Little Devil Inside gameplay trailer shows off cute maps and less cute impaling

Little Devil Inside, a charming indie adventure game and timed PlayStation console exclusive, showed off a new in-depth trailer during today's State of Play event.

Our protagonist, Billy, is heading to Cornfield Station to deliver an artifact to one Professor Vincent at the start of the new gameplay trailer. Little Devil Inside transitions from a board game-esque view of the map to 3D conversations and events pretty seamlessly and things are ratcheted up further when Billy is abruptly left to die at the hands of a tentacle monster apparently kept by the owner of the mansion containing the aforementioned artifact. 

This whisks us into a proper combat section, which is surprisingly brutal for such a cute game. Billy uses a sword and shield to fend off a crowd of skeletal goblin things, hurling impaled creatures into one another to get collateral kills and create space in the fight. You've got to love a game that encourages you to hit dudes with other dudes. 

The remainder of the trailer is a more laid-back showcase of the game's varied environments. After poking around the plains surrounding Cornfield Station, Billy fishes off a sea buoy, whips up a quick meal in a sandy desert, struggles to convince his steed to follow him up a frigid mountain, and tangles with a sentient furnace in a train tunnel near a misty forest. There's a lot going on here, and it sure looks good. 

Developer Neostream, which is making its debut with Little Devil Inside, says minimalism is key to the game's design, at least visually. "There was a time when before buying a game at your local game shop, there was little or nothing to go on except for a little cover art," Neostream's John Choi told Edge earlier this year. "The cover art often just had characters and the world at a glance, but somehow encouraged the player to picture the game in their imagination. This nostalgic essence is what we wanted to recreate with Little Devil Inside, hence our main design concept – minimalism." 

Little Devil Inside made its big debut during last year's PS5 Future of Gaming Event, but its development history actually goes all the way back to 2015, when it was first launched its Kickstarter. For some context, the game's original funding campaign included a Fall 2016 release window and a stretch goal for a Wii U version, as it was in development before Nintendo had even announced the Switch.

Now, it's scheduled to first launch on PS4, PS5, and PC before coming to Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Switch sometime thereafter.

Looking for some new to play on the go? Do check out our top picks for the best indie games on Switch right now.

Austin Wood

Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.