Gnosia Premiere Review: A Sci Fi Space Werewolf Loop

Gnosia turned out to be one of the nicest surprises of the fall season for me. I had already heard good things about the visual novel it is based on, one that has sat in my game backlog for years, and the opening episodes deliver exactly the kind of clever science fiction thrills and twists I was hoping for.

The premiere does not pull its punches. The entire small crew of the ship D.Q.O. ends up dead at the hands of the elusive Gnosia, a hidden body snatcher in their midst. Then, in the finale, our hero Yuri is thrown back in time thanks to Setsu’s strange, reality bending gift.

If there is one thing I love more than a ludicrous space murder mystery, it is one where everyone is trapped in a loop. The whole setup plays like a science fiction take on Werewolf, with the crew trying to root out who among them is secretly the enemy.

The second episode, fittingly titled Loops, sends Yuri back to the beginning with their suspicions fixed on SQ, who was revealed as the Gnosia last time. She is just as erratic now, so it should be an easy case, except we already know the series runs close to two dozen episodes, so nothing will be that simple.

That is where the fun lies. Much of the tension comes from not knowing how things will go wrong, on top of the natural distrust between characters, since Yuri has not earned anyone’s faith except Setsu’s. Gnosia is currently streaming on Crunchyroll, with the first two episodes scoring 3.8 and 4.0 with the community.

My take: This is shaping up to be a wonderfully twisty, paranoid little mystery, and I am completely hooked. A time loop full of suspicion is exactly my kind of puzzle.