Little Devil Inside is a new indie that combines some of the best elements of various genres. Spliced with survival horror, action-adventure, and open-world maps this game has a lot on its plate. Back in April 2015, a Kickstarter campaign was launched with a release date locked into the fourth quarter of 2016. Kody Lee originally conceived this idea as the first IP for the newly formed Seoul’s Neostream Interactive. This game was supposed to be a small, and possibly linear, adventure. However, sometimes projects take a different path and they become something more ambitious. This appears to be the case with Little Devil Inside. It grew into something much more epic in scope and it has been in development for the last several years since.
This game is a steampunk-inspired tale that takes place during the 19th century. Players will take control of Billy, who is an expert swordsman that specializes in slaying creatures of cryptozoology fame. He was recruited by a research team to venture out into the wilderness and document all of the paranormal creatures that lurk in the shadows. Meanwhile, Billy will need to deal with financial hardships and other facets of everyday life that we all as people need to adhere to. This is a fantastical setting with an intimate look into the personal life of a character and his unusual occupation.
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Devil In The Details
By looking at the trailer, Little Devil Inside takes inspiration from quite a few pop culture titles. Everything from Jaws to Mad Max seems to be intertwined with particular gaming moments in the story. It is clearly a third-person action-adventure game at its core. Ranging from Bloodborne to Tomb Raider, this game has quite the balancing act to accomplish. The survival elements in this title won’t be as hardcore like in Green Hell, rather they will be fairly elementary. Players will be tasked with chopping down cacti for water in the desert and trees in the snowy woods for heat. Things like that. Billy will go on his quests fully equipped on what to expect. A camping tent, sword, pistol, cooking gear, grappling hook, and even bombs will be available.
The entire map in Little Devil Inside is vast which is broken up into mountains, marshes, grassy fields, and even a fully explorable open sea. The kicker with this map is that there won’t be any “fast travel” options. Players will be required to traverse the entire map in real-time. Of course, there will be an assortment of vehicles available that can all be upgraded to speed up the journey. Thus, gear and weapons can also be upgraded in classic RPG fashion. There will be a HUB which will be the home of Billy and the central characters. This will be the vital part of the game to where players can read and absorb information about the region they’re about to explore. Here they can gear up and get proper equipment and consumables ready. Billy’s home is the key to survival with Little Devil Inside. This is where players can recuperate and plan out their next venture into the wilderness. Adapting to the environment will be a perpetual occurrence with Billy and his team.
The Pain of Education
As mentioned earlier, Billy’s sole job is to collect monsters for an encyclopedia. In a strange way, Little Devil Inside is almost like Pokemon, in that regard. The art design is slightly Tim Burtonesque with his claymation projects. Thus, the combat rings true to Dark Souls and its ilk. Billy will be accompanied by sundry NPCs which, by the way, can permanently die. There is no way to revive them, but, players can gather up their belongings to use in their favor. As seen in the trailer, there is no HUD to speak of. The avatar of Billy is the HUD. In other words, his actions and behaviors will clue the player on how he is feeling. Seeing him hunched over will imply that maybe he has been poisoned. Thus, limping along in the mud is a good indicator that he is close to death. The developers want this experience to feel natural and nuanced as much as possible.
The developers have also noted that Little Devil Inside will also feature multiplayer. Considering that this is still a work in progress, details about this are thin. What is known is that the co-op will be in the same vein as the Monster Hunter games. It will be both an online and local offering. Players will be able to drop in and out at their whim. Perhaps, there will be special co-op missions that players can partake in. This is all speculation at this point, but at least Neostream Interactive is taking the initiative to include it. The sound design is also taking things to a level that is rare these days. All of the music is recorded by a quartet of string instruments. Hearing Vivaldi’s Summer Concerto No. 2 in the trailer wasn’t just a gimmick, that is how the music is going to sound. Players who are clamoring for something that isn’t too experimental and has a child-like twist to it, then this game should be on their radar.
Jotting Down The Strange
The development for Little Devil Inside has been a long haul. The developers are still adding new content and ideas for this project to this day. There has been some talk on which platforms this game is going to be released on. Back in 2016, Neostream was planning on releasing this game on the Wii U, PlayStation 4, Xbox, and PC. However, due to the unusually long-gestating process of this IP, they now have a new goal. Now, the plan is that Little Devil Inside is going to be a timed exclusive for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 along with the PC. It was originally going to be released this past July, but Sony decided to move the date, again. So, now perhaps this IP might be released either this holiday season or early next year. Nothing is truly confirmed as of yet.
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