Mystery Mini Reviews

21 Mar, 2025

Fresh off of Trails through Daybreak, I needed something small and weird, so I jumped into a pair of indie games I had at the top of my backlog - Of the Devil and Misericorde. Both are incomplete and fairly short, so it doesn't really make sense to do a "review," per se, but I enjoyed both of them and wanted to catalogue for my list all the same.

Of the Devil

On paper, Of the Devil doesn't immediately seem like a big winner. It takes an Ace Attorney-esque core, adds a dash of Danganronpa-style courtroom gameplay, and sets the whole thing in a "hits a little too close to home" cyberpunk aesthetic. What really makes it stand out is the way it drapes all of this in the language of gambling. While there is testimony in the usual Ace Attorney style, most of the actual gameplay takes the form of some game of chance - your health pool is represented by how many chips you have, getting information out of a witness is represented by a game of blackjack or a hand of poker, and all those "Would you like to present some evidence, Mr. Wright?" moments are recontextualized as either calling or raising the blind. And frankly? This rules. The game really leans into that cyberpunk aesthetic, and given the difficulties of being a defense attorney in such a connected surveillance state, the gambling metaphor is a pretty good one.

That said, there's definitely some shortcomings here: as with any Ace Attorney-inspired game, you'll run into a non-zero amount of "How the fuck was I supposed to know that's what you wanted?" even with the help of a limited evidence pool a la Danganronpa. It also makes the...interesting decision to use your remaining chips as your rating at the end of the episode (more being better), but that also means that it doesn't refill you in between the two trials. If you do poorly in one half (or run into a bug that causes you to take extra penalties, as I did)¹, then you start the second part of the trial on even shakier grounds than usual, and I would be lying if I said I didn't do a least a little save-scumming until I got my footing again.

Once you step outside the mechanical layer, the game really shines. The characters are all fantastic - Morgan is a gigantic piece of shit (affectionate), Emma is a great rival and also blatantly her toxic (ex-?)girlfriend, and Serra is a great addition as Morgan's android and assistant. I also really appreciated how competent Morgan is written; she certainly does her fair share of bluffing and stalling, but she's clearly just as cutthroat and clever as the prosecution is. These sorts of games have a bad habit of constantly making the defense the butt of the joke, and it's refreshing to see someone capable of going toe-to-toe with the police, especially given the setting. I suppose one would have to be good at their job to survive as a defense attorney, given the conditions they're working under here, but it's nice to see all the same.

Episode 0 (the demo) took me about 90 minutes to play through, and Episode 1 another 6 hours, so not exactly a lengthy endeavor. Apparently the remaining cases are expected to be around the same length, which is maybe a little disappointing? I would hope that the later cases are at least a little longer and more complex, but it's still a really good experience as-is and I am very excited to see where Episode 2 and beyond take things.

Misericorde: Volume 1

Where Of the Devil takes its inspiration from Ace Attorney and Danganronpa, Misericorde is a much more...pure experience. As a kinetic novel, there is nothing to do but sit back and take in the mystery, so it's a good thing that it seems to be a pretty good one. Now, as with Of the Devil, Misericorde is not a finished game - while Volume 2 is out, the third is not (at time of writing, anyway), which includes the solution to the mystery at the heart of the Abbey. To be explicit: you are buying Act 1 of the story, with everything that implies. Most of its runtime is spent establishing both characters and setting, Hedwig's relationships with them, and it includes just enough of the greater mystery to keep your appetite whetted. Which is not to say that there isn't any progress being made on the main narrative or that smaller mysteries aren't being introduced and solved along the way, both are certainly true! Rather, Volume 1 is simply more concerned with building the foundation than setting off the fireworks itself, so to speak.

Putting aside the main mystery, the writing for the Sisters that inhabit the Abbey is very well done. Darcy in particular is a delight, with a heartfelt yet shitposty "every line is like this" style of dialogue, but almost everyone has a likeable "thing" to work with in their personality. Angela comes off as the worst of the bunch: she's rude, cold, and clinical in a way that none of the other sisters are. But that is almost certainly intentional - inasmuch as a mystery game has an "antagonist," she is the closest we get in Volume 1, though Katherine and Eustace both end up with their fair share of suspicion.

On the aesthetics side, the game takes the interesting approach of having a mix of low-res renders and blown-out photos, all rendered in black-and-white monochrome to serve as the game's backgrounds. I...do not care for this. I assume(?) it was done to make gathering the backgrounds easier, but the monochrome look makes it hard to look at for extended periods of time, doubly so when you're trying to read black and white text over a black and white background. Thankfully, the character sprites are cartoony enough to stand out despite also being on the same grayscale, and it's fairly impressive how distinct they all look considering that every character (minus one) is a nun with no visible hair and wearing the same outfit.

Finally, the ending (no spoilers). As mentioned, Misericorde makes no effort to have Volume 1 be a self-contained story, but even with that consideration, where it chooses to end is just kind of...bizarre. In the final sequence, one of the nuns goes missing, and fearing another murder in the abbey, everyone fans out to try and find her. The tension is palpable, but eventually, Hedwig is the first to find her. I won't say in what state, but suffice to say that there is no mystery as to her current status. ...And about 30 seconds later, roll credits. I suppose it's going for a cliffhanger ending? But if so, it doesn't seem to be a very good one. I suppose there's also a short scene that you can access once the credits are finished, but that's a story about a punk girl at an airport about to fly to England - a non sequitur if I've ever seen one.

And that's Misericorde, Volume 1. I...admit that I do not really know to make of it. Usually I see the other side of this problem - a sequel that was clearly intended to be part of the first game, but wasn't able to make the cut for whatever production reasons. This is just unapologetically Part 1 of 3, take or it leave it. And man, if you're not vibing with Hedwig, there is basically nothing here for you. Maybe Volume 2 has more focus on the mystery itself? I'm sure I'll find out eventually, but I will admit that I'm not like, dying to go slam down $12 for the second part. Whether that means they succeeded or not...who can say? I guess we'll find out together.