Umineko no Naku Koro ni - Brick Shitting, In Visual Novel Form! - Games

[img]http://i48.tinypic.com/24cdqj5.jpg[/img] [quote=Wikipedia]Umineko no Naku Koro ni (うみねこのなく頃に?, lit. When the Seagulls Cry) is a Japanese murder mystery dōjin soft visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion. The first game in the series, Legend of the golden witch, was first released at Comiket 72 on August 17, 2007 playable on the PC; the game sold out in thirty minutes.[1] The story focuses on a group of eighteen people on a secluded island for a period of two days, and the mysterious murders that befall most of the people. The goal of the game is to discern whether the murderer is human or of some other supernatural source. Umineko is the third title in the "When They Cry" series, preceded by Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, and followed by Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru. A manga series adapted from the games began with three different artists working separately on different story arcs, and is published by Square Enix. The first manga, an adaptation of Legend of the golden witch, began serialization in December 2007 in the Japanese manga magazine Gangan Powered, and is illustrated by Kei Natsumi. An anime series produced by Studio Deen began airing in July 2009. The word umineko is the name of a kind of seagull known as a Black-tailed Gull.[2] Naku can mean "to make sound" (鳴く), specifically referring to those sounds made by non-human organisms, or "to weep" (泣く). It so happens that the English verb "to cry" carries the same double meaning as naku. According to the original creator, Ryukishi07, the red Na (な) in the logo is an official part of the title.[3][/quote] Well, yeah. That pretty much summarizes it. But it goes a little deeper than that. The story revolves around a wealthy Japanese family, the Ushiromiya family, getting together for a "family conference" that will undoubtedly be their last; the family patriarch, Ushiromiya Kinzo, is in extremely poor health and supposedly only has three months to live. Due to this fact, Ushiromiya Battler, the viewpoint character, chose to go to the conference for the first time in six years. Unfortunately for him, and the rest of the Ushiromiya family, Kinzo's obsession with black magic which led to his gaining incredible wealth is starting to come to a head, and he has become singleminded in his pursuit of reviving the Golden Witch responsible for said windfall, Beatrice. The instructions for doing so are in an epitaph that was written for her: [quote]My beloved hometown, the bountiful river running through it. You who seek the Golden Land, follow it's path downstream and seek the key. If you follow the river downstream, you will find a village. In the village, look for the shore the two will tell you of. There sleeps the key to the Golden Land. He who lays his hand upon the key shall travel under the rules below. At the first twilight, you shall lift up as sacrifice the six chosen by the key. At the second twilight, the surviving shall tear apart the two who are close. At the third twilight, the surviving shall praise my honorable name on high. At the fourth twilight, gouge the head and kill. At the fifth twilight, gouge the chest and kill. At the sixth twilight, gouge the belly and kill. At the seventh twilight, gouge the knee and kill. At the eighth twilight, gouge the leg and kill. At the ninth twilight, the Witch shall live again and none shall be left to live. At the tenth twilight, the journey shall end and you should reach the Land of Gold. The Witch will praise the wise, and should bestow four treasures. One shall be, all the gold from the Golden Land. One shall be, the resurrection of the souls of all the dead. One shall be, even the resurrection of the lost love. One shall be, to put the Witch to sleep for all time. Sleep peacefully, my most beloved witch, Beatrice. [/quote] As you can see... thirteen people need to die for the Golden Witch to live again. The more people Kinzo has at Rokkenjima, the family's private island, the more likely it is that he won't end up as one of the dead. The family conference puts the total headcount at 18, so naturally, that's when he chooses to revive the witch... and Battler gets caught in it. This isn't a full summary at all, and in fact I'm deliberately misleading FP as to the events... it's a murder mystery. What else would be expected? If you're going to use spoilers, please tag them. This is not a series you want to have spoiled for yourself, trust me. In my personal opinion, Umineko is scarier than Silent Hill and Penumbra combined, but for different reasons: the spartan art and vivid text lead to things that would be mediocre if shown, being ridiculously horrifying. Shredded skin, partially-melted heads, horrific child abuse, severed heads talking, human pinatas... this series gets mighty creative with its nightmare diesel fuel. If you haven't played a VN before, this one's a good one to start with... it has no choices, so you won't have to dig a walkthrough out of the worst parts of the internet. The references to Japanese nerd culture are sparse and easy to miss, with the exception of a completely random Touhou Project reference in episode 2. The soundtrack is absolutely godlike, and ranges from soft classical music to harsh industrial to pounding acid-house and various mixtures of them. The writing is unilaterally very good; the mystery requires no ass-pulls to work out correctly in any possible interpretation, the characters are either fun to watch or unlikable enough that you enjoy their horrible deaths, and the author is extremely good at building suspense. Oh, and one last thing: you'll have to either import it or pirate it unless we get lucky and MangaGamer picks it up. Ryukishi07 has stated in interviews that he would prefer it if his Western audience downloaded it, as he makes no money off of imports, and he has begun including nods to the group (Witch-Hunt) that's currently translating the series into English. Episode 4 contains episodes 1, 2, and 3 as well, so just get that. [b]EDIT:[/b] Go ahead, rate me dumb even though this is about as weeaboo as beef jerky. [b]EDIT 2:[/b] Thread Music [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR6PYrjEzcQ[/media]

[QUOTE=BRIAN BLESSED;18503908] If you're going to use spoilers, please tag them. This is not a series you want to have spoiled for yourself, trust me. In my personal opinion, Umineko is scarier than Silent Hill and Penumbra combined, but for different reasons: the spartan art and vivid text lead to things that would be mediocre if shown, being ridiculously horrifying. [B]Shredded skin, partially-melted heads, horrific child abuse, severed heads talking, human pinatas[/B]... this series gets mighty creative with its nightmare diesel fuel.[/QUOTE] Is there beheaded children tied to rope with no skin and their head melted yet talking on the ground then? combining everything there would be pretty cool personally. And does this visual novel contain sex around every corner or what?

Actually, it has no sex whatsoever. It's still for adults only, for obvious reasons (again, everything you bolded is described in graphic detail when it happens), but it has no sexual content at all. And you're a little off on what you think the "human pinatas" are. I'm not gonna spoil it for you, because trust me, you're going to want to vomit when you see it.

[QUOTE=Pinut;18503931]And does this visual novel contain sex around every corner or what?[/QUOTE] I don't think so since this is a "dōjin soft visual novel", generally being adult content free. EDIT: Rate me late.

I would ask if you're being sarcastic, but actually most doujin software is pretty clean, oddly enough. The hentai tends to be legitimately sold instead of released as (essentially) donationware.

I don't understand how these things are considered "games".

i played it, its good

This thread is scary.

What the fuck am I reading

Personally I prefer Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Also this doesn't have sex in it. Neither does Higurashi.

Shiit I'd really want to play that now.

I'd like to explain to everyone why this thread exists. The day before yesterday the OP tried to talk about this "game" in the Fast Anime thread by posting a huge wall of spoiler tags which nobody could be bothered to read. When the OP asked why we weren't talking about his stuff we said that it was because didn't give a rats ass at the moment. Well Mr. OP got all up in a fuss about this and vowed that he would make a thread somewhere else. We didn't believe he would actually waste his time and do it.

[QUOTE=Banned?;18503961]I don't think so since this is a "dōjin soft visual novel", generally being adult content free. EDIT: Rate me late.[/QUOTE] Make me.

I'd just like to mention that the art is pretty damn terrible. Don't let that put you off though, it's worth it.

[QUOTE=chunkymonkey;18525802]I'd like to explain to everyone why this thread exists. The day before yesterday the OP tried to talk about this "game" in the Fast Anime thread by posting a huge wall of spoiler tags which nobody could be bothered to read. When the OP asked why we weren't talking about his stuff we said that it was because didn't give a rats ass at the moment. Well Mr. OP got all up in a fuss about this and vowed that he would make a thread somewhere else. We didn't believe he would actually waste his time and do it.[/QUOTE] I was there, man! I saw 'em! They were in the trees man... The fucking trees! Nah, but seriously I was and I was correct.

Umineko no naku koro ni sucked hard.

[QUOTE=chunkymonkey;18525802]I'd like to explain to everyone why this thread exists. The day before yesterday the OP tried to talk about this "game" in the Fast Anime thread by posting a huge wall of spoiler tags which nobody could be bothered to read. When the OP asked why we weren't talking about his stuff we said that it was because didn't give a rats ass at the moment. Well Mr. OP got all up in a fuss about this and vowed that he would make a thread somewhere else. We didn't believe he would actually waste his time and do it.[/QUOTE] One. I posted it and actually got a couple replies. And had it not been a wall of spoiler tags, I would have ruined the entire first quarter of this for FA, which would be an even bigger dick move for people who are legitimately interested. It's like a British person walking up to an American sci-fi fan and giving him a full, detailed synopsis of the new Dr. Who special. Two. I didn't even ask what the deal was, I just said it needs its own thread because it's too in-depth for discussion to work well in FA, where unless something's really hilarious or awesome it'll get talked about for two posts and then everyone will move on. Three. That was only part of the reason I made this thread, the main reason was because Umineko is far too awesome for FP to ignore and VN threads have gone over decently before here. If the only reason I bothered was because I want Fast Anime to devote themselves to Umineko only, don't you think I would have either spammed the existing thread with Umineko posts or made a thread in the Fast Threads board? [editline]03:24PM[/editline] [QUOTE=Potatoefp;18525725]Personally I prefer Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Also this doesn't have sex in it. Neither does Higurashi.[/QUOTE] Umineko VN > Higurashi anime >>>> Steaming pile of dog shit >>>> Umineko anime I like the more intellectual focus of Umineko compared to how straightforward Higurashi is. With Higurashi, the main thing was just watching the plot unfold, whereas with Umineko a rather large part of the fun is discussing your theories about the mystery with others, since it's in-depth enough for such discussion to be worth it.

In a forum that's used to games having gameplay, a game that's just a powerpoint presentation probably won't appeal to anyone. Protip: the visual novel was invented so you could control it with one hand. Guess what you do with your other hand?

HURR DURR I KNOW IT'S MASTERBATUN OR SOMETHIN LIKE THAT Yeah, it was invented for that (easy way to pump out lots of generic hentai quickly), but groups like 07th Expansion, Key Visual Arts, and Type-MOON promptly latched on to it as a low-budget way to tell legitimate stories. It also has its own benefits compared to simply writing a dead-tree novel; being able to access the TIPS/Grimoire/Characters section (appendices) with a simple right-click is a fair bit easier than trying to hunt something down in the back of a book, the CGs in games that have them are less intrusive and easier to make than dead-tree illustrations, and they can also have music. In the first and third cases, they're absolutely critical to Umineko. The appendices are a giant help to understanding what the fuck is going on, plus they let you refer back to things like the Witch's Epitaph, and the music is fucking brilliant.

OP is a troll, he has to be he is going into depth (what little there is) about this "game"

[QUOTE=Anteep2;18532934]OP is a troll, he has to be he is going into depth (what little there is) about this "game"[/QUOTE] This is as much of a game as Phoenix Wright or Hotel Dusk. I don't see people complaining about how those aren't really games. It's also ridiculously long; other than a bunch of infodumping at the beginning of EP1 masqueraded as discussion of the weather, none of said ridiculous length is made up of padding.

[QUOTE=BRIAN BLESSED;18533113]This is as much of a game as Phoenix Wright or Hotel Dusk. I don't see people complaining about how those aren't really games. It's also ridiculously long; other than a bunch of infodumping at the beginning of EP1 masqueraded as discussion of the weather, none of said ridiculous length is made up of padding.[/QUOTE] Umm in those games you actually do something and the game looks good. In this all you do is watch text scroll by and look at badly drawn characters.

Neither of those are games. [editline]10:23PM[/editline] Well, pheonix Write is kinda, but Hotel Dusk. It's a book with a puzzle every hour.

[QUOTE=Anteep2;18532934]OP is a troll, he has to be he is going into depth (what little there is) about this "game"[/QUOTE] He's not a troll. He's just mistaken about the interests of the majority of this forum.

[QUOTE=BRIAN BLESSED;18532345]One. I posted it and actually got a couple replies. And had it not been a wall of spoiler tags, I would have ruined the entire first quarter of this for FA, which would be an even bigger dick move for people who are legitimately interested. It's like a British person walking up to an American sci-fi fan and giving him a full, detailed synopsis of the new Dr. Who special. Two. I didn't even ask what the deal was, I just said it needs its own thread because it's too in-depth for discussion to work well in FA, where unless something's really hilarious or awesome it'll get talked about for two posts and then everyone will move on. Three. That was only part of the reason I made this thread, the main reason was because Umineko is far too awesome for FP to ignore and VN threads have gone over decently before here. If the only reason I bothered was because I want Fast Anime to devote themselves to Umineko only, don't you think I would have either spammed the existing thread with Umineko posts or made a thread in the Fast Threads board? [/QUOTE] Guess what? FP hates anime and anime related things so nobody except for the people in Fast Anime even care about this "game". So yes, FP will ignore this VN except to troll it. It isn't to "in depth" as you call it for FA, we just didn't give a shit. VN threads HAVE NOT gone over well on FP you dolt. They get trolled to shit. Also that Dr. Who example is terrible. [editline]03:29PM[/editline] [QUOTE=Take_Opal;18533492]Neither of those are games. [editline]10:23PM[/editline] Well, pheonix Write is kinda, but Hotel Dusk. It's a book with a puzzle every hour.[/QUOTE] You can't deny the charm of Phoenix Write though.

I do not.

[QUOTE=chunkymonkey;18533597]Guess what? FP hates anime and anime related things so nobody except for the people in Fast Anime even care about this "game". So yes, FP will ignore this VN except to troll it. It isn't to "in depth" as you call it for FA, we just didn't give a shit. [/QUOTE] It got 20 related posts in FA. You did give a shit, clearly, otherwise no one would have posted anything Umineko-related. And go look at the Yume Miru Kusuri thread from a long while back, it's not DDT'd yet. Got a fair amount of actual decent discussion after about a page of "haha oh wow" from people seeing a pic of a girl asking for anal sex.

[QUOTE=BRIAN BLESSED;18533701]It got 20 related posts in FA. You did give a shit, clearly, otherwise no one would have posted anything Umineko-related. And go look at the Yume Miru Kusuri thread from a long while back, it's not DDT'd yet. Got a fair amount of actual decent discussion after about a page of "haha oh wow" from people seeing a pic of a girl asking for anal sex.[/QUOTE] If it got so many related posts then there was no reason to make this thread. Yeah, it got steamrolled by trolls.

Video Games is a little less-scared of Anime (4chan also, tis why I love it here) but GD is mortified by that shit. But none the less. You're talking about a book in Video Games. And it's also anime-esque. So, I really don't see how you thought anyone here would like this.

While it probably wasn't a good idea for the OP to make a thread about Umineko here it is actually a great experience for what it is. The problem is rather than it being a game it is more of a novel. Yes I suppose you could classify it as a game but it would be better to call it a novel which uses sound to create atmosphere and some simple artwork to give you an idea of the characters and the location. The majority of people here want games where you actually interact with what is happening on screen and where you actually do something. The reason that we told you not to make a thread about it is because there is very limited interest in this VN or any VN for that matter and the majority of people wouldn't be willing to try it out meaning that it's hard to keep up a discussion as FP does not take well to anything slightly anime related. In Fast Anime while it isn't the main topic of conversation many people are more than willing to discuss small segments and ideas with you just not a large wall of spoilers. That being said, if you guys are at all interested in the idea of the story and like reading then I suggest you try this out. [B]tl;dr[/B] This isn't a game, it is a novel. This and the fact that most of Facepunch doesn't take well to anything slightly anime related means it is more appropriate for Fast Anime where we do discuss it just not a large amount.