[MAJOR ENDING SPOILERS] It all makes sense now

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Thinking more about this game makes me want to develop a list of things that only make sense after understanding the ending.
1.When Ryuki goes to the hospital, he begs Tama to let him leave and take an extra three days to investigate. Eventually, Tama agrees to let him investigate for only one day before going to the hospital. When I first played this, I was thinking, “Why doesn't Ryuki mention that Boss gave him a three-day time limit, and that if he doesn't solve the case he will be demoted?” But he doesn’t mention it because it happened in the past and that time limit is not in effect anymore.
2.Why does Mizuki ask for the vocalocho? If you assume you are playing as Mizuki, then the vocalocho seems to go unused. But in actuality, Mizuki is actually Bibi who is actually the masked woman, who uses it to change her voice.
3. If you look at Mizuki’s present profile during the game, it says that she is Boss’s adoptive daughter. When I played this the first time, I assumed that Boss adopted Mizuki after Date went missing, and that the adoptive daughter that Boss talked about was a completely different person. But the truth is that the Mizuki referred to in the profile is actually Bibi and that she is Boss’s adopted daughter.
4.Why does Riichi stare at Mizuki the first time he sees her? Because she bears an uncanny resemblance to Bibi, who lived with him for years.
5.Before Date goes missing, he asks Ryuki why he knows that the Tearer wears a mask. To the player, this makes no sense, since we’ve seen the Tearer in his mask as Ryuki before, so we have no reason to be suspicious of Ryuki. But in reality, every time that we’ve seen the Tearer while playing as Ryuki, it was in the future. So, when Date asks, Ryuki should not know that the Tearer wears a mask. Date was right to be suspicious because Ryuki was actually working with the Tearer.

There are many more examples, maybe I’ll add them to the comments when I think of them.

[Mr.Mostache]

One little detail I noticed is the "Persons" profile file.
When you first talk to Moma in Mizuki's route when he has the choker, his profile doesn't get added to the Present file. It only get added after you talk to him another time. Something similar happen with a different character (Mama I think).

Ryuki and Shoma's Ferris Wheel disappearance. Shoma enters the Ferris Wheel in the past, and waits for him to come down and take him to the hospital. However, in the future, he is hallucinated, and when he comes to this spot, he thinks that Shoma is still in the ferris wheel (This is when Bibi Punch him).

The glass doll in Naix office. You can see it not broken in some cases.

[interface]

Originally posted by Mr.Mostache:

One little detail I noticed is the "Persons" profile file.
When you first talk to Moma in Mizuki's route when he has the choker, his profile doesn't get added to the Present file. It only get added after you talk to him another time. Something similar happen with a different character (Mama I think).

There were times when I felt like the profiles should have been updated sooner, but I shrugged it off. I should have been more suspicious of those instances.

Originally posted by Mr.Mostache:

The glass doll in Naix office. You can see it not broken in some cases.

I didn't even think about the doll while playing, but now that you mention it, it makes so much sense.

Another thing is how multiple times in the game a scene is broken up at weird points to change the date. At first, I just thought that the game was trying to be realistic and show me that the date was changing. But in reality, those points were when the narrative was shifting from past to future.

[Alerane]

Yes! I love all these foreshadows, they work so so well after the twist! The glass doll, the Ferris Wheel and vocalocho all stuck out to me!

There's also a lot of nuance in the scenes with Shoma and Amame, because they are both evasive about certain topics, but not always for the current reason you assume!

[⎝⧹autarch⧸⎠]

it's great if people feel positive about the time switching elements... but, thinking about it afterwards, it kind of seemed more like artificial confusion to make the mystery seem a more complex mystery than it actually was (I mean, you could time-jump any story)...

it really was hard to imagine how halved-bodies could appear 6 years apart, while rigor mortis shows they died only hours ago, without resorting to time-travel, but the answer was: you're intentionally being told the story in the wrong order, not for any specific reason but, just 'because'

there's a movie called Memento (which Uchikoshi mentioned as a personal influence) that takes place in reverse chronological order, while the main character suffers from amnesia... I'd have to think about why it felt appropriate in the movie, but found it more questionable in the game

[packy17]

Originally posted by ꧁꧂drhouse꧁꧂:

it's great if people feel positive about the time switching elements... but, thinking about it afterwards, it kind of seemed more like artificial confusion to make the mystery seem more of a complex mystery than it actually was (I mean, you could time-jump any story)...

it really was hard to imagine how halved-bodies could appear 6 years apart, with rigor mortis saying they died only hours ago, the answer was: you're intentionally being told the story in the wrong order, not for any specific reason, just 'because'

there's a movie called Memento (which Uchikoshi mentioned as a personal influence) that takes place in reverse chronological order... I'd have to think about why it felt appropriate in the movie, but found it more questionable in Somnium NIrvana

To the story's credit, they never mention a 6 year difference for any of the bodies except Jin, which is how I started figuring out some shenanigans were happening. The alarm really started blaring when Mizuki visits Shoma in the hospital and he mentions speaking with his dad "only a few days ago".

[Mr.Mostache]

Originally posted by ꧁꧂drhouse꧁꧂:

it's great if people feel positive about the time switching elements... but, thinking about it afterwards, it kind of seemed more like artificial confusion to make the mystery seem more complex mystery than it actually was (I mean, you could time-jump any story)...

there's a movie called Memento (which Uchikoshi mentioned as a personal influence) that takes place in reverse chronological order... I'd have to think about why it felt appropriate in the movie, but found it more questionable in Somnium NIrvana

I understand what you mean. There were weird things happening with Ryuki, and I was trying to explain them logically. When I hit the M1 route, things got a lot weirder, and I said "whatever, let's see where this goes. I'm tired of trying to explain all this weirdness". When the switch was revealed, I said "oh boy, do I have to revise all the information again? Nah, let's make the game keep explaining it."

Granted, I did take a couple of glances at the flowchart just to try to have the important details in mind. Like the murders in Present time.

[interface]

Another thing that I just remembered is when Boss is yelling at Ryuki for seriously screwing up. From our perspective, Ryuki just failed to catch the Tearer and fell from a large height. So at that moment, I was kinda confused as to why Boss was so mad at Ryuki. But what she's actually yelling at Ryuki for is shooting a civilian, which happened in the other timeline. With this context, it makes much more sense why she was so upset and why he was almost demoted.

[⎝⧹autarch⧸⎠]

Originally posted by avacarzin:

what she's actually yelling at Ryuki for is shooting a civilian

I forgot, who did Ryuki shoot?

[Mr.Mostache]

Originally posted by ꧁꧂drhouse꧁꧂:

Originally posted by avacarzin:

what she's actually yelling at Ryuki for is shooting a civilian

I forgot, who did Ryuki shoot?

A random balloon attendant. He didn't kill him though.

[Alerane]

Originally posted by Mr.Mostache:

Originally posted by ꧁꧂drhouse꧁꧂:

I forgot, who did Ryuki shoot?

A random balloon attendant. He didn't kill him though.

Yeah, worker in an Adorabbit mascot costume