I heard somewhere that its called clay doll models or something. I remember playing a game with the same cartoonish graphics and art style, I just can't remember when. But Mist got me crazy for similar games man. And its one of the fully completed ones so its damn lucky. Right now i am stuck with several games that update in 3 months a time and have 2-5 minutes of gameplay
It could have been the first game made by 395 "A tale of Eden"?
Anyway it's a style of modelling so it doesn't necessarily need to be made in Blender, every modelling software can be used for this manga/anime similar style, the issue is that you still need to rig the model in order for them to move and be animated so it requires a little bit of time to be done.
And since most devs make games for a hobby, having a software like Daz/HS or Koikatsu that allow you to have models ready to go ( and that you only need to animate instead of make your own model from zero), they tend to prefer these softwares instead of making everything from scratch.
Mist is really a stand alone game just for that, because there's a lot more work behind it than in the others, since Rathieu create not only the models but also sculpt all the backgrounds, the buildings and the rest by himself so everything is new, and you don't risk to see the same models or BG like it happen with the other games here.
It's a time consuming process but in the end it's way more satisfying, that's why I love this game, it's unique, and yeah I agree with you, it's difficult to find many good games like this, but it's due to the fact that quality require time that's why the good games that are here are still in development.
Once in a lifetime is a very good suggestion, and if you want give a try to Eternum the other game made by Caribdis, it's different from MIST but it's a great game.
