You can really tell how anime a game is going to be based on the length of the title. While I enjoy simpler things like Limbo or Braid, having something that infuses too many adjectives and verbs into saying a game’s name tickles a special part of my brain. No Sleep for Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES isn’t even a close contender to the longest one I’ve found, but it has some important aspects. One, anyone reading this who hasn’t played the previous titles will mispronounce the last name. Two, it’s yet another title by Uchikoshi, who is having the best damn year in publishing ever. And three, it’s utterly, enjoyably, confusingly, unapologetically insane.

If you’ve played either of the previous AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES titles, you have…a cursory idea of what’s going on. You know that the main protagonist, Kaname Date, is a Psyner (a sort of psychic police officer) who has a robotic eyeball (named Aiba) who likes to bust his balls and, on occasion, can manifest as a full person. You know that Kaname has the ability to view the world differently through Aiba, including x-ray, thermo, and scanning the thoughts of people he’s interviewing. You also know the main crux of the series is Kaname’s ability to Psync: the act of diving into their subconscious mind and undo intricate puzzles, under a time constraint, to get information that the subject is unwilling or unable to give. Clearly, you know all of this.

If you’re new to the series and decided to come in on No Sleep for Kaname Date, know that all of this information can be casually gleaned as you’re dropped into an absolute mess of a setup. Iris, an Internet idol who was prominent in the first SOMNIUM FILES, wakes up in what appears to be a spaceship. She is dressed in one of her idol costumes, and a person claiming to be an alien lets her know she’s been selected for some kind of performance/test. Iris is able to reach out to Kaname (because even aliens let you phone a friend) and this kicks off an entire mess of events that stretches your credulity paper thin. What grand conspiracy is at large that has kidnapped Iris and possibly executed any number of crimes? Are aliens real? And does Kaname like that receptionist for her personality?

The entirety of No Sleep for Kaname Date can be encapsulated as a massive combination of improv theater and an escape room. The player fluctuates through three primary scenarios: interviewing and explorating areas to get more information about the ongoing case, engaging in a Psync with any number of suspects/beings of interest, and trying to survive through the escape rooms that crop up as part of the ongoing investigation into Iris. Sometimes you’ll be in the driver’s seat for other characters, but you primarily control Kaname and Aiba, respectively. There is an almost overwhelming amount of information available at any one time, giving you backstory and context for existing relationships (like Kaname and his estranged ward, Mizuki) as well as flavor for what’s going on around you. Basically, you’ll be left wondering “why” constantly, but not for lack of the game trying to explain things.

A lot of the puzzle solving within the game falls into two distinct schools of approach. On the one hand, there’s a lot of logical connection that goes into moving the plan forward. While the game won’t ever outright give you the solution, it’ll constantly goad you towards the next step with a little bit of force. For example, in the earliest escape room, Iris has to fit certain figures into certain spots based on clues inscribed around the UFO. If you keep examining the items over and over, Kaname will get more and more specific with his observations, eventually culminating in him saying “You should put X here.” Even though there are timers that rocket you towards a bad ending if you’re not careful, there’s no failstate in the puzzles: you just need patience and wit.

In fact, No Sleep for Kaname Date did me a massive ego blow by deliberately asking me if I wanted to turn down the difficulty in mid puzzle because I was clearly running around in circles and not getting anything done. It’s both funny and deeply upsetting when a game notices you struggling and asks if it can make things easier for you, and I appreciate the hell out of it. To the game’s credit, it didn’t ask me again after I declined, but I felt like my dad was just sitting in the corner, watching me and wincing but saying nothing because I begged him to let me solo this. I can paint a pinewood derby car, I know it won’t look as nice as when you do it, but let me have my independence PLEASE!

The other way the puzzles progress is through sheer brute force. Again, there’s time to be considered for a lot of things, but there are elements of the game that simply don’t have a clear “a ha” moment. Another puzzle, Aiba is trying to piece together clues from found objects within a Psync in order to execute the next stage of the dive, but it’s not a word-for-word match, and the inferences can be taken from different angles or perspectives depending on how you read them. I won’t get into specifics for spoilers sake, but the main takeaway is that you really have to trial and error your first time through and hope that you don’t end up running out of time in the process. It’s a tad stressful, but nothing undue in terms of pressure or expectations.

If that’s all there was to No Sleep for Kaname Date – some time pressure puzzle solving with mildly Dadaist traits – then there wouldn’t be much more to say. We’ve seen and understood what a good puzzle game Uchikoshi can create, so it’s not like this is some breathtaking new element that’s been revealed. But, instead, it’s the characters and the writing that draws you in and keeps you there. Players have been dragged, willingly, into weirder things thanks to good writing and better characters: anyone who’s played Deadly Premonitions will attest to that. And a world where a psychic police officer constantly argues with his AI eyeball is already a fantastic setup to even better jokes.

From the very beginning, you understand this is a bizarre, amazing world that takes itself very seriously while also fully admitting its flaws and points of madness. Kaname is a trope-ridden perverse protagonist, who also constantly denies his predilections within seconds of announcing them. Aiba desperately wants to see any and all rare insects within Japan, and Kaname purposely turning a blind eye (literally) is a cruel but hilarious point of contention. The fact that the aforementioned Mizuki is an elementary schooler who also runs a company and can destroy concrete with her bare hands barely registers in the parade of madness. Even things like the endless parade of puns that happen during normal banter underline how very oddball everything is, but no one seems to point it out because they’re just as enmeshed in the madness.

Plus, I love a game that’s full of endings that you wouldn’t traditionally find otherwise. Your instincts tell you NOT to fail the puzzles and escape rooms, right? But what if you did? What if, at every turn, you made a point to ferret out failure moments to revel in the dissatisfaction? Then you could really enjoy just what the team itself wanted to put in. It’s not enough to know what the story SHOULD be, but also what the story could have been. Without spoiling anything, I was able to abandon the story completely thanks to Kaname’s personality, netting me two different “bad” endings that I personally found utterly endearing. We always talk about quitting our lives and just running away, but what happens when you actually do that? Try for yourself to get the best credits sequence since the speed ending of Chrono Trigger.

Also, it really helps that it all comes together in such a beautiful package. Now that the Switch 2 is out, it really underlines how underpowered the OG Switch is, and yet No Sleep for Kaname Date delivers a gorgeous and strong piece all on its own. The cell shading combined with the anime aesthetics gives dimension and life to characters and settings, letting you dive into the story headfirst and not bother coming up for air. Everything that can be clicked on should be, so you can get every detail that’s worth mentioning and fully appreciate the extra lines of script that went into describing a table, a filing cabinet, or just an errant stack of folders on a desk. If you can read it, you should: the flavor builds the world of Kaname in a fantastic way.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the voice acting. No Sleep For Kaname Date has both English and Japanese available, and you can quickly toggling the language in the menu to swap between the two at any point during the game. The Japanese voice acting is great, don’t get me wrong, but I found myself playing through primarily in English because it just hit so much better. I’m used to absurd Japanese storylines being delivered with a flair for deadpan jokes, but the English cast here has elevated it to another level. The localization team has done a magnificent job of bringing over the tone and the banter in English, and the actors themselves have absolutely killed the delivery. Michelle Marie, the voice of new character Hina Tsukiyono, puts in an exquisite delivery that somehow balances between bubbly and positively unhinged, and it works so damn well.

The story of No Sleep for Kaname Date goes deep and long, and I won’t lie: it gets wild and rather uncomfortable at times. As a result, the intersplices of humor and the hyperfixations of the characters act as important points of levity to remind you how wild and weird the world truly can be. Even if you’ve never touched AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES in any capacity previously, this is a solid entrypoint that might even be better thanks to pacing and plenty of extra reading to catch up on previous events. It’s captivating, it’s complex, and it’s riddled with intrigue and mystery. The moments you live are the moments you remember, and, though he is exhausted from lack of sleep, Kaname Date very much feels alive.

Graphics: 8.0 Excellent character design and world building. The details within the Psync moments are bizarre and otherworldly, working perfectly with the atmosphere. Everyone and everything is memorable, though a few more expressions on the characters might have been better. Some outfit choices are…questionable.	Gameplay: 9.5 Execution of exploration, inventory, puzzling and interactions is pitch perfect and well balanced. Great choice to allow touch screen interaction for the Switch. Difficulty scales nicely depending on how you want to be challenged, and the flow of QTE and regular examinations is flawless.
Sound: 10 Soundtrack is an absolute vibe of stressful, punishing mystery music, ambient jazz, atmospheric eletronica and somber strings when necessary. Voice acting is top shelf, be sure to enjoy Iris in both English and Japanese for maximum effect.	Fun Factor: 9.0 It would be a disservice to the players to spoil anything, but I can promise that this is the wildest ride that I’ve been on with Kaname yet, and I was locked in from the drop. Take some time off and pace yourself, because this game is a journey.
Final Verdict: 9.0

No Sleep for Kaname Date: From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES is available now on Steam and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of No Sleep for Kaname Date: From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES was provided by the publisher.