I have very mixed feelings about this game. I can't call it amazing or show it the same love that I did for AITSF, but I also can't outright hate it like another sequel I was very much looking forward to a few years ago that rhymes with Snero Snime Snilema.
This game was being made with the exact premise I had dreamed about since finishing AITSF 2+ years ago— what if Mizuki was a Psyncer?! How cool would that be?! But much like how that dream fulfillment has a big fat asterisk next to it now, most of the things in AINI do. At least for me. For every bit of good, there's a bit of bad.
This post contains mad spoilers for AINI. And AITSF. Please don't read this if you think this is gonna be spoiler free.
Table of Contents
The Stuff I Liked
The somnia in this game are genuinely amazing. They're super artistically inspiring, they've all got great gimmicks, and their music slaps pretty hard. With AITSF there's a few somnia I don't really have interest in replaying, but I can't really say that about AINI, they're all just that good. It feels like they really poured their hearts into making these awesome.
The gameplay overall is just improved, with good QTEs (though I think the final one is just. too much) that fit the tone of the game much better than AITSF's and the VR exploration segments are a whole lot of fun. I really wish the interrogation gameplay made a return, it was a fun part of AITSF and sort of makes this feel less like detective work... But I'm probably getting ahead of myself here. Unlimited Psync is also great for when you just want to see EVERY option in a somnium, something I replayed AITSF's a lot to do.
I really liked the Nil Number stuff with Tokiko, and liked her in general. I wish it lasted a bit longer, but I'm a whore for metanarrative stuff so it's cool it happened at all.
Shouma, Komeji, Amame, Tokiko, Ryuki, Tama, and Bibi are the characters that I liked the most. I also liked Kagami and how he had WAY more screentime but this is my stupid person opinion. Amame was such a great glow up I'm just totally obsessed with her.
Ryuki was a fun protagonist. I thought I wouldn't like him at first but he really grew on me and I wish I could have seen more of him. It was also kind of clever for him to have this dramatic anime backstory about his family and his brother that ends up being totally irrelevant to this case, something you wouldn't expect given Date was the whole reason AITSF happened. The twist of this game (WHICH I WILL TALK ABOUT MORE LATER) solely benefits Ryuki in a very fun way.
I enjoyed Tama a lot. I will admit some of her sex jokes kinda sucked (this game had a lot more sex jokes that sucked, some of them which came from Mizuki/Bibi which is like what the fuck dude), but she was fun. I liked how she was very clearly different from Aiba and her moments where she showed genuine compassion and concern for Ryuki were wonderful. I would have loved to see more of them together.
The humor in this game aside from the bad sex jokes was great as always, I laughed a lot. And it also managed to pull on my heart strings pretty hard, especially with Shouma and Komeji.
I was right about Ryuki which was really cool. Lone never misses ever.
(Original post date April 2022)
The Turning Point
For the entire first half of the game I was absolutely on board. Loving it. Ryuki's route admittedly had some weird pacing (it was pretty brisk, I think I can attribute this to the twist, the lack of interrogation segments, and not many car moments like Date/Aiba had to slow down and go over the details of the case together), but I was pretty pumped going into Mizuki route.
What changed things, though, and led this game into a slow descent of frustration for me, was the big Chapter 1 reveal— Mizuki is revealed to be not the biological daughter of Shoko and Renju, but instead a genome soldier and human clone that eventually Shoko and Renju adopted at age 3.
This reveal was so unbelievably stupid to me that I thought immediately, "Ohhhhh, this is some huge red herring. They're trying to throw me off my game. Lol". And just waited for this to be reversed the more the game went on.
But we all know it didn't get reversed.
This segment is where I'm going to get #critical of things so be warned. It's also quite long.
The Stuff I Didn't Like
This section is in fact so long I'm even going to divide it up into subsections.
I should say beforehand there are dislikes I have with this game that I'm not listing here, because there were also dislikes I had with AITSF that still didn't affect how much I enjoyed that game. I don't really want to go into them just because if this game did not have these below points, I would basically like this game as much as AITSF if not moreso.
Mizuki is a Fucking Joke in This Game, Part 1
Backstory complaint time!
I personally think AITSF's explanation of "Mizuki is strong just because she is lol" is genius, but I do think the genome soldier explanation is a good thing to fall back on for the sake of this game because Mizuki does way more insane shit— the people who complained about this trait of Mizuki's back then would probably be REAL mad if they didn't establish she was super human. A loss for me, but understandable.
On a deeper level, the reason why I dislike this randomly added on backstory for Mizuki is because it retroactively harms her entire story in AITSF. Her ending and main purpose in the game thematically was all about "family is what you make it, biological family doesn't have to be your true family if they don't love you or treat you right"... except whoops, now it's not because they fucking adopted her?
The impact of Mizuki's problems and storyline get severely lessened by this revelation, it's all lost. Date not wanting Mizuki to get close to him because he feels like he's taking her away from her real blood family if she does? Silly Date! Shoko saying "I wish you were never born" to Mizuki? Silly Shoko! Everyone is so silly and wrong because Mizuki is actually adopted. Y'know, couples on the brink of divorce love adopting children...
I'm only mad about this because there was a pretty easy way to write this in a way that fits with AITSF. Make Shoko donate her eggs and request a designer baby, she seems like the type of woman who doesn't want to get pregnant (same). Don't ruin what was easily the best route of your game with this random revelation you couldn't even be bothered to fit nicely into the first game.
I think this is a thing that everyone dislikes to the point where I feel like Uchi/Naka/etc might take it back in a Q&A interview, whenever that happens. And I want to say now it is just too late you guys. You should have put whatever's gonna be said in that hypothetical interview in the game.
This, plus the next point, adds on so much to Mizuki that she didn't need that Mizuki's role should have just been an entirely new character instead. Maybe not even that, maybe just have this as a full Ryuki game!
Next point...
Mizuki is a Fucking Joke in This Game, Part 2
It's later revealed that Mizuki is a human clone of another girl in the cast, who is also named Mizuki. Mizuki also looks exactly like Mizuki, dresses like Mizuki (this makes no sense), and talks and has the same thought processes as Mizuki.
You could argue some nature vs nurture kind of thing on the latter parts, but I'm calling bullshit there is no reason Mizuki (older) should act exactly like Mizuki (younger) especially when they've grown up in such radically different environments.
In fact, I'm like ESPECIALLY shocked by this because I finished playing Never7 right before this where this exact plot detail was done BETTER?! THE RARE NEVER7 W?!
[Never7 Spoilers] [You are not going to play Never7, you might as well click this anyways.]
Regardless, you learn that for sections in the past you are playing as Mizuki (older), henceforth called Bibi.
I want to put in a quick sidenote that I love Bibi. Her motives, backstory, character, etc. are all just a lot of fun and some real good scifi nonsense. The only thing bad about her is her being tied to Mizuki which I will get into now.
Let me start with the thing that soured me most on this twist:
AINI was first advertised/announced as a Mizuki game. Then, they introduced Ryuki, so now it's a Ryuki and Mizuki game... JUST KIDDING!!! It's actually a Bibi, Mizuki, and Ryuki game! Oh, and that announcement trailer? That character model 3d render? There isn't a gunshot wound on there, so it's actually Bibi!
I know well enough this is my Mizuki's Strongest Soldier impulses kicking in, but this decision to use Mizuki for the sake of a twist and basically only that genuinely left such a bad taste in my mouth that I'm gonna be real I'm not drawing future Mizuki for a hot minute until I mellow out on this game.
When I say "Mizuki is used for the sake of twist", I mean it like this: Mizuki doesn't grow as a person because she has to preserve the twist, so she can't be different from Bibi. Mizuki has nonexistent characterization because she can't be different from Bibi. Does she even have any problems in this plot aside from the finale of stopping the rocket? She sure was emotional in Date's somnium in Mizuki End from just the idea of him leaving her, but we don't even get a good moment or two of her angsting about Date being gone... oh right, because she has to preserve the twist, so she can't be different from Bibi!
Just... JESUS Christ man. Mizuki in this game is such a sharp downgrade from her character in AITSF that she just should not have been in! It should have been an entirely different character, or a Ryuki-only story, or SOMETHING, ANYTHING but this!
AITSF Character Stagnation
This game brought back a lot of characters that did not need to come back. In fact, it brought back every single person who survived Resolution end (save for Mayumi, and well I guess Saito is back in mask form too). Most of these characters have absolutely no purpose being here and should have just been cameos or not have been present at all— same thing with locations, oh my god there are so many locations we did not need to bring back from AITSF guys.
If I had to name which characters I had the most issues with, surprisingly one of them would be OTA of all people?! What the hell you guys why is he EXACTLY THE SAME as a person in his 30s you couldn't have made him grow up even a little bit? And one of the other people being SO SEJIMA?! It was super awesome how he was just here to rekindle his relationship with Tesa and then you just drop "oh Uru was his kid also" and LEAVE?!?! HELLO??? Like genuinely what a character regression from AITSF and I'm saying that about So Sejima, why is this game making me want to defend So Sejima?!
But let's talk about Date, who is so comically underused and not very well done in this game he should have just been a cameo or not in it at all. Here is a small list of things:
1. Date is here for around maybe 3 seconds but was advertised/said in interviews to play a big role in the game (this is funny to me though)
2. Date keeps the Saito mask for the sole purpose of being attractive to women which is funny because it's true, but the real world implications of this is pretty haunting? This guy chooses to wear the mask of the serial killer that shot Mizuki, killed her parents, and nearly killed Tesa all because it's hot...? And Hitomi is like "ZAMN!" to this and they're hitting on each other at the end of the game?! BRUH?!
2a. DATE LEAVES HITOMI FOR 6 YEARS (EVEN BEFORE BEING CAUGHT IN THE EXPLOSION THEY'RE A BIT DISTANT IN RESOLUTION END) AND THEN COMES BACK TO BE ON MILF THIGHS LIKE WHAT A FUCKING ASSHOLE HITOMI CALL ME INSTEAD
3. Making Date go through another amnesia arc feels like a super cheap and regressive way of writing him out of the story, genuinely at this point maybe don't make him part of the game?
I do not know what purpose Date serves in this game other than Ryuki angst because Mizuki does not seem to care much about him/be very distraught (because she can't be too different from Bibi). Most characters brought back seem to suffer from a lack of an arc or relevance because the former would endanger the twist and the latter would distract from the new cast.
I firmly believe AI should just be an anthology series and only 2 or 3 characters return per game, those being Boss and Pewter (and Kagami because Lone bias), with other ABIS agents like Date serving as a one time cameo or not there at all.
AINI has this overinflated cast with so many characters going underused, which also fails to recapture what made AITSF so fantastic— the cast was tightly knit and many characters got genuinely fantastic arcs, even side characters like Pewter had a great character moment or two and at least had a good amount of relevancy.
(I think Kagami has more lines than Pewter in this game which is hilarious to me and only me.)
What's the Point of the Twist?
The point of the twist is to hide the Mizuki/Bibi reveal and mislead the player by making them believe there is more of a mystery than there actually is. This is the writing purpose of this twist. But what is the in universe purpose for this twist? Well, the answer is [FOOTAGE MISSING]
This stands out to me for the reasoning that even when a past Uchi/Naka game has some timeline fuckery, there is generally a pretty good and well stated reason for it ingame. But AINI is quirky, and it doesn't really have a reason aside from the writing purpose mentioned above.
I find this especially odd given that they’re almost on the cusp of an explicit in universe reason here, that being the Frayer’s existence. The Frayer is a fun inclusion in this game for me, again because I am a slut for metanarrative things like this, and it isn’t Uchi/Naka’s first try at this kind of thing, either. But they don't really go as hard with them as I would have liked for them to do. I think this issue of the twist could have been solved in two ways:
1. AINI takes place entirely through Ryuki’s perspective. He is not mentally well, both before he got TC-Perge and after. You could really tap into this and justify the twist by having Ryuki’s brain be broken, so our view of this game does not make sense because Ryuki is telling it to us wrong. The twist already serves to benefit Ryuki and Ryuki alone, as it justifies his strange actions/pacing, and does nothing deeper for Mizuki/Bibi as previously mentioned in other sections.
2. Make the Frayer a full fledged character instead of just the hint of one. The timelines being messed up can then be justified by someone messing up the Frayer’s perspective on purpose— Tokiko could have found a way to manipulate the Frayer that has to do with Ryuki's brain-muddledness and is messing with our perception in an attempt to achieve Moksha. Rather than Mama telling us this, Tokiko halts the story to do so in a fun way.
As previously mentioned, this twist prevents Mizuki from having real character growth, as well as growth for other characters— if we keep jumping back and forth and characters grow and regress and grow and regress, then it’ll get confusing for the player. So most characters remain static except for in their endings where they get a little taste of importance and growth before it all ends. Funnily enough this works best for Shouma and Komeji and that’s about it because Lien/Kizuna is a whole other can of worms and Gen/Amame is a thing for sure.
Closing Remarks If You Didn't Want To Read All That Shit
AINI is a game that exists.
It is a game that still has a lot of heart and much to be enjoyed, but also has flaws that cannot be overlooked, at least by me. It is a game that casts the widest net possible, trying to appeal to people who played AITSF and people who haven’t but ultimately landing in a weird zone where it’s honestly better if you didn’t play AITSF so you aren’t annoyed by blatant character misuse, and even better if you haven’t played other Uchi/Naka games so you won’t be meh about the twist. It is a game that I was very excited for and my only real expectation for it was “I will love it” and sadly that is not what ended up happening.
I don’t love this game. I don’t hate it either. I wish it could be better, but it’s also not the worst thing ever. I know me saying all this really does sound like I went in just to hate AINI but it should be very obvious from how much I love AI that that’s not the case at all. For me, if there’s something I don’t like, it just overrides all loyalty to the Brand(tm). I don’t want to blindly love something even if my heart’s not really in it. Such is the case now. If you really like this game, then that’s awesome for you. No judgement at all, people prioritize different things/feel different ways. This is just my two cents.
I had fun with AINI for the most part until I started thinking about it deeper than its flashy twists and fun character appearances and it all fell apart. But eventually, I will move on from this, mainly because for some reason the next thing on my list is to replay ZTD.
tldr: 2.5-3.5/5 depending on my mood.
ALSO INVINCIBLE RAINBOW ARROW OUTSELLS HALF TO WHOLE ANY DAY OF THE WEEK
(AUTHOR'S EDITORIAL NOTE: I'm from New York any curse words here were not used in malice they were used in a "this is part of my vocabulary" way)
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ReplyDeleteYou so succinctly summarized my feelings on AiNi. I have been waiting to read your thoughts till i finished the game, and now that I have I'm so glad to see someone with the same takeaways. Thank you as always for being the foremost AITSF scholar out there.
ReplyDeleteyou just summed up every single grievance i had with this game perfectly wtf
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