Learning to Love Umineko When They Cry

After 5 months and 137 hours, I now have fully experienced the story of Umineko: When They Cry. It’s a rollercoaster of feeling I can’t stop thinking on, but coyness from others suggesting why it’s so special turned me off and made me unnecessarily hostile. I want to reverse that view and try to explain what makes Umineko so special without giving away any major elements beyond what can be easily assumed.

At first, I wasn’t sure how much I’d get into it. I liked the plot of Higurashi, but outside of two characters aren’t super passionate for it nowadays. The 150+ hour length seemed like an insane commitment. And I worried about how the wackier anime quirks would clash with long dramatic storytelling. But I do enjoy stories about grand, gradually unfolding world defining mysteries, so with that and the enthusiasm of many friends in mind, I set to reading Umineko throughout the first half of 2024. And am I glad I did because the further in I got the more I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Umineko presents as a mystery, building and challenging in exciting, intricate ways that'll keep the mind busy with every new Episode finished, but beyond that Umineko is about GETTING people. Comprehending worldviews. Figuring out a line of thinking that inspires every member of its cast to believe what they want to believe. It is a story that asks to engage with storytelling and comprehension. What inspires us, what makes us believe in fiction, what do we see in those who create, what do creators seek to give back to the world, what hurt goes into creation? What weight IS our life experiences?

But themes can mean little without engaging characters to explore and embody these dynamics and Umineko puts remarkable work to answer the call. Not just from the number of characters introduced, but how numerous scattered ideas combine into a defined storytelling whole.

Umineko has one of my favorite ensemble casts I’ve experienced in anything. The more you read, the more it feels like you piece together an extensive headspace for every major character, and Umineko presents these characters’ distinct viewpoints on any circumstance as a means to actively move the plot forward and meaningfully debate the best course of action in increasingly more dire and paranoid situations. Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a big fan of overly reactive casts, where perspective feels irrelevant to plot events. Umineko is the opposite of this. It’s a cast where it feels like ANYONE can alter the narrative trajectory, exciting me in how strong personalities can twist. So many in the cast, particularly of the Ushiromiya Family, have intriguing shades of gray to their personalities, rich inner lives you can map out much of in your head, incredible voice actors or certain specific life philosophies it’s interesting to see pushed by how the plot clashes these characters together.

In this regard, Umineko is able to have its cake and eat it too with including cackling anime girls. New major introductions on top of the huge starting cast come packed with new intriguing life paths to contrast against our built-up view of the story, the protagonist's view of the story and how we've grown to see the search for the truth, in addition to fun new designs.

On the design front, while some certainly raise eyebrows glaring at Gaap whose design is exceptionally distracting in should be serious scenes, others work to purpose in addition to being fashionable. Looking at the four mother characters (Kyrie, Natsuhi, Eva and Rosa), the design of each adheres to a distinct design sensibility that communicates much in who they are and how they want the world to see them. The addition of adult characters with extensive histories allows for greater opportunity than was possible in Higurashi to have designs able to express more personality from each individual character.

Umineko exists as an eight-episode odyssey, so not knowing who in its titanic cast would get spotlight in any particular episode had me continuously excited to read more. Over 100 hours in I was still given enough to be curious for roles of many supporting cast members to pay off and to a certain extent nearly all of them genuinely do at some point or another. There’s a goal for the series and goals for each Episode; most major characters either undergo substantial arcs or interesting tests of character pushing their strong personalities, emphasizing their ability to impact the narrative and the layers of personality they struggle with. It truly feels like The Unknown Journey once one episode ends and you decide to see what could possibly be in store for the next one. I never had any way of knowing for sure and that was tantalizing; perhaps even moreso if going in fully blind.

With that in mind, a spoiler-free dive into what makes Umineko's most important players so special!

The belle of the ball is of course, Beatrice the Golden Witch; given immeasurable sad love by fans, yet over the top maniacal and macabre, boasting wacky expressions that appeared impossible to take seriously. Before reading, I found that contrast of fans' feelings toward her with that attitude and those goofy expressions too heavy. It didn't seem like those two sides of her would be able to mesh properly.

And then I heard her start talking.

THIS was the moment I knew she, and Umineko as a whole, would stick me to at least some extent. Her voice actress, Sayaka Ohara, doesn’t just read the lines like any other character: she EXPRESSES them playing a gleefully assertive witch to where you can almost hear her smiling. The breathiness to her tone, boisterous sense of pride, panickedness if she slips up, and going all out for name calling and laughs are quirks conveyed beyond the words on page. Once it seemed as if she was quickly inhaling through her nose as if taken aback during a line. She manages that incredible combination of being intoxicating whenever she talks to keep wanting to hear her say more things, and getting on your nerves just enough to want to see her get knocked down several pegs in the future: a delicate combination for a villain in a story to embody.

Backing this is a gorgeously drawn character design. The dress gives her a level of dignity while embodying a bird, a flower and a Disney Princess (particularly Cinderella with the style of dress, hair and choker and Belle with the running Flower motif to her). And having such a bold, bountiful design perfectly fits Beatrice's character. She WANTS to be the first thing that pops in your head when thinking about Umineko, and as you keep reading it you get to see that thought expressed and stretched in numerous heart-turning ways.

As Umineko goes on, Ohara’s voice performance becomes more nuanced as you start seeing more “forms” of this character, including one that made me teary, but you still keep wondering “how did she end like this at the start” and Umineko mostly understands the value of that answer. For what reason she takes on her role to drive the conflict, and the answer the protagonist seeks to prove as the heart of her being kept me engaged, and Ohara truly gave it her all to give her so much expression and personality and become one of my favorite VO performances EVER.

Said protagonist, Battler Ushiromiya, also grew on me a lot. He starts out in a VERY questionable place with awful tone-deaf jokes, but Umineko recognizes just how far he should grow as a person and the story moves accordingly to how well he understands the rules of the overarching game. Daisuke Ono’s performance melds cocky youthful energy and gentle compassion seamlessly. Battler is a snarky, headstrong ego with a lot of grins and swagger and showmanship but with truly genuine care for his family, a strong sense of justice and an increasingly growing ability to understand the gravity of situations, nailing the game face when the chips are down. Jokes notwithstanding that mix of attitude and compassion makes it exciting to see what kind of crazy rabbit hat trick he'll try to decipher and also sad to see when he's back into a corner from horrific circumstances around him. Ono's able to sound genuinely depressed when the time calls for it.

As the story’s lead, Umineko has a lot of fun playing with his comprehension of the story in relation with our own; it examines the dichotomy of a pov character through multiple convergences and divergences from the audience in his journey to learn the truth of Umineko's mysteries. He has bite to him, not just mocking his opponents; but when pushed, looking down on them, belittling them and not standing for anyone’s nonsense. As he and Beatrice are very sassy and headstrong, their numerous debates lead into many fun, characterful and occasionally depressing back and forths. It's one of the main elements people who haven't played Umineko are probably aware of it. You could watch the two do something exceptionally mundane and their incredible chemistry and voice actors would make it feel both important and entertaining.

What is exactly is Ushiromiya Battler’s purpose FOR this narrative becomes increasingly dissected the further in you get. By the final episode, his role and comprehension of expression feels wholly different from the start, and we appreciably get to SEE all of it play out onscreen. No dumb timeskip bullshit.

The last character I want to specifically point at is Ange.
Rocking a design blending cool and cute, she is a young girl who struggles to get close to anyone, because of her powers, status, and cripplingly low self-esteem that makes her feel everything is her responsibility. Given the circumstances Ange starts in, it’s understandable she’d be closed off and emotionally guarded but it nonetheless makes it satisfying when you persevere with her and believe she can build morale to smile again. And that doesn’t stop her spitting some killer snark! Ange is Umineko’s fulcrum. To believe in Umineko is to believe in Ange. Ryukishi has many inspiring, heartfelt messages to convey with her malleable psyche in a deeply personal plot, leading to a uniquely compelling coming-of-age drama. Ange’s heart is her guiding key: will you help her find it?

I won’t go any further into specific characters, but I will say: how Umineko depicts parenthood across its wide cast substantially provided for what makes Umineko resonant for me. That was an element I had zero expectations for its handling going on, but I was shocked how thorough issues regarding being a parent and the tumultuous, messy outcomes of marriage in Japanese society at this time are so thoroughly depicted. It can be conflicting and gut-wrenching at times, but it never fails to believe empathy can exist.

Umineko tries its hardest to avoid selling the familial conflicts as strictly black and white. There’s layers of complicated feelings at play regarding how and why faults are created that I believe can very easily inspired continued conversations and let Umi resonant well after concluding. This story shows the worst of ourselves but also, the best of ourselves, and the belief there is always a reason to keep going. Always a thought to our actions. A reason to consider walking in someone else’s shoes for what drives them to extremes. It broadens our perspective on US. The "flip the chessboard" mentality coined by Kyrie doesn't just pertain to logic games. It speaks to our understanding of everyone around us and in the context of Umineko, the unique methods and lengths every character has for achieving their own goals.

But beyond character and themes, another way a story can stick with me (and a huge part as to why I've chattered about Sonic so much, lol) is a distinct, memorable soundtrack. And Umineko also has TUNES! It originally existed as a “sound novel” where music had to do much of the work in light of crude but soulful sprites and simple backgrounds, so Ryukishi brought a suite of composers for just that and later Umineko ports brought even more. The composer list feels as vast as a pre-Smash Bros 4 Smash game, many bringing their own style and zts being told to lock the F in every song. Many of the best songs play during some of the most powerful moments in the plot so I’ll share just one to embody Umi’s musical tone:
https://youtu.be/mcG0nYC89tQ?si=Y0UZOIn6zQ2hpcBL

Umineko has an onslaught of great songs that really make a splash when you first hear them. Goldenslaughterer, far, Toten Blume, the executioner, Monochrome Clock, Birth of a New Witch, Golden Nocturne and many more give scenes distinct, lasting expression beyond the limitations of VN sprites. And even beyond those, the credits themes for every chapter manage to close off each's mood in a particularly special way.

Also on the audio front is voice acting. A star-studded cast of exceptionally talented voice actors were added into later versions of the VN as enough reason for the maligned anime to justify existing. Even as someone who isn't usually enamored with voice acting for languages I don't understand, the performances are exceptional and a huge reason I kept at it. At worst, a performance perfectly embodies a character's archetype and at best it's some of the strongest acting I've heard in anything ever. As I've gone through extensively, Sayaka Ohara’s Beato was the sell for Umineko as a whole for me in how incredibly versatile her performance as Beatrice was, but these Daisuke Ono as Battler, Miki Ito as Eva, Mugihito as Kinzo and Yukari Tamura as Bern I believe were also some of the most consistently great performers to where I always let their lines play out. Yukari Tamura has a TON of great work in Umi's back half as you see the investment of that character evolve.

With everything I adore about Umineko though, I’m not going to pretend there aren’t notable flaws that could easily turn people off from the story/invoke side-eyes. So here’s a brief section discussing some of those:

For one: THE LENGTH. This 130+ hour story is several hundred thousand words longer than the Bible and at times you FEEL it. Episodes 1, 2 and 6 I believe have very slow starts on the first read before action takes off. In hindsight the choices made in these parts do pay off properly by either the end of the Episode or with twists in a future one but in the moment, they can feel like they drag their heels without the entertainment of debates. The only way to reach the end of this story having absorbed it all is to commit your LIFE to Umineko WtC, for at least a little while.

And even beyond length, sometimes it can feel too overindulgent for its own good. The end of Episode 2 comes to mind where I feel like shock value went a bit too far even for a story like this. While its jokes aren’t AS bad as Higurashi’s (hell there's even some good pure dialogue jokes at sporadic points in the run) many more devoted jokes fall flat in the early Episode sections, particularly from Battler in ways that could’ve been written smarter. Thankfully, these kind largely dissipate as the story continues.

Conversations between major characters can be exceptionally dense and revealing of intriguing interpersonal relationship drama throughout, but there are some side characters introduced that exist as tools, bereft of depth and relying on “anime quirky” personality traits easy to find grating. To its credit, Umineko IS better than most stories at suggesting which characters are clearly unimportant to the story’s grand scheme and it has more than enough to get around this, but it does make it less engaging whenever they appear.

Lastly, the middle third of the final episode, Episode 8 can feel very rushed, which may sound crazy from a story so long, but there are certain dialogue sections regarding its lingering mysteries that can and HAVE rubbed people very badly because of what it suggests of its readers. Personally, speaking I can understand what this section was trying to communicate but anyone who felt ripped by this point, I get it.

This is the one Episode where the adaptation manga is an essential, adding substantiality to many points including HUGE turning point question. Ignoring the awful first cover which gave me a horrendous impression of Umi before reading, the manga is sublime. Kei Natsumi understood exactly what dramatic beats to elevate. Action scenes that could feel gratuitous when merely written out have defined framing that's superbly drawn. Natsumi has impressive talent for detail, shading and spreads for how many characters exist at that point. And the chosen compositions had me crying my eyes out multiple times more than Episode 8 did in the visual novel.

Needing supplemental material in a different medium to fill holes is usually not a great thing, which is why I note it in the Flaws section, but when it’s THIS excellently made, it’s hard to be mad. The payoffs from the Ep8 manga are exceptional and it’s easy to find the manga for free if you know where to look.

Ultimately what I listed I consider to be slight blemishes to a distinct, immaculate tapestry.

From Ryukishi07's pen, the world was given many heartfelt sincere messages, absolutely wild plot twists, incredible voice performances, really fun and distinctly spread character dynamics, a soundtrack full of insane EDM trance headbangers alongside somber tracks that still stand out, characters that thanks to the story structure are allowed to feel incredibly multifaceted and/or morally gray with interesting inner lives and/or life philosophies to track while reading, mysteries with layered tricks that stick around in your head long after being raised and new avenues for conversation regarding stories and storytelling by using the Visual Novel point-of-view. In short, the Umineko brainrot is real.


I WILL NEVER FORGET THIS STORY

This is a review for both Inazuma Eleven Big Bang and Supernova since I played them both.
Honestly what a great and fun game.
Controls were surprising responsive, the graphics for a 3DS game was fantastic and it's arguably one of the best looking 3DS games I've seen.
Palpacking wasn't too bad for me, and while it can be painfully grindly at times, at least your characters, especially will level up fast.

Story while not great, was still entertaining to experience.
The main thing that hold this hidden gem back from being a 5 star game was how frustratingly underpowered the Earth Eleven is, in terms of stats and movesets. Aside from the main 3, Terry/Ibuki and maybe Trina for TP reasons, there's very little reason to use the other Earth Eleven characters, especially almost all of them need Totems to function and Totems aren't that great in general.

Various Sliver and Purple coins scouts that you can recruit from Chapter 3 as well the 11 Earth Eleven additonal characters that you can recruit at the end Chapter 5 will make sure make that almost every Earth Eleven player will be glorified bench warmers, when you can recruit characters like Goldie, Bailong, Durual, Nathan, Beta, Fei, Tori, Gabi, Soul, Gamma, Simon, Wolfram etc.

Such a shame as I grew to like most of them, but their kits and stats are underwhelming and they completely fall off in the post game.

All and all, Inazuma Eleven Go Galaxy BB/SV is what I label as a hidden gem as well being one of the best 3DS games that we never got officially released.

A masterful return to glory for the Tekken franchise after how mediocre the previous 2 number entires were (barring Tag Team Tournament 2 which I adored, despite balance issues)

Tekken 8 just hits the rights notes for both story and gameplay.
Plus, phenomenal visual desgin and music.

One of my favourite games of 2024.

This is one of those strong cases where the characters singly handly carried the game.
The gameplay loop is too tedious and outdated for it's own good.
Having to play Where's Waldo for 40+ hours just to trigger characters events, recipes and story stuff isn't fun at all.
The mediocre and directionless storyline doesn't help much at all, as it's just the typical JRPG stuff that you seen before.
It's just unnecessarily padding for the sake of it.
The game really needed the event/quest markers.

Barring the characters, Alchemy system is excellent and arguably better than the Ryza Trilogy, due to being more complex and rewarding.

Fortunately, Sophie has a decently compelling cast of characters with Sophie, Julio, Corneria and Plachta being the standouts.

Oskar and Monika were okay, but they felt more typical best friend/childhood characters that you have seen before with not much depth to them

Overall, Atelier Sophie is a decent game, that is held back by jarringly outdated gameplay loop and meandering padded storyline.

The characters and alchemy system were the saving graces of Atelier Sophie that ulimately prevented the game from failing for me.

This highlights everything that is wrong with modern gaming, in one soulless predatory, cringey, outdated and repetitive package.

Peak creative bankruptcy and Rocksteady should be ashamed of themselves.

Uninstalled out of 10.

The more I think about Cold Steel 3, the worse it actually is especially coming from Cold Steel 4 and Reverie, with the former being one of the worst JRPGs experiences ever, while the latter being a massive redemption arc for Trails and a apology letter for Cold Steel 4 incompetence as well being my personal favourite Trails game.

It started off strong, but slowly got worse by every chapter.
While I do enjoy instructor Rean, Ash, Musse and Altina as characters, the game unfortunately had to bring Kurt and Juna with the latter being one of my most hated JRPG characters ever.

The game just unnecessarily drags and barely gets straight to the point, until the finale where we get introduced to arguably the worst evil plotline I've seen in the JRPG genre, which ultimately plagued Cold Steel 4 pathetic existence.

A disgrace to the Naruto Storm Legacy.
It fails as a Naruto game, and it fails as a video game.

A £50+ pounds scam game that features Ai-generated voice acting.

My greatest disappointment of 2024.
This was my most anticipated game of 2024, if not ever and Capcom managed to screwed it up badly.

The original Dragon's Dogma, despite being one of my favourite games, wasn't perfect, but it has charm and passion which is squeal is mostly devoid off.

Lack of enemy variety, uninspired side quests, poorly written half fast main story, the game despite being unfortunately running at 30fps barely runs consistently, some of worst difficult management ever as you either overpowered or a weakling that gets bodied regardless of level, poorly realised post game content.

The music, visuals and to a lesser extent gameplay were fine, but they don't save the game from being a subpar mess.

Stuff like this is the main reason why I don't preorder games anymore.

While I do respect the revolutionary legacy of this game, it doesn't save it from being a frustrating nightmare that ruined my experience.

Lack of checkpoints when dying.
Fragile and hard to control vehicles.
Insufferable brutal police AI.
Bad to straight up unfair mission design.
Forgettable story and characters.

Thank God I played Vice City and San Andreas first.

A spectacular cultured 80s crime thriller mayhem.

Despite being my second GTA game that I've ever played, with GTA 5 being my first, it has aged mostly like juicy fine wine.

Sure the lack of checkpoints, a couple of jankyness elements and the factual meme that Tommy can't swim is real unfortunate, however unlike GTA 3, it's much more manageable which makes the game more of a test of knowledge and skill, instead of janky RNG that severely plagued GTA 3.

Besides that Vice City is the embodiment of chaos, passion and atmosphere.
Tommy Vercetti is a incredible and well defined protagonist who never fails to make me laugh.
The other characters notably Rosenberg, Ricardo and Lance were all memorable in they own ways.

Despite being a PS2, the game visually holds up very well with beautiful lighting, decently presented character models and well designed cities and locations that is filled with life.
A major improvement over GTA 3's basic and repetitive visuals.

The radio stations are some of the best that the GTA franchise has offer, filled with memorable 80s bangers and top musical hits of the 80s.
Not to mention, the voice is and to this day incredible and they all did a great job at capturing their respective characters.

GTA Vice City is at first glance similar to GTA 3, however this time, the difficulty whenever your doing story missions or doing a 6 star rampage in free roam, it's more fair and scaled.

Failing missions or getting wasted feels like natural consequence of a player poor planning, instead of poor game design and janky elements in GTA 3.
Police AI is significantly improved and gives you more a fighting chance especially in higher wanted levels, although the FBI and the Army can still delete you, if your not careful enough.

While not the perfect GTA game, Vice City is a beautiful charming effort that I adore with my heart.

A masterclass of story telling and character depth.

The world building was great, even tho you never really leave the bar (or your house for that matter) the game still does a solid job at making Glitch City and engaging town that feels lively (and quite dangerous at times).

All Characters you interact with have a solid amount of layers on them, and what makes them even more likable and organic, is the fact that they also interact with each other and are not limited to Jill, which leads to certain revelations and connections to feel really charming. (Someone has to put a restraining order on a certain press chief tho, he's a dangerous individual lol)

As for the gameplay itself, it was quite interesting, being able to mix drinks and serve them, which ultimately affects the endings you get is a cool idea for a VN, it felt very interactive, even more so the fact that you're getting little bits of character story by doing so,

The music is also nice, and you can certainly control the mood of a conversation by switching songs. (There were a couple of songs that were not of my taste unfortunately, but most of them were great.)

As for the art direction, I was always fascinated by the effort put on pixel art games, the art on this game was great, which also contributes to the world building at times (the attention to detail is great)

And you also get to play a side scroller Touhou minigame! (if you're up for the task, that is, lol)

All in all it's a really fun solid VN.