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Higurashi When They Cry Hou |OT| I'll play with you. Come, cleaver girl!

Shizuka

Member
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Product Information:


  • Genre: Visual Novel
  • Players: 1
  • Developer: 07th Expansion / MangaGamer
  • Publisher: MangaGamer
  • Platforms: Steam (Ch 1, Ch 2), MangaGamer (Ch 1, Ch 2 - comes with a Steam key)
  • OS: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, OS X, Linux
  • Release date: May 15th 2015 (Ch 1), November 13th 2015 (Ch 2)
  • All-ages
  • Price: divided in fourteen chapters
  • Language: english, japanese
  • Options to switch between old and new sprites
  • Original BGM
  • New art by Kurosaki from Caramelbox (Uhou Renka)

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Rena Ryugu

Rena is the main heroine of this story. She’s a classmate of Keiichi’s.

She is quite interested in his everyday life, possibly because of an inherent urge to look after people.
She comes with the standard-issue honesty, earnesty and blushes that you find in many heroines. However, her only reward for taking care of Keiichi is an incessant series of pranks. It really is unfortunate for her.
She likes anything and everything she considers adorable, and this is also a very typical trait in a heroine. But that is also her greatest weakness...

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Mion Sonozaki

Mion is one grade higher than Keiichi. She is the class representative.

She is the active class representative type, which is the second most common type. She is a leader, someone who makes friends with everyone, regardless of gender or age. Because of her high-strung, easy-going, hyperactive personality, those around her never have to be bored. She is about the best kind of friend anyone could wish for. Her personality is somewhat marred by a tendency to sound like an old man, but that’s something to be forgiven.
Mion likes games of all kinds, be they card games, board games or video games. Because of who she is, her games tend to be high-tension. It’s to be expected. She plays with her friends in the context of club activity.

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Satoko Houjou

A girl one grade lower than Keiichi.

She is usually very polite, but because she is still young she sometimes has difficulty with grammar. However, behind her innocent exterior lies a personality that loves setting traps for other people. You could call her a trickster. She tries her utmost to snare Keiichi, but she has only limited success. Although the result of failure is easily imaginable, Satoko doesn’t like to lose, and she doesn’t learn from experience. That is why she keeps confronting him, with all due consequences. Even when she realizes her skills are insufficient, her smile never wavers.

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Rika Furude

Rika is a grade lower than Keiichi, and thus is a classmate of Satoko’s.

She is very quiet and reserved for her age, which makes her almost the polar opposite of Satoko. However, the two of them can often be found in each other’s company. Whenever Satoko is in tears after losing against Keiichi, it is Rika who cheers her up. When Satoko wins, Rika comforts Keiichi instead. When Keiichi teases Rena, Rika comforts her.
In fact, Rika comforts whomever is in need of comfort. She seems happy with it.

Screenshots:



Recommended specification:


  • Required CPU: Pentium III 800MHz
  • Recommended CPU: Pentium 4 1.4GHz
  • Required Memory: 512MB
  • Recommended Memory: 1GB
  • Required HDD Free Space: 500MB
  • DirectX: DirectX 9.0

More information:



Avatars:


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Credits:

Thanks to MangaGamer for the resources used for this OT.
Thanks to the VNGAF crowd for all their help.

Additional information:

Please, don't post spoilers for future chapters. Discussion should be focused on the chapters as they get released, while still using spoiler tags whenever appropriate.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
As much as I love Ryukishi's expressions, the new art looks nice.

I wonder how the music is in this version? The OG VN has two OSTs, one from the US release and the original.
 

Parablank

Member
i tried to play it on my phone but the original character art was so off putting I just stopped.

Maybe I'll finish it this time

From the anime perspective though I'm still pretty salty that they transitioned from the horror/despair theme to the friendship always wins stuff. Maybe i should rewatch
 
I loved Umineko so I may have to check out Higurashi, even though I've watched the anime already.

Is the OST as good as Umineko? Any dai tracks?
 
Now way! I loved the anime, and it led me to Umineko (which I should really finish playing....).

Ill see about buying this one, thanks for the heads up!

Hope they do the same for Umineko and Higabana.
 
I'm so glad this game is finally out in a version that has good character sprites.

Yeah, the original sprites were awful, but I felt like the PS2 version sprites went a little too far in "correcting" the originals and lost a lot of the feel of those designs. But maybe that's just because I was introduced to Higurashi through the anime, which I'd argue does a better job of striking a balance between "correcting" the originals and keeping the feel of them than even these designs do.

Regardless, these games are pretty fucking good and you should play them (well, read them- there's pretty much no interactivity outside of a couple of bits in later chapters) if you don't know what they are. The story is basically a fucked-up combination of a light-hearted school comedy/harem anime and a mystery/horror series, the big mystery being whether or not all the weird shit going on is due to humans/something with a scientific explanation or some manner of supernatural force. Also (spoilering this just to be safe, no details are really spoiled beyond what you'll figure out immediately upon starting chapter 2)
each chapter is its own iteration of a groundhog day loop, and you have no idea why the world is looping.
 
Oh wow I've been out of the loop. I didn't expect this to come out tomorrow. For that matter I didn't know MangaGamer said they would bring Higurashi Hou and not just the original 8 chapters. I'll definitely give it a go at some point.
 
I loved Umineko so I may have to check out Higurashi, even though I've watched the anime already.

Is the OST as good as Umineko? Any dai tracks?

IIRC the first few chapters' music isn't anything special since it was their first game and thus they didn't have the budget/popularity to get anything good. A lot of it was public domain, actually. The later chapters are when you start seeing music by some of the names you see on the Umineko soundtracks, though I wouldn't say anything approaches Umineko levels of HOLY SHIT THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME.

Dai does do the main theme ("You") for Higurashi, though.
 

JulianImp

Member
I'll definitely be supporting this on Steam tomorrow, since I still can't read through my Japanese DS version all that well.

I wonder how this translation will adapt Rena's verbal tic, kana?
 

Syril

Member
I never understood why they translated the title that way. Doesn't Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni just mean When the Cicadas Cry? Why wouldn't they translate that one word?
 
so like is it worth reading this if you've watched the anime?

If Umineko was any indicator......YES!! I can see why people consider the anime to be a travesty/blasphemy, but that happens to all games to animes iterations. I still loved the anime and think it should be cut some slack.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
So glad I don't have to deal with this anymore. Artwork killed all interest I had when I tried to read it last time.
image.jpg
 

Faynwulf

Member
The only thing that ever turned me off from playing more of these games were the sprites. I'm glad to see them being updated.
 

JulianImp

Member
If Umineko was any indicator......YES!! I can see why people consider the anime to be a travesty/blasphemy, but that happens to all games to animes iterations. I still loved the anime and think it should be cut some slack.

Higurashi anime was good, IMO (not having read the VNs yet). Umineko was a complete train wreck, however, since they ended up interpreting certain scenes in ways that make the whole point of trying to explain Beato's magic with human tricks harder or even impossible in some cases (ie: Kanon's death during the first game).
 

Box

Member
14 chapters? I know this series has a bunch of extra stuff beyond the original 8, but are any of them any good?

Also, are there any other extras in this beyond the new visuals?
 

InfiniteNine

Rolling Girl
Hoping there is a way to hide the usual MangaGamer engine UI, but I haven't played much of their recent releases to know if that has been given as an option though.
 

Shizuka

Member
14 chapters? I know this series has a bunch of extra stuff beyond the original 8, but are any of them any good?

Also, are there any other extras in this beyond the new visuals?

Regarding the number of chapters:

This means that MangaGamer’s upcoming release of Higurashi on Steam with new artwork will contain the following: all four Question Arcs, all four Answer Arcs (Higurashi Kai), all three arcs of Higurashi Rei (which were previously never released in English), Hinamizawa Teiryuujyo (the never-before-released original concept story for the Higurashi series), Higurashi Outbreak (a chapter formerly available only in drama CD format), and a brand-new arc exclusive to Higurashi Hou—the Kamikanshi Chapter.

http://www.siliconera.com/2015/04/05/mangagamer-bring-full-14-chapter-higurashi-series-steam/

Regarding new things: it's getting a new localization, the new sprites, you can switch languages, you can change between the sprites, it's the first time it's on Steam. That's all I've gathered pre-release.
 
I never understood why they translated the title that way. Doesn't Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni just mean When the Cicadas Cry? Why wouldn't they translate that one word?

IIRC I think that was how the Japanese developers decided to English-ize it, similar to how Hagane no Renkinjutsushi is translated as Fullmetal Alchemist and Mai-HiME is translated to My-HiME despite the fact that that's not how people fluent in both languages would translate those if it was their call.

Also, practically speaking it's a good compromise between a name that's a little too Japanese and keeping the name that English-speaking fans who were around before the localization know it by. Nobody would know that "When the Cicadas Cry" was, but "When the Higurashi Cry" sounds a little awkward, let alone "Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni." See also: the first Danganronpa's title being translated as "Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa," though I suppose that's an even more liberal translation of the title.
 

JulianImp

Member
Regarding the number of chapters:



http://www.siliconera.com/2015/04/05/mangagamer-bring-full-14-chapter-higurashi-series-steam/

Regarding new things: it's getting a new localization, the new sprites, you can switch languages, you can change between the sprites, it's the first time it's on Steam. That's all I've gathered pre-release.

Oh, I didn't know about there being fourteen chapters until I read it here. Still, it's really nice to know that we'll even be getting stuff that hadn't been translated before.

... But then, that means all 14 chapters will cost a grand total of $84, or is there any word of them offering discounts for getting multiple games?
 

Shizuka

Member
Oh, I didn't know about there being fourteen chapters until I read it here. Still, it's really nice to know that we'll even be getting stuff that hadn't been translated before.

... But then, that means all 14 chapters will cost a grand total of $84, or is there any word of them offering discounts for getting multiple games?

I have no idea. Since these will be released periodically, I believe that won't be that big of an issue. I mean, even if they release one per month, it'd take over an year to get all of them.
 

InfiniteNine

Rolling Girl
Considering how much content is in each chapter I don't think you should expect many discounts until the final chapter releases.
I'm wonder if they'll continue offering a small discount to those who purchase off their website though.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
IIRC I think that was how the Japanese developers decided to English-ize it, similar to how Hagane no Renkinjutsushi is translated as Fullmetal Alchemist and Mai-HiME is translated to My-HiME despite the fact that that's not how people fluent in both languages would translate those if it was their call.

Also, practically speaking it's a good compromise between a name that's a little too Japanese and keeping the name that English-speaking fans who were around before the localization know it by. Nobody would know that "When the Cicadas Cry" was, but "When the Higurashi Cry" sounds a little awkward, let alone "Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni." See also: the first Danganronpa's title being translated as "Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa," though I suppose that's an even more liberal translation of the title.

We kept When The Seagulls Cry when we did Umineko's fighting game, so I prefer sticking to the original meaning.


Was any of this edited? Some of it can get pretty twisted.

I have 1-4, so I'll probably start grabbing this when they hit the Answer arc.
 

InfiniteNine

Rolling Girl
Sans voices this is pretty content complete in terms of everything, but I expect a VA patch to pop up soon after like all the other versions.
 

Rhapsody

Banned
Time to get this. VN was way better than the anime, so I hope anime watchers still try to check this out.

Hopefully in the far far future, we could have Umineko also localized so more people can experience that too.
 
I'm real excited for it, was super happy when they announced that we could use the old sprites because I really can't stand the new ones.
 

Hikami

Member
Been wanting to check this out. Tried watching the anime before I think but never went past the first episode.
 

Gaspard

Member
Original sprites are the best.

This.

Higurashi is second only to Umineko in my favorite VNs. I remember waiting every few months for a MangaGamer episode update.

The VN is SO good in that the quality snowballs with each proceeding chapter. Cannot say the same for Umineko although that one has higher peaks and more complex characters.
 

Alrus

Member
I tried watching the anime but couldn't really get into it (I wish I did because the premise was intriguing). The original's VN looked absolutely awful so that put me off too.

I'd check this out but is there any chance they're going to do a discounted bundle if you buy all the chapters in one go? 6 bucks a pop is pretty steep if there's 14...
 

InfiniteNine

Rolling Girl
I tried watching the anime but couldn't really get into it (I wish I did because the premise was intriguing). The original's VN looked absolutely awful so that put me off too.

I'd check this out but is there any chance they're going to do a discounted bundle if you buy all the chapters in one go? 6 bucks a pop is pretty steep if there's 14...

Considering how long each chapter is an how much work it would be to retranslate each one I don't think they can go lower for a while after the final chapter is released since they'd have to make all their money back on the new art, translation, paying the rights for the original music, and such. The best you can do at the moment is buy off their site and get a small discount + Steam key for getting it directly from them.
 
The classic art....sure is diffrent. I learned to love the Umineko classic art. Seriously any VN fan has to try this one out.
 

kuroshiki

Member
Uh. Just don't try to make sense out of the storyline, like any traditional mystery novels.

The story is total mess, but other than that I'm sure ppl find value in this game.
 
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