Tag Demons

Noel The Mortal Fate, an episodic adventure centered around a corrupt mayor, deals with devils and a young pianist caught in the middle.

Vaka Game Magazine brings us Noel The Mortal Fate, an episodic adventure centered around a corrupt mayors, deals with devils and a young pianist caught in the middle. The game starts with the night where the best pianist is chosen and will play a piece of music to protect the city. Players will take of Noel, Caron and sometimes BOTH. The story starts with the decision of the winner, Noel who everyone though should win lost and her sometimes friend took the win home.

Upset with the loss, Noel is approached by the mayor who suggests she meet him on the roof of an abandoned building to learn the truth of why she lost. Intrigued and believing she was the true winner Noel goes. She is convinced to summon a demon in order to kill the man she was told was behind her loss. As payment the demon takes her arms and legs and she is thrown out to sea. Learning he was tricked, the demon Caron accepts a deal to help her and the story is really underway.

Graphically the game has an art style that reminds me of older manga and simplistic controls. So far after two hours into the game I have found it very easy to play and learn but the dialogue is problematic. It reads like something a kid in junior high wrote but I suspect that has more to do with a poor translation of the original Japanese the game was written in. Despite this issue the game leaves me curious as to what the future will hold for a pianist with no limbs and whether or not the evil mayor will truly be defeated in the end. Is there hope for the demon as well? Only time will tell.

Woe to the demon that tries to drink from the cup of both humans and demons too! Witness the warnings of the book of Mirka Andolfo’s Mercy, chapter 5, verses 1-32!

This is the gospel according to Mirka Andolfo, who both wrote and illustrated this tome. (Controlling much?)

The official plot:

“Lady Hellaine’s elaborate plan takes shape, but the dark heroine…has not yet dealt with the consequences of her actions and with the hazy memories that more and more often emerge from her conscience. Is it really possible that the only answer for all her troubles is…love?”

Image Comics

Elaborate plan? First I’ve heard of it…and there’s only one issue left. This actually felt a lot more like a hastily drafted back-up plan. I suppose I may have missed the original plan, but how good can the book be if that’s the case? As for the memories and emotions…well that’s what you get when you take over the body of a human! All the alien/demon possessors know that you damned rookie!

My Impressions:

• What works: It’s vaguely reminiscent of The Thing.
• What doesn’t work: The characters. The story just doesn’t do a good job building them up enough for the reader to care about any of them. If I can’t remember their names from one month to the next…your book is in trouble.
• But how did it look?: It tires hard and uses all the tricks. Colored speech bubbles, blurs for motion, tinted panels for flashbacks…it even tries to be risque with a post coital page.

Notable Appearances/Events:

• Lady Hellaine (alien/demon wearing someone else’s body)
• Mr. Goodwill (another alien/demon thing)
• The little girl that thinks Lady Hellaine is her mother (or maybe Hellaine’s wearing her mother?)
• No one else appears to be remotely important…and they all sort of blend together.

Bottom Line: 2 Stars!

Save your money. Better yet, go buy Batman: Three Jokers. Mercy started out quite promising, talking about the Woodsburgh Devil and mysterious killings. Lady Hellaine shows up and turns the town on it’s side, along with the tease that she’s not exactly human. It held tight until about issue 3 when it just seemed to unravel into unrelated plot lines that couldn’t hold my interest. What a wasted opportunity! Mirka Andolfo shouldn’t have been so keen to put her name all over this comic…because now I know to avoid her work.