when you get to the epilogue, be sure to select everything for the all the flavor dialogue. there are a lot of really funny moments you wont wanna miss
Another plothole in relation to Mizuki and Bibi, is that Mizuki makes Date-sk jokes, which a player with kine sense of emotion developed/effects points out that quite a few of Mizuki's jokes seems to be inspired by Date and act as if a part of him is still around for Mizuki, and Bibi for some reason makes these jokes in the past. Not to mention how similar their personality and reactions to things are(basically carbon copies) until they meet in the future.
Bibi: Marco’s a little shy but I know how to get him to talk. Mizuki: Really? How? Bibi: Watch this......MARCO!!! Mizuki:... Date:... Everyone:... Marco:.......Polo.
@@soul6733 its a wish granting monkey paw. Similar to a genie where if you wish something, something negative will happen. Also when you make a wish the monkey's fingers would curl up for every wish
@@soul6733 the Monkey's Paw is a classical horror story from 1902 where a literal monkey paw grants wishes, one per finger, and every time it grants one a finger curls inward. Those wishes come with a heavy negative prize that make you wonder if they were even worth granting in the first place. The story has been referenced and parodied many times throughout the years (the Simpsons being an easy example), and you can often see it used as a joke on the internet when someone says that they want something, but it ends up happening in a negative way, with the phrase "the monkey's paw finger curls inward" being the punchline.
Yes, you must've been in the room with me screaming 😁 Also boss going off on Ryuki for not solving the case in 3 days when Date solved nothing in 4-5 days on like 2 of his time lines and then had the wrong killer in a third! I'll probably still cosplay boss but I did not enjoy her very much in this game
About Ryuki's betrayal, you can see when he is following Tearer's plan. When Date brought up a man in a mask, Ryuki is certain it is Tearer instead of wondering who it is. And while we thought it was because he saw Tearer in the VR crime scene, that happened in the future. No one else on ABIS knew what Tearer looked like at this point. Ryuki just needed Date to follow the leads Tearer placed. And when Ryuki and Date meet in the cathedral, he's surprised to see Mizuki, Lien, and Gen. Ryuki tries to convince the three to stay back, but they refuse. Ryuki can't make a huge fuss about it since Date was already wondering if it was a trap, and Date already suspected Ryuki for being the one who ran before. So he keeps quiet and leads three other people to endanger their lives. He didn't try to choose Tama over Date. In the moments leading up to Tearer's appearance in the execution chamber, Ryuki chose Tama over the safety of Date, Mizuki, Lien and Gen. And even though he knows his friends could die if he doesn't shoot Date, he couldn't do it. While he was lucky that Gen shielded people from the thermite bomb, he could have gotten everyone killed. In his mind, he is responsible for Kizuna's disability, Mizuki's eye, and Date's death.
Penguins. I come to you today with the crack order for Nico’s AINI LP. The chronological canon order for those who wish to view the game this way. It is not recommended as Nico’s commentary will make no sense if you watch it this way. This is only for those of us brave enough AI2 LP correct order Episode 1: All Episode 2: All Episode 3: All Episode 4: All Episode 5: Up to 50:25 Episode 16: From 50:25 Episode 17: Up to 1:16:55 Episode 7: From 19:10 Episode 8: All Episode 9: Up to 35:17 Episode 19: From 40:21 Episode 20: Up to 55:35 Episode 10: From 1:21:45 Episode 11: All Episode 12: All Episode 13: All Episode 14: All Episode 15: All Episode 16: Up to 50:25 Episode 5: From 50:25 Episode 6: All Episode 7: Up to 19:10 Episode 17: From 1:16:55 Episode 18: All Episode 19: Up to 40:21 Episode 9: From 35:17 Episode 10: Up to 1:21:45 Episode 20: From 55:35 Episode 21: All Episode 22: All Episode 23: All Episode 24: All Enjoy, you crazy fucks
It's kinda amazing that even while under the effects of TC-Purge, and believing himself to be 6 years in the past, Ryuki still manages to do the investigation and pin down Amame as Uru and Tikiko's killer. In a way, he did manage to solve the HB case.
True, he may be mentally unwell even before being infected with TC-purge and it greatly worsen his condition you got to give some credit to ryuki dude is committed to his duty tama help keeping him together
It's BECAUSE he's stuck in the past that he managed to pinpoint al the infos regarding Amame, by recreating the scenes from studio Dvaita and psyncing into Amane because of it .
Ryuki only contracted TC Perge six years later. Ryuki's mental breakdowns do happen before that. That is just a symptom of his natural insanity. What TC-PERGE did for him was it made him start hallucinating and confusing the timelines. It's only after he contracts TC-PERGE that he starts getting confused about what year it is, like when he was waiting for Shoma at the ferris wheel
So something that i apprectiate about this game is how both of our "masterminds" use our expectations against us. Starting with Amame, Amame throws a lot of red flags all over the place. She's spends most of her time on screen being extremely anxious and we're given increasingly supicious bits of info that we never properly address, such as being forced to obey someone or being seen at Horadori (Lien himself mentions Tokiko was there and that was really suspicious). However, Amame is a returning character. Amame is a cute waifu with a musical number. Amame has a character ending. No matter how much the evidence piled up against her we expect it to be a fakeout, a small piece of the puzzle leading to mysterious shadow villain because she's too much of a character to imagine her being the big bad. Then there is Tearer/Uru/Mr.Boat. Tearer is very unapologetically a knockoff Zero. At this point players know how a mastermind is supposed to be/act. Tearer treats everything as if he is a Zero/Junko figure, an almighty puppetmaster in the shadows. Like he expects to come out at the end of his grand plan and say "Yes it was me, Uru the faceless character mentioned a few times, i controlled everything and everyone to change the world". Partially with the non-linear timeline the game also tries to convinve you of this by having him seemingly everywhere and all-knowing when in fact he screwed up 6 years ago and has been hiding/dead ever since. In Truth he's a crazy asshole who just happens to have the resources and the luck to keep things going as long as it did. His kills aren't for a grand plan they're personal grudges (Jin for Tokiko's love, Chikara for kidnapping him/taking his organs, and Komeji for stealing a corpse), his master plan is contantly thrown off due to dumb luck (Komeji taking a corpse, Amame just happening to walk in, Date escaping) and Fatally he completely lacks any understanding of other people. As expected of someone raised in a basement for their whole life he didn't understand Ryuki causing his plans to fail and he didn't understand Amame resulting in his death. Despite his bravado he lacked the basic understanding of the world and the people in it to properly account for things like maybe people will get mad if i kill others or maybe leaving things in public places could be an issue (possibly thinking since the world is a simulation npc's won't care about each other and events won't happen off-screen) which made him incapable of being the Zero he (quite literally) dreamed of. To paraphrase 999 he is less than Zero.
Something I really like about this somnium is how it in part feels like Amame stands in contrast to the Frayer. While the Frayer represents the freedom of choice the player is afforded, Amame was walled in by the choices she had already made. In the last sequence of timed choices, if you choose to not obey Tokiko or not get revenge, Amame will _stare back at the player and yell at you_ to the effect of "I didn't have a choice, so choose!!" and will essentially force you to choose like she did.
If you remember, at the end of Amame's first Somnium, you're given a bunch of rapid fire questions that had no right answer and seemingly came out of nowhere. This Somnium recontextualizes those, because you're asked them all again, but you're told to answer them like Amame did, showing that all those impossible questions were the ones she was forced to answer. It's really fucking good
I know. Amame, Mizuki, Date, and Ryuki stood out especially. But they all did so good! Shoma too, even more so because apparently his VA is very new to the business.
Lien never called Bibi "Quartz" (and she doesn't like the name, anyway), but he did tell her, as they were breaking into Horadori Institute, that he was only doing this (breaking in) for old times' sake, referring, of course, to his and Bibi's past.
Not to burst your bubble or anything, but Lien did call Bibi "Quartz". If you go back to part 22, at 53:46, Lien says: "Quartz?!", while Bibi/Mizuki responds "Please stop calling me that." Lien was looking straight at her, and there wasn't anything behind her, so he must have been referring to her as Quartz.
Yeah, but that was AFTER bibi's reveal. Before though, no; Lien never mention the name Quartz in her presence; though it's also interesting that he never mentionned Mizuki by name in these moments either, same with Moma, Mama and Gen; because they knew her as Quartz of course.
I like the detail that Lien says "the police" asked him to break into somewhere early in the game. I thought that Lien had been tricked by Tearer or something and was just like "ha ha typical dumb Lien" and forgot... When of course, he was being for real and Bibi asked him to break into the institute.
Not gonna lie, I kinda don't like how Ryuki was mostly treated as an afterthought throughout Mizuki's side of the game. True, this was done mostly to hide the twist, but in the end it just makes it look like we didn't just spend the first half of the game with him. One could make the argument that Mizuki didn't get much screentime in Ryuki's half of the game, despite her being the other protag, but Ryuki is a whole new character while we already know Mizuki. Again, in hindsight it makes sense that Ryuki doesn't show up much in Mizuki's side, but i wish we gotten more from his character and actually see his development not reduced to a 5 minute pep-talk and suddenly his guilt and trauma from the last 6 years is gone. idk it just feels more rushed to me than anything.
I really dislike the way Ryuki's treated in this game, both as his narrative usage in the story and as a sort of disliking how people treat his mental illness by avoiding him, disregarding him, showing concern but no actions to back it up. And it sucks harder because his and Tama's relationship is probably the highlight of this game for me, both for standing out as a new, fresh characters and how their relationship was really built on trust, understanding and active participation in each other's well being.
I agree with you. I thought Ryuki would be much more important, at least 50/50 with Mizuki. But he was mostly used as plot device. It's a shame because he has an interesting personality and backstory, but they didn't do anything with it. Like you said, they really rushed his character near the end, the man was traumatized and fcked up for more than 6 years, but everything is resolved in a few minutes after one pep talk from Date. That's just underwhelming.
It's kind of remarkable how I was initially annoyed at the dual protag situation because because I'd wanted a purely Mizuki protag game, but then ended up feeling like Ryuki as co-protagonist got less effort into his plot resolution than the three support characters with character endings got in the first game. Wanting to have more of a character is good and a testament to how well Ryuki has been written, but I wish my interest in seeing more wasn't partially caused by his story leading to an unsatisfying conclusion, at least for me.
I gotta agree. I was initially a little miffed about some other character sharing the spotlight with Mizuki, but honestly, Ryuki’s side of this game is the highlight for me. His and Tama’s relationship is probably the best between the two games, and I grew to really love him, so it sucks he was just tossed aside like that afterwards.
Another touch that I personally find brilliant, similar to how the whole game feels, is how Amame's first Somnium trip can be replayed after seeing the truth of everything here and suddenly make so much more sense. The questions that were asked of Ryuki of course mirror the questions she asks here at the end, but even the little things, like how in the Spot the Difference section, there was a wrench in place of a split body, symbolizing the wrench she used on Uru. Uchikoshi's storytelling may divide the fanbase at times, but at the very least you have to appreciate his attention to detail.
Another example: you see another figure in that section on one side and on the other side you see Occult magazines. In this somnium, you find the figure turns into Tokkiko and the Occult magazines turn into a book on Naix, showing that Amame met Tokiko.
I assume Mame went along with Tokiko’s plan, even after her death, because Tokiko, like Uru, had left the cult members with instructions on everything to do. Even with Uru and Tokiko dead, Naix is still in operation and about to release the virus. If her body didn’t show up where it was suppose to, someone could have been notified to release the evidence. (And on the flip side, if Tokiko hadn’t informed Naix of her plans, Mame wouldn’t be aware of that.)
But at that point why bother blackmailing Amame at all? Why not just have those same cult members carry out the rest of the plan (putting Tokiko's half body in her office) themselves?
1:08:12 The reason no one has done a 2nd Psync with the same person before now is because the Psync Machine needs hours to recharge after each Psync. Every Psync subject can only be detained for the duration of the first Psync. None of them were arrested, so they had to be released after the Psync. By the time the Psync Machine was finished recharging during those times, the investigation had progressed enough that either they didn’t need to do a 2nd Psync with the previous subject, or they needed to Psync with someone else.
There's also another reason mentioned in the original game. When they talk about the time limit originally, it's because the subconscious will eventually reject the foreign mind inside of it. Which is why a Somnium gets more and more dangwrous after the time limit. This case is a bit special, since instead of Ryuki going back Into Amame's mind, Mizuki is, so there is a bit less extra risk than there would be otherwise.
48:22 Remember, Uru loves escape room games. That's probably why he set things up the way he did, creating an ARG with a locked door at the end where you had to find the keys.
If you’re wondering why some of the correct answers were on the left, despite the hint saying Amame always picks the Right answer when she’s unsure, it’s because all of the correct answers shown here were on the Right side when Ryuki Psynced with Amame.
Shoma: "I don't care if Amame killed Tearer, you can't take her away for simple questioning! Also how do you like my homemade highly reactive and destructive bombs? Neat right? Was gonna use them to kill Tearer but OH WELL!"
About Ryuki contracting TC-PERGE, that actually only happened fairly recently since he was chasing the blue person after finding Tokiko’s body a few days ago in the Present. So in reality, he has been mentally unstable for years, but TC-PERGE made it worse. I feel like this is kinda a plot hole since it means most of the times we seen Ryuki acting crazy was without TC-PERGE, but it does make sense since it’s a contagious virus and it would be hard to explain how no one around him got infected for 6 years.
I think Amame's somnium is probably my favorite part of the series. As flawed as this game's story is for a lot of reasons I don't think i could say that with this specific part of it. Amame's somnium to me is a reflection of choice games in general, every decision in her life leading to this one, pivotal moment. Choosing her mother, faking her age, seeing her best friend, all the way up until her very last action, it's a pure reflection. From all the characters making choices in the series, the one the player chooses, from Date in AI 1, and Ryuki and Mizuki making choices in there's, leading to the routes they end up on, whether they even up for the better or for the worse. Such as Date's choice at the start of AI one leading to everyone dying. Amame's been on the same type of journey, but unlike the player, she can't go back, she can't try again, and like Aiba said, that's just the truth, you make your choices, and the consequences come with it. Genuinely my favorite part of the game and maybe the series, but I really love it.
The cathedrals were not a goof. Tama just said, the one with the elevator to the Naix building is the one that's intact, since that's the one with the box Ryuki saw. There are two different sets of staircases. Ryuki didn't know about the elevator until six years later, they went down to the execution chamber via the stairs.
Also, I feel like you might still have a misconception about this, so I'll clear it up now that we've seen Jin's body. In Uru's diary, the person he punched out and dragged to the slicer first was Jin, not Chikara. It's actually possible to extrapolate this early on (i.e. during that VR section in the room connected to Uru's room), because it's actually pointed out that Jin's body found in Studio Dvaita was missing a tooth; also because the dates are literally shown for each entry, so you can just match it with the dates the bodies were found
The Two Cathedrals - The group in the explosion ending say they went down a staircase and not the elevator in Tokiko's office(Because Ryuki didn't discover that until the present day), they are in the west cathedral. - Ryuki meets Tearer in Mizuki chapter 4 M1 and Tearer says " Did the staircase tire you out?" and the cathedral isn't destroyed yet. - Mizuki chapter 4 M2: When finding the staircase to the cathedral "But this wasn't here 6 years ago"-Mizuki "But that was a DIFFERENT staircase, wasn't it?" - Aiba.
I fucking love amames second somnium, how it brought back the investigation mechanic from the first game, the intense rush of the choices that emulates her feeling and what she had to pick, leading up to the current outcome, how it used the twist to recontextualize everything that came before but especially her first somnium, while also being a great look at amame herself, who just a maid with a funky design in the previous game. Its my favorite somnium in the game by far.
Iunno, I think the fact that Date's presence in the Sagan's lives being completely ignored and treated as a footnote in this game goes beyond just how you feel about the characters involved. It was such a big aspect of the original game that to see it treated like it didn't matter is a pretty serious flaw imo. Ota was always a supporting character, so his decreased prominence isn't a problem for me (in fact I would argue him and several other returning characters didn't really need to be in this game at all), but the Sagans are a different story. They were a pivotal emotional cornerstone for Date's character in the first game, but he has not interacted with or even really talked about them at all this whole game so far.
@@pn2294 putting aside whether i think it was a good idea to make this game friendly to players new to the franchise (it wasn't imo) i think smth like this, even if it's just a few lines of dialogue from date, could've easily been in the spoiler version of the game
I mean, the whole point of removing him from the story was so that they wouldn't have to worry about that. Date has been missing for 6 years, and the moment he gets back all heck breaks loose. He doesn't exactly have a moment to be with them until the story is over
I mean, even in the first game, Date has to spend some time with both of them before they talk about his past self, so the fact they don't really talk about Date much when Mizuki doesn't really spend that much time with either of them is kinda not that weird. If you're criticizing the game for not featuring Iris and Hitomi enough, that's your opinion, but I don't think it's weird that Iris doesn't immediately tell Mizuki about how sad she is everytime they meet, especially since it's been 6 years
I like how all the choices in this Somnium were the same as the final trivia questions in Amame’s first somnium you go through as Ryuki. At first they seemed so random but now they’re given context.
Ryuki: *suffering from survivor's guilt, PTSD, and severe depression bordering on suicide for 6 years, probably longer* Date: *gives a 30 second pep talk* Ryuki: "I'm fine now. :)" I don't like how Ryuki just doesn't have any real presence in the second half of the story, but not giving him a real resolution to his arc is...a little disappointing, to be as kind as possible. Same with Tama honestly, who has had literally zero dialogue for the past like...I wanna say 10 episodes now?
Date: “Hey, Ryuki.” Ryuki: [Groans sadly] Date: “I heard you messed up pretty bad.” Ryuki: [Groans even sadder] Date: “But you know what they say, Ryuki. When fall off that horse, you get back up, and you eat that horse. Come eat that horse with me, Ryuki!” Ryuki: “Um, what does that mean?”
Regarding Why the hiring manager didn’t ask for proof of Amame’s Age: in Japan they don’t ask for ID as much.I went Japan back in 2019 and I got an alcoholic drink at 7-11 and all they asked me how old I was but didn’t ask for a proof of Id. I’m assuming it’s the same for why no ID was ask for her age during her job interview. Also there’s alcohol in vending machines on the street ( which doesn’t require any sort ID either)so it’s fair to say Japan doesn’t have trust or irresponsible issues like other places do.But correct me if imm wrong.
That makes sense, they tend to expect honesty and responsibility considering how they have things like stores that aren’t run by people at the front and it’s by your own merit that you pay for what you buy
@@yoakefuyu that's interesting in the context of amame. she thinks of her decisions as a series of possible moral failings starting from small (lying about her age) to large (killing uru)
Now that youre at the endgame, I recommend recording the rest of the game in one session and maybe splitting it into two in post, because theres no real stopping point, and theres a few "postgame" content that doesnt quite make an episode of their own.
Wholesome Fact: In the first game, Mizuki defines a family as "a perfectly 'ordinary' relationship in the in the most 'ordinary' way. Like, you say, 'I'm home!' and you get a 'Welcome home!' back." So, even after one of them went missing for six years and the other had to move on without them, Date and Mizuki still consider each other family. :'D
The reason why Uru turned around on Amame was actually because he fell in love with her at first sight, hence the “faithful day I met you “. Also he was such a psychopath that he didn’t even think that Amame would have any sort of hatred toward him
I really liked the "I'm home. Welcome back." call back between Mizuki and Date. It was such a huge point at the end of the last game and it made me really happy.
Uru set up the plan. You're overcomplicating it, it's all Uru. The plan is going through because there are still Naix members setting things in motion. Uru's death isn't going to stop the plan because of how large Naix is.
Nico during Episode 4 of his Nirvana Initiative: I wouldn't be surprised she has a bigger role in this game Me: Yup she definitely got an upgrade from the last game. Amame in the last game is a friend of Iris whose role is to give info about Iris and Renju and was treated as a very minor character where her name in the dialogue box in the last game listed her as Mermaid. But Nirvana Initiative basically enhances her role more by being part of the plot, killing Tearer, and the game's last Somnium which makes her the Final Boss of sorts. The Nirvana Initiative's story is great because they made a very minor character with little role in that story to have a very big role in the next game's story. Though if you think about it that Iris and Amame essentially switch roles where Iris has a minor role while Amame now has bigger role in Nirvana Initiative's Story.
"is this something we can do? since when?" the first game, with iris's somnium we go in there twice, the first time we believe her, then afterwards before she dies, we go into the somnium again to see the fruit of immortality additionally we see Saito's Somnium twice and we see more information about the cyclops killings. the somniums are never the same twice in a row anyway.
Ryuki actually only got TC-PERGE a few days ago. But he'd been suffering from mental trauma before that, ever since his brother died. TC-PERGE exacerbated that, making his symptoms worse.
Aw, I'm a bit sad we don't get to see Marco, these AI Balls are really fun characters. I caught that they spelt his name as "Maruko" at one point, that was funny. I imagine the programmer thinking "who the fuck is Maruko, ah well".
I get the feeling he's going to be very cute when A.I. Somnium 3 comes around. And technically he's like Aiba and Tama's little brother, so that'll be fun.😊
It feels like this game focuses more on plot twists involving the plot itself instead of diving into the characters and their development, which might be why this game is pretty decisive in the comment section. Not saying that the game doesn’t ignore the characters(Exhibit 1: Shoma’s mimdscape), but in order to deal with creating plot twists, the characters need to sorta be tweaked to deal with that. It’s not a bad thing for a work of fiction, but a good number of players for this game seems to prefer focus on characters more then the plot itself. Just my two cents though.
Nico, I have a theory as to why Amame would go along with Tokiko's blackmail. Remember the wrench she hit Uru with? It is more than likely that Tokiko used the wrench as leverage in order to for Amame to comply. One, ot probably had her fingerprints and Uru's blood. Even if the police didn't know where it came from and if she wasn't charged with anything, it would not matter. Just revealing the fact that she attacked someone with a weapon is still a bad look. The consequences would be that she would lose her current and possibly be unable to get another. This in turn would not only her life but also Shoma's. Hindsight is always 20/20. I imagine the only thing Amame was thinking at the time was making Uru pay and the result ended with her getting caught and becoming an accomplice in Tokiko's suicide. Also, on an absolute side note, Ryuki definitely needs like a thousand hugs. He has been through way too much. This may be just a personal thing but I hope we get another game just dedicated to Ryuki. I imagine it would be a really fun time.
Something I don't think gets brought up often is the reason why Aiba gets mad at Date whenever he does his porno stuff now or doesn't mention porn to increase his reaction time like in the first AI. In the first game, that was done to Date because he was in Saito's body and he had to be distracted from all the killing. Basically ensuring that he didn't become a second Saito, Aiba gave him a different reason why he thought he was happy. Porn. But now he's back in his own body, he doesn't have the mental problems Saito did, thus he wouldn't need this same kinda trickery, so Aiba doesn't use it, but despite thst Date still believes it or is just uncontrollably horny, which probably lead to such discourse.
Fun fact, Marco actually has a model in game, but it never got used at any point. His only animation is him dancing to Kizuna’s song, mimicking her dance moves to the best of his ability (since unlike Aiba or Tama, he doesn’t have legs). There’s a vid online, just don’t look at the comments. Huge spoilers
And now you understand why Amame did what she did in Gen's route. She was already in a fragile mental state because she murdered two people, and the police coming made her panic and go completely off the deep end.
Interesting. When I played the game, I believe I chose the "wrong" option on one of these final prompts. This made Mizuki and Aiba struggle with their words, making Amame lose her calm demeanor and say "I HAD TO CHOOSE IT, SO YOU'LL CHOOSE TOO" with crazy eyes and everything, which was one of the most impactful moments in the game for me. It's really weird to see that this isn't something that happens regardless of your choice, because it was a very heavy but impactful moment.
During the first question when she asked if it was worse to lose the father or mother I purposefully let the time run out. Cause Mizuki literally lost three sets of parents if you count her bio parents and Date. Frankly I was a bit pissed off at Amame for not recognizing that, but after I played the rest of the somnium I understood why. Poor girl.
Yeah in that section choosing the "right" answers are the ones that give a lot more impact and context on what stress Amame was under. I'm a bit mad the game didn't force you to choose for Apology at the end too.
@@SuzdalPanic sucks that the game completely glosses over that fact so amame does too. I think part of the reason mizuki is a weirdly bland protagonist is a failure to build on the events of the first game for spoiler reasons (and ofc the game is trying to obscure that in half of the mizuki sections we aren't playing as her at all!)
The plot-hole I'm still stuck on is about Uru - we see him STANDING in Amame's Somnium there at the end, which is a dream, and not literally what happened, but still. If he lost SO many organs... What were they replaced with? How is he not just immovable in bed on a ventilator? Did Uru have to donate muscles?? His eye, or brain tissue? How would he SURVIVE without some of those organs??? The liver grows back, but not the pancreas, man! Gallbladder isn't necessary, and I'm not sure about the spleen.... Yes, you can live with just one lung and one kidney, but... You'd be pretty messed up! Uru was disturbingly lucky that they didn't need to take his heart cuz it was the RIGHT side they took from... Eughgh, if they HAD taken his heart, and just used an external pump instead, then he really WOULD be immobile on life-support and just fuming... IRL, this was actually done to a cow calf, scientists did remove the heart and replace it with an internal battery powered constantly-running pump, so the calf was perfectly healthy apart from having ZERO HEARTBEAT. It was amazing and disturbing and sad... (source: popsci-dot-org, article from 2012 titled "no pulse" The calves fitted with the device, at that point, only lived up to 6 months, sooo. Not amazing, but, perhaps the science has advanced in the past 10 years!) IDK man, I'm still just freaked out by the biological details of multiple-organ-donation... He'd be SO FCKED UP...
So about Marco. First thing, don't worry about the whole Marco/Maruko thing. Localization sorta messed up with their name a bit, Marco is the official name for them. But more importantly, While in game they are refereed to by He/him pronouns, Uchikoshi actually clarified on twitter that Marco actually goes by they/them pronouns. The reason Uchikoshi gave for the use of he/him pronouns is, after all the big plot twists that had just been thrown at the player, they didn't want to have to confuse the player anymore. Which... I don't really agree with, but at least in any future appearances Marco can be refereed to by their correct pronouns. But funny fact about this, when Uchikoshi revealed this on twitter, you got the obviously mean people who said that Uchikoshi is just pandering to SJW's, and dumb stuff of that nature. But Uchikoshi, in response to this, gave a whole Uchikoshi speak as a counter to what they are saying, including quoting a fucking french philosopher at them. He murdered them so hard he got himself trending on twitter over this. It was glorious.
Remember when one of them said that Uchikoshi was secretly a California girl and the next day Uchikoshi tweeted “A-Am I a California Girl? I don't have the confidence to swear that's wrong..”
this all happened around the same time as Bridget Guilty Gear, Shiver Splatoon 3, and a Xenoblade Chronicles 3 character were all announced as trans/non-binary. (i’m unsure about Shiver but the other two are definitely confirmed trans).
Also actually Maruko goes by “they/he” pronouns. That means Maruko uses both “he/him” and “they/them” pronouns. The localization director made that comment in Uchikoshi’s thread and Uchikoshi agreed.
I feel like forgoing the they/them pronouns in favor of he/him might've been a good idea, mainly because they're referred to by two names: Marco and Maruko. So using they/them would likely have made some people think they're two different entities. Obviously, changing someone's pronouns isn't usually good unless the character themself undergoes a change in pronouns (which I would like to see more of in media), but people with multiple sets of pronouns exist, and clearly Marco is one of them.
Nico, "I don't know if I've ever come across a game that really made me had to sit back and take hours to rethink how the enter game's structured" Me, starring at the 10 and a half hours Piecing Together the Story of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim video in my suggestions, "are you sure about that?"
Nico did mention 13 sentinels later on comparing this to it. I think the difference is that 13 sentinels from the get go made it apparent that not everything is what it seems and there’ll be answers given throughout the story bit by bit that helps you contextualise it. In this game’s case, while ibviously if you are a fan of Uchikoshi’s from before you expect a big twist or two, though the big answer only comes up at this point making you think over the _entire_ story even the „fluff dialogue”, while in 13S the player was at least partially doing it already throughout the game. Obviously the parrarels are still valid, but these are just small things that differentiate the two of them.
This is hands-down my favourite somnium of all time. There's so many intricacies to this. At the surface, the gameplay takes itself to another level, as the second time syncing into the culprit's somnium a brand new investigation mechanic is used, and combines information from the first sync to progress, allowing you to piece the clues together. The game also cleverly uses the seemingly random quiz from the first sync to answer the main crossroads that Amame faced throughout her six years. But the best part of this somnium is that the main purpose isn't really to gain information about the culprit -- most players already know by now based on the clues that Amame is the culprit ("Nirvana, Collected, Genocide", access to Shoma's robot, the clear motive to kill Tearer). Instead, the purpose of the somnium is to strip YOU, the player, of any denial about the true identity of the Tearer's killer. The game cleverly sets Amame up as a beautiful soul and clearly incapable of cold-blooded murder. Gen and Shoma, who are likelable characters already, are seen defending Amame and were ready to protect her with their lives, because of how much they loved her. In the first psync, Amame was presented as a traumatised and broken individual who was threatened by Tearer to keep silent about his appearance at studio Dvaita, on top of the fact that she had just seen her father's murderer. This makes the player think that she's the VICTIM, and not the culprit. And last, the whole sequence of "what-ifs". Right after the player gathers the evidence that Amame clearly involved in the murders of Tearer and Tokiko, they're presented with not just one, but FOUR moral dilemmas (just like the four Xs you've traversed). She's clearly wrecked with guilt regarding her choices over them, because one way or another they would've led to some sadness or another. This reinforces the player's belief that Amame was dragged into the whole affair by circumstance, and was likely coerced into being an accomplice like Ryuki had been -- she didn't even murder Tokiko. If Tokiko had committed suicide, then surely Tearer could've as well? And then the nail on the coffin. The scene of Amame killing Tearer (a psychopathic murderer, if you haven't forgotten) in a crime of passion -- as revenge for her father. In stark contrast to eerily creepy Saito's somnium and reveal of how he did it, the player instead gets a wretched tale of a girl who was a prisoner of circumstance and forced to make terrible decisions that any of us could've done (I'm pretty sure most of us would've chosen "heck yeah, revenge") And now the moral dilemma once again splits the fanbase into two: was Amame justified in killing Tearer? Should she be punished for doing sp?
This reveal also retroactively affects the Gen/Amame ending. Amame would be in even worse of a mental state/want to avoid the police that much more given all she's done.
Rubber bullets are still dangerous and painful tho, especially aimed at the head. And it's not like she was missing on purpose, she didn't deny trying to straight up shoot Mizuki. It's just weird knowing Bibi's personality and entire existence revolves around protecting her little clone/sister from any harm.
I'm so puzzled as to why fictional media thinks rubber bullets are harmless. They are projectiles!! They can still cause you serious bodily harm and even kill you if they hit the wrong place.
If you had picked the "Apology" option in Amame's somnium Uru says to her (after demanding he apologizes for his actions) "Listen to me. Death is salvation. I'm sure your dad would thank me if he could." I think it's kind of eerie in a way to hear Billy Kametz say the words "Death is salvation" knowing that he passed away just a couple weeks before the game released and this was one of his final roles.
Oh thank god it wasn’t just me that found that ironically sad. Not to mention Uru’s dna being used to cure Jin’s cancerous tumors, meanwhile Billy died from cancer. A man who was dead in the present this whole time was voiced by another man who’s been dead in the present this whole time.
@@ladyholiday3863 Blimey yeah I hadn't even thought of the tumors and such was similar to what happened to Billy. Bloody hell there really is an extra layer of sadness to this game with the real life tragedies that befell some of the VA's. If they end up one day making an AI 3 with the same group of characters I hope we don't tragically loose more VA's along the way.
I like Amame's second somnium a lot, but I wish the emotional payoff was stronger. She just hasn't been a significant enough presence in this game, and we don't really get to spend a lot of time with her, just knowing her as a person before this. It's very good, but admittedly her character is also hard carried by it, if I'm being honest
17:45 Yes, as Ryuki. When you talk to Lien at the park He said he worked with the Kamukura and also partner up with Quartz (episode 10 minute 17:00 NicoB playthrough)
The West and east cathedrals were not goofs. The one Ryuki entered and chased the suspicious individual (Amame) in was the east cathedral in the present. He entered that from the president's office. Ryuki found the West cathedral staircase in the past and confronted Tearer. It's the staircase entrance he lead the others to on February 15th in the past. They make a passing comment that Ryuki told them about the entrance (Since he already knew about it after confronting Tearer). The player just assumes at that point that he knew about the entrance from finding it in Tokiko's office but that was the elevator, not a staircase.
Also doesn't Tokiko have fellow Naix followers? Even IF Amame backstabbed her after her death by not doing her plan, there's probably a chance some Naix devotees would endanger her, Shoma's and Gen's lives afterwards.
I think while I ultimately enjoyed this game, and I think it does some things better, I feel like I enjoyed the first game more. The first game's story felt a lot more tidy and satisfying even after the twist, but in this game there's still so much stuff I have to force myself to accept, like Mizuki and Bibi wearing the exact same clothes and hairstyle at 18. I also don't like how most of the returning characters were handled. They had so little to do in this game it feels like some of them shouldn't have returned at all.
You know, it just hit me... in Tokiko's Somnium we saw both Gen and Shoma in the Somnium but Gen had no connection to Tokiko and Shoma had only a moderate connection to her. But now that we know that it was Amame she was talking to, suddenly it makes a lot of sense. Gen and Shoma were in Tokiko's Somnium not because they were part of Naix (except for Shoma), but that she was going to find and kill them if Ameme didn't comply with her plans... Tokiko is scary now.
It’s a fine theory, and it’s certainly possible, but the developers’ notes reveal that the reason for Gen and Shoma appearing in Tokiko’s somnium is that they are the victims of Chikara’s experiments that Tokiko knows about. She pities them both in a way, but she’s not willing to do anything to help them. It’s also said that Tokiko projects her feelings towards Jin onto Gen and her feelings towards Uru onto Shoma
@@saintcruiser5950 Then it is pretty ironic that both of them happen to be close to Amame. I dunno, this is one of those things that could have a double meaning behind it. Like one perspective could be that Tokiko was thinking about them out of pity, but it makes zero sense when in the same Somnium we see Gen's body floating in a pool of blood. That to me gives the impression that Tokiko wants to kill Gen because of his ties to Amame.
Out of all the big tear jerk-y moments of this game, Amame's Somnium here DEF got to me the most as a big sister who's also hella dedicated to her family--
I like how the ABIS trio are trying to basically play "good cop" with Shoma and Genny, and all the while they've only got a few hours before shit hits the fan. Why couldn't they just lie and say "Amame's life is in danger" and they need to take her someplace safe? At this point they'd believe anything.
The ethical standards of ABIS are sooo fuzzy. I don't think coercing her into going to the station would ever be legal for a regular police force, but who knows with Boss and her (ethical?) corruption?
So Uchikoshi on twitter later clarified Marco is NB and goes by they/them, while the male pronouns were a localization decision. There was a kerfuffle on twitter over whether he was pandering or not. I don’t remember much of that, aside from some wild accusation that Uchikoshi was a teenage girl from California. Uchikoshi later decided to never live in California after he found out about the rent prices. Though given the Baguette Tweets and plots revolving around snails, it’s more likely Uchikoshi is French instead. Nico can’t understand his plots like how he can’t understand the accent lol.
OH YEAH THAT The person who called Uchikoshi a "teenage Californian girl" is named Gambs, and a friend of mine on Twitter knows about that Gambs person. Let me tell you, this Gambs person is way W O R S E than you think. My friend said that Gambs is a moderator on the visual novel Subreddit and Gambs is also known for fighting translators there. Oh! And one last thing. A few days ago, Gambs got suspended on Twitter! Deserved, honestly. Unfortunately, Gambs' account is back, but the account is locked (Meaning, we cannot see their posts, etc.) :( P.S. Good on Marco for being nonbinary! We seriously need more nonbinary representation in games. Oh and we need more people like Uchikoshi 👍
I'm going to make an early call that in the next game Marco is going to go by Maruko and have the same energy as 9S or Early Emil. That kinda effiminate energy.
@@W0RLD0FLIGHT there's something seriously weird and toxic about that sub, so a mod being a transphobe among other things makes sense. I can't overstate how stupid it is to think that nonbinary people are a dumb "woke" western invention.
Now that the 2 Mizukis twist is revealed, all I can think of is how ackward Date would be to have to explain his situation to both Mizukis after the Annihilation Route in the first game. Sidenote, I'm sad that we will never got PORNO MAG POWA outta Boss's mouth.
I agree with Nico. this twist genuinely took me a few days after i beat the game to sit with me well. i had enough time to put the pieces together and enjoy what the developers had made in the story. it was kinda disappointing that i wasn't able to figure it out since the last AI game help lead you onto the main twist once you started going down the true ending, but it was still satisfying. my only remaining complaint is that the game didn't have more branching timelines and endings like VLR, and i wanted them to talk about morphogenetic field theory, but thats just my Zero Escape Fanboy side talking.
Agreed. There ARE clues kinda to the "Twist" but I feel like if someone did suspect it early on, they SHOULD have stopped suspecting it because "Wow that would be such a stretch" Its not a terrible Twist... I just think the twist is done contrary to the character development and the actual story. Games like 13 Sentinels and ZTD's Twists were integrated into the plot, the characters behaving as you'd think they should, because they didn't know what we didn't know, so they acted accordingly. In this... It's just coincidence that no character ever mentions any of the stuff... That people normally would. Like bibi - Mizuki coincidence. Also my biggest issue is when Mizuki asks about "The other VictimS" after finding Uru. Like, girl you know it's just Tokiko... Not plural. I guess you could argue she's asking about the first 3? But it's dumb to think tearer didn't kill them. AI:1's body hopping twist was an example of a plot twist. AI:2's big twist ISN'T a plot twist, it's just a twist on the player... The plot isn't changed remotely, not for any of the characters, there's no change to their outcome at the reveal. It's just that we start to understand what's happening. Info that technically, Date and Boss should have had all along. Which... Makes them fucking stupid.
I think I recall there where times in the previous game Dante asked to go back inside a somnium and each time they used the excuse they had a limit for how long they could keep some detained for legal reasons.
In spite of all the sad stuff a part of me wonders if Iris will ever do a livestream to raise money for Amame’s bail. Like the stream’s just titled “#FreeMame”
Friendly Reminder. Bail is only money to let a person be out of Jail BEFORE the trial. So for big public cases like a serial killing, cases are often rushed to Trial. On the other hand. At least by US Court... I have a hard time believing a jury will actually convict Amame. Yes, she killed Uru. But she killed a serial Killer, who she was alone with, who was planning on firing a Virus Filled Missile into a metropolitan area. That's easily grounds for jury nullification, or at the very least to plead self defense. (contrary to the name, most places actually include defending other people from danger inside of self-defense) apparently Uru had just explained how he planned to kill thousands of people, and Amame knew he'd already killed 3 people. So she'd believe he was capable of and willing to do that. For a 22 year old girl, alone in a room with a murderer... It's such an easy case for a defense lawyer to convince a jury that she felt in danger and a need to protect herself and others by any means necessary.
@@dracmanish agree, wish we got one more scene with uru and ryuki talking to each other i enjoy billy kametz voice work so much, oh well what can you do about it?
contrived was actually my main retrospective on this entire game and i am glad to see i wasn't the only one to use that word to describe it, becase i really think its the perfect descriptor for this game(even thouh i still love it to bits). there are so many conveniences required for it to work and it really comes at the expense of a lot of the characters, as they aren't really allowed to change over 6 years to make it work, but its also incredibly clever all the ways it was foreshadowed. It's extremely fun to go back through and notice all the little details that are super easy to overlook. I think one of my favourite of such details is when getting chewed out by boss in her office as ryuki, if you inspect the balloon he goes "tch". (maybe somone pointed that one out to you in the video, i paused to comment this after i heard you say contrived here at the start here to comment)
Tokiko's a smart person. She probably gave instruction to someone at Naix to leak the fact that Amame killed Uru if Tokiko's body didn't show up. There's no way she wouldn't have had some sort of means to force Amame to do what she wanted even after her death, similar to how Uru said that he would send assassins after Kizuna even if he were to die.
I'm pretty sure the assassins were for Mizuki Date and not Kizuna. With how much her files mentioned how much Bibi loves Mizuki Date (and no mention of Kizuna) I think it's safe to deduced he meant her.
There's a part in Amames "Quiz Show" Somnium, where you can't choose a wrong answer no matter what you pick. It's framed as Theoretical Choices, But the choices are exactly the ones Amame goes through in her second somnium. The father or the mother, which is worse to lose? Lie and be rich, or Poor and honest? Best friend or family member? Biggest lie exposed or become part of a plot? Revenge or Apology? Just a really neat detail.
Back when you entered Mame's somnium the first time with Ryuki, you get asked the exact same questions back then, which seemed pretty random. Back then it also didn't really matter what you answer But now you have these questions again with the full context behind them
so i just wanna point out, at some point, all these flippin LPs end up connected somehow, and we all have a big laugh about it in the Discord....which you should join, its pretty chill in there. But not only did Zero Time Dilemma prophecize this exact scenario, with the entire point of Delta's scheme was to train a line of SHIFTers with a timeline Deep-6'd by Rad 6 so that they can take down a *unknown terrorist who wiped out Earth's ENTIRE population with a virus* as opposed to Delta's 99.9% of the human population....but that Tearer is literally just replicating Junko's ultimate despair, complete with it raining people as they off themselves from going wackadoo....Uchikoshi, you mad bastard
I believe I said it before and I’ll say it again, I love Faye’s voice acting in this somnium. And hey, I got more Amame lore…. But at what cost. Darn that monkey paw. “I have no regrets!” Honey, we just witnessed a whole somnium full of your regrets. You ain’t fooling anyone.
No, I know she obviously doesn’t regret killing Uru. It’s just the way it’s said (at least in the English translation) makes it sound like she’s denying all of her regrets and I’m just like, girl.
Nico I know it was a throwaway joke about the % face but people have birthmarks, vertigo, and/or scars on their face for real and its not easy. But then again I can see where you're going with this now that you know Japan and its bullying. But still. Maybe its just me but--marks on a face are a thing, man
As someone with Vertigo, and as someone who knew a kid in kindergarten that had a massive birthmark that covered the right side of his neck and a bit of his face as well, I can confirm this.
Vertigo? That's where someone's dizzy all the time, it DOES make life harder, for sure, but... Ohhh, did you mean Vitiligo? That's where patches of skin pigment fade over time to a bright white.
So funny thing with Amame's somnium is that besides demonstrating she in pressure has bad decision making, since she always picks the option on right side that means it applied to questions in previous somnium. In other word, she would rather eat curry flavored poop :D It made going back to previous somnium fascinating.
We all know that, on the 12th, the real reason Ryuki was demoted is because he shot a civilian. But I think that many people forgot that during that Boss gave him a last chance to solve the HB case by telling him to do it in 72 hours, or three days, and if you consider that catching Amame closes the case then he did. However if closing the case means stopping the Nirvana Initiative he still has a little more than 12 hours. So I'd say he has a pretty good chance of staying in ABIS.
Haven't seen it mentioned yet so here it goes, there was actually a translation mistake regarding Marco's gender. You might notice that they are occasionally referred to as Maruko instead of Marco as an example of this. We know this because Uchikoshi actually talked about it on Twitter in English. Marco in nonbinary and this clearly was not conveyed clearly to the translation team somehow. This actually cause Uchikoshi and Ai to explode on Twitter because Uchikoshi responded to people who disliked the choice to include a nonbinary character in a video game in a very wholesome but savage manner.
I think you're right when you call the timeline twist interesting. I think its written very technically well, where you can review all the events under a different lens, and the writing is very consistent in keeping the twist from you. It must have taken a lot of effort, scrubbing and editing to get it as good as it is, so that when we're given information that didn't make sense at the time it becomes very clear later. but a fundamental problem with the twist in the first place is the meta forth wall breaking reveal. There's one thing where the characters and players are all being misled about the timeline, but the way it looks like there IS no twist to the characters because there was nothing hidden from them in the first place, aside from Uru and Jin both being dead. So this twist was fully for the player, who can't keep up because the information simply wasnt there in the first place. In the end while the twist is technically well written, the effect on the player is cheapened because, well, the twist is fuckin lame. You got your days mixed up in the timeline and that's pretty much it, there isnt anything to chew on like the body hopping twist and all the routes and endings and characters that are affected by the body hopping twist. i had actually confused myself on what the twist actually was, i had initially believed that the twist was that characters were stepping in and out of different timelines without realizing it, getting information that they shouldn't know from past and future. You know. "Parallel Worlds Are Real" from the first game, but instead of only Date multiple characters were affected by that's phenomenon. My mind ran wild with the idea. When the twist was revealed Date's "Ryuki, why did you run away?" question came back and hit me like a bag of bricks, leaving me clutching my head trying to figure out how this is fucking possible. But again, no, the game just lies to you. Its pretty lame.
My first assumption was also that it had to involve an in universe element such as time travel or some trick like in the last game and the frozen 'Iris', because I naturally assumed there would be an in universe answer. That's pretty normal for mysteries unless they're more meta than we've seen so far. It's how I engage with mysteries at least, as something to experience and solve along with the story's detective or Watson characters. In that way, the mystery will have an emotional and story element to it. But the timeline twist is a non narrative mystery, purely one for the player to solve. Sure, I can appreciate the effort made on a technical sense, but I don't really connect to tricks like that Something like this is in the long run going to stick less with me than annihilation, the butterfly effect choices or the worlds of the three character routes after their ends. Like So-Iris and the messed up situation that creates alone continues to draw interest from me in terms of what people write, say about it or joke about it. Annihilation was devastating even before you get to the conclusion thanks to how painful it was to go through those visits after Iris and Ota died, but other fans can and have explored the possibilities from other characters perspectives or what happened after the end point. That's the potential of good narrative and story, which a technical trick can't give you.
This is what I love about AI Somnium Files, they are able to make these characters super relatable to the point that it hurts. Amame looking back if she made the right decision and then justifying those decisions even when she’s hurt and others are also hurt is too relatable to me. There are actions that we regret and get hurt from it but we sometimes have the reason to do it, that’s make us human and Amame is too. Even with all the crazy bullshit and their eclectic personalities we see what makes them human.
I'm pretty sure since Uru was held up in the room for his childhood, there were cameras installed. And therefore Tokiko had the video and a deadman switch set if Amame didn't do what Tokiko asked
![Megan Thee Stallion - Bigger In Texas [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QxTkZTLWdo4/mqdefault.jpg)
Moral of this story:
Always pick Minecraft Steve.
In some states, he’s banned from Smash tournaments so he can’t be picked
Better yet, Don't play competitive, Sakurai never meant it to be competitive
Now with the twist revealed, Nico must do a cover of the Opening of "The Adventures of Pete & Pete" with Mizuki and Mizuki.
when you get to the epilogue, be sure to select everything for the all the flavor dialogue. there are a lot of really funny moments you wont wanna miss
Another plothole in relation to Mizuki and Bibi, is that Mizuki makes Date-sk jokes, which a player with kine sense of emotion developed/effects points out that quite a few of Mizuki's jokes seems to be inspired by Date and act as if a part of him is still around for Mizuki, and Bibi for some reason makes these jokes in the past. Not to mention how similar their personality and reactions to things are(basically carbon copies) until they meet in the future.
Bibi: Marco’s a little shy but I know how to get him to talk.
Mizuki: Really? How?
Bibi: Watch this......MARCO!!!
Mizuki:...
Date:...
Everyone:...
Marco:.......Polo.
That would be incredibly cute, hope it happens next game.
There are talks of a third game.
"She's her own biggest fan! Mizuki!" has a new meaning since last episode.
From very beginning I was like "Damn, Nico's bullshit has manifested in song". There's also a line in Ryuki's about ignoring protocol.
H U H
How come I didn't catch that at all
Nico's BS omnisciency has found a new way to manifest!
@@TubaJay448 True, but that was made a while into his route, so Nico wasn't pulling it out of thin air.
Fans: "We want the Mermaid cafe girl to be more important in the sequel!"
Uchikoshi: _"Oh Really?"_
*A finger curls on the Monkey Paw*
If you want the “Oh really?” to look like _“Oh Really?”,_ put the _ before & after the “, not between.
Should've said series! Son of a bitch! DAMN IT! FUC-
Sorry, I'm not english native speaker, what does monkey paw means?
@@soul6733 its a wish granting monkey paw.
Similar to a genie where if you wish something, something negative will happen.
Also when you make a wish the monkey's fingers would curl up for every wish
@@soul6733 the Monkey's Paw is a classical horror story from 1902 where a literal monkey paw grants wishes, one per finger, and every time it grants one a finger curls inward. Those wishes come with a heavy negative prize that make you wonder if they were even worth granting in the first place. The story has been referenced and parodied many times throughout the years (the Simpsons being an easy example), and you can often see it used as a joke on the internet when someone says that they want something, but it ends up happening in a negative way, with the phrase "the monkey's paw finger curls inward" being the punchline.
And everyone who ever wished Amame had a bigger role in the sequel just saw the middle finger on the Monkey’s Paw curl
I should have guessed it sooner. She was always a little... fishy...
Ryuki betrayed ABIS, he did something he can't come back to. Meanwhile Pewter who also betrayed ABIS... XD
Also being a accomplish to a serial killer
Yes, you must've been in the room with me screaming 😁
Also boss going off on Ryuki for not solving the case in 3 days when Date solved nothing in 4-5 days on like 2 of his time lines and then had the wrong killer in a third!
I'll probably still cosplay boss but I did not enjoy her very much in this game
@@LG_HakubiThis is a bit late but Ryuki was pretty much a really loose canon who was kinda a danger to himself and others around him.
I’m calling it right now…Receptionist-Chan is going to play a bigger role in Somnium files 3!
After what happened to Amame this game, I REALLY HOPE SHE DOESN’T
AI3: The Big Tiddy Serial Killings
The big plot twist will be that the mastermind built a portal to Atami where they boiled their victims in the hot springs
Oh please no. If she were any bigger Date would be unable to function.
@@scottyc995 BT Case for short
About Ryuki's betrayal, you can see when he is following Tearer's plan. When Date brought up a man in a mask, Ryuki is certain it is Tearer instead of wondering who it is. And while we thought it was because he saw Tearer in the VR crime scene, that happened in the future. No one else on ABIS knew what Tearer looked like at this point. Ryuki just needed Date to follow the leads Tearer placed. And when Ryuki and Date meet in the cathedral, he's surprised to see Mizuki, Lien, and Gen. Ryuki tries to convince the three to stay back, but they refuse. Ryuki can't make a huge fuss about it since Date was already wondering if it was a trap, and Date already suspected Ryuki for being the one who ran before. So he keeps quiet and leads three other people to endanger their lives. He didn't try to choose Tama over Date. In the moments leading up to Tearer's appearance in the execution chamber, Ryuki chose Tama over the safety of Date, Mizuki, Lien and Gen. And even though he knows his friends could die if he doesn't shoot Date, he couldn't do it. While he was lucky that Gen shielded people from the thermite bomb, he could have gotten everyone killed. In his mind, he is responsible for Kizuna's disability, Mizuki's eye, and Date's death.
Penguins. I come to you today with the crack order for Nico’s AINI LP. The chronological canon order for those who wish to view the game this way. It is not recommended as Nico’s commentary will make no sense if you watch it this way. This is only for those of us brave enough
AI2 LP correct order
Episode 1: All
Episode 2: All
Episode 3: All
Episode 4: All
Episode 5: Up to 50:25
Episode 16: From 50:25
Episode 17: Up to 1:16:55
Episode 7: From 19:10
Episode 8: All
Episode 9: Up to 35:17
Episode 19: From 40:21
Episode 20: Up to 55:35
Episode 10: From 1:21:45
Episode 11: All
Episode 12: All
Episode 13: All
Episode 14: All
Episode 15: All
Episode 16: Up to 50:25
Episode 5: From 50:25
Episode 6: All
Episode 7: Up to 19:10
Episode 17: From 1:16:55
Episode 18: All
Episode 19: Up to 40:21
Episode 9: From 35:17
Episode 10: Up to 1:21:45
Episode 20: From 55:35
Episode 21: All
Episode 22: All
Episode 23: All
Episode 24: All
Enjoy, you crazy fucks
Fighting the good fight there, I salute you!
That 50:25 is a nice coincidence
not all heroes wear capes
The effort you went through for this is commendable. This helps the story make so much more sense.
It's kinda amazing that even while under the effects of TC-Purge, and believing himself to be 6 years in the past, Ryuki still manages to do the investigation and pin down Amame as Uru and Tikiko's killer. In a way, he did manage to solve the HB case.
Oh snap. He did manage to figure out Amame is connected to all this after all, something the other's didn't.
True, he may be mentally unwell even before being infected with TC-purge and it greatly worsen his condition you got to give some credit to ryuki dude is committed to his duty tama help keeping him together
Hes a little confused but he got the spirit
It's BECAUSE he's stuck in the past that he managed to pinpoint al the infos regarding Amame, by recreating the scenes from studio Dvaita and psyncing into Amane because of it .
Ryuki only contracted TC Perge six years later. Ryuki's mental breakdowns do happen before that. That is just a symptom of his natural insanity. What TC-PERGE did for him was it made him start hallucinating and confusing the timelines. It's only after he contracts TC-PERGE that he starts getting confused about what year it is, like when he was waiting for Shoma at the ferris wheel
Oh, _that's_ why the flowchart is presented as it is pre-reveal!
So something that i apprectiate about this game is how both of our "masterminds" use our expectations against us.
Starting with Amame, Amame throws a lot of red flags all over the place. She's spends most of her time on screen being extremely anxious and we're given increasingly supicious bits of info that we never properly address, such as being forced to obey someone or being seen at Horadori (Lien himself mentions Tokiko was there and that was really suspicious). However, Amame is a returning character. Amame is a cute waifu with a musical number. Amame has a character ending. No matter how much the evidence piled up against her we expect it to be a fakeout, a small piece of the puzzle leading to mysterious shadow villain because she's too much of a character to imagine her being the big bad.
Then there is Tearer/Uru/Mr.Boat. Tearer is very unapologetically a knockoff Zero. At this point players know how a mastermind is supposed to be/act. Tearer treats everything as if he is a Zero/Junko figure, an almighty puppetmaster in the shadows. Like he expects to come out at the end of his grand plan and say "Yes it was me, Uru the faceless character mentioned a few times, i controlled everything and everyone to change the world". Partially with the non-linear timeline the game also tries to convinve you of this by having him seemingly everywhere and all-knowing when in fact he screwed up 6 years ago and has been hiding/dead ever since. In Truth he's a crazy asshole who just happens to have the resources and the luck to keep things going as long as it did. His kills aren't for a grand plan they're personal grudges (Jin for Tokiko's love, Chikara for kidnapping him/taking his organs, and Komeji for stealing a corpse), his master plan is contantly thrown off due to dumb luck (Komeji taking a corpse, Amame just happening to walk in, Date escaping) and Fatally he completely lacks any understanding of other people. As expected of someone raised in a basement for their whole life he didn't understand Ryuki causing his plans to fail and he didn't understand Amame resulting in his death. Despite his bravado he lacked the basic understanding of the world and the people in it to properly account for things like maybe people will get mad if i kill others or maybe leaving things in public places could be an issue (possibly thinking since the world is a simulation npc's won't care about each other and events won't happen off-screen) which made him incapable of being the Zero he (quite literally) dreamed of. To paraphrase 999 he is less than Zero.
Something I really like about this somnium is how it in part feels like Amame stands in contrast to the Frayer. While the Frayer represents the freedom of choice the player is afforded, Amame was walled in by the choices she had already made. In the last sequence of timed choices, if you choose to not obey Tokiko or not get revenge, Amame will _stare back at the player and yell at you_ to the effect of "I didn't have a choice, so choose!!" and will essentially force you to choose like she did.
Oh man that's freaky. Would have defiantly jumped out of my seat.
If you remember, at the end of Amame's first Somnium, you're given a bunch of rapid fire questions that had no right answer and seemingly came out of nowhere. This Somnium recontextualizes those, because you're asked them all again, but you're told to answer them like Amame did, showing that all those impossible questions were the ones she was forced to answer. It's really fucking good
Can we talk about how these voice actors have all been killing it? Everyone here deserves major props.
I know. Amame, Mizuki, Date, and Ryuki stood out especially. But they all did so good! Shoma too, even more so because apparently his VA is very new to the business.
For once there ENG cast blows the Jp cast out of the water
Lien never called Bibi "Quartz" (and she doesn't like the name, anyway), but he did tell her, as they were breaking into Horadori Institute, that he was only doing this (breaking in) for old times' sake, referring, of course, to his and Bibi's past.
Not to burst your bubble or anything, but Lien did call Bibi "Quartz". If you go back to part 22, at 53:46, Lien says: "Quartz?!", while Bibi/Mizuki responds "Please stop calling me that." Lien was looking straight at her, and there wasn't anything behind her, so he must have been referring to her as Quartz.
Yeah, but that was AFTER bibi's reveal.
Before though, no; Lien never mention the name Quartz in her presence; though it's also interesting that he never mentionned Mizuki by name in these moments either, same with Moma, Mama and Gen; because they knew her as Quartz of course.
@@flowers884 I'm talking about before the reveal. The moment you're referring to was part of a reveal-in-progress.
I like the detail that Lien says "the police" asked him to break into somewhere early in the game. I thought that Lien had been tricked by Tearer or something and was just like "ha ha typical dumb Lien" and forgot... When of course, he was being for real and Bibi asked him to break into the institute.
Not gonna lie, I kinda don't like how Ryuki was mostly treated as an afterthought throughout Mizuki's side of the game. True, this was done mostly to hide the twist, but in the end it just makes it look like we didn't just spend the first half of the game with him. One could make the argument that Mizuki didn't get much screentime in Ryuki's half of the game, despite her being the other protag, but Ryuki is a whole new character while we already know Mizuki. Again, in hindsight it makes sense that Ryuki doesn't show up much in Mizuki's side, but i wish we gotten more from his character and actually see his development not reduced to a 5 minute pep-talk and suddenly his guilt and trauma from the last 6 years is gone.
idk it just feels more rushed to me than anything.
I really dislike the way Ryuki's treated in this game, both as his narrative usage in the story and as a sort of disliking how people treat his mental illness by avoiding him, disregarding him, showing concern but no actions to back it up. And it sucks harder because his and Tama's relationship is probably the highlight of this game for me, both for standing out as a new, fresh characters and how their relationship was really built on trust, understanding and active participation in each other's well being.
I agree with you. I thought Ryuki would be much more important, at least 50/50 with Mizuki. But he was mostly used as plot device. It's a shame because he has an interesting personality and backstory, but they didn't do anything with it. Like you said, they really rushed his character near the end, the man was traumatized and fcked up for more than 6 years, but everything is resolved in a few minutes after one pep talk from Date. That's just underwhelming.
It's kind of remarkable how I was initially annoyed at the dual protag situation because because I'd wanted a purely Mizuki protag game, but then ended up feeling like Ryuki as co-protagonist got less effort into his plot resolution than the three support characters with character endings got in the first game. Wanting to have more of a character is good and a testament to how well Ryuki has been written, but I wish my interest in seeing more wasn't partially caused by his story leading to an unsatisfying conclusion, at least for me.
I gotta agree. I was initially a little miffed about some other character sharing the spotlight with Mizuki, but honestly, Ryuki’s side of this game is the highlight for me. His and Tama’s relationship is probably the best between the two games, and I grew to really love him, so it sucks he was just tossed aside like that afterwards.
Remember when Amame was on the same level as Receptionist and Nurse? Those were the good old days.
Another touch that I personally find brilliant, similar to how the whole game feels, is how Amame's first Somnium trip can be replayed after seeing the truth of everything here and suddenly make so much more sense. The questions that were asked of Ryuki of course mirror the questions she asks here at the end, but even the little things, like how in the Spot the Difference section, there was a wrench in place of a split body, symbolizing the wrench she used on Uru. Uchikoshi's storytelling may divide the fanbase at times, but at the very least you have to appreciate his attention to detail.
Another example: you see another figure in that section on one side and on the other side you see Occult magazines.
In this somnium, you find the figure turns into Tokkiko and the Occult magazines turn into a book on Naix, showing that Amame met Tokiko.
I assume Mame went along with Tokiko’s plan, even after her death, because Tokiko, like Uru, had left the cult members with instructions on everything to do. Even with Uru and Tokiko dead, Naix is still in operation and about to release the virus. If her body didn’t show up where it was suppose to, someone could have been notified to release the evidence. (And on the flip side, if Tokiko hadn’t informed Naix of her plans, Mame wouldn’t be aware of that.)
But at that point why bother blackmailing Amame at all? Why not just have those same cult members carry out the rest of the plan (putting Tokiko's half body in her office) themselves?
1:08:12 The reason no one has done a 2nd Psync with the same person before now is because the Psync Machine needs hours to recharge after each Psync. Every Psync subject can only be detained for the duration of the first Psync. None of them were arrested, so they had to be released after the Psync. By the time the Psync Machine was finished recharging during those times, the investigation had progressed enough that either they didn’t need to do a 2nd Psync with the previous subject, or they needed to Psync with someone else.
There's also another reason mentioned in the original game. When they talk about the time limit originally, it's because the subconscious will eventually reject the foreign mind inside of it. Which is why a Somnium gets more and more dangwrous after the time limit.
This case is a bit special, since instead of Ryuki going back Into Amame's mind, Mizuki is, so there is a bit less extra risk than there would be otherwise.
@@ghostkill221 solid point
@@ghostkill221 ooh, good catch!
48:22 Remember, Uru loves escape room games. That's probably why he set things up the way he did, creating an ARG with a locked door at the end where you had to find the keys.
If you’re wondering why some of the correct answers were on the left, despite the hint saying Amame always picks the Right answer when she’s unsure, it’s because all of the correct answers shown here were on the Right side when Ryuki Psynced with Amame.
Does this mean Amame would rather eat curry flavored poo?
@@Nebularban You could argue that the "poo" isnt made of poo if its curry flavored. A poo shaped dish that tastes like curry.
@@krsynx i think for the sake of argument in the hypothetical question, its still gonna be poo that just somehow exactly tastes like curry.
@@Nebularban Whoever made it has had nothing but curry for the last month, probably.
Shoma: "I don't care if Amame killed Tearer, you can't take her away for simple questioning! Also how do you like my homemade highly reactive and destructive bombs? Neat right? Was gonna use them to kill Tearer but OH WELL!"
I just laughed when I saw the bombds. Like holy shit Komeji! Both of your kids are fucking crazy XD. Violence is apparently always an answer for them
About Ryuki contracting TC-PERGE, that actually only happened fairly recently since he was chasing the blue person after finding Tokiko’s body a few days ago in the Present. So in reality, he has been mentally unstable for years, but TC-PERGE made it worse. I feel like this is kinda a plot hole since it means most of the times we seen Ryuki acting crazy was without TC-PERGE, but it does make sense since it’s a contagious virus and it would be hard to explain how no one around him got infected for 6 years.
He doesn't know who the blue person is yet.
@@Gestrid I mean who else could it be at this point?
@@Pikaman20008 Yeah, but he does tend to like to figure stuff out on his own unless it's stuff the game's already told him.
Well no it isn't a plot hole to begin with then lol
When you were playing as Bibi, you never hear Lien or Moma address her by any name.
I think Amame's somnium is probably my favorite part of the series. As flawed as this game's story is for a lot of reasons I don't think i could say that with this specific part of it.
Amame's somnium to me is a reflection of choice games in general, every decision in her life leading to this one, pivotal moment. Choosing her mother, faking her age, seeing her best friend, all the way up until her very last action, it's a pure reflection.
From all the characters making choices in the series, the one the player chooses, from Date in AI 1, and Ryuki and Mizuki making choices in there's, leading to the routes they end up on, whether they even up for the better or for the worse. Such as Date's choice at the start of AI one leading to everyone dying.
Amame's been on the same type of journey, but unlike the player, she can't go back, she can't try again, and like Aiba said, that's just the truth, you make your choices, and the consequences come with it. Genuinely my favorite part of the game and maybe the series, but I really love it.
The cathedrals were not a goof. Tama just said, the one with the elevator to the Naix building is the one that's intact, since that's the one with the box Ryuki saw. There are two different sets of staircases. Ryuki didn't know about the elevator until six years later, they went down to the execution chamber via the stairs.
Amame really went Inigo Montoay there: "My name is Amame Doi. You killed my father, prepare to die."
Also, I feel like you might still have a misconception about this, so I'll clear it up now that we've seen Jin's body.
In Uru's diary, the person he punched out and dragged to the slicer first was Jin, not Chikara. It's actually possible to extrapolate this early on (i.e. during that VR section in the room connected to Uru's room), because it's actually pointed out that Jin's body found in Studio Dvaita was missing a tooth; also because the dates are literally shown for each entry, so you can just match it with the dates the bodies were found
The Two Cathedrals
- The group in the explosion ending say they went down a staircase and not the elevator in Tokiko's office(Because Ryuki didn't discover that until the present day), they are in the west cathedral.
- Ryuki meets Tearer in Mizuki chapter 4 M1 and Tearer says " Did the staircase tire you out?" and the cathedral isn't destroyed yet.
- Mizuki chapter 4 M2: When finding the staircase to the cathedral "But this wasn't here 6 years ago"-Mizuki "But that was a DIFFERENT staircase, wasn't it?" - Aiba.
I fucking love amames second somnium, how it brought back the investigation mechanic from the first game, the intense rush of the choices that emulates her feeling and what she had to pick, leading up to the current outcome, how it used the twist to recontextualize everything that came before but especially her first somnium, while also being a great look at amame herself, who just a maid with a funky design in the previous game. Its my favorite somnium in the game by far.
Aiba: this is it, the final lock of Amame’s somnium
Amame: “which would you choose? Poo flavored curry or Curry flavored Poo?”
POO FLAVORED CURRY
CURRY FLAVORED POO
The way that Shoma just said a bomb so nonchalantly.
Iunno, I think the fact that Date's presence in the Sagan's lives being completely ignored and treated as a footnote in this game goes beyond just how you feel about the characters involved. It was such a big aspect of the original game that to see it treated like it didn't matter is a pretty serious flaw imo. Ota was always a supporting character, so his decreased prominence isn't a problem for me (in fact I would argue him and several other returning characters didn't really need to be in this game at all), but the Sagans are a different story. They were a pivotal emotional cornerstone for Date's character in the first game, but he has not interacted with or even really talked about them at all this whole game so far.
Don’t want to include too many spoilers
@@pn2294 putting aside whether i think it was a good idea to make this game friendly to players new to the franchise (it wasn't imo) i think smth like this, even if it's just a few lines of dialogue from date, could've easily been in the spoiler version of the game
I mean, the whole point of removing him from the story was so that they wouldn't have to worry about that. Date has been missing for 6 years, and the moment he gets back all heck breaks loose. He doesn't exactly have a moment to be with them until the story is over
@@AlphaOblivion7 this is the part where i say "they shouldn't have removed date from the story to this extent to begin with"
I mean, even in the first game, Date has to spend some time with both of them before they talk about his past self, so the fact they don't really talk about Date much when Mizuki doesn't really spend that much time with either of them is kinda not that weird.
If you're criticizing the game for not featuring Iris and Hitomi enough, that's your opinion, but I don't think it's weird that Iris doesn't immediately tell Mizuki about how sad she is everytime they meet, especially since it's been 6 years
I like how all the choices in this Somnium were the same as the final trivia questions in Amame’s first somnium you go through as Ryuki. At first they seemed so random but now they’re given context.
But which one would amame choose? Poo flavored curry, or curry flavored poo?
@@csrjjsmp since she always answers on the right...curry flavored poop
Ryuki: *suffering from survivor's guilt, PTSD, and severe depression bordering on suicide for 6 years, probably longer*
Date: *gives a 30 second pep talk*
Ryuki: "I'm fine now. :)"
I don't like how Ryuki just doesn't have any real presence in the second half of the story, but not giving him a real resolution to his arc is...a little disappointing, to be as kind as possible. Same with Tama honestly, who has had literally zero dialogue for the past like...I wanna say 10 episodes now?
Date > Depression. Such is the life of a Date simp
Date: “Hey, Ryuki.”
Ryuki: [Groans sadly]
Date: “I heard you messed up pretty bad.”
Ryuki: [Groans even sadder]
Date: “But you know what they say, Ryuki. When fall off that horse, you get back up, and you eat that horse. Come eat that horse with me, Ryuki!”
Ryuki: “Um, what does that mean?”
Ryuki has gotten shafted this whole game, he feels like an after thought.
@@ApolloDawn85 replay the days in chronological order. His story works a lot better.
Date “have you tried not being depressed?”
Regarding Why the hiring manager didn’t ask for proof of Amame’s Age: in Japan they don’t ask for ID as much.I went Japan back in 2019 and I got an alcoholic drink at 7-11 and all they asked me how old I was but didn’t ask for a proof of Id. I’m assuming it’s the same for why no ID was ask for her age during her job interview. Also there’s alcohol in vending machines on the street ( which doesn’t require any sort ID either)so it’s fair to say Japan doesn’t have trust or irresponsible issues like other places do.But correct me if imm wrong.
That makes sense, they tend to expect honesty and responsibility considering how they have things like stores that aren’t run by people at the front and it’s by your own merit that you pay for what you buy
I read that thinking you meant ages 7-11, not the store, and was very concerned about that shopkeeper's mental well-being.
@@yoakefuyu that's interesting in the context of amame. she thinks of her decisions as a series of possible moral failings starting from small (lying about her age) to large (killing uru)
Now that youre at the endgame, I recommend recording the rest of the game in one session and maybe splitting it into two in post, because theres no real stopping point, and theres a few "postgame" content that doesnt quite make an episode of their own.
Wholesome Fact: In the first game, Mizuki defines a family as "a perfectly 'ordinary' relationship in the in the most 'ordinary' way. Like, you say, 'I'm home!' and you get a 'Welcome home!' back." So, even after one of them went missing for six years and the other had to move on without them, Date and Mizuki still consider each other family. :'D
The reason why Uru turned around on Amame was actually because he fell in love with her at first sight, hence the “faithful day I met you “. Also he was such a psychopath that he didn’t even think that Amame would have any sort of hatred toward him
I really liked the "I'm home. Welcome back." call back between Mizuki and Date. It was such a huge point at the end of the last game and it made me really happy.
Uru set up the plan. You're overcomplicating it, it's all Uru. The plan is going through because there are still Naix members setting things in motion. Uru's death isn't going to stop the plan because of how large Naix is.
Nico during Episode 4 of his Nirvana Initiative: I wouldn't be surprised she has a bigger role in this game
Me: Yup she definitely got an upgrade from the last game.
Amame in the last game is a friend of Iris whose role is to give info about Iris and Renju and was treated as a very minor character where her name in the dialogue box in the last game listed her as Mermaid. But Nirvana Initiative basically enhances her role more by being part of the plot, killing Tearer, and the game's last Somnium which makes her the Final Boss of sorts. The Nirvana Initiative's story is great because they made a very minor character with little role in that story to have a very big role in the next game's story. Though if you think about it that Iris and Amame essentially switch roles where Iris has a minor role while Amame now has bigger role in Nirvana Initiative's Story.
"is this something we can do? since when?"
the first game, with iris's somnium we go in there twice, the first time we believe her, then afterwards before she dies, we go into the somnium again to see the fruit of immortality
additionally we see Saito's Somnium twice and we see more information about the cyclops killings.
the somniums are never the same twice in a row anyway.
Yes but those were in different paths
Also the one where you believe/disbelieve Iris is the same as the one with the fruit of immortality, the other time she was possessed
@@Droboto23456 Still it counts for establishing how somniums work does it not?
@@Droboto23456 Regarding Saito, the second Somnium was as Boss.
One of the best Somniums in the series. So fucking good
Ryuki actually only got TC-PERGE a few days ago. But he'd been suffering from mental trauma before that, ever since his brother died. TC-PERGE exacerbated that, making his symptoms worse.
Aw, I'm a bit sad we don't get to see Marco, these AI Balls are really fun characters.
I caught that they spelt his name as "Maruko" at one point, that was funny. I imagine the programmer thinking "who the fuck is Maruko, ah well".
I get the feeling he's going to be very cute when A.I. Somnium 3 comes around.
And technically he's like Aiba and Tama's little brother, so that'll be fun.😊
I thought that someone had overlooked not translating his name in English, and was left there by mistake.
there is a video of marco doing the dance thing, he dos have a model in the game though remain unused.
Fun fact, Uchikoshi confirmed that Marco is nonbinary on twitter 😊 which started a lot of shit from annoying people but I think it's neat!
@@DiabolicalPaperClip imagine people being pressed over the gender identity of *an artificial intelligence* 💀
It feels like this game focuses more on plot twists involving the plot itself instead of diving into the characters and their development, which might be why this game is pretty decisive in the comment section. Not saying that the game doesn’t ignore the characters(Exhibit 1: Shoma’s mimdscape), but in order to deal with creating plot twists, the characters need to sorta be tweaked to deal with that. It’s not a bad thing for a work of fiction, but a good number of players for this game seems to prefer focus on characters more then the plot itself. Just my two cents though.
Nico, I have a theory as to why Amame would go along with Tokiko's blackmail. Remember the wrench she hit Uru with? It is more than likely that Tokiko used the wrench as leverage in order to for Amame to comply. One, ot probably had her fingerprints and Uru's blood. Even if the police didn't know where it came from and if she wasn't charged with anything, it would not matter. Just revealing the fact that she attacked someone with a weapon is still a bad look. The consequences would be that she would lose her current and possibly be unable to get another. This in turn would not only her life but also Shoma's. Hindsight is always 20/20. I imagine the only thing Amame was thinking at the time was making Uru pay and the result ended with her getting caught and becoming an accomplice in Tokiko's suicide.
Also, on an absolute side note, Ryuki definitely needs like a thousand hugs. He has been through way too much. This may be just a personal thing but I hope we get another game just dedicated to Ryuki. I imagine it would be a really fun time.
Something I don't think gets brought up often is the reason why Aiba gets mad at Date whenever he does his porno stuff now or doesn't mention porn to increase his reaction time like in the first AI.
In the first game, that was done to Date because he was in Saito's body and he had to be distracted from all the killing. Basically ensuring that he didn't become a second Saito, Aiba gave him a different reason why he thought he was happy. Porn.
But now he's back in his own body, he doesn't have the mental problems Saito did, thus he wouldn't need this same kinda trickery, so Aiba doesn't use it, but despite thst Date still believes it or is just uncontrollably horny, which probably lead to such discourse.
Fun fact, Marco actually has a model in game, but it never got used at any point. His only animation is him dancing to Kizuna’s song, mimicking her dance moves to the best of his ability (since unlike Aiba or Tama, he doesn’t have legs). There’s a vid online, just don’t look at the comments. Huge spoilers
And now you understand why Amame did what she did in Gen's route. She was already in a fragile mental state because she murdered two people, and the police coming made her panic and go completely off the deep end.
Interesting. When I played the game, I believe I chose the "wrong" option on one of these final prompts. This made Mizuki and Aiba struggle with their words, making Amame lose her calm demeanor and say "I HAD TO CHOOSE IT, SO YOU'LL CHOOSE TOO" with crazy eyes and everything, which was one of the most impactful moments in the game for me. It's really weird to see that this isn't something that happens regardless of your choice, because it was a very heavy but impactful moment.
During the first question when she asked if it was worse to lose the father or mother I purposefully let the time run out. Cause Mizuki literally lost three sets of parents if you count her bio parents and Date. Frankly I was a bit pissed off at Amame for not recognizing that, but after I played the rest of the somnium I understood why. Poor girl.
Yeah in that section choosing the "right" answers are the ones that give a lot more impact and context on what stress Amame was under. I'm a bit mad the game didn't force you to choose for Apology at the end too.
@@SuzdalPanic sucks that the game completely glosses over that fact so amame does too. I think part of the reason mizuki is a weirdly bland protagonist is a failure to build on the events of the first game for spoiler reasons (and ofc the game is trying to obscure that in half of the mizuki sections we aren't playing as her at all!)
The plot-hole I'm still stuck on is about Uru - we see him STANDING in Amame's Somnium there at the end, which is a dream, and not literally what happened, but still. If he lost SO many organs... What were they replaced with? How is he not just immovable in bed on a ventilator? Did Uru have to donate muscles?? His eye, or brain tissue? How would he SURVIVE without some of those organs??? The liver grows back, but not the pancreas, man! Gallbladder isn't necessary, and I'm not sure about the spleen.... Yes, you can live with just one lung and one kidney, but... You'd be pretty messed up!
Uru was disturbingly lucky that they didn't need to take his heart cuz it was the RIGHT side they took from... Eughgh, if they HAD taken his heart, and just used an external pump instead, then he really WOULD be immobile on life-support and just fuming...
IRL, this was actually done to a cow calf, scientists did remove the heart and replace it with an internal battery powered constantly-running pump, so the calf was perfectly healthy apart from having ZERO HEARTBEAT. It was amazing and disturbing and sad... (source: popsci-dot-org, article from 2012 titled "no pulse" The calves fitted with the device, at that point, only lived up to 6 months, sooo. Not amazing, but, perhaps the science has advanced in the past 10 years!)
IDK man, I'm still just freaked out by the biological details of multiple-organ-donation... He'd be SO FCKED UP...
Ai-Fanbase: Amame should have more in AI2
(AI2 Happens)
AI-Fanbase: WAIT FUCK GO BACK!
So about Marco. First thing, don't worry about the whole Marco/Maruko thing. Localization sorta messed up with their name a bit, Marco is the official name for them. But more importantly, While in game they are refereed to by He/him pronouns, Uchikoshi actually clarified on twitter that Marco actually goes by they/them pronouns. The reason Uchikoshi gave for the use of he/him pronouns is, after all the big plot twists that had just been thrown at the player, they didn't want to have to confuse the player anymore. Which... I don't really agree with, but at least in any future appearances Marco can be refereed to by their correct pronouns. But funny fact about this, when Uchikoshi revealed this on twitter, you got the obviously mean people who said that Uchikoshi is just pandering to SJW's, and dumb stuff of that nature. But Uchikoshi, in response to this, gave a whole Uchikoshi speak as a counter to what they are saying, including quoting a fucking french philosopher at them. He murdered them so hard he got himself trending on twitter over this. It was glorious.
Remember when one of them said that Uchikoshi was secretly a California girl and the next day Uchikoshi tweeted “A-Am I a California Girl? I don't have the confidence to swear that's wrong..”
this all happened around the same time as Bridget Guilty Gear, Shiver Splatoon 3, and a Xenoblade Chronicles 3 character were all announced as trans/non-binary. (i’m unsure about Shiver but the other two are definitely confirmed trans).
Also actually Maruko goes by “they/he” pronouns. That means Maruko uses both “he/him” and “they/them” pronouns. The localization director made that comment in Uchikoshi’s thread and Uchikoshi agreed.
I feel like forgoing the they/them pronouns in favor of he/him might've been a good idea, mainly because they're referred to by two names: Marco and Maruko. So using they/them would likely have made some people think they're two different entities. Obviously, changing someone's pronouns isn't usually good unless the character themself undergoes a change in pronouns (which I would like to see more of in media), but people with multiple sets of pronouns exist, and clearly Marco is one of them.
@@sirsamgrace shiver was confirmed to be female recently, from what I gathered. So I guess it was just 2/3.
Uru got killed the same way Date kept on falling for Ota's attack
Nico, "I don't know if I've ever come across a game that really made me had to sit back and take hours to rethink how the enter game's structured"
Me, starring at the 10 and a half hours Piecing Together the Story of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim video in my suggestions, "are you sure about that?"
Nico did mention 13 sentinels later on comparing this to it. I think the difference is that 13 sentinels from the get go made it apparent that not everything is what it seems and there’ll be answers given throughout the story bit by bit that helps you contextualise it. In this game’s case, while ibviously if you are a fan of Uchikoshi’s from before you expect a big twist or two, though the big answer only comes up at this point making you think over the _entire_ story even the „fluff dialogue”, while in 13S the player was at least partially doing it already throughout the game. Obviously the parrarels are still valid, but these are just small things that differentiate the two of them.
This is hands-down my favourite somnium of all time. There's so many intricacies to this. At the surface, the gameplay takes itself to another level, as the second time syncing into the culprit's somnium a brand new investigation mechanic is used, and combines information from the first sync to progress, allowing you to piece the clues together. The game also cleverly uses the seemingly random quiz from the first sync to answer the main crossroads that Amame faced throughout her six years.
But the best part of this somnium is that the main purpose isn't really to gain information about the culprit -- most players already know by now based on the clues that Amame is the culprit ("Nirvana, Collected, Genocide", access to Shoma's robot, the clear motive to kill Tearer). Instead, the purpose of the somnium is to strip YOU, the player, of any denial about the true identity of the Tearer's killer. The game cleverly sets Amame up as a beautiful soul and clearly incapable of cold-blooded murder. Gen and Shoma, who are likelable characters already, are seen defending Amame and were ready to protect her with their lives, because of how much they loved her. In the first psync, Amame was presented as a traumatised and broken individual who was threatened by Tearer to keep silent about his appearance at studio Dvaita, on top of the fact that she had just seen her father's murderer. This makes the player think that she's the VICTIM, and not the culprit.
And last, the whole sequence of "what-ifs". Right after the player gathers the evidence that Amame clearly involved in the murders of Tearer and Tokiko, they're presented with not just one, but FOUR moral dilemmas (just like the four Xs you've traversed). She's clearly wrecked with guilt regarding her choices over them, because one way or another they would've led to some sadness or another. This reinforces the player's belief that Amame was dragged into the whole affair by circumstance, and was likely coerced into being an accomplice like Ryuki had been -- she didn't even murder Tokiko. If Tokiko had committed suicide, then surely Tearer could've as well? And then the nail on the coffin. The scene of Amame killing Tearer (a psychopathic murderer, if you haven't forgotten) in a crime of passion -- as revenge for her father. In stark contrast to eerily creepy Saito's somnium and reveal of how he did it, the player instead gets a wretched tale of a girl who was a prisoner of circumstance and forced to make terrible decisions that any of us could've done (I'm pretty sure most of us would've chosen "heck yeah, revenge")
And now the moral dilemma once again splits the fanbase into two: was Amame justified in killing Tearer? Should she be punished for doing sp?
This reveal also retroactively affects the Gen/Amame ending. Amame would be in even worse of a mental state/want to avoid the police that much more given all she's done.
40:20 She shot rubber bullets Nico, she said this earlier in Mizuki's route.
A rubber bullet in the wrong spot could still definitely kill you
Probably still wouldn't have been very good for her head. Though on the bright side, she could have gotten another ai-ball too.
Rubber bullets are still dangerous and painful tho, especially aimed at the head. And it's not like she was missing on purpose, she didn't deny trying to straight up shoot Mizuki. It's just weird knowing Bibi's personality and entire existence revolves around protecting her little clone/sister from any harm.
I'm so puzzled as to why fictional media thinks rubber bullets are harmless. They are projectiles!! They can still cause you serious bodily harm and even kill you if they hit the wrong place.
I love boss's face when mizuki said she was gonna sock puter
Aiba: there is no what if in this world.
So,... pallarel world doesn't exist?
Iris materializes in the somnium loading a shotgun: "you were saying ?"
If you had picked the "Apology" option in Amame's somnium Uru says to her (after demanding he apologizes for his actions) "Listen to me. Death is salvation. I'm sure your dad would thank me if he could." I think it's kind of eerie in a way to hear Billy Kametz say the words "Death is salvation" knowing that he passed away just a couple weeks before the game released and this was one of his final roles.
Oh thank god it wasn’t just me that found that ironically sad. Not to mention Uru’s dna being used to cure Jin’s cancerous tumors, meanwhile Billy died from cancer. A man who was dead in the present this whole time was voiced by another man who’s been dead in the present this whole time.
@@ladyholiday3863 Blimey yeah I hadn't even thought of the tumors and such was similar to what happened to Billy. Bloody hell there really is an extra layer of sadness to this game with the real life tragedies that befell some of the VA's. If they end up one day making an AI 3 with the same group of characters I hope we don't tragically loose more VA's along the way.
I like Amame's second somnium a lot, but I wish the emotional payoff was stronger. She just hasn't been a significant enough presence in this game, and we don't really get to spend a lot of time with her, just knowing her as a person before this. It's very good, but admittedly her character is also hard carried by it, if I'm being honest
Yeah... Honestly, most of the impact for me was "Awww poor Gen, this is really gonna be rough for him"
17:45
Yes, as Ryuki. When you talk to Lien at the park
He said he worked with the Kamukura and also partner up with Quartz (episode 10 minute 17:00 NicoB playthrough)
The West and east cathedrals were not goofs. The one Ryuki entered and chased the suspicious individual (Amame) in was the east cathedral in the present. He entered that from the president's office. Ryuki found the West cathedral staircase in the past and confronted Tearer. It's the staircase entrance he lead the others to on February 15th in the past. They make a passing comment that Ryuki told them about the entrance (Since he already knew about it after confronting Tearer). The player just assumes at that point that he knew about the entrance from finding it in Tokiko's office but that was the elevator, not a staircase.
Your question of why Amame followed Tokiko's orders after she died will literally be explained next episode lol
Also doesn't Tokiko have fellow Naix followers? Even IF Amame backstabbed her after her death by not doing her plan, there's probably a chance some Naix devotees would endanger her, Shoma's and Gen's lives afterwards.
I think while I ultimately enjoyed this game, and I think it does some things better, I feel like I enjoyed the first game more. The first game's story felt a lot more tidy and satisfying even after the twist, but in this game there's still so much stuff I have to force myself to accept, like Mizuki and Bibi wearing the exact same clothes and hairstyle at 18.
I also don't like how most of the returning characters were handled. They had so little to do in this game it feels like some of them shouldn't have returned at all.
You know, it just hit me... in Tokiko's Somnium we saw both Gen and Shoma in the Somnium but Gen had no connection to Tokiko and Shoma had only a moderate connection to her. But now that we know that it was Amame she was talking to, suddenly it makes a lot of sense. Gen and Shoma were in Tokiko's Somnium not because they were part of Naix (except for Shoma), but that she was going to find and kill them if Ameme didn't comply with her plans... Tokiko is scary now.
It’s a fine theory, and it’s certainly possible, but the developers’ notes reveal that the reason for Gen and Shoma appearing in Tokiko’s somnium is that they are the victims of Chikara’s experiments that Tokiko knows about. She pities them both in a way, but she’s not willing to do anything to help them. It’s also said that Tokiko projects her feelings towards Jin onto Gen and her feelings towards Uru onto Shoma
@@saintcruiser5950 Then it is pretty ironic that both of them happen to be close to Amame. I dunno, this is one of those things that could have a double meaning behind it. Like one perspective could be that Tokiko was thinking about them out of pity, but it makes zero sense when in the same Somnium we see Gen's body floating in a pool of blood. That to me gives the impression that Tokiko wants to kill Gen because of his ties to Amame.
Out of all the big tear jerk-y moments of this game, Amame's Somnium here DEF got to me the most as a big sister who's also hella dedicated to her family--
I like how the ABIS trio are trying to basically play "good cop" with Shoma and Genny, and all the while they've only got a few hours before shit hits the fan.
Why couldn't they just lie and say "Amame's life is in danger" and they need to take her someplace safe?
At this point they'd believe anything.
The ethical standards of ABIS are sooo fuzzy. I don't think coercing her into going to the station would ever be legal for a regular police force, but who knows with Boss and her (ethical?) corruption?
So Uchikoshi on twitter later clarified Marco is NB and goes by they/them, while the male pronouns were a localization decision. There was a kerfuffle on twitter over whether he was pandering or not. I don’t remember much of that, aside from some wild accusation that Uchikoshi was a teenage girl from California. Uchikoshi later decided to never live in California after he found out about the rent prices.
Though given the Baguette Tweets and plots revolving around snails, it’s more likely Uchikoshi is French instead. Nico can’t understand his plots like how he can’t understand the accent lol.
OH YEAH THAT
The person who called Uchikoshi a "teenage Californian girl" is named Gambs, and a friend of mine on Twitter knows about that Gambs person. Let me tell you, this Gambs person is way W O R S E than you think.
My friend said that Gambs is a moderator on the visual novel Subreddit and Gambs is also known for fighting translators there.
Oh! And one last thing. A few days ago, Gambs got suspended on Twitter! Deserved, honestly. Unfortunately, Gambs' account is back, but the account is locked (Meaning, we cannot see their posts, etc.) :(
P.S. Good on Marco for being nonbinary! We seriously need more nonbinary representation in games. Oh and we need more people like Uchikoshi 👍
I'm going to make an early call that in the next game Marco is going to go by Maruko and have the same energy as 9S or Early Emil. That kinda effiminate energy.
@@W0RLD0FLIGHT there's something seriously weird and toxic about that sub, so a mod being a transphobe among other things makes sense. I can't overstate how stupid it is to think that nonbinary people are a dumb "woke" western invention.
Now that the 2 Mizukis twist is revealed, all I can think of is how ackward Date would be to have to explain his situation to both Mizukis after the Annihilation Route in the first game.
Sidenote, I'm sad that we will never got PORNO MAG POWA outta Boss's mouth.
I agree with Nico. this twist genuinely took me a few days after i beat the game to sit with me well. i had enough time to put the pieces together and enjoy what the developers had made in the story. it was kinda disappointing that i wasn't able to figure it out since the last AI game help lead you onto the main twist once you started going down the true ending, but it was still satisfying.
my only remaining complaint is that the game didn't have more branching timelines and endings like VLR, and i wanted them to talk about morphogenetic field theory, but thats just my Zero Escape Fanboy side talking.
Agreed.
There ARE clues kinda to the "Twist" but I feel like if someone did suspect it early on, they SHOULD have stopped suspecting it because "Wow that would be such a stretch"
Its not a terrible Twist... I just think the twist is done contrary to the character development and the actual story.
Games like 13 Sentinels and ZTD's Twists were integrated into the plot, the characters behaving as you'd think they should, because they didn't know what we didn't know, so they acted accordingly.
In this... It's just coincidence that no character ever mentions any of the stuff... That people normally would. Like bibi - Mizuki coincidence. Also my biggest issue is when Mizuki asks about "The other VictimS" after finding Uru. Like, girl you know it's just Tokiko... Not plural. I guess you could argue she's asking about the first 3? But it's dumb to think tearer didn't kill them.
AI:1's body hopping twist was an example of a plot twist.
AI:2's big twist ISN'T a plot twist, it's just a twist on the player... The plot isn't changed remotely, not for any of the characters, there's no change to their outcome at the reveal. It's just that we start to understand what's happening.
Info that technically, Date and Boss should have had all along. Which... Makes them fucking stupid.
I think I recall there where times in the previous game Dante asked to go back inside a somnium and each time they used the excuse they had a limit for how long they could keep some detained for legal reasons.
LOL given what we know about Bibi now, Nico singing "she's her own biggest fan" makes SO much more sense heheh
"Crystals are the solid form of silicon dioxide, aka quartz" - Uhhh no Aiba, not even close.
In spite of all the sad stuff a part of me wonders if Iris will ever do a livestream to raise money for Amame’s bail. Like the stream’s just titled “#FreeMame”
Uchikoshi needs to make this a part of the plot of the 3rd game. lol
Friendly Reminder. Bail is only money to let a person be out of Jail BEFORE the trial. So for big public cases like a serial killing, cases are often rushed to Trial.
On the other hand. At least by US Court... I have a hard time believing a jury will actually convict Amame. Yes, she killed Uru. But she killed a serial Killer, who she was alone with, who was planning on firing a Virus Filled Missile into a metropolitan area.
That's easily grounds for jury nullification, or at the very least to plead self defense. (contrary to the name, most places actually include defending other people from danger inside of self-defense) apparently Uru had just explained how he planned to kill thousands of people, and Amame knew he'd already killed 3 people. So she'd believe he was capable of and willing to do that.
For a 22 year old girl, alone in a room with a murderer... It's such an easy case for a defense lawyer to convince a jury that she felt in danger and a need to protect herself and others by any means necessary.
It’s kind of amazing to realize later that the little X’s on her blue sweater’s hem may hint toward her involvement with Naix.
On a sad and morbid note: It's kind off unnerving seeing and hearing Uru/Tearer's death seeing as Billy Kametz is no longer with us...RIP again Billy.
@@dracmanish agree, wish we got one more scene with uru and ryuki talking to each other i enjoy billy kametz voice work so much, oh well what can you do about it?
And so, Amame's suffering continues...
contrived was actually my main retrospective on this entire game and i am glad to see i wasn't the only one to use that word to describe it, becase i really think its the perfect descriptor for this game(even thouh i still love it to bits). there are so many conveniences required for it to work and it really comes at the expense of a lot of the characters, as they aren't really allowed to change over 6 years to make it work, but its also incredibly clever all the ways it was foreshadowed. It's extremely fun to go back through and notice all the little details that are super easy to overlook.
I think one of my favourite of such details is when getting chewed out by boss in her office as ryuki, if you inspect the balloon he goes "tch".
(maybe somone pointed that one out to you in the video, i paused to comment this after i heard you say contrived here at the start here to comment)
Tokiko's a smart person. She probably gave instruction to someone at Naix to leak the fact that Amame killed Uru if Tokiko's body didn't show up. There's no way she wouldn't have had some sort of means to force Amame to do what she wanted even after her death, similar to how Uru said that he would send assassins after Kizuna even if he were to die.
I'm pretty sure the assassins were for Mizuki Date and not Kizuna. With how much her files mentioned how much Bibi loves Mizuki Date (and no mention of Kizuna) I think it's safe to deduced he meant her.
@@Cosplaythief Well regardless of who it was for, it still stands that Tokiko could have done the same basic thing
There's a part in Amames "Quiz Show" Somnium, where you can't choose a wrong answer no matter what you pick. It's framed as Theoretical Choices, But the choices are exactly the ones Amame goes through in her second somnium.
The father or the mother, which is worse to lose? Lie and be rich, or Poor and honest? Best friend or family member? Biggest lie exposed or become part of a plot? Revenge or Apology?
Just a really neat detail.
Back when you entered Mame's somnium the first time with Ryuki, you get asked the exact same questions back then, which seemed pretty random. Back then it also didn't really matter what you answer
But now you have these questions again with the full context behind them
That last section of Amame's second Somnium was heartbreaking to watch.
so i just wanna point out, at some point, all these flippin LPs end up connected somehow, and we all have a big laugh about it in the Discord....which you should join, its pretty chill in there.
But not only did Zero Time Dilemma prophecize this exact scenario, with the entire point of Delta's scheme was to train a line of SHIFTers with a timeline Deep-6'd by Rad 6 so that they can take down a *unknown terrorist who wiped out Earth's ENTIRE population with a virus* as opposed to Delta's 99.9% of the human population....but that Tearer is literally just replicating Junko's ultimate despair, complete with it raining people as they off themselves from going wackadoo....Uchikoshi, you mad bastard
I believe I said it before and I’ll say it again, I love Faye’s voice acting in this somnium. And hey, I got more Amame lore…. But at what cost. Darn that monkey paw.
“I have no regrets!” Honey, we just witnessed a whole somnium full of your regrets. You ain’t fooling anyone.
I think Amame meant, after a lifetime of regrets, killing Uru was the one thing she didn’t regret at all.
No, I know she obviously doesn’t regret killing Uru. It’s just the way it’s said (at least in the English translation) makes it sound like she’s denying all of her regrets and I’m just like, girl.
I swear to god this somnium is more despair inducing than anything and everything Junko did. Holy fuck.
Nico I know it was a throwaway joke about the % face but people have birthmarks, vertigo, and/or scars on their face for real and its not easy. But then again I can see where you're going with this now that you know Japan and its bullying. But still. Maybe its just me but--marks on a face are a thing, man
As someone with Vertigo, and as someone who knew a kid in kindergarten that had a massive birthmark that covered the right side of his neck and a bit of his face as well, I can confirm this.
Vertigo? That's where someone's dizzy all the time, it DOES make life harder, for sure, but...
Ohhh, did you mean Vitiligo? That's where patches of skin pigment fade over time to a bright white.
So funny thing with Amame's somnium is that besides demonstrating she in pressure has bad decision making, since she always picks the option on right side that means it applied to questions in previous somnium. In other word, she would rather eat curry flavored poop :D It made going back to previous somnium fascinating.
Jin: cause you and me, we’re like brothers. Only closer.
Uru: AAAAAAAHHHH!
Uru: (proceed to punch the ever living shit out of jin)
Jin: I ONLY TRY TO MAKE AMEND FUC ...(lose a teeth and fall unconscious to the floor)
We all know that, on the 12th, the real reason Ryuki was demoted is because he shot a civilian.
But I think that many people forgot that during that Boss gave him a last chance to solve the HB case by telling him to do it in 72 hours, or three days, and if you consider that catching Amame closes the case then he did. However if closing the case means stopping the Nirvana Initiative he still has a little more than 12 hours.
So I'd say he has a pretty good chance of staying in ABIS.
Just a problem though, Boss's last chance to solve the HB case was made 6 years ago.... we're in the present....
Haven't seen it mentioned yet so here it goes, there was actually a translation mistake regarding Marco's gender. You might notice that they are occasionally referred to as Maruko instead of Marco as an example of this. We know this because Uchikoshi actually talked about it on Twitter in English. Marco in nonbinary and this clearly was not conveyed clearly to the translation team somehow. This actually cause Uchikoshi and Ai to explode on Twitter because Uchikoshi responded to people who disliked the choice to include a nonbinary character in a video game in a very wholesome but savage manner.
I think you're right when you call the timeline twist interesting. I think its written very technically well, where you can review all the events under a different lens, and the writing is very consistent in keeping the twist from you. It must have taken a lot of effort, scrubbing and editing to get it as good as it is, so that when we're given information that didn't make sense at the time it becomes very clear later.
but a fundamental problem with the twist in the first place is the meta forth wall breaking reveal. There's one thing where the characters and players are all being misled about the timeline, but the way it looks like there IS no twist to the characters because there was nothing hidden from them in the first place, aside from Uru and Jin both being dead.
So this twist was fully for the player, who can't keep up because the information simply wasnt there in the first place. In the end while the twist is technically well written, the effect on the player is cheapened because, well, the twist is fuckin lame. You got your days mixed up in the timeline and that's pretty much it, there isnt anything to chew on like the body hopping twist and all the routes and endings and characters that are affected by the body hopping twist.
i had actually confused myself on what the twist actually was, i had initially believed that the twist was that characters were stepping in and out of different timelines without realizing it, getting information that they shouldn't know from past and future. You know. "Parallel Worlds Are Real" from the first game, but instead of only Date multiple characters were affected by that's phenomenon. My mind ran wild with the idea. When the twist was revealed Date's "Ryuki, why did you run away?" question came back and hit me like a bag of bricks, leaving me clutching my head trying to figure out how this is fucking possible.
But again, no, the game just lies to you. Its pretty lame.
My first assumption was also that it had to involve an in universe element such as time travel or some trick like in the last game and the frozen 'Iris', because I naturally assumed there would be an in universe answer. That's pretty normal for mysteries unless they're more meta than we've seen so far. It's how I engage with mysteries at least, as something to experience and solve along with the story's detective or Watson characters. In that way, the mystery will have an emotional and story element to it. But the timeline twist is a non narrative mystery, purely one for the player to solve. Sure, I can appreciate the effort made on a technical sense, but I don't really connect to tricks like that Something like this is in the long run going to stick less with me than annihilation, the butterfly effect choices or the worlds of the three character routes after their ends. Like So-Iris and the messed up situation that creates
alone continues to draw interest from me in terms of what people write, say about it or joke about it. Annihilation was devastating even before you get to the conclusion thanks to how painful it was to go through those visits after Iris and Ota died, but other fans can and have explored the possibilities from other characters perspectives or what happened after the end point. That's the potential of good narrative and story, which a technical trick can't give you.
This is what I love about AI Somnium Files, they are able to make these characters super relatable to the point that it hurts. Amame looking back if she made the right decision and then justifying those decisions even when she’s hurt and others are also hurt is too relatable to me. There are actions that we regret and get hurt from it but we sometimes have the reason to do it, that’s make us human and Amame is too. Even with all the crazy bullshit and their eclectic personalities we see what makes them human.
I'm pretty sure since Uru was held up in the room for his childhood, there were cameras installed. And therefore Tokiko had the video and a deadman switch set if Amame didn't do what Tokiko asked