The Game Census
The Shell Part I: Inferno cover art

The Shell Part I: Inferno

Innocent Grey · Shiravune · 2023-07-27

SteamGOG

Adventure

Modes: Single player

Releases: Jul 28, 2023 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

Unravel a string of gruesome murders terrorizing Tokyo in this mystery-thriller visual novel. The secrets of a case from six years prior may just be the key to the current unending cycle of tragedy—and the thing that cracks this woeful world’s shell may be one girl’s smile.

19
playing now
91%
positive of 1.5k reviews
Very Positive
steam rating
20,000–50,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
$19.99
steam price (US)

19 players in-game as of 2026-08-30 11:00 UTC (census sample)

March 1956. In a Tokyo that’s slowly returning to its former glory after losing the war ten years prior, Private Detective Reiji Tokisaka takes on the case of a girl he meets in Inokashira Park. “I want you to find something... Me. My true self.” A wave of crimes has been crashing down on the city. Sergeant Uozumi, Tokisaka’s childhood friend and former coworker, asks him to investigate the murders. Meanwhile, sitting off in a corner of the town of Hoya is Oba Girls’ Academy, the school Tokisaka’s younger sister goes to and where two students have recently disappeared under mysterious circum(Storyline via IGDB)

Health check

Healthy
  • · 19 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 201 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~25/week).
  • · Review velocity down 5% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 25% of 11,406 Adventure games in the census by review count.
Estimated sales: 29k–66k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 1,461 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

GOG$19.99

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $6.99 at GOG (2026-07-23)via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $19.99 · on sale 24 of 54 observed days · $13.00 above the all-time low (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
14114120232026Week of 2023-07-01: 141 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 10 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 127 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 40 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 61 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 28 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 32 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 25 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 55 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 27 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 30 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 7 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 30 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 39 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 31 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 8 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 34 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 29 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 20 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 28 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 3 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

1942026-08-24 12:00 — 19 players2026-08-25 04:00 — 14 players2026-08-25 19:00 — 16 players2026-08-26 12:00 — 15 players2026-08-27 04:00 — 6 players2026-08-27 20:00 — 9 players2026-08-28 12:00 — 14 players2026-08-29 03:00 — 4 players2026-08-29 19:00 — 13 players2026-08-30 11:00 — 19 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Price history

$19.99$6.992023-07-282026-08-302023-07-28 — best price $15.992023-10-26 — best price $15.992023-12-21 — best price $13.992024-03-14 — best price $13.992024-04-25 — best price $19.992024-05-26 — best price $13.992024-06-19 — best price $13.992024-07-11 — best price $19.992024-07-29 — best price $13.992024-08-03 — best price $13.992024-09-19 — best price $13.992024-10-28 — best price $15.992024-11-12 — best price $19.992024-12-05 — best price $19.992024-12-23 — best price $11.992025-01-16 — best price $9.992025-02-01 — best price $19.992025-03-10 — best price $19.992025-03-21 — best price $19.992025-05-06 — best price $19.992025-06-17 — best price $19.992025-07-12 — best price $19.992025-08-09 — best price $19.992025-09-23 — best price $19.992025-10-08 — best price $19.992025-11-22 — best price $9.992025-12-18 — best price $9.992026-02-12 — best price $7.992026-02-28 — best price $19.992026-03-28 — best price $19.992026-04-27 — best price $19.992026-06-09 — best price $19.992026-06-19 — best price $7.992026-07-10 — best price $19.992026-08-06 — best price $19.992026-08-28 — best price $19.992026-08-30 — best price $19.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Details

WindowsSingle-playerSteam CloudFamily Sharing

3 supported languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese

Player tags

DarkGoreDramaRetroMysteryRomanceAdventureCinematicDetectiveAtmospheric

Census log

Computed from census-recorded observations only — dates are observation dates.

Players also track

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Similarity via IGDB.

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