Board 8 > Umineko seems pretty great. *spoils*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Incredible.

https://twitter.com/animegirlnoises/status/1230124700140896256?s=19

as someone who has only played the original version with no voice acting and glorious MS Paint art

she sounds like a machine that is designed to make noise at a rave

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Oh God no why did they give Dlanor glasses??

MariaTaylor posted...

as someone who has only played the original version with no voice acting and glorious MS Paint art

she sounds like a machine that is designed to make noise at a rave

The whole scene is something to behold. The VA goes absolutely nuts here, like it's obviously the same person but she just GOES FOR IT here.

https://youtu.be/jfNaaqm8xPU

MAN

That got WILD

Who the fuck is this guy???

I shouldn't have started this episode In going to BEEEEEEEEEEEED.

I am suddenly revising my purist original release stance

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the voice acting is INCREDIBLE in Umineko

The VAs just go god damn ham constantly and its fantastic.

Let it be known that the above video did make me like Erika more.

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I'm going to forgo ANY writeups until I'm done, but let me just say I am genuinely impressed that throughout episodes 5 and 6 I went from thinking Erika sucked on purpose, to hating Erika, to feeling bad for Erika, to LOVING TO HATE ERIKA, and then somehow STILL FEELING BAD FOR ERIKA.

I want Erika to kick Bern's ass.

Also I feel like the end of Higurashi is way too fuzzy to me. Spoiler bar because Higurashi isn't blanketed here, and I BARELY remember Higurashi Kai, but Bern IS Rika, right? I don't remember her turning out like this after. And Featherine....is Oyashiro-sama?? I don't remember Lambda at ALL, that's not Satoko is it???

5 and 6 are my favorite eps

my understanding is that they are not the same characters

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I'm also a bit hazy on Higurashi since it's been a long time, but I think it was a meta game between Bern and Lambda - using Rika and Miyo as their respective pieces. Rika earned her happy ending but Bern is still sour from the misery of the experience. Someone please feel free to correct me if this isn't quite right.

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After a week of listening to the Umineko OST on shuffle at work, I finally found a song that I straight up don't like at all.

https://youtu.be/DX32Qeq9z1s

Re: Higurashi

Every time Rika died, she didn't just go to the next world. She went to the Sea of Fragments in-between, and created a copy of her memories to insert into a Rika in another world. Rika eventually decided in Higurashi Rei's Dice Killing Chapter (kind of an epilogue chapter) that because she is, mentally, effectively completely different from the little girl Rika, she would take the name Frederica Bernkastel (Furuderika and then Bernkastel after her favorite wine brand). However, due to the lessons she learned in that chapter, she decides to stop hopping between worlds when she dies and have this be her final life, like a regular human would. Thus, she effectively splits off from the 'her' that is still in the Sea of Fragments, becoming Rika again for real. However, the one in between still exists, and she is the one that ends up adopting the moniker of Bernkastel.

So Bernkastel is Rika, but Rika is not Bernkastel, basically.

That is, if you believe magic exists... :p

So how does Lamb fit into that? And Featherine?

It's something of a reframing of Higurashi. Lambda is connected to Takano, and Featherine to Hanyuu. It's like Higurashi was, on a higher meta level than we got to see in it, a game between witches. But also Higurashi is explicitly referenced in Umineko as being a book. It's all very vague. There are various ways to look at it, but the one I favor would be spoilers.

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Featherine is never explicitly connected to Hanyuu. There are a couple hints, but nothing huge.

Lambda's more connected to Takano though.
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I think I'm satisfied with that for now. I will play Higurashi eventually, maybe even next.

Right now Umineko is sitting very comfortably at my #2 spot for visual novels. Starts getting fuzzy if I throw in VNs with gameplay elements (DR, ZE), but I'm not gonna compare it to those until I'm done.

Well, if you enjoyed 6, you're in a good spot. I thought it was the worst episode by a fair amount (though I didn't hate it or anything, and it had some amazing moments).
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I don't even know if I can rank episodes in this. They serve so many different purposes and are going for different things. The weaker parts in some are used in ways that the fantastic parts in others would not hit nearly as well without them.

6 was one I really didn't like at all on first read but appreciated a lot more when I reread it a few years ago.

I think a lot of backlash to 6 that happened when it was new was a lot of theories being proven/disproven and people (including myself) not understanding what actually got revealed and drawing false conclusions.

I think its a very solid Episode now, personally.

And yeah if you've never read the Higurashi VN I very heavily recommend it. The anime does not do it justice at all (even if its an entertaining anime).

Reading over some of my original reactions and posts is fun.

Still not over Kanon's fucking trenchcoat.

"oh shit there's a goat man whaaaaaaaat?"

And best of all,

MichelBollinger posted...

The one thing that's kind of middling so far is the music. It's...FINE, totally serviceable, but not particularly stand out just yet.

MichelBollinger posted...

After a week of listening to the Umineko OST on shuffle at work, I finally found a song that I straight up don't like at all.

https://youtu.be/DX32Qeq9z1s

Oh man I remember this song. People were making fun of that so much (and the other songs in Ep 7 that use those weird-ass vocals). Good thing Ep 7 has maybe the best song in the series to balance it out!

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What...in the world is this.

Bruh I was 100% sure this was an episode that was gonna be a 50 years ago answer arc or some shit what the fuck.

Is this person the cliff baby??

Maybe this is me being real nitpicky, but the second mansion in CGs is def not completely covered in trees, and helicopters/planes are definitely a thing in 86, hell one is in the first scene. If this mansion was walked to on several occasions....how hard could it be to see flying over?

Kinzo

OOOOOOOOOOOF

This whole game, <> has denoted text in which the VAs actually speak in English.

Now, at this critical moment where it actually matters, they're speaking in Japanese!

It's a charade I tell you!

"Your English is superb."

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/354/591/17c.png

I think they decided that since they talk in English so much there it would be too much for Japanese readers if they had them actually speak in Engrish. Also probably would be tricky for the VAs themselves.

I mean yeah I get it, just bemoaning getting hours of that lol.

MichelBollinger posted...

What...in the world is this.

Same.

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All of the audio died and it's not because I pressed M. Gonna have to get this figured out first :/

Back in business! Had to completely delete the entire game and re-download it. Oof.

Welp. Did you get to back up your saves, at least?

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Nope, didn't work, but the version of the game let's you unlock as far into it as you want. Just had to manually unlock episode 7 and hold control for about 8 minutes to fast forward to where I was. At the gold splitting negotiations now.

Ah, that's not too bad.

Episode 7 hype

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Something bittersweet about going through all that effort to get the sound working, only for the first song to play once I got caught up was Bore-Ral, lol.

Oh, also, I totally forgot to bring this up, but the Erika trolling clip I posted earlier ABSOLUTELY has different music from my version? I guess whatever this release is changed/added some music, too.

You telling me this badass coat of arms that's on everyone's clothes and Eva has tattoo on her arm is just the equivilant of a misprint form a paper jam? Lolol.

Man, these sudden rapid-fire piecemeal characters revelations just keep coming.

I suppose if I thought about it even for a second it would have been obvious Jessica was faking the asthma.

MichelBollinger posted...

Man, these sudden rapid-fire piecemeal characters revelations just keep coming.

I suppose if I thought about it even for a second it would have been obvious Jessica was faking the asthma.

I forgot about this.

Also how are you enjoying Will and Lion so far?

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I am enjoying them a lot, especially as I piece together who they are. Much more confident in Lion than Will.

Also I just have no idea where this episode is going to go, since just from a timestamp point of view there's obviously a ton left.

This is a game that I can already tell is just BEGGING to be replayed. Hopefully something comes of that Umineko Gold thing, seems like it would be a fantastic excuse.

....is it fucking Kanon?

MichelBollinger posted...

I am enjoying them a lot, especially as I piece together who they are. Much more confident in Lion than Will.

Also I just have no idea where this episode is going to go, since just from a timestamp point of view there's obviously a ton left.

This is a game that I can already tell is just BEGGING to be replayed. Hopefully something comes of that Umineko Gold thing, seems like it would be a fantastic excuse.

Awesome.

Also, you might want to consider the manga version as well. It doesn't have music or voice acting (obviously), but it does add some new dimension to the storytelling.

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I have heard the manga is good. There are some other things I'll be looking into as well. Sounds like pretty much everything but the anime, lol. Watched a couple clips from that and it's not even entertainingly bad or anything, just zero budget shovelware. Not even worth a comedy watch.

Also, a flex I doubt anyone else here has gone for, lol.

https://i.imgur.com/2AUaQCW.jpg

Treasure awaits.

Resuming now without the veil of sleep creeping in and it's totally been Shannon this whole time, hasn't it.

You are in Yasu's section?

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Yeah yasu just "left" Shannon.

Battler you asshole.