One of the visual novels I had been wanting to play since forever… Let’s see what it has to offer! I’m super excited to find out how they implemented RPG mechanics in a mafia-like game of this sort
Gameplay & Story
Of course, spoilers alert!
I CAN BE NON-BINARY??!!? I LOVE THEM, I LOVE THEM SO MUCH, THANK YOU GNOSIA. Thank you, I don’t need anything else from this game, this is enough. Not only that, but there are also two characters that identify as non-binary and you don’t know how much joy this brought me, I love them, specially Setsu
The game starts off its first loops with tutorials, and you can’t really find anything out about the characters during this. The story begins vaguely on purpose, so you slowly find out everything through every character, and the aura of mystery reigns supreme during the first half of the game
Problem is, while discovering a few pieces of information every round is fun, it can get repetitive fast. Moreover, you can go a few rounds without even discovering new content, which is pretty disappointing. It’s not too bad though, since it feels rewarding when you are able to find new information and you are still given experience points for every loop
However, I still felt like the pieces of information and the dialogue we get is just… small, very small. I would have loved to see more in-depth interactions, but they are super limited and not even enough to know much about most of the characters
And since all of the dialogue we see during everything else, specially during discussions, is just the SAME over and over, you just end up seeing most characters as the blandest thing ever. It makes sense though, because the game wants you to get familiarized with these characters and how they behave in discussions so you can predict and understand their actions during them better with each loop, but it just doesn’t do it for me
Now, we go to one of the biggest points of interest of this game: stats. You gain experience every loop, and you can improve your stats little by little, which rewards you with more charm, logic, stealth… etc. You also need a certain amount of points in some stats to unlock the skills you slowly get through the loops, which is another great point that encourages the player to keep playing
The Story and Gameplay parts are fused because… there’s just not much story to talk about, sadly. As I said, we get tiny amounts of information about each character sometimes and that’s it, so it becomes hard to talk about each event or reveal
The worst part by far about this game was getting the last characters notes, in my case: Gina’s 4th and Sha-ming’s 4th, that for some reason just didn’t trigger no matter how many loops I tried. I read around, and it might be due to bugs on the Steam version, and apparently characters simply don’t use high leveled skills, which is something I have actually noticed that never happened to me, so kind of a big bummer. I restarted the game and… yeah, characters started using high-levelled skills, that’s why I only learnt TWO skills throughout the entire game. It’s sad, because I missed on a lot of stuff due to these glitches
The discoveries and plot twists were really cool, but once again, in my opinion they just lose all impact when they are so short and end so quickly, just to be thrown in a new loop when it’s never acknowledged again. I can see the appeal of it, but I don’t like the approach
Also, I’m aware there are extra CGs and dialogue if you are male or female in certain events but… are you fucking kidding me? If you are non-binary, you get NOTHING of the sort, and get completely locked out of those events as well, that’s just wrong
I finally got the ending, and it was… weird? I just don’t know how to feel, I understand why Setsu had to leave with our clone and be stuck in the loops, but it all just… doesn’t fall into place correctly. The new title screen is cute af though, I love it
Now, I’m pretty sure I have to start a new game to find Setsu once again and- jackpot! It’s like the first loop, but now we count with all the information from our earlier game, so SQ (or Manan, actually) are found out easily, and her mother’s consciousness is transplanted to Kukrushka. Moreover, we are using Setsu’s full Silver Key to send Manan into another universe, which easily solves all of our problems
And with that, the game’s finally over and Setsu appears in the title screen as well, now that we’ve finally saved her, although our future is ambiguous. Plus, I’m guessing the Kukrushka incident with Remnan is now explained, since it was Manan all along instead. However, I wonder if Kukrushka truly was Manan throughout our game instead, and that’s what they meant by Manan being sent to another universe. That’d be smart, and would make a lot of sense. Moreover, that explains why we find the Setsu that went to another universe in a new game, because a new universe is just that: a new game
Characters
Spoilers during this segment too!
I really liked the cast, and while I wish I could have grown more attached to some of them, I really wish some of the characters had the same prominence and importance as others, which is kind of a bummer. I understand why it is this way, but in a game where your main goal is to find out everything about everyone, it doesn’t feel right
Setsu has been the one I’ve grown the most attached to definitely. I mean, come on, a non-binary person that looks and acts exactly how I wish I did? That’s such an easy way to immediately catch me. Not only that, but they are the most prominent character throughout the game since they share their loop power with us, and they are our biggest ally across all the loops even if they are in opposite bands. They are just too good, I adore them. AND THEY FISH!!!
Gina was one of my favourites as well, although I wish she had more importance or longer events. Overall, I loved her personality and design, and the games where she turned out to be gnosia were very interesting, seeing as she doesn’t really wanna get rid of anyone. I wish I could have seen her romance event though, but you need a male character for that
Raqio was one of my biggest surprises, seeing as I didn’t think I would like them this much. They are great non-binary representation and have very interesting interactions. They look like they are full of themselves and they are cold and distant, but they actually have a soft spot and care for other people. Plus, they are extremely helpful when it comes to the Silver Key and played an important role in the story
SQ was a big surprise to me as well, thinking I wouldn’t like them that much since they might not be much more than a two-faced bimbo. I couldn’t have been more wrong, as her true personality is much more sweet and likable than I expected. Her backstory with her mother is very sad, and it’s super interesting how everything plays out
Yuriko is by far the biggest unknown in the entire game, even after completing it, and overall her entire character was super interesting to me. What can I say, I just like girlbosses
Stella was also a surprise, since the whole thing about being an AI and LeVi caught me off-guard, but made a lot of sense. She was one of the kindest characters, and the detail that she usually doesn’t say she’s human (like SQ) was great
Remnan was great too, but I wish we could have seen more about him. Not only that, but I also wish his romance option wasn’t locked to female players as well, since I would have loved to see more about him
Comet was also a surprise to me, since I didn’t think I would like her this much, but she was much more interesting than I thought, but I wish she had more screentime as well
Kukrushka was… unsettling as fuck, I loved that. I am still unsure about if the Kukrushka we saw all along throughot the games was just Manan or not, but holy fuck she’s so creepy and that makes her so interesting
As for the rest of characters, I liked everyone but I don’t feel any particularly strong emotion for them, so I can’t really much else. I would say Sha-Ming and Shigemichi were the most interesting among them, while Otome and Jonas were the least interesting for me
Music
The soundtrack in GNOSIA feels unique and fits the atmosphere of the game like a glove. Overall, I liked it a lot even though my eardrum almost died the first time I listened to the main theme in the title screen
My Completion
I really really wish the Steam release wasn’t bugged, because it locked me out of so many events and skills that I could have gotten much earlier on… but well, I’m still going to work to get that 100% no matter what! I just have to play a few games with specific rules and get the remaining skills, so not too bad
The special games were easy, but acquiring all the skills… it was a pain in the ass, it took so long to get Yuriko’s Block Argument event. But at last, here it is, my 100%!
Conclusion
GNOSIA was a great game, and I had a lot of fun playing through it. I had been looking forward to try it out ever since it arrived on Switch and I’m very happy I finally had the chance to play it
However, as I mentioned through the earlier parts of the post, I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would, and I feel there’s a lot of wasted potential in many aspects of the game. I wasn’t a big fan of how information was revealed, or how little impact many events had at their time. Also, the loops could get tiring or repetitive, and they just didn’t feel good to go through
Not only that, but also the non-binary main character gets the shortest end of the stick for some reason, which makes me extremely sad. At least, the two canonically non-binary characters in the game were great representation and definitely some of my favourites
The art style is wonderful, and I loved all of the CGs. The art direction is just amazing, definitely one of my favourite parts of the game, and it builds an incredibly fitting atmosphere for the theme and topics of the title
The ending is very smartly built though, and I really liked how many things made a lot of sense once you thought about it for a moment, even though the game doesn’t tell you outright. There are a lot of very small details and interactions that are great to analyze and think about, and it made me appreciate the story and how it was built
Silvy 