case by case apocrypha: of the devil, episode 0
Hello again, adored readers! It is my absolute delight to welcome you back to Case by Case Apocrypha, the series in which I play things that people say are like Ace Attorney but that aren't actually Ace Attorney. Since I last wrote anything in this series I've switched over to composing text in Obsidian, and it sure was satisfying to create a new folder called "case by case".
Anyway, we have, after a very long time, finally started in on of the Devil, a series about which I've heard relatively little except that the people who have played it seem to really like it. (Also, cyberpunk noir murder mysteries. I'm here for it!) That's probably the ideal way to approach these things. Anyway, some mostly spoiler-free thoughts below, and then below that there will be spoilers for the story.
I've got Mondays free again, so expect the next installment of Case by Case Apocrypha next Monday (or potentially the one after that if it ends up being too long to comfortably play in a single sitting; I dunno, we'll figure it out, there's only two more episodes, I'm in no rush); it seems pretty likely that we're looking at another "one case per installment of my critically acclaimed blog series" situation but I'm not making any promises. There are currently two episodes of this released, but I'm expecting to play the rest when they come out. Good news for Case by Case fans!
It was obvious why people were so into this from pretty much the instant I fired it up. It's stylish. And while that's not enough to make a game good . . . you ever play board games? There's this satisfaction to the tactile sensation of handling really high quality components that, while it's not, you know, what you're here for, it means that the whole time you're playing you get to interact with something that just feels good.
So it's a good sign when a Menus game (as opposed, naturally, to a Parkour game) is stylish.1 I did have a few moments where my particular setup for playing this created a little friction (my touchpad is garbage and I'm way too lazy to find wherever I put the trackball I use for games that need a mouse), but overall it's just a very satisfying experience.
But like I said, style alone won't carry a game; luckily, they don't need to. The setting is compelling, the story is already compelling for our introductory episode here, and the mechanics so far are promising. Instead of being asked to collect evidence and present it whenever you spot an inconsistency, there are points where the game deals you a hand of evidence cards and asks you to play one of them. Evidence in general has a gambling metaphor; there's a few other clever plays on the mechanics here but it all plays on this same conceit of playing your hand but not overplaying your hand.
Apart from feeling novel, this seems like it is meant to minimize the "uh, what am I supposed to do here?" moments that arise in Ace Attorney games and the games that are inspired by them, while still giving you that feeling that you are advancing in the story because you understand what's going on here. While I can imagine that this might be less satisfying at more climactic moments (this is, after all, still the introductory/tutorial segment), so far at least it's charming. I don't have a good sense of just how much this game will be leaning into the puzzle aspect and how much it will be leaning into the narrative aspect; so far it seems a bit more like we're here to tell a story, but I'm really not complaining.
If I had a complaint (and this is an extremely minor complaint): there's a high score system and some purchasable rewards for finishing cases with a high amount of Credit (the game's currency; you gain Credit for investigating and answering things correctly, you lose it for presenting the wrong evidence), and while I love these kinds of games, they tend to lack replayability and getting a high score once you know the answers doesn't seem like it should be much of a challenge. But I guess if you want to replay it it's nice to have some rewards waiting at the end, eh?
Anyway. I had a lot of fun with this; let's talk about the story. No real way to do that without spoilers. (And I'm serious this time; if you think you might play this, I would really recommend playing it without reading any more, then coming back. I will wait, because blogging is asynchronous communication; this post will be here for a very long time yet.) So, spoilers below. Don't say I didn't warn you.
All right. So the setup chapter here does a fair bit of worldbuilding, introduces us to a small number of characters who I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of, and gives us a case where our client is being accused of being a famous serial killer, the Heartbreak Killer. The case is pretty straightforward, and tonally feels a bit like a more jaded Ace Attorney story: cops drew the obvious conclusion from the evidence, accused the guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and assumed they had it in the bag, but they missed some key details.
I like that the surveillance state is so efficient that there's a diegetic reason for the cops to be a bit bad at this whole "crime scene investigation" thing: they don't usually need to do anything because everything happens on camera. We also are immediately introduced to some ways one might get around the ubiquitous surveillance nets. Conveniently, this particular murder used one of those methods.
We win the case without much fuss; our client emotionally thanks us for not asking "did you kill her?", and we cheerfully say we knew he was innocent from the start. And we know this because we are, in fact, the serial killer everyone's been talking about the whole time. Morgan at least says that her motivation is "I wanted to"; we'll see if that holds out.
I think I read somewhere going into this that Morgan Ofthedevil was a darker or more criminal or whatever take on the standard defense attorney in these games, but I wasn't expecting that particular turn.2 After that we're introduced to the assistant district attorney who will surely be our rival for the rest of the story, who seems a lot closer to having our number than you'd think would be ideal for someone in our position.
Regardless, this is a fascinating approach to this kind of storytelling. It's obviously been done before--your Silences of the Lambs, your Dexters--but this is a video game where this is the character we're controlling, which makes it feel a lot more personal; there is also something fun about defending the guy who has been accused of a murder we committed. We'll see if we continue doing that going forward.
Anyway, that's of the Devil episode 0. I've had this in my library for ages, and I'm so glad I've finally started exploring it. There's a lot in here to look forward to, and I can't wait to get to it. So stay tuned for Episode One, and in the meantime, thank you so much for reading, friends.