On a spead boat flying through space, a secret dwells: the Gnosia, alien-infected humans who make believe you still have theirs. Through trickery and deceit, they eliminate one victim after another until each one is gone and the Gnosia reign. Are you able to survive the Gnosia's vicious onslaught, or will you get into a never-ending, dreamless sleep forever?
Gnosia is a single-player game Nintendo Switch title and a port of the original Vita version, which launched in June 2023 like a Japan-exclusive. GNOSIA’s Vita release received critical acclaim if this first launched, getting high scores from both IGN Japan and Famitsu. Now, the very first time since its release, English-speaking players may have the opportunity to explore GNOSIA‘s thrilling story.
Gnosia was developed by Petit Depot, and authored by PLAYISM. Kawakatsu Toru, also referred to as Mezukare, may be the executive producer for GNOSIA. Scenario and development are credited to Shigoto. Kotori handled visuals for Gnosia. Finally, the sound ended by Q flavor. When it comes to localization, the team with this title is unlisted. However, I must personally thank those who worked on localizing this excellent title and helped to create this title all the more atmospheric. The game is a sci-fi “social deduction” RPG by which players debate their humanity in order to suss the Gnosia who hide in human form. Now, you may be wondering the things they mean by “social deduction”. Think Clue meets Danganronpa meets Scooby-doo in space if you need a few cultural touchstones.
Choose your adversaries wisely, and you live to determine another day. Leverage your role and skills the proper way and you'll triumph, surviving the “loop” to play another game and reveal more plot. Falter, create a nuisance of yourself, or simply choose wrong, and you'll end up losing a crew member. Or worse: you'll find yourself in “cold sleep,” unable to complete the loop.
Players create their very own faceless avatar character that fills among the crew roles around the spaceship. From there, the single-player bet on “werewolf” begins. Most of the action happens in five-turn discussions where players can “cover” or “doubt” their fellow crew members. Speak up too much, and everybody will become suspicious. Stay too quiet during discussions, and you’ll face the same treatment. In your downtime between discussions, players can level up, visit a crew member, and on rare occasions, get the chance to come with an event that could or may not assist you in the following discussion.
All of the plays out in “loops” which mimick a groundhog day situation that you simply and your fellow crewmates are stuck in. These loops don’t last for very long, forcing players to consider their feet in order to survive to the end. Additionally, players get to carry forward information of all the loop into the future. This can help up the story as they ask for the truth of the Gnosia and the mysteries surrounding their situation.
Players who've engaged with visual novels will feel at home with Gnosia ‘s UI and play style, though I discovered the tutorial loops welcoming for players of all levels. The opening guides you with the mechanics, lingo, and rules smoothly enough, opening new quirks, skills, roles, and items of information without having to be too overwhelming. By having an open mind and lots of enthusiasm, players will find themselves eager to see what all the game holds. I know I certainly was.
At first glance, I think a lot of players might discount this as riffing on Among Us, an imposter game that took the world by storm in 2023. Additionally, it might be simple to call Gnosia just another mafia clone with anime art. However, I firmly believe that discounts Gnosia 's story and gameplay elements, each of which are superb. This really is mainly because of Petit Depot’s execution, which creates a plot-driven story that doesn’t become boring or rote.
Initially, Gnosia starts off in tutorial mode, guiding the player character through various loops. Each loop develops the terms and, opening different skills, attributes, and roles as you fend off the ever-present threat of the Gnosia. Fairly early on, the game opens up, dropping in heavy doses of intriguing plot making it simple to say, “Just thirty more minutes” to playing just a little little more of the game.
Then again, it's not hard to get caught up in GNOSIA's looping gameplay. This is partly because loops are usually between ten to fifteen minutes, though you can undertake loops in as little as five minutes. Often, my loops took a little closer to fifteen minutes because I was experiencing the music, or mulling that crewmate to have interaction with during the downtime between discussion.
That, or I was taking a look at Gnosia ‘s art, that is lush, bright, and out of this world beautiful. I frequently found myself taking screenshots from the characters so I could enjoy their detailed designs later. Petit Depot’s visual designer Kotori successfully gave each character a definite vibe that meets their mannerisms perfectly. In a visual novel with a fairly big cast, that may be hard. Thankfully, Kotori came through with lots of unique characters that never feel same-y.
Still, 10 to 15 minutes is the perfect amount of time, ideal for if you are on lunch and have a brief break. I easily found myself looping to have an hour or so, simply to see in which the story was going, and honestly? I felt rewarded each time I played. It didn't matter if I won or lost. Actually, losing was often a thrilling surprise.
It likewise helps that Gnosia has such a likable cast. While there are certain characters that I didn’t love, they’re all delightful on some level, and well crafted. Even the weakest characters within the cast are still really good, with a lot of pros versus a lot of cons. They all have distinct personalities that play off each other well, especially throughout the discussion sections. Some of the cast’s personalities even clue you into who’s a Gnosia this round, and who’s just a human.
Furthermore, I discovered all of the cast realistically clever, and at times, one step ahead of me. All the characters have tricks up their sleeves, the most innocent looking. After all, GNOSIA is a game where anyone can function as the enemy. When the NPCs outwit you, it feels delightfully frustrating within the best way. Actually, each time I lost a loop to some crafty crew member, I felt much more determined to beat them next time.
One of the coolest reasons for Gnosia is the loops themselves. No loop is the same with its own challenges as you open the game up further towards the cast, mechanics, and roles you are able to play as. Sharp players can survive while players who falter or stick out an excessive amount of will get hammered down, or worse. Yet losing never seems like truly losing. Contrary, everything serves as encouragement to consider smart inside your next loop. It also helps players learn better ways to detect the Gnosia and save your day.
Another thing I additionally need to credit the title for is its subtle representation of genders. From the jump, you-the player-can set your gender to be male, female, or non-binary. This extends in to the cast, including several gender non-conforming characters. While many players will probably go using their assigned gender, it means a lot to me personally this has been a a part of Gnosia in the jump. Clicking “non-binary” felt like a small victory in my opinion. Plus, this selection adds realistic depth to an out-of-this-world title.
Additionally, Gnosia's soundtrack slaps. After twenty minutes of play, my only thought was, “Where can one purchase a copy of this?” The composer uses plenty of galactic-sounding synth and bouncy electronic sounds, all mixed with dissonant chords, especially during tense moments. There's also a Vocaloid-esque singer within the more peaceful moments having a voice reminiscent of lots of Nier: Automata's “chaos” language. It's atmospheric and perfectly fitting to the title.
Personally, I think fans of Among Us will truly enjoy this title, especially from a single-player perspective. It's a lot more intimate than Among Us, and extremely enables you to explore the “whodunit?” part of the Gnosia and surviving each loop. I also think fans of Astra Lost in Space, Dr. STONE, Danganronpa, visual novel Raging Loop, and Higurashi will love Gnosia. Fans of games like Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (999) will find themselves in your own home in GNOSIA's sci-fi thriller setting as well.
In the end, Gnosia is a must-have title for just about any players interested in a fantastic, plot-heavy RPG. The art is beautiful, the background music is wonderful, and the plot is thrilling. The gameplay is smooth, dropping players into the next loop seemlessly with lots of options to tweak. This only gets better when the skills and roles open up a few loops in. Additionally, the cast can be quite creative, including best girl SQ. Like I said, even the weakest characters continue to be likable. I’m 100 percent certain there’s a personality for each type of player.
However, that’s not saying that Gnosia is ideal. There are some grammatical choices that read awkwardly in some places. Additionally, it can be a little difficult to understand ways to use the “doubt” and “cover” discussion system. A variety of it depends upon balancing speaking track of not speaking up too much, which can be tricky early on.
Truth find out, I found it hard to balance blaming the most obvious character an excessive amount of with keeping quiet and watching things engage in. Often, I leaned too towards speaking up, and ended up losing against the Gnosia. In fact, I found myself getting a little frustrated when my win streak broke and that i couldn’t learn how to survive. Still, after some patience and a few more loops, I believe players will discover their stride and gain enough know-how to survive the Gnosia threat.
That being said, I ultimately found hardly any that I disliked about Gnosia. If anything, I can't recommend it enough, and honestly, I can't wait to return to playing it. In fact, I’m prepared to loop through another fight against the Gnosia again.
Gnosia releases on March 4, 2023 digitally for that Nintendo Switch and will support American English only.
