of the Devil: Episode 2

• Reviews by Sam Amiotte-Beaulieu
• Published:

Cyberpunk court drama sequel ups the ante with a notable reshuffle that reveals a winning hand

You can’t keep a good defense lawyer down, even in a high-tech world where the entire legal system is stacked against you. After a promising first full episode in nth Circle Studios’ bleak futuristic cyberpunk dystopia (which itself followed an intriguing free introductory installment), of the Devil: Episode 2 raises the stakes by leaving the megacorporations and high society of its predecessors behind, instead opting for a plunge into the criminal underbelly where warring gangs vie for power. The slick visual novel-style presentation and unique card-based gambling mechanics remain, however, and with an expansion of gameplay customizations and clearer rules in high-intensity court bouts, the sequel is an improved player experience that benefits significantly from the inclusion of post-launch updates given to Episode 1. Topped off with an excellently written multilayered crime drama that will keep you guessing, you’ll be feeling like a high roller by the end of this substantial new chapter.

Things seem to have calmed down since the murder trial of defense lawyer Evangeline Morgan’s android companion Serra in the previous episode. During the downtime, Morgan follows a lead to a mysterious object called a Noh mask that could be useful in her less-than-legal extracurricular activities. (Revealing precisely what those entail would be a major spoiler for Episode 0). The mask is being held by a group of gangsters belonging to the Bluebloods, a sprawling criminal organization that runs the show in the lower wards of the megacity Morgan calls home. While meeting with the gangsters about making a deal for the mask, things take a sudden turn into a violent situation that Morgan barely escapes before heading back to the streets above. A man named Sosuke, who had been bound and tortured by the gangsters, is blamed for the chaos, and it’s soon revealed that this man is from a rival crime family known as House Ikariya. When a member of the family enlists your defense, it’s up to you to clear his name and find the real culprit while keeping Morgan’s own involvement out of the spotlight.

While Episode 1 dealt with big tech giants in upper-class society and the dangers of artificial intelligence, Episode 2 focuses instead on the conflict between the Bluebloods and Ikariya. The push and pull of both families is felt through every conversation Morgan has on either side, with Sosuke in the middle acting as a powder keg that could blow a hole in either family if things go south. All of this would be engaging enough, but Morgan’s connections to the disastrous meeting in the introduction adds an additional layer of intrigue that makes the narrative feel much more personal to her own storyline, with the stakes directly affecting her as well.

Gameplay-wise, Episode 2 will feel immediately familiar to previous installments. The majority of the time you will be playing through lengthy dialogue-heavy sections that flesh out the world and characters. While there’s still no voice acting, the characters have lots of visual flair through expressive animations and sweeping camera movements. You continue to gain casino chips through investigation that end up being your lifeline during the trial. Returning faces like rival prosecutor Emma Rockford and hotheaded detective Farah Reyes are joined by plenty of newcomers like the disarmingly charming Adelaide Han (who works as a member of the Blueblood mob’s private security service) and Makoto Ikariya, the current head of House Ikariya, who isn’t even old enough to drink. Sosuke is a fascinating character himself, with deep ties to the history of both warring families that are slowly revealed as the story progresses.

Scouring 3D environments for clues has been improved this time around, as interactive hotspots are much easier to find, largely because the locations are much lower-tech than the big corporations and penthouses from earlier. Less shiny chrome and glowing lights and more grungy streets and broken-down building interiors makes the subtle glow of a discarded data pad stick out, for example, so I never had to move the cursor around wildly to find an “Examine” pop-up I had missed. If you do miss something, the auto-find feature allows you to cycle through and interact with all hotspots in the environment using the spacebar. (This feature wasn’t originally available in Episode 0, and unfortunately I missed its much-needed addition to Episode 1 during my playthrough.) The menu is once again handled through an in-game smart phone interface where you have access to character profiles, news stories and articles you’ve collected, and evidence gathered during your investigation.

Once you’ve sufficiently delved into the criminal underworld’s web of secrets to gain the upper hand in Sosuke’s case, you’ll begin your defense in the trial sequence. As with the first episode, various witnesses will take the stand and run through their lines of testimony that you’ll need to comb through to determine inconsistencies with the evidence you’ve collected. Court cases play out with the same card-based gameplay systems first introduced in previous episodes, as well as the Blackjack mechanic when cross-examining witnesses. The chips you collected during your investigation are again used as a sort of pseudo-life bar that can deplete if you make the wrong accusations, and can be added to with correct ones, which gives the feeling of a high-stakes poker match during dramatic courtroom face-offs. It’s all just as stylish and engaging here as it was previously, giving the trial a visual shot in the arm outside of the usual Ace Attorney-styled gameplay.

of the Devil

Genre:	Mystery
Presentation:	Realtime 3D
Theme:	Cyberpunk, Crime solving, Futuristic, Legal
Perspective:	First-Person
Gameplay:	Investigative, Visual novel
Control:	Point-and-click
Game Length:	Long (more than 10 hours)
Difficulty:	Medium
Graphic Style:	Cartoon

Another post-launch update to Episode 1 carries over here, introducing an “Insight” mechanic to the “Objection” segments. Previously you would need to deduce on your own what parts of a phrase stuck out as being potentially false, but with this new mechanic the potentially objectionable information in any statement is highlighted in red to give a slight push in the right direction. This feature is entirely optional, and even then it doesn’t completely fix the tribulations of the trial sections from before, as for some lines of inquiry I still felt myself guessing what bit of logic the game wanted me to investigate further. It was a rare occurrence for me to be left completely clueless during questioning, but when it is so satisfying to point out inconsistencies in testimony, it’s noticeable when having to instead blindly pull at strings.

This addition is a relatively small change when compared to the biggest improvement from my initial playthrough of Episode 1. In the same update that added the “Insight” mechanic, an option was added to extend the duration of time-sensitive gameplay sections or remove these time limits entirely. This directly addresses one of my biggest problems with the previous episode – namely that I would object to a witness statement knowing I had evidence to dispute their claim, but I consistently felt like I didn’t have enough time to review all of my available options to back up my deductions. With the ability to remove the time limit, I felt much more in control of my own conclusions without feeling like I had to constantly shoot from the hip to see what stuck. If you prefer higher pressure or a greater challenge, these options can be turned off or adjusted to fit the play style of any aspiring defense lawyers.

What definitely didn’t need fixing was the top-notch aesthetic, with every new character depicted in the striking hand-drawn 2D street art-like style the series is known for. Members of the Bluebloods gang sport scrappy streetwear and visible light blue tattoos, while the Ikariya wear Japanese formalwear and regal robes. Any augmentations are subtle, such as a glowing piece of metal on Sosuke’s neck and the metallic armbands that latch directly onto Han’s arm that she keeps casually out of sight until she wants to be intimidating. Even more so than with the previous episodes, the atmosphere is very cyberpunk with its high-tech, low-life look and feel. This extends to the locations you visit as well, with the Ikariya estate feeling like a regal Japanese mansion sitting beneath holographic renditions of blue skies, while the Blueblood-run lower wards give the vibe of a neglected back alley of a city slum with trash-strewn streets and barred windows.

Throughout the ten or more hours it will take you to finish Episode 2, you will be accompanied by another stellar high-energy electronic soundtrack. It’s partly comprised of tracks utilized in previous episodes, but there are multiple new tracks introduced in this episode that are absolutely phenomenal, especially the new theme songs for Morgan and Emma that play at various pivotal moments during the trial sequences. Every time these tunes started playing, I felt my head involuntarily bobbing along to the beat, keeping me energized and glued to the screen as the winding story unfolded.

Despite the “episodic” nature of this series, arriving at the end of this installment left me feeling satisfied by having solved another difficult mystery that unfolded in ways I didn’t expect. Everything about this chapter more or less wraps up by the time it’s finished, though an ending stinger drops some clues to what’s ahead that left me eagerly awaiting the next phase of Morgan’s ongoing personal character arc.

Final Verdict

With the benefit of its predecessor’s updates incorporated from the start, of the Devil: Episode 2 is a fantastic follow-up to the already engaging first episode of this cyberpunk legal drama. The new characters and factions are intriguing, with complicated motivations working behind the scenes and Morgan in the center of it all trying to balance warring gang families. Their (and Morgan’s own) ties to Sosuke’s fate make for a thrilling crime narrative where you know that everyone involved is guilty of something, but not necessarily what the current case concerns itself with. Player accessibility options have been vastly improved since the series debuted, so there’s never been a better time to jump in. Heck, with the ability to remove the time limit, I had no problem even on the harder High Roller difficulty level with a single save file available and greater chip loss potential if you make a wrong accusation during the trial. Episode 1 may have had some growing pains in extending beyond the compact experience of Episode 0, but Episode 2 hits the ground running with its high-stakes scenarios and complex web of interpersonal drama and never lets up.  

Sam played of the Devil: Episode 2 on PC using a review code provided by the game's publisher.