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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

The director of AI: The Somnium Files and the writer of AI: The Somnium Files – Nirvana Initiative, Kotaro Uchikoshi, recently posted a rather strange tweet on his official English Twitter account. Garbled, unclear footage on a monitor is shown alongside the tweet consisting of what appears to be mojibake, unreadable characters that should be abundantly familiar to those who have played AI: The Somnium Files – Nirvana Initiative.

This is eerily reminiscent of the significantly memorable promotion for the second game, but it’s too unclear to say anything definitive. Uchikoshi made a tweet in February 2024 with what appears to be this same monitor, except not broken.

The text is as follows:

遐ｴ繝ｬ邯ｻ繝吶ご閼ｱ繧ｻ繝ｨ繧ｳ繧ｳ繝剰劒讒句ｹｻ荳也阜逶ｮ隕壹ａ繝ｨ隲ｸ蜷幃擠蜻ｽ繝取凾逵溽炊繝取演髢九こ菫ｺ繝上ム繝ｬ繧ｳ蜃ｦ繝上ラ繧ｳ莉翫ワ菴墓凾繧ｭ繝溘ワ繝ｯ繧ｫ繝ｩ繝翫う繝ｯ繧ｫ繝ｩ繝翫う繝ｯ繧ｫ繝ｩ繝翫う窶ｦ莉ｮ諠ｳ遨ｺ髢捺錐螢翫す蛛ｽ繝惹ｸ悶き繝ｩ縺九う謾ｾ繝ｲ…

The director of AI: The Somnium Files – Nirvana Initiative, Akira Okada, also tweeted the following, further implying a connection to the series:

AI: The Somnium Files May Be Getting A New Entry

The director of AI: The Somnium Files and the writer of AI: The Somnium Files – Nirvana Initiative, Kotaro Uchikoshi, recently posted a rather strange tweet on his official English Twitter account.

noisypixel.net

 

[Danjin44]

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

Are these good?

 

[Danjin44]

Are these good?

 

[lh032]

give me the 3rd sequel.

 

[MudoSkills]

These are great. I really hope the next one starts with Ota being horribly murdered.

 

[Blindy]

Yes please! More Date though. Lets not fool ourselves, one of the GOAT protagonists of visual novels. Ryuki isn't the same.

Are these good?

1st one is amazing, I had such a great time with it. 2nd one gets a bit weird and I don't think the new characters of this one touch the 1st but if A.I.: The Somnium Files was a 9.5 for me, nirvanA Initiative would be a 9.0.

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

These are great. I really hope the next one starts with Ota being horribly murdered.

Yes please! More Date though. Lets not fool ourselves, one of the GOAT protagonists of visual novels. Ryuki isn't the same.

1st one is amazing, I had such a great time with it. 2nd one gets a bit weird and I don't think the new characters of this one touch the 1st but if A.I.: The Somnium Files was a 9.5 for me, nirvanA Initiative would be a 9.0.

Aight im in.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Are these good?

Yes, buy them and play them, especially the first one as it has a cool protag. That said, I'm leaving these two screenshots here.

 

[TheStam]

I should give AI: The Somnium Files another go. It seemed good, but I just hate time limits generally.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

These are great. I really hope the next one starts with Ota being horribly murdered.

And the stupid Idol Girl

 

[Blindy]

And the stupid Idol Girl

Iris takes a heavy backseat in the sequel to even more annoying characters -_-.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Iris takes a heavy backseat in the sequel to even more annoying characters -_-.

I hated the first game so thank God

 

[Blindy]

I hated the first game so thank God

The mermaid maidens or whatever they're called have more characters coming from that group that play a role in the story of the sequel.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

The mermaid maidens or whatever they're called have more characters coming from that group that play a role in the story of the sequel.

Oh nice

They were great

I still have to play the sequel lol

 

[Chukhopops]

I thought it was announced he was working on a new title with the Danganronpa / Raincode writer?

Upcoming Kodaka and Uchikoshi Collab Should Play To Both Authors' Strengths

Kotaro Uchikoshi and Kazutaka Kodaka's upcoming collaboration should play to their strengths within the horror, mystery, and visual novel genres.

gamerant.com

If they work together I hope the game is more like Raincode and less like AI but that’s just my opinion.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

I think I feel a Fraying coming on...

 

[Vampire On Titus]

I thought it was announced he was working on a new title with the Danganronpa / Raincode writer?

Upcoming Kodaka and Uchikoshi Collab Should Play To Both Authors' Strengths

Kotaro Uchikoshi and Kazutaka Kodaka's upcoming collaboration should play to their strengths within the horror, mystery, and visual novel genres.

gamerant.com

If they work together I hope the game is more like Raincode and less like AI but that’s just my opinion.

Both uchikoshi and kodaka are no stranger to multiple concurrent projects. My assumption would be Extreme x Despair and Ai3 are separate games.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

My boy told me the first one was good but the second one was god awful. Uchikoshi games are either a 9 or a 4. There's no inbetween.

 

[Gordon Fearman]

Finally some good news in gaming. I...can't remember the last time.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Some more updates via Automaton West:

Kotaro Uchikoshi, director of Spike Chunsoft’s AI: The Somnium Files and writer of AI: The Somnium Files – Nirvana Initiative, posted a new cryptic message to his official English X account on April 1. The message was posted as a reply to his equally mysterious post from March 28, which made users hopeful that he may be teasing a third entry to the Somnium Files series.

While Uchikoshi’s previous post featured a wall of garbled Japanese text and a glitched out video of a broken screen, in his latest update, he simply says, “eaxqedcnrpnawnycapxkp glzdsmnnhdhvrshggcmxv.” This was impressively deciphered by X user @Broken__Bee only 15 minutes later to potentially mean, “im being overwatched by the authorities right now.” Even decoded, the message remains puzzling, and the fact that it was posted on April Fools is only messing with players’ heads further.

However, as the message comes in reply to the March 28 post (which was very Nirvana Initiative-reminiscent), it might be safe to remain optimistic about a new sequel. Furthermore, as noted by NoisyPixel, Uchikoshi’s teasing was quoted by Nirvana Initiative director Akira Okada back in March with actual footage from the game.

The garbled Japanese text in-game overlaps with Uchikoshi’s post

As an aside, Uchikoshi is rumored to currently be working on Extreme x Despair, a collaboration with Danganronpa creator Kazutaka Kodaka. This was hinted at by Kodaka in a tweet from January 2024.

 

[Shake Your Rump]

Are these good?

If you really like visual novels, I guess. I bought the first game on Switch and got maybe halfway in. It's boring. The parts where you control the woman are a walking simulator with no challenge, and the other parts are just talking to people. I kept pushing on thinking it would get better since people cream their jeans about this series. Nope. Still boring.

 

[daxgame]

The games are good, but to be honest I actually dislike the Somnium parts. Always use walkthroughs for those to get them done quickly.

 

[Bkdk]

Certainly one of the most enjoyable youtube walkthrough experiences, always down for more if they want to continue.

 

[GHound]

My boy told me the first one was good but the second one was god awful. Uchikoshi games are either a 9 or a 4. There's no inbetween.

Agreed and agreed. I think if a hypothetical third entry is worse it will break the fourth wall and delete Uchikoshi himself.