Dies Irae Visual Novel Released for "Free" on Steam

Dies Irae: Amantes Amentes was just released on Steam today as a free-to-play title so you read through the beginning of the game, which I understand is dozens of hours long, but then you need to purchase some of the character endings/routes separately. The title is a highly acclaimed visual novel garnering a lot of praise from fans and was for a long time considered to be "untranslatable" due to the complexity of its writing style. However it seems that this English release was in good hands with the translation team consisting of many very talented translators, whom have worked on titles such as Steins;Gate, Himawari and Root Double among others.

I personally only know the very basic premise to Dies Irae, which sounds like Fate/Stay Night combined with magical Nazis, but I've been interested in playing this game for some time just because of the absurd amount of hype surrounding it. In my personal experience, visual novel fans tend to over exaggerate how good the story is in many VNs but the hyperbole surrounding Dies Irae is really something else with some of its biggest fans claiming that the game has "possibly the most amazing cast of characters in any work of fiction ever" or that it has "one of the most profound and complicated settings in a work of fiction ever".

But hey, the game is free-to-play so you don't have to drop $40 to find out if you'll enjoy the story. If Dies Irae looks like something you'll enjoy it might be worth a shot. I plan on reading through a bit later today just to see what all the hype is about. Anyone else interested in Dies Irae?

Yeah but how's the plot.

Totally! I backed the Kickstarter for its translation and look forward to (hopefully) diving into the game this weekend. The choice to make the common route free to play is interesting. That's the norm in the mobile VN space, but not so much on PC. Though I think I've seen a few VNs on Steam do it prior to Dies Irae.

One disappointment I have is that folks who happen to stumble upon the Steam page will find, at least right now, that the summary is kind of Engrish-y. That's never a good way to sell the "quality" aspect of your visual novel, even though the translator(s) almost certainly had NO hand in creating the Steam page.

Yes, but is there any naked cartoon pussy?

@theps2collector:Yeah, that store page needs some work. The writing is terrible. Not a good way to sell a VN.

@do_the_manta_ray: Haha, I was looking at the Steam discussions and it looks like this is a common question. It sounds like there will be an 18+ patch coming later in the summer.

More importantly: do they show it?

oh so it's "free to start" as Nintendo would say

I have to pay for the Nice Boat ending?

I'll pass. 17 hours of HuniePop fulfilled my need for naked cartoon pussy in games.

@facelessvixen: Yeah, I actually got into the Higurashi series because of the 1st episode being free on the iTunes store back in the day. I think "free to start" can be a good model for a lot of visual novels since it can be difficult to know if you'll like the story unless you read a bit of it first.

@facelessvixen: There is no porn in the Steam version of Dies Irae. It is suppose to be one of those visual novels with the good story and the nice words.

@lentfilms said:

Despite my cringe interest in Chie Satonaka and terrible anime, I personally don't have much interest in visual novels outside of School Days because of how much I liked the anime adaptation. My interest in anime has significantly waned over the years and I've had a few failed attempts at reading manga, so the thought of buying visual novels doesn't appeal to me. But I will say that I can appreciate them for continuing to make their way onto Steam because I feel as though they've created an incentive for developers and publishers like XSEED, Marvelous, Tamsoft, Acquire, and the like to develop and publish their games for Steam, as the PC is my preferred platform, despite the niece audience compared to your everyday, big-budget, mainstream developer and publisher "western" titles. Despite my lowered interest in anime compared to the 2000's, I was too busy having fun with Senran Kagura Estival Versus (especially the DLC of three characters from a terrible anime) to complain about Mass Effect Andromeda.

And actually looking at the pricing, I can actually agree with having the first chapter offered for free and charging for additional chapters. It ends up totaling out closely to the School Days visual novel which has been $40 on Amazon for a few years, so that's how I can justify it despite how seemingly alien "free to start" as a concept strikes me despite demo and trial versions of games still being somewhat of a thing.

@facelessvixen: Totally understand not being that interested in visual novels, they are not for everyone. Despite starting this thread and updating many of the visual novel entries in the wiki, I haven't played very many VNs to completion and am more curious about the genre rather than a hardcore fan or anything. Although, seeing that you are a fan of things like Ikkitousen and Senran Kagura, you might want to consider playing/reading Majikoi, a visual novel that is also about tough ladies fighting and doing anime stuff. I played Majikoi about 2 years ago and thought it was genuinely funny and entertaining. There is an English fan translated version of the game out there if you know where to look. Could be up your alley. I don't know. Maybe.

Also, just out of curiosity, what manga did you attempt to read? I am not a huge manga fan or anything but I have a few series I enjoy and an older sibling that always gives me good recommendations, so I've never failed to get into the medium.

@lentfilms: Coincidentally, the last manga I tried to read was Ikkitousen. But during the first few chapters I was saying to myself "Okay, This is like the anime give or take a few details. I'm good." I mean, I'll read this shit out of some subtitles, especially in comedies like Azumanga Daioh where some of the 'elevator escalator' jokes about the English language get a little lost when you hear the jokes with the English voice acting. But as far a learned activities go in regards to anime, I prefer writing, semi-ethical graphic design (desktop wallpapers), AMV Hell style video editing, and illustration. I need the interactivity. I ended up enjoying HuniePop way more than I expected to because of how completing the puzzles often come down to the wire, though its way-too-over-the-top-to-be-taken-seriously characters also helped keep me engaged for so long.

But I digress. I don't want to to get too far away from Dies Irae here, which does look more appealing than the various Sakura games on Steam. More power to Winged Cloud, but... geez.

Something about the art style and character designs bugs me, feels a bit generic "edgy" moé. Ultimately made me decide not to back the Kickstarter. Anyway, they've promised a Vita version of this so I'll wait for that and see how I feel.