I should preface this by saying that I wasn't that much of a fan of the original AI game, while fundamentally solid, I just found most of what it did really annoying and boring, despite most people seeming to love it.
With that being said, I was hesitant coming into Nirvana Initiative, knowing it has a far more mixed reputation, yet somehow, this ended up being my favorite Uchikoshi game SINCE the original 999.
On paper, NI does a lot of stuff I didn't like about the first game, it has some cringy horny writing, and it falls into a lot of similar plot trappings, yet I think the thing that made this one stick with me a lot more is the FAR better cast of characters. In AI 1, I only really liked Aiba and Mizuki, and couldn't stand a lot of the folks like Ota and Iris, who are still in NI, but play a far smaller role.
On paper, characters like lien and Tama should be really annoying to me, yet there's something about them that just made them really enduring, to the point where I did end up feeling for them during some scenes. Not every new character is a winner, but a very solid amount of them are.
Other then that, I also think I preferred the faster pacing, and found the plot to be a lot more interesting, though this is where I think I can see why a lotta folks don't dig this one as much as the first.
AI 1 has one of the tamer "uchikoshi mindfucks" but NI has one of the most extreme. I personally thought it was really neat on reveal, but looking back, I can see why so many think it's total BS, and on top of that, for people who DID really like the first game, this one does kinda shit over a lot of what it did with its characters and retcons. Now thankfully I DIDN'T care for them, so that stuff didn't bother me much, but I can see how it would be a total dealbreaker for many.
At the end of the day, It's kinda hard for me to explain just why I liked this one so much more then AI 1, I guess something with it just happened to click in the way that one didn't. It repeats a lot of the same stuff the first game did even, to a bit of an excessive degree. But while I was rolling my eyes during the credits of AI: The Somnium Files, in Nirvana Initiative, I just had a dumb smile plastered over my face throughout.
With that being said, I was hesitant coming into Nirvana Initiative, knowing it has a far more mixed reputation, yet somehow, this ended up being my favorite Uchikoshi game SINCE the original 999.
On paper, NI does a lot of stuff I didn't like about the first game, it has some cringy horny writing, and it falls into a lot of similar plot trappings, yet I think the thing that made this one stick with me a lot more is the FAR better cast of characters. In AI 1, I only really liked Aiba and Mizuki, and couldn't stand a lot of the folks like Ota and Iris, who are still in NI, but play a far smaller role.
On paper, characters like lien and Tama should be really annoying to me, yet there's something about them that just made them really enduring, to the point where I did end up feeling for them during some scenes. Not every new character is a winner, but a very solid amount of them are.
Other then that, I also think I preferred the faster pacing, and found the plot to be a lot more interesting, though this is where I think I can see why a lotta folks don't dig this one as much as the first.
AI 1 has one of the tamer "uchikoshi mindfucks" but NI has one of the most extreme. I personally thought it was really neat on reveal, but looking back, I can see why so many think it's total BS, and on top of that, for people who DID really like the first game, this one does kinda shit over a lot of what it did with its characters and retcons. Now thankfully I DIDN'T care for them, so that stuff didn't bother me much, but I can see how it would be a total dealbreaker for many.
At the end of the day, It's kinda hard for me to explain just why I liked this one so much more then AI 1, I guess something with it just happened to click in the way that one didn't. It repeats a lot of the same stuff the first game did even, to a bit of an excessive degree. But while I was rolling my eyes during the credits of AI: The Somnium Files, in Nirvana Initiative, I just had a dumb smile plastered over my face throughout.