Summary: Dies Irae is the story of Fujii Ren and the fight that erupts within the town he lives in. After encountering the guillotine that decapitated Robespierre during the French Revolution in a museum, he begins to see dreams about himself being decapitated at that same guillotine and a golden-haired girl who stands at a beach looking out over the water, singing a song of blood. Whenever he awakes from those dreams, he discovers that someone has been killed, decapitated by a mysterious serial killer. This is the opening act of the opera that is Dies Irae.
Review
Plot 10/10
To be honest, I have no choice but to be awed at the scale of this work. Even though I played it in Japanese, the skill with which the story is told is truly amazing. The brutality of the conflicts, the horrors that the protagonist experiences, and the tragedies that occur strike straight to the heart. Not only that, but the level of complexity in the relationships between characters and the odd way they managed to escape the archetypical roles that are so common in VNs that seem like they should end up as just another piece of 'shounen' crap. The protagonist is so utterly human, with a strong philosophy that nonetheless contradicts itself. The antagonists for all their sheer overpowering sense of evil, are nonetheless human in every way. Their desires, their madness... they all have real reasons that both make sense and can at times make you sympathize with even the most evil amongst them. I in particular liked Marie's route, because it felt like a 'true' end, though in a very real sense, the true end is Rea's route. Sakurai Kei's route is hilarious, but it also leaves you feeling like nothing was really accomplished. Overall, the story is incredibly dark and I can't recommend it for people who had trouble with the stuff that happened in FSN's Heaven's Feel route, because it is even darker at times.
Sound- 8/10
The soundtrack here is very strong, with a mix of organ, piano, classical music and even some death metal. The themes tend to be very powerful and they are quite well-matched to the scenes. The sound effects are decent as well, though not as good as the bgm, so I had to subtract points.
Visual- 9/10
About as good as you see in VNs. The characters are visually pleasing, the event CG's are plentiful, and the scenes are generally very well done. Because it is an action story as much as anything else, there are a lot of bloody scenes, but that is all to the good.
Overall 9/10
For a lot of reasons, I'd love to give this a 10/10, but that would be too impulsive. This game is excellent. The darkness of its story is truly pleasing for a fan of this kind of stuff like me, and it definitely creates its own unique story. While it is obvious that the people who wrote this VN were fans of FSN, they didn't in any way copy the story or even use the archetypes from it. This game stands quite well on its own as a plot worth going through over and over again, if you have the patience and ability to play a game in Japanese.
Ah, one thing about this, this is a dark fantasy, as genre goes. Seriously, I can't stress strongly enough that this game has enough emotional ups and downs to turn even the most devoted vn-lover to drink. Not only that, but this game is seriously long, even considering the time it takes to play a game in another language. It will eat up a ridiculous amount of your time.
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