Volume
The year is 1482.
The age of exploration and enlightenment is on the distant horizon and the Renaissance is in full swing across Europe; but in England, the War of the Roses is in its final throes. Change is coming, but in one little convent in the north of the kingdom, everyone has seemed blissfully unaware.
Everyone except Sister Catherine, a beloved nun and firebrand thinker who has just been murdered. In an isolated monastery with an already mysterious reputation, any one of the Sisters could be the killer—and Mother Superior is as stumped as anyone else. That’s where you come in.
As an Anchoress, you took an oath to never leave your cell; to devote yourself entirely to God and provide spiritual support to all who came to your door. But as the only Sister who couldn’t possibly have committed the crime, you have a new mission: solve the case, before the bishop shutters the convent and the killer goes unpunished.
The Superior hasn’t told everyone why you’ve suddenly joined the regular congregation, but something tells you most of these women know exactly what’s going on. Who can you trust? Who is being honest, and who has their guard up—and why? Is the convent really haunted? Who killed Sister Catherine? And worst of all… are you next?
Game Discussion
Steam User 8
To quote a friend, the visual-novel-to-bible-studies pipeline IS real.
I wishlisted Misericorde pretty much on the strength of its trailer alone and I'm so glad I did. This is an astonishingly stylish game with an incredible soundtrack and really strong character work. It's a kinetic (i.e. no player choices) murder mystery that follows poor Hedwig, a former anchoress who's a complete fish out of water in her own convent but is still tasked with solving a very mysterious murder of a very mysterious woman. The pacing isn't exactly what you'd expect from a crime novel: the story moves quite slowly as we discover this small cloistered world through Hedwig's eyes. She is unfortunately not a particularly skilled detective but an extremely compelling and complex protagonist, as are all the other characters who all may or may not be murderers. I really enjoyed spending time in the convent and slowly picking up on small details that may or not may not explain what happened, as well as unpeeling the complex layers of the relationships between the characters, which Hedwig is often unequipped to fully understand but can still grasp at.
This is an great visual novel, and I'm thrilled that at the time of writing Volume 2 is available, so I'll go play that too.
Steam User 7
I'd recommend this with the disclaimer that this is part of a trilogy, and only two parts have been released so far. The story is definitely worth it, but given the complexity it wouldn't be a terrible choice to wait until you can experience all of it at once.
Steam User 22
would heartily recommend to anyone who was super devoutly catholic at a young age because of all the "mortification of the flesh" and "hallucinatory mysticism" stuff and then grew up gay and full of seething petty rage
Steam User 6
I went into this expecting more of a historical approach and was initially put off by nearly all the characters speaking in such a modern/casual way. I was afraid it'd be a case of 'what if these funny 2020's characters were thrown into a 15th century situation' rather than something that invokes the time period and setting when reading. Some old timey english could've been both fun and made the characters more believable. But it's handled (mostly) tastefully and the setting being a 15th century convent remains central.
Throughout the visual novel characters develop in a nice way and the murder mystery builds up to be pretty interesting as you'd expect in any good story.
The soundtrack is really good and kind of carried the experience for me, setting the mood for the environment and each scene. There's a surprising amount of tracks so it doesn't get repetitive. Nothing to complain about the unique visual style either, these make a great vessel to tell a story. The distorted black & white look makes images more ambiguous leaving some room for imagination while reading.
Steam User 5
Set in 1480's England and yet mentions squashes in the gardens despite being pre-columbian exchange. 0/10 literally unplayable
anyway one of the best OELVNs i've ever played. really blown away by the quality of the characters and the writing. hedwig is my autistic queen forever <3
Steam User 5
An excellent visual novel with a distinct and striking visual style, amazing music, great character writing, and a really compelling central mystery. Cannot recommend it enough! Seriously please play it, I need to talk about it with people.
Steam User 2
Hooked me pretty quickly and never let go (Volume 2 carries through too).
The soundtrack is 100+ songs long and they're all bangers. Even Soup's portative solo.