If The House in Fata Morgana is about tearing down facades, the prequel, subtitled A Requiem for Innocence, is about constructing them. Released after the original game as a companion piece and an additional entry in the console release collection (Dreams of the Revenants), A Requiem for Innocence focuses on one specific story from the end of the original title, but delves deep into the daily lives of the characters and tragedy that kicked off the events of the main game. It’s harrowing stuff, easily one of the darkest chapters of the original game, there is no happy ending for any of the characters here. As the player likely knows, the entire cast is doomed to meet a terrible end, and the game is content with simply ending at that moment, giving you none of the relief provided in the original entry.
The writing here is still excellent and the cast of characters, both new and familiar, act as excellent thematic foils to each other, but the main issue weighing the game down is how unnecessary all of it starts to feel. The deuteragonists, Morgana and Jacopo, are certainly given more room to breathe here. They were critical characters in the original game, but given the structure and storytelling, they were not given nearly as much screen time as some of the other cast. That said, while their expanded inner workings here do make this all just a bit more tragic, I’m not sure that it strengthens the original narrative or provides a truly comparing one on its own.
The core issue here is structure, as the story being told here must end in horrible, unthinkable tragedy. This works within the context of the original game, as these events are a catalyst to a curse that spans a millennium and ensnares a huge cast of characters into a gothic mystery. However, on its own, the ending and ultimate fate feels a bit anti-climactic. Sure, Jacopo and Morgana do have compelling reasons for becoming the characters we ultimately meet in the base game, but by necessity this tale ends in their tragic deaths without a true narrative payoff. There’s not much learned here, nor additional aspects that can be gleaned. Were the moment-to-moment writing and character work not better, it would almost feels like an edgy teen’s attempt at shock: “and then everyone died, the end.”
There’s also the aspect of Morgana’s suffering, which is deep, horrendous, and often times extraneous. Again, the problem here is structure and context - in the original work slowly peeling back Morgana’s story and how she became the which is still shocking enough, but its part of the greater overall structure feels more earned and narratively cohesive. Here, it can sometimes feel as though we are simply watching a young girl suffer, over and over again, with very little reprieve. Her trauma is also often framed around Jacopo and his attempts to break through her armor - we spend much more time in his head than hers, seemingly as an attempt to frame his ultimate betrayal as a tragic downfall. My guess is the writers knew they had a lot more legwork to make Jacopo feel sympathetic, but the result means that a story that really should be about Morgana is framed around a man who ultimately betrays her.
It’s a shame, because there’s a lot to like here, but I cannot consider it anything less than a significant step down from the original game. Certainly, it’s hard to beat what is, in my opinion, one of the greatest video games ever made, but all the great character work in the world cannot save a story that feels out of place - both too long to have included in the original game without throwing off the pacing, and too narratively unsatisfying to stand on its own.