AI: The Somnium Files was an eccentric neo-noir detective game centering on Kaname Date, a detective with a cybernetic eye and an AI partner named Aiba. He investigates a series of gruesome murders linked to a past case, diving into suspects’ dreams to uncover memories and clues. Players find a web of conspiracies and unravel secrets about Date’s past, the victims, with a few chuckles along the way.
The sequel, nirvanA Initiative, follows dual protagonists: the newcomer Ryuki (paired with the voluptuous AI, Tama) and Mizuki, who has become a full-fledged ABIS agent. It was a story that jumped between timelines while having players explore dreams to solve murders, and while Date did return, it was in a much smaller capacity. Mizuki was always intentionally written to be a bratty girl boss, and Ryuki is supposed to be a weenie.
Everyone liked Date because he was so cool and his shenanigans made him endearing, which made players miss him when he wasn’t the main dude for the sequel. Kotaro Uchikoshi might have felt the same way and imagined a new scenario to get everyone’s favorite gooning private eye back in action. What kind of wild ride has Uchikoshi cooked up this time? Find out in our No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES review!
This is a review coupled with a supplemental video review. You can watch the video review or read the full review of the below:
No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES
Developer: Spike Chunsoft
Publisher: Spike Chunsoft
Platforms: Windows PC, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch (reviewed)
Release Date: July 25, 2025
Price: $39.99
If you haven’t played the prior Somnium File games, then going into No Sleep For Kaname Date will be like waltzing into the middle of season three of Lost… and you will be lost.
By this point, the series assumes you have been keeping up with the characters and who they are, and you understand the weird jargon and funny acronyms. If you haven’t, there are tons of data logs and clunky exposition that do their best to inform.
A ticker that appears at the top of the screen during pivotal moments that tries to bring newcomers up to speed, but it’s not ideal. The pace of the story is fast, and the stakes are high.
Stopping to take the time to know who Pewter was and his role in the last two games only serves players who didn’t play them. It makes less sense for the characters to talk about it since they already know.
Never mind the suckers who missed the bus on some of the craziest mysteries and dream diving on the first couple of rounds, where’s our hero, Date? He’s back as the main event this time, and when the story begins, it’s with a bang.
UFOs have appeared and they sucked up Iris Sagan, everyone’s favorite ditzy internet idol and video game streamer (AKA A-set), and she’s forced to participate in escape room challenges while wearing admittedly cute poofy panties.
Iris’ simp Ota is also along for the ride in the escape room challenges, and he’s as dorky and cowardly as ever. As the challenges and stakes escalate, he becomes playable, and gamers must use both characters to solve the puzzles during these sequences.
The escape room puzzles become tricky and tie into the story’s main themes, often foreshadowing events to come in mind-blowing ways. There are a lot of item puzzles where players must examine an item and rotate it to find hidden mechanisms or insert a thing in a specific slot that ties to some esoteric lore with connections to the greater theme of the story.
The escape room puzzles are a highlight for sure and push gamers to cook their noodle far beyond anything seen in the past Somnium games. Some can be so tricky that Uchikoshi had to introduce Hina, a new character who is a bit of a wiz at escape rooms.
She’ll drop hints for players who struggle, and after many mistakes, she swoops in and flat-out tells you what to do if you play on the easier settings.
The escape room challenges will feel natural to fans of the Zero Escape trilogy and will be floored by the historical lore that Uchikoshi is known to inject into his games.
The puzzles are firing on all cylinders, and some cleverest are devised in an adventure game. Escape rooms were a worthy addition to the main core of the franchise, which was more about detective work and “psyncing”.
As an ABIS agent, Date does his investigations like any detective. Expect to go to places and interrogate persons of interest. With the assistance of AIBA, his computerized eyeball, he can tell when people are lying or concealing weapons.
AIBA’s true purpose isn’t just for infrared or x-ray vision; she is Date’s main asset for psyncing, the method to explore people’s subconscious.
The absurd and surrealist environments of Somnium are the heart of the series. While exploring as AIBA, time ticks down only when she moves or performs actions. It’s a time-pressure element that restricts the number of choices players make while experimenting within the dreamscape.
On the easier modes, AIBA is allotted more mistakes since the cost of actions is drastically reduced. It’s almost better off to play this way because you would be missing out on all of the funny scenes you’d not see if you only made the correct choices.
Players will end up replaying the Somnium sequences anyway because No Sleep For Kaname Date has multiple endings.
The third pillar of the No Sleep For Kaname Date experience is the investigations and QTEs. These moments unfold like any other point-and-click visual novel. There is no shortage of world-building details and amusing, quippy remarks from the cast as you go about clicking on details that may or may not be relevant to the case.
The QTEs unfold like they do in most games. Scenes are impressively cinematic and showcase fun choreography, stunts, and anime-style shenanigans. Some instances feature multiple choices that impact the direction of the scenes.
They don’t add a whole lot of substance and are mostly included for purposes of action and excitement. Like in Somnium, sometimes it’s fun to lose on purpose for the funny scenes.
No Sleep For Kaname Date’s story is another hit for the series, but it also has begun to feel a little stale this time around. Most of the assets and character models are recycled. Only A-set gets new clothes, which are just poofy underwear. Would it be that big of a deal if the rest of the cast were given new outfits for the third game?
Many locations are recycled from the past two games, making the sense of mystery and intrigue feel less magical this time around. The characters don’t undergo major changes, and the only thing that matters is unraveling the mystery.
Mizuki is still a grumpy girlboss who doesn’t put up with Date, and you’d think by now she would have softened a bit after all that they’ve been through. When she does open up and shows vulnerability, it feels like too little, too late.
No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES is another excellent mystery game with more puzzles and twists to discover than ever, yet it doesn’t shake the ground like it did the first two times. It delivers on the fanservice and skimpy outfits, and the thrilling writing keeps things tense, but it feels like another Somnium Files episode.
No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided by Spike Chunsoft. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy is here. No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES is now available for Windows PC (via STEAM), Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2.
