Board 8 > AI: The Somnium Files - A KCF Playthrough Topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

Day 4: Monday syuurAI

In boss' office, I just realized that the contents of all the bags on the wall keeps changing, or at least I think they do. I don't recall whips being a part of the other times at any rate.

They have three theories for Renju texting Mizuki. He was either the murderer or an accessory to it, he was coerced into having Mizuki go there by someone who was the murderer or an accessory to it, or the murderer or an accessory to it took his phone and texted with it. I feel like they wanted the player to lean toward something, but having still not met Renju and otherwise knowing next to nothing about him, I have no thoughts on the matter.

I have hard time remembering first and last names of characters, so I tend to stick with the one for each that sticks out to me. I guess I "chose poorly" for Renju because his last name is Okiura, which is the same name on the warehouse from the night before. They said that the company belonged to his father, but when he passed away, it went to someone else and Renju is not associated with the company in any capacity. They went out of their way to specifically have this conversation, so I can't imagine it is just a coincidence.

Maybe this time I can remember that the...well shit, now I forget what it is they exactly do. Are they a talent agency? Well, at least I should be able to remember that Iris is employed at Lemniscate.
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My options are to talk to Sejima, Iris, Hitomi, and Mama plus, check out the warehouse. Now that I am expecting to do all of those things, with the order not being a factor, I can make my decisions without having to think about it. Warehouse seems to be a top priority, so I'm going there. Other than them telling me it took roughly 90 minutes from when Date called in backup and when backup actually arrived, this trip was an info bust.

I made my way to the Sejima residence next. On the drive down there, they shed more info on this inmate #89. He was indicted on murder charges, you guessed it, six years ago, and he, but I assume they mean the prison, was on Sejima's secretary's call log. We had another moment where Date's vision lost color and hearing evaporated to where he could only hear a heartbeat. So with this happening like four or so times already, I guess I have to take more notice of this and when it occurs. I'm inclined to think it is a bad sign, but all I can tell is that I think all or all but one of these situations have occurred while driving.

LMAO what the hell was that merman shit at Sejima's pond? It was so weird and confusing, I can't help but laugh at it. Whatever that was, it ended up being the highlight of the trip because as Date is quick to point out, he is not a detective. It stands to reason he is not a good detective, and thus, we end up making a lot of trips that are nothing more than a waste of time.

I checked in on Hitomi. Nothing she had to say made the trip worthwhile, but being a more observant person than Date, I used the opportunity of no Iris to ask about that picture on the wall I keep seeing. Hitomi mentioned the man was a boyfriend she once had...six years ago!!! He had a criminal background, and the home invasion that resulted in Hitomi's injury was the result of his past catching up to him. Both he and the assailant were arrested and eventually indicted on whatever charges (Hitomi was mum on why her boyfriend was charged, but I'm guessing he already had a warrant out for his arrest) were filed against them.
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Deciding to go to Mama's next, I was hoping my info-gathering fortunes had changed, but after almost immediately entering the bar, Mama said she had nothing for me. Fantastic. I did end up learning that Inmate #89, aka Falco, is connected to the Kamakuras. While here, there was this weird flashback of Renju spilling his guts about crimes he was complicit in. It was some baffling adult-adoption murdering get-rich scheme that one would expect from something like a daytime soap opera.

I made Lemnsicate my last trip. One of these times, pushing someone to the brink of something will actually result in them doing it. Aiba threatned to pop out if I kept asking for the receptionist's number, but Date is a buzzkill and chickened out despite my orders. In a conversation with Iris, Date brought up finding her body in the warehouse. I forget which of the two brought it up, but we have our first mention of parallel worlds! Aiba called the idea "bizarre," but based on the previous games I have played that involved Uchikoshi, there is a 100% chance of parallel worlds in this game.

Date, JUST FUCKING PLAY SHOVELFORGE! My god, stop being a dumbass. You have been coming up empty gathering info, and here is someone who can provide you with valuable info on a potential serial killer, and your first instinct is no way, I want to do this the super hard way?

I stopped when Falco was brought to interrogation, but I want to say that he has the same face as the one from Date's dream. I think that ends my original theory that man was the boyfriend, so I guess that he was probably the intruder at the Sagan residence six years ago.
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Falco!

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KCF0107 posted...

Aiba threatned to pop out if I kept asking for the receptionist's number, but Date is a buzzkill and chickened out despite my orders

Best fake ending ever.

Why does Falco have such a dumb expression on his face? This is an interrogation dammit! Oh maybe that's why, he knew the freaking police HQ was the most important law enforcement building in Japan. Who the fuck allows him to escape under such unbelievable circumstances? His getaway driver was allegedly Renju.

Well, I guess it is time to pay the piper and taken a teenager to a middle-aged crime lord. I'm sure that has never turned out disastrous for anyone. I didn't even lie to her. I straight up said we were going to a Yakuza office building. Can't say I didn't warn you Iris!

"We aren't thugs, we're just a gang." Way to save face and clear the air with someone you admire Moma.

"This is kind of embarrassing." You don't say Moma? I'm not sure if you were referencing what you have said previously or what was to come, but it certainly works for both.
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Once again, I had an option of four places to go. I chose one of the new places in the shrine. Aiba likes reminding me that Date is the king of wasting my time. I do not. Only thing of note was Iris saying that the guy who was dating her mom was the reason she became an idol. Not knowing he is incarcerated, she had hoped he would contact her if she became famous.

Going to the warehouse, there was a shit ton of exposition that I obviously don't need nor have any desire to repeat at all. There was however the second joke of calling an oil drum Drumaemon. That must obviously be a reference to something, and I obviously don't know what.

...Okay, I will go back to Sunfish Pocket. When they said Date saw a familiar face, I immediately assumed the worst, and it was Ota again. Why the hell was Mizuki here then? I totally forgot she is Renju's daughter, and he owns this place. Mizuki has a different trident than Ota did. I know it has something to do with member levels, but the hell if I would remember the exact details. I'm going out on a limb here and guessing Mizuki's rank is higher than Ota's. That trident was pretty radiant.

LMAO at Mizuki butchering slang and saying "Yeah, blow those boys!" I'm going to pivot here and talk about a game I played at Christmas. It was called something like What Do You Meme, and it sort of plays like Apples to Apples/Cards Against Humanity where you have a picture and basically use your cards to make your own meme for it. My cousin, who is 12, was going to be the judge for a picture of Barack Obama looking down with a solemn look on his face, and another cousin's wife, unaware that the 12-year-old was judging, was going to lay down a card that referred to having a small penis before realizing what she had done and exchanged it. I can't properly describe why that scene reminded me of what happened on Christmas, but it did.

How (in)convenient, Renju made an appearance at Sunfish Pocket shortly after Date left the day before. I was "treated" to a performance by Iris. I wasn't paying attention to the dancing. Perhaps that was good by video game standards for all I know. I am very easily impressed by singing, but that was...definitely not good. I do not understand why that received so much applause.
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We were already at a restaurant, but the food is apparently not good enough for Iris or something, so we went to...oh shit. I didn't recognize the name at first, but the location image shown is Ota's place isn't it? Aiba has been with me for every Ota appearance, and she just now realizes that Ota is the most perverted of them all.

"Ring ring, who's on the phone?"
"Who cares?"
- Damn, what a swift and savage response from Iris when Date was just trying to liven things up a bit.

I knew this was coming, but I lost at rock-paper-scissors, and Date just emotionally lost it. I then almost lost it as I had to hear around 10 different stories about parallel worlds.

I know Iris has had a few moments of exhibiting some sort of condition. The loss of balance and motor control does suggest vertigo as a possibility, but it's probably something that is rare and/or is fatal with a low chance of survival. It's how that narrative device usually turns out. It could also be just like in 999 when June would get sick when you were on the wrong path, meaning I messed up somewhere (probably in the first full psync).

It wasn't that long ago, but until Boss brought it up in the phone call while driving to Mama's, I had totally forgotten about the Falco incident.
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KCF0107 posted...

Going to the warehouse, there was a shit ton of exposition that I obviously don't need nor have any desire to repeat at all. There was however the second joke of calling an oil drum Drumaemon. That must obviously be a reference to something, and I obviously don't know what.

Doraemon

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Okay, so I have to draw a line here. No, whatever these people trying to kill Date and kidnap Iris may be, they aren't going to stop in the middle of a fucking firefight to look at women's underwear or porno mags. Like having Date call them stupid doesn't come close to cutting it. This scene actually made me angry.

Skipping the bar, I was taken to Date's place where I have to desperately hope the plot is not going off the deep end already and in this particular manor. At least in 999 and VLR, they pretty much waited until the end before going completely collapsing. I say this because that awful segment from before was met with Iris' explanation that some secret society is trying to complete some 150 ft satellite for dumb stuff and Iris figured this all out and is being targeted. Now whether or not this is true, and I am thinking it mostly isn't because among many things, they would kill her, not kidnap her earlier if they wanted to shut her up, I don't think this will end up being all that relevant.

However, I guess we will be psyncing with Iris soon, so I guess something should shed some light regarding this entire clusterfuck of a day. Before I stopped, I was informed by Pewter that there was another psync machine in development by another police department, but it was stolen .. SIX YEARS AGO!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zrMykBnidM
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KCF0107 posted...

Okay, so I have to draw a line here. No, whatever these people trying to kill Date and kidnap Iris may be, they aren't going to stop in the middle of a fucking firefight to look at women's underwear or porno mags. Like having Date call them stupid doesn't come close to cutting it. This scene actually made me angry.

Yeah worst part of the game by far

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its so cheesy i love it

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So I guess I should have expected Iris' somnium to be ShovelForge since she name drops it ad nauseam. Four mental locks again. The only one I could venture a guess as to what to do is the first with needing the pickaxe to bust through the brick wall. Success!

Fuck. Investigating the vending machine screwed me over with the hefty penalty for it being the wrong action. Digging (though I'm not sure that's the correct verb here) the vending machine brought on...something. Whatever it is, I could make a disco ball from it. There are two Irises in this somnium, and I am trying to follow the streamer and not the conspiracy theorist one, though they are both asking for me, rather Aiba, to dance. Lol, they voxel Aiba dancing sure beats Date somnium dancing.

Oooh, once dancing defeated this deadly ball thing, the mental lock image showed up, and I am now seeing where the paths diverge. In this somnium, it isn't until the fourth lock, so I don't have to worry about that quite yet.

Using the words Date/Aiba put out there, I took an egg, made a monument out of it, and then turned that into a love bomb. I'm not sure if any of that terminology was a reference to the source material (Minecraft), but okay!

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Unfortunately, I had less than 10 seconds remaining before using the love bomb, so I of course got a game over screen once it was used. I didn't come across any timies though, and I already forgot how I acquired them before since apparently I don't have any to start the somnium. Going through everything again and NOT investigating the vending machine, I had time after using the love bomb. I then had Aiba attempt to climb the pyramid, and that gave me a timie, so I think that I am understanding things now. The Bloom Park somnium had you start with timies but did not give you any during it. The Warehouse somnium showed what timies your actions would net you. Starting with this one, they are all unknown. I avoided actions with mystery effects assuming they would all be to my detriment, but if this is the norm going forward, I think that I understand now. Hopefully, they are fixed effects, so once I test out an action and find out the timie involved, I can see what it is in the future, such as when I go for other paths.

Oh, I thought dancing in the mirror would be the final mental lock, but it apparently isn't, and I only have 25 seconds. The game said that the final mental lock had multiple solutions/paths, but the only action that I am seeing is touching the core. I went ahead and did it, but I do not feel good about this. Scratch that, I am feeling pretty shitty about this once they brought up that my actions meant that I believed Iris. Hell no I don't! I just couldn't find another action at the end.

Day 4: Monday irAI

Ugh, Date is acting really weird and obsessive around Iris. I feel like this is going to be a bad end, assuming the the flowchart is set up like VLR/ZTD and not 999, or this is just going to be a shitty ride until the end of my path.

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Day 5: Tuesday dakkAI

Okay, I feel like this as good of a time to mention my feelings toward the game so far.

I find somniums interesting, and I like the ability to move around and everything, but I don't like how the system is designed. I would go so far as saying it is a complete mess. It is time-sensitive, is based around trial-and-error mechanics, and your actions affect which path you will go on. So my fumbling around trying to figure out problems with illogical solutions is what decides what I ultimately experience and not, you, genuine actions of player agency?

I love a good mystery, but I am not on board for this one. I was, but they've kind of lost me. The majority of notable mystery stories are layered like this one, but they have a kinetic, apparent sense of progression. Yes the mystery gets more complicated, but depending on the perspective style, the protagonist(s) and/or audience continuously figures things out until everything is solved. In this game, we have Shoko murdered. Then many people go missing. Then we have a "phantom" murder to solve. Then we have an escaped convict. Then we have an attempted kidnapping and murder. I'm probably missing out on one or more things too. You know what we've figured out? Nothing, absolutely nothing. The game has just been going from scene to scene learning nothing or next to it or getting totally stonewalled from people of interest until something big happens then we drop whatever mystery we were in the middle of and go with the new one. We just keep getting further and further from what we started with that we might as well be on the moon.

I was also expecting something to the level of nuance that the Zero Escape series had (well 999 primarily, but VLR and ZTD had more nuanced writing than 95% of other Japanese games that I've played), but there's been far more "trashy anime crap" than I was expecting.
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Anyway, since Moma is apparently part of the circle of trust, we went to his building and is taken something out of the Ota playbook in terms of his creepiness. Luckily, I didn't have to linger here for long. I had a choice of three places to go to and decided on Bloom Park. Moma gave Iris a GPS tracker, so you know something bad is going to happen soon.

At the conclusion of our "investigation" at Bloom Park, Part VI or whatever, Date had this appropriately-timed line, "In the end, we didn't find new information on Renju. But I am not too upset. This is what criminal investigation is about." Speak for yourself Date!

Next was the diner, and Mizuki was unexpectedly here. Ota came out and said that Date was neglecting Mizuki when she needed him the most. I certainly do not disagree with that, but I have no player agency in this story, so there's nothing I can or could do about that. In Date's defense though, things have been very hectic of late.

Other than a check-in on Mizuki's declining emotional state, only stuff about Naix was really mentioned, so I left for Sejima's. This might be the quickest I have ever been at a location. I saw Hitomi with Sejima and was kicked out.

Mama's was next. I guess that I never knew that Pewter's real name was Futa. I'm sure it was mentioned in passing and the player was not totally in the dark when it was revealed that Mama told Pewter that Date and Iris were going to meet him. Apparently, that makes Renju and Pewter lovers since I believe that was the significance behind Renju's watch.
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At ABIS HQ, Pewter was hiding in a locker I guess. I don't know how he knew that Date was coming for him. Oh my god, we might finally stop meandering through the plot after Pewter confirmed that Renju hired the men who attacked Date and Iris outside of the bar and orchestrated Falco's escape. I think him additionally incapacitating Aiba/Date and kidnapping Iris is a good sign we are going to keep moving forward with the plot.

The GPS tracker was used even quicker than I imagined, and recon pointed out lots of obstacles, armed men, a bright red oil drum, and a crane that sticks out like a sore thumb. I wonder how we plan on getting past everything... Moma came to help out with a bullet-proof ATV (I didn't feel like being the bearer of badness that it is only protected from the front), and Mizuki and Ota randomly showed up as well. LMAO what a group of nutjobs this is.

"Hey look is that a tank?"
- These are the worst mercenaries in existence if their shitty aim and horrible attention span outside the bar didn't convince you. Now I understand that it is dark, but at the very least, a tank in use doesn't sound anything like an ATV.

If there was any logic in this story, everyone would have been gunned down long ago, and certainly during this abysmal plan to get Iris back. Luckily, these armed men are just as awful at their jobs as the previous group, as they fall for the same crap and have the same issues with aiming and shooting in spite of their presumed background of training or at least using those weapons before.
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After getting Iris and everyone going their separate ways, Iris revealed some info at the shrine. Renju was the one who showed up at her house late that night, and she ultimately ran away from the chemical factory inside the closed-off district when she got a bad feeling. Given it was almost two weeks ago in real time and an eternity within the game, I already forget the deal about how the factory caused the air contamination. I wonder if Iris' illness and possibly Renju's if his alleged physical state is not merely from the car accident is tied to chemical disaster.

I stopped before going to the factory, but something else about this trip to the shrine dominated my attention. There was a flashback of Iris playing "ratty cake" with the man Hitomi was dating. It is presumably Falco, but why is Date experiencing the flashback. He had that same flashback while driving much earlier in the game, and we have only played Date's perspective throughout the game, so I know it isn't from Iris' perspective, even with the weird shifts from first and third person flashback perspectives. Am I overthinking this and Date does not experience them and just the audience does? I'm not seeing any physical similarities between Falco and Date, so even if parallel worlds are a thing in the game, I don't think they are the same person. A really out-there theory is that this is some like Face/Off kind of shit where Falco is really the person who invaded the Sagan residence all those years ago and Date is Falco.
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the ratty cake cutscene is the worst thing in the game, I hate kid Iris' voice
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I think some of your complaints will be alleviated in other routes

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I agree that the route youre on meanders a lot, especially with all the conspiracy theories. There are still a number of important hints though. I dont think this is a problem in the rest of the routes. All I can say is keep playing, the payoff is very worth it

Drakeryn posted...

the ratty cake cutscene is the worst thing in the game, I hate kid Iris' voice

I am somehow not even done with my first route, but there are at least 50 worse things that I have experienced that are worse than the ratty cake stuff. I can't even remember the voice, so it obviously didn't bother me unlike Iris' voice actress singing in character.
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Iris's song is unironically the best thing about the game. That's not a jab at the game's quality. It's a great game, but that song is just so good

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The song grew on me. By the time I finished the game I loved it.
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In the factory is presumably the stolen psync machine from SIX YEARS AGO, or at least I am assuming it. Well Date/Aiba brought that up as well. I could stop stop writing down my thoughts through a stream of consciousness, but it's too much work to do anything to the contrary. Plus everyone deserves the true KCF experience, whatever that entails.

Thinking about it more, I don't think this scene was meant anything, but I was especially mad at the time that they went the whole blank-screen-at-a-pivotal-moment. Date was reading the manual for the machine and paused to say something along the lines of, "Wait, that means...," and he approached Iris before the scene shifted to them both hooked up to the machine. I'm now guessing that he had a eureka moment on how to set things up when at first I was thinking something in that manual caused him to have an epiphany about something to do with Iris.

ShovelForge: Shrine Edition. I at least understand I need to acquire that tangerine/citrus-y fruit for Iris. Beyond that, I have no idea as the visual effects were funky when they revealed the mental locks. I kept investigating objects during the first two phases of the somnium, but the price to do so was minimal.

I had to (angrily) laugh when Aiba had the audacity to say that there was no time for trial-and-error, when:
A. I am being delusional in taking that as a self-aware joke at how they set this game up
B. Two objects were simultaneously shooting rapid-fire lasers at everything in sight that combined with the camera angle would not allow me to give this the focus they mistakenly assumed people would have

Somehow, I managed to do the correct combination of monument-to-pedestal placements, and of course the final act was the extremely reasonable assumption that a player would choose to dig up the shrine. 63.4 seconds left on the clock.
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Day 6: Wednesday kekkAI

I can understand Date being otherwise preoccupied, but uh Iris' left eye socket is bleeding? It's also not opening, so is it...just gone. Is that what happened to Shoko and I guess these other "murder victims?" It has been so long since Shoko's autopsy report was revealed, but I wonder if her death was simply listed as due to blood loss and her body wounds postmortem? If not, no biggie I guess, but it seems that Shoko and Iris could have had similar conditions prior to their deaths.

Also, the game is all but suggesting that my theory of Date being Hitomi's boyfriend/Iris' father figure in the past has more than just merit. Spitballing a way they could rationalize this happening is that Date was forced to be subjected to some prison experiment that Sejima probably had enough clout to bypass basic human rights laws, and Renju, dead Kamakura guy, and whatever somehow sprinkled in there. Not saying this is what I believe, but I just wanted to come up with something on the fly.

Iris Route End
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Shrine somnium was great, it has some great music and an actual puzzle instead of only trial and error. Theres also another Somnium I like a lot but it comes much later into the game

So, yeah, I am glad to get that route over with, and I am upset that what you all are making it sound like is going to be my least favorite route was the first one that I experienced. I hate how that will probably have an effect as to my overall feelings toward the game, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Suffice to say, I feel like that was kind of a dumpster fire not too long after the Bloom Park somnium.

I'm not going to bother listing all the main and sub mysteries thus far in the game as they have virtually all gone unsolved except Renju visiting Iris late at night and Pewter being responsible for the attack outside of the bar because Renju and him are lovers and Renju wants Iris. Maybe I will get over how this route went, but I currently don't really care about most of the mysteries. I am intrigued by the possibility of Date being Falco or at least sharing some of his memories as well as Hitomi and Sejima's connection.

Anyway, I got the fuck out of that route, which means I have to go all the way back to the Bloom Park somnium, and I guess read a walkthrough since that was how the flowchart was designed in this game. Oh, which bird cage you lifted up was the only factor. I should be upset about that right? Choosing between the left or right birdcage was the difference between experiencing what I just did and what should be a much better time in this new route. I will be so bitter if the rest of the game is at least comparatively good lol.
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Remembering old solutions and in general time not being an issue in this somnium, I decided to play around and see what could make me laugh. LMAO at Date saying horses and pandas are similar and using the fact that both contained five letters as a defense. I also got a rise from asking Aiba to slap Mizuki at the end. Good times. Hmm, this mysterious blue figure at the end was new right? I believe the figure in Iris' somnium was purple.

Day 2: Saturday meikAI

Well, I already know that Renju sent Mizuki the message, so I'm not upset about Mizuki clamming up at this point. The blue figure likely represents the figure Mizuki saw that night. I am curious about the color though. Blue and purple could be the developers' way of denoting a gender difference. I am assuming they are different people, but if the figure represents a real person that the dreamer could not identify, that makes me curious about Sejima's somnium, especially since we have virtually no idea what his represented.

Mizuki and I went to Bloom Park, but I quit once I got there assuming that I will just be told again that we learned nothing from that trip.
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I dont think iris' route is bad per say but some of the other endings do have more emotional weight attached to them. It is probably the one that explains the least though? You also shouldn't of had to go all the way back to day 2 yet if you didn't want to, there should be branches to explore on that half you're in. But yes, splitting the game into two parts by the bird cage decision is pretty arbitrary but I suppose they wanted to do it so you'd have a clear footing on where you were in the plot when you went back to do another route

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I only had two places according to the flowchart to branch off from, and I doubt they would have secret branches that only show up on the flowchart if you trigger it. One was along the Iris route (I want to say Iris' first somnium), which I of course said I didn't want to go back to. That left only the Mizuki somnium.
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KCF0107 posted...

Plus everyone deserves the true KCF experience, whatever that entails.

for sure

(also I didn't mind Iris' singing, although after I did that scene I was told it's significantly better with Japanese voices)
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lol, god is Mizuki such a little brat. Long story short, An SUV registered to Renju was likely the vehicle used to transport Shoko's body and the person who placed the body at Bloom Park was likely the blue person from the somnium.

Huh, Date brings up the text message Renju sent Mizuki, not to mention she admits to the claim quickly. The phrasing is basically word-for-word what Date said in Iris' path in I want to say Sunfish Pocket? That's probably due to lazy writing, but with him not being a particularly good detective, among other factors, is morphogenetic fields/collective consciousness transported here as well? Parallel worlds man, what can you do?

Going to Sunfish Pocket, it isn't a good sign that we are going after hours...OH HOLY FUCKING SHIT! Damn, that's brutal, and totally unexpected. Will I ever meet Renju alive? If there's solace to having to go through Iris' path, it's that it makes moments like this all the more better and surprising, in a good way.
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Day 3: Sunday syokubAI

So in the old incidents, it was the right eyeball that each victim lost. Hmm, I forgot about about Shoko losing her left eyeball while she was alive, but based on Iris' end, that doesn't necessarily mean anyone did anything to her since well, whatever happened to Iris' left eye is a complete mystery but may have something to do with her nutty illness + being in a psync machine (twice at that and in back-to-back days maybe). They didn't outright say it because of course they are being difficult, but it sounds as if the person who was convicted of all the old killings is now deceased.

Uh, the first thing that I noticed in the car was Mizuki in the back seat. Shouldn't Date or especially Aiba have seen her already? Between the two of them, neither looks at the rearview mirror? They might be unqualified for their jobs if they can't even be minimally observant.

I feel like I have been saying this a lot, but "while they didn't outright say this" in Iris' path, it sounds as if Shoko was fully aware of and the driving force behind her fraud-based career.
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Okay, so let me break this down. Aiba told me at Sunfish Pocket that there was one instance of the 2nd floor elevator door to Sunfish Pocket opening. 310 lbs were on the elevator at the time. This is one of the seemingly few Japanese games that doesn't give you measurements you didn't ask for of characters. I'm going to make a guess that Renju is between 150-175 lbs. Based on this info, I am pegging the culprit to be between 135-160.

Scratch that, my stream of consciousness provided me with now outdated info. Finding the watch that Pewter gave Renju has to mean Renju was already dead upon arrival and came in via an oil drum. Now that I think about it, I only remembered there being on oil drum before. Anyway, the oil drum weighs 44 lbs. That means, I am looking at a culprit between 90-120 lbs. Perhaps that fits Ota or several of the women. Hitomi is seeming pretty suspicious now...

Oh, they quickly gave me Renju's official weight. Hey, it was in my range (158 lbs)! Okay, so the math is 310 - 158 - 44 = 108 lbs. Let's not think about how someone would be able to carry an oil drum weighing over 200 lbs. Logic isn't exactly a priority in these games, so I have to try and keep those thoughts on the backburner. I am terrible at guessing a person's weight, but 108 lbs does sound like something Hitomi could weigh. Ota and Iris also crossed my mind. It could easily be a character I have yet to meet. It could easily not be a murder, but whatever, that's not my problem!

Renju's estimated TOD is 8 PM.
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I had considered the receptionist a potential suspect, but she hasn't even been given a name yet (probably won't at this point), and I feel like she weighs more than our culprit. Anyway, it's a good thing I thought about her because I decided to go to Lemnsicate first, and I actually had a full-blown conversation with her for the first time. I still wasn't given a name, but I found it curious that in this path, she is super forward with her newfound interest in Date.

I headed to Mama's next. On the radio was a refresher on the auto accident that was mentioned in Iris' path that Renju was allegedly involved in. It occurred at 6:10 PM, so if it is the same as in Iris' path, that means it happened less than two hours before Renju died. No idea if he checked into a hospital or emergency medical center this time.

The dumb bit of Date (probably seriously?) confusing Mama with the fridge hasn't gone stale yet! Mizuki is a bit apprehensive of Mama. If I know my Japanese games, kids are magically great judges of character, so is this FORESHADOWING!? Date is leaving Mizuki with Mama to head to the bathroom. Nothing's totally going to happen...oh, nothing did. Date just left Mizuki high and dry and presumably into the company of the police.

I headed to Moma's next. With this being my first trip here on this path and no true connection with Iris, I wonder how this will go down. Okay, I guess it begins the same as before. You know what, now that I think about it, how did Date not know that Rohan had died? At the very least, you would think Boss would have mentioned it.
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Well, Moma had a guess and the x-ray vision shows it is obviously Sejima. "My revolver can shoot him through the wall. I should shoot him!" Good to see Date recovering from his disastrous turn in Iris' path. One of those shooting QTEs popped up shortly after those lines, and I think that I have finally discovered something. All those instances of the screen losing color, sound deafening, etc... is NOT from Date. It's Aiba's doing. It's how she perceives things or time dilation is different between her and Date, or whatever. The main thing is that it is all about her.

After everything was taken care of Sejima came out, but I stopped before engaging in what will obviously be a one-sided conversation.
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KCF0107 posted...

The dumb bit of Date (probably seriously?) confusing Mama with the fridge hasn't gone stale yet

Pretty sure this is Date taking a dig at Mama on purpose

Renju and Sejima apparently met through events where the former brought "young entertainment office woman" to appease creepy men. If Iris is considered part of that wordy-but-vague classification, then maybe there is a connection there. It also sounds as if Sejima and Moma meet up semi-frequently "for business" with the former meeting Shoko that way.

lol Date calling Aiba Renju, and subsequently four other people. I guess that was the first time he saw Aiba outside of the somnium in that form. She brought up Date's "dosage" yet again. This is like the fifth time. What if the game's biggest inspiration was Inception, and all of this is taking place in a somnium, so we have dreams within dreams man. That and Date is either the Cyclops Killer, one of their victims who lived, or a witness of some sorts.

Aiba brought up Sejima made a fortune selling land in the Kabasaki district, only for its value plummet shortly after due to the chemical disaster. He later bought it all back for pennies on the dollar. Aiba had more to add, obviously something that will be super important later, but the conversation came to an inconvenient end when the call about Falco wanting to talk about Shoko's murderer came in on this path. I seriously hate that tired plot device. There's zero reason to not pick the conversation back up where we left off.

"Hey girl with the big tits!"
"Uh, excuse me?"
"I want to run away and never look back"
- Aiba has to be everyone's favorite yeah?

Clicking on Look at Ota has Date simply say, "It's Ota." Even Date has grown tired of him.
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I'm wondering if the auto accident never involved Renju. I don't think it was ever confirmed he was involved in the other path, just that it was the leading theory of Date/Boss/Aiba. At any rate, it is impossible he was involved in this path as the accident occurred at 6:10, and he apparently left Sunfish Pocket at 6:15. If he was involved in Iris' path, maybe it "saved his life" depending on the events that led to his death in this path.

Info dump of Iris' account of the evening Renju died:
- Received call at 5 to head to Sunfish
- Made it there at 6
- Turned down offer to emcee a private party to be held that night and left with Renju at 6:15
- Arrived home at 7
- Learned about Renju's death on news following day
- Hitomi arrived home following day!

Not that we've had a big pool of suspects in general, and especially so now that the culprit has to be around 105 lbs, but Hitomi was one I heavily considered given how she's mostly a mystery and has some odd connections in her life. Her right arm is the only red flag to that theory, but we are also taking her word for her condition. Obviously we have no true idea about it. If I had to bet right now though, I don't know who to choose between her and Iris. Ota is also a suspect, but he seems more like a creepy obsessed fan who probably wouldn't cross the line.

Well, interrogating Iris took an interesting turn that even has me suspecting Iris a little more. She was apparently texting Ota about some mystery thing, and I guess that in this dystopian Japan, that is grounds to losing all rights to your brain. It's somnium time!
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Well if this isn't the most ominous and depressing-looking somnium yet. Four mental locks again. Let's do this! Well shit, my first action decided the path I took. Here's hoping spinning the dial works out! On the TV, they showed three people. One was choking out another, and I believe that the person being choked was one of the Cyclops Killer's targets. That would make the choker the Cyclops Killer. The random person watching in the distance is a witness or accomplice.

The room changed some, and messing around with this new mirror led to nothing. I had Aiba choke the dummy, and the look she gave doing it was disturbing. It worked the first time, so I turned the dial on this new TV, and I got to see the lovely image of the Cyclops Killer repeated bashing in the face of another victim with what appeared to be a rock.

More objects keep appearing. I pushed in the shelf and against my better judgement, I did not ask Aiba to balance on the ball that fell down but threw it. This caused Date to "lose consciousness" again. The same thing happened when Aiba choked the dummy. If what happens to the dummy affects Date...okay, dumb theory here. Is Date possibly the Cyclops Killer? I did mention that earlier, but I was neither serious nor joking. If somehow the dummy represents the killer (it could very well be the victims, bystander, or absolutely nothing), then maybe what is done to it is done to Date for him to get a taste of his own medicine? I remember Boss saying it was impossible for the old Cyclops Killer to be the new one, and that the info was classified. Maybe he gets medication to subvert his memories or mental condition or whatever, and because he had an alibi for the time of the murders (don't know if any of that is true), and obviously it would be classified info he wouldn't be privy to. Dumb theory, but at least it is something.

Anyway, I had Aiba look at a nearby book after, and that caused me to run out of time. Knowing not to mess with the mirror this time, I made it back with a lot more time. I messed with the TV for the third or so time now, and the victim was shot in the head. I proceed to waste time doing a half a dozen or more actions before out of desperation with only time for one more action, I opened the locker. Of course a Rube Goldberg contraption was set up from doing so. I don't know what it did, but based on the previous stuff, I suppose it fired and shot the dummy.

I watched a murder unfold without the TV, and shards of broken glass showed allegedly the Cyclops Killer. It was maybe a man, but the person did have blonde hair. 5.07 seconds left, so that was nailbitter! That might be my favorite somnium thus far? I could do without all the woman pleading for their lives only to be brutally murdered, but I liked the compact size and fewer ways to mess up your time.
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Day 3: Sunday gumAI

Hmm, my dumb theory might already be blown to smithereens. The original Cyclops Killer has "not been brought to justice" by Boss' account anyway. Perhaps she is someone who feels that being brought to justice means prison or a death sentence and no cruel or unusual punishment like this would qualify as. I guess I didn't even consider that the person's face from the glass shards was Date. I definitely don't know what I should be thinking or feeling from that conversation.

In the very long exposition about somniums and dreams, a different one from the other path, Date came to the conclusion that Iris must have witnessed all four crimes. Now the pessimist in me believes that this is just going to be dumb Japanese storytelling where Iris just had the worst luck stumbling upon all those murders. What are the chances!? Anyway, the optimist in me believes Hitomi is the missing link in this and could be how Iris witnessed all four. It isn't confirmed that Iris was a witness, obviously, and I am not inclined to believe in Date professionally.

Date is just now realizing the recurring "SIX YEARS AGO!" theme and thinks it can't be a coincidence. Duh of course it isn't. Well I guess I shouldn't say that since Uchikoshi has a habit, in the Zero Escape games anyway, to have like six recurring themes, only for five of them to be red herrings. Boss says of course it is just a coincidence, but she's obviously insane, so no dice pal! I will not be fooled!

"I didn't learn anything..." - Date
- Game in a nutshell

Date was supposed to take Iris home but acquised to her request to go to Mama's. This will of course go sideways, but I want to point out that Date really sucks at his job. He doesn't know how to be an authority figure, he can't follow orders, and he just makes some really dumb decisions on the job that other people would be fired, subject to lawsuits, and/or face criminal charges. I am starting to become convinced one of my dumb theories that I've had is partially correct.

Oh wow, shocker (no pun intended), Ota got the best of Date was hitting him with a stun gun. Ota even has this creepy grin on his face. Maybe he has crossed over the line from creppy obsessed fan to something far more sinister.
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Day 4: Monday jukkAI

Live feed of Iris with her left eye socket bleeding. She's still breathing, possibly tied down to table/gurney thing, and with a giant sawblade looming above her. She's apparently inside the warehouse where Date found her stabbed body in the previous path, but even considering the lighting differences, it doesn't look like it at all. Aiba says Date is far away from the warehouse, so I can tell where this is heading.

Uh, a person is in a polar bear costume and flipped the switch for the sawblade, so they are obviously not a good person. Ota later then "saved her" by flipping the switch back. I am instantly reminded to what he was doing on Twitter. He even had this line about not letting them harm Iris that seemed rehearsed, or at least not fully genuine. The polar bear came back again, flipped the switch, and oh fuck that was brutal.

Finally arriving at the scene, the person in the polar bear is also dead. Inside was Ota. Okay...Date and Boss' long conversation back at HQ didn't exactly shed any light or make me feel one way or another. I am biased against Ota, and I am not buying that he, and everybody else I know thus far, had no motive to kill Iris, Renju, and Shoko since:
A. Everybody is kind of a wacko in this game
B. Everybody is hiding something
C. Who is to say one person has murdered all three people?

I stopped before leaving to,..I actually have no idea what I am doing right now. Maybe still investigating?
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KCF0107 posted...This will of course go sideways, but I want to point out that Date really sucks at his job. He doesn't know how to be an authority figure, he can't follow orders, and he just makes some really dumb decisions on the job that other people would be fired, subject to lawsuits, and/or face criminal charges.

Lmao

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So I think that I was investigating/offering condolences, but Date can't do either well, so it was painful to watch. Hitomi did say that she saw Shoko at the prison where Falco is. Given there probably aren't many characters to be added to the game, I am going out on a limb and guessing Shoko too was visiting Falco. Mama gave a weakass motive link between Ota and the Kumakuras (I always forget if it is Kuma or Kama). I did find out that Ota died 10 minutes after Iris. After leaving the warehouse, Pewter stopped by to say that the Cyclops Killings were done by Rohan (post-mortem mutilator) and Falco (murderer). Pewter obviously isn't trustworthy, but I imagine there is at least a little truth to his claim (as in likely Rohan but not Falco).

At ABIS HQ, a random thought popped into my head. If those latest victims are having their eyes forcibly removed, then wouldn't that make Date the only person who could have taken Iris' at the end of her path. There was that part when he was looking at the manual for the psync machine at the chemical plant where he stopped what he was doing and got close to Iris before the screen went black. I assumed it was him putting the equipment on her, but maybe it was more than that.

Boss is MIA, which isn't good. She's probably out dying or killing somewhere. Falco was soon brought to HQ, but with Renju dead, I am hoping history won't be repeating itself. Falco "confirms" that Shoko came to visit him, and he believes it was for the sole purpose of meeting him. Falco also gave his condensed life story, which has a few interesting tidbits:

- He killed Person X who was part of a scheme to defraud the elderly out of their assets. That is what Renju talked about while he worked for the Kumakuras. Odds are Person X doesn't matter and is just a plot device, but perhaps this mystery person is an important figure in all of this.

- Someone is wrong in their account. Pewter, using info provided by the previous investigation, says that the murderer behind the Cyclops Killings was a complete psychopath who was incapable of feeling love the way that other humans do and only gets it from killing. Even if Falco isn't fully telling the truth here, his account of his life clearly suggests he is capable of love, and he doesn't take pleasure from killing.

- Falco's work with the Kumakuras appears to be a basic contract killing using basic methods There was even an instance of showing him in the act. It wasn't anything like what the Cyclops Killer would do, and it seemed as if Rohan would be at the scene with him, AND they would choose more remote locations. This feels like Falco taking the fall (un?)willingly to protect Iris/Hitomi or for some other reason.

- Just prior to the break-in, he called in a favor. Was the break-in then staged? It seemed as if Rohan wanted Hitomi dead without knowing the connection between Falco and Hitomi, so the odds of it being staged might be low, but it's a thought.
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It's psyncing time, and we are back at the Sagan's. Okay, that's it, I am googling what Nya means because Date said something about a cat. It means meow. Fun. I'm not going to list every little thing that I do this time.

I seemingly picked mostly the right stuff at the beginning because the marker on the line kept moving and ultimately removing mental locks. I'm usually not an asshole to Aiba, but I had her lick the green stuff thinking that probably wasn't the right decision. It wasn't, and she liked what turned out to be wine. I guess that's karma for you. Where I started to mess up was when the kitchen opened up, and I had no idea what to do with the soup. I accidentally clicked the option for her to smell it, then I had wear the pot, not thinking that she would actually do it. She sure proved me wrong. It made it all the more funnier when this giant eye appeared outside of the room, and I told her to ignore it. She doesn't understand what ignore means. Ignoring it was one of those high time-consumption actions that totally bit me in the ass. I eventually ran out of time.

This time, I made it all the way back to where I was, but I had no idea what to do with Hitomi and the skull on the last mental lock. I did everything with Hitomi only to find out she was a pointless object. After throwing the skull, I had no idea what there was left to inspect, but I remembered the soup and had her drink it. That did the trick, so I guess that when I had Aiba wear the pot, I was screwed at that point. Anyway, the people who broke into the Sagan's was Rohan...and Boss? I suspected there was more to Boss since she was the only character whose name wasn't provided, which is usually a dead giveaway that it will become very important later. I wonder if she is a Kumakura then. I wonder if they are going to try to say that she was the one who murdered Renju (and maybe the others). I never considered her to be a suspect for that because there is no way she weighs 105 lbs.
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Day 4: Monday kikAI

So immediately after leaving the machine, Pewter said Sejima met a very yucky end and had his left eye removed. Looking at Boss' computer, we see footage of her shooting Sejima while he was still alive and after his left eye was removed. I was then met with a locked end.

After the disaster that was my first run, this second run has pulled me right back in. I can possibly see Boss as the true Cyclops Killer or even groomed by Rohan/true Cyclops Killer to become the current copycat killer. There's no way she weighs 105 lbs, so I will feel cheated if at the very least she is the one who went into the elevator and set up Renju's scene at Sunfish Pocket.

I don't think that I am mentally ready to go back to the right/Iris path side, so I am going with my other option by going to Iris' somnium at the dreary warehouse room and hit the TV this time.
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That was my first route and yeah, it certainly does make you invested in figuring out what the hell is going on!

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My first route was left then down (the route youre about to do now)
Very interested to hear your guesses, like who committed the murders in the route, and on the first Cyclops Killers cases

KCF0107 posted...

It's psyncing time, and we are back at the Sagan's. Okay, that's it, I am googling what Nya means because Date said something about a cat. It means meow. Fun.

I'm amazed you could play all these Japanese games and not know that.

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