A new Kickstarter has begun to localize the highly-acclaimed visual novel Dies Irae.

Dies Irae is described as “an urban fantasy battle opera,” although I’ve also heard people say its tone is quite literary.

From my understanding, a secret group of men and women known as the Longinus Dreizehn Orden perform a dark ritual during Berlin’s fall in 1945. Several decades later, in the modern era, they return and start the apocalypse.

It sounds very crazy and very interesting, and people say the villains (who are… superpowered Nazi sorcerers/demons?) are one of the game’s main highlights.

The Kickstarter is to translate the game and release it on Steam in two parts. Part 1 will have Kasumi and Marie’s routes, and Part 2 will have Kei and Rea’s routes. It takes 60+ hours to go through the whole thing, so each half will be quite substantial. According to the Q&A, choices will not be altered. You can still make choices in Part 1 that relate to a route only in Part 2, even though the Part 1 routes are your only options.

It will uncensor the violent scenes that were censored in the Japanese release, and there will also be an 18+ patch released later if you’re concerned about that. Finally, they’re hoping to release a digital PS Vita version as a stretch goal.

Currently, the Kickstarter is a bit over halfway to its funding goal.

I haven’t backed it yet, because I’m a little wary of those “literary” comments. Literary fiction and I often don’t get along. On the other hand, it sounds cool and I watched (read) some of the prologue and it seemed interesting.

What are your thoughts on Dies Irae? Are you going to back its localization? And if you’ve already played it, share your thoughts on it in the comments below. Convince me!

Update: I went for it.