Gnosia Review – In Space No One Can Hear You Scheme

Sunday, March 5, 2023

Genre – Mystery, Social Deduction, Thriller Play Time – 20 hours Developer - Petit Depotto Steam VNDB

With Knives Out and Masks On

Trapping a group of people in a remote location and forcing them to into a game of social deduction is a premise with a surprising among of interesting scenarios to give despite how simple it is at its core. We have death games like Danganronpa, more mystery orientated titles like Virtue’s Last Reward or multiplayer experiences such as Among Us and each brings a unique angle to the same basic idea. Gnosia seeks to add its own flavour to this sub-genre by taking the social deduction aspects of a game like Among Us and simulating it in a single player narrative visual novel where the player is trapped in a time-loop focused around this element. There is more to this game than that simple summery allows and bellow the surface is a distinctive sci-fi world. However, do all Gnosia’s parts work in combination or is the idea of a single player social deduction game a fundamentally flawed idea? Let’s get trapped a spaceship with a monster and find out.

Even the main menu will come to reflect your journey

Trapped In A Nightmare With Me – Narrative and Themes

At its core Gnosia is a mystery thriller with a large helping of sci-fi to spice up proceedings. The cast has just escaped the destruction of a world at the hands of the gnosia only to find out there are an unknown number of gnosia onboard the ship. The gnosia infect humans and as such it is impossible to immediately tell which of the crew have been turned and only through debating it and social deduction can the crew save or doom themselves. This is the base premise the player is initially presented with but soon after they have navigated their first encounter the gnosia to its conclusion, they find out that they are trapped in a time loop where they relive these debates again and again.

On a base level this gives Gnosia a constant sense of tension since you never know who is on your side and who is against you whether they be gnosia or someone who believes you to be a gnoisa. This feeling that everyone has their knives out and is just waiting for a chance to off you creates a narrative paranoia which the player must overcome as it is the only chance they have of escaping this loop. On top of this you are given the opportunity to choose to be the gnosia and turn the dynamic on its head while seeing the story and characters from the angle of the monster and providing another means to understand what makes them tick and piece together what is really going on and why you can be the both hero and villain of the story. It helps that the overall pay off for the time spent in these loops is engaging and suitably ramps up the stakes to make the later cycles hold more weight in the journey towards the truth.

This a game with its fair share of strange moments

One of the most striking ways in which the game complements this pit of snakes is through contrasting it with the vivid universe it provides snippets of. A world were people merge themselves with cats, dolphins walk among us and complicated cast systems rule the galaxy from the shadows. These elements and more help shape our impression of this world and their variety makes each new fragment of information a delight to uncover and move towards a more complete understanding of the situation. Just as the overarching mystery is careful to never reveal more than is necessary, the world is kept to single pieces of knowledge told to us by characters who consider it normal and do not expand on it in much depth. This allows from it tantalise the player with the possible complexity on offer but also does not overstay its welcome and make the player wish the game would just move on to something more important. Despite all this praise the universe of Gnosia, it can sometime rub a bit too close to the stupid and causes tonal problems when put alongside the life and death drama the characters are undergoing. While this issue does not come up very often, it can still be jarring to have it happen when you were trying to take the events seriously.

Forming the backbone of the narrative is the theme of identity which finds its way into every aspect of the game. From the mechanic search for the identity of the gnosia, to the characters quests to define their own identity in the world, to the player’s choices about what sort of person the protagonist is, it is an inescapable thread linking all these parts together. It works especially well with both the serious and the upbeat moments by being a universal concept etched on our lives through the ups and down. This makes it easy for player to empathise with the struggles of the characters when they are presented to you through a familiar lens but in an unfamiliar manner to spice this know quantity and create an engaging story. Gnosia is one of the strongest representations of what it means to hold an identity in the modern world and provides a uniquely nuanced and accepting look at the consequences of this environment. Despite this being a future were we have not resolved our differences, it is still an oddly hopeful one when it comes to freedom of identity and how this process heals everyone involved.

Space Is A Strange Place – Characters

In a game so focused around social deduction the quality of the characters holds greater significance than it would in other genres, since it needs them to act as both narrative and mechanical elements. Gnosia mostly sticks the landing with its colourful cast but there are a few aspects of how they are often presented which prevent them from truly reaching their potential.

Being pulled along is how you move forward

The narrative focuses around the duo of the player character and Setsu who share the ability to remember previous loops and for most of the run time it is their struggles you will experience. Having a companion in your endless cycles gives a surprising level of warmth to the cold void of space knowing that, even if they stand against you in the debate, they are working towards the same end goal as you. It also helps invest you in Setsu’s own journey as they come to grips with their place in this crew and in this universe as a whole and your closeness to them lets you form the bond necessary to cheer for them every step of the way. By investing in this connection the player furthers their immersion in the role of the player character through a little bit of role-playing stimulated with the focus around a central companion character. This bond is by far Gnosia’s most impressive narrative achievement as it could have gone wrong so easily if Setsu had been too present or too absent from the story or simply had an irritated information dumping role and it is a testament to the developer’s skill that the final result is such a strong dynamic.

A ship of fools is perhaps the most apt way of describing the rest of the cast. Each brings something wildly different to the table, they often rub each other the wrong way and they all have something to hide. Forcing them all into a life or death situation where they have to work together to find the monster hiding among them allows these characters to slowly reveal more about themselves in a natural manner. In combination with the many loops the player undergoes, there is enough space to explore them in great detail both as crew and as gnosia and this possibility of being the antagonist gives them a depth by showing them not simply as they want to be seen but also as they are like with the mask off. The variety of personalities on display is astonishing with the energetic Comet being contrasted with the silent Kukrushka and the reserved Gina with the arrogant Raqio. The narrative thrives off their interactions and for most of the early game scenes between small sections of the cast form the majority of what the player experiences, so it is a good job that they are so strong and emotive. Gnosia would not be nearly as memorable as it is without the focus on these characters and when you walk away from the game it will be your time with them that you will remember above all else.

Okay I get it you look like an alien can we move on please...

There are two characters who muddy the waters of the excellent cast and these are the talking dolphin Otome and the grey alien like Shigemichi. They are not by any means bad characters but they suffer from the same tonal issues present in the world building. Both are played up for humour far more than for serious moments resulting in them feeling like joke characters by comparison to the rest of the cast who have levity but only in small amounts and are generally more well rounded. This is not helped by the fact that the game often uses them as jokes even when they are meant to be a threatening gnoisa which indirectly undermines the menace of the gnosia in general. There is always some need for humour to prevent a story from becoming so serious that it wanders inadvertently into parody, but this is a fine line and one which Gnosia repeatedly stumbles over much to its own detriment.

Brilliant Stars In The Night- Visual, Audio and Gameplay

When it comes to the technical side of the game Gnosia there is a clear vision of how to implement its features to sell the feeling of being trapped on a spaceship in the far future. The music and visuals do a lot of heavy lifting to immerse you in the strangeness and tension of the setting. While the gameplay makes the player feel the experience of a time loop in an almost visceral way. However, a few strange missteps led to unnecessary frustration and poor pacing.

Important elements are made obvious from the moment you see them

The art and music direction of Gnosia is the place where its world building and characters are invoked in sensory manner to complement the way they are written. Visually the distinctive character designs lend a lot to presenting their personalities to the player without them having say a word. You can tell the type of world that they belong to by the way they dress and hold themselves as well as providing small hints as to what to expect from them when the debates start. It also makes it clear who they are at a glance which helps prevent any confusion that might occur in the chaos of the debate where everyone is regularly cutting in with their own opinion and it might otherwise be hard to tell them apart. They also comfortable fit into the general sci-fi aesthetic of backgrounds and CGs to form a whole vision of a distant future entirely distinct from our own time. The music complements this feeling with its synthesiser tones and leanings into a looser and almost magical audio landscape. In its totality the experience of playing the game is greatly aided by how much the two aspect complement each other.

To effectively communicate the situation of the player character, gameplay is utilised in the form of a repeating cycle where a new gnosia much be identified. Each loop consists of a series of debates about who is the gnosia interspersed with down time to try and convince other crew members to side with you and intermittent character and plot scenes. This repetitive structure works in the game’s favour by immersing the player in the role of the player character through having them experience a similar situation. It also allows for little triumphs and failures to occur more often, while preventing either from becoming so common as to frustrate the player or make the challenge of the debate seem trivial. A wonderful balance has been reached with how the game gives the player new skills to use in the debates and the increasing escalation in the complexity of the debates and the result is a well rounded progression of difficulty. Having the resistance escalate as the player grows closer to escaping the loop helps increase the tension and also the longing for success as the player knows that this is a sign that they are on the right track. It is surprising how well all these elements work in tandem to create the time loop without stepping on each others toes and the final result justifies Gnosia’s choice to implement these systems.

When the game provides you with an ability graph you know what it has planned

There are some strange issues with the gameplay which hold it back and these have to do with the way it backloads most of the plot and how the later sections introduce gameplay scenarios which are wholly dependent on RNG. The game opens strongly with a flurry of plot developments which are nicely tied into the character arcs of the main narrative players, but shortly after this point new plot scenes almost entirely dry up. This results in the middle of the game feeling as if it drags on for far too long with the player simply left to play through the loops without any sign that they are making progress. A choice like this risks loosing the player and is highly unnecessary given the later plot elements could have easily been redistributed, since they do not have anything which specifically requires them to be located at the end of the game. As for the late game scenarios, these consist of challenges the player must overcome in order to progress which sounds like a fine idea in theory but run up against the inherently RNG nature of the debating system. Turning debates to focus on a specific direction is difficult to achieve due to the other crew mates attempting to do the same and the system where the player is punished for being too aggressive in their attempts to move events by having the crew turn on you out of suspicion. The result is a frustrating reliance on the whims of other crew mates to carry the debate and they are often more of a hindrance than a help.

Verdict –

Its unique brand of single player social deduction coupled with its vivid universe and strikingly human characters make for an enthralling take on the genre.

Pros

+ A cast who are flexible in their personalities allowing them to be the hero or villain of a loop without it appearing contradictory to who they are at heart.

+ Touches on a variety of issues relating to identity and makes them fit into the character arcs.

+ The setting is rich in a distinct style that merges the mundane with the absurd to create a living universe.

+ Through the debates the player gets an intimate sense of what defines the characters which complements how they are presented elsewhere in the narrative.