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[MetalDeer]

Well, guess I have quite a few other games I could fill in the gap with. It's still gonna be a brutal wait, especially at that pace, assuming they don't speed up translation along the way.

I haven't really looked into this series much before playing it, is there a fan translation of any kind?

 

[cj_iwakura]

Well, guess I have quite a few other games I could fill in the gap with. It's still gonna be a brutal wait, especially at that pace, assuming they don't speed up translation along the way.

I haven't really looked into this series much before playing it, is there a fan translation of any kind?

Official translations of 1-8 exist, but you'll have to patch it for the original art.

 

[Faabulous]

Is there anything wrong with the Original translation? I'm thinking of just grabbing those from the MG site. Can't stand the wait.

 

[JulianImp]

It looks like trading cards and other Steam market items are finally dropping as the supply increases. Hopefully that means I can get the Rena emoticon for less than what it cost to get the game itself, at the very least.

 

[cj_iwakura]

Is there anything wrong with the Original translation? I'm thinking of just grabbing those from the MG site. Can't stand the wait.

Seems just fine to me.

 

[Shizuka]

I thought that the original translation was just the fanstranslation after editing from MG, while now it's a brand new localization.

 

[Shizuka]

Apparently, the voice patch is out. I don't know if I can link it here, though.

 

[MetalDeer]

Oh, good, a voice acting patch. Right after I finished going through it.

Well, I guess I wanted to go through it again eventually, anyways.

I've seen some people linking it in other threads, so I think it's okay? Not sure. It is stuff ripped from the console versions, I guess.

 

[cj_iwakura]

It also does the PS3 art. Sure didn't take long.

Are the voices good? Umineko's are, but the writing is so good you don't really need them.

 

[MetalDeer]

I haven't gone through the whole thing yet, but the voice acting seems okay. It doesn't really add or take away from it, at least to me. The writing speaks for itself in this case, too.

Maybe it would've had more impact if I played with voices the first time. Nonetheless, it's nice to have something other than BGM to listen to.

 

[JulianImp]

By the way, does anyone know if you can still choose between different sprite options after applying the patch?

 

[MetalDeer]

By the way, does anyone know if you can still choose between different sprite options after applying the patch?

If you patch in the PS2 sprites, it replaces the new sprites. You can still switch between the patched sprites and the original sprites, though.

 

[SOLDIER]

Can we get some comparison shots between the PS3 and Steam sprites and backgrounds?

 

[InfiniteNine]

I wouldn't use the voice patch quite yet since the automated adding of it accidently commented out some lines and some other odd stuff, but the BG patch comes in two flavors to have some corrected Steam Sprites or the PS2 ones so pick your poison there.
No links since it has Alchemist materials which are from the PS2 and PS3 versions so no go unless you have those.

Edit: Also in progress reports someone made tools to extract PS3 assets so they'll be added sometime soon and make the game 16:9 with the newer BG assets.

 

[Basileus777]

MangaGamer has a blog post up about the technical work on the game. It mentions that they tried to license the console assets, but couldn't get it done.

 

[Shizuka]

MangaGamer has a blog post up about the technical work on the game. It mentions that they tried to license the console assets, but couldn't get it done.

Bernkastel is not amused.

 

[JulianImp]

Bernkastel is not amused.

Luckily. If she was amused, then MG would've probably gotten the rights easily at first, but then there would've been some ironic twist that would've made the project crash and burn or something.

It's nice to see a post about how they made their engine in Unity, since I've been creating my own system for a couple of months. Some of the things they ended up doing sound a bit strange, such as all sprites being rendered in 640x480 textures, but others such as the scaleable font sound cool. I'm also kind of happy that my system doesn't appear to be missing anything compared to the one they made.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Aw shit, voice patch already. Good stuff.

Oh, for the "How's it selling?" crowd:
http://steamspy.com/search.php?s=higurashi

 

[InfiniteNine]

Well the VA patch isn't particularly done because some scenes were rewritten for the PS3 version for some reason so it'll be done after someone retranslates a few parts.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Yeah they commented that the convo about Keiichi's dick isn't voiced since there's apparently more dialogue added to the PS3 version. Clearly they added dialogue to all the important parts of the script.

Are the TIPS supposed to be voiced? I can't really tell from the voice patch notes, which explicitly tell you only to overwrite the main scenario scripts.

 

[Basileus777]

Aw shit, voice patch already. Good stuff.

Oh, for the "How's it selling?" crowd:
http://steamspy.com/search.php?s=higurashi

MangaGamer's own numbers confirm those SteamSpy ones.

Sales numbers on Steam are impressive--over ten thousand people now own Go Go Nippon, Onikakushi, and our other titles on Steam are pulling impressive numbers as well. This has really made all-ages releases a more viable option than they used to be prior to Steam's acceptance of the medium. Furthermore, we're also seeing a lot of increased traffic to our site coming from Steam users who are seeking the adult versions of products that caught their eye on Steam. Overall sales are rising as result, and everyone's benefiting since the increased sales and traffic have even more Japanese developers looking to work with us than ever before.

 

[InfiniteNine]

Well BG patch is getting updated since the game can support 16:9 resolution now so you can use the PS3 BGs uncut with it. Voice patch also should get updates since someone did some sloppy translating with the changed lines/scenes.

 

[chiimisu]

So, I guess it isn't possible to tie something like AGTH/translation aggregator to the game since its engine is based on Unity, right? Shame, I thought to use it for the study purposes I've heard PS3 has full voice acting, is it true? Are Keiichi's inner monologue/thoughts voiced and stuff? That'd be very useful.

Really hope for the Umineko release!

Spoiler

Maybe it'll finally become popular enough for proper animefication? <3

 

[Basileus777]

So, I guess it isn't possible to tie something like AGTH/translation aggregator to the game since its engine is based on Unity, right? Shame, I thought to use it for the study purposes I've heard PS3 has full voice acting, is it true? Are Keiichi's inner monologue/thoughts voiced and stuff? That'd be very useful.

The dialogue is voiced, not the narration. But there is a patch to put the PS3 voices into this version of the game. Check the Steam forums.

The voice patch has actually put me in a quandary because it's such an improvement that I don't want to go back to voiceless. I want to keep reading, but will have to wait for MangaGamer to slowly slowly put out these chapters if I want voices.

 

[chiimisu]

The dialogue is voiced, not the narration. But there is a patch to put the PS3 voices into this version of the game. Check the Steam forums.

Thanks for clearing this up, good man! I'll be sure to check

 

[JulianImp]

Really hope for the Umineko release!

Spoiler

Maybe it'll finally become popular enough for proper animefication? <3

I dunno... they already tried and it bombed hard, even though you could blame it on awful continuity errors and scenes that directly contradicted the source material at times.

Maybe it's the fact that, unlike Higurashi that throws Keiichi (and the reader) straight into the groups' wacky club activies after a very short introduction, Umineko and its considerably larger cast takes a lot longer to get going before you actually get to care about any of the characters (other than Battler and Beato, maybe?). Most of the time you'll end up missing the subtle hints and foreshadowing that becomes a lot more obvious on later reads, so you probably won't care about most of the cast until a few episodes into the story.

Higurashi, with its considerably smaller main cast, manages to introduce you to all of them in at least a basic way so that you begin to care about them throughout the very first episode, which certainly wasn't possible with Umineko even though the payout in it is so much more satisfying in the end.

 

[InfiniteNine]

Yeah I dropped Umineko in the first episode since they kinda just flat out went to the first twilight.

 

[JulianImp]

Yeah I dropped Umineko in the first episode since they kinda just flat out went to the first twilight.

Yeah. It's a bit jarring that you get a wall of text on the Ushiromiya family members and the current state of affairs and who the servants are, but only on a surface level, and then the first twilight happens and you're probably left saying "Uh... okay, whatever" since

Spoiler

you barely got to meet the victims before they were murdered

, and the same thing happens with later twilights.

One thing I've got to thank the anime for is that it showed me enough of the series to know things would get way more interesting later on so that I wouldn't drop it entirely.

I also think Ep3 was where I slowly begun caring about anybody that wasn't Beatrice... Battler always felt like a boring audience expy most of the time, even if he had his fair share of

Spoiler

cool Phoenix Wright-esque turnabout

moments. Episode 2 was an okay one where the magical vs mundane argument came up in full force, but it still was a bit weird with the one-sided game Beato was pulling thanks to her red truth.

 

[chiimisu]

I dunno... they already tried and it bombed hard, even though you could blame it on awful continuity errors and scenes that directly contradicted the source material at times.

Maybe it's the fact that, unlike Higurashi that throws Keiichi (and the reader) straight into the groups' wacky club activies after a very short introduction, Umineko and its considerably larger cast takes a lot longer to get going before you actually get to care about any of the characters (other than Battler and Beato, maybe?). Most of the time you'll end up missing the subtle hints and foreshadowing that becomes a lot more obvious on later reads, so you probably won't care about most of the cast until a few episodes into the story.

Higurashi, with its considerably smaller main cast, manages to introduce you to all of them in at least a basic way so that you begin to care about them throughout the very first episode, which certainly wasn't possible with Umineko even though the payout in it is so much more satisfying in the end.

Yeah, I agree. Umineko is probably not the easiest VN to adapt. But Steins;Gate and Fate/Stay Night aren't, either. And they still have good anime.
I remember really loving Higurashi anime

Spoiler

still one of my favorites ever, still hasn't read the VN

, then going straight into Umineko with high expectations and HATING it. We watched it with my friend at the same time without reading the original, and we both dropped it around the 10th episode because we've lost track of what's going on.
Umineko is great, but really slow-paced and subtle and full of so many little details that establish the characters really well.
I feel like that if Ryukishi gave the franchise to the studio that would actually care, than the results might be much better. I wonder why is it always DEEN that makes When they Cry anime?

 

[JulianImp]

Yeah, I agree. Umineko is probably not the easiest VN to adapt. But Steins;Gate and Fate/Stay Night aren't, either.
I remember really loving Higurashi anime

Spoiler

still one of my favorites ever, still hasn't read the VN

, then going straight into Umineko with great expectations and HATING it. We watched it with my friend at the same time without reading the original, and we both dropped it around the 10th episode because we've lost track of what's going on.
Umineko is great, but really slow-paced and subtle and full of so many little details that establish the characters really well.
I feel like that if Ryukishi gave the franchise to the studio that would actually care, than the results might be much better? I wonder why it is always DEEN that makes When they Cry anime?

Higurashi only has a couple of characters who are the focus of the story (spoiler tagging for first-time readers):

Spoiler

Keiichi, Rena, Mion, Shion, Satoko, Rika, Ooishi, Takano, the photographer guy, Rika and Satoko's doctor and Hanyu

, while Umineko's cast, well (spoiler-tagging as well)...

Spoiler

Battler, Jessica, George, Maria, Ange, Rosa, Hideyoshi, Eva, Rudolf, Kyrie, Krauss, Natsuhi, Kinzo, Nanjo, Genji, Kumasawa, Shanon, Kanon, Gohda, Amakusa, Furude Erika, Beatrice, Hachijo Tohya and Kikuko... and then the meta characters Beatrice, Beatrice (no, not a typo), EVA-Beatrice, ANGE-Beatrice, Beatrice the elder, Beatrice the younger, Claire, Bernkanstel, Lambdadelta, Sakutaro, Virgilia, Ronove, Gaap, the Seven Sisters of Purgatory, the Chiester Sisters, Dlanor, Cordelia, Gertrude, Will Wright, Zepar, Furfur and Featherine Augustus Aurora

... and I'm still probably missing a character or two in there.

Given eight episodes for each show, it's glaringly obvious why Higurashi could get going considerably faster than Umineko and it's ludicrously large cast. But once Umineko gets going, hoo boy...

I liked Higanbana 1 because of how the stories were shorter than in Higurashi and Umineko, and something I also like of Ryukishi's works is how he keeps subverting the readers' expectations coming from his previous work.

 

[chiimisu]

I liked Higanbana 1 because of how the stories were shorter than in Higurashi and Umineko, and something I also like of Ryukishi's works is how he keeps subverting the readers' expectations coming from his previous work.

I wonder, is Higanbana any good? I've heard it's quite lacking compared to his other works.

 

[JulianImp]

I wonder, is Higanbana any good? I've heard it's quite lacking compared to his other works.

I personally liked what I've read so far (Part 1, up to Ep5) a whole lot. Umineko kind of teaches you about the power of

Spoiler

magic as escapism, and how you can fabricate things through making people believe in them

, and then Higanbana turns that logic on its head and mercilessly whacks you over the head with it. I also liked applying Umineko logic to the things that happened in Higanbana, and how sometimes that worked out and sometimes it didn't at all, but it still made reading the tales of school youkai, students and teachers a lot more interesting than they probably would've been otherwise.

Having read Umineko and only watched the Higurashi anime so far, I can say that Umineko is so much better than Higurashi in my opinion. While Higurashi was cool, Umineko managed to tear my truth-centric way of thinking mystery stories to pieces and fed it to magical starving cats.

 

[chiimisu]

I personally liked what I've read so far (Part 1, up to Ep5) a whole lot. Umineko kind of teaches you about the power of

Spoiler

magic as escapism, and how you can fabricate things through making people believe in them

, and then Higanbana turns that logic on its head and mercilessly whacks you over the head with it. I also liked applying Umineko logic to the things that happened in Higanbana, and how sometimes that worked out and sometimes it didn't at all, but it still made reading the tales of school youkai, students and teachers a lot more interesting than they probably would've been otherwise.

Having read Umineko and only watched the Higurashi anime so far, I can say that Umineko is so much better than Higurashi in my opinion. While Higurashi was cool, Umineko managed to tear my truth-centric way of thinking mystery stories to pieces and fed it to magical starving cats.

Ah, I see! Thanks, I'll check it out, then. Sounds interesting.

I think that both of them are equally good and not really comparable. I like
Umineko's magnitude and epicness

Spoiler

this word is quite overplayed, but I think that it suits the series perfectly

and Higurashi's overall mysterious atmosphere. And it's freaking story about

Spoiler

friendship and trust

covered under mass murders and gore and madness! How can you not love this, lol. Any Ryukishi stuff is good to me.

 

[JulianImp]

Ah, I see! Thanks, I'll check it out, then. Sounds interesting.

I think that both of them are equally good and not really comparable. I like
Umineko's magnitude and epicness

Spoiler

this word is quite overplayed, but I think that it suits the series perfectly

and Higurashi's overall mysterious atmosphere. And it's freaking story about

Spoiler

friendship and trust

covered under mass murders and gore and madness! How can you not love this, lol. Any Ryukishi stuff is good to me.

Just for reference, the main theme in Higanbana is bullying. Then there're several school youkai who interact with humans, and the tone ranges from relatively happy stories to things way way darker than both Higurashi and Umineko combined. Oh, and I feel like the chiaroscuro style used for character art makes it a lot more tolerable, even if the proportions are still pretty weird at times.

All stories are only conected to each other by the school they happen at and thet shcool youkai who interact with each other and with the students and teachers in that particular story (with a couple being recurring characters, while others are more one-shot in nature).

It's a nice read that can get pretty creepy at times, and it kind of inspired me to write my thoughts as I played through each episode starting with the second one.

If we could get another Steam release of a 7th Expansion game, I'd really like to see them tackle Higanbana since it's way shorter (only two discs), which makes it infinitely more likely to be TLed in time compared to Umineko.

Edit: Eh, I guess I'm getting too carried away into talking about non-Higurashi games in this thread. I wonder if it's okay to do so or should I stop, I wonder.

 

[SOLDIER]

I bought the first version of this VN from a Groupees bundle, which gave a redemption key for Desura.

I was wondering if it was possible to get a Steam key out of that transaction, as I've heard some people getting Steam keys for games they got through Desura in light of the company's current situation.

 

[WhirlwindMonk]

I bought the first version of this VN from a Groupees bundle, which gave a redemption key for Desura.

I was wondering if it was possible to get a Steam key out of that transaction, as I've heard some people getting Steam keys for games they got through Desura in light of the company's current situation.

I doubt it, since the old version and the Steam version are basically considered completely different games. New sprites, all the original music, new translation, etc. MangaGamer has already said as much, as I recall.

 

[Shizuka]

For the next 20 hours, you can get Higurashi When They Cry Hou Ch 1, eden* and a few other games on a bundle for just $2 on IndieGala.

 

[Hikami]

Finally got the game from that bundle thing. Could never get past the first episode in the anime but, 3 hours in to this and I'm really liking it.

Though I feel like I'll just want to go and watch the anime whenever this ends

 

[Basileus777]

Chapter 2, Watanagashi is coming out Friday the 13th.

 

[Shizuka]

Chapter 2, Watanagashi is coming out Friday the 13th.

I'm getting it day-one, but I'm already suffering for not remembering the first chapter well after so long.

 

[TP]

Chapter 2 is up for download at MangaGamer
Steam at 4pm pst

 

[Anteater]

Where's the buy button on steam

I guess I'm going to get it on steam since I have like 3 bucks in my wallet

Edit: didn't know there's an OT, I got here by accident because I clicked on the community tab.

 

[Shizuka]

Higurashi When They Cry Hou - Ch.2 Watanagashi Out Now on Steam (first week 10% discount).

 

[JulianImp]

Higurashi When They Cry Hou - Ch.2 Watanagashi Out Now on Steam (first week 10% discount).

And just as I was complaining about having to create yet another site account to purchase the game on MG...

This is the only series where I felt compelled to go and gather the trading cards and craft a full set, but I guess that'd change if either Umineko or Higanbana ended up hitting Steam

Spoiler

before I die.

 

[Jazzem]

I played through the first chapter around Halloween and loved it, even with the crazily long build up! Such an eerie experience, great cast of characters too. Can't wait to see how the later chapters mixes things up.

Just bought the 2nd chapter, but will hold off until the mod for PS3 visuals+voices gets uploaded, they kind of spoiled me with the original game.

 

[Anteater]

hmm I've played through half of ch2

the structure of the story is really weird

I didn't like the first half of ch2 all that much

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Finished Chapter 2, and this ends the point of the story where I had any idea what was coming next (never saw any further in the anime).

Pretty different from Chapter 1, but in some necessary and important ways. I'm looking forward to playing Chapter 3 in six months or so.

 

[Shizuka]

Higurashi When They Cry - Ch 3 Tatarigoroshi is out, 10% off for the first week.