Visual novels are often considered niche in gaming. As an Ace Attorney and Danganronpa fan, I’ve been looking for the next big thing to scratch the itch. And of the Devil just happens to be the perfect substitute to fill the void. I’m here to tell you why you should play of the Devil, but don’t worry there are no spoilers in this article.
of the Devil is a murder-mystery visual novel inspired by Ace Attorney but with a more Cyberpunk aesthetic and theme. Developed by nth Circle Studios, this—as far as I can tell—is the first game they’ve released on Steam.
The game caught my eye when I first saw an advertisement of it on Reddit. Particularly that it was inspired by Ace Attorney. With the prologue being free-to-play, I had to give it a shot. And I have to say I’m very impressed. Here’s why you should play of the Devil:
You play as criminal defense attorney, Morgan, who’s tasked with defending a client from being accused of murder. While the prologue isn’t particularly long, it does a lot to make her lovable, interesting, and engaging. She’s not as goofy as Phoenix but isn’t as strict as Edgeworth. Despite her playful nature, she knows when to focus. I love her character already.
What separates of the Devil from Ace Attorney is that it has more of a gambling aesthetic. With Morgan comparing her work to poker, arguments are often visualized like a poker game. You can choose to raise the stakes or stay your hand when arguing with someone.
This is why Morgan’s health relies on the amount of chips she has. She gains chips by answering correctly and making the right observations. But if she gets it wrong, she loses chips. While I don’t know what happens when the number of chips reaches zero, I can only guess that’s a game over.
I love how the characters interact in this game. There weren’t really a lot of personalities in the prologue but they each had their own quirk that made them easy to remember.
While I can’t say for certain, I feel like of the Devil also takes some aesthetical inspiration from Danganronpa. The arguments here when presenting your case are very reminiscent of Rebuttal Showdown. You go head-to-head with someone arguing against you with the character’s sprites dramatically focused against each other like a boss fight.
The visual design looks amazing. It’s eye-catching, detailed, and you can tell that there’s a lot of love and talent that’s been invested into making this game. Morgan’s phone not only holds useful information such as evidence, character profile, and background lore but it can also be customized to your liking.
of the Devil’s presentation is executed wonderfully in the prologue. It’s pacing is slow but not sluggish. It fills you with enough information to keep you entertained but never overloads you with too many unnecessary details. And most importantly, the twists and reveals keep you on the edge of your seat.
Unfortunately one of the things I’m not too fond of is the episodic nature of the game. of the Devil sells its episodes separately. The prologue is free but the following episodes are paid for. We have yet to see if that’ll change on the full release of the game but I wasn’t a fan of this practice for Resident Evil Revelations and I’m still not too fond of it.
At the time of this writing, of the Devil isn’t finished; with Episode 1 being available for purchase and Episode 2 still in the works. However, I recommend you play the prologue to see if you’re willing to pay to see the next episodes. The prologue is promising and I can’t wait to see what the next episodes have in store.
