#aitsf hell time

[jackass-jones]

I’m definitely of the opinion that ryuki telling date he loves him should be interpreted romantically and a sign of a potentially more emotional connection, but if there’s anyone who would just say "i loved him" about their coworker they’ve known for a few months that they sometimes get drinks with, its ryuki

[homoeroticvillain]

just scrolled back in my phone to find what art i drew at the start of '23 so i could do a redraw or smth only to find out it was ryuki which made me realize thats the aitsf enjoying has been over a year now. anyways ill draw some ryuki and post in the morning

[luxraydyne]

i don't. really know how to say this but your idea of pewter breaking the simulation code to bring renju back that you posted last year was the inspiration for my college semester's final project so um. thank you for your brilliance. and there's renju okiura submitted to a graphic design course in the middle of brazil now

my god he is traveling the world 🥺🥺

[littleluscinia]

aitsf spoilers regarding my love for B-set. huge rant!

Unpopular opinion perhaps but I find B-set significantly more unsettling than "Boss" and "So." I wish we got more time with her because it so suddenly shifts from her being a HUGE suspect for both murders (and tied to the previous) to her suddenly being dead. With "So" it was uncomfortable but not at all unpredictable, most people figured he was hiding something so Saito's behavior in the Mizuki end route was not at all jarring. With "Boss" the build up was absolutely fantastic, but depending on the order in which you play the routes it seems impossible for her to be the actual killer. Assuming that is not the first route you do, highly unfortunate if so, then Boss's actions in Annihilation are highly out of character and therefore suspicious, making Saito's reveal highly satisfying but not at all out-of-nowhere. Her (his?) somnium is unsettling but not scary in the was B-set's was, and the answers to the chain murders are basically solved before the interrogation itself. In other words, "Boss" is a fantastic end-point, or Boss lol, to Saito's murder trail, but I do not find her genuinely unsettling or scary, just pure cold calculation. If I were to liken it to Danganronpa, it would be like a satisfying Mastermind reveal that makes perfect sense when all the pieces fall into place.

Now, continuing with the Danganronpa analogy, I would liken B-set to the Danganronpa 2 plot-twist, mainly with the chapter 3 killer. To keep it vague since this isn't a Danganronpa post, the reasoning and buildup for the death in that chapter becomes darker after the completion of the game since it provides more context; this is how I feel about B-set. Yes, Iris suddenly becoming a MAJOR suspect literally a day or two after hinting that she may be Date's adoptive daughter is extremely jarring, but it propels the story forward significantly and is very attention-grabbing. Her being a suspect (and, well, the killer) shows the fuckery of the game itself, yet I wish the game cooked with B-set a bit more before chopping her up. Yes, I know that we get all those Youtube videos on her channel and that there are bits of her on the Ota route, so this is of course coming from personal bias since I love her, but god I wanted her to be disturbing. Realizing after the completion of the annihilation route that Iris was dead since practically the beginning, that "she" was the cold uncaring killer all along, that was one of the most disgusting parts of the game to me. Because, that easily could have gone in a significantly different direction had Saito confronted Date at the end of Annihilation in Iris's body rather than Boss's. Imagine. Saito can imitate Iris pretty well. Imagine how disturbing it could have been had it led up to Iris being the overall killer, had her mind-fuckery of a somnium been the last one with the screaming, children's pictures, and blood? Had the face that stared at Date's been his daughter, of whom his memories were just starting to return, had Saito called him "Uncle"... that would have scared me to hell and back if I am going to be so honest. The juxtaposition of the two siblings staring at one another knowing that their previous lives and identities are dead, that could have been some powerful imagery.

In this AU-of-sorts, I would imagine that the plot builds up to Boss being the overall killer with Saito acting suspiciously as her, but ultimately Iris killing her on livestream (her personal stream and not in that stupid polar bear costume). Of course, disturbingly, I would imagine that Hitomi would not end up alive in this AU, but I love her too much to imagine what cruel things B-set could do to her. That, coupled with the fact that Saito killed her biological mother too, damn that boy would be going for 2/2 on the mother murders.

There are too many loose-ends to really solidify this as an AU fic that I'd write, but it most definitely is something that I would be interested in outlining and potentially working on in the future. I can just imagine the following:

"Oh why am I doing this? I want to see you suffer, Kaname Date. Awwww, Mr. Date, why can't you understand! Or, should I call you UNCLE? How about Big Brother? hahHAHhhahHAhh, you REALLY didn't know?! You don't even know who you are and now you want to know more about who I AM?! I'm the brand new star of the net world, A-set Tesa Iris the cyclops killer, of course!"

I could go on and on, how she'd talk with punctuated cutesy gestures, mocking the actual Iris, how she'd reference all the previous flashbacks that Date has had, how she'd speak in a (practically) flawless impression of Iris. To play the entire game and to realize at the very end that the person you needed to save is already dead, and in her place is a vicious murderer in a body that you swore to protect, that would've been something alright. If the body swap happened then Date would've been absolutely fucked as Iris afterwards since the livestream would've revealed her as the killer, and he would likely die in his daughter's body in the same prison that had his true body, unable or unwilling to bodyswap with him and "return home" himself.

That route is the absolute worst of the game, and yet sometimes I wish it was even more disgusting.

[colourful-void]

[truly off the charts levels of aitsf nirvana initiative spoilers]

some thoughts on mizuki date and mizuki kuranushi

the whole timeline switch thing is admittedly: cool as fuck. love it conceptually. its neat as hell. in practice i think it required some of the game to be a bit... strained in logic and perhaps if we were less committed to clone Mizuki and some other aspects it would feel a little less like we had to rob Mizuki (Date) as a character to make it work.

I can explain why i feel this way:

Don't get me wrong, its set up really really well in a lot of places. i see now which is awesome. the set up isn't so much the problem, there definitely could've been a bit more in the set up but overall it's solid.

my problem is that, in order to make this work, Mizuki and Bibi need to be functionally indistinguishable from each other not just in appearance but in personality. NOW there are key differences I noted which was very good!!! I did see this, i just think like, the fundamental concept means they have to be significantly more similar than they are dissimilar and that makes for....

Okay like:

Mizuki and Bibi having the same scooter? Fantastic, it's mentioned early on that's abis provided, of course they're the same. having the same gun, sure even, it might be a 'mizuki custom' but if we assume mizuki date didn't actually care that much about her gun's specifics I totally see boss replicating the first one. I'm sure bibi would've wanted that too. Having the same PIPE is bothering me. Because now we're verging into some nature over nurture territory.

Mizuki Date loved that pipe when she was 12, it's something she picked up afaik after coming to live with date even, bcs she didn't have it when she was getting bullied in school. Her having one makes sense. But bibi has a pipe, seemingly because... Mizuki has one.

So then, was it a unique choice Mizuki made when she was younger, or does 'being mizuki' mean predestined to wield a pipe? (i can also see Bibi like, watching over mizuki and deciding she also wants a pipe but that's only slightly better because it's still externally denying the characters individuality) [A minor way of adjusting this could be having Mizuki Date only ever use the pipe, and Bibi only ever use the Evolver.]

There are some good moments of them being different i can recall off hand, bibi talking about her younger sister (mizuki) for example, to shoma, etc. but like. 90% of the time you're not supposed to be able to tell them apart. So they think the same way, and act the same way, and when you're playing a game literally in the brain of a character its hard to even pass off as just, presentation or a front. and i wanna be clear i know there are minor differences.

Bibi doesn't react to Date's appearance in the warehouse (because she didn't know him like Mizuki Date, but also looking back since that was in the past like, Mizuki Date wouldn't have reacted either.), I think there's a little difference in how bibi and mizuki treat boss, maybe? But since mizuki is still playing around with boss and giving her puppy dog eyes in the first investigation scene when That's Mizuki Date and not Bibi, it doesn't quite land.

Because the small pool of people who actually know, Ryuki and Boss and all have to TREAT Mizuki Date and Bibi basically identical for this to work. And again, you can stretch it. Boss is trying to maintain professionalism, etc. But it's another layer of them being... basically the same.

Mainly, my biggest problem is less everyone else and how Mizuki Date and Bibi think and act.

Mizuki Date and Bibi are allegedly two different characters. They're given two different backstories, and lived two very different lives. Despite that, aside from a few minor hints and character quirks, they behave and interact indistinguishably from each other. And that kind of cheapens both of them as people.

Like, we just had this whole game that had everyone saying "if this hadn't happened, if my father hadn't been killed, if this child hadn't been kidnapped, if So Sejima had just kicked it at 20, maybe none of this would've happened, life could've been so different" and then also showed us 'Even if your life was extremely different you would still think and act exactly the same'.

TC-PERGE and alcoholism was a huge part of it, but the cited reason for a lot of Ryuki's behaviour is the trauma right?? Like it comes up multiple times, but the unique traumas that both Mizuki's faced? I guess impacted them exactly the same. or not at all, in Mizuki date's case because we never get proper resolution on the whole 'you were adopted and then your adopted parents couldn't or wouldn't raise you properly so gave you off to Date, who then disappeared." i'm still entirely unclear on who was the guardian of this 12 year old child after that.

TLDR

i think a lot of this twist is really cool conceptually, i'm on board with a lot of it. But in practice, Bibi and Mizuki are only different characters because of their wildly different backstories. They think and act identically, despite having such different circumstances which should lead to different thoughts and actions. In a game where the final Somnium ends in a long chain of "What ifs" where it's characters ask if they could've lived differently had just a few things been different, the central characters appear to demonstrate that no, they wouldn't.

and that kinda bums me out.

[hodgepodgequack]

Aitsf 3 thoughts (AND SPOILERS FOR aistf 1 and 2)

So according to the official website, AISTF 3: takes place after the cyclops killings are resolved…

And Amane shows up in the trailer, it’s safe to assume that AITSF 3 is between 1 and 2

So I have a couple of questions

First, which timeline are we following here? I know the obvious answer is post true ending, but resolved is such a vague term. After all, in the og game the case is technically resolved when you off so Sejima (but this after Iris dies). So who’s to say that this isn’t an alt timeline not presented in the og game where Iris survives?

And if I wanted to get really angsty the website says killings as in plural…what if this alt timeline is one where shoko, Renju and Mizuki do not make it (after all “Renju” was waiting for Mizuki to come out of hiding of the merry go round most likely to off her, what if he succeeded in this timeline) hence why Mizuki is not in the trailer (considering Iris is her friend too, and Mizuki seems to be beloved in the fanbase, it’s odd she’s not shown)

Secondly,

I already established that this takes place between 1 and 2. But the problem with that is continuity. Considering Iris is out in space and stuck playing a life or death game, there is no way in hell she would not bring that up at a later point.

But at the same time, if I remember correctly Iris barely appears in Aitsf 3. She does show up, but she’s not the main focus during the game. So maybe the opportunity never comes up. But that’s the boring answer. I want to have FUN with my tinfoil hat ideas dammit.

So here’s come options that spike chunsoft could do to tie the games together (assuming that they want to) first option is the easiest and the most likely one

1. During a wink psync on Iris (and I think it’s done by Mizuki in aitsf 2) she’s singing a song about cucumbers and most players would say oh it’s just Iris being silly, but could you imagine how funny it would be for her to have heard that song from someone during this adventure and years down the line it just gets stuck in her head. Hence an easy tie in.

2. Add dialog to aitsf 2 if the game detects you have played though aitsf 3 (and have tokiko mention something about the game being both the past (in the timeline present in the games) and future (the order in which we receive the games) it would really tie in the meta aspect. Granted I don’t know how easy this would be to do, but I know for a fact that in the famicom detective club series for the switch that if you have played at least one of the games, any fdc you play after that will ask if you want to use the same name you used in the first game.

3. The coffin that says psync me acts similar to Solaris (the flame of hope in Sonic 06 that if it Is blown out, it makes the entire game seem as if it never happened) and the game is never canon hence why it is never brought up. That the second kaname psyncs with it the game ends. And it resets everything.

But what if it becomes a gameplay mechanic?

I’m fairly certain we do psync with the coffin at the same point (in the trailer we see date starting a sommnium and there is not another person in the other chair. What if the coffin has a data chip or something smaller that can be psycned with hence why there is nothing in the chair) (its also just a likely that the scene shown that there is supposed to be a person there but they were removed to avoid spoilers…)

Like at the end of the route (assuming this game has multiple routes) something goes horribly wrong and up to that point you haven’t synced with the coffin for whatever reason. And date does it for the first time thinking it could be a Hail Mary this could fix everything (remember this is the same date who believe in one route of the first game that doing a sommnium with Iris Would allow him to jump into parallel worlds and keep Iris alive).

But instead he wakes up the day that everything went to shit and only he remembers it. (Again in the first game he seems to have some knowledge of alternate timelines but he never really uses it to its advantage and it’s presented more of as a nod to the player) and it starts a loop that makes him more and more unhinged and he starts losing sleep. Hence why the game is called;

No sleep for kaname date.

Also it’s really funny that we now have a full game based on the arg that lead up the second game. If you know you know.

Will we get an arg leading up the release of the game? I hope so…

[mirror-imaged]

i love seeing my smt mutuals and my aitsf mutuals freaking out at the same time. i say that as if i'm not also freaking out i am. i totally am i genuinely stood up and started jumping up and down in excitement. i can't wait for raidou to look smooth and squishy and i can't wait to put kaname date through the hell he deserves

[metalkitty21]

You’re an Aitsf fan!?

as of recent times yes! I brought both games since there were quite cheap due to the company's anniversary sale. I've currently got 3/5 of the games main endings and I'm loving the hell out of it and I can't wait to play more and the sequel!

[rpwickit]

I know Uchikoshi wrote the Kurashiki and Field siblings in Zero Escape but he also wrote stalker x teenage victim = father figure x girl he watched grow up plot lines in AINI, I don’t think he’s above anything atp. 😭

I don't recall anything that sus happening in AINI...

(TW: For SA and incest, discussion below.)

But if we're doomed for an incest plotline, at least do SOMETHING with it. I think that's my overall problem with incest plotlines. Most just have it there and don't try to dissect it or add any commentary.

They just have it there to exist or for shock value, like what happened in NDRV3 3rd trial.

As far as I remember, the game didn't detail the full nature of Korekiyo's relationship with his sister. If it was formed from neglect from their parents or it was an abusive act committed by the sister and or Korekiyo.

(SIDE NOTE: I took one for the team and googled this shit. There's actually not a lot of research on sibling incest. Mainly because there are not as many reported cases of sibling incest compared to the overwhelming amount of reports of parental incest. i.e., parent/guardian abusing a child. However, what is known is that sibling incest can be formed in different ways for different reasons. Unlike parental incest, which is solely abuse either emotionally or physically, sibling incest can have various causes. It could be caused by SA, but it could also be a result of neglect from the parents/guardians, and as the siblings are forced to over-rely on each other to survive, it could lead to incestuous feelings. Sibling incest could also be caused by trauma or mass family dysfunction. But like I said, there isn't a lot of research about it, and also, this is what I gather from skimming college docs and articles, so take this whole side note with a pinch of salt.)

We just don't know the full nature of their relationship, which leaves too many questions for people's liking and leaves a bad taste in people's mouths. (Unless it was explored in Korekiyo's free time events, and I don't remember.)

I know nothing about Zero Escape; I only played the AITSF and AINI. But I'm assuming it either wasn't handled well or went places it didn't need to.

I believe that no topic is taboo in art. But there are good ways and bad ways of tackling a topic. The only "good" example of incest in fiction I can think of is Flowers in the Attic or the Dollanganger series. But even then, there is a MASSIVE FUCK UP that happens in one chapter of Flowers in the Attic that spoils the whole thing unless you delete that chapter from your memory. (Which all fans do already. Heck, there are a billion fan rewrites of that chapter, so people could replace that chapter with those. It's that bad. If you know, you know.) But it is a great quadrilogy of books overall, and if you can stomach topics like child abuse, generational abuse/trauma, incest, and religious trauma/abuse. (and also skip chapter 19 of Flowers in the Attic...) Then, give it a read. It's one hell of a rollercoaster.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that regardless of whether there is an incest plot, I just want this game to be good. I just hope that Uchikoshi and Kodaka learn from their past mistakes and can give us their best work yet.

For the sake of their fans and their company.

[jackass-jones]

My appreciation for iris and ota as characters increases every time I play aitsf like I think the side characters in aini are more likable but they don’t have as much depth cuz you have to remember them in all these different points in time and their different relationships with all the protagonists and it gets really wishy washy but in the first game it’s just like. Here’s iris and ota, they’re fucking annoying and sketchy as hell. Please spend all your time with them 🥰

[lesbiandatekaname]

The first time I played aitsf and aini my partner and I turned off voices and did them ourselves, but replaying it with my friend means that he's turned all the voice acting on. Here are some voices I'm not ready to hear what they "actually" sound like in nirvana initiative:

Ryuki sounding incredibly whiny and almost always on the verge of tears

Tama with a very smooth British accent

Southern belle Kizuna

Just. Whatever the hell we had going on with Chikara

[brawlqueen]

as much as i adore mizuki's english va, something about tomoyo kurosawa hits so well for both her as a child and grown up. the way she sounds in the hospital at twelve, not only insanely strong physically but so strong emotionally, finally breaking down like a child that she never got to be ( scene is right here )

to mizuki as a confident teenager, all grown up and ready to face the world, despite going through and continuing to go through more hell since well, she was born but ever facing it with a grin or steely resolution. ( example right here ) . it gives her a soft, pretty but fierce undertone voice, but at the same time a roughness to it, in between pleasant and sweet, but full of bite and unflinching fearlessness / determination all at once.

also sounds hilarious when she's teasing and taking no bs from someone. which, is quite often ! i highly recommend it because i've really fallen in love with kurosawa as mizuki too ! also hearing mizuki cry as kurosawa is heartbreaking because mizuki doesn't cry unless you actually do her route in aitsf and let me tell you it's enough for me, personally, to choke up in either language, it's just that good.

[quillparchment]

aitsf and aini spoilers, slightly negative but mostly introspective

I think what kind of bothers me a lot about the canon endings to both games is that... date spends so little time with mizuki in the resolution route (literally to the point that ota has to call him out on it like come on) and since most of their development happens exclusively in the mizuki route, the only time they really get to bond is post-canon, but all we see in those three months while iris recovers is that mizuki and date seem just the same as before. and then right after that, during the HB case, date just disappears for another six years.

he gets no meaningful time with mizuki despite having adopted her and like. it's just... sad? date misses the entirety of her teenage years, and there's really very little done in canon to even indicate what that means to him. instead, it's brushed off as just it being like he was gone a few days... but that feels like a cop-out, imo. the fact that they are never close enough as they were in the mizuki route, and by this point, probably never will be. after all, mizuki's grieved him for longer than she knew him. hell, aiba's been with mizuki longer than with date at this point.

date really has a track record of missing his daughters' teenage years, huh. anyway if anyone knows of any fics or such that actually touch on this topic especially through date's pov please point me that way.

[kusemon]

so what the hell is this anyway

in wake of the Pokemon Go parody somnium in AI: Nirvana Intiative, i suddenly had the idea to make a whole pokemon region based off AITSF. which then turned into a region based off spike chunsoft games in general because 1) i needed more mons to fill up a whole dex and 2) the original kusemon somnium had monokuma and shiren the wanderer so why not.

most of the posts here are gonna be designs for mons based off major AITSF characters and characters from other spike chunsoft games like zero escape and dangle rompers. now, i'm bad at designing fakemon from scratch. so almost all of these designs are gonna be "regional variants" of existing pokemon. i think it's funnier that way tbh. by the way, i chose Chispun as the region name as a dumb pun on SpiChun.

maybe someday i wanna do a proper romhack/fangame for this but as of now i lack the time and know-how. mizuki and ryuki would be the protagonists of course and pewter is gonna be the kusemon professor. finally the jokes are real

UPDATE: art and other major aspects of the project will be tagged with #kusemon. if you don't want to hear my ramblings filter the tag #kuse chatter.

you are also more than welcome to @ me if you decide to draw any of these designs!

[molsno]

Is drag transmisogynistic? Or at least is modern drag so? I know that drag queens can and have been transmisogynist, hell rupaul have certainly been weird about trans women and he's arguably the most famous drag artist now. But is transmisogyny inherent in the art form? Asking this cause i saw your post about mama from aitsf and while i'm not disagreeing with you, it has me wondering about real life nonbinary drag queens

I mean. probably not? I don't know a single transfem who likes drag if that tells you anything but answering this definitively one way or the other would almost certainly be divisive. I do think it's annoying that tme people seem to think trans women are like. full time drag queens or whatever and that that perception has led to the birth of countless transmisogynistic caricatures. as for the art form itself, I don't really know enough about the history of drag or its modern forms to give you an opinion.

[eternityboxed]

hey ant whats aitsf please.tlel.me about it it looks cool as hell

HAaurghgrhr. I will refrain from spoilers. i was gonna just Say all the THings but. I wont. H grah. BUt uhjfg. fuck. is called ai the somnium files. ok chris you know how zeoror escape is batshit wild and it makes me insane crazy brainrot biting. the guy made some OTHER games and its like Wouagh. What the fuCjk. game that pisses me off sometimes but then also is like. AAYYghrhg?!??!?!?!? if you have ANY INTEREST IN PLAYING IT IN THE SLIGHTEST YOU NEED TO BLOCK THE SPOILER TAG CHRIS. I RB SO MANY SPOILERS. DUDE. game that has some REALLY . REALLY COOL ASS POTENTIAL FOR FANART IMAGERY. YOU GET IT. like. chris im realizing i cant say anything bc all the stuff that soecifally makes me implode is so spoilers. uhhgrm,. i dont know how to talk about it without spoiling it. Lmao. but like also it’s a fuckign fever dream. its like What the Fuck all of the time. like Genuinley the entire time i was watching it i was like What In The Hell. What? and then i finished and i looked back on it and i was like HOlyyy shit fuck. chris if you have any interest whatsoever block the fucking spoiler tags. also theres a second game but i have less thoughts on that one. still cool ass fanart. i only watched one playthru of that one tho so i have less recollection of the events but amame doi;s somnium makes me absolutely implode. ever see those rb spams of that one blue girl. anyways. uyghm. i just need to reiterate its like a fucking fever drea,m and the whole ass time youre like what in the ball shit and then like the guy does the thing like he did with zero escape where all the stuff gets mushed together at the end and youre like Aough. Ough. WHtahefd. Ourgbn m”!??!/ AH. Bruh and ALSO MUSIC SLAPS MUSIC SLAPS SO AHRD. CHEIS. MSUSIC. MYSIC> JYSDIFCKVm.. MUSIC. also if you ARENT going to play it YOU HAVE TO TELL ME so i can give you a VERY BAD SUMMARY FROM MY MEMORY. FUCK SHIT !!! hsaudKFGY JAHKLN?KLjjklwEjldWjeWjdWjkdjdajkldjkldw。就四点了还发空间上ohshit i switched keyboard while keysmashing that doesnt say anything that s just result of kesymash . ok . basically game. that pisses me off sometimes and then explodes all of my brains out completely. actually you know what. im going to rewatch another play through of it next time i need something to do i think