This will be more of a rambling than an actual review because I think the game is too big and deep for me to do a good enough review of.

First off, I’ll say that I really enjoyed the game and that it was a very interesting read. Its soundtrack and voice acting are also out of this world and they elevate the game by a lot. Would I recommend this game? Not really. Do I think this is, as some people say, “peak fiction”? Not by a long shot.

The writing is ass at an incredible level. I wouldn’t even say it’s verbose, because it absolutely isn’t, it just carries on, and on, and on, and on. And then some. Not only is the structure of the game repetitive by design, but also in how it’s written, making scenes drag on for way more than they need too, with characters also hammering your head with the point the game is trying to make too frequently. Whole hours long scenes are also set up only to make a point in the game’s narrative, most of them being completely nonsense and chuuni shonen fight scenes which whole purpose is to try and trick you. I’d be fine with them if they weren’t so long, which is how I feel about the game as a whole. However deep and interesting its world and characters are, this story didn’t need to be +120 hours long, and didn’t have to be an 8-parter. This is obvious in some ways the story is made up as it goes, with characters changing things like titles from one chapter to another, or with their attitudes and personality swinging to fit the narrative.

The game has a pretty wide cast of characters and manages to flesh them out to be really interesting and you end up feeling really attached to most of them. However, I don’t feel this is an accomplishment at all with how much dialogue there is and how much time you have to share with the characters. If anything, they could be developed much more, but they only have a section of a chapter at most that is completely centered on them (Natsuhi, for example), to then be ignored for the rest of the story, bar some characters. This is especially true after Ch.5, when most of the family characters are almost reduced to background characters. Of the main characters and others outside family members, I have issues with some of them.

Most of the “fantasy creatures” are annoying, expendable, and cringeworthy to points I can’t even describe. I can understand some, like Ronove and Virgilia, who are created to fill up the fantasy side of the cast, are likable and have the role of helping the player. Others, like Dlanor, Will, Bern and Lambda are well established characters with clear roles in the game. However, the Stakes, Dlanor’s subordinates, the bunnies, Gaap, the goats and the absolutely INFURIATING love twins, bloat the already big cast and the runtime by an absurd amount while bringing almost nothing in return, being extremely cringeworthy and making the game more of a joke than it needs to be at times.

These two groups, family members and fantasy creatures, are reduced to little more than, ironically, pieces in a board by the later chapters, with paper-thin personalities and interchangeable roles.

My other issue is about the central characters of the game, that are important in almost every chapter: Beatrice, Battler, Ange, Bern, and Lambda.
The first two are extremely likeable and interesting during the Question Arcs, and then they become a shadow of what they used to be. It’s obvious their characterization has to change after what happens in Ch.4 and 5, but the switch is too sudden and dramatic for it to feel right. Things like Battler being suddenly OK with Beatrice killing (Or planning to kill, or showing herself killing. Whatever) their family, even though he specifically tries not to do it himself in Ch.6, feel out of place. Their love is also at the heart of the story but I don’t feel like I understand how it works at all. I understand how Beato loves him, but how does it switch from trying to torture him to punish him for forgetting their love, to loving him just because he remembers it and understands her? For Battler, what reason does he have to love her? What happened with Shannon was little more than a childish crush, which he even forgets, and he doesn’t have much reason to like Beatrice after chapters 1-4. Their interactions are hollow for most of the Answer Arcs, and part of it comes from the fact the story NEVER wants to recognize the existence of Yasu apart from their flashback, and Shannon and Battler won’t ever interact or make any reference at their supposed love, which is the reason mostly everything happens. I’d figure this is done to avoid giving up the culprit directly, which doesn’t make any sense since it is practically spelled out for you in the Answer Arcs.
All of the 5 that I’ve mentioned also switch their role in the story inconsistently and way too frequently. I know it’s kind of her character, but Lambda switches from villain to ally to neutral like 6 times in the whole game, most of them in the Answer arcs. Ange does it too, switching from truth and magic constantly, with the story even retconning Ch.4 and making her character regress in Ch.8, which by the way, takes its full duration to make the point already shown in 4. She is also unlikeable as shit but maybe that’s just me.

The way the story is constructed, with a focus in the meta world especially in the Answer Arcs hurts both the pacing and the story considerably. I know this story is mostly centered about metanarrative, the meaning of uncertainty and truth, and the mystery genre. Thing is, even though the things it’s trying to say are interesting, they are not deep enough to carry a game this long. This is particularly evident in the later chapters, which are the ones that focus the most on these points. The thing is, by this point you’re well aware of what it’s trying to say, so it ends up feeling boring and drawn out. Also, the thing about everything in the “catbox” being left to interpretation, especially things like Rosa not being a terrible parent that hates her child, Rudolf and Kyrie not being cold-blood killers, Kinzo being a loving father and grandpa, is honestly cool! Really cool idea with a beautiful resolution. Is it worth following that logic when it completely throws into the garbage most, if not all, of the characterization and events of the game? I personally think it absolutely doesn’t, it undermines it so much and makes it feel all those hours read were for nothing.

Now, to the actual “gameplay” of the VN, the mystery. I do not think Ryukishi07 is a good mystery writer at all. This was already apparent in Higurashi, but is way more important in a game like this. For a story that is supposedly written “from and for the heart” and “for readers who try hard enough to solve”, it is very much constructed in an almost robotic way without an inch of soul, and doesn’t treat the readers with respect, critizicing some of them explicitly in the story for not trying hard enough, when the mystery is just not really well made. Even though mistakes and erratic behaviour are shown in the characters for most of the story, for example in the actual events that happened as shown in Ch.7, accomplices in Ch.1-4 are supposed to follow the plan to the letter, and never doubt anything that happens or make any mistakes, or have any regrets about killing their family members.
The way the mystery is constructed, there is no motive for the crimes. Even though there is a reason the murders happen, cheap as it is, there is absolutely no hint of it that can be picked up by the reader as the story goes on. The execution of the crimes is also always simple, since there are only 2 tricks the author works with in the many, many murders that happen: the killers has up to 4 different personas that are used to fool the red truth (which only exists out of the actual killings and makes no sense for the killer to have into account, crazy as the culprit may be), and in any game most of the cast can be bought up as accomplices in any moment. Both of these tricks are terrible in my opinion, and any sane mystery reader would discard them for being nonsensical, but here we are. In conclusion, like in Higurashi, only the “whodunnit” matters and is actually possible to achieve, which makes the mystery “solvable”, but without any heart, like Will would say. It is also funny the game tries to make you solve the epitaph in various occasions when it is impossible to solve by design, which I consider to be pretty awful. Anyways, most of the crimes were only in the culprit’s head by the way, so they didn’t even happen and were a test or a novel or some shit. The game will also not explain how did they occur aside from a short riddle phrase for each Twilight in Ch.7, since you’re clever enough to figure out this bullshit, right? Not that it matters anyway.

The final message of the game is also a bit awkward. I love “without love, it cannot be seen” as a way for characters to be hopeful, to cope with the bad in their lives, and in a meta sense, to trust in the author of a story, be it a mystery or not, to offer a fair challenge and ultimately reward the player for immersing in the story. However, I don’t think it works as the final moral message of the story, together with the last clearly showing that magic is supposed to be the “good” path to follow instead of obsessing over the truth. Magic is shown to be a way for characters like Maria, Yasu or Ange to cope with their lives, but believing in it hurts them all in the end, especially Yasu. I would have liked a more subdued message, maybe you should believe when you it’s the best for you, but you can’t dismiss reality entirely. And for the meta sense of the phrase, I tried to trust the author, even though I already felt betrayed by the “mystery” in Higurashi before. I felt betrayed even more this time, so I don’t think it was fair at all.

At the end I ended up wishing for the ball to “get rolling” for most of the game. Things are supposed to get way better as it goes on, or so I’d been told. When the “incredible” 5th and 6th chapters came, which had very cool and interesting moments for 20% of the runtime and just nonsense bloat for the rest, I realized the Question arcs were gonna be what I liked the most and what I had left was mostly the inane drivel of a story that had already ended. Most of Ch.6 until the end of Ch.8 was such a drag it took me months to read it all for how slow, boring and annoying it was.

I went into this game with plenty of love all right, but there wasn’t that much to see after all. Really cool ideas, themes, music and presentation make up a mediocre game that was dragged down by its abysmal pacing and writing issues.

Let me explain. I don't hate Umineko. And I like Episode 7.

This review contains full Umineko VN spoilers and some minor manga expectations.

My issue with Umineko, especially Chiru and episode 8, isn't the less direct episode 7 reveal — I actually prefer the VN's approach to the manga's by far (where I think the Yasu Confessions chapter goes against her wishes in episode 7 and is worse for Umineko as a whole, despite being interesting on its own), and I actually like episode 7 quite a bit. I didn't like how in the manga Ryukishi basically changed the approach he was so insistent on with the VN and basically made a cheat sheet, as well as some other things, that made Umineko basically yet another mystery to me, losing part of what made it special despite my many issues with it. Some people aren't aware of this, but Umineko actually caused an outrage in Japan after finishing, mostly due to feeling like they were looked down upon (such as by the in-story goats and Erika) and not revealing the culprit directly. I think he got too much hate for this, and if anything, I completely disagree with the latter being an issue at all. One thing I really respect about Umineko to this day, especially in episode 7, is letting the reader connect the dots themself and make their conclusions, which made it unique. I also don't like how the manga basically made the episode 7 tea party 100% canon, making some of my issues, that I discuss later on, an even bigger deal for me.

My issue isn't Ange's escapism itself either, but more so the execution. This is a bit of a personal issue, so I don't think Umineko is "objectively bad" or anything, but long story short, I had a bit of a similar (but not exactly the same) experience as Ange as far as "not knowing" the real truth of a matter was and it being basically impossible to find it out, only having to rely on a "catbox" of contradicting accounts. It was bad enough to make myself closed off for years, so in that way I can relate to Ange. What I don't like though is that Ryukishi presents extremes of either her killing herself or basically revolving her life around baseless optimism, rather than a more realistic middle ground that someone would pick. I don't really get the idea of "the two extremes making the themes more beautiful", either. I've also been told that the magic ending is more "balanced", but Ange still ends up completely changing her way of life in any case, whether it be pursuing the mystery at the cost of having anything else in her life in the trick ending, or writing books and doing charity work due to the tragedy that happened in the magic ending. If we link that back to what I went through, my personal choice was that once I realised finding out "the truth" was impossible, I would move on by starting from square one in another place as my own person. I would remember the lessons taught and grieve for the people that I lost, but I would become my own person in a place where no one knew me. Of course, that also isn't the sole way to develop as a person if you have bad things happen to you, but I find it more believable. Ange basically written into a corner by Ryukishi where everything in her life sucks and it also felt forced because he really wanted these extremes to come up. I likely find this to be more of an issue than the average reader precisely due to how relatable the concept was to me.

Besides my own life experience, I also take issue with the way Ryukishi sees mysteries and himself as a mystery writer. For one, I'll point out that Ryukishi sees Higurashi and Umineko as works for different audiences. He considered Umineko to be a thinking man's media, so to speak, and not Higurashi, which is unfortunate to hear considering how much heart and soul he poured into it. Following up on this, it is weird how he limits himself to only referencing classical Western mystery novels and Japanese honkaku (rather than shinhonkaku), while also giving off the impression that he thinks he's the first one to ever do what he did. Other works have explored similar ideas to "without love it cannot be seen". Ryukishi is not the first one and I do not like how he acts like he figured out the mystery medium, while he purposefully limits himself to just classics, even going as far as being inspired by and mentioning Agatha Christie, even though she was pretty subversive and experimental herself even at the time. By the way, the first source I linked in this paragraph also confirms that he was, in fact, at least partially, looking down on some "loveless" readers through the goats, which I am not a fan of.

And speaking of "without love it cannot be seen", the way this idea is handled is really weird to me, especially in episode 8. For example, you have the Ushiromiya family basically get called "equally guilty" for causing the disaster, even though comparing Jessica, who did literally nothing wrong, or Maria to someone like Kyrie and Rudolf (who for example tortured Jessica to death, or enjoying killing children) is absolutely insane. And then you have the speech that Kyrie told Eva about how "she would be evil in different what-if circumstances", which with episode 8 and overall meta context is crazy. "Sure, Eva, I was the one who tortured and killed those people, but what if YOU were the one was the culprit?". Overall, I am a believer in "sympathise, don't empathise" in such situations, which some of those other shinhonkaku explore. Being told to feel equally sorry for Kyrie and Maria is just bizarre to me.

Other complaints I had included annoying gimmick characters like Sakutarou, repetition at the start of episodes 1-6 (though it got better after episode 3) and an almost fetishization of murder that a lot of mystery has the decency to be above, at least with innocent victims (like Eva-Beatrice throwing people up and down and up and down again). I also don't care about most episodes besides 1, 7, and maybe 3. 5 had some cool moments but was whatever and I thought 6 was underwhelming. Additionally, the console sprites (I am not a fan of the original WTC sprites outside of Ciconia) are quite mediocre, especially considering WTC's popularity. It's insane to me that WTC, as influential as it is, cannot get sprites with a better art style.

On the plus side, the music is incredible. Definitely top 3 OSTs of all time.

Finally, despite what I said, I have great respect for Ryukishi. He was a social worker (and it shows in Higurashi and Umineko), and he definitely was committed to his vision (before he got an unjust amount of hate for Umineko, and for the wrong things too, in my opinion). I just think that he does not know what he's talking about when it comes to some types of trauma like Ange's and the mystery genre. Again, I don't think Umineko is "objectively" bad, and I do admit I have a bit of bias, but as someone who has been on both sides of the fence (I once had it at a 10), I've had various perspectives on it, and I think that, despite now thinking mostly negatively about it, I will continue thinking about it from time to time in years to come.

"The human heart is no small thing. It can hold so much."

In the second act of Pentiment, Andreas, lost in a labyrinth of grief following the death of his young son from the plague, returns to Tassing with his young assistant Caspar. As the act progresses you are presented with several opportunities to define their relationship: you can be cold and borderline cruel, or neutral and indifferent, or you can be kind. You can care. His relationship with Caspar can provide you with an echo of the father that Andreas could have, should have been. Kindness, even at its most difficult, is always an option.

The Abbey burns. Andreas dies, and then he lives. And then, in the third act, you learn the consequences of your actions: if Andreas treated Caspar with kindness, he died trying to save him. If you were cruel to him, Caspar leaves Andreas to burn - he abandons you, but he lives.

I knew what would happen. I knew the consequences. I knew that if I wanted to save him from his fate, I would have to break his heart. Crush his spirit. I was determined. And even still, while replaying Pentiment for the first time since its release...I couldn't bring myself to do it. With every encouraging word, every smile, every act of compassion, I doomed him to his fate. It hurt, but it in the most bittersweet, beautiful way. Kindness, even at its most difficult, is always, always, an option.

I love this game. I loved it the first time I played it, and I loved it even more on the second go. Pentiment isn’t a perfect game, but it is the sort that sticks with you long after the credits roll. A gift, from beginning to end.