Well, this was very upsetting! (in a good way!!!)
I actually downloaded this VN a few years ago (maybe back in 2018 or 2019... Time flies aaa), but never made much progress for no particular reason. I probably got distracted and then forgot about it...
Then, I was discussing dark yuri VNs in my own Discord server a couple of days ago, and lamenting that there aren't many dark yuri VNs out there; most of them tend towards the cute and fluffy.
Then, I remembered Soundless, and that it was billed as a dark yuri VN. I never actually read enough of it last time to get to the yuri, but I thought I'd pick it up and try to read through the whole thing this time.
I wound up reading it over the course of 2 days, in 2 sittings, so I got pretty engrossed haha ;;
Ah, I enjoyed this a lot! I'm not sure why past me didn't get that far in it. I think the writing is very effective. It feels very to-the-point, and there isn't too much description, but that makes it easy to chew through. The writing feels a bit minimalistic, but that's not a bad thing at all: I think the plain and matter-of-fact writing style makes the horrible nightmarish things hit even harder than if you lavished a lot of descriptive text on it. Mercy's life is awful, but she's been conditioned to think that's the way it is, so she recounts it in an almost detached way because she thinks it's 'normal'. The writing style works really well with Mery's character; it makes perfect sense.
The presentation of this VN is also great! I really enjoy your art, even if the sprites are a bit old. I think the big eyed early 2000s anime aesthetic is charming, and the fact the proportions of the sprites are a little off actually adds to the creepy atmosphere. The character designs themselves are very striking; especially Auma's. Also, filtered photo BGs, my beloved...
The use of sound effects and music is great too. There isn't that much music here, so a lot of the VN is ambient noise and SFX, but it works really well in establishing this creepy/isolated atmosphere. Some of the gory SFX during the more violent scenes are also pretty effective, and they help make scenes more visceral even though the writing itself isn't too detailed.
I'll not say too much about the actual story b/c spoilers (and I already talked too much lol), but it's very unsettling and depressing. The small village setting succeeds in feeling claustrophobic, and the exploration of Mercy and Auma's relationship is heartbreaking. The ending sequence is very depressing. It might be one of the most uncomfortable experiences I've had reading a VN (and I have read Subahibi lol, and I can see the inspo... Are the uniforms here inspired by Subahibi's?), but it doesn't feel like misery for the sake of misery. It feels like there's a real point to this story, and it's ultimately a hopeful message. We can still change, even if we're afraid of changing, and perhaps Mercy can heal and move on after all.
I'll be rooting for her...!
Thank you very much for creating this VN. It's very atmospheric and thought-provoking, and I understand why I see it getting recommended so often on r/visualnovels; it really deserves the acclaim.
Also, several people in my Discord server had heard of Soundless and were pretty complimentary about it (one person even said it was their favourite VN of all time), so I thought I'd pass that along in case you wanted to hear that even more people are in love with your story!