[This article contains major spoilers for both AI: The Somnium Files <\/em>and the Zero Escape<\/em> series of games.]<\/strong><\/p>\n On several paths through AI: The Somnium Files<\/em>, you reach a dead end that prevents you from continuing and asks you to return later. Then, by playing through the other routes of the story, you learn key pieces of information that allow you to return to those dead ends and progress further.<\/p>\n There\u2019s just one strange thing about this. Each route through the story is literally a separate timeline\u2014a different way that Date\u2019s investigation could have gone. Our detective hero has no way of directly communicating between timelines\u2014nor does he know really that they even exist. Thus there should be no way for the vital information to transfer from one Date to another.<\/p>\n Early on, the game gives an explanation for how this is possible: that by making changes inside a person\u2019s mind Date is able to shift between realities. However, this is later revealed to be a red herring\u2014Date was going full sci-fi in his attempt to figure out how a person who he saw dead was suddenly alive again. (There was, in fact, a perfectly mundane explanation to the seemingly miraculous resurrection.)<\/p>\n Later in the game, Saito suggests that all Date is doing is remembering things he learned before his amnesia. However, both we and Date know right away that this explanation doesn\u2019t hold water: Date\u2019s memories are definitely things he experienced in parallel timelines.<\/p>\n In the end, the mystery of how Date is able to remember events and knowledge from other timelines is simply left unexplained… well, in this<\/em> game anyway.<\/p>\n AI: The Somnium Files<\/em> is written and directed by Kotaro Uchikoshi, the man behind the Zero Escape<\/em> series of games. Like with AI: The Somnium Files<\/em>, Zero Escape<\/em> weaves its separate timelines into a single cohesive narrative\u2014one where the gameplay design choice of letting you jump back and forth between the game\u2019s different routes at will is likewise a major plot point. So, given that both stories share a writer and the same thing seems to be happening, it\u2019s not a stretch to assume that the rules of timeline-hopping are the same between both works. And while AI: The Somnium Files<\/em> doesn\u2019t explain how sending information between realities is possible, Zero Escape<\/em> most certainly does.<\/p>\n The explanation found in Zero Escape<\/em> is based on Rupert Sheldrake<\/a>\u2019s pseudoscientific \u201cMorphogenetic Field\u201d theory\u2014namely the idea that “shapes of living organisms and their behavioral patterns are transmitted through a field not visible to the eye.”<\/p>\n In the Zero Escape<\/em> series, certain characters are able to access the Morphogenetic Field instinctively in moments of great stress and danger. These people are known as ESPers. Some are only able to send information across the Morphogenetic Field while others are only able to receive it. However, with continued use of these powers through life and death situations, some ESPers are able to become SHIFTers that are able to send their own consciousnesses both across time and into alternate realities\u2014though only into their own bodies.<\/p>\n Now, this doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that a person\u2019s entire mind is transferred between timelines. In fact, only the most powerful of SHIFTers with tons of practice are able to achieve this. Much more commonly, it\u2019s only a single word or phrase\u2014a flash of memory\u2014that makes the jump. And if that sounds familiar, it\u2019s because this is exactly what Date is experiencing in AI: The Somnium Files<\/em>.<\/p>\n Date is perhaps the weakest SHIFTer we\u2019ve seen in Uchikoshi\u2019s work\u2014and he\u2019s further hampered by the fact that he doesn\u2019t have another ESPer around to explain to him what is going on. However, going through numerous life-or-death struggles as a detective has allowed him to subconsciously send vital information from tragedy-filled timelines to those where there\u2019s still a shot at a happy ending.<\/p>\n All this makes you wonder if, despite Zero Escape<\/em> appearing to be a game within the game, that AI: The Somnium Files<\/em> is actually a Zero Escape<\/em> side story. Perhaps the newly announced AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES – nirvanA Initiative<\/em> will feature a mention or two about an all-too-familiar gas mask glad terrorist and their band of ESPers trying to bring down a religious zealot bent on causing a genocidal nuclear war.<\/p>\n Or perhaps we\u2019ll just get another solid cyberpunk mystery. I\u2019m not going to complain either way.<\/p>\n AI: The Somnium Files <\/em>was released on September 17, 2019 for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.<\/p>\n Top image source: Spike Chunsoft, Inc.<\/a> on Twitter.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/DhxytUcVQAA2mHv.jpg?w=700&ssl=1\")
Image source: Spike Chunsoft, Inc.<\/a> on Twitter<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/C7s1rmmUwAA202Q.png?w=700&ssl=1\")
Image source: Aksys Games<\/a> on Twitter<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/C-_xsPyUwAAYcNH.jpg?w=700&ssl=1\")
\nImage source: Aksys Games<\/a> on Twitter<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/DnMmfKrUYAAuOk3.jpg?w=700&ssl=1\")
Image source: Kotaro Uchikoshi Eng<\/a> on Twitter<\/em><\/p>\n
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