#instead of 'gen and amame'

[nirvanai]

So I’ve been replaying nirvana initiative for a friend, and let me tell you absolutely nothing can beat what I can only describe as her Dawning Horror when she started to realize what was going on with “Gen” in the Gen & Mizuki ending. It was like she was watching a horror movie

[buried-stars]

OH LET'S FUCKING GO. goro akechi, amame doi, fuka yamagishi, gyu-hyuk lee, maya fey, mukuro ikusaba :3

yippee!

goro

Sexuality Headcanon: this is a gay man. we all know it to be true. Gender Headcanon: some kind of trans and non-binary swag going on here... A ship I have with said character: eiichi mukuhira because oc/canon isn't dead A BROTP I have with said character: frankly his (potential) friendships with all the PT make me feel insane in one direction or another, but special mention to the sumi goro brotp. i so desperately need more platonic content between them that doesnt have any romance as a backdrop. goro's like "i don't have friends" and sumi says "yeah we're BEST friends :D" A NOTP I have with said character: its so hard to be a goroboy who doesnt like any ship with him. but any of the girls or akira makes me want to start attacking people with hammers A random headcanon: after royal he becomes roommates with annshiho. i love it when lesbians adopt a pathetic little man. shiho is still trying to figure out whether or not he's joking about having killed people (he's not) General Opinion over said character: you know exactly how i feel about him and if i start trying to summarize it here im going to end up with an essay so instead im just gonna glitch out of existence

amame

Sexuality Headcanon: LESBIAN!!!! Gender Headcanon: she/they-isms A ship I have with said character: mamebiki is the only one that could ever matter to me. waaauuuggghhh A BROTP I have with said character: i want to believe her and iris rly are besties. show it to me uchikoshi... A NOTP I have with said character: gen is a father figure to her. fuck you. A random headcanon: AI3 PSYNCER AMAME I KNOW IT TO BE TRUE General Opinion over said character: incredible how she went from being a joke side character in the first game to one of the most interesting and complex characters of all time. i adore her. she did nothing wrong.

fuuka

Sexuality Headcanon: ace lesbian Gender Headcanon: i honestly dont think ive ever thought about it...? A ship I have with said character: funnily enough i don't have one! maybe minako idk A BROTP I have with said character: i think her friendship with yukari is really sweet A NOTP I have with said character: i will never get the appeal of her and natsuki. even in 2017 i was like "why do we want her to date the girl who harassed her to the point that she thought she killed herself" A random headcanon: she carries minako's old earphones in her bag all the time General Opinion over said character: my sweetie <3 she silly. i don't have a ton to say because it's 5:30 in the morning but i like her a lot

gyu-hyuk

Sexuality Headcanon: undoubtedly gay. look at him Gender Headcanon: CANON* he/she. (*it's a typo but i can dream) A ship I have with said character: gyuyoon makes me feel like im trapped inside a salad spinner (affectionate) A BROTP I have with said character: gyu and juyoung... they're so besties A NOTP I have with said character: either of the girls :P honestly i can't see him with anyone besides do-yoon A random headcanon: his eyes are brown those are colour contacts. General Opinion over said character: mr sad eyes sopping wet tragic oarfish id do anything for him. he did a lot wrong but hes still my guy. get him help pronto

maya

Sexuality Headcanon: lesbian (do you see a pattern) Gender Headcanon: trans girl :D A ship I have with said character: emamaya my beloved <33 A BROTP I have with said character: phoenix and maya are the fucking blueprint. i adore them so much. siblings of all time A NOTP I have with said character: i mean aside from obvious garbage i am a massive frnmy hater. we all been knew A random headcanon: kurain is a vegetarian village so maya's love of burgers come from them being forbidden at home General Opinion over said character: ive loved her since the day i picked up aa1 way back in 2014. my dear darling

mukuro

Sexuality Headcanon: lesbian of course Gender Headcanon: non-binary <3 A ship I have with said character: gee! i sure wonder! who could i, the person who popularized ikuzono, possibly ship with mukuro? it's a mystery. A BROTP I have with said character: chapter one trio still does something to my brain tbh A NOTP I have with said character: known nk hater since 2015 and this will never change A random headcanon: she's afraid of clowns General Opinion over said character: i just want her to be happy

[bibiana112]

I'm still thinking about that other anon thing I answered like one of my favorite things to write in terms of relationships is someone being so protective of another to the point where it's harmful because they don't know how to spare the same compassion for themsef, look at my icon or look at like 90% of what I have written for kh or my fucking ocs I never post about it's so interesting to me, a bunch of that stuff in aini really should have clicked with me and I'm still trying to understand why it didn't

[ct-multifandom]

Addressing common AINI criticism

Canon-divergent takes on story events that made people go hmmm :///

IMO Lien would be a really likable character if not for the y’know,,, pre-timeskip stuff. I think making small changes would make a big difference. If he didn’t initially approach Kizuna with a confession, but instead just enthusiastically complimented her routine, that would already be a lot better.

I also think it’d be more natural if he shot his shot after the first time they met, and he just asked her on a normal date that she turned down and asked to be friends instead because this is too soon.

I thought the time capsule thing was actually pretty cute. I’d love to see more of Lien genuinely being one of The Girls with no ulterior motives in addition to the throwaway dialogue about their video night. Imagine meeting the four of them in the park or at one of the restaurants and they’re just hanging out.

So yeah, I feel like most of the weird simp stuff was very early on, because later, Lien was pretty fine with being Kizzy’s friend and they cared about each other for real post-timeskip. If he made a good first impression on the player as a sweet himbo he’d be a lot more enjoyable.

The Gen-Amame ending… I think we all agree that that one part added like nothing to the story. It would be way more meaningful if Gen saw Amame in a familial way instead of having a crush on her. Especially with his somnium showing that he views her as someone to protect.

Gen who grew up without a family latching on to Amame who has divorced parents and works illegal hours to support her family at the cost of her education. After Komeji dies, Amame goes to Gen for support, and he doesn’t really know what to say because he can’t relate at all, but he’s ready to fill the father figure role.

A young Ren and Shoko caved into societal pressure to have kids, but couldn’t, so they payed a shady clinic for secretive IVF treatment. The clinic was associated with Horadori, and sent the viable cell samples to them for experimentation, then lied that none of them were viable. During the next six years, Ren and Shoko hear tips about the underground human experiments from their mafia connections. They connect the dots, and after some investigation find out that they have a biological child in Aioen. They feel morally obligated to adopt Mizuki, but only take the baby one ‘cause they’re shitty. Cue Shoko regretting “having” her.

A scene at Date’s apartment after the SAT scene like the one in the Shoma-Komeji ending where Date and Mizuki just talk for a while and catch up on Mizuki’s life since the explosion. Also Mizuki yells at Date a lot more.

More Bibi characterization that differs from Mizuki. I realize that this is probably in the plans for AI3 along with a deeper look into Bibi’s relationship to Boss, but it’d be cute to have past Bibi express interest in some things and then we find out Mizuki actually hates those things or vice versa. Also I feel like there should be an explanation for the hair, clothes, and scooter being the same, even if it’s silly.

More Datomi besides the catboy scene

I think Ryuki’s memory of “Yukuto” should have had more significance, even if it’s just him asking himself what his brother would want, because as of right now it feels like it was just added as a red herring.

It would’ve been cool to see a scene where he hallucinates his dead brother talking to him, maybe after the part where he betrays Bibi, but for timeline reasons it could be read as referring to Date and the explosion ending. Yukuto comforts Ryuki by saying that he’s not a bad person because he knows that Ryuki will always put family first.

Uchikoshi’s tweet about Yukuto being a beta idea for the brother’s name that they may change implies that he will become more relevant later as well. Say Yukuto Kuruto ten times fast

Overall, I hope the next game goes back to the more character-driven focus most of us want that explores their thoughts and feelings over sacrificing characterization for a mystery

So Sejima inexplicably dies in the diverge ending

[mesaprotector]

Finished AI: The Somnium Files Nirvana Initiative - well, sort of. My thoughts under the cut (spoilers for both games).

I finished the main ending, but I'm aware there's another one you get by going back and talking to Tokiko. Well, if there's anything I'm sure about it's that I'll play whatever Uchikoshi releases next. Heck, I still need to go back and figure out World's End Club.

Gameplay:

I honestly preferred AI1 overall for Somniums. I never failed one in AI1, but I failed a few of them here, since even though they're much more linear and give you a ton of hints, the amount of time given feels less generous and you really can't just poke around and have fun without risking failure in some of them. They're also, with a couple of exceptions, not interesting location-wise in the way that most of the AI1 Somniums were. Like, Hitomi's Somnium from AI1 is far from my favorite but it had you wandering around garden paths in the darkness, a whole new environment that appears nowhere else in the game (or probably in reality).

Plot:

It's definitely a more ambitious concept than AI1. That game started and ended with one serial killer, and parodied the idea of a giant conspiracy through Iris being a conspiracy nut. This game actually runs with it and instead of just having body-swapping technology and one hyper-strong preteen girl, practically half the cast now has superpowers. To its credit, the plot still mostly manages to hold together (I credit the presentation of simulation theory - NAIX felt like a cult people might actually buy into), and I was actually slightly more satisified with the ending than I was with AI1's!

Twist:

I guessed some aspects of what was going on. I noticed that Ryuki Side and Mizuki Side didn't always seem to be happening six years apart, and I even theorized it was a single timeline. But given Ryuki's mental problems I guessed hallucinations were responsible and I definitely didn't guess there were two identical-looking Mizukis. I think the twist is fine in itself, but this game already spread itself a little thin in terms of characters, and having everything out of order made what depth and development there was even harder to follow.

Characters:

For example, in AI1, Mizuki was the GOAT. Absolutely no question, she had the best, most complete arc, the best Somniums involved her, and the best ending was Mizuki End to the point that I'm not sure I acknowledge the true ending as canon.

But in AI2, Mizuki is... fine. She's very likeable, but she doesn't have much actual involvement in the story aside from being the POV character who fights good. And that drops her down the list a lot.

In AI2, I don't think I actually dislike any of the new characters - Komeji and Shoma are really good, Tokiko and Chikara work very well as entertaining and scary villains, Lien and Gen are fine, and Riichi and Kizuna have some interesting nuances. It's just that so many of them, as well as the returning characters, suffer from missed potential. I think Gen gets this the worst of the new characters, despite having lots of potential; for example, he's said to be drinking buddies with Lien and Date, but you don't see very much of him except when he's covering for Amame - or in fight scenes. I don't dislike fight scenes, but I might have been willing to drop a couple of them in favor of character scenes.

I didn't mention Ryuki because, well, I really like him, and I think the only problem he had was not appearing even more than he already did.

Aesthetics:

The character designs were great in AI1, and they're great in AI2. There aren't a whole lot of new locations, but at the very least, NAIX HQ (both Tokiko's office and the cathedral) are super cool-looking, and Brahman is a cozy restaurant I'd be happy to eat at. The music is still really good, too, with my two favorites being the OST at Shoma's house (particularly during his route early on, it just fits perfectly) and the one in Lien's Somnium - it's "LOW to HIGH!!!" turned into music form.

Overall:

While it had a lot of flaws and I feel it was slightly worse overall (I definitely won't think about anything from it as much as I do Date's or Mayumi's Somniums from AI1), I do think it was more consistent with no really serious flaws and a better ending. I'm definitely looking forward to searching for the content I'm still missing. Overall: let's say 8/10 (AI1 would've been an 8.5).

[girlbossphi]

ok when gen said mizuki (bibi?????? no fucking idea stupid lousy no good timeline shittery) reacted similarly to someone else i expected him to reference date

bc date and amame were the two ppl he cited as not being scared of him

i do think it was bibi but at the time he said you remind me of someone else and i was like yeah her dad obvi

but instead he references amame and dates reaction to him is never mentioned again after that one time

[psychcdelica]

What if...

In Amame and Gen ending, Amame dies instead, wouldn’t that be better?