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.

I understand everyone wants to praise indie games. I get it, I really do. It’s a middle finger to the corporate world and developers can explore interesting new ideas without the weight of a watchful eye. A Mortician’s Tale kind of explores this exact idea, but with a funeral home.

The game starts out well and gave me an idea of how the game would progress. A mortician named Rose gets a new job right out of med school at a family owned funeral home, you slowly perform different ways to prepare bodies from embalming to cremating. It’s a cool concept and things started getting weird when the game walked me through every single body preparation. I thought I was in for a long game as I thought it would take a while to see everything the game had, thus the extended tutorial times.

The story is told through emails on your computer between employees and Rose’s school friend. The sad morbid music painted an atmosphere I was starting to get into and the emails told me that something was going to happen. Of course, the tides turned when a corporation bought the funeral home and I was thinking this is when things will start picking up, but they didn’t. Then the game ended. Yeah, just like that.

I really admire indie games and these unique little adventures and stories they tell. Some are the most memorable I have such as Soma, Observer, and even Journey, but this isn’t how you do it. Don’t drag the player through tutorials, build an entire game system, create characters and an atmosphere, and end the game when most would start picking up. I hate this so much and I refuse to give these developer’s any credit for what they did. They literally skipped to the end of the story and everything building up to it had no meaning. I also understand short games, I’ve played games this short and felt very satisfied with their ending. This tale is not worth a second of your time.

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.

Not as much a game as an interactive first person lesson on the process of embalming or cremation. It's emotionally and effective, and got me to research the death industry and think about how I want my body to be treated after I die. The standard method is, as this game demonstrated, horrible. One of my favorite sections was listening to the scattered opinions of the mourners at the funeral (you can't move on until you've payed respects for the person whose body you've just prepared). They are sad, funny, or nonchalant, giving a look at the range of reactions people have to death. One of the last funerals is for an unidentified homeless man, and the memorial is empty. I was shocked, and spent a moment honestly mourning.

This game made me want to leave my body in its opening segment, as disgusted as I was to learn and perform the clinical tasks of caring for a dead body, but it made me more comfortable with facing that reality, and that inevitability, through repetition and interactivity, which is quite an accomplishment! Unfortunately, little else here works from the blocky art style to the narrative’s resolution of its correct observation of capitalism’s trajectories towards death with the creation of another company. Profound in one of one’s component parts but ultimately frustrating as a holistic text.

A Mortician's Tale delivers very concisely a striking series of vignette-things centered around a mortician's day job. There are some weird things going on. The game in some sense functions as an argument against the embalming process, which is cool as long as that isn't associated with some online political ideology yet? In an ideal world AMT would take after something like Papers Please, and use seemingly banal gameplay to really get into the shoes of an unconventional vocation. What we get instead is bittersweet and effective but lacking.

very cute little game :) and educational! i learned so much within the short hour and a half i played it, from all the processes that go into embalming and cremating, to the environmental impact of these, to greener alternatives that i never knew about, such as water cremation (which saves 66% electricity and reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 90% compared to regular flame cremation)! also, it is very decidedly anti-capitalist, which is always a big plus in my book hehe.

the thing i think i found most helpful about this game though is the "death-positive" spin it takes. to get personal for a moment, death has always been something that terrifies me. it is a very large source of my anxiety.

this game doesn't force you to be death-positive. many people you speak to in the game will be devastated by the loss of their loved ones. articles you read will remind you that, while you aren't personally tied to any of the deceased people, this is a traumatic time for the families and friends, and there are protocols to take to best offer your condolences.

however, the way the main protagonists speak about the topic is really refreshing. they try to show us that death doesn't have to be a terrifying thing, that in some cultures it is celebrated with song and dance. that the purpose of life isn't death... it's life! it's about making real connections with people, taking steps to live the life you want to (even if that means risking stability), and, hopefully, doing your best to leave this world a better place than you found it.

i highly recommend giving this game a try, obviously! it's very very wholesome :)

A rather short experience, A Mortician's Tale focuses on a mortician, Charlie, as she does her job while also providing players a glimpse into the funeral industry.

Its a good experience! The visuals are cute and the music quite calm and pleasing, fitting the general vibe of the game. Game progression is typically reading your emails and then preparing a body for burial, and then attending said burial to pay your respects.

The gameplay is for the most part simplistic, with the game providing you instructions each step in regards to its main gameplay, that being preparing deceased people for their funerals. The main appeal of the game I personally found was its story and the information it provided about the funeral industry. Its rather interesting, what Charlie goes through as a mortician, the different types of burials, exploitation within the industry, how the people related to the deceased grieve and handle the situation.

My only major problem with the game really is that its quite the short experience; I believe I was about done in less than an hour. It was expected, but it does make me wish for more. It also makes part of a story segment feel a little too sudden than needed.

Overall, its a nice short experience I'd definitely recommend, especially if you're interested in the funeral industry and want to have a little glimpse into what its like. Even if the experience was short, I do think it was a memorable time.

This is a delightful (sort of) look into the funereal industry and contains lots of interesting details. Really might make you stop and consider what you want to happen to you once you pass.

But it's not very long and there aren't any choices, so once you're done you're probably done. But I picked up on sale at a very decent price, so I'm fine with it.

But your mileage may vary.

I initially found this game quite jarring - I've had to stop playing a couple of times in the past, but I just knew it would be rewarding in the end. So I sat down with the intention to play the bulk (if not all of it) tonight, and I'm thrilled to say that I DID and I wasn't wrong! While the difficult subject matter was never particularly easy to broach, the game and death as a whole became more a matter of intimacy and kindness.

I agree with the few reviews who state that there are a some instances of plots that are not effectively explored, but given the briefness of the game as a whole I think the fact these moments are included at all lead to sufficient provocation of thought. The game is exploring one element of a business that folks were just getting used to when the game was released in 2017. So, one can't expect the game to cover every element of the ethics of the death industry in complete detail. We're growing and the ability to talk about issues like these is becoming more and more accessible, and if this game makes someone wonder about the death industry then that is enough because people like Caitlin Doughty exist who have created incredible learning platforms for those curious about death positivity.

All in all, I feel happier knowing that this game is available for people to play! Now I need to go and kiss my cat and tell him that I love him so, so, so much.

something i think this game does really well is reveal the politics of an industry that i never really thought about before but obviously must exist. how, like in every industry, capitalism strangles the humanity out of everyone involved, the workers and the people who should be grieving with dignity and peace of mind; how our most popular and profitable methods of funeral are damaging to the environment but those damages are ignored for the sake of profit; how the same systems that manipulate us into spending as much money as possible on services both essential and frivolous dressed up in the language of care are the same ones that warp our perceptions of how our bodies should be valued and how we think about them in life and in death. this stuff is portrayed in deeply upsetting ways that feel very true to me and i'm sure anyone else who's ever found themselves enveloped and chewed up by a corporate system.

the game explores other elements of the death industry that are fascinating and difficult and hopeful in equal measure. exploring the push and pull between a funeral's place as being for the departed and for the people they leave behind. exploring modern and alternative types of funeral services. education about the legal realities of funerals, and the ways people who work in the death industry may be compelled to disrespect the wishes of the deceased in varieties of ways.

sometimes i think the game's point of view when discussing and in one case (the chapter that addresses suicide) depicting some issues is overly narrow and a little clumsy, but in a game whose aim is to be broadly educational about a subject that is both wide-ranging and relatively obscure i think that sort of shallowness is forgivable in the long view.

the game's position as explicitly death-positive and its mission statement of trying to expose a different, more human side of the concept of death and funerals is great, imo, and it works, and i think it's smart that it does that while still being critical of the ways the larger systems of the industry fail people and communities.

clearly the devs at Laundry Bear are passionate and knowledgeable and packed a lot to chew on into a brief, pleasant playable package. i was glad i finally got around to this one.