At some point, growing up, I developed a fear of dead bodies. I've always been afraid of death, ever since I was young. But, the development into being unable to touch the body of a dead fly came later, a fear I'm still unsure the origins of. It's a fear that caused me to put off playing this game for some time - despite now owning it from many bundles.

The game treats death with a lot of care. As Charlie, your job is to prepare the bodies for the funeral - whether this is through cremation or embalming. The graphics are simplistic, not shying away from the medical nature but not marvelling needlessly in it either. The bodies don't show any injuries from how they died, and the use of blood is minimalistic. It doesn't treat tragedies as a source of entertainment.

The game holds your hand through each step, not allowing you to go wrong. I didn't mind this, but it may eliminate the feeling of 'gameplay' for others. The use of colour to guide your eye is well executed, and the UI and controls are minimal and easy to understand.

The game consists of a few stages for each day you play. You can check your emails, as well as an extra tab on the computer (one of these days involving a Minesweeper esq minigame.) Upon accepting the job, you prepare the body. After this, you move to the funeral, where you can listen to their loved ones and pay respects.

The story throughout the game is interesting, and one reflective of real life. I knew where it would likely end up. I found myself engrossed into the snapshots of other people's lives at the funerals, however. Learning from only a brief moment their relationships, their worries or fears.

It's a very poignant game, yet a gentle one. I think I've come away with a better understanding of death and the process, and a respect for this.

I would describe this game, above all else, as educational. It taught me a LOT about the funeral home industry and the options for what to do with loved ones after death. The game also isn't afraid to shy away from heavier topics and issues with the industry. The narrative was satisfying and there were a few really poignant moments.
Players are not given any choices within the game, and there is no skill required. Education and narrative take the forefront. Everything you are meant to do is heavily telegraphed, usually with text explicitly telling you what the next step is. This, in some ways, is good, because it maintains the game's educational and respectful tone. Obviously, a game teaching you about how to respectfully care for the dead doesn't want you to accidentally do something wrong with one of the bodies. However, this also means that the game requires no skill or agency. This is a neutral fact, but one that potential players should know going in.
ALSO: As stated before, this game deals with death and all the heavy topics surrounding it. Only play it if you are in a good headspace and are ready to confront such topics.

While its gameplay is very repetitive, it's to the game's benefit as it's an excellent look into the funeral industry, even later commenting on the industry and its exploitation of people in a state of loss and despair for financial benefit vs. people who genuinely wish to help send off lost loved ones with care and respect for those left behind. Or even in one instance, with no loved ones left behind just done in honor of the person that passed.

This is one of those "it's not a game so much as an experience" and it's worth checking out.

Though it’s obviously easy to share the sentiment, all the commentary about corporations taking upon death itself is rather weak. It points out what is certainly happening everywhere, but with an ending dictated with too much of a good heart without thinking about the consequences of actually taking the risk it comes off as naive. The preparation of the deceased through a simple puzzley segment, especially in the cremation process, the stay positive mail list and overall cuteness are probably not the best fit for most of the situations. Yet, there is something in there.

Though simplified as it may be, having to actually prepare each of the deceased gives a bit more insight into the process and labor of a mortician. The mails give new perspectives about death and how to deal with it, sometimes obvious and not that interesting, true, but sometimes hitting the right spot (“Religion provides different paths for dealing with a death, but the goal is almost always the same: offering support, guidance, and ease to the people who are grieving”). Even that cute aesthetic helps to make the process more mundane, in a good sense, considering we are in the perspective of the mortician. But not without respect.

If the game ended up gaining me it was due to the sections where you have to attend the funerals. Due to the protagonist being silent (even if she is implied to communicate at least via email), her role is as simple as necessary, just lending an ear. And not everyone will grieve the same, some will be unable to speak in tears, some will think about if things couldn't have gone differently, some put their mind on how to distract themselves to make it easier… Most importantly, there is one thing that Charlotte will always do before leaving, no matter the complications behind the bureaucracy, including that certain peculiar funeral. She will always bid farewell with a reverence.

A handful of thought-provoking messages strewn across a game neither visually or mechanically interesting, a short indie that just sets out to bolster thy mood if you're perhaps grieving or today's work sucked humongous balls. It teaches you a few things about being a mortician, perhaps, if you bother to remember direct instructions that do not consult your ability to actually remember them. That said your bestie keeps asking you for skype dates and this is very unnacceptable social behavior graaaaaaaah

Well, that was over quick. According to the Itch.io launcher, I installed this game less than an hour ago, and now I'm done with it. I have to admit, I probably would not have played this if I didn't get if for free. It wasn't bad, mind. One day, we will all croak it, and I think this game portrays the feelings of those left behind on a pretty accurate way. As most things, death is pretty diverse, and you get to see a lot of cases here, which are treated with a lot of respect. A young man who took his own life, a woman who died of cancer, an unidentified homeless man whose corpse nobody claimed. It made me appreciate the job morticians do even more. Music is pretty decent too. If you feel like playing a relatively slow, short and contemplative story, I can recommend this game, although I'm a bit more hesitant to do so on the regular, full price. It depends on whether or not you feel its worth $10 considering the length of the game

While playing through some longer RPGs, I longed for a short little 'snack' in between. A Mortician's Tale looked like the ideal candidate thanks to its short run time (30 minutes of my 2 hours with this game I have optionally spent with its rendition of Minesweeper) and its interesting theme.

In this game you play Charlie, who joins a family-owned funeral home as a Mortician. The game spans about a year and you 'spawn' once a month or two, go on your computer to read some optional e-mails from colleagues, friends and prior 'customers', and also to see the mandatory e-mail that tells you what your task for the day is. You either ready bodies for closed-casket (you just have to clean them) or open-casket funerals (much more tasks involved) or you cremate them, based on the families wishes.

These tasks are rather simple and each step is carefully explained every time, so the goal is not to do it right, it's just to do it.

I know nothing about funeral homes, so I appreciated the game for showing me how they operate, how different requests are handled, about the environmental effects of embalming versus green burials, and about corporations that exploit both employees and customers even in this business.

Apart from that however, the game doesn't really manage to be emotionally impactful regarding its main character, which has no dialogue lines during the game. Anything she feels and thinks about her job, about how she handles it and anything else that could bring the players closer to her, doesn't exist, which I thought was a shame.

So while I appreciated the game for its topic, it doesn't succeed in being more than a tutorial/showcase for the 'industry', and I'm not sure if there was any intent to do anything beyond that.

at the very least, i learned a little bit more about the death industry with this one. i appreciate the informational emails about green burials and such, as i was not previously really all that familiar with what everything is like surrounding the logistics of burials. the actual 'gameplay' is absolutely nothing special, but i also didn't expect it to be. there is a narrative here, and i think it's neat that it's told through reading your email. however, the titular mortician you play as never has any dialogue and you never get to read any emails she writes. i ended up feeling like i knew a good bit about the people i was receiving emails from, but not really anything about Charlie herself. you can definitely infer how she feels about certain issues and the like, but it didn't really feel like "A Mortician's Tale" as much as it was a tale about a funeral home.

overall an informative game, but not one that particularly moved me outside of simply thinking about death.