It's hard to call Umineko anything other than a masterpiece. It's also hard to talk about at length without going into spoilers, so I'll be keeping it brief.
I'm not really the biggest visual novel guy; I usually prefer mechanically complex games over story-driven stuff. I went into Umineko expecting to drop it fairly quickly, but after about a hundred or so hours, I found myself sitting in front of my monitor crying my eyes out as the credits rolled.
Excellent mystery, great cast of characters, very detailed examination of love (of all kinds), quite possibly my new favorite soundtrack of all time, and one of the best endings I have ever had the pleasure of seeing in a game.
Zenith of the medium. Peak fiction. Well, not really, but you get the point.
Umineko has tons of layers, yet it never becomes a confusing mess. It's all surprisingly easy to follow. While at times the pacing (especially during the first half) can be a bit, erm, not very good? It's still a thrilling ride from beginning to end. If I had any other gripes with the game it would probably be that some characters are pretty useless in the grand scheme of things, but it doesn't really subtract much from the experience.
Also, when I said Umineko might have my new favorite soundtrack, I really meant that. The other two that kind of come close are NieR and VA-11 Hall-A, but Umineko's OST is almost on an entirely different level. The sound design is fantastic all around. From the sound of stakes piercing bodies, to the iconic ahaha.wav, it's all great. Tracks like "Golden Nocturne", "Golden Sneer", "Goldenslaughterer", "Dread of the Grave", "Happy Maria!", "Thanks for Being Born", "Miragecoordinator", "Dreamenddischarger", "Discode", "7 weights", "Ricordando il passato", and many more are so good I have to question whether these composers are humans or real life witches. Seriously, the sound design adds so much to the experience that some scenes wouldn't work as well without sound. Umineko is described as a sound novel for a reason. This is now a review of Umineko's soundtrack. The atmosphere some of these tracks are able to invoke is absolutely stunning, and I wish I could list examples but, yeah, spoiler-free review. Even the action scenes become more exciting than some boss fights in a lot of action games I've played.
If you've never read Umineko, go do it now, I highly recommend it. If you've never even heard of Umineko before, go into it blind. I did so and had one hell of a time. You're probably wondering what the best version is, since there's a few out there. I would personally recommend the PS3 remake which got an unofficial PC port. You can find that on https://nyaa.si/. If you would like to support 07th Expansion feel free to get the Steam release, which has the original meme artwork from Ryukishi himself, and the ugly pachinko art. I've heard there's a patch that adds the PS3 art as well, but I don't really know. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the artwork (at least in the PS3 remake) is excellent for the most part.
Anyways, yeah, Umineko no Naku Koro ni rocks, it's by far the best game I've played all year, I love it to pieces.
Without love, it cannot be seen. Never forget that.
I'm not really the biggest visual novel guy; I usually prefer mechanically complex games over story-driven stuff. I went into Umineko expecting to drop it fairly quickly, but after about a hundred or so hours, I found myself sitting in front of my monitor crying my eyes out as the credits rolled.
Excellent mystery, great cast of characters, very detailed examination of love (of all kinds), quite possibly my new favorite soundtrack of all time, and one of the best endings I have ever had the pleasure of seeing in a game.
Zenith of the medium. Peak fiction. Well, not really, but you get the point.
Umineko has tons of layers, yet it never becomes a confusing mess. It's all surprisingly easy to follow. While at times the pacing (especially during the first half) can be a bit, erm, not very good? It's still a thrilling ride from beginning to end. If I had any other gripes with the game it would probably be that some characters are pretty useless in the grand scheme of things, but it doesn't really subtract much from the experience.
Also, when I said Umineko might have my new favorite soundtrack, I really meant that. The other two that kind of come close are NieR and VA-11 Hall-A, but Umineko's OST is almost on an entirely different level. The sound design is fantastic all around. From the sound of stakes piercing bodies, to the iconic ahaha.wav, it's all great. Tracks like "Golden Nocturne", "Golden Sneer", "Goldenslaughterer", "Dread of the Grave", "Happy Maria!", "Thanks for Being Born", "Miragecoordinator", "Dreamenddischarger", "Discode", "7 weights", "Ricordando il passato", and many more are so good I have to question whether these composers are humans or real life witches. Seriously, the sound design adds so much to the experience that some scenes wouldn't work as well without sound. Umineko is described as a sound novel for a reason. This is now a review of Umineko's soundtrack. The atmosphere some of these tracks are able to invoke is absolutely stunning, and I wish I could list examples but, yeah, spoiler-free review. Even the action scenes become more exciting than some boss fights in a lot of action games I've played.
If you've never read Umineko, go do it now, I highly recommend it. If you've never even heard of Umineko before, go into it blind. I did so and had one hell of a time. You're probably wondering what the best version is, since there's a few out there. I would personally recommend the PS3 remake which got an unofficial PC port. You can find that on https://nyaa.si/. If you would like to support 07th Expansion feel free to get the Steam release, which has the original meme artwork from Ryukishi himself, and the ugly pachinko art. I've heard there's a patch that adds the PS3 art as well, but I don't really know. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the artwork (at least in the PS3 remake) is excellent for the most part.
Anyways, yeah, Umineko no Naku Koro ni rocks, it's by far the best game I've played all year, I love it to pieces.
Without love, it cannot be seen. Never forget that.
SoulP
2 years ago