A I The Somnium Files Is A Strand Game | Castle Super Beast Clips

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@A_D_Art

[@FrankBlarghHonk]

So to go even further with the idol simp character, there was something similar that happpened irl to that with this game. When the game came out, it was reviewed-bombed to hell. Cue one guy who launched an investigation and gave his findings to the devs on how games get targeted for that. It was informative with what he gave, execept for one thing... When others looked into who caused the review-bomb for the game, it turns out that it was the guy who conducted the first investigation. To make this situation even more meta, his reasoning behind the review-bomb was because of the idol character. He hated how they portrayed her in the game. Now you may be asking, "How can you hate the portrayal of a character if this is their debut appearance?" Thing is, the game itself wasn't her debut, but the promotional videos for the game is where she first debuted as a vtuber. He character in the videos was different from the game, even though you can make the argument that the vtuber version is the 'idol' personality of the character and what you see in the game is her acual personality that the guy hated. tldr; idol simp character has a real-life counterpart and I fully expect this incident gets referenced in the sequel.

[@malum9478]

that is...actually...i mean just... *_what???_*

[@why7893]

If it won't get referenced in the sequel it would be a really sad missed fun opportunity

[@JameboHayabusa]

If this is true. Than truth really is stranger than fiction

[@charleswisconsin9196]

that word still doesn't mean what people want it to mean.

[@dunethewanderer8944]

When Pat started bringing up how writers have no chill when it comes to philosophical tangents, I couldn't help but think back to Evengelion when literally an entire episode was dedicated to telling people what the Hedgehog's Dilemma was.

[@yanipheonu]

To be fair, that was actually an apt usage of a psychological concept that explains part of how Shinji is feeling during that episode. They don't bring up the Hedgehog's Dilemma because someone really really liked hedgehogs and didn't care how random it was.

[@locke2517]

Woolie is 100 percent right. That is EXACTLY why I i love metal gear. Over explanation of superfluous minutiae is what I'm here for. I love it.

[@goodninji8]

EYE also enjoy Met4l Gear.

[@ridleyroid9060]

Uchikoshi is a nerd and HE WILL LET YOU KNOW IT. Ive played every single one of his directed games going from Never 7, Ever 17, Remember 11, to 999, vlr, ztd and now AI and this man, without exception, will let you know exactly what occult weird bullshit he has been up to while writing the game.

[@markusa5293]

Kinda like SWERY with his new pop-culture fascination?

[@piratekingomega3292]

@@markusa5293 yes but instead it will be him looking you in the eyes being like “every hear about morphogenetic fields?” followed by him talking about transferring souls into different dimensions. I STRONGLY recommend playing zero escape purely because there’s no way to describe this man’s ability to infodump occultism

[@MLGHazrad]

If there is one thing Woolie needs if he decided to play an Ace Attorney game is to almost follow what they did with 13 Sentinels and have Reggie do the notetaking of almost every Turnabout. Unlike 13 Sentinels, Woolie should rely more on Reggie's notetaking and reasoning and Reggie should be more confident with what he says than just get sandbagged by Woolie's headcanons.

[@gameb9oy]

I can agree to this, though would also add, they shouldn’t be afraid to save before most if not all choices. There’s always at least one point in the game where you know what the game wants, but it’s not telling you what to present very well

[@whitegemgames]

@@gameb9oy I love the ace attorney games but no series has put me in that situation more often, having the problem solved mentally but unsure how to reveal it with the evidence or testimony I have access to.

[@thunderhogTH]

This title is a god damn gut punch to my face, an I love that game. Uchikoshi is a fucking insane man when it comes to linking insane psudo science bullshit, and this isn't even the worst of it. Did you know that the focus on 9 in 999 was because when drawing a 9, you're drawing a zero with an escape route? A Zero escape if you will

[@Limit02]

Oh my god that type of bullshit is my jam, I need to play that

[@TM-si1ky]

@@Limit02 Make sure you play Virtue's Last Reward too. That game slaps my organs raw, it's so good

[@GabeSweetMan]

SHUT UP THAT'S THE REASON THE SERIES IS ZERO ESCAPE? Oh man that's... That's fucking dumb and I love it.

[@cringekid3993]

King of IRL 1 frame links

[@iamnuff1992]

That's fucking _stupid_

[@Takyomi]

Playing AI Somnium Files and then 13 Sentinels back to back have really raised the bar for English VA performance for me, and made Allegra Clark a draw for me whenever I see her name in the credits of a project. Every single actor in Somnium Files is perfect, so much personality, but her performance as Boss (and Iori in 13 sentinels!) is just fucking out of the park.

[@Terithian]

Yeah, I played AI myself with Japanese voices because I just expect sub-par dubbing in Japanese games at this point and change the option ASAP by default most of the time, but watching Pat play it I was blown away by how surprisingly good the English dub is. Now it'll actually be a difficult choice as to which voice track to use for the sequel.

[@ridleyroid9060]

How Is 13 sentinels? I have considered playing it but idk if I would like it

[@fenrir3097]

@@Terithian Play in japanese. Then watch LPs in english.

[@Reach_W]

​@@ridleyroid9060 Trying to say as little as possible because everything is a spoiler, but I think you'd love it. It's one of the best visual novels out there with a passable strategy game attached that is basically skippable by bumping the difficulty down if you're not enjoying it.

[@charleswisconsin9196]

English dubs have been good for quite a few years now, i don't know why everybody's surprised. it isn't 1998 anymore.

[@KaleWhip]

I picked up AI the Somnium Files on gamepass on a whim. That game is AMAZING. You can literally ABANDON THE STORY AND ELOPE WITH A BIG TIDDY SECRETARY.

[@charleswisconsin9196]

best ending.

[@Ehh.....]

Real eyes Realize Real Lies

[@laggy3099]

AI The Somnium Files is fucking dumb and unhinged and has brought me nothing but complete and indescribable anguish. I absolutely adore it and I am IMMENSELY excited for the sequel.

[@Sharkwizard]

Did the dance number break you after everything was all said and done? Because that broke me 😂

[@Darkyan97]

AI The Somnium Files is fucking cringe and is one of the best fucking games I've ever played.

[@Shnibbledacat]

Im so happy pat mentioned jojo style writing because thats exactly how it feels. Like an author heve this trivial knowledge of something and just wanted an excuse to talk about it because it's cool Hirohiko Araki REALLY loves telling you about italy

[@dusty131]

Uchikoshi games are my favorite wikidump simulators

[@Xifko]

I bet Witch and The Hundred Knight is one of your favorites games too

[@TheNeonCaster]

Re: 999 - And THEN said stripper turns out to be a professional hacker with 2 kids. 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors is goddamn excellent.

[@Zenatler]

The funniest thing is if you speak Japanese a lot of the untranslatable humor in the game is just 20 different flavors of dick jokes. Like an extended bit about a dragon's gold ball or just one off quips when investigating stuff in the background.

[@aymanmz]

Wtf

[@Ganmorg]

The Ota subplot is so on point, especially with how Iris and Ota both have irl in-character twitter accounts which still get updated from time to time. It was hilarious seeing the to-witter scene after a few weeks following these characters through the ARG (there was an ARG btw) so seeing that overlap was great. Ota is a total creepy scumbag manchild but he's still likable, yknow? Uchikoshi really has a really good relationship with his western fanbase and I think that shows in his games and how he engages with the culture around them.

[@kapkant6197]

My number one go to for untranslatable humour has gotta be MGS4 with Ocelot's "FOX...DIE... ja nai!" which is supposed to be a pun that roughly translates to "It's not FOXDIE" or with Ocelot's tone more accurately means "FOX...DIE... NOT!" Meanwhile in English they just went with "FOX...DIE.... THINK AGAIN!"

[@mushplush9665]

See Pat talks about how looking around can give you a lot of funny side dialogue, so I want to bring attention to one of the biggest gut punches where you can look at a shoe holder and Date will sniff it

[@Galeforce017]

All word play is ontologically good. This is my hill to die on.

[@pyropoyo]

absolutely correct Woolie is simply weak

[@juter1122]

you don't have to understand it, but it does indicate weakness

[@kinoleogeo7998]

Agreed, one of my favorite things in media is how you can connect even the minuscule of details into the larger themes: microcosm/macrocosms is kino AF.

[@DavidHosey1]

110% right

[@tempheror112]

It's funny that woolie calls this a strand game, because it came out a couple of months before Death Stranding.

[@iamnuff1992]

The S in 'Strand Game' stands for 'Strand'. The G in 'Strand Game' stands for 'Game'

[@Svoorhout85]

Thanks Bridget Bridge Bridges.

[@iamnuff1992]

@@Svoorhout85 Is... is that a real person's name in the game? I honestly can't tell if you're joking. I thought 'Sam Porter Bridges' was bad enough as a character's name.

[@RandomlyAwesomeGamer]

Strandtrand Gameame

[@NotAGoodUsername360]

I actually played the whole thing in one huge 24 hour session on launch day and it was a TRIP

[@piratekingomega3292]

the fucking weird ass music during missions made a mark against my soul. i can’t forget the one track that sounds like a piece of metal is growing at you

[@justrenderin1279]

The PYRAMID DANCE SEQUENCE was what broke me. I was ready for anything, even the weird bullshit. But nothing prepared me for it. Even after beating it, the game leaves some clues for hints of a sequel and plots that didn't resolve. I love it but holy fuck is it wild

[@charleswisconsin9196]

@@justrenderin1279 teacups that are flying, on maps mystifying...

[@Kango234]

Honestly this also sounds like Deadly Premonition with York going on long tangents about old movies while driving around.

[@piratekingomega3292]

deadly premonition with York going: “you ever watch ‘gone with wind?’ well here’s how it explains metaphysics” i think they actually try to explain metaphysics at one point in zero escape

[@lionohday5197]

AI Somnium files is a really fun game. It hits a great mix of comedy and seriousness that stops even the darkest timelines from being too depressing. I also remember it being much less "Strand" than the other games by Uchikoshi. A lot of the Strandness came from an ARG they ran before the game released.

[@italulu]

In the million to one shot either of them play umineko, chat is gonna be a buck wild time because people are gonna spoil things that dont make sense at all, or theyre gonna spoil something and its wrong

[@cbhensoncbhenson5515]

Somnium Files is such an underrated crazy ass experience.

[@s7robin105]

Honestly I love games like this because its a sort of culture shock as a native English speaker and seeing how its observed by non native speakers

[@sunkeyavad6528]

Somnium Files is great. Every bit as good and wild as the Zero Escape series in terms of story, just with a serial killer mystery setting this time and generally more humor and goofiness packed into it. Unless you really hate story-heavy/visual novel style games or anime graphics, I can only recommend it.

[@RadonX9]

Pat AND Woolie broadcasting from heaven this episode

[@timlerch7425]

I 100% believe if your going to have puns, I am all for triple down on not one pun, but 5 layered puns.

[@li-limandragon9287]

There’s only two things I know about this game and it’s Ritsuko the secretary.

[@Terithian]

If you want even more puns, check out the tracklist for the OST to the game. Almost every single track title is two words, the first starting with A and the second with I. The ones that aren't are Japanese words that end with "AI" or names of syncs that have "ai" highlighted in them (like BRaiN and PaiN). The only exceptions are the main theme and the credits song.

[@LordlyWeeb]

In no world will puns be bad.

[@ascendedsleeper7820]

As much as Uchikoshi can do with eye puns, it's never going to be as much of a giga drill breaker as AME LIE = SOUL LIE. Also yes Ota is a *massive* piece of garbage. He's such a terrible character that he's actually one of the best characters.

[@charleswisconsin9196]

the people that genuinely hate him see too much of themselves in him. that's just how it works.

[@Limit02]

Brain damge kino is my jam, so I may need to check this out

[@Dungeon00X]

AI The Somnium Files is ultra goofy, you haven't even reached the most insane QTE.

[@night1952]

Because their languaje just perfectly works for puns and double (or triple, quadruple...) meanings.

[@DoctorCVC]

The I in AI stands for I, because I is myself, and AI is my eye in I.

[@jartoonsuwu]

Thanks to the small orange gamer I just bought and beat this game and it surprisingly good. Up there with VLR and 999 for sure

[@prowlingmonkey]

"Hey timetravel guy! Do you know about the Grandfather paradox?"

[@ParrotMan01276]

I enjoyed this game a lot. Strangeness and all. It's really funny, really depressing, terrifying, intriguing, and absolutely nuts. I've enjoyed Uchikoshi's previous works...or most of them. This one felt the most complete and didn't feel that rushed. I was actually surprised that it's getting a sequel. I can't wait for it.

[@gameb9oy]

I feel like that most of them was said because of the third zero escape game. Like there’s some good stuff in that game, but I don’t think anyone would fight you on it being the weakest of the trilogy

[@PikaMario]

12:34 Explained so hard a loogie blasted out

[@Szriko]

My first experience with 999 was a group of friends streaming it and none of us knowing SHIT. it was great.

[@MichaelWasnotTaken]

I hate that I love that game.

[@PerpetualDaydreamer]

Having played both games, I'd argue it's still not as bad as Death Stranding - but it is *egregious* in a fantastic way. Didn't think I'd ever see Pat and/or Woolie reacting to any of it is making my week. I'm ascending, thanks for this~

[@lunarliv4804]

Shout out to Okiura sounding like Ocular. This game is on its big eye pun game it's wild. Also I'm kinda glad that at least this game has got a steady bit of attention at least. Didn't sell well initially but I continually see new people pick up and play it.

[@J.P1981]

What mad man would play all of the Phoenix Wright games and all the spinoffs for let's plays? Why do I hear bagels in the distance?

[@matthewschoen7033]

Jeez I never thought I would here an Ice-9 reference, wow.

[@El_Legante]

Have you heard of “The League of Darkness”?

[@theriderdwaft]

most people understand how base 12 math works if you divide the day into 2 12 hours units a.m. and p.m. with that framing most people can figure base 12 out.

[@theessenceofawesome1]

The thing with base anything math is that our number system is inherently designed around being base 10. What base 10 means is that when counting number nomination shifts every value of ten. It goes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 - the second digit is added after 9, when you hit 10. If it instead went 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and then shifted to a new nomination to then go, say, 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 with no numbers in between, then the new base would be 8, and all associated mental maths and reasoning would remain just as easy as they are using base 10. The Distinction between 10 and other numbers is arbitrarily created by our own numbering system, there is no actual difficult swapping to other bases - it's just where we decided to draw the line on a numbering system that was decided by something as simple as the number of fingers people used to count with.

[@charleswisconsin9196]

oh mhm. i understand some of these words.

[@quinnnewman9538]

Lifeline part 2

[@magicianstuff]

An I for AI makes the whole world blind.

[@ProjectSudoku]

Where does one go to send in questions/topics for them to react to?

[@depp5275]

i mean what do you want from a culture whose form of communication has words that has double meaning 90 percent of the time

[@LtSprinkulz]

"It's a shame it's so difficult to have everyone be cool" And there's the reason I think livestreaming is the inferior medium. Mob mentality, spoilers, attention seekers, trolls, and simple idiocy is on full display in real time to ruin any kind of experience you could hope to have unless you're a (relatively) small channel playing niche games. Jerma985's streams are the pinnacle of "unwatchable because of chat" for me, and it's bled over into the youtube comments of the vods, highlights, and clips and ruined those as well.

[@LkMrcndz]

Streaming works for specific sorts of games, methodical story-heavy games aren't those.

[@unboundking9742]

What's up with today? First I read Dick Standing and now there's a game like Death Stranding?

[@lockwoodmakurocraws]

I don't think I'd ever be able to do Phoenix Wright. Because MAN VA-11 Hall-A was fun, but I would NOT do a visual novel after doing Xenogears and VA-11 Hall-A and feeling my throat just fuckin DIE.

[@jai249]

considering how much wordplay japan does, I wonder what the Funyarimpa could allude to, if it's not just gibberish

[@jai249]

now that I think about it in 999 you basically have the option of telling that the animal in the picture looks like a Ligma

[@masterxl97]

How can AI: Somnium Files be real if AI isn’t real?

[@richnolan2744]

EYE SEA YUU PEA

[@tehdii]

Racoon rhymes with doom...

[@timlerch7425]

Did woolie say he thinks the princess beach scene is designed to be serious and not a comedic joke? Wtf?

[@BaconheartStuff]

The thing that really turned me off AI and also something I'm kinda disappointed Pat didn't bring up because I feel Woolie would love hearing about it is the whole premise. This is a game in which you play as a cop, from the super secret Brain Investigations Squad of the Tokyo Police, who have a machine in their basement that lets them go into someone's subconscious and pull evidence from their dreams and they use the flimsiest of pretenses to justify it. Oh, this one witness has one personal thing they don't want to tell the police? Time to FORCE her to sign a consent form without telling her what it's for so we can invade her brain! And you don't even learn anything from it! And then the next witness had just came out of life threatening surgery and is unconscious, and the Doctor's like "Hey is it safe to put this guy into the dream invasion machine?" and boss just replies "Fuck it, if he dies I'll take responsibility for it." which is apparently good enough for both the MC and the Doctor to go through with it. Also once again, they learn absolutely nothing from using the dream invasion machine. In short: AI is "ACAB: The Game".

[@clearlynotaneldritchhorror8798]

I was thinking of playing AI but after reading this it's a no go for me. There are plenty of other games I can play as escapism. I get enough of people defending this kinda police behavior/attitude in real life I don't need to play it in my free time.

[@charleswisconsin9196]

jesus christ you two. just jesus christ.

[@AmunRa1]

Oh I absolutely love this game but it's clear that the people making the game had put absolutely zero thought into the actual ramifications of "hey, wouldn't it be cool if you could play as a cop who goes into DREAMS to gather evidence?" because that shit's straight up a huge violation of privacy.

[@attackofthecopyrightbots]

the fuck is a strand

[@BlueJoneleth]

What's your name?

[@ridleyroid9060]

What's mAI name?

[@trashman1605]

Eye Johnson

[@TheMarioman121]

Kagami better be in the sequel

[@ParrotMan01276]

IT'S KAGAMI. But the voice actor for Kagami passed away.

[@ParrotMan01276]

@@TheMarioman121 The voice actor for Kagami passed away, so he'll probably be recast.

[@Artista_Frustrado]

this conversation makes me respect the Hololive translators even more

[@blackdragoncyrus]

Like.

[@versebuchanan512]

My girl forced me to get into the story in this one, mostly against my will. I still don't know if I'm digging it or not, but it was kind of oddly engaging

[@ridleyroid9060]

I am envious, that is a keeper my good sir.

[@kevin-bf4ww]

i know the ironic joke definition of a "strand" genre game is "has puns" but are we defining it for real as "has puns" or "has janky asymmetrical multiplayer that won't necessarily ever pay off for you in the same amounts as you extract from it" or specifically the combination of both there are lots of bad movies shows and games out there where writers thought, "play on words >= theming" and lots of games like subnautica and darksouls and death's where players leave behind things for other players is it specifically the combination of both, and pat and woolie just like to crack jokes that it's only the puns?

[@laggy3099]

This is my first time hearing the term, but considering that Somnium is like, a single player puzzle adventure game, proooobably just the puns

[@Kango234]

It's just a joke about puns.

[@slicknicdwyer]

I ultimately thought The Somnium Files was pretty bad, BECAUSE of all the same things that Pat's describing here. It's fucking dumb/cringe anime bullshit; all the tropes are here. I'm down for that sometimes (Kill la Kill comes to mind), but man. I wish they would have just cut out a bunch of the goofy shit from the story, because I enjoyed most of the mystery stuff. Like cut out the little girl being super powered for no reason (but only when the plot allows it), the mob boss being an over-the-top squeeing idol fan, the main character approaching Jonathon from Policenaughts levels of creep... and the untranslatable humour. If a joke can't be rewritten into something that makes sense, literally just have nothing. It'd be better than what they left in the English version of the game. Having said all that though, I actually like most of the characters, and I think that's in large part due to the fantastic voice acting (the idol's mother is the only one who was kinda meh, but even she wasn't that bad). I'll probably still check out the sequel, just in hopes that some of these characters make an appearance in a better game/story. Except Ota, fuck that dude.

[@xxnoobkillerxx124]

DAt game is stupid

[@charleswisconsin9196]

whatever you say triple x noobkiller 1.