Hanako Games

Higurashi When They Cry / Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

#1 by hanako - Jan 21 2010

Unfortunately these guys have no affiliate program, which is why I haven't mentioned the game so far or put it up on the site. But enh, I may as well link to it in case people here are interested.

On the plus-side, this is part of a very well-known game/novel/anime series in Japan.

On the down-side, it's not cheap, there's no demo, and it's not a "game" by traditional standards... There are no choices to make. You just read it (and try to figure out what on earth is going on). It's a very mysterious and head-trippy story full of weird murders and stuff. I can't say more than that because I haven't played it myself.

Also, apparently, it's not very well translated and the English is sort of garbled in places.

Anyway, if after that you're still interested, here's the link.

http://www.mangagamer.com/allages/Titles/Details/DB2324F5-8829-455B-B75B-93C14A560794/higurashi-when-they-cry

#2 by Kunnaki - Jan 22 2010

I've seen this game before. I found it when I was just browsing the computer bored one day. My gf found it interesting and bought it. She seemed to like it, but it didn't capture my attention.

For one thing, the characters looked like they were created from Ren'ai Games. And for another, the storyline and plot was so... bleh. A simple love story, where the guy tries to capture the girl's heart. How drastically boring and average. I gave it a 4/10.

#3 by hanako - Jan 22 2010

A simple love story, where the guy tries to capture the girl's heart. How drastically boring and average.

... Again, I haven't played it, but I'm fairly certain that if you saw that, that was only the leadin to the bizarre head-trippy murder-mystery stuff, pretending to be all normal up-front before your cute girl love interests start killing people.

Reading from the wikipedia entry:

The main character, Keiichi Maebara, moves to Hinamizawa and befriends his new classmates Rena Ryuugu, Mion Sonozaki, Rika Furude, and Satoko Hojo. Keiichi joins their after-school club activities, which consist mostly of card and board games (and punishment games for the loser, usually him.) Hinamizawa appears to be a normal, peaceful, rural village to Keiichi. However, the tranquility abruptly ends after the annual Watanagashi Festival, a celebration to commemorate and give thanks to the local god, Oyashiro. Keiichi learns that every year for the past four years, one person has been murdered and another has gone missing on the day of the Watanagashi Festival. Keiichi himself soon becomes drawn into the strange events surrounding the Watanagashi Festival and Oyashiro. In each story arc, he or one of his friends become paranoid, and a crime is committed. Usually, the crime involves the murder of one of their own friends. While it seems impossible to tell their delusions apart from the mystery of Hinamizawa, slowly the truth is revealed.

#4 by Kunnaki - Jan 22 2010

Well, I never played it all the way through. I quickly got bored of it, and I quit playing it, so I may have to go back and look at it again.

#5 by Sara - Jan 23 2010

Ahah, it's not a love story! Actually, it's pretty much the opposite. It's a murder mystery, quite gruesome by the way. Some comedy/romance elements, obviously, but it's a very psychological game. I couldn't tell you any more without giving away the whole plot...

Ryukishi07's writting style (I am a HUGE fan of him, by the way) is VERY detailed, very slow, and it's just very difficult to get into his style.
Also, the artwork is, well, quite bad because Ryukishi07 does everything (the character sprites, the writting, the backgrounds, etc). It's his style of working. Even though he became as a doujin artist, even now that he's very famous, he's STILL a doujin artist and he still does everything by himself. The soundtracks, however, he does not make them, but they're always terrific. Truly amazing and a valid reason to play his games.

However. I still think that his other story, Umineko no Naku Koro ni (When The Seagulls Cry) is a lot better. It's a locked-room murder mystery, but with crazy witches, a delusional rich family, and tragic romance stories. A lot more like cluedo, but a million times more complicated. XD
So far 6 (out of 8 ) game episodes came out, and so far no one has been able to solve the mystery and the epitaph (there are a lot of theories going around, I have some myself, and some of them sound quite plausible, too).
Also, I find it more girl friendly because the male characters are very well developed. (I am a Kanon fangirl. XD) Also, yeah, there's a lot of tragic romance (such as the "love stories" between Kanon (a servant) and Jessica (one of the rich cousins), Shannon (a servant) and George (another rich cousin), among others).
The soundtrack is simply AMAZING. Such as this track and this one, some of my favorites.

And here's the game opening sequence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bgwgpTeiok (I also love this song, by Akiko Shikata. Yesss the animation looks quite bad, but I think it fits the mood nicely.)
And the anime opening, which is very similar, also by Akiko Shikata: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZf0HdRUuZ8

Also, you can play the first game in english for free. It's 100% legal, you just have to download the demo from the official game page (just folloow the instructions here) and download the english patch from here: http://witch-hunt.com/

Umineko is one of my favorite visual novels.

#6 by Kirroha - Feb 16 2010

Higurashi and Umineko both have special places in my heart.