I wasn’t sure where to post this - but I thought reviving the Dies Irae side half of the thread would be ok, to share a few of my impressions on the game. If this would fit better somewhere else, feel free to move it.
My copy of Dies Irae arrived yesterday and I reached ???'s ending (powering through the game as the level of Japanese required to fully understand it is WAY over my head). From the comments I read about the various promises light failed to keep, I initially thought it was a single route game, with the choices added to give a sense of interactivity, and so I was left rather unsatisfied by the ending, but very impressed by the game as a whole. I guess when there’s a choice between having only a few endings, with only some of the characters, and having a deeper single route with no divergences - I’d go for the second option in most cases. Given what’s happened though, the expansion pack should fix most of the problems in that regard.
Although the graphics are still a fair way off from the best I’ve come across in a ADV/VN, the artist for Dies Irae is very good and the character designs are quite striking. The music isn’t quite as strong, but it’s still suitably atmospheric and there’s a very good continuity between different tracks. While Dies Irae isn’t perfect, judging by the 30% I’ve seen, and perhaps the 10% of that that I understand, it’s still a very impressive game.
I was curious about one thing: Is Dies Irae related to light’s Paradise Lost at all? There’s a poster for Paradise Lost in Ren’s bedroom, and the games share some of the same staff, including the (lead) scenario writer. Additionally, from what I can tell, the games seem to share quite a few themes and influences (mythological, theological, literary etc).
