I think part of the reason it took me a long time to finish Requiem for Innocence had a lot to do with my dread at doing a writeup for it. I've been having a rough time with mental (and perhaps physical) health recently and haven't felt like doing much of anything at all. On top of that, Requiem for Innocence is a brutally depressing narrative. I'm not sure I should have expected anything less, considering it fleshes out what was already impossibly bleak even in broad strokes in the original House in Fata Morgana.
It also lingers on the budding affection our "hero" Jacopo has for the titular Morgana, who is 11 years old when he meets her as something like a 20-year-old man. I know this story is set literally a thousand years ago, but it's still a truly uncomfortable thing to base a story around, even if the text is clear that Jacopo intends to wait until Morgana is older to act on his feelings. I suppose we'd call that grooming these days. Jacopo is certainly not a good guy and that becomes very clear later, but it's impossible to avoid the fact that he is painted sympathetically in those early chapters. His longtime friend and confidant, Maria, even dismisses his misgivings about the age difference by hearkening back to her early days as a child prostitute. I know this is a meditation on brutal, darker times, but it's still ultimately a scenario that we are invited to see as cute, as harmless, and to even understand and legitimize the depth of Jacopo's feelings. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, despite the care with which the story is told.
By the time I finished the main story, I was left with a resounding feeling of "that's it?" because it was really just a retelling of a story I'd already read. Sure, it contains plenty of new details not present in the original and even new characters that were either never mentioned or only briefly alluded to. There's Ceren, for instance, a new recruit at the brothel Maria works at and where Morgana stays after escaping Lord Barnier's torture. She initially feels like a filler character but becomes more important later on not only because of her unique psychology but because she inadvertently sets the wheels of the plot in motion.
There's also Gratien, a musclebound brute who helps Jacopo escape a life of slavery. He exists as an early companion that we know we must come to odds with later in the narrative based on what we already know about Jacopo's arc. This character, too, was briefly alluded to in the text of the main game, as we learn in the extras.
Despite the details of this story being fleshed out, I still always knew what was going to happen. The achingly sad finale of the story was almost identical to how it was told previously. Although I enjoyed many aspects of the story along the way, I didn't feel as if I felt more sympathetic toward Jacopo or had a better understanding of the tragedy of the story. It all felt a little superfluous. On top of that, I resented any attempt at humanizing this adult man who had feelings for a child. Before this story, you could contextualize Jacopo's feelings as the misplaced emotions of a deeply disturbed person. In Requiem for Innocence, we're led to believe that Jacopo's dark turn doesn't happen until he becomes the Lord of the Land and that his feelings for Morgana were playful and perhaps embarrassing, but nonetheless appropriate. I just can't swallow that, so we're left with a story that is not only unnecessary but deeply uncomfortable.
On the other hand, there are a handful of Sub-Episodes that are generally lovely. Assento Dele details the story of a sick man visiting Michel (and the Witch) in the mansion and establishing an unlikely friendship before his untimely death. This is a very pretty story that fleshes out an offhand remark from the original story in a fantastic way. We also see a series of snippets that tell the events of the three doors from another's perspective, which didn't strike me as exactly essential, but quite enjoyable all the same. Finally, there's Happily Ever After, which just strikes me as absolute fanservice—but kind of in a wonderful way. After hours of tragedy porn in the main story, it was pretty nice to see Michel and Giselle meeting up again, one thousand years after the events of the first game and just having a nice time. It's not a dramatic love affair; it's really just about a simple date. After the main storyline left me feeling quite uncomfortable, it was a great note to end on.
I played this game because I've really been in the mood for Visual Novels, but for most, I'd say absolutely read The House in Fata Morgana, but this one can easily be skipped. Feel free to give it a try if you're really curious, but it's absolutely inessential. The story of the original game absolutely stands alone.
