If you hate misleading game titles, you won’t be disappointed with No-Skin, as that’s what it’s all about. You play Noire, part of an alt-girl troupe intent on having cryptic conversations with a little amount of words, which is likely to play on your mind as you decipher their meaning. You’ll either be thinking about that, trying to stay alive, or working out what the hell it is all about.
What I can declare is that this is a horror rogue-like. The game begins with a tutorial on how turn-based attacks work, and the basic mechanisms that feature, such as being able to dip into an inventory and use as many items as you like without using up a turn. Once your health has depleted, you start the loop once more, though not in vain. There are blood shards to collect that serve as wagers and currency to buy new stuff, as well as moon shards to improve the odds permanently.
But you want a basic plot, right? The gang in No-Skin have drunk far too much lemonade and eaten lots of Victoria sponge. Besides an impending tummyache, the group are in a bit of a dizzy spell, which is verified by Noire’s POV when she wanders into the hallway, and everything moves like jelly. Apart from the fellow with no skin eyeballing you. Thinking you’ve had a bit too much, you humour the chap and agree to find his skin. Or else. What ensues is a simple rogue-like with three paths at a time. A gauge will fill for each encounter, indicating how close you are to locating the skin.
You can of course conform the skinless threat as early as it presents itself, but it won’t get you anywhere but dead. Fortunately, the Moon is on your side and will bring you back to life for each time you snuff it, restarting the process. The formula is simple: pick one of three rooms for each stage and survive long enough to locate the skin. Selecting a room has its benefits, and while it is effectively a random encounter based on probability, you get an idea of what will be in the room beforehand, as well as the likelihood of getting into a fight.
Initially, you’re fighting your pals, but they keep coming back after defeat. A melee jab will take off some health, but a gun will do twice as much damage, albeit with limited ammo. Luckily, as mentioned before, you can dip into your inventory to reload without taking a turn, plus do some extra damage or buff your weapons. Ammo is scarce and rarely found after a fight, or can be purchased from a vendor as you browse the list per room and hope for the best. Combat in No-Skin is simple and easy for the first few stages, then there’s an onset of debuffs, bribes, and your friends getting even more complex – and no, not solely their dialogue.
Your friends grow into ghastly sights that will ruin the filters on their Instagram accounts, and that hat haul they bought off Shein won’t fit over the tentacles. They also have more health, too. Besides that, there are other monstrosities that appear in each room, and there’s only so much damage you can do. There’s only one initial option, and that’s to run. This is a chance-based task, but usually favourable, and if you smoke a pack of cigarettes, you have an increased rate of escaping. Progress further, however, and you unlock the ability to talk to your assailants and even trade with them.
No-Skin is a peculiar experience on so many levels, and perhaps that’s what makes it a little more appealing than most. The visuals are very simplistic pixel art with Darkside Detective-like faceless characters and a basic UI. After about 20 minutes, I noted that I’d rapidly progressed to 100% completion and was seeing the credits. This was disappointing, and it was, coincidentally, getting under my own skin and intrigued by the ambiguous undertones and mutations. However, this was just a ruse by No-Eye Soft, and I was thrown back into the game. The swindlers. This was just the tip, however, as there are a lot more options that open through progression, such as the permanent benefits from collecting moon shards – including the chance to play an easier version of the game – as well as new characters.
So, without making a silly comment about being skin-deep (whoops!), No-Skin boasts surprisingly more depth for a simplistic rogue-like that you might think will be over in a matter on minutes, but for all you know, this could be with you for eternity…
