Dies irae OUT NOW for everyone!

[Decay]

Dies irae, long-held to be the holy grail of chuuni VNs, is finally upon us! Often praised for its complex and wordy prose, its philosophical themes, its extensive and gloriously nerdy fight sequences, and the manner in which it deconstructs the chuuni action genre, it's a grand battle opera that has become a seminal work in Japan, and we finally have the chance to experience it for ourselves! Whether we're blown away or we're completely let down by the hype, it will be an interesting experience either way. It's currently only available on Steam. If you were a kickstarter backer, go to your Backerkit dashboard, the codes should be there.

First things first, the recommended route order: Kasumi -> Kei -> Marie -> Rea. The game's two parts represent the order in which the routes were initially released, but that is NOT the order in which you should read the VNs. The route order is unlocked, yet can ruin the experience if you go out of order. Stick to the recommended route order if you want to have the best experience, no matter who your favored waifu is. Furthermore, there are specific choices you have to make in the Rea route if you want the best, most complete ending in the game. Follow this walkthrough, composed by one of the game's translators, if you want an easier time with that.

The second issue: Bueehhh!? Two parts? DLC?? Freemium!?!? Ever since the prefundia launched last year, light has said that there would be two parts. Dies irae is an absolutely huge work, and would typically necessitate a $50+ price tag, yet Steam is a platform that is extremely unfriendly towards high-priced VNs. The split game setup was conceived as a way to combat the hostile environment for high-priced VNs on Steam. And just yesterday, light revealed that they will be offering the common route for free. So, it will be free common route + Act I and Act II purchasable separately, all in one storefront. 

Third issue: All-ages? Waitaminute! This was an adult game! Dies irae has a long and complex history of releases. To be frank, the initial release of the game was a mess that not many people actually liked very much. They then released a free patch that rewrote large parts of the scenario and added a good chunk of content, but it still wasn't enough. The second release of the game, Acta Est Fabula, added two new routes that further explored the universe of Dies irae and provided a new final route that was far more satisfying than the last, making it actually feel like a complete story. And then, a few years later, the all-ages-only Amantes amantes was released. It didn't add any new routes, but it did add a boatload of content to the existing routes, including an expanded final ending that is considered a must-read, as well as all-ages h-scene replacements that people have said do a better job with character bonding and development. Amantes amantes has ever since been considered the definitive version of the game by its fanbase, and is the version that was Kickstarted. However, light recognizes the weeaboo's love for porn, and is going to offer an 18+ patch that will add those h-scenes back in (and remove the replacement scenes). Unfortunately, this patch will take a little while to come out—it's currently scheduled for late July. Be aware of this if you insist on playing the 18+ version of the game. It's happening, just not right away. Also be aware that the version of the game on Steam now has long been considered THE version of the game to play.

Misc issues:

The menus for some are in Japanese unless you use Japanese system locale! If you're experiencing Japanese menus, switch your system locale. This is not a consistent issue, and the team is aware of it and looking for a fix.  (fixed)

 

So let us see what all the hype is (or isn't) about! Use this thread to share your experiences. Remember to use spoiler tags and to properly label them for anything spoilery.

Edited June 2, 2017 by Decay

[Dergonu]

  On 6/1/2017 at 8:35 PM, Decay said:

However, light recognizes the weeaboo's love for porn, and is going to offer an 18+ patch

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Ahh, they know us too well

 

I played the prologue and ugh, it's going to hard waiting 2 months for the patch before I play the rest of the game. I got hooked right from the start. The music especially is just phenomenal, and that + the writing creates a really powerful atmosphere that sucks you in.

Time to stop checking twitter to avoid spoilers until the patch is out Starts digging a hole in his backyard to hide in

[Mr Poltroon]

With a free common route, even I might read something or other.
And then promptly give up on it all.

[RikiSanic]

I honestly have no idea which version I should start with. I don't think the H-scenes are all that important, but I'd like to be able to play in 4:3—but then again I don't know if I really care about that either.

Anyone able to convince me to just go with the all-ages version first?

[Dergonu]

  On 6/1/2017 at 9:06 PM, Zenophilious said:

I'm just gonna read it twice.  There's no other way to see all the content, right?  From the sounds of it, the h-scene replacements are actually decent, if not good, unlike what a lot of all-age versions have.

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Yeah, true. Might not be a bad idea tbh. I did plan on checking out the replacement scenes from the all-ages ver. after anyways. 

Maybe I'll snap and start reading the all-ages version once I finish Chrono Box, then do it again once the patch drops. 

[SilverLi]

Opening up the game. Interesting opening with kind of hype music. The first sentence with the music literary exploding out of the speakers. At least I should love the music of this game. 

So for someone living under a rock for the past 6 months. What was released for backerkit today isn't the full game? What I saw is that Steam installed an act 1 and act 2. So there is more?

[Decay]

  On 6/1/2017 at 9:28 PM, SilverLi said:

Opening up the game. Interesting opening with kind of hype music. The first sentence with the music literary exploding out of the speakers. At least I should love the music of this game. 

So for someone living under a rock for the past 6 months. What was released for backerkit today isn't the full game? What I saw is that Steam installed an act 1 and act 2. So there is more?

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That is the entire game.

[Clephas]

Kei's h-scenes are worth it for the laughs (her h-scenes are funny in a weird way, especially the last one), but the others don't really add anything to the game. 

I do recommend you follow the route order.  When he made the Acta est Fabula version that is the base for Amantes, Masada designed it so that Kasumi's route serves as an intro, Kei introduces you to the main antagonist, Marie's route serves as the 'golden road' route, and Rea's route finishes things up by revealing every last aspect of the main story.  I suggest doing the Beatrice/Kai side-story after you finish Kei's route.

[ChaosRaven]

A bit unexpected that it's already released - somehow I expected it later this year. Unfortunately, that forces me to reconsider my current reading schedule, since such a heavy weight release can't simply be ignored.

Guess I have to hurry up with the 4 - 5 VN's I'm currently reading at the same time, so I can squish that in. And that will even further delay Chrono Clock and Hatsukoi 1/1 which I originally thought to be next.

Man, so much to read and so little time... 

[ヤミハナ]

I'm thinking of playing both the all-ages and patched version at the same time. First the all-ages common route then the 18+ patched common route to see if there are any character bonding scenes that I missed (if there are any). Same goes for the heroine routes, especially for the waifu.

And in the end, I hope I'm not too busy with school when this game releases. 

[Erogamer]

Why is it going to be in two parts tho?

[Zalor]

  Quote

But the wait is over! The codes should be distributed to all backers who have answered the Backerkit surveys, so check your email!

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I'll be honest with you, after I backed this VN I got distracted with life and kind of ignored all the Emails. Honestly I can wait for the physical copies to ship, but what happens if you were a backer and didn't fill out this survey? Did I miss the boat to get a steam code?

[Decay]

  On 6/1/2017 at 11:46 PM, Erogamer said:

Why is it going to be in two parts tho?

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  On 6/1/2017 at 8:35 PM, Decay said:

Dies irae is an absolutely huge work, and would typically necessitate a $50+ price tag, yet Steam is a platform that is extremely unfriendly towards high-priced VNs. The split game setup was conceived as a way to combat the hostile environment for high-priced VNs on Steam.

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[Rose]

  On 6/2/2017 at 12:36 AM, Zalor said:

I'll be honest with you, after I backed this VN I got distracted with life and kind of ignored all the Emails. Honestly I can wait for the physical copies to ship, but what happens if you were a backer and didn't fill out this survey? Did I miss the boat to get a steam code?

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Steam code should be on your backerkit. They also extended it to add the artbook as an add-on so go fill the survey.  

[DharmaFreedom]

  On 6/1/2017 at 10:15 PM, Clephas said:

Kei's h-scenes are worth it for the laughs (her h-scenes are funny in a weird way, especially the last one), but the others don't really add anything to the game. 

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Thanks I've been wondering if the H-scenes added much weight to the story besides humour. I'll just read the all ages version then and check out the H-scenes when it gets released.

 Btw, just curious, but do the routes have any romance in them. There weren't any tags on vndb.  

 

  On 6/1/2017 at 9:06 PM, Zenophilious said:

I'm just gonna read it twice.

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Wow you're going to read it twice in the space of two months? Man i'm getting more excited to read it now if people are willing to read it twice in such a short amount of time.

[Vorathiel]

  On 6/1/2017 at 9:24 PM, RikiSanic said:

I honestly have no idea which version I should start with. I don't think the H-scenes are all that important, but I'd like to be able to play in 4:3—but then again I don't know if I really care about that either.

Anyone able to convince me to just go with the all-ages version first?

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Anybody knows how they resolved the ratio issue?
Is this version locked on cropped 16:9 and I need to wait for a h patch to get original 4:3?

[Dergonu]

  On 6/2/2017 at 5:35 AM, Vorathiel said:

Anybody knows how they resolved the ratio issue?
Is this version locked on cropped 16:9 and I need to wait for a h patch to get original 4:3?

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I could not find any option in game to change it to 4:3, so I think you might have to wait, unless I'm missing some feature somewhere. 

[Nandemonai]

PSA:  If you are a Kickstarter backer, and did not get an email from BackerKit saying your stuff is available, then just go find your BackerKit link - assuming you answered the survey, you should be able to go to collect your digital rewards and get your keys.

[Clephas]

  On 6/2/2017 at 1:07 AM, DharmaFreedom said:

Thanks I've been wondering if the H-scenes added much weight to the story besides humour. I'll just read the all ages version then and check out the H-scenes when it gets released.

 Btw, just curious, but do the routes have any romance in them. There weren't any tags on vndb.  

 

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There is no real ichaicha romance in the game... all the romantic elements are of the type I like to call 'love under extreme stress'.  Kei's is romance between enemies, for instance.  I think Rea's path is the most romantic (in a Shakespearean fashion), though it is also the most emotionally stressful of the paths from the characters' points of view.

[DharmaFreedom]

  On 6/2/2017 at 7:11 AM, Clephas said:

There is no real ichaicha romance in the game... all the romantic elements are of the type I like to call 'love under extreme stress'.  Kei's is romance between enemies, for instance.  I think Rea's path is the most romantic (in a Shakespearean fashion), though it is also the most emotionally stressful of the paths from the characters' points of view.

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That's fine, wasn't expecting any ichaicha anyway, seeing how the game appears to be. I wouldn't mind a Tokyo Babel 'feel' to the romance element [loved that vn]. You mentioning a Shakespearean romance makes me a tad bit wary though! I sense potential sadness .

Thanks for the clarification .

[Tweek91330]

Could someone tell me if the tl's translation quality is good ?

I don't know if i should read the game in english now or in japanese (since i will have to check jparser a lot for this game ˆˆ)

[Suzu Fanatic]

Slightly curious, it has relatively small size compared to some other VNs I've read (3gb) - figure it's just using a better form of compression or something?

 

Obviously it doesn't really matter, just a bit surprising for something praised for having as much content as is it does.

Edited June 2, 2017 by Suzu Fanatic
tidied up typos

[fun2novel]

  On 6/2/2017 at 4:44 PM, Tweek91330 said:

Could someone tell me if the tl's translation quality is good ?

I don't know if i should read the game in english now or in japanese (since i will have to check jparser a lot for this game ˆˆ)

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If you know Japanese well enough then it's best to read in Japanese, otherwise don't even bother. There's a reason why it's one of the hardest vns to read.

As for the translation quality, it's very good. Very polished and flows really nicely from paragraph to paragraph. So I recommend you read it in English if it's too hard in Japanese.

  On 6/2/2017 at 4:45 PM, Suzu Fanatic said:

Slightly curious, it has relatively small size compared to some other VNs I've read (3gb) - figure it's just using a better form of compression or something?

 

Obviously it doesn't really matter, just a bit surprising for something praised for having as much content as is it does.

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Do you have the entire game with all the routes downloaded or just the common route?

[Dreamysyu]

So, I played through the prologue, and yeah, it was a strong start. I didn't really expect to like this game originally, but so far it's more to my taste than I expected. I'm putting it away for some time though.

By the way, the bug with the Japanese text in the menus was fixed, so you may change back to whatever locale you prefer to use.

  On 6/2/2017 at 5:34 PM, fun2novel said:

Do you have the entire game with all the routes downloaded or just the common route?

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The full game weights about 3.5 gigabytes.

[Suzu Fanatic]

  On 6/2/2017 at 5:34 PM, fun2novel said:

Do you have the entire game with all the routes downloaded or just the common route?

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The whole thing. Not really an issue - more just curiosity. As I understand it, there are sopposed to be a ton of CGs, and given the length it's rumored to be, all those voiced lines should both in theory beef up the size by a healthy margin.

 

oh well, guess I'll find out in august (what can I say? I need anime bewbz to go with a great story  )