This review contains spoilers
Spoilers for all of Higurashi as well!!!
Played with Umineko Project.
I beat all of Higurashi to get here (and Higurashi is peak tbh go play it if you haven't!!!) and so far... very well worth it.
Maybe a bit too high of a rating I'll admit, espeically considering how slow the start is and how alot is kinda setting up everything, but god it's done so well I just have to. So read my messy review where I'll touch on stuff I liked!
First of all, the intro is kinda slow and it defintley takes a while for the plot to start moving, but when it does it really gets moving. But till I talk about that, I think the intro does a good job at introducing us to the whole cast, and theres lots of characters but the story doesn't overwhelm you it pretty slowly introduces you to them I feel, and that allows you to get a general feel of them and not have them be just overshadowed instantly, which I felt was done really well in that throughout the game all characters had time in the spotlight and not just cast aside (unless they were you know dead of course...) which in comparison to Higurashi Chapter 1 alot of the central cast for the series are ignored there, with it only really focusing on 3 or so characters and even then only really 2, but here in Umineko it has 18 characters and they all get enough time for you to actually remember them to a degree, which in a VN of this length and a cast this big is very impressive.
I wont talk about every character, so instead I'll only really talk about 2 that stood out the most to me, first is Natsuhi, she starts off defintley being the main family member I cared the least about, especially with how mean she is towards the servants, and she kinda stays uninteresting only living in her husbands shadow and then once he dies she really becomes a more indepent character and I start to really like her. I loved seeing her take control and actually become more independant, especially near the end of the game, it was really sweet seeing her doing her best to protect Jessica even as misguided as she was her development was very noticable and I do hope she is able to become more independant in later chapters even if husband is still alive. Finally Battler, the man himself. In the intro he caught my attention because it's always nice to see a flawed protaginst, and it's a bold choice to have the protag first inroduction be screaming and terrifired of boats + planes , and he just continues to get more intersting after that too. Before I say some great scenes he has.... he is sadly infected with a bit of generic anime pervet trope, which oddly enough he still has like not complete pervet? like Idk what the hell his reasoning is with Shannon in that one scene but like you do that Battler, because like ?. Also Jessica is your cousin you freak. Anyway battler is the GOAT, after the inital deaths he goes from pretty cool guy to amazing character that instantly becomes one of my favourites just ever maybe? like he gets really cool, I love how he takes on the chessboard thinking approach used by Kyrie, I love that and how he uses his confidence that he clearly has from before to be able to step in, in stuff like with Eva and Natsuhi arugment I loved how he buts in there, it's great. I love his way of thinking and how rational he was trying to be etc. So far I love him and am very very hyped to see where he goes as a character, and am also wondering if they'll repeat the Higurashi type of development, where characters were able to grow from past chapters even if they can't remember them, which I'm also assuming means that there's a timeloop here too?
The Higurashi stuff here confuses me tbh, Battler straight up mention it by name and a specific scene from Chapter 3 but then theres all the stuff with miracles and throwing the dice and the ending is the exact same thing that Keiichi wrote... it's all so confusing. So far I'm glad I played Higurashi beforehand because theres very clearly some intentional nods especialyl with the miracle stuff, but also I kinda feel a portion of the mystery has been lost, because I already know the mystical can exist here is Beatrice going to be like Hanyuu? and also timeloop etc. Regardless glad to play this as a "sequel?" since I think it could be one? still? zero clue though. maybe it's more of a spirutal sequel or a fragment where higurashi is a story? I'll see... glad the game has the same ability to get me thinking so hard about it already.
Going in I thought Beatrice would be here, but to go the whole first chapter with her being absent (kinda) is really cool and am glad that happened, though with the prerequistes for her summoning I'm wondering how she'll actualyl become someone that interacts with Battler.
Music was reallly good, especially fishy aroma (It had fishy in the tile but I do not remember full title) lots of other banges though.
Overall writing was impeciablle, really good start that has very much intrigued me to where the story is going and how much is it going to differ from Higurashi. Also this chapter was so good, I read way too much of it in one day, and kinda distracted me from some other stuff I should of been doing, so I think that shows how good this chapter was, and it's just the first one.
Played with Umineko Project.
I beat all of Higurashi to get here (and Higurashi is peak tbh go play it if you haven't!!!) and so far... very well worth it.
Maybe a bit too high of a rating I'll admit, espeically considering how slow the start is and how alot is kinda setting up everything, but god it's done so well I just have to. So read my messy review where I'll touch on stuff I liked!
First of all, the intro is kinda slow and it defintley takes a while for the plot to start moving, but when it does it really gets moving. But till I talk about that, I think the intro does a good job at introducing us to the whole cast, and theres lots of characters but the story doesn't overwhelm you it pretty slowly introduces you to them I feel, and that allows you to get a general feel of them and not have them be just overshadowed instantly, which I felt was done really well in that throughout the game all characters had time in the spotlight and not just cast aside (unless they were you know dead of course...) which in comparison to Higurashi Chapter 1 alot of the central cast for the series are ignored there, with it only really focusing on 3 or so characters and even then only really 2, but here in Umineko it has 18 characters and they all get enough time for you to actually remember them to a degree, which in a VN of this length and a cast this big is very impressive.
I wont talk about every character, so instead I'll only really talk about 2 that stood out the most to me, first is Natsuhi, she starts off defintley being the main family member I cared the least about, especially with how mean she is towards the servants, and she kinda stays uninteresting only living in her husbands shadow and then once he dies she really becomes a more indepent character and I start to really like her. I loved seeing her take control and actually become more independant, especially near the end of the game, it was really sweet seeing her doing her best to protect Jessica even as misguided as she was her development was very noticable and I do hope she is able to become more independant in later chapters even if husband is still alive. Finally Battler, the man himself. In the intro he caught my attention because it's always nice to see a flawed protaginst, and it's a bold choice to have the protag first inroduction be screaming and terrifired of boats + planes , and he just continues to get more intersting after that too. Before I say some great scenes he has.... he is sadly infected with a bit of generic anime pervet trope, which oddly enough he still has like not complete pervet? like Idk what the hell his reasoning is with Shannon in that one scene but like you do that Battler, because like ?. Also Jessica is your cousin you freak. Anyway battler is the GOAT, after the inital deaths he goes from pretty cool guy to amazing character that instantly becomes one of my favourites just ever maybe? like he gets really cool, I love how he takes on the chessboard thinking approach used by Kyrie, I love that and how he uses his confidence that he clearly has from before to be able to step in, in stuff like with Eva and Natsuhi arugment I loved how he buts in there, it's great. I love his way of thinking and how rational he was trying to be etc. So far I love him and am very very hyped to see where he goes as a character, and am also wondering if they'll repeat the Higurashi type of development, where characters were able to grow from past chapters even if they can't remember them, which I'm also assuming means that there's a timeloop here too?
The Higurashi stuff here confuses me tbh, Battler straight up mention it by name and a specific scene from Chapter 3 but then theres all the stuff with miracles and throwing the dice and the ending is the exact same thing that Keiichi wrote... it's all so confusing. So far I'm glad I played Higurashi beforehand because theres very clearly some intentional nods especialyl with the miracle stuff, but also I kinda feel a portion of the mystery has been lost, because I already know the mystical can exist here is Beatrice going to be like Hanyuu? and also timeloop etc. Regardless glad to play this as a "sequel?" since I think it could be one? still? zero clue though. maybe it's more of a spirutal sequel or a fragment where higurashi is a story? I'll see... glad the game has the same ability to get me thinking so hard about it already.
Going in I thought Beatrice would be here, but to go the whole first chapter with her being absent (kinda) is really cool and am glad that happened, though with the prerequistes for her summoning I'm wondering how she'll actualyl become someone that interacts with Battler.
Music was reallly good, especially fishy aroma (It had fishy in the tile but I do not remember full title) lots of other banges though.
Overall writing was impeciablle, really good start that has very much intrigued me to where the story is going and how much is it going to differ from Higurashi. Also this chapter was so good, I read way too much of it in one day, and kinda distracted me from some other stuff I should of been doing, so I think that shows how good this chapter was, and it's just the first one.