Dies Irae: Amantes Amentes (2012)

Common Path (free version) Review

Dies irae ~Amantes amentes~ (i'll note as DI for short) has many problems, first of which comes with the name that roughly translates from Latin as: "The Day of Wrath Hymn: Lunatic Lovers". If you thought the title was incomprehensible, you are in for a treat. I have played through the common path storyline and found the game to be nonsensical from top to bottom.

Combine WWII era Nazis, Latin verses, the French Revolution, Christianity, the Knights of the Round Table, sacrificial cults, magic and a typical high school anime and you get this game. DI comes across as trying TOO hard to reference all these things at once, as if doing so will invoke some kind of intellectual prowess in the story. DI is like that friend who acts smart by recalling obscure facts and quoting famous lines, only to fail to put this knowledge into any meaningful context.

It took me until Chapter 2 roughly two hours in to understand what is even going on in this game. I played my fair share of VNs, so this took me completely by surprise. It also doesn't help that the game jumps from 3rd person to 1st person constantly. The prologue is an extended piece of blabbering confusing writing. Chapter 1 starts off bewildering, but manages to be decent with its' anime high school parts. Chapter 2 is when the story actually goes somewhere and is the turning point of whether you should continue to play this game.

I should have stopped right there with DI but I played past Chapter 2, due to curiosity where this game will go. The good news is that it does get better, but in a world with so many VNs and so little time; the effort I spent to go through this game was not worth my time. By the end of the common path, my thoughts on DI is the following: this is your typical high school anime where the protagonist is an orphan, becomes the "chosen one" with magical powers and has to defeat an evil force bent on killing everyone. There's also a cast of attractive female characters who literally fall for the protag without him even trying. I get it. DI is a VN and a lot of VNs are like that.

I can't recommend this game because there are other VN or VN type games that are much better than DI:

• You want high school anime - play CLANNAD
• You want deep complex storylines - play Steins;Gate
• You like blood/gore - play The Nonary Games series
• You don't like spending 2 hours just to know WTF is going on - play planetarian ~the reverie of a little planet~