Finished Gnosia, a time loop werewolf/mafia game set on a spaceship. The game’s great word of mouth (“ign japan gave it 10/10…” is repeated like a mantra for some reason) seems to suggest this mindblowing science fiction tale with unforgettable characters which I feel is pretty misguiding in a way that doesn’t do it any favors – it’s yet another one of those Japanese story-heavy games where the creators vaguely gesture towards a lot of well-tread genre themes and impress people who aren’t yet that familiar with those, plus the cast is paper-thin and only works as an ensemble. What really does work here is systemic storytelling that visual novels are particularly suited for yet rarely explore. You’ve got eight crew roles with different M.O.s, six speech-related stats you develop over the hours (which unlock loads of active skills), AI routines that are contextualized through character profiles you expand by getting to know people during free time events – and all of this is used to create a system where various circumstances enabled my mechanics lead to various handcrafted scenes with unique dialogue/artworks/music/pieces of worldbuilding.
At the beginning of one loop, a girl asked me if I’m an impostor, and I realized I might as well have fun and tell her I am, which prompted her to excitedly suggest we should get rid of everyone else and take the ship for ourselves. I agreed, which led to a unique round where I started picking off players from both sides until only the two of us were left, leading to a twisted romantic ending. In another round, I’ve had an impostor claim to be an only engineer on the ship (and thus achieve a “certified human” status), while I, the real engineer staying silent about my role, used my unique skillset to remove a human glitch from the ship, leading the “certified human” to deliver a raport that made no sense and cause the AI to freak out – and it turns out there’s a special ending for that, too. Some loops suddenly take you by surprise with shocking story events that are out of your control, other loops can be very standard, but still surprise you with rare lines prepared for very particular situations. The true ending is achieved through a very cute method which breaks the fourth wall yet makes total sense in the game’s world – not a revelatory device some reviews were suggesting, a tad too cutesy, but a fitting final note.
A lot of the game is very formulaic, perhaps overlong, and the early stages are sure to frustrate (low stats, no skills, limited understanding of characters making you unable to act on suspicious cues), but it’s also super easy to pick up and play for a few minutes, and there’s something to the way you slowly get to build a rapport with those weirdos straight out of pages of an alternative manga and how it actually improves the way you play. I’m not a person who’s crazy about LORE, but I did appreciate how a lot of troubling implications about certain characters are only resolved if you force certain optional events to happen or connect a few off-hand comments together. Oh, and the credits are accompanied by a “Where Are They Now?” epilogue which curtly suggests that the offbeat loner character moved far away and died alone, which is the kind of subplot resolution I always enjoy.
