For context, I am a medievalist, one who happens to study...nuns. I also love mysteries. This game is my everything. It is well researched, well written, everything. There were so many little touches that demonstrated love and knowledge for the history and subject, and I adored the character writing. I cannot wait for the next part.

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 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 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.

And then, there were Nun.

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.

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.

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.

I wish nuns were real

the nuns are so gay that it distracts from the great writing

PS - What you'll read here is less of a review and more analysis of the game's themes. Perhaps Steam isn't the best location for this, but I see so little discussion about this game that I find it criminal. If the themes I touch on strike a cord of any sort, then I implore you to support this game. Without further ado:

The true greatness of Misericorde is not just its compelling characters, its faith-provoking questions, nor its addicting soundtrack, but rather how its writing’s made me obsessed with this peculiar type of nun and the psyche it invokes. We follow an anchoress, a religious title given to those who willingly remain locked in a room with only scripture and the bare essentials to live, in order to serve as a living channel of holy wisdom. But when the monastery’s Superior busts down the door and violates our Anchoress’ oath of seclusion, she soon finds herself begrudgingly acting as a spy to pin down the Superior’s intuition that one of her fellow nuns is guilty of killing Sister Catherine—the only visitor former-Anchoress Hedwig ever formed a bond with in her decades of isolation. With her vow broken against her will, her sense of justice fuels Hedwig to assimilate among the Sisters she’s lived with her entire life, yet never knew.

The wrinkle in this scheming however: Hedwig has no idea how to exist with others. Nevermind those suspected of murder, with many not very willing to talk. Misericorde’s great enjoyment comes from its colorful and complicated characters within its moody medieval walls and the lively conversation (often arguments) they bring out of each other. While all adorned in the same robes, quickly they couldn’t seem more different. In fact, with each passing day living in their dorms, it becomes dubious if any of them even like each other. Even the sweetest of the bunch, I found myself scrutinizing their intentions. After all, one of them died. And you’re talking to a murderer, whichever one it may be. These are women, seemingly, in mourning, and you are an outsider from within their walls, now taking the vacant position of their murdered friend. Though with time, even the title “friend” comes into question. Sister Catherine takes life as a character just like the rest of the cast, yet mystery wraps around her and everyone’s relationship to her. They all tell good memories, yet one decapitated her.

Hedwig’s social tiptoeing and attempts of weaseling out information of the suspects without drawing attention, are hampered by the fact that everything Hedwig does draws attention to herself. It’s to be expected of someone in her unique circumstance. But almost more than the sisters’ secrecy, the biggest obstacle in Hedwig’s investigation is her habit to not only put her foot in her mouth, but to swallow it whole. Truthfully she’s a mess. Perhaps a lovable one, but one prone to breakdowns and vomiting, lest I mention her many social blunders. Her mission requires the social prowess of an aristocrat, yet at every corner she flounders like infinite ducks with their heads chopped off. A difficulty exacerbated by her own devoutness butting heads with the other supposed ‘Sisters’, are more blasphemous than holy, like they didn’t even read the same book. Their flexing of what Hedwig sees as unbendable holy integrity of women in their position, only isolates her further: Using His name in vain, lewd innuendos, even using the titular misericord, the one room in a monastery where their vows are relaxed, more as a space to get ♥♥♥♥-faced on the daily. All this, Hedwig must learn to bite her tongue at, rather than reprimanding their debauchery at risk of failing to assimilate with the group and their opposed way of life. Despite all their sin, Hedwig finds herself both desperate to fit in, for her mission but also her own peace, and yet appalled of becoming one of them. Each lie, each secret burdened to hold, takes a brick out of the infrastructure of her faith. "I may have found this talk blasphemous, but at the end of the day I was a bigger coward than I was a devout Catholic," she admits to herself. "Another thing I was coming to loathe about myself."

It’s not just her fellow sisters that Hedwig feels at conflict with, but perhaps the Church itself. In the early days out of her cell, she’s distressed to learn her sisters condense hourly prayers to only during meals. Not just them, but the entire Church does, for as long as they can remember. Yet no one made her aware of this in the decades inside her cell, every hour she’d drop her work for prayer. A devotion she believed was in every monastery, just to be told it’s too impractical for any ‘normal’ person to be held to such a standard. But not her, a living embodiment of scripture— perhaps the only person capable of prayer to that degree. A responsibility of hers to bear alone. Not only is her concept of faith let down by her sisters, but the Church itself, and even the people it exists to serve. Months, years, decades, trapped in a single room to serve as a source of wisdom. Yet because of the long trek up the hill the monastery was built on, no people from the local town ever came for guidance. Her purpose unwanted. Wisdom never called upon, except for Sister Catherine, who kept Hedwig’s days busy intellectually sparing with Leviticus and Genesis.

And why was the monastery built so far to be completely incapable of providing assistance to those in need, its purpose to begin with? And how is it still funded? Another grand mystery hidden in the stonework that perhaps is best left undiscovered. Yet Hedwig continues headstrong into unraveling this murder, and the many mysteries that await her. Let’s hope her meddling doesn’t end with one more decapitated chronicler.

Enjoyed this VN a lot, real hidden gem all round.

I wish to marry whoever made the soundtrack for the game. You assume that's a joke but I will genuinely propose to them as a sign of good faith. I think churches irl could gain a lot more followers if more played hard jazz that absolutely slapped.

Play this VN