جائزے

• gamedeal user

  Mar 25, 2023

  A really stunning kinetic novel. The character voices and setting are so crisply realized that I just can't wait for what's next. Wonderful trip-hop soundtrack and a secret that'll make your brain spin wondering what's next for this project. I don't think first projects are supposed to be this good. Mine sure weren't.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 18, 2023

  I wish nuns were real
• gamedeal user

  May 13, 2023

  If I had a nickel for every murder mystery game set in a Benedictine monastery during the late Middle Ages released in the last year, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice. In all seriousness, this is one of the best VN’s that I’ve played, thanks to its compelling central mystery, nuanced characters, charming art, and ruminations on Catholicism and organized religion. As Hedwig attempts to get to the bottom of a grisly crime, the nuns (who are suspects) you investigate are defined little complexities which not only make them interesting people but that also constantly recontextualize the central mystery. Much like the doctrine Hedwig has dedicated her life to studying, these people, this abbey, and the religious body they belong to are defined by deep-seated contradictions. And while one could assume a 15th-century priory would seem like a “dry” setting to those who aren’t history buffs, the flavorful prose captures the specifics of this dismal little community such that I think even those who are largely uninterested in Middle Ages church politics will find something here. There is a rare type of game that burrows into the back of your mind, their ideas and backdrops so vivid that when you complete them, it can feel like being forcibly ripped from some strange fully realized world (Recentish examples: Disco Elysium, Signalis, Citizen Sleeper, Norco, Pentiment). At least for me, Misericorde is one of these games. My only complaint is that the wait for the next volume will be a painful one.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 27, 2023

  Had to take a few days to settle my thoughts on this game into something I could put to paper, but finally able to write out this review: what an incredibly compelling, confident, and striking visual novel. From moment one, Misericorde drew me in with its gorgeous art direction and killer soundtrack, setting me in for such a strong atmosphere to accompany such an investing story and characters. The lushly dithered backgrounds provide such striking composition for scenes of community, tension, and terror, with the various stylings of the soundtrack bouncing from genres like rock and triphop feeling like it was gripping me tightly by the shoulders to draw me into each scene (highly recommend you play this with headphones!). For anyone interested in murder mysteries intertwined with discussions, reflections, and interrogations of one's faith, body, and identity in the context of an isolated 15th century English convent, this game is sure to be a memorable venture for you. XEECEE's writing and design pulls all of these threads together into a fantastic cast of characters, all delightfully charming and unique even when they're being terrible people (especially when they're being terrible people). There's a complex humanity that's skillfully portrayed in this cast, even in this first volume, that gives a really compelling depth to everyone, including the protagonist herself. Misericorde's nuns are all characters with their own interiority, ideology, and worldviews that influence the way they treat each other and react to the world around them that truly sells me on their portrayals (even if sometimes it turns into a slap in the face when a new facet of a character I thought I knew was revealed). While it's easy to come away with favorites (Darcy, Eustace, and Katherine are currently mine), the whole cast is so strong that I am drawn to just about everyone here, and am absolutely in *anguish* wanting to see more of them. For the first entry in a planned series, Misericorde: Volume One easily situates itself as one of my favorite visual novels, and I truly hope that my review can convince someone out there to give this game a chance, because it really sinks its hooks into you. I cannot wait to see XEECEE's follow-ups in the future.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 5, 2023

  Beautiful music, interesting story. Very gay!
• gamedeal user

  Mar 26, 2023

  I'm loving the atmosphere, art style, and music. The story's mysteries have me intrigued.
• gamedeal user

  May 3, 2023

  I am beside myself with just how fantastic this is! I'm entrenched, excited, and engrossed (and also patient! I promise) ready for volume 2 whenever that is ready. If your a fan of mystery VNs, I highly recommend Misericorde as basically the perfect followup to the series it takes clear inspiration from. This game deserves a community, and if some of the scenes and the secrets are anything to go by, this will only become more clear from here.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 6, 2023

  Just a heads up. This is a completely linear visual novel. No story branches. It's also part one of a trilogy and ends on a cliffhanger. It's still well worth your time. The art is lovely. The music is atmospheric. The writing is absolutely terrific with complex characters and a medieval setting that feels tangibly real. At first this feels like a typical stock murder mystery with a standard batch of character types and your character will gleefully solve the mystery and make some friendships along the way. It's not. Everything and everyone is more complex and more real than they seem and first glance. I don't know what's going on yet and I'm eagerly awaiting the next volume. Steam deck users may have issues with the mainline branch, but check the discussion forum. There's an easy workaround.
• CommanderFreddy

  Aug 6, 2023

  Having spent 19 hours streaming this game for friends and doing silly voices for all the nuns, I can safely say Misericorde is one of my favourite Visual/Kinetic Novels of all time. I picked it up because I enjoyed the dev's other non-game projects and I knew I had similar taste in stories to them, but I was blown away by the sheer depth of the final product (of which this is only part 1!). Misericorde is a murder mystery set in a very small community - as such, its narrative lives and dies by its ability to characterise the members of that community, and it succeeds every time. The nuns of Linbarrow are all distinct, unique personalities that feel both accessible to a modern reader, and fitting to their time period. More than that, however, they all interact with each other in a fascinating network that is both evocatively drawn and perfectly obscured by the protagonist's perspective. At every moment, playing Misericorde feels like staring through the window at a fully realised world which you will never truly be able to participate in. It is this feeling - and the characterisation of the protagonist which evokes it - which forms Misericorde's greatest strength to me. The difficulty of matching the setting-awareness of protagonist and player is something that a lot of games struggled with - those of us who've played VNs have dealt with a lot of amnesiac protagonists, faceless "blank-slate" protagonists, and poorly paced attempts to match a world-savvy protagonist to the first time player's introduction to the world. Misericorde deftly tackles this problem head on with a protagonist type I have never seen - at least not in this specific way: you play as an uprooted anchoress. Hedwig has lived in this world, this evocation of 15th Century England, her whole life, but the extremely secluded nature of her upbringing means that she is both brand new to the setting of the game, and comes pre-loaded with a fascinating list of expectations. My own thoughts on the events playing out clashed with Hedwig's so often, but every time that tension was deliberate, well-crafted and enjoyable. Even when I was reading the game through fingers over my eyes, it was through intense empathy for a riveting character, the likes of which I have rarely seen (and even rarer, successfully). Hedwig is rude, unintentionally cruel, bigoted, cowardly, thinks the worst of everyone she meets, is bad at her job, cannot draw a cat, throws up black bile several times, and utterly fails to understand even her own inability to solve the story's core mystery. She's one of my favourite Visual Novel protagonists ever, and her complete lack of charm is a huge part of what makes this game so charming. As Volume One of a murder mystery, the game hasn't yet reached a point where I can give a verdict on its mystery-crafting, and I won't be able to until it all wraps up. Like a circuit, mysteries demand to be closed, and I can't say if the wiring is all in the right place until the bulb turns on (or fails to do so, as the case may be). Nonetheless, some of the most fun I had while playing was coming up with insane theories for whodunnit. The game feeds you enough basic facts and contradictions (this person said she was here, but she was actually over THERE) to keep you scrounging up ideas for the standard murder mystery twists, while also laying the groundwork for some much larger concepts that keep you guessing as to what you should even be guessing about. I will say, if you're looking for your standard Professor Plum in the Ballroom with the Lead Pipe type mystery, this might not be your cup of tea. You might like it, but it's not that flavour of tea. The word "meta" and its many suffixes gets tossed about pretty loosely nowadays, but this is certainly a narrative that is actively thinking about being a narrative. As a first part of a larger work, I can't say yet what its thesis is on its own narrative nature is, but I can definitely say that it Makes You Think. Not in a pretentious way, but in a way that makes me feel like a kitten handed a ball of yarn. TL;DR This game made me physically shout multiple times, had me voluntarily do several pages worth of homework to better understand the War of the Roses, and got me to wake up early on Sunday mornings to stream it for friends in other timezones. Hard recommend.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 1, 2023

  This is a visual novel in the purest sense of the word--there are no choices as far as I can tell, and thus there is no game. That said, the story is intriguing, the art style a perfect match, and the soundtrack absolutely stunning. Definitely worth a read.