She has already strayed from the domain of humans, and it is said that as demons do, she appears when summoned by a human and lends him her power for a compensation of equivalent value. She claims to have lived for over a thousand years.
She clashes with Battler Ushiromiya, trying to convince him that witches are real and that she used magic to execute a series of bizarre murders on the island of Rokkenjima.
Although the first episode is a bit slowly paced, particularly at the beginning, if you're not sure if you'd enjoy this I strongly recommend checking the free demo out (linked via the witch-hunt link above).įeel free to ask any further questions! I love this series and am more than happy to encourage others to read it.Beatrice is the main antagonist of Episodes 1-4. Key to this is understanding the role of unreliable narration and character perspectives. The 'game' aspect comes more from trying to work out the mystery of what actually happened. Don't waste time on it.įinally, unlike some VNs there are no dividing paths based on player choices, until the final episode. Higurashi's 'episodes' are significantly less clearly ordered (though there is one, this varies somewhat between the different format (PS3, DS, anime, manga), with some arcs being exclusive to one format or another), whilst Umineko has a much more specific order. Whilst there are some things that you can pick up on as someone who has read these, they are by no means required reading to enjoy Umineko, as they are entirely separate stories. Umineko is technically the third and fourth entry in the When They Cry series, with the first and second being Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai respectively. But since you asked about the VN, I hope this helps.Įdit: I actually completely failed to address what you should know beforehand! Of course, there is also the manga adaptation, which is pretty damn good and is less ambiguous in its ending (both are good but some might find this more satisfying).
talks through how to get it if you don't want to go that way, but more importantly also links to where you can get the free demo - all of Episode 1!ĪLSO whilst its been a long time since we've had an update, there is a kickstarter for an Umineko 'Golden Edition' which aims to add English voice acting to the game, and would be given as a free patch to the steam release, in addition to a radio-play style adaptation. Just had a look and its actually on 50% off on steam right now so that's probably your cheapest option right now as well :) I understand the translation is done by Witch Hunt as well, with some tweaks for greater accuracy. I don't own the steam release so can't say how well these run. No voice acting, though again, there are fan patches out there.
For the actual VN steam release you have a choice of the original sprites or a different more conventional looking anime art style (Not the PS3 ones - I think these assets were originally from a pachinko game?). However, the easiest way to get hold of it now is via steam, which has episode 1-8 and Golden Fantasia on it.
These releases for PC will come with the original sprites and no voice acting, though there are patches out there to get the PS3 sprites which have a more conventional anime aesthetic, as well as Japanese voice acting from the PS3 release (which is mostly the same cast as the anime adaptation). It is possible to buy them from various Japanese VN retailers and apply a fan patch by Witch Hunt for English for Episode 1-8. There is also a fighting game called Golden Fantasia, and several supplemental materials of varying degrees of seriousness collected under Umineko no Naku Koro ni Tsubasa and Umineko no Naku Koro ni Hane, though none of these are required reading/playing. The episodes are literally numbered, but the order is:ġ-4 are collected as Umineko no Naku Koro ni, or 'Question arcs', 5-8 are collected as Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru, or 'Core arcs'.