: the original working title for AI]. With psync, you enter their dreams and dig up more information.
＊Somnium Parts: You look for things that are connected to their memories and take various actions. Your ultimate goal is finding their "deepest truths", but in order to do so you will have to open multiple layers of "doors of the mind". The appearance of a dream world depends on the person whose dream you entered. Every dream sequence will feel like an entirely different experience. You have to analyze their character and find the conditions for unlocking their innermost truths. [note: this all reads a bit like Persona 5 combined with the Psyche-Locks from Ace Attorney]
- About the characters: There will be more than 20 characters in the game including side characters. But the main cast will be smaller than the 9 people standard from ZE games. The dialogue, including minor remarks, will be fully voiced in both Japanese and English.
- About differences with the ZE series: different style of adventure game, AI is not an escape room game. Uchikoshi says there will be no connections with the ZE games and that AI takes place in an entirely separate world.
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Does this mean he won't recycle the same twists? Only time will tell!
For real though, a murder mystery detective game where you actually do detective-y things from Uchikoshi does sound fucking amazing and I'm incredibly excited to play this, even after ZTE ended up being a fairly big disappointment. At least we got a clean slate here, no Zero Escape baggage attached.
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It's been a while since I played it, but apart from the ending I found ZTD to be pretty good. Still, I'm also really curious to see what a new setting and story will bring to the table.
Yeah I thought ZTD had an amazing midgame, it only really fell apart during the end of the game.
Oh yeah, I didn't hate ZTD or anything but after the sky high hype coming from 999 and VLR which were fucking AAA+ visual novel experiences for teenage/young adult me, it was obvious it would likely be at least somewhat disappointing, and it ended being a bit more disappointing than that. Still a solid fun story, though.