This is a really strong game with a compelling narrative that can be compared to something in the Zero Escape series.
The gameplay is fun to begin with -- if you've ever played mafia or werewolf, you know the setup. It's classic and it works better than you'd think with AI -- you get to set and build up stats like Intuition that let you figure out when others are lying, or Performance to hide your own lies easier. Different characters have different mixes of these stats, too, so you get interesting games with an ensemble of characters that each have their own strengths and weaknesses.
The gameplay is fun on its own, but over the course of the full game sometimes frustrating and repetitive -- I've run through the game multiple times and it took me each time about 100 loops to reach the ending. A lot of these loops end up being spent quickly running through dialogue because I'm very familiar with how the gameplay plays out, and so much is repeated between games.
This is balanced out because the gameplay is at its core fun -- it's classic werewolf gameplay, and even though it's exclusively against AI, I could see myself going back to this to play rounds and bask in how much I love the characters -- as well as how fun it feels to either find out the traitors or deceive the town.
Another complaint is that the events that drive the story forward can sometimes be frustrating -- for instance, one event might require that you keep a specific character alive over the course of a game -- sometimes, fate seems to conspire against you. The Gnosia might eliminate the target -- if you have the ability to defend them, the Gnosia might instead get you, or the AI might randomly latch onto your protective target as a suspect. Sometimes, you have to attempt an event repeatedly just to get the resolution you want.
All this being said, the events drive forward a really beautiful story. As many little problems as I have with little frustrations of the game's execution, the story itself is amazing. Whatever issues I have with the gameplay are well worth getting over to see the story that this game tells.
The gameplay is fun to begin with -- if you've ever played mafia or werewolf, you know the setup. It's classic and it works better than you'd think with AI -- you get to set and build up stats like Intuition that let you figure out when others are lying, or Performance to hide your own lies easier. Different characters have different mixes of these stats, too, so you get interesting games with an ensemble of characters that each have their own strengths and weaknesses.
The gameplay is fun on its own, but over the course of the full game sometimes frustrating and repetitive -- I've run through the game multiple times and it took me each time about 100 loops to reach the ending. A lot of these loops end up being spent quickly running through dialogue because I'm very familiar with how the gameplay plays out, and so much is repeated between games.
This is balanced out because the gameplay is at its core fun -- it's classic werewolf gameplay, and even though it's exclusively against AI, I could see myself going back to this to play rounds and bask in how much I love the characters -- as well as how fun it feels to either find out the traitors or deceive the town.
Another complaint is that the events that drive the story forward can sometimes be frustrating -- for instance, one event might require that you keep a specific character alive over the course of a game -- sometimes, fate seems to conspire against you. The Gnosia might eliminate the target -- if you have the ability to defend them, the Gnosia might instead get you, or the AI might randomly latch onto your protective target as a suspect. Sometimes, you have to attempt an event repeatedly just to get the resolution you want.
All this being said, the events drive forward a really beautiful story. As many little problems as I have with little frustrations of the game's execution, the story itself is amazing. Whatever issues I have with the gameplay are well worth getting over to see the story that this game tells.