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.
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.