AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES to reawaken with No Sleep for Kaname Date

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Spike Chunsoft's sci-fi mystery series to resume with third intallment in July on PC and Switch

Every few years Spike Chunsoft treats us to a new psychological sci-fi mystery, and it appears they'll continue that tradition in 2025 as the Japanese developer has just revealed plans for a third, called No Sleep for Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES. 

The series began in 2019, when Zero Escape creator Kotaro Uchikoshi wrote and directed the first neo-noir detective adventure set in near-future Tokyo. A grisly murder introduced Detective Kaname Date of the Metropolitan Police Department, along with his adopted daughter Mizuki and his eyeball-shaped partner Aiba, an artificial intelligance who lives inside Date's left eye socket and is wired directly into his brain, and can project herself into people's dreams in humanoid form to explore them. That was followed in 2022 by nirvanA Initiative, another dark yet whimsical mystery in which two perfectly sliced halves of a single dead body were discovered six years apart. 

The new game picks up immediately after the last one left off. The very next day after the resolution of "The New Cyclops Serial Killings," an internet idol named Iris Sagan (aka "A-set") is "abducted by a UFO and forced to participate in a perilous escape game called The Third Eye Game." The lone clue? A mysterious coffin-shaped device with a note attached that reads "Psync me." With only a "tenuous line of communication with the missing Iris," it's up to Date and Aiba to team up once again in order to "track down the UFO that should not even exist."

Unlike its predecessors, No Sleep for Kaname Date is neither written nor directed by Uchikoshi, though he continues to oversee the project. But like the two games before it, this one promises a blend of anime-inspired character designs and 3D investigation in both the real world and dreams of "suspects and key witnesses," in which players will "examine crime scenes and listen to testimonies." An important new addition this time, however, is the inclusion of escape room-style scenarios to overcome. According to Uchikoshi, rather than simply being a "collection of puzzles," it's a "core element" of the experience whose challenges have been "intricately woven with a deep thematic significance, and its difficulty ... perfectly balanced."

There won't be much longer to wait for the new AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES adventure as No Sleep for Kaname Date is due to arrive on Steam for PC and the Nintendo eShop for Switch on July 25th in North America and Europe.