Before anything else, I believe its appropriate to briefly discuss the soundtrack and what it accomplishes. From lighthearted moments shared between the cousins to the tense air surrounding the family’s inheritance affairs, EP1’s OST serves as the ideal companion to the story’s gradually shifting atmosphere, with goldenslaughter executing the episodes tone shift just as effectively as the first time I read it. It may not have the tracks Umineko is most remembered for, but it achieves what it sets out to do to perfection.

Moving onto the actual writing, its important to acknowledge what first impressions mean in Umineko. The airport scene is the audience’s first encounter with most of the Ushiromiya family, who make up a large portion of Umineko’s cast. More importantly, it is the last time Eva, Rudolf and Rosa will collectively be portrayed as the ‘likable’ siblings. Rosa is a charitable woman and the ideal mother. Eva/Rudolf are a fun, playful pair that a number of brothers and sisters will likely find themselves identifying with. The more chapters we progress through, the more we understand our first impression deceived us. Once the story moves onto mansion, a different face appears on these characters. We soon find one of those playful siblings repeatedly tormenting an already sympathetic Natsuhi for reasons the audience are not yet aware of. Shortly after, Maria's loving mother is seen mercilessly beating her daughter in front of the cousins. However, the episode continues to dig into their characters by giving us a small portion of their depth that would later be expanded on in the following episodes.

Perhaps the single most fascinating character showcased in EP1 is somebody we meet in the story’s very first scene, the family head himself: Kinzo Ushiromiya. There is virtually no consistency within Kinzo's characterization. In his first appearance, we see a sympathetic old man breaking down under past regrets, wanting nothing but to see a certain woman’s smile. A similar scene is shown a few chapters after, however, there is a notable difference. Rather than portraying him sympathetically, the words beneath his weeping hold a far more possessive, disturbing implication behind them. Unless we’re to pay close attention, this difference is very easy to overlook. Few chapters later, this is no longer the case. Kinzo's weeping is replaced by optimism and his fascination with magic finally makes itself known. This is built on in our next meeting with him as he shows a more competitive persona that is confident in his capability to snatch the aforementioned woman’s smile. Before his death, we’re shown Kinzo one last time with arguably the most jarring portrayal of his character yet. In front of Natsuhi, Kinzo is shown as the proud head of the Ushiromiya family. While his stance toward the siblings is unchanging, the tone of his speech is far more composed. We see his first act of kindness as he allows the suffering Natsuhi to regain her lost self-esteem with the implication that she, more so than any of his children, is worthy of becoming head of the family. Based off these scenes, making out who Kinzo is meant to be is nigh impossible. It is only at the very end of EP1 that we receive more insight on his character through his servants and the cousin's interpretation of their words.

The significance behind these scenes not only forces us to contemplate who Kinzo is, but it also adds intrigue behind the woman whose smile he yearned for, Beatrice. Until the tea party, Beatrice is not a character. We have no idea who or what Beatrice is supposed to be. The cousins theorize who this Beatrice could possibly, with guesses ranging all over the place. That in itself is the force that drives the narrative forward.

Along with Kinzo and Beatrice, a third character who heavily contributes to the plot of EP1 is Maria. Unlike the former two names mentioned, she is consistently present throughout the episode. What distinguishes her from the rest of the cast is she does not abide by conventional logic. Early on, her belief in magic is viewed innocently as something several girls her age might be interested in. It is not long after when we’re reminded yet again that first impressions in Umineko are not reliable. We begin to see the nature of how Maria operates as she stubbornly stands outside in the middle of a harsh rainstorm after being abandoned by Rosa. Her fixation on a single rose seen earlier that day tells us that they (Battler and the cousins) are not dealing with a regular girl, and that becomes even more apparent directly after the first twilight when the first 6 victims are killed. Fortunately, George gives the cousins, as well as the audience, an understanding for Maria’s disturbing speech and indifference to everyone’s deaths. We’re led to believe that this knowledge in mind would protect her strange behavior from their judgement. It is because of this belief that the slowly growing intolerance toward her becomes especially effective in showcasing how their predicament is impacting them. Despite how conflicted the cousin’s feel at the sight of Rosa beating Maria, they begin to share in her frustration after a certain point. Maria’s stubbornness and inability to cooperate with others drives the remaining cast into madness as everybody in the mansion is dying. until the boiling point is reached when Natsuhi points her gun at Maria and she’s forced outside, where its presumed the killer is waiting for them. Oh yeah and Natsuhi is pretty good here too I guess.

The last thing I’ll mention is how well this sets up the mysteries for the rest of the story. As Ryukishi dubs it, the concept of Anti-Mystery vs Anti-Fantasy is an innovative approach to the genre that is fascinating off its premise alone. The EP1 tea party only solidifies this as we’re given a new layer of depth to look at when determining what kind of mystery story Umineko truly is.

tl;dr EP1 is good as fuck

Nier Replicant is a masterpiece, and one of the greatest games of all time. It's a celebration of video games as a medium, and it explores the unique ways it can tell a story that truly cannot be offered through any other platform.
Nier sets your expectations using well known video game tropes, only to completely flip everything on its head. In many ways, Nier is a deconstruction of popular games that have been central to the industry. It's structured very similarly to Ocarina of Time, in some really interesting ways. You start out as a young boy, set out on a mythical journey to gather the Sealed Verses, which will allow you to confront the antagonist of the story. A clear parallel to Ocarina of Time, where you gather the spiritual stones, only to inadvertently help the main antagonist, Ganondorf, who plunges the world into ruin, and you come back as an adult years later, stronger and more prepared this time, and having to clean up the mess you helped cause. Hell -- story aside, this game even has block puzzles and a big field reminiscent of Hyrule Field. There's also a segment in a forest where your senses are taken away, you're lost and forced to rely on only one visual stimuli to progress. In Ocarina of Time, this was the Lost Woods where you're supposed to navigate by paying attention to sound. In Nier's Forest of Myth, you are instead forced to read rather than listen, and guides will not help you here.
Nier Replicant does something very similar to Ocarina's story, but actually explores it in a more realistic way, and what such a state of affairs would do to the world and the people inhabiting it -- and shows just what other people would think of someone doing all of this. Nier Replicant is filled with grey morality like this. There's no true heroes or villains here, everyone has their own motives, some more admirable than others, and the most evil people in this story are people who are long dead and cannot be stopped, since they set events into motion hundreds of years ago and are not here to see the results of their plans. There are parallels to other games like Resident Evil, but I think the clearest thing here you're supposed to notice is this game's almost parody-like take on Ocarina of Time, and other popular JRPGs like Kingdom Hearts.
One important thing to note here is the gameplay, which is tied very strongly to the narrative. Combat is fast and fluid like Nier Automata, and has modern innovations like a proper lock-on system. However, it's not as deep as something like Devil May Cry, instead relying more on the RPG mechanics -- which is totally okay! Nier suits a large variety of playstyles. You can use item buffs like a standard RPG, you can be slow and methodical like a Souls game, parrying to win, or you can play this like it's a Platinum game and dodge your way to victory. There's also a mechanic called the sidestep, which is like the Reversal from Kingdom Hearts 2 but way cooler. Nier feels more grounded and realistic than Automata, but is still fun to play, which is good. There's a disturbing element to the combat as well, in how well the blood effects are done, the enemies making sounds that almost sound child-like when they die -- plus your magic death book absorbing the blood of your enemies to use spells. It's all very masterfully designed, and in my opinion, an improvement over Automata, which felt much less accessible to multiple playstyles, as it was more like a typical Platinum character action game with tacked-on RPG mechanics that felt redundant. The presentation of Replicant is also very well done, which is a nice cherry on top for the game. On an HDR TV, the game looks hauntingly beautiful. Many of the quirks from the original game like the dramatic bloom is carried over, just executed in a more appetizing way.
Nier is a story of humanity itself, touching on everything good and bad about people and the footprint we've left on this speck of rock in the vast emptiness of space. With the constant reminders of how little about the world is out of our control, it's so easy to experience feelings of nihilism, hopelessness, and impending doom. One day, humanity will probably end -- but what's important in life isn't how your life goes out, but how you lived it, and how you impacted other people's lives. In much of the conversation around these games by Yoko Taro, so much focus is put on the multiple endings, the ultimate fate of the characters, etcetera. Nier Replicant is a reminder of how important the journey through life is -- and how vital it is to learn to understand other people, other cultures, other ways of life, no matter how outlandish other people might seem, even if they speak a different language, or they don't look like us. Human connection is a concept that is constantly played around with, whether it's through the story's exploration of language, the choice to sever your connection with the world, and ultimately your friends by erasing your existence. How far will people go to maintain what gives their life meaning -- and, in the process, lose themselves? So often in media, self sacrifice is painted as a noble, heroic trope, but in Nier Replicant, all of the ugly aspects of sacrifices are shown. By choosing to erase yourself, the remaining cast suffers without you, having constant nightmares, crying when they think about you, even your sister, who you fought so hard to save, weeps over something she doesn't understand in her diary that can be read in the E route's loading screen, because you didn't even allow her the solace of understanding why she's traumatized. Everyone in Nier Replicant is so self absorbed and convicted in their beliefs, that they rarely ever stop to question what they're doing, if there's a better way to go about things, or if they can find a mutual understanding with their enemies. When the protagonist, Nier, spends so much time trying to cure his sister's disease, that he becomes obsessed to the point of risking death, chasing mythological, questionable leads, he forgets that all his sister really wants is to see her brother more, and spend time with the only family she has left. Nier is filled to the brim with tragedy like this, but as you're constantly reminded throughout the game -- it's too late to stop and dwell on your mistakes. Trying to save the world on your own and fight things out of your control can ultimately be fruitless, and filled with nothing but tragedy. However, there's always time to change course and focus on what really matters. Spend time with the people important to you. Try to understand people different from you. Don't allow your preconceived prejudices to cloud your judgment of strangers. Even if the world goes to hell, as long as you have your friends, you can find meaning, and worth, in your life. This is Nier, and it is one of my favorite games of all time.
I'm not used to writing reviews like this, so this might be all over the place, but I just wanted to let my thoughts spill out, because I had a lot of them after finishing the game. :)