#aitsnf

[dornishsphinx]

Spoilers for AI: The Somnium Files 

Spoilers up to Iris Ending and to ‘Don’t Believe’ lock

No post-credits scene… aw. Though I guess the lock on the other Somnium path is unlocked now, so… but still, I was anticipating it.

‘Date also has a brain tumour’ is now my theory. I’d noticed for a while that Aiba keeps bringing up medication he knows nothing about and saying how not having enough is making him go weird. Like, they are jokey segments while looking around, but they’re still adding up. Especially with seeing the corpse he saw in Mizuki’s Somnium while Aiba wasn’t there to corroborate, when Iris was still alive, if we discount their parallel worlds thing (given that Hitomi described how the tumour is making Iris a bit delusional too, with Naix and aliens and the like, and especially since Iris is the one who brought it up.)

“This rearview mirror reminds me of Egyptian mythology!”

You don’t say, Aiba. That has never come up before.

So that’s why their eyes are removed!! Ahh, all the mentions of Egyptian mythology, and how mummies in Ancient Egypt got their brains accessed with hooks and they mentioned before offhand that the eye socket is the main way to access the brain, but I hadn’t considered that that was the case until Date was like “oh” at the manual and I was like OH. So that’s been the case with Shoko, Renju, Sejima, and Iris in different timelines, Renju ate Shoko’s eyeball, Renju wanted to bring Iris to the warehouse… aghh. And Naix doesn’t exist, because of the other ‘don’t believe’ way in the Somnium… (Ota was absolutely bluffing for Iris’ approval. I mean, Illuminati and Freemasons? You’re trying a bit too hard there, kid. And also since he is also on the To-Witter, I’m betting Iris’ delusions with secret societies began with checking out her #1 fan’s feed.)

Okay, new Egyptian mythology mentioned overall: Hathor when discussing mirrors, Iris' cat thing is specifically based on Bastet (which makes sense, goddess of dancing and all) explicit mentioning of the Osiris, Isis, Horus and Set myths while talking to Iris. Which, given how un-shy the game is about any and every possible sexual detail, I like the fact that it didn’t mention the dick or lettuce thing. It really shows that Falco was explaining these things to a little kid, especially with the voices she was putting on, like she was imitating him… ahhh. (Also, just realised the parallel between Date and Mizuki and Falco and Iris, two detectives (or ex detective) taking on a fatherly role to a twelve year old girl despite having zero experience. More on Wadjet having moon powers (Pewter kinda matches Thoth a bit, with his wisdom thing). Also, Osiris matches Sejima, which I hadn’t noticed before. Hacked into pieces and missing a bit, “Isis” kissed him in her Somnium. He’s probably gonna end up being her dad too, tying into the being family thing, given how often Hitomi has been seen talking to him while they all deny knowing each other. Teen mother made pregnant by prominent politician…

But he’s also Date’s dad, apparently. Even if that ending was a while back now, I’ve not forgotten, game! That’s what he said!

Then there’s the link between the Greek goddess Iris (the symbol of the flowers is good news and hope, which I’d forgotten to write down, thank you game for reiterating) and Isis, explaining why Iris’ stage name is A-set. Also, a mention of Poseidon, while we’re on the Greek pantheon, with the tridents in Sunfish Pocket.

Speaking of: Renju, holy shit. “I was the lookout in high school while yakuza took advantage of old people’s loneliness to get put in their wills, then killed them by throwing them in a hot bath drunk which would make them haemorrhage, have a heart attack, or drown.” Renju, why the hell does your side business maid café have a nautical theme with “Sea Kings” after that?! Is this your trauma response?!

(……….HMMMMMM. THE CYCLOPS IS POSEIDON’S CHILD. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. IS CYCLOPS THE KILLER OR THE VICTIM OF THE KILLER??? THE ONE IN THE ODYSSEY CAN BE ARGUED AS BOTH, AFTER ALL. RENJU. RENJU.)

Though also… Renju’s lover! Ahh, I had my suspicions after Mama said it was Renju who gave her the Saint Sebastian picture given how symbolic he is to the gay community specifically, and then Pewter has had a number of things in his space which suggested he was into men, but I only put two and two together just before it came up! And Renju was so protective of the watch Pewter gave him… he really wasn’t using him, at least I hope… and oh man, now I just feel so bad for Pewter in the other time branch where Renju is horribly murdered and he has to help solve the case. I wonder if that’s part of why he got away from Boss to reveal things, and wanted to get the murderer caught so badly, after Iris and Ota die, it’s cover for his true feelings for the second victim… and also, I’m wondering if that’s why he was so distant from his wife and child, spending so much time away from them. Maybe marrying a woman was covering for himself, especially since he’s from a rich family. Though he wasn’t left the Fishing Company from his grandfather…

(Also, Mizuki saying such nice things about the LGBT+ community in Marble, even when she likely didn’t know about her dad… ;A; please don’t be a badyin who killed your ex-wife, Renju…)

Renju not wanting Iris to dance and focus on other talents, probably because of her balance issues, having looked after her a lot as a kid (hey, dude, couldn’t you have done that for your own kid too, huh?) I wonder if he was bringing her there to try and fix the tumour, since she’d end up dead soon as per this ending, and it was a last-ditch attempt. But then, all the other murders, and his involvement… and all her other deaths. Cryogenesis could be a thing he was trying with the freezing. perhaps, in this timeline, but she died of stab wounds which makes it unlikely. Did Renju kill Shoko so Falco could have an excuse to be out of prison and escape custody, since Iris was close to death and they both wanted to try and rescue her? But that’s way too out there a theory, and there’s no reason coming up as of yet for Shoko to die. It’s not like she was in a medical company, and Somniums don’t access stuff like medical patents or whatever.

Iris has also been to the warehouse before! It was in her Somnium! But her eye wasn’t gone! Was her right eye removed instead, replaced with a prosthetic and she’s been half-blind the whole time? The Cyclops murders shown were exactly the same, so they couldn’t have been delusion. They did talk about Rohan’s condition, but it doesn’t seem to link up. And for a matter of fact, we still don’t know why he jumped.

There has to be a reason all the information in the victims’ Somniums needed to be accessed too, and Renju is dead too in the other timeline, with Boss being the one to kill an eyeless Sejima… a third machine which works on the other eye having been used in the previous string of murders? Rohan’s fetish being an outright lie??

Ahhhhh there are so many unanswered questions and pieces of info, trying to figure out which one is foreshadowing or the answer to which is impossible! Gahhhhh! And now one of the locked routes is open!!)

[dornishsphinx]

Spoilers for AI: The Somnium Files

(Spoilers up to Ota Ending/“Turn Dial” branch post-Iris’ Somnium)

BOSS WHY?! #89, TELL ME WHAT’S GOING ON ALREADY!! LET ME INNNN

So that’s where you’re gonna end the route, really… with two major clues revealed in the epilogue and then it’s just over… (and it doesn’t look like these will continue on, given that locks do exist in the game, unless that’s a big reveal, and they’ll create locks for them instead.)

(Also, God, the picture post-lock… that is gonna be a Confrontation. I was so excited to realise that there was a lock, though, ahh the chills~ I wonder how they’ll handle them without espers being a thing.)

Zero Escape and Dangan Ronpa easter eggs in Matsushita Diner autographs! I loved the little musical refrains and face/hope jokes, though I had to look up the Mikimoto one. Apparently it’s from the game that codified the genre, which I really like! Paying respects to those who came before :D Also Yuri on Ice!! reference! Eros! And so many BL lovers at ABIS! Boss and Pewter can discuss series they enjoy at work ahaha~ you’re right Uchikoshi, people need to be more open-minded about the genre! 

(I need to go over my faves of his lil appendix notes at the end, they’re hilarious, ily Uchikoshi. Also character ones, although... where’s Mama... please gimme more Mama deets...)

There are so many pieces around, with the characters trying to make connections, and I feel like I could start theorising… Hitomi is Ota’s teacher, Iris’ mother, #89’s lover, in Date’s dream, likely Mizuki’s teacher that she mentioned walking with So Sejima, she went to school with Renju, met Shoko and saw her in prison, was shot by the Kumakuras’ old leader after he wanted her assassinated and we don’t know why he did, if it was because she was meant to be another Cyclops victim, who came in the place with Boss… who the hell isn’t she connected to at this point? Then Mama’s theory on them all being linked to the Kumakuras, including the diner being screwed over giving Ota motive… she’s definitely sus, after that conversation about seeing the common denominator with who knows who in a murder investigation.

And she’s Iris’ mother, and those dreams sequences. Specifically, the non-violent one. I find it interesting the violence in the dream is less childish when you’re not violent from the get-go, and given how the subject of child abuse has already come up with Shoko against Mizuki… I’ll have to compare the two later, but you definitely use the gun in both, but one is to destroy “pictures”, the other… shows active brutal murders on the TVs. It’s also so much more creepy music and static-wise, though lacking in those childish laughs. And reflects back on her wanting to see a crime scene so badly she’ll blackmail to get to it. And don’t think we’ve forgotten her being with Renju and Sejima very shortly before they’re murdered, kissing Sejima in the other version of her Somnium, and going to Shoko’s crime scene! Those are the three victims!!! (Currently! Also, that discovery of Sejima’s body was horrific, it was amazingly chilling!) She’s confirmed to have had the knife that stabbed Ota in his dream!

THE SAGAN FAMILY IS SO SUSPICIOUS, YOU GUYS. Is Iris’ father gonna be a reveal to make things even more screwed up…? I don’t think they can get any more sus… (…it would be Date, given his missing memories, wouldn’t it… he had the same ba-dump sus reaction to both #89 and Hitomi, Iris wanted him to recognise the significance of the Winter Iris (ughhh what were the meanings she mentioned, I should have written them down!), and his Somnium was at the scene too…)

Also. That little conversation, about acetone being similar to the name “A-Set” when examining the bottle and gas canister, with acetone being needed to mix with nitroglycerine to stop it being too unstable to store safely, and there being two figures at the murder scenes…

(And Date being that other figure in the reflection. It’s been denied too many times by the others that there’s no way he’s the original killer, #89 hasn’t confirmed Pewter’s story about the Cyclops killer being him and Kumakura boss, and that “she’s just scared of you” is weak. And So Sejima is confirmed to have a son who went abroad 30 years ago… is Date a clone?! A robot version?! The actual guy??? Sejima what did you mean about being his dad!!)

But oooof, going from the Ota Ending straight into the Turn Dial branch after Iris’ Somnium is rough. Poor Mayumi… it was more on Ota’s head that he got killed, and I have even less sympathy after he violently breaks Iris away from police protection with that annoying smirk two routes in a row, but her breaking down after we get her Somnium revealing exactly how scared she is that Ota will leave her and that he’s still her little boy, along with the dementia and how she’ll keep finding out… I can’t even blame her for lashing out at Date, it would be too cruel to not let her.

I have zero time for Ota. He’s a creep and a sockpuppeter (which I thought was gonna be foreshadowing for him having engineered the “I rescued A-set, adulate and love me!” scenario, but now I’m unsure that’s the case, unless Iris did engineer the situation to backfire on him) who was so goddamn rude to his parents and had no respect wrt giving up on university when they spent so much they didn’t have getting him through it. But the game knows it, calls him out for it, and he does admit it himself, so I’ll allow the happy ending for his mother’s sake. Though Mayumi, please step away from the Iris. Even if she is likely this game’s axe-murderer and it probably stems from your abandonment issues, you called her a witch and your kid is a stalker, not her boyfriend like he tries pretending. Stop. JN-not-even-a-MIL vibes.

I was a little surprised that was the Ota Ending rather than Mayumi Ending when I got it, so I feel there will be fewer endings than I’d normally expect from post-999 Uchikoshi. More joke endings and bad endings, maybe, but not named ones. Which I don’t mind. It just feels a little shorter since there’s no puzzle segments, but there’s enough to click on and always find a little witty conversation piece.