As the Pesach break was approaching, I had the urge that everyone has during the spring: to spend money. I opened up the Nintendo Switch eShop and began browsing the best selling tab before checking my wishlist for anything that caught my attention. I noticed a game has been sitting in my library for a while, that being “AI: The Somnium Files” from Spike Chunsoft of Danganronpa fame (or infamy). I knew that there was a sequel announced at the Nintendo Switch 2 presentation, but other than that I haven’t thought about it as of late. Based on the memories of one YouTube video I saw a couple years ago (shout outs to RamZaes), it is a visual novel style detective game where you investigate crime scenes and enter memories of the suspects and victims. A key aspect that made it stand out at the time (and today) is that every spoken line was voice acted in its entirety, as opposed to saying quick lines that might express the emotion of the sentence, but not the context.
And then I saw it was 80% off at five dollars (before tax).
It’s needless to say that I took my chances, but I did. I started the game that night, and I was completely sucked into its gameplay and narrative. Its gameplay is a mix of pointing and clicking at people and items around the screen without actively moving the character, and solving dream sequences by interacting with items directly using a different character in more modern third-person gameplay.
Going from location to location trying to follow a thin line of clues connected by people is emblematic of the mystery and adventure genre of games, but not many have this high amount of detail in its area design. The limited angles you see the setting from lets the developers choose what they want to show the player at every moment, whether important or not to the story. Commenting on some random objects can lead to funny interactions that add to the personality of each character. That goes doubly so for the insane amount of voice acting taking place at every scene. Giving each character a real voice to listen to adds value to the layers of personality within the character that can be inferred and analyzed by this form of characterization.
Characterization is the act of applying traits to narrative entities, like characters in a movie, book or video game. The appearance and action that characters take tell the consumer things like: “they are shy because they hide behind a book” or “they are mean because they stole grandma’s wallet.” It’s a necessity for artforms like theater and cinema, where there is a higher necessity to “show don’t tell” information that cannot be told to the audience without breaking their immersion or interest in the media. Video games started directing characterizing by using manuals, title screen text scrolls and simple tropes to tell the player that the character they are playing as is “the hero” and who they are fighting against is “the villain” (think things like the Super Mario Bros. manual saying that Bowser turned all the Toads into bricks, and how in game it is a “damsel in distress” plot).
As technology advanced in the ’90s, so did Mario start saying “WAHOO” and “YIPEE” and “Oooh you’re so-good!”, so I think there’s a correlation between the two. The voice adds a new layer of personality to the characters, and a choice for developers to make. Video games are past their silent-movie-era, and now voices are everywhere. What was once only poorly translated text used to tell video game stories are now voiced scripts that might not be cinema quality, but sometimes that’s part of the charm. We all have a voice line in mind (like Zero from Mega Man x4 and his iconic “WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOOOOOR”), but despite the lack of realism, they make the game more memorable, and it was a necessary bridge to get where we are today.
Years down the line, more and more games are becoming accustomed to higher quality graphics, cinematics and in turn, the need to align people’s characterization of the interactive medium with something like a movie. Sony has been ordering games that reflect this goal. “Insomniacs Spider-Man,” “Guerrilla Games Horizon,” “Santa Monica Studios God of War” and “Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us” are all cinematic experiences in their mocap acting, high quality graphics and cutscene directions tell the story so convincingly that there are two different experiences happening at a time: The gameplay, and the story.
Of course, “AI: The Somnium Files” has cutscenes and moments where the player doesn’t do anything, but the majority of the story is still told within the gameplay. There are cheeky moments that twist the tropes of constantly clicking the same options, as well as exploring your scope around the scene. It is a game that makes sure to combine all gameplay moments into story, and every story moment into gameplay, because the voice acting connects both together.
Unlike modern games that force the player to interact with menus only with only a vague thematic relevance to the game, Somnium has a consistent theme in its User Interface that combines the concepts of exploring memories and a detective story. Each and every word that has a unique definition or is unique to the world is placed in a dictionary accessed through a bookshelf styled menu. The settings are styled after a job from the main character Special Agent Kaname Date, with check marks to place in boxes for things like sound and voice volume. It is a game that takes every aspect of the medium to reflect the aesthetics that it innovates and honors.
Play this game before the sequel comes out. It is one of the most immersive stories not because the graphics remind me of reality, but because the voices of the characters—and the developers—are always present.
