No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES marks the series first game on Nintendo Switch 2. Learn more in our No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES review!
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No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES marks the series’ first game on Nintendo Switch 2. This one from Spike Chunsoft takes place after The New Cyclops Serial Killings mystery was solved, and it starts with the abduction of internet idol Iris Sagan – known as “A-set” – by a UFO! She’s forced to take part in a dangerous escape game known as The Third Eye Game. It’s now up to you to once again take on the role of Special Agent Kaname Date – joined by your partner AI-Ball Aiba – and you’ll need to do whatever it takes to solve this new mystery before it’s too late! Kaname Date was being chased by some mysterious men in black when all of this happened, and Iris was sucked into the spaceship alongside the men in black. It’s why the scenario reminded me of the beloved No More Heroes series since it might be a bit of an “out there” premise for some.
This does mean that the story is set before AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES – nirvanA Initiative, so there’s plenty for fans of the series to dive into, with some Escape Room elements thrown in for good measure. I previously got a chance to review the excellent murder mystery AI: The Somnium Files, as well as its just as good sequel AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES – nirvanA Initiative on Nintendo Switch, so I was more than ready to go back into the world of AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES, now on the Nintendo Switch 2. This one is a very story-driven experience, and it’s certainly helped by the solid voice acting from Greg Chun as Kaname Date, Jackie Lastra as Iris Sagan, Erika Harlacher as Aiba, and Jenny Yokobori as The Third Eye GAme host Akemi, to name some examples.
This one is split into 3 different gameplay sections: Investigation, Escape, and Somnium. During the Investigation sections, you’ll be progressing through the story as you examine whatever stands out around you. You’ll be able to freely control a cursor and the camera with the left analog and the right analog stick, respectively, as you press the A button to interact with stuff. Thanks to Date’s left eye, you’ll be able to see beyond what is apparent. This will hopefully bring you closer to finding out where Iris is being held so that you can hatch up a plan to locate her and help break her free.
The Escape sections, the name pretty much says it all, right? For Escape segments, you’ll need to learn more about what surrounds you so that you can find the information needed to solve the puzzles that will bring you one step closer to, well, escape from the current location. Find the right order of things, and you’ll be able to open the door toward freedom! Just be sure to examine things with names as you move closer to them so that you can find the stuff that can aid you. You can use the Search function by pressing the ZL button to focus on your surroundings, which will briefly show the things that you can examine in white, as well as things that you should examine now in yellow. This is not always an option since it will be locked out when playing in the Hard difficulty setting – more on this in a bit. Once you fill up the bar at the bottom of the screen, the segment will be completed.
The Somnium segments in No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES will have you diving into a colorful and eccentric dream world. You can jump into the dream worlds of suspects thanks to the Psync machine to find clues that can help you. You have a time limit of 6 minutes to do this, so you’ll need to make every second count! You’ll have to work on removing Mental Locks so that you can dive deeper into a subject’s deepest psyche. Find ways to extend your time in a Somnium segment for a bit, and you might have enough seconds to solve a new mystery!
You can play through No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES in one of three difficulty settings for the Investigation and Somnium sections and four difficulty settings for the Escape sections. For the Investigation and Somnium sections, you’ll get to pick between Story, Easy, and Standard. In the Investigation sections, Story will give you an infinite time limit, a 3 for the repeat count, and no failures for misses. Going with Easy will have you with double the time limit and a repeat count at half value. Standard, as expected, has the normal time limit and repeat count.
In the Somnium sections, the Story difficulty setting will have the countdown speed at 1/4, the choice time cost at 1/4, and provide you with infinite retries. The Easy difficulty setting has the countdown speed at 1/2, the choice time cost at 1/2, and provides you with 6 retries. The Standard difficulty setting will have the countdown speed and choice time cost at the normal setting while affording you 3 retries in total. As for the Escape sections, the Story difficulty setting will have Crisis Time set at 4x, provide an infinite search limit, and provide you with hints until you’ve solved the puzzle. The Easy difficulty setting gives you double the Crisis Time, an infinite search limit, and provides you with many hints until you’ve solved the puzzle. The Standard difficulty setting has Crisis Time set to normal, a search limit of 10, and many hints to aid you. As for the Hard difficulty setting, it will set Crisis Time at 0.8, have a very harsh search limit of 0, but at least you’ll still be able to use hints.
No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES marks the series’ first game on Nintendo Switch 2. This one from Spike Chunsoft takes place after The New Cyclops Serial Killings mystery was solved, and it starts with the abduction of internet idol Iris Sagan – known as “A-set” – by a UFO! She’s forced to take part in a dangerous escape game known as The Third Eye Game. It’s now up to you to once again take on the role of Special Agent Kaname Date – joined by your partner AI-Ball Aiba – and you’ll need to do whatever it takes to solve this new mystery before it’s too late! Kaname Date was being chased by some mysterious men in black when all of this happened, and Iris was sucked into the spaceship alongside the men in black. It’s why the scenario reminded me of the beloved No More Heroes series since it might be a bit of an “out there” premise for some.
As you progress through the game, you’ll be rewarded with Eyes, which you can then spend in the Bonus section to unlock additional content. More content is made available for you to unlock with Eyes as you carry on with the story, so be sure to visit this section to see what you can get! How will you be able to get some extra Eyes? During Somnium sections, be sure to pick choices you’ve yet to make and discover hidden items. Completing sections with at least one second left is also an option. No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES launches next week on Nintendo Switch 2 on July 25 with a $39.99 price tag. There’s also a Nintendo Switch version available for the game at the same price tag that you can get as a separate purchase.
Disclaimer
This No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES review is based on a Nintendo Switch 2 copy provided by Spike Chunsoft.
