As a big Uchikoshi fan (and also a fan of the AI: The Somnium Files games,) seeing another game in the series get announced was one of my biggest surprises of the year. Of course, that instant hype was immediately diminished by the fact that Uchikoshi himself wouldn’t be writing it. No Sleep For Kaname Date, despite my worries, nails the character dialogue, humour, and has some very strong escape sequences. But it also feels like a pseudo-low-effort footnote in the series, with a much shorter playtime and a lack of many elements that made the other games so fantastic.
No Sleep For Kaname Date gets off to an interesting start. Iris is abducted by someone claiming to be an alien, so she calls Date and they work together to allow her to escape. The story here is fine. Most of the principle cast returns and they’re all as they should be, complete with the series’ trademark sense of humour. The dialogue feels exactly as it does in the other games, so I was still sitting and chuckling to myself while seeing the events through. That being said, the story here is incredibly slight. It has a few new characters, but almost everything outside of them and the game’s four escape sequences has been shamelessly borrowed from previous games – character models, locations, and all.
There’s a very good reason that this game wasn’t billed as the third game in the series and that’s because it very clearly isn’t. This is a side story meant as a stopgap to keep the series alive while Uchikoshi was busy on Hundred Line. The story here does raise a few interesting questions, but most of the new characters aren’t fleshed out enough and the story doesn’t do much with them. The plot itself also doesn’t really go anywhere and just kind of fizzles out with an overly neat resolution. Anyone expecting an Earth-shattering twist akin to the other games will be thoroughly disappointed. That’s not to say there are no twists, but they’re minor and easily deduced ahead of time.
As always, No Sleep For Kaname Date has you visit locations, talk to people, and do Somniums, where you have to interact with objects to remove mental locks and learn about the game’s characters. There are only three Somnium sequences in this game, however, so don’t expect nearly as many of them this time. The focus here is on escape room sequences very similar to the ones from the Zero Escape series, complete with throwback sound effects and a SEEK A WAY OUT screen prior to starting them. As a big fan of that series as well, I very much enjoyed these.
You’ll have to examine your surroundings and solve multiple connected puzzles, all to find a key that unlocks the exit. The biggest difference here compared to the ones in the Zero Escape games is that you can freely move your characters just like you would in Somniums. On top of that, most of the escape sequences require you to swap between multiple characters. These are the best part of the game, but there’s unfortunately only four of them. For the most part, the puzzles are very logical and enjoyable, save for a couple of times where the game wants you to deduce nigh-inscrutable numbers to get codes, which were the only times I got stuck.
Unlike other games in the series, No Sleep For Kaname Date‘s plot only has a single, linear route with no real surprises. There are fake endings to unlock along the way, as well as collectibles to be found here and there that can add a bit of replay value, but the game is only about a dozen hours or so when all is said and done. It all just feels incredibly slight, despite the fact that I was still entertained. After beating the game, there are a bunch of additional dialogue sequences to unlock, along with several “novels,” which are what if scenarios that you can read after purchasing them with eyes, the currency you’re frequently rewarded with while playing.
No Sleep For Kaname Date is worth playing for fans, but it’s hard not to feel underwhelmed in a lot of ways. Between the short playtime, pedestrian story that doesn’t do much of anything to develop any aspects of the overall plot or characters, and huge number of reused assets, it’s hard to get truly excited about what’s on offer here. I wish more effort was present, especially in the game’s finale sequence (which absolutely should have had a fifth escape sequence.) Then again, I’ll always take more AI: The Somnium Files, even when it’s more of an appetiser than a main course like this game is.
No Sleep For Kaname Date: Funny and familiar, No Sleep For Kaname Date is another endearing entry into the series, even if it's very lacking compared to what came before. – Andrew Farrell
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