Zero Escape Series Creator Unveils New Project, AI: The Somnium Files for PS4

Last year, Kotaro Uchikoshi, Director and Scenario Writer on the Zero Escape series revealed that he was working on a new game with Spike Chunsoft known only as Project Psync. At Anime Expo 2018, Uchikoshi revealed this game to be AI: The Somnium Files, a detective thriller set in a futuristic Tokyo. If you’ve played the brilliantly twisting Zero Escape series, then you know this is one to be excited for.

AI (pronounced “eye”) stars Kaname Date, a detective who uses an artificial eye to hunt down clues to find a serial killer. As with the Zero Escape games, we can expect that this won’t be a straightforward story. Plenty of mysteries, twists, and turns will present themselves before the end. Uchikoshi says that the name AI was chosen deliberately for its three different meanings. Artificial intelligence, the pronunciation as “eye,” and ai, the Japanese word for love. Somnium is the Latin word for dream, and presents itself through various dreamscapes that Date enters to investigate witness memories.

Yusuke Kazaki is the character designer for AI: The Somnium Files, best known for his work on Pokemon Go, No More Heroes, and Fire Emblem. Another character revealed on the stage presentation was Iris, a high-school student and YouTuber who does Let’s Play videos. You can watch the full announcement from Anime Expo 2018 in the video below.  The presentation officially starts at 28:40 on the video, unless you’re into watching a half hour of nothing.

AI: The Somnium Files does not currently have a release date, but it will be coming out on PS4, Switch, and Steam. If you want to play the Zero Escape games ahead of this one, the third one is currently available as a PlayStation Plus free title for Vita (also available separately on PS4). This first two come packaged together as The Nonary Games on PS4.