History VideoGame / AITheSomniumFiles

* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Early on in Mizuki's Somnium of what she saw in Bloom Park, the branching choice has Date and Aiba find a corpse that looks identical to Iris which Date takes as a sign that Iris will be murdered, so he calls her in a panic and orders her to stay home and not trust anyone. [[spoiler:It's later [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]], as while the corpse wasn't a sign from the future since it was actually Iris' mother Manaka that Mizuki accidentally found a month prior after following Renju to the Cold Storage Warehouse where he grieved over her, it did technically foreshadow the actual death of Iris in the left side of the timeline where Saito swaps bodies with her and strangles her to death as Renju, which Date prevented via his misunderstanding and phone call.]]

* EntertaininglyWrong: During the left side path, you psync up with Iris. Depending on how you handle the initial choice there, you see the original Cyclops Killer's murders. Naturally, Date assumes that Iris must have been present when the murders took place and assumes she was dragged along to each murder. [[spoiler:She was nowhere near the murders because you aren't in Iris's memories. You are in Saito, the killer's memories, as he has swapped bodies with Iris by that point.]]
** During the right path, Date comes across So leaving a warehouse, inside of which he finds [[spoiler:Iris's frozen corpse]]. After interrogating So, he Psyncs with him, [[spoiler:during which time he saves a dream version of Iris from being stabbed to death.]] Shortly after this, the cops who arrived at the warehouse after Date left call to say that [[spoiler:the corpse is gone. Shortly after, Date finds an alive Iris hanging out at her home.]] Date begins to wonder if somehow changing events within the psync somehow changed reality, with Boss not being 100% convinced it isn't possible either. [[spoiler:In actuality, the corpse Date found wasn't Iris, it was Iris's real birth mother who had been killed many years earlier then frozen. The body was moved to another location after Date left the warehouse, and Iris was never in danger after she was warned by Date not to leave her house the previous night.]]

* FlawedPrototype: [[spoiler:The prototype Psync machine works just like the real deal, apart from one important detail: the Psyncer and subject have to [[EyeScream remove their left eyes]] in order to use it. It's actually not as bad as it sounds, as this can be done under anesthesia, and merely pulling the eye out without severing the nerve makes it possible to put it back in place with no lasting damage. It's still highly preferable to have a nanocable too small to be felt going directly through your eyeball, however, and [[BigBad Saito]] doesn't care.]]

** During a conversation in the Matsushita Diner about parallel universes, one story Ota mentions involves a boy who laughs so hard, his eyes pop out of their sockets. He then just pushes them back into place, and Aiba explains that it's possible to do so with no lasting health effects. [[spoiler:The prototype Psync machine, introduced much later in the story, relied on this principle to work, since it lacks the nanocable technology that allows ABIS' machine to go connect to the optic nerve through the eyeball.]]

* {{Antepiece}}: Date's dream in the beginning is a Somnium level with no time limits or risks, allowing the player to play around with the level structure and learn how to interact with things before the next Somnium level which does have a time limit.

* ATeamFiring: There are several action sequences where Date faces dozens of foes armed with automatic weapons (such as [[spoiler:the ambush at Golden Yokocho or Date and Mizuki's assault on the Sejima mansion]]). Despite this, very few of the bullets fired during these engagements hit their target. Though it's mostly enemies that miss their shots, it evolves from ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy to this trope during [[spoiler:the raid at the harbor to rescue Iris]], where neither Date not Moma seem to be injuring any enemies when taking potshots at them while Mizuki can run at the offending mercenaries at point-blank range without getting hurt

* BetterManhandleTheMurderWeapon: Early on, Date finds Mizuki inside a merry-go-round, and she's holding a bloody icepick. Considering how Shoko was stabbed to death with an icepick, it doesn't really look good for her. Once she regains her speech, she explains that she couldn't bear to see the pick sticking out of her mother's eye socket, so she pulled it out without thinking. Thankfully for her, this doesn't lead to any repercussions.

** Even the GoldenEnding has a slight bitter side to it despite majorly leaning to the sweet side. Date completely solves the New Cyclops Serial Killings and the culprit is defeated, but [[spoiler:the Okiuras are confirmed dead thanks to Saito's plans, with most of the cast mourning Renju's death including Pewter, who got manipulated into assisting the BigBad thinking he's helping his old lover Renju, who was already dead.]]

** In the timelines where Sunfish Pocket is open for business and Ota is a customer, he has a golden trident as a result of how much money he spent, but gripes he hasn't gotten the {{Orichalcum}} trident yet, which is the best one. Later, Mizuki is seen holding a glowing blue trident which is presumably the Orichalcum one. Justified, since she is the owner's daughter.
* BriefAccentImitation: During Iris's psync, if you tell Aiba to commit seppuku, she and Date will put on exaggerated Japanese accents while pretending before Aiba tells him she isn't going to do it.

** It's mentioned by Aiba several times that Date is on some sort of medication for an unspecified condition, complaining that his dosage is either too much or too little when he starts acting weird. [[spoiler:She reveals in the Annihilation Route that she's been giving him oxytocin since his defective brain belonging to [[BigBad Saito]] can't produce it, so Aiba provides it to him in order to avoid relapsing into Saito's conditioning to take pleasure from violence and murder.]]

* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler:On the left side of the timeline, Date directly chases after the culprit akin to a traditional detective story while the BigBad toys with him throughout by possessing and killing people close to Date [[DownerEnding before twisting the knife entirely in the Annihilation Route]]. The best chain of events for Date? Getting sidetracked on the right side over a misunderstanding and nearly forget about the murder mystery, but he solves the case anyway because the culprit landed in a freak accident which prevents him from murdering more than three people in the present day and only directly interacts with Date at the very end.]]

* {{Antepiece}}: Date's dream in the beginning is a Somnium level with no time limits or risks, allowing the player to play around with the level structure and learn how to interact with things before the next Somnium level which does have a time limit.

* ATeamFiring: There are several action sequences where Date faces dozens of foes armed with automatic weapons (such as [[spoiler:the ambush at Golden Yokocho or Date and Mizuki's assault on the Sejima mansion]]). Despite this, very few of the bullets fired during these engagements hit their target. Though it's mostly enemies that miss their shots, it evolves from ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy to this trope during [[spoiler:the raid at the harbor to rescue Iris]], where neither Date not Moma seem to be injuring any enemies when taking potshots at them while Mizuki can run at the offending mercenaries at point-blank range without getting hurt

* BetterManhandleTheMurderWeapon: Early on, Date finds Mizuki inside a merry-go-round, and she's holding a bloody icepick. Considering how Shoko was stabbed to death with an icepick, it doesn't really look good for her. Once she regains her speech, she explains that she couldn't bear to see the pick sticking out of her mother's eye socket, so she pulled it out without thinking. Thankfully for her, this doesn't lead to any repercussions.

** Even the GoldenEnding has a slight bitter side to it despite majorly leaning to the sweet side. Date completely solves the New Cyclops Serial Killings and the culprit is defeated, but [[spoiler:the Okiuras are confirmed dead thanks to Saito's plans, with most of the cast mourning Renju's death including Pewter, who got manipulated into assisting the BigBad thinking he's helping his old lover Renju, who was already dead.]]

** In the timelines where Sunfish Pocket is open for business and Ota is a customer, he has a golden trident as a result of how much money he spent, but gripes he hasn't gotten the {{Orichalcum}} trident yet, which is the best one. Later, Mizuki is seen holding a glowing blue trident which is presumably the Orichalcum one. Justified, since she is the owner's daughter.
* BriefAccentImitation: During Iris's psync, if you tell Aiba to commit seppuku, she and Date will put on exaggerated Japanese accents while pretending before Aiba tells him she isn't going to do it.

** It's mentioned by Aiba several times that Date is on some sort of medication for an unspecified condition, complaining that his dosage is either too much or too little when he starts acting weird. [[spoiler:She reveals in the Annihilation Route that she's been giving him oxytocin since his defective brain belonging to [[BigBad Saito]] can't produce it, so Aiba provides it to him in order to avoid relapsing into Saito's conditioning to take pleasure from violence and murder.]]

* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler:On the left side of the timeline, Date directly chases after the culprit akin to a traditional detective story while the BigBad toys with him throughout by possessing and killing people close to Date [[DownerEnding before twisting the knife entirely in the Annihilation Route]]. The best chain of events for Date? Getting sidetracked on the right side over a misunderstanding and nearly forget about the murder mystery, but he solves the case anyway because the culprit landed in a freak accident which prevents him from murdering more than three people in the present day and only directly interacts with Date at the very end.]]

* YourHeadAsplode: Aiba informs Date that she has a self-destruct feature which, should it ever be activated, would result in this trope for him. [[spoiler:She activates it during the game's climax, by which point "Date's" body is being inhabited once again by its original owner, [[BigBad Saito Sejima]], who is holding Hitomi at gunpoint. The result is Saito's head being reduced to a gory fireworks display.]]

* ShooOutTheClowns: Normally whenever you run into Kagami at a crime scene, Date can [[RunningGag ask him what his name is]], as Date keeps forgetting much to Kagami's frustration. But [[spoiler:when the murder victims are Iris and Ota]], all you can do is ask him about whether his team has found anything at the site. In fact, anything that usually has a RunningGag related to it will be taken seriously without any goofy commentary during serious scenes (such as the empty bookshelf at Hitomi and Iris's house during the scene where [[spoiler:Hitomi tells Date about Iris's brain cancer).]]

* {{Cliffhanger}}: Both the main routes [[spoiler:[[DownerEnding Annihilation]] and [[GoldenEnding Resolution]]]] stop at certain points [[WhamShot following a major twist]] and lock themselves until more of the story is played. Played straight in the [[spoiler:Ota Ending, which ends without any elaboration after it's revealed Iris stole Mayumi's knife and Shoko's eyeball was found in Renju's stomach. None of these questions are answered until the player learns the true story in the main routes.]]

* ComfortFood: In a flashback [[spoiler:in Date's Somnium]], Date offers a dejected Mizuki some homemade stew on her first night living in his apartment.

* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler:On the left side of the timeline, Date directly chases after the culprit akin to a traditional detective story while the BigBad toys with him throughout just for fun [[DownerEnding before twisting the knife entirely]]. The best chain of events for Date? Getting sidetracked on the right side over a misunderstanding and nearly forget about the murder mystery, but he solves the case anyway because the culprit landed in a freak accident which prevents him from murdering more than two people close to Date and only directly interacts with him at the very end.]]

* JustInTime: On the right-side path, Date [[spoiler:calls Iris asking her not to leave the house for any reason as soon as he's out of Mizuki's Somnium, just in case there's some significance to what he saw in the dream. He unknowingly makes this call roughly ''one minute'' before the killer calls her to lure her from the Sagan residence, forcing the killer to change plans and saving Iris's life.]]

** The game takes place over nearly a week, but nobody seems to change their clothes. Lampshaded when Date returns to his apartment: he and Mizuki each have several duplicate outfits hanging on their clothing rack. He initially claims that this is purely for the sake of practicality, so that he doesn't waste time choosing his clothes in the morning, but then says he's just joking and that they do have other outfits, they just store them somewhere else. [[spoiler:In the Resolution Route where Saito ends up in Date's original body and changes out of the orange prison jumpsuit, he wears the exact same outfit as Date's original identity "Falco"/Hayato Yagyu.]]

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: It's obvious from the get-go that Boss and Pewter know a thing or two about Date's past, but refuse to talk about on the basis that it's top secret and [[TemptingFate can't possibly be related to the current case of serial murder]].

* MacroZone: Ota's Somnium, set at the fishery warehouse, has Aiba shrunken down.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: If you run out of time one the final choice of a psync, you will still complete it, allowing you to continue the story. However, in order to get one of the two files for each psync, you must clear it with time remaining. Sometimes this can be a bit of a puzzle itself as the final action will be rather long, requiring you to have a specific TIMIE ready to go.

* ATeamFiring: There are several action sequences where Date faces dozens of foes armed with automatic weapons (such as [[spoiler:the ambush at Golden Yokocho or Date and Mizuki's assault on the Sejima mansion]]). Despite this, very few of the bullets fired during these engagements hit their target. Though it's mostly enemies that miss their shots, it evolves from ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy to this trope during [[spoiler:the raid at the harbor to rescue Iris]], where neither Date not Moma seem to be injuring any enemies when taking potshots at them.

* BetterManhandleTheMurderWeapon: Early on, Date finds Mizuki inside a merry-go-round, and she's holding a bloody icepick. Considering how Shoko was stabbed to death with an icepick, it doesn't really look good for her. Once she regains her speech, she explains that she couldn't bear to see the pick sticking out of her mother's eye socket, so she pulled it out without thinking.

** She does this with [[spoiler:Ota after Date reveals he's been hiding a knife in his hospital]]. This gains them the opportunity to psync with them.

* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler:On the left side of the timeline, Date directly chases after the culprit akin to a traditional detective story which may end in utter tragedy for him. The best chain of events for him? Get sidetracked on the right side over a misunderstanding and possibly forget about the murder mystery while the culprit lands in a freak accident which prevents him from murdering more than two people close to Date and later solves the case anyway.]]

* {{Synchronization}}: According to Pewter, the level of compatibility between Psyncer and subject affects the difficulty and effectiveness of the Psync. Date and [[spoiler:Mizuki]] are highly compatible, which is why [[spoiler:Boss asks Mizuki to Psync with Date to wake him from his coma]]. Date and [[spoiler:Ota]] have terrible compatibility to the point it broke the Psync machine and rendered it inoperable for a long period.

* TimedMission: Except for the very first which isn't even timed, all somniums are set for a flat 360 seconds. The rate of counting down, however, is affected by how much the player moves around, what actions they select in the course of it, and their use of the "timies" to alter the amount of time.

* LimitedWardrobe: The game takes place over nearly a week, but nobody seems to change their clothes. Lampshaded when Date returns to his apartment: he and Mizuki each have several duplicate outfits hanging on their clothing rack. He initially claims that this is purely for the sake of practicality, so that he doesn't waste time choosing his clothes in the morning, but then says he's just joking and that they do have other outfits, they just store them somewhere else.

** [[spoiler:Saito ties up Hitomi at Boss' house along with dynamite and streams it live at the end of the Annihilation Route.]]

* PaintingTheMedium: Even the game interface doesn't remember Kagami's name, always labeling him "Inspector", unlike every other character whose labels are updated when you learn their names.

* PoorCommunicationKills: [[spoiler:When Hayato Yagyu/Falco switched bodies with Rohan Kumakura 6 years ago, neither Boss nor Pewter obviously told anyone else about it, since the procedure was illegal. Still, they could have told the policemen to not let Rohan-in-Falco's body leave without question. This led to the shootout at the Sagan residence, where Hayato accidently shot and severely injured Hitomi.]]

* RiddleForTheAges: It's never exactly explained how [[spoiler:Date can pick up on fragments of memory from other timelines, and it gets even screwier in the epilogue when Iris also remembers something that happened in a different route.]]