They say the house always wins. That's something Morgan, the gambling-obsessed star in Of the Devil, from nth Circle Studios, knows all too well. A public defender, her goal isn't just to get her clients off the hook from the mountain of digitally-obtained evidence in this hyper-surveilled cyberpunk city, it's to know when to push just enough to create doubt, and when to keep her chips close. That means leveraging evidence, personalities, and even her own secrets to push the odds in her favor as she tries to shatter arguments.
Mechanically, Of the Devil takes a lot of inspiration from both Ace Attorney and Danganronpa, combining the clue-based puzzles of the former with the stylish presentation of the latter. But it's not just an imitation, Of the Devil has plenty of its own style too. From Morgan's frequent vibe-shifting cutaways as she recalls moments of her past mid-squabble, to the gambling-theming of her face-offs with the police and DA. It's familiar but fresh.
Micro casino chips
Specifically, when in an argument and a thread of assumptions needs to be disproved, each point is laid down and attached to evidence like cards, giving Morgan space to consider a selection of her own evidence cards (not unlike Danganronpa's argument bullets) to overlay on the incorrect part of a statement. You'll also reach points where you can choose to Raise or Stay an argument, or to Call a bluff – essentially deciding on if you have the evidence to push an argument or need to let it sail by.
"The writing is pithy and funny, but is also able to swing into some devastating territory."
Getting things wrong isn't hyper punishing either (unless you play on high roller difficulty which, conversely, is a little much). But it does make disproving arguments feel good, while presenting each step in a way that's easy to follow along. Even in these early cases – episodically released, only Episode 0 (which is free!) and Episode 1 are out – there are times information can get a bit dense. But, as your selections are pared down when needing to present evidence, it's easy to dig through in the moment. At these points, additional information is bullet-pointed next to the evidence too which can be handy – though I do sometimes wish all these details were also indicated on the full clue's information.
Between playing out arguments like a game of poker, there's plenty of great writing. That's partially why info can feel so dense – like many visual novels, there's also things like a glossary of terms that unlocks as you poke around the world. The cyberpunk setting here brings together lots of genre elements and manages to find a fresh perspective into them through Morgan and her friends. Even if the individual building blocks may be things you've seen elsewhere, Of the Devil's way of experiencing them makes them novel again.
The writing is pithy and funny, but is also able to swing into some devastating territory as it makes you engage with a lot of the ideas on display – from androids taking jobs, to worker's rights, and lots and lots of surveillance. There's always a nice throughline on how even with all the surveillance there's still doubt on the cases to pick at, and hopefully the episodes to come continue to pull it off in interesting ways.
With great character designs and stylish presentation – there's lots of cut-ins or sometimes phone transitions – it's a joy to read through what happens next. A bopping soundtrack helps too, with plenty of moments to heighten the feeling that you've got one over on someone in an argument.
Of the Devil will also stop to allow Morgan to poke around some 3D-rendered rooms, either in real life or through augmented reality crime scenes. It's a nice change of pace even if they're fairly static, and can provide as much opportunity to think about the world through reading data logs as it does letting you sit with the implications of the evidence you're looking at. Again, it's still early in Of the Devil, but there have been some very clever deductions that turn each mystery on its head in each case so far.
Each mystery Morgan takes on seems to tie back into some central issues at the center of this world, and especially in regards to Morgan's own background. I'm holding my cards close here, and don't want to spoil anything, but there are some bold storytelling decisions early on that have me hooked… even if I'm wondering how they'll land by the full story's end once the cards are flipped over. Okay, one more hand – hit me.
Of the Devil's Episode 0 and Episode 1 are out now on PC via Steam.
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