Umineko: When They Cry

released on Aug 17, 2007

Umineko: When They Cry is a Japanese murder mystery visual novel. 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. The original releases contain no voice acting for the characters. While during gameplay, the Tips Mode can be viewed via the game's internal menu, which also includes save and load functions. These tips allow the player to read various supplementary information on the characters and story that may or may not be useful in solving the mystery. The ultimate goals of the gameplay involve reaching the truth behind the multi-cased mystery, determining where the gold is hidden, figuring out a solution in which ultimately everyone survives, and to solve the whole case by determining who the true murderer is in each chapter and whether it is due to supernatural events or human actions.


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I finished all 8 visual novels in 2 weeks. I could've pushed for a week & a half if I didn't have real life in my way.
The ride was kinda epic.

This review contains spoilers

wingless...

mating press beatrice, eva, natsuhi, ange, rosa, kyrie

(thoughts on this and the answer arcs) my favorite story, piece of fiction, piece of media, whatever you might label it. genuinely changed my mindset and outlook for the better. it's a story about the importance of narrative as it relates to ones' life, and the value in trying to understand others' stories rather than only seeing the world as it appears in one's own view, among many other things like love, generational trauma, and moving on. as someone who used to be super judgmental and only project my view onto everyone else, this had messages that i really needed to hear. the plot and the stakes spiral infinitely upwards in epicness and scope starting in episode 2. i never in ten million years would have guessed some of the insane, unimaginable directions things would've gone if you had only showed me episode 1. characters are impeccable and given tons of time to develop and grow. i sunk 200 hours into this and the answer arcs and finished the whole thing in one month. the writing is bloated and repetitive at times, yes, and a few arcs can drag on longer than necessary, but there's so much to love that i can easily overlook these flaws