AI: Somnium Files Nirvana Initiative has more than a few endings—but one stands out from all the others: the hidden ending titled “閭｡陜ｶ荵句､｢邱ｨEND.”
*This article contains massive spoilers for both AI: Somnium Files games and all three Zero Escape games.
This ending is only unlocked by going to see Mama at Marble in the epilogue which in turn leads you to Tokiko’s office in the NIAX building. There, the hologram of the already deceased Tokiko teaches you a number. If you then go back to Ryuuki’s first chapter where he meets Tokiko for the first time, she will as if there is a “Flayer” inside of Ryuuki. Answer yes to her questions and give her the code you learned from her hologram and you seemingly break the world. According to Tokiko, as there is no logical way you could know that information, you have created a tear in reality by proving it to be a simulation (it is a game, after all) which allows her to escape to the “real world.” However, there is another explanation for what happens if you’ve played Somnium Files’ creator Kotaro Uchikoshi’s Zero Escape series as well.
After playing the first Somnium Files game, I wrote a bit about how its biggest plot hole is explained if we assume the rules of reality are the same in both game series (regardless of whether they happen in the exact same fictional world or not). This holds double true for the second. So, let’s break down the main supernatural conceit of that series before we apply it to Nirvana Initiative.
Image source: Aksys Games on Twitter
Zero Escape centers around several groups of people who can interact with the Morphogenic Field—the human collective unconsciousness. These people, known as ESPers, come in two types. The first are called SHIFTers. They have the ability to send their thoughts across not only time and space but into alternate realities as well. With the weakest manifestation of this power, they can only send or receive a few words across long distances. With the strongest, they can transfer their entire minds into other versions of themselves in parallel worlds.
Date, Ryuuki, Bibi, and Mizuki are almost certainly SHIFTers—though they are not familiar with the term. Each, at one point or another, remembers something from another timeline—be it Ryuuki remembering Tearer’s fake name or Mizuki remembering the passcode to Chikara’s computer. Now, they don’t remember how they remember—which is common for less experienced SHIFTers in the Zero Escape games—but they do know this information nonetheless.
However, that alone is not enough to explain the “閭｡陜ｶ荵句､｢邱ｨEND” ending. After all, Ryuki never learns the secret “nil code” in the first place—it’s Mizuki and Bibi who do. And while such information has been transferred across time and realities and between SHIFTers before, it was only once and involved two close friends trapped in the most dangerous of situations… which brings us to the second type of ESPer we meet in Zero Escape: Mind Hackers.
Mind Hackers have the ability to enter into another’s mind—and even control it for a limited time. However, while a Mind Hacker cannot jump between parallel worlds themselves, should they enter the mind of a SHIFTer, they can see all they have experienced across any realities they’ve been to.
(On a side note, it’s likely that all Psyncers are SHIFTers. That’s probably the special thing about them that makes them compatible with both the Psnyc machine and the A.I. Balls while most normal people are not. After all, the Psnyc machine is basically a crutch that allows them to act as watered-down versions of Mind Hackers despite that not being their innate ESPer ability.)
There are two prominent mind hackers in Zero Escape, Delta and “?”—but let’s focus on the latter. In the final ending of Virtues Last Reward, K’s recently awakened body is under the control of the mysterious entity (“?”) who had previously been riding around in Sigma’s head and influencing his actions throughout the game up. In Nirvana Initiative, Tokiko calls the being inhabiting Ryuki and doing much the same the “Flayer.” Basically, “?” and the “Flayer” are the same person—a proxy for you, the player—and explain in an “in-universe” way how you interact with the story on the screen.
Rather than controlling Junpei, Sigma, Date, Ryuki, or the Mizukis, it’s the “Flayer”/”?” that you are controlling. He is both a SHIFTer and a Mind Hacker—which explains why you can jump back and forth through both the timeline and alternate realities while also influencing the decisions of various characters at key moments.
Keeping all this in mind, Tokiko is likely a Mind Hacker as well—as she is able to tell right away that the “Flayer” is inside of Ryuki. She uses this to trick the “Flayer” into using his unique combination of powers to create a paradox through which she is able to disappear from reality (just as Akane does in 999’s “Zero Lost” ending). And as Tokiko departs, she even uses her Mind Hacking powers on Ryuki—allowing him to remember all the events of the game as the “Flayer” experienced them. In the end, Ryuki uses these memories to make a perfect world where none of the hardships of the game ever happened (though the dual sets of memories seem to leave him confused). But even then, both Bibi and Mizuki retain partial memories of the game’s original ending; they are SHIFTers as well, after all.
AI: The Somnium Files – Nirvana Initiative is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
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