"Mesmer's coven casts a spell few indies match"
About
MESMALIE is an occult visual novel with point-and-click exploration. A magickal incident in your life lands you at a small witches' coven in the middle of nowhere, where a mentor figure named Mesmer teaches you to control your ability. Between dialogue you poke at the environment and cast your magick on almost any object, and the game folds in short minigames like Para Ball and Danse Mesmere. Chapter select lets you replay sections to chase branching outcomes, hidden interactions, and multiple endings, including a true ending you're unlikely to reach on a first run.
Verdict
MESMALIE knows exactly what it is and executes it with unusual assurance for a seven-euro indie. The writing gives Mesmer real weight, the branching structure earns its replays, and the art and score work together so tightly that the whole thing feels handmade rather than assembled. The mechanical side stays deliberately light, so anyone chasing puzzle depth should look elsewhere, but as a small occult story you turn over in your hands, it delivers almost everything it reaches for. Well worth the price of entry.
You'll like it if …
- +You want a dialogue-heavy story you replay to peel back hidden interactions and endings
- +Strange, expressive art in the ENA or MINDWAVE vein is a draw rather than a barrier
- +You enjoy magick systems that reward poking at everything just to see what happens
You'll dislike it if …
- −You want mechanical challenge from your point-and-click and find reading-heavy stretches tiresome
- −Hunting obscure branches without in-game guidance frustrates you
- −Cartoony, off-kilter art styles put you off before the story starts
Breakdown
- +Testing magick on objects rewards curiosity: 'anything' genuinely means anything, and the game reacts to odd choices
- +The minigames break up the reading rather than padding it, Para Ball and Danse Mesmere land as their own small hooks
- +Interaction and dialogue with Mesmer carry the moment-to-moment loop, and she's written to be worth talking to
- −This is a light point-and-click at heart; players wanting mechanical challenge will find the systems thin
- +Multiple endings and hidden interactions change meaningfully between playthroughs
- +Chapter select makes hunting missed secrets and alternate outcomes painless instead of a full replay
- +Enough tucked-away content that finishing once rarely means you've seen it all
- −Some of the endings and secrets are obscure enough that players reached for guides to find them all
- +The story lands emotionally, with a bittersweet streak across its endings that players carried past the credits
- +Mesmer's personality and speech patterns anchor the whole thing and make the arc memorable
- +Twists arrive without telegraphing, and the personal subject matter reads as genuine rather than staged
- −Dialogue-heavy by design; the quieter stretches lean entirely on writing you have to be in the mood for
- +Strong, unusual art direction that players reach for ENA and MINDWAVE to describe
- +The soundtrack tracks the atmosphere and emotional beats instead of sitting in the background
- +Sound design and visuals pull in the same direction, giving the coven a coherent look and feel
- −The stylised look is a specific taste; the cartoony, unsettling register won't sit right with everyone
- +Writing, mechanics, visuals and sound fit together without seams
- +No bugs, crashes or performance complaints surface in the reviews
- +The chapter-select UI does its job cleanly for a replay-driven structure
- −Finding every branch can feel unguided, which nudges some players out to external guides
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