Kaname Date is a detective working for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, who lost his memories and left eye after an incident six years ago. Assisting him in his police work is Aiba, an advanced AI housed in his prosthetic eye. In addition to normal detective activities such as examining crime scenes and gathering testimonies, Date and Aiba are able to dive into a person’s dream world, or Somnium, in order to uncover the truth a subject’s conscious self can’t or won’t reveal.
Date’s newest investigation focuses on the death of a woman named Shoko Nadami, whose corpse was discovered with her left eye missing. As more bodies are discovered, each missing the left eye, it becomes apparent that they are the work of a serial killer dubbed the New Cyclops Killer. The more Date digs into the increasingly-complex case, the more it seems that it may have some connection to his missing memories and the Original Cyclops Serial Killings of six years ago…
Gameplay is divided into real world and Somnium segments. In the real world, Date examines crime scenes and talks to persons of interest in a point-and-click format. When normal human vision is insufficient, Aiba’s special vision modes can be used to examine the environment. Violent confrontations play out as quick time events in which Aiba runs simulations to guide Date through the fight safely.
In Somnium, the player directly controls Aiba in a subject’s dream. Although there is a strict time limit of six real-world minutes, the perception of time is different in a dream. Thus, instead of having to contend with a constantly ticking clock, each action the player performs will shave a different amount of time off of the 360-second total, and players are given limited opportunities to change the length of time an action will take. By interacting with objects and solving puzzles based on dream logic, Aiba can break a subject’s mental locks and uncover the truth. Certain Somnia have multiple solutions, which will send the player down different story paths. Only by playing every path can the case be fully solved.
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