Novena Diabolos: the reverse-werewolf game you probably overlooked

Werewolf/mafia games in visual novels are always a hoot, and Novena Diabolos isn’t any different. It’s quite a hidden gem, with only 25 reviews on Steam at the time of writing — but it manages to make its own distinctive mark on the visual novel horror/mystery genre despite flying under the radar since its release late last year. But it’s not too late to give it the attention and credit it wholeheartedly deserves.

You liked GNOSIA? Time for Novena Diabolos!

Novena Diabolos

Novena Diabolos was developed by H5DEV Games and published by Giiku Games. It casts players in the role of a reporter named Jun Sung Park, who finds himself trapped in the tiny village Hope Hill, surrounded by dense and impenetrable fog.

Over the course of nine days, you’ll come into contact with five important young women: one of them is a human, and the other four need to sacrifice him to the Devil to acquire access to the Gates of Hell. It’s thus up to you to deduce who the real human is to not only save Jun Sung, but also rescue his companion from a dangerous situation.

Novena Diabolos’ premise is similar to Raging Loop, and the atmosphere and creepy factor should be apparent from the description alone. Tension and uncertainty are ever-present elements, and there’s quite the challenge to take on with the main deduction mechanic.

There’s a bit of a balancing act between sussing out the characters and building trust with whoever you think is the innocent bystander, so providing the right amount of attention to each character is of the utmost importance. If you’re too late figuring out who the human is, you might not have built up enough trust with her to convince her to escape with you on the ninth day.

Before your final decision, the rest of the days are made up of encounters with the various women. You’ll need to offer them aid in various ways in order to get help with your own investigations into the people who have gone missing in the area. Things mount up after bodies start to appear, with a total of four cases occurring in each playthrough.

The crime scenes and murders have clues to be discovered that will point to which demoness is the cause of the crime, gradually allowing you to unmask the one and only person you can trust.

During these sequences, you search around for clues using a point and click interface, then rule out the culprits on the interlude screen to determine who you think can be trusted. Ultimately, you’ll have to decide who is the human you can safely escape with.

You’ll also have to visit locations other than the crime scenes to accumulate more clues and materials. There are various interactive inputs such as padlock codes and button mashing to discover new clues, and the materials provide reason to replay through a “collectathon” element — there are magazines to discover across all the locations.

The ladies make it worthwhile

Novena Diabolos

It’s tricky to have full control of a visual novel with random elements. Much like how GNOSIA featured lines that you’d gradually come to recognise as important tells as to who your enemies are, Novena Diabolos doesn’t keep the difficulty consistent from one run to another. Each time you play, it becomes increasingly easy to figure out which woman is on your side — though that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

The biggest incentive to replay is from the randomised elements in each playthrough. The murders, clues, suspects and locations are always changed. This really helps with the game’s central mechanics and themes of trust and deception — and the game’s save system emphasises this, instead relying on autosaves to avoid allowing you to backtrack and correct mistakes.

This has its own issue, mind, since in one playthrough you can exploit this autosave mechanic and experience all the bad endings of the four demonesses in that one playthrough. That means you only need to replay the game a few more times to experience it in full — and even then, you won’t be going through it multiple times for its gameplay elements. While it’s more than serviceable, it’s the characters and writing that are the game’s most appealing parts.

Do it for her (unless she’s a monster)

Novena Diabolos

There’s an extensive amount of text that fleshes out Novena Diabolos’ lore, not just about the occult happenings behind the scenes, but also to provide context and depth to the main monsters. There are plenty of achievements to encourage you to explore the game in its fullest, too.

The intriguing, complex cast really sells Novena Diabolos. Their personal stories are well written and explored — and this includes the player character. His personal issue is something that is tackled in different ways in each route, complementing the growing bond between himself and the characters he grows closest to. They build each other up, and can learn a thing or two from one another when tackling their internal conflicts.

This is all topped off once you experience his arc in its entirety in the good endings; it makes for a satisfying send-off for his character, as there’s some pleasing consistency despite the different conclusions allowing us to see things resolve from different angles.

The same can be said for its main five female characters to an even more impressive extent. Heroines Mina, Nari, Sumi, Rin and Hana each have their own unique histories, central conflicts and temperaments. They’re all just as loveable and fleshed out as one another once getting to know them — and even once you’re familiar with them, it’s a delight to see the initially subtle but recognisable elements of characterisation that relates to the monsters they represent.

These intriguing characters are made even better with their sublime, emotional storylines that involve seeking justice, dealing with trauma, overcoming feelings of inadequacy, finding closure after tragedy and facing your own demons.

Novena Diabolos is not just a simple reverse werewolf game; it flips the bishoujo formula on its head since four out of the five “love interests” are actually out to kill you. The endings are by turns bleak, bittersweet and uplifting to fit each character’s fate. It’s impressively varied for the stories it manages to explore as deeply as it does, adding variety in the feeling of narrative genre and plenty of player satisfaction as you see the different ways the characters are sent off.

The bottom line

Novena Diabolos

The five main heroins are all fully voiced, and the game, despite its relatively low budget, has incredibly polished production values. There are constant sprite changes, plenty of sound effects in every scene and event, wonderfully illustrated CGs and a smooth-running UI and system. There’s the odd word or phrase that has been left untranslated, but these are incredibly infrequent and did not ruin the overall experience for me.

The game arguably falls at the last hurdle, though, since there’s no “true” ending to answer any lingering questions. The original Korean release had some DLC to resolve this, but since this is a game from last year it may be too late for us to see a translation of this. Despite this, though, I can’t praise the game enough for what it does provide so far as its writing, characters and game mechanics are concerned.

It is, on the whole, an extremely satisfying experience. Novena Diabolos offers character-driven arcs and unexpectedly emotional tales, a main character who grows in different ways according to who you escape with, and core mechanics that are innovative.

There are plenty of fun red herrings and even a few well-implemented, infrequent jump scares — it’s certainly not one to forget about any time soon. With two endings for each character — one good, one bad — and a single playthrough taking around seven hours to complete, it’s well worth its asking price.

Experience the eeriness and feels now via Steam! I’ll come for you as a demoness myself if you don’t.

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Lilia Hellal
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