[Honey’s Anime Interview] Director Kotaro Uchikoshi & Assistant Director Akira Okada of AI: The Somnium Files

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AI-Feature-Image-AI-The-Somnium-Files-Capture [Honey’s Anime Interview] Director Kotaro Uchikoshi & Assistant Director Akira Okada of AI: The Somnium Files

Hello Folks!

Honey’s Anime is here again, with another awesome interview for you all. We were approached with a great opportunity to interview 2 staff members from the new IP by Spike Chunsoft, AI: The Somnium Files! We originally knew of the game as Project Psync when it was announced last year at GDC 2018 and is now officially know as AI: The Somnium Files. We had limited time to ask questions so we tried to focus on those not already answered by other publications. So in this article, we’ll be talking to Kotaro Uchikoshi-san & Akira Okada from the Zero Escape series about the experiences they had with the development of the game and their overall take on what it was like to start something new.

To those who don’t know about the Zero Escape series, the games are adventure games in the vein of visual novels: there are narrative scenes (the cutscenes of the 3rd game were later changed to animated cutscenes) and puzzles to complete while also surviving and experiencing multiple endings that are affected by the players choices. The game is highly received across the globe and with this new IP, players are curious to know more about it including ourselves.

Continuing on with AI, we already know about Special Agent Date being the main character who has the ability to see others dreams in order to investigate further on the mysterious killings from a serial killer. It all happens one night as Special Agent Date was investigating a murder at an old amusement park where he finds a young girl with an ice pick in her hands, covered in blood! As we take in this info presented to us, we wanted to know more. Even the YouTube channel created with a new character hosting the channel named A-set (or Tesa which most use for her) and her involvement in the game as she seems to be someone important to know about.

Without further ado, let’s check out the interview and find out what is in store for us all!

Kotaro Uchikoshi

Akira Okada

Honey-Chan
AI: The Somnium Files Kotaro Uchikoshi (Zero Escape) & Akira Okada (Zero Escape)

(Translator: Kazu)
AI-Feature-Image-AI-The-Somnium-Files-Capture [Honey’s Anime Interview] Director Kotaro Uchikoshi & Assistant Director Akira Okada of AI: The Somnium Files


What was it like working on this new title compared to your previous works? Were there any differences in ideas and how to move forward when taking on this new project?

Well, the first thing was that it is an adventure game, Zero Escape 3 had a lot of cutscenes and compared to Zero Escape 2 it was very text heavy, so this is a different type of adventure game that is not going to be an Escape game this time.

For me, this is a new series that isn’t from a franchise so we started from the beginning and unlike the Zero Escape series, the player interacts in order to escape and get out that with this game, we’re thinking where and who do we want the player to interact with to be more involved with the story and that was a difficult part in developing this game.


You mention the game is an adventure game, but what exactly does this entail regarding the gameplay and mechanics?

[Kazu] At the moment, we cannot answer any questions about gameplay. That info will be announced at a later time.


OK, no problem. Next, I wanted to know about the characters, more in particular with A-set (Tesa). Is she based or influenced by someone or something else?

25% is based on a real person and the other 75% is totally fictional.


What are her and the other characters roles in the game? Are they investigators, teammates helping Special Agent Date, or NPCs for dialogue purposes?

For their roles, and more than Tesa, they might be helping more the main character, Date, or they can actually be one of the bad guys!


For the setting, it was described in a way that intrigued us and we wanted to clarify what it means to “Travel between dreams and reality to investigate crimes…”?

Ok, so you will be investigating in reality, you may come across someone suspicious and you can use abilities to go into their dreams and investigate in their minds.

AI-Feature-Image-AI-The-Somnium-Files-Capture [Honey’s Anime Interview] Director Kotaro Uchikoshi & Assistant Director Akira Okada of AI: The Somnium Files


That is very intriguing! Were there any hurdles in developing the game?

So while creating this game, there were some hurdles with the program as it would crash several times so creating the investigation and dream portions of the game was difficult. It was really hard to keep a balance during development.


That is unfortunate but it seems things are great now. Our next question is more our curiosity, but when designing the characters for the voice actors, were they chosen first and then designers worked around them to fit them as best possible?

So for the characters, the design was decided first and then the voice actors were chosen. It was the best way to move forward regarding this.


About the YouTube channel created. There is a random girl missing an eye, lying on a table tied up and is sawed in half. And there is a polar bear conducting the killing. Why a polar bear?

*chuckles* That’s kind of difficult to answer. [pause] Well, I would have to say that the culprit wanted to wear a bear costume while conducting the murder. *chuckles* Simple.

AI-Feature-Image-AI-The-Somnium-Files-Capture [Honey’s Anime Interview] Director Kotaro Uchikoshi & Assistant Director Akira Okada of AI: The Somnium Files

Annnnnd unfortunately, that was when we had to end our review and we couldn’t ask further questions… But, we had a wonderful time asking about the game as the responses were great. Honey’s Anime thanks Uchikoshi-san & Okada-san for their time in answering our questions. We can’t wait to hear more about AI: The Somnium Files. In case you missed it, Spike Chunsoft has also announced that they will be releasing the AI: The Somnium Files Special Agent Edition available on July 25th—the same day as the standard edition—and will include:

AI: The Somnium Files Special Agent Edition – $89.99

  • A-set Acrylic Stand – Approx. 6 inches tall
  • Outer Box – Original Artwork by character designer Yusuke Kozaki
  • THOUGHTS REMaiN BELOW Artbook – 30+ pages of sketches and concept art
  • REVERIES IN THE RaiN Soundtrack
  • A-set’s #1 Fan Stickers – 3 vinyl stickers
  • AI: The Somnium Files for Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 4

Preorders have already gone live so make sure to head over and get your copy today on either PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Steam! If you want to know more about AI, please visit the link below: http://spike-chunsoft.com/ai/. If you want to check out the YouTube channel featuring A-set’s (Tesa) YouTube channel—her channel—can be viewed here if you want to check that out as well: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxYoH_UNbIKP1xnsTx9m5Gw. Here is her Twitter page for good measure: https://twitter.com/lemniscate_Aset.

A-set is also Spike Chunsoft’s new mascot in collaboration with Uchikoshi-san—mainly for the promotion of AI: The Somnium Fiels—, which they hope turns into an internet sensation with her debut in AI: The Somnium Files but will be posting weekly on her YouTube channel.

Final Thoughts

We hope you all enjoyed the interview and if you are excited about this new game from the minds behind the Zero Escape series, AI: The Somnium Files, then make sure to sound off in the comments below!

AI-Feature-Image-AI-The-Somnium-Files-Capture [Honey’s Anime Interview] Director Kotaro Uchikoshi & Assistant Director Akira Okada of AI: The Somnium Files

Editor in Chief

Author: Alfonso "Fonzy" Ortiz

I'm a Geek, Nerd, Writer, and lover of all video games, anime, science, technology and the internet. I previously worked for STFUandPlay.com, a contributing writer as the Japanese Corespondent at TheKoalition.com and founded a website called Transcend-Gaming.com! I currently live in Japan as Editor in Chief of Honey's Anime and its very talented writers! I'm down for anything! What do you want to do?

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