“It surprised me when we started getting eyes on the game, and people would bring up the cast’s number of women, or that we depict queer people… Like, isn’t this just how the world is?"
Searching for meaning in the ocean and inside of trees
“It surprised me when we started getting eyes on the game, and people would bring up the cast’s number of women, or that we depict queer people… Like, isn’t this just how the world is?"
When you’re a fan of a genre, you recognize the hallmarks. You know what’s going to happen in that Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. You clock the enemies-to-lovers twist from a fantasy book’s opening pages. You’ve already guessed exactly where a skill-gated area will appear in a Metroidvania game. Sometimes, this is a fun experience — your love for the subject matter has given you a permanent, instinctive sneak peek. But other times, it can make digesting that content boring, predictable, and trite. So when something breaks the mold, you’re reminded of the magic and why you loved the genre in the first place. That’s how I feel playing of the Devil, a stylish murder mystery by indie developer Nth Circle Studios.
I’ve loved mystery games for as long as I can remember, like Nancy Drew and Disco Elysium. I take my detective stories extremely seriously, and while I enjoy them, I am almost never surprised by them. Not only was I stunned by of the Devil, I was absolutely delighted.
of the Devil takes clear inspiration from the beloved Ace Attorney series. Its aesthetic, story, and characters are notably grittier and sulkier, but this moodiness is not unwelcome. One way of the Devil stands out from other visual novels and mystery games is with a fun Blackjack-inspired mechanic for questioning suspects and arguing in court. The game's Blackjack and poker-infused aesthetics are not only charming, but thematically relevant.
In a recent interview with Mothership, of the Devil writer and director Brian Mulholland said, “From a story perspective, the gambling metaphors are meant to convey [protagonist] Morgan’s psychology to the player. She’s a risk-taker who views people, their behavior, and even their secrets in terms of loss and gain, simple numbers. Mechanically, the thrill of calling correctly when you’ve bet on a question’s answer also helps keep players invested in the details of the mystery and how it’s unraveled, and not just the identity of the culprit. Ideally, we can take this a step further [with the game’s ‘Blind’ system] and break players out of ‘perfectionist’ habits that lead them to re-load saves to get every question right.”
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