This is the Question Arcs, right? Anyways, this score is an average of my scores for each episode:
Episode 1: 3/10
Episode 2: 7/10
Episode 3: 7.5/10
Episode 4: 6.5/10
3+7+7.5+6.5 = 24
24/40 = 6/10
I wish I had uncomplicated emotions towards Umineko. If I hated it I could drop it and if I loved it (as most seem to) I would have zero reservations about reading more. At points I have found these games both incredible and chairgripping, and at other points banal and difficult to sit through. I'll still probably read the answer arcs not too long from now though, given that (aside from the first half of episode 4) each episode has progressively gotten better.
I'm convinced people are swayed by solid finales (which most of these have), and forget the amount of filler and repetition and fanservice that's in pretty much all of these. But me, I don't forget. I can't! It's a curse!
Episode 1 is easily the worst one so far. Yeah, I know it's set up to be subverted/expanded upon/whatever, but I think that's almost like saying "they made this one boring on purpose so the other ones seem better in comparison". Which, they do, but it is a really weird and probably unintentional decision. Battler's internal monologue sucks in this one, and there's a TON of repetition. Just tough through it, it gets better.
Episode 2 is kind of where this game actually starts. By this point a lot of the really bland archetypes from Episode 1 have been replaced with actual character depth, which lets you actually think about the characters. Mysteries are cool too and you start to really see a lot of the battle of wits stuff, which is great.
Episode 3 isn't nearly as large of a jump in quality but it's still slightly better than 2. Less filler, relationships are more tightly woven, etc etc. Basically what I have to say about Ep2 except just slightly better.
Episode 4 is weird. The back half is really fucking good but the first half is kind of shockingly bad. Does anyone actually enjoy the SoL sections? There's like 6 hours of them in this. And they're not good. Whatever though since the back half is probably the best stretch of this VN yet.
Hope episodes 5-8 don't stumble as much as these did--when these were good they were darn good but it's not as consistently good as something like echo or 428 shibuya scramble (these are just going to be my VN comparisons forever i guess). anyways Onto Answer Arcs In A Couple Days I Guess
Episode 1: 3/10
Episode 2: 7/10
Episode 3: 7.5/10
Episode 4: 6.5/10
3+7+7.5+6.5 = 24
24/40 = 6/10
I wish I had uncomplicated emotions towards Umineko. If I hated it I could drop it and if I loved it (as most seem to) I would have zero reservations about reading more. At points I have found these games both incredible and chairgripping, and at other points banal and difficult to sit through. I'll still probably read the answer arcs not too long from now though, given that (aside from the first half of episode 4) each episode has progressively gotten better.
I'm convinced people are swayed by solid finales (which most of these have), and forget the amount of filler and repetition and fanservice that's in pretty much all of these. But me, I don't forget. I can't! It's a curse!
Episode 1 is easily the worst one so far. Yeah, I know it's set up to be subverted/expanded upon/whatever, but I think that's almost like saying "they made this one boring on purpose so the other ones seem better in comparison". Which, they do, but it is a really weird and probably unintentional decision. Battler's internal monologue sucks in this one, and there's a TON of repetition. Just tough through it, it gets better.
Episode 2 is kind of where this game actually starts. By this point a lot of the really bland archetypes from Episode 1 have been replaced with actual character depth, which lets you actually think about the characters. Mysteries are cool too and you start to really see a lot of the battle of wits stuff, which is great.
Episode 3 isn't nearly as large of a jump in quality but it's still slightly better than 2. Less filler, relationships are more tightly woven, etc etc. Basically what I have to say about Ep2 except just slightly better.
Episode 4 is weird. The back half is really fucking good but the first half is kind of shockingly bad. Does anyone actually enjoy the SoL sections? There's like 6 hours of them in this. And they're not good. Whatever though since the back half is probably the best stretch of this VN yet.
Hope episodes 5-8 don't stumble as much as these did--when these were good they were darn good but it's not as consistently good as something like echo or 428 shibuya scramble (these are just going to be my VN comparisons forever i guess). anyways Onto Answer Arcs In A Couple Days I Guess