A murder mystery VN set in a 1482 monastary (kinda reminds me of Pentiment actually but more of a direct kinetic novel than that was). As a “Volume One” entry the central mystery it’s building toward is sadly left incomplete for now, but I would highly recommend it on its own anyway as its character writing and presentation really set it apart

While the cast overall is pretty compelling, it’s the protagonist that really makes this for me. Centered on Hedwig, an Anchoress who lived most of her life in total isolation, who’s suddenly forced out her cell by her Superior and given the goal of secretly trying to solve the murder of one of the convent’s Sisters. What makes Misericorde really interesting so far is not exactly the mystery itself (though the potential is definitely there), but seeing how completely unprepared Hedwig is for such a task and having to overcome her poor social skills as a result. Her internal dialogue is really well written and descriptive, watching her clash so heavily with trying to interact with the other Sisters while also playing a “detective” really makes her compelling to follow

This VN also looks and sounds really cool. The use of a monochrome aesthetic for the sprites and (I’m assuming) real photos as the backgrounds works really well in giving the monastery an unsettling gothic atmosphere. And while there’s no voice acting the music is excellent too, kind of hard to describe but it’s like lo-fi or trip hop sounding which seems like an odd mix but it’s actually very fitting

My feelings on it may change when I can think on it as a whole, but as is it’s really good and I’m very excited to see how it continues for Volume Two. Shows a lot of promise if it can pay off from all the build up

A perfect storm of the horror lurking just behind the corner and the ugliness that lays just behind a person's true feelings. Perhaps the most gothic thing I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. The greater mystery within Misericorde is given foundation, but Volume One serves mostly as an introduction to the complex, flawed actors. Everything is carefully crafted right down to certain lines that receive no further attention.

As a period piece, it is made to be accessible as possible to the reader in service of the overall narrative - this works in Misericorde's favor as a piece about a 1400s priory could easily be impenetrable. The dark setting of the abbey is truly one of the scariest things I have ever seen in a game- the black and white imagery lends to a giallo aesthetic that is sublime. Also, this has one of the best soundtracks ever.

And xeecee's philosophical explorations of the time period have now engrossed me: the demerits of literalism (biblical or otherwise), class in the gothic era, how theology and sexism intertwine in this sort of monastic process... a truly fantastic game that has gotten me doing my research. Can't wait for Volume 2.

Edit: The dialogue in this game- as mentioned before- is made to be accessible as possible to read. This means the game overall bucks authenticity in favor of better animating the character's personality. The characters speak modern english, in the sort of timeless tradition of graphic novels and media that takes a similar approach. This can serve to break the immersion, but for me, it worked 90 percent of the time. There is one scene where the characters get into a debate about ducks that didn't really work for me, but otherwise, its good stuff.

Read this fucking vn so I can see more of this vn.

A compelling mystery drama about isolation, religion, the different faces we perform to different people, and the identities we try to cling to amongst it all.

Edit: I need to talk about this more.

The core clash between Hedwig and the other nuns is such a tragic issue of communication. Hedwig, as the anchoress, has spent her entire life trapped within four walls. She's never talked to anyone for more than a few minutes. She's only had her scripture to copy. She's completely unprepared for the reality of what a convent is versus what she's been told. She struggles to process the idea that being a nun was not a choice for most of these women. She flip-flops between viewing everyone as sinners to desperately craving their approval. Craving joy and happiness. Fearing happiness.

The other nuns, even as they're aware of Hedwig's issues, can't fully comprehend what that's like. They shift between sympathetic and angry because they don't have the tools to understand her issues. At the same time, they don't have the tools to understand themselves. Each of them has been forced out of society for one reason or another and this home is all they have. There's love and resentment in equal measure.

There's a lot of characters with hidden traits right now, with only this first volume to read for now. But you can feel all the layers hidden away. The tragedy and pain and how they all cope with the life that's been laid out for them.

I have to rot13 this next part.

Bu, Rhfgnpr.

Fur jnagf gb serr Urqjvt. Fur jnagf gb pbageby Urqjvt. Fur xabjf Urqjvt vf n ivpgvz bs pvephzfgnapr. Fur erfragf Urqjvt sbe gnxvat gur cynpr bs ure qrnq sevraq. Fur nqberf Urqjvt. Fur ungrf Urqjvt.

Fur ungrf fvyyl guvatf. Fur yvxrf n tbbq cenax. Fur jnagf gb or nybar jvgu ure obbxf. Fur jnagf gb fcraq rirel zbzrag jvgu bguref. Fur jnagf gb cnegl jvgu sevraqf. Fur jnagf gb uvqr sebz gung qra bs ivcref.

Fur jnagf crbcyr gb gehfg ure. Fur pnaabg gehfg nalbar.

Rirel qrpvfvba fur znxrf vf zbgvingrq ol guvf pbagenqvpgvba. Fur arrqf Urqjvt gb haqrefgnaq ubj qnatrebhf ure vairfgvtngvba vf. Fur arrqf Urqjvt gb cynl vg fnsr vafgrnq bs chfuvat gur vaivfvoyr oneevref va gur pbairag. Ure svefg nggrzcgf gb fvyrapr Urqjvt jvgu n Fpbbol Qbb cybg vf rdhny zrnfher znyvpvbhf naq pbafvqrengr. Fpner Urqjvt njnl, xrrc ure fnsr, rira vs vgf cnvashy. Jura gung snvyf, fur'f sbeprq gb or ubarfg. Fur'f sbeprq gb cyrnq jvgu Urqjvt gb yrnir gur pbairag. Fur bcraf urefrys gb dhrfgvbaf naq pynvzf fur'f ernql gb nafjre nalguvat.

Ohg fur pna'g or ubarfg. Orpnhfr gb or ubarfg njnxraf gur cnva bs qvfpbirevat ure sevraq'f pbecfr. Bs pyrnavat hc gur zrff. Bs gur genhzn naq qnatre fvggvat va ure zvaq.

V ybir ure fb zhpu. V'z tbaan ebgngr ure va zl zvaq sberire.

This vn is incredible. Please read it.

You know, looking back, I have played so many games that write women so poorly. Playing this back to back with Dave the Diver was the impetus for me realizing just how much in Dave the Diver was rubbing me the wrong way because of the covert sexism in that game. Misericorde's cast is (for now, I'm expecting some gender stuff in volume 2) primarily women. Flawed, silly, heroic, villanous, and so so human. The art design helps capture that, utilizing presentation that gets across the uniformity of their nuns' habits to strike fear into the reader and then seamlessly showing through posture and gesture how they each wear it a little differently.

I believed in every single character in the game, even the ones I didn't like, and Hedwig is a perfect protagonist. I admit, at the start, I expected Hedwig's fish-out-of-water story to be background, but it is the foreground. We are hearing Hedwig's story with all the biases and missing moments you would expect of a profoundly self-loathing and self-righteous woman who has been isolated all of her life.

The music is an absolute gift. Over 100 tracks for a game a tenth of that length, and I have listened to it often while writing or working.

I cannot wait for volume 2 and all future volumes!

It's hard to accurately judge a mystery thriller that's only half-complete. The undeniable strength of the story so far is its compelling cast of characters, each one with her own hidden depths and all collectively with histories and interactions between them that unfold before the player's eyes. This is a good sign: these relationships are the threads from which the fabric of a good mystery is woven.

But Misericorde cuts a lot of checks for drama in its first volume that as yet we can only hope get covered in the finale. A story like this lives and dies by its meticulous attention to plotting detail, and the indicators so far have been mixed. There are certainly some compelling twists, turns, and foreshadowings in this volume alone; but there's also a fair amount of awkward maneuvering just to get the right characters having conversations, as well as the occasional seeming plot hole and anachronism.

But I don't want to second guess this too much when much is left unknown. I'm foregoing a rating for this entirely because it's simply not finished, and unlike some genres it's impossible to truly judge this without knowing the full arc of the plot. I will certainly say this much: I'm plenty compelled to want to pick up the next one as soon as it drops.

LOVE me a good loathing! our mc hedwig is just so MISERABLE; it's delicious. she's so angsty, so judgy, so wishy washy and ANNOYING. and yet equal parts the opposite! wonderful human specimen, that one. to the "enigmatic woman in the wall"! you're awesome.

Quite an engaging time! I loveloveloved it. suppose it's potentially a lil anachronistic feeling in the way the cast talk sometimes and the mystery aspect can comeoff a tad slow moving but whogivesashit. i'm here for the VENOM and enduring horrors behind human conversation. (also the ghosts(?) and the sicko ambience; that shit rocks too).

A series of strong individual scenes without a lot of internal cohesion. There's a great deal of vacillation in tone: the early chapters seem interesting in creating something like a grounded interpretation of the Late Middle Ages, but this is abandoned pretty suddenly in favor of writing the characters as something between Twitter users and the cast of a slice-of-life anime. This describes a lot of visual novels that I've absolutely hated, but I think very highly of Misericorde in spite of it: it's a game which always manages to stick the landing. A great deal of the game's word count is used to establish characters and self-consciously attempt to endear the audience to them, and relatively little is devoted to the development of the actual mystery plot, but it nevertheless rarely feels inefficient or bloated. Almost every character, even those who seem one-note on their introduction, has personal nuances and contradictions established by the end of the game. Scenes which might be pure fluff in another game almost always manage to leave the game's world a bit more fleshed out.

Misericorde makes a certain number of implicit promises in its framing device: that relationship between the cast will remain complex and tenuous, that nothing in the story is wholly unnecessary, and that the narrator will not necessarily become a better, wiser, or more fulfilled person by the end of the story. Volume One isn't much of a standalone narrative and ends on a scene that's notable but not very conclusive. It's hard to say, then, if the story ultimately has a point, if these events are going anywhere. It ends while still in the process of establishing context for a mystery, and while it does so in a smart, consistently enjoyable way it'll be disappointing if it's all one great hustle.

The game was greatly enhanced for me, and ballooned to about three times its expected run time, by the act of reading the whole thing aloud over a video call. This has also established voices for the cast which I now consider to be inseparable from them and which I now must share with uninitiated: Eustace talks in a nasal sneer, Darcy has a monotone valley girl accent, Charity sounds like Mercedes from Fire Emblem, and Moira has a strong southern accent, Ireland being the Osaka of the UK.

I had an absolute blast reading through this, it really scratches that mystery/suspense VN itch in a way I've not experienced in a long time! The characters are fantastically unique and well written, especially Hedwig who is an extremely interesting protagonist to be in the head of. On top of that the soundtrack has some real bangers.

Really can't recommend this enough if you're into mystery stories, especially if you like stuff like Umineko (there's When They Cry vibes but it's enough of its own thing to distinguish itself also!)

My only complaint is that I'm going to be all impatient in waiting for Volume Two to come out!

I read the whole thing in two days, only stopping because I got way too tired to continue. The characters and the setting are amazingly realized, and the grainy black and white photography and the moody electronic score create an absolutely gripping atmosphere.

But the greatest achievement in my opinion is the stories protagonist: Hedwig is essentially a fish out of water character, who, because of her unique position in the monastery, isn't used to the comparatively mundane lives of the other nuns. This leads to a protagonist who needs to have things explained to her constantly, which obviously benefits the audience, but who is very opinionated about this information - and her preconceived notions and opinions are diametrically opposed to the average reader. It both makes her more compelling and adds a lot of emotion and interpersonal conflict to what would otherwise be exposition scenes. The other characters are also very intriguing, there isn't any of the nuns that I wasn't at least a little bit interested in.

I'm not able to judge the mystery aspect at time of writing, volume 2 is coming soon but this part had a lot of questions and very few answers so I can't judge how any of this resolves. I do think volume 1 is worth your time for the strength of the characters and setting alone, but it is an incomplete story.

When I first started reading Misericorde, the structure, genre, themes, and Photoshop-filter backgrounds gave me strong Umineko vibes, and I wondered whether it was actually an inspiration or just me having "guy who's only seen Boss Baby" syndrome. Then every character started lecturing me about chess, and that question was put to rest immediately.

Jokes aside, Misericorde is excellent so far. Obviously it's hard to have a complete opinion on an incomplete story, but even if the game ultimately fails to deliver on its surface-level intrigue it will still have oodles of arresting prose and anxious atmosphere to make it a worthwhile read. The cast is uniformly excellent, archetypal enough to stay distinct in memory for however long it takes the next volume to release but grounded enough to provide depth and properly complement the tone (I think Darcy might go too far, with her permanent :3 mouth and Homestuckian speech patterns, but she's Darcy so I'll let it slide).

The soundtrack is also fantastic - I was not expecting breakcore to fit so well with a story set in 1482 but here we are.

Full of heart and love, which is a strange thing to say about such a grim story! I can really tell there's a passion for this game, especially all of its characters; they all feel very real, even while our protagonist knows so little about them. The position of anchoress is such a fascinating one to write from, and it could go very wrong, but I feel like xeecee has accounted for all the little intricacies of the role. There is an attention to detail the likes of which I've rarely ever seen. Our protagonist is believable, infinitely flawed, and thrust into a world she can't begin to comprehend - and every action she takes reflects this.

I'm not truly a mystery person, and I'm very bad at picking up on clues and such, but I suspect there isn't much to say about that in Volume One. The waters are muddied; if you're expecting some clarity, you won't get it here. Nevertheless I enjoyed theorising with every new bit of evidence, especially alongside the community members I've met. There are so many questions left unanswered, and I really cannot wait for the next volume.

Thoroughly enjoyable - humorous, emotional and mysterious in equal measures. Such lovable characters too, I'm going to miss them until the next instalment comes! <3

I had no real expectations for this game as I'd never played anything in this style before and was coming to it because I like the dev's other work. Turns out it's a fantastic murder mystery with memorable characters and a setting with which I'm not familiar at all.

I liked the hand drawn characters on the grey-scale realistic backgrounds. The writing was a little tough to read sometimes due to the similarity in colour but not enough to be problematic. I enjoyed the music and found it rattling around in my head at odd times.

There is no gameplay here so I came at this as a narrative-only experience was some neat audio-visual elements.

The ending is very much a 'volume 1' ending. Which is to say, I can't wait for the next one.

I didn't plan on playing another narrative murder mystery game set in an early modern european monastic environment so soon after Pentiment but I guess we can't control what fate has in store for us.

I don't usually play "proper" visual novels i.e those with little in the way of gameplay, much less ones where there is none beyond the "click to get the next dialogue" types but somehow I was tricked into buying this one, thinking I was in for some Ace Attorney style adventure game. Thankfully Im not too disappointed because the narrative is really good, as it had better be. Don't take this an opportunity to recommend your favourite VNs of this type, this is an exception. Im not going to read Umineko or whatever.

Not to say its perfect but the character writing is great, very well rounded and believable for the most part. Character voices in particular are distinct and memorable, I appreciate the trick of adding to an eccentric character never capitalizing letters.

I think perhaps some threads get trodden a bit too much, in particular certain elements of the Main Character's inner conflict got a bit tiresome by the end. She's an Anchoress (i.e a nun who stays in a cell her entire life dedicated to prayer and transcription of the bible and such) who's forced to leave her oath to investigate the murder of a nun. Obviously the transition from Hermetic solitude is traumatic and you really feel for her at times but, geez some of her inner struggle becomes kinda whitenoise by the end.

Like in Pentiment there is a lot of discussion about scripture, the monastic lifestyle and philosophy, xenophobia, the role of women in society, murder, greek plays, all sorts of good stuff. Its mostly handled rather well.

Other than that the pacing is quite good especially the first few hours (this is like 6-8 hours depending on reading speed) and the black and white traced ditherpunk aesthetic works quite well with the stylized pseudo manga-esque portraits.

A special mention goes to what really elevated the project which is the soundtrack. Goddamn is it good. Sometimes too good. Distractingly good almost at times. If you're not interested in the story I'd honestly recommend just giving the OST a listen.
https://lamonacadimonza.bandcamp.com/album/misericorde-volume-one-original-soundtrack

Didn’t expect another absolute banger of a game about a murder mystery in a Benedictine monastery in early modern era Europe several months after Pentiment, but here I am having finished Misericorde Part 1.

Misericorde actually makes an interesting compare and contrast with Pentiment in several ways, their protagonists for one. Pentiment’s Andreas Maler is an outsider to Kiersau Abbey and the rural town of Tassing, he’s a well-educated and well-traveled artist hired by the Abbey as a manuscript illustrator who is unaccustomed to both the monastic and pastoral life. So when his good friend at the monastery is accused of murder Andreas finds himself in over his head in the murder investigation and the conflicts between the town and monastery. Misericorde’s Sister Hedwig is also an outsider to Linbarrow Abbey, but in the complete opposite direction. Hedwig has lived the majority of her life as an anchoress, locked away in a cell in Linbarrow since childhood to become spiritually closer to God. Hedwig does not know life outside of the books she reads, the Scripture she copies and illustrates, and the people who come to the slat in her door whom she cannot see. When one of the sisters is murdered, one who was the closest thing Hedwig had to a friend, Hedwig is forced out into the wider world of the abbey to investigate. Even though she has technically lived there for decades, the cloistered halls of the monastery are still an overwhelming and alien presence to her as she struggles to actually interact with her fellow nuns for the first time.

Misericorde is head and shoulders above much of its VN brethren and one major reason for that is that it actually feels literary. The game avoids so many of the clichés and archetypes that crop up in the genre and is a truly engaging work; you can tell the dev actually has experienced things outside of the purview of bargain bin anime and light novels. While it doesn’t dive into Early Modern European history and society nearly as hard as Pentiment did, because Josh Sawyer is a huge nerd, Misericorde still does a superb job bringing the late 1400’s English abbey of Linbarrow to life. The whole main cast of sisters at the abbey are all fleshed out and complex characters. Hedwig is a really strong protagonist as well; she’s a great example of having a protagonist be a rather useless asshole but still be totally engaging in a real human way as she develops over the course of the game. The prose is also nicely done and the game is paced so well. There was never a moment that I felt that the game desperately needed an editor to take a chainsaw to it which even a game I adored like Great Ace Attorney Chronicles couldn’t avoid.

Aesthetically the game is fantastic too with the usage of stock photographs covered in black and white dithering and grain. This aesthetic gives the game a uniquely melancholic and mysterious tone and feel well befitting a murder mystery in an old monastery. The character art is really good too, it’s in an anime-esque style that differentiates the characters design well even though the majority of the cast are wearing the same habits. The soundtrack also goes frigging hard as hell with like a hundred individual tracks and it’s all great. You wouldn’t think drum and bass would fit with a game set in a 15th century monastery but it does.

Obviously as you can glean from the title this is the just the first part of the game so the game’s narrative and mystery is not resolved. I do have a few worries that the next part might go into a direction that could potentially ruin the game for me, but even in such a worst case scenario Part One is still fantastic and a must play. Just an overall wonder of a game that deserves so much more love, easily going to be one of the best games of the year for me no question.

holy hell dude what a wild fucking ride. My journey through this VN was a little weird; a friend of my set up what was basically a Visual Novel Book Club kinda thing where we all read one chapter a week, but that ended up falling through and I ended up completing the rest of it in like two nights, lmao. I knew I was in for something special when I watched what was effectively the intro movie; the monochrome vibes and the music were immaculate.

I actually know of Xeecee first through the Shrieking Shack podcast, which sort of helps me see a little bit of the creative DNA here via, like, asides and literary analysis therein and such. (It's a very fun podcast and I found it pretty cathartic in the whole. "ah i liked harry potter a lot as a kid. what's it like to revisit it now that jkr is like one of the worst people alive who isn't a head of state." kind of thing.) I think it's fun to track artistic influences, and I can definitely see some Ryukishi07 in here, what with there being a certain amount of mystery over whether everything is entirely mundane or if there's something more supernatural going on here.

Of course, it's very much its own thing, too. The art's fantastic, of course; all the characters are very striking and unique looking, and the expression work is great. The music is also totally fantastic, and there's so much of it! There were a LOT of unique tracks. I can't imagine myself getting bored with any of the tracks if they were repeated more often than they were, but damn, there's so much of it. I can't believe the game dumped the sickest track in the world over a debate over how many ducks one nun could kill.

Of course, with style comes substance, and I really love everything going on here. The characters are great! All of them are pretty delightful, even the ones who kind of suck. (Angela sucks in an extremely fun way. love her.) Hedwig is an extremely fun protagonist to be in the head of... well, maybe she isn't, because I'll admit it can be rough. She's, uh, not doing great here. But she's compelling as hell, and so is everyone else, I think.

Darcy is my favorite, of course. Love her. But I do enjoy every character here, and the dialogue and narration are both extremely compelling. I can't WAIT to see where this shit goes. I cannot deal with this being volume one, man. Where's the rest of it!!!! I want to know how the hell the prologue has anything to do with all of this crazy shit!!!! Let me back on the ride!!!

(Also this is a fun companion piece to Pentiment, another medieval mystery featuring an anchoress. It's very funny that they came out not too long apart from each other. I think this should become a trend.)

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.

I'm not sure if I'd go as far as to call Misericorde an anti-mystery story (whether or not it is will depend a lot on subsequent installments), but its protagonist Hedwig is absolutely an anti-detective. Misericorde mainly plays with the dynamics between group and detective. In mystery stories, the detective and the reader are always one step removed from the inciting incident. The detective is typically an outsider to the rest of the cast, and through their skills they are able to put together the story perfectly. They read through everybody, and in the end they understand what happened better than the people who were much closer to the incident. Misericorde adapts this 'outsider' dynamic, but plays with it by making its 'detective' incredibly unfit to handle that role. We see a lot of socially awkward detectives in fiction, but in Misericorde we see how being unable to read other people makes investigation borderline impossible. By the end of Misericorde's first volume, Hedwig has achieved very little progress in solving the mystery or finding leads. While mysteries are set up, XEECEE seems much more interested in the exploration of social dynamics, particularly in relation to this tension of the outsider. Misericorde is primarily about this fear of not only non-understanding, but having to reckon with the idea that a full understanding might not ever be possible, that some gulfs between people are ultimately irreconcilable. So while XEECEE is very much playing with the typical role of the detective, the way it's executed is less about a critique of the mystery genre (as it is in Umineko) and more a means of depicting social alienation.

Hedwig's outsider status is obvious in the 'fish out of water' sense. As an anchoress, Hedwig has spent her entire life as a shut-in, with nearly all of her social interactions involving the transaction of information. When she is sent out, everyone is aware that her position has left her socially stunted, but the levels of sympathy towards that range from character to character. Not only does Hedwig not know how to connect with them, they're also unsure of how to connect with her. She acclimates to life in the convent as it goes, but that social tension is still there in every conversation, even the more sympathetic ones. While I think it would be a bit much to call Misericorde an autistic allegory, I do think there's an interesting echoing of autistic experience in this regard (whether intentional or not). Another obvious tension is that Hedwig's investigation is meant to be secret. While it is only officially known by her and the Mother Superior, Hedwig is always uncertain as to how much of an object of suspicion she is amongst the other nuns. This is typical in detective stories, but whereas the detective goes into interactions just for the purpose of solving the mystery, Hedwig has a sincere desire to connect to the other nuns and escape her loneliness. The problem is that the 'detective' role makes all of her interactions transactional. It's a position that requires doing every social interaction as if you're walking on eggshells, making the trust that meaningful connections are built upon impossible. In addition to this desire she also has a total contempt for the other characters, stemming from the disconnection they have towards religious matters. One mark of great character writing is the sense that characters are contradictory without necessarily being 'out of character', and I think XEECEE makes it believable that Hedwig would simultaneously be a deeply misanthropic zealot and a lonely woman desperate for connection. Hedwig not only has to participate in social dynamics that she's unfamiliar with - she is in a position where she can never fully reveal herself, she is always performing. The fish out of water story and the detective story is usually about the protagonist's gradual development towards a greater understanding, but in Misericorde we have a protagonist who is perpetually alienated.

Out of the many excellently written character dynamics in Misericorde, my favorite is the one between Hedwig and Eustace, where this problem of simultaneous connection and disconnection is at its strongest. Hedwig comes much closer to Eustace than anyone else in the story, and there are times where we sense a true companionship emerging. However, there is another gulf between Hedwig and the other nuns, which is their relationship to Catherine, the story's murder victim. Most of the nuns are grieving, and Hedwig is too, but in a very different context. Hedwig only knows Catherine briefly before her murder, while the others have a much greater sense of who she was. So while Hedwig also grieves, she mourns the fact that she never got the opportunity to know Catherine beyond the one moment they shared together. She can't mourn Catherine herself as the others do. When she asks the other nuns about her it obviously serves her investigation, but she also does this as a way to resolve that mourning. It's this hope that the gap can be fulfilled, that she can 'know' Catherine through their answers. However, her investigation is also outright invasive to the grief of the other nuns, driving yet another wedge between the characters. Eustace is the one who was closest to Catherine and the one who seems to have the most knowledge on her murder, but every time Hedwig pushes her on this it becomes more and more apparent that she cannot ever 'know' Catherine or understand Eustace's pain. Hedwig and Eustace simultaneously have the closest bond and the largest disconnect for this reason. This dynamic builds into an excellent climactic scene that speaks to this pain and terror of the idea that you can never understand anything that you haven't directly experienced. The truth gets increasingly inaccessible.

What interests me about future installments is whether they'll stick to this idea of a detective story driven by social disconnect and alienation, and whether the story will be able to give answers while sticking to this concept. It's pretty heavily implied in the framing device (if not stated, since I'm writing this from memory) that Hedwig's investigation ultimately fails, which is very consistent with the setup so far. I still think we might get answers, but they'll likely be delivered in a not-so-straightforward way (akin to how the When They Cry series gives them). I'll try and write followup reviews for the future installments, and see if my argument on what I think the series is holds up.

Misericorde is fantastic, a strange delight that builds a compelling murder mystery out of exciting historical specificity, an atmosphere of gothic dread and a great cast of likable and complex characters whose relationships are ripe for good drama.

But part of why I love Misericorde so much is the writing. Every other pure visual novel I've played, even when good, has tended towards rambly over-written prose. Misericorde is simply well-written on a moment to moment basis - the prose is atmospheric and gives everyone a distinct voice but never feels the need to overexplain itself or belabor a metaphor for five paragraphs. xeecee is simply a good writer and stylist

Anyways what an ending and I can't wait for volume two

Hooked me in a way I genuinely wasn't expecting-once I started reading I couldn't think to do much else until I had finally finished the game. Misericorde is a kinetic novel, not a visual novel, so unfortunately there are no branching little paths or choices you have to make but for its type it doesn't really need them. Your character is barely socialized shut-in who could at best recite the dictionary definition of guile, so there's virtually no chance of them solving much of anything. Running around in their head and trying to figure out what the hells going on as they poke around aimlessly, sort through their emotions, and try to learn to be a person is as much a game of picking apart clues and trying to read the general writing on the wall as any game that purports to be about Big Choices.
The game completely nails what this genre requires, which is a cast of vibrant characters who, despite most of them coming off as deeply neurodivergent weirdos, all feel like genuine people with histories and rich interior lives. Conversations hit a really good balance between "it sure is fun to hang out with these loveable kooks" and "what does it mean that they said this? Is what you told me true? What can I learn from how you're reacting right now? Is the way you're acting right now the way you really are?". It's a mystery that is first and foremost about character analysis, about trying to guess why someone did what they did, where someone goes when you're not seeing them, and when someone is only telling you a little bit of the truth, and it perfectly captures the feeling of being a shut-in suddenly thrust into social situations where you're not sure how to look after your own best interests.
Of course, it's only half a story and I'm ravenous for the next part, but I'm extremely confident that whatever volume 2 looks like, I'm going to very much enjoy it, especially since I"m pretty sure this game just gave me a nun fetish.

I went into this not really sure if I would like it but wound up devouring it, every good thing people said about it was true and then some. I think the best word for Misericorde is... gripping? This is a PAGE TURNER of a visual novel, it made me so hungry to know what happened next.

I loved following Hedwig as she navigated the big personalities of the cast, the tricky social politics of the monastery, her own crisis of faith, and (of course) the deliciously dangerous mystery. I don't want to give anything away, but at the same time I don't even know if I could because even at the end of Volume 1 it still feels like we're only beginning to grasp the depths of what's at play here.

A lot of people have praised this game better than I could but one particular thing I'll highlight is how it made the very distant setting of a 15th century English monastery feel accessible- I'm very impressed by how natural the exposition felt (I'm neither Catholic nor European so I was unfamiliar with much of the terminology but I never felt lost) and the way the attitudes of the characters felt completely faithful to the era yet so modern at the same time.

My favorite song on the soundtrack is "Enchante."