No Sleep for Kaname Date: From AI - The Somnium Files [Review]

On the paper, it always seems great to reuse some assets to create a new game. Throw some nostalgia and references to other franchises and give a light-hearted story, what could go wrong?

At least, this is how I've started “No Sleep for Kaname Date”. A sequel to the first game's story with some of the second game's characters and settings, somewhat bridging it all. Again: on paper.

Beyond the “visual novel” side of the game, the other two “gameplay loops” are nice but short point and click escape rooms (similar to the Zero Escape franchise) and the traditional “Psync” of the series, a linear trial and error narrative challenge, in this game, always with only one outcome.

There's not much player choice nor rewards for curiosity that really makes the story relevant, and “No Sleep” unfortunately gets some of the worst aspects of the other two games and crank them up, it feels that every conversation is a joke or a joke is close to happen, and being honest, I don't like this series because of its humor.

Lore-wise, there's some backstory that was missing on the other two games, but not enough to really justify its existence. Unfortunately, while aiming to be a clever reuse of assets to assure some income for the next game, “No Sleep” felt, for me, a bit too pandering, too reliant on tropes and not serious enough, without any kind of growth or really motive to be.

Still, it is fun, it is a fun series, and I'm always in to some digital escape rooms, a very niche type of game that makes me happy to just exist. I'm still excited about the third proper game that will eventually be released, and while “No Sleep for Kaname Date: From AI - The Somnium Files” was the worst one so far, it is not bad. Badly written? Yes. Feels like a filler? Yes. But not bad.

7/10

Unfortunately, I haven't made any screenshot of the game, so all the captures here are from IGDB.