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 · Perspectives: Text

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.

The Shell Part I: Inferno is a 2023 Adventure game priced at $19.99, with an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 owners and a Very Positive review sentiment (90% of 1490 reviews).

15
playing now
90%
positive of 1.5k reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
20,000–50,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Playable
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$19.99
steam price (US)

15 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 21:00 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
  • · 15 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 11% of 28,764 Adventure games in the census by review count.
Estimated sales: 30k–67k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 1,490 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 42 of 91 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

4352026-09-15 06:00 — 20 players2026-09-16 14:00 — 43 players2026-09-17 22:00 — 9 players2026-09-19 05:00 — 27 players2026-09-20 13:00 — 39 players2026-09-21 21:00 — 12 players2026-09-23 04:00 — 21 players2026-09-24 12:00 — 25 players2026-09-25 19:00 — 15 players2026-09-27 03:00 — 13 players2026-09-28 10:00 — 21 players2026-09-29 18:00 — 10 players2026-10-01 01:00 — 13 players2026-10-02 09:00 — 17 players2026-10-03 16:00 — 19 players2026-10-05 00:00 — 15 players2026-10-06 08:00 — 23 players2026-10-07 15:00 — 29 players2026-10-08 23:00 — 7 players2026-10-10 06:00 — 23 players2026-10-11 14:00 — 26 players2026-10-12 22:00 — 11 players2026-10-14 05:00 — 14 players2026-10-14 21:00 — 15 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
327Aug 2023Aug 2026Aug 2023 — avg 32 · peak 189Sep 2023 — avg 12 · peak 37Oct 2023 — avg 7 · peak 25Nov 2023 — avg 9 · peak 33Dec 2023 — avg 9 · peak 32Jan 2024 — avg 10 · peak 31Feb 2024 — avg 12 · peak 41Mar 2024 — avg 8 · peak 29Apr 2024 — avg 17 · peak 87May 2024 — avg 12 · peak 39Jun 2024 — avg 13 · peak 40Jul 2024 — avg 11 · peak 34Aug 2024 — avg 10 · peak 33Sep 2024 — avg 9 · peak 34Oct 2024 — avg 7 · peak 25Nov 2024 — avg 8 · peak 26Dec 2024 — avg 13 · peak 34Jan 2025 — avg 24 · peak 86Feb 2025 — avg 24 · peak 81Mar 2025 — avg 20 · peak 58Apr 2025 — avg 12 · peak 33May 2025 — avg 11 · peak 34Jun 2025 — avg 11 · peak 33Jul 2025 — avg 14 · peak 48Aug 2025 — avg 14 · peak 40Sep 2025 — avg 14 · peak 48Oct 2025 — avg 10 · peak 32Nov 2025 — avg 11 · peak 42Dec 2025 — avg 13 · peak 40Jan 2026 — avg 12 · peak 33Feb 2026 — avg 16 · peak 43Mar 2026 — avg 13 · peak 40Apr 2026 — avg 16 · peak 42May 2026 — avg 12 · peak 36Jun 2026 — avg 15 · peak 37Jul 2026 — avg 18 · peak 46Aug 2026 — avg 17 · peak 51
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Price history

$19.99$6.992023-07-282026-10-142023-07-28 — best price $15.992023-11-02 — best price $19.992024-02-06 — best price $13.992024-04-17 — best price $13.992024-05-26 — best price $13.992024-06-27 — best price $13.992024-07-22 — best price $19.992024-08-01 — best price $13.992024-09-19 — best price $13.992024-10-30 — best price $13.992024-11-28 — best price $11.992024-12-22 — best price $11.992025-01-16 — best price $9.992025-02-13 — best price $11.992025-03-14 — best price $9.992025-05-04 — best price $19.992025-06-17 — best price $19.992025-07-24 — best price $9.992025-09-08 — best price $9.992025-10-06 — best price $19.992025-11-22 — best price $9.992025-12-19 — best price $9.992026-02-26 — best price $19.992026-03-26 — best price $19.992026-04-27 — best price $19.992026-06-10 — best price $19.992026-06-26 — best price $7.992026-07-24 — best price $6.992026-08-28 — best price $19.992026-09-02 — best price $19.992026-09-07 — best price $19.992026-09-12 — best price $6.992026-09-17 — best price $6.992026-09-22 — best price $6.992026-09-27 — best price $19.992026-10-02 — best price $6.992026-10-07 — best price $6.992026-10-12 — best price $19.992026-10-14 — 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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