Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Ryuga Death
May 14, 2008

There's gotta be one more bell to crack
Fun Shoe
Since some of you don't mind, more Higurashi ch. 3 (and maybe some stuff before it) ramblings: I feel terrible for even considering it but I don't entirely trust Satoko after some of the tips and stuff talked about between Keiichi and her regarding how she can predict what someone will do even after they figured out the first part of her trap. Though I wonder if I'm just overthinking it like Keiichi did when he did that card game with Mion where had he just gone with his initial gut reaction, he would've won. It also seems like there are constants between chapters? Something always happens with the photographer and nurse, but the nurse simply vanished in chapter 1 unless no one found the oil drum the first time. Rena still has the same backstory even in chapter 3, I'm guessing, judging from some of the things she said.

Sorry for sounding terrible but I had a good laugh when Rena was doing the wide eyed thing talking about the curse and then Mion just told her, "Stop it, Rena". Imagine if that was all Keiichi needed to do to stop her in chapter 1.



Aaaaaah, I want off this ride.

Does the original steam release really not have voices? That seems like half the experience would be missing.

Ryuga Death fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Mar 9, 2019

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Yakiniku Teishoku
Mar 16, 2011

Peace On Egg
Yeah reaction posts are the good poo poo. Everyone should keep ‘em coming

Heroic Yoshimitsu
Jan 15, 2008

I'll post some of my thoughts on Umineko Episode 8 then.

You know at first I was pretty down on the episode. The way Episode 7 resolved, with sorta-basically telling you who the killer was kinda but playing coy about it, left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. So Episode 8 beginning with Ange wanting to know the truth and Battler basically telling her no, instead here's this silly fun story instead got on my nerves. I now know this was intentional though, Battler and Ange are fighting against each other in a game with Battler (who by the way is a huge traitor) pulling out anything he can to manipulate Ange into doing what he wants. Thankfully Ange has wizened up to this, she know Eva's diary is in the Chapel so now she's able to fight back on equal footing. Thanks to young Eva??? Who I never thought I would see again.

The part where you are given a game to solve yourself was a lot of fun! I made it harder on myself in the beginning and ignored the narration. Once I understood that Nanjo died, the pieces fell into place. My solution was Battler/Kyrie/Rudolf, a little later Erika postulates a possible George/Hideyoshi/Eva solution and I wonder if you enter in that if that would count as right?

I think ANGE Beatrice looks very cool. The fight between the major characters and the hordes of goats is a little heavy-handed. You got these goats, hoard of "mindless" creatures yelling "It's possible to explain everything with mystery... everything is mysteryyyyyyyy!!!".... it's pretty eye-rolling. This story has always had a hard time with giving you answers to anything, and this part almost seems like it is making fun of people who care about the mystery. Fortunately, Will and Dlanor are very cool so they save the scene.

At this point I'd almost wager that even IF Ange gets to read the truth, we the readers of Umineko won't be allowed to see it. In fact, I'd be pleasantly surprised if any satisfying closure happened at all.

ALSO, Battler is getting a little hypocritical here, admonishing people who have "played around" with his family's death as they theorized what happened on the island, while he himself not a short while ago laughed it up with Bernkastel over a game where he and his parents murdered everyone else.

Oh also also, not knowing too much about the mystery genre, I did look up Van Dine and Knox. Not only were they real mystery writers, they DID have their own set of rules for mysteries. It's really neat Umineko how uses them, then.

Heroic Yoshimitsu fucked around with this message at 20:10 on Mar 9, 2019

Nep-Nep
May 15, 2004

Just one more thing!
Umineko Episode 6: I'm glad for the callback to Battler's terrible bomb theory for the first 6 murders in episode 2. Beatrice's reaction to that when he proposed it in episode 4 was alone worth installing the voice patch for.

TalkLittle
Jun 23, 2004

428 Shibuya Scramble- Really glad I learned early on that you can skip already-read text using the backlog function.

13:00-14:00 block- Tama and Minorikawa, the two dumber plotlines, are getting better! Probably helps that the plotlines are overlapping for the first time. Yanagishita (Burning Hammer guy) finally became slightly less one-dimensional, after revealing his crush on Miku and debt being related to that. Actually made me feel bad for him.

I really want to see the cosplay fights at the Bride cafe.

Now the game's gotten me curious about who Tama is, as she must play an important role after recovering her memories. My guess for now is maybe she's related to Osawa's antiviral injection guilt? They seem the least related right now, but given the lineup of characters we have so far, that connection might make sense.

Originally I thought Burning Hammer might be the secret antidote to the big bad virus in Osawa's plotline, but now that Chiri took all of the Burning Hammer home with her, I doubt it will be relevant to the rest of the story. But then again, there are some aspects of it like the burning capsaicin they keep mentioning, which makes me think it'll show up again as a weapon.

SealHammer
Jul 4, 2010
Click to understand my bad faith posting.

astr0man posted:

I finished Chaos;Child. I thought it was good and certainly scratched my pseudo-science/SF VN itch, but not really close to the level of Steins;Gate good.

Finished a little while ago and feel about the same. Steins Gate wraps up pretty neatly and satisfyingly where Chaos Child leaves a lot on the table.

More Kanako Itou is always nice though.

Nep-Nep
May 15, 2004

Just one more thing!
Umineko 6 again: I'm guessing based on the red truths here that this is a trick of assumptions- there is still someone hiding inside the room, but that isn't "Ushiromiya Battler" or something like that, that there is an impostor who was mistaken for Battler present, and that in this particular game the real Battler was never on the island.

edit: Okay my guess was way off but did at least hit on the note of "someone who isn't Battler is now in the room." I like it.

edit 2: oh goddamnit Erika you are just the worst.

Nep-Nep fucked around with this message at 09:21 on Mar 10, 2019

Saoshyant
Oct 26, 2010

:hmmorks: :orks:


It's been a long time coming, but after a whole year I finally finished The House in Fata Morgana and I can say "wow", because I know I won't ever play/read another VN like it. Between life getting in the way, me not enjoying sitting much on the computer these days (due to holding two jobs that force me to be sitting on the computer all day), and the story being pretty drat bleak, I had a hard time going through it, but even with all the time it took I never forgot about it or any of its key moments; I always knew what I was getting back to when I had an opportunity to revisit the mansion.

At times, it felt like the plot was plodding about with some pacing issues, but after the ending I can say I was wrong: had it been shorter, it wouldn't have worked as well because there wouldn't be room for all characters to breathe... and they are all important. I think it's a story that changes one to be better, to be stronger, in spite of all the bleakness. And that soundtrack... both astounding and unique. I will never forget it.

So, my sincere thanks to Sefal who gifted me this title many moons ago. I would have sent a message directly on Steam, but I haven't seen them in a long while there (hope all's well).

If you haven't yet, stop whatever you're doing and go check out Fata Morgana.

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
I'm not sure how active he is on the forums these days but he's still around in the FGO discord.

Anyway I am not the one who gifted it to you but I'm glad you liked it!! The prequel/sequel Requiem is also very good.

Arbitrary Number
Nov 10, 2012

Since people like reaction posts, I'll post my thoughts on Higurashi ch2. I'm spoiled on a big thing from a let's play of Umineko.

I like how in this chapter, everything gets more and more explainable by human causes until the end unlike in Ch1 where the spookiness ramped up to the end. I thought this was going to end when Keiichi got stabbed where pretty much everything could be explained. Mion's demon could have been some mental illness, and Tomitake's throat clawing was explained by drugs this time, unlike the first one where I think they were ruled out. But then comes the time of death shenanigans and Mion being in two places in one night while also being dead and Keiichi's mysterious death. Rika's syringe is a mystery too. From what I know, I'm guessing it's going to important in the future.

I like the slice of life parts. I didn't expect Shion to exist, but in hindsight, thinking Keiichi was actually right about something was a mistake. The kid doesn't seem like the brightest, even when he's not terrified. I'm one to talk though, since I didn't understand if it was Shion or Mion pretending on the first visit to Cafe Mort. Every Shion after that was definitely actual Shion.

Another difference between this and Ch1 is the role of Rena. This time she's an ally and expert detective instead of a possessed. Since the next chapter's icon is Satoko, I expect it to focus on her (Plus the line in the EXTRA where it says she'll get her turn). If I had to guess, I'd say she'll be the perpetrator carrying out killings with tons of nasty traps, while Mion's Keiichi's greatest ally to switch it up. There might be a new character with graphics. Is it too silly to expect it to be Satoko's twin sister never before mentioned?


Umineko was murder mystery themed and Higurashi is more a small-town horror. Does it have some message or catchphrase like 'without love it can't be seen'? It'll be interesting to find out. Also, there are voices? What?

Ryuga Death
May 14, 2008

There's gotta be one more bell to crack
Fun Shoe

Arbitrary Number posted:

Since people like reaction posts, I'll post my thoughts on Higurashi ch2. I'm spoiled on a big thing from a let's play of Umineko.

I like how in this chapter, everything gets more and more explainable by human causes until the end unlike in Ch1 where the spookiness ramped up to the end. I thought this was going to end when Keiichi got stabbed where pretty much everything could be explained. Mion's demon could have been some mental illness, and Tomitake's throat clawing was explained by drugs this time, unlike the first one where I think they were ruled out. But then comes the time of death shenanigans and Mion being in two places in one night while also being dead and Keiichi's mysterious death. Rika's syringe is a mystery too. From what I know, I'm guessing it's going to important in the future.

I like the slice of life parts. I didn't expect Shion to exist, but in hindsight, thinking Keiichi was actually right about something was a mistake. The kid doesn't seem like the brightest, even when he's not terrified. I'm one to talk though, since I didn't understand if it was Shion or Mion pretending on the first visit to Cafe Mort. Every Shion after that was definitely actual Shion.

Another difference between this and Ch1 is the role of Rena. This time she's an ally and expert detective instead of a possessed. Since the next chapter's icon is Satoko, I expect it to focus on her (Plus the line in the EXTRA where it says she'll get her turn). If I had to guess, I'd say she'll be the perpetrator carrying out killings with tons of nasty traps, while Mion's Keiichi's greatest ally to switch it up. There might be a new character with graphics. Is it too silly to expect it to be Satoko's twin sister never before mentioned?


Umineko was murder mystery themed and Higurashi is more a small-town horror. Does it have some message or catchphrase like 'without love it can't be seen'? It'll be interesting to find out. Also, there are voices? What?

I think the voices add a lot. Here's a link. It's a really easy to install mod.

So you think that was Shion on the phone that got all crazy and laughed when Keiichi caught her on the mayor's disappearance? I might just be overthinking what is probably a simple plot event but that whole thing bothers me.

Arbitrary Number
Nov 10, 2012

Ryuga Death posted:

I think the voices add a lot. Here's a link. It's a really easy to install mod.

So you think that was Shion on the phone that got all crazy and laughed when Keiichi caught her on the mayor's disappearance? I might just be overthinking what is probably a simple plot event but that whole thing bothers me.

Thanks for the link.

No, I was only thinking of Shion's appearances in person. The one over the phone, if taking the 'people did it' approach was Mion pretending to be Shion. I'm not sure why she'd do that, though it did let her get a confession out of Keiichi. If demons did it, then it could be a disembodied voice or something spooky like that.

TalkLittle
Jun 23, 2004

428 Shibuya Scramble. 14:00 major spoilers- WELP I feel like I should have seen that Tama reveal coming but I didn't. This getting good!

kirbysuperstar
Nov 11, 2012

Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess.

TalkLittle posted:

428 Shibuya Scramble. 14:00 major spoilers- WELP I feel like I should have seen that Tama reveal coming but I didn't. This getting good!

Yeah I kinda felt like I should have seen that coming, too. Maybe I'm getting old and rusty.

Ryuga Death
May 14, 2008

There's gotta be one more bell to crack
Fun Shoe
Just finished chapter 3 of higurashi: It's like the story just took a detour into nonsense after the detective didn't find a body in the hole and then never let up until the end. Just what the hell? I feel like I understand even less now. What was up with the "Record of Malice" tip? I thought that was Satoko talking to/about her uncle but is it? It would make sense but I don't even know. Never got confirmation of the uncle's status either. :psyduck: at everything

Ytlaya
Nov 13, 2005

dmboogie posted:

to lay things out more explicitly (spoilers for all of Umineko) Yasu is the mastermind. They don't really have multiple personalities - they have multiple personas. Shannon, for instance, is basically their "service industry voice" but made an entire person. Their "furniture" complex stems from the injuries they got when Natsuhi tried to murder them - specifically, some very unethical surgeries Nanjo did that resulted in them being raised as female. Because of this, they don't think they have any chance of a happy life with George; even discounting all the ways George is a lovely human being. They're also heavily traumatized by being forced to "forgive" Kinzo; along with the knowledge that they are Battler/George's cousin-aunt.

Basically it boils down to - gently caress the entire Ushiromiya family, gently caress the servants who played along with Kinzo, they're going to bring everyone down in a murder-suicide that will also lock away the truth; so no one ever knows that Shannon was anything other than George's loving fiancee. Battler complicates things but it's made pretty clear that an incident would have happened with or without his involvement.


Yes - (also major spoilers)as I read through this thread I was getting kind of frustrated at people explaining Umineko without mentioning this, because it's integral to understanding why Yasu/Beatrice's situation was so desperate/stressful that she'd be willing to take such extreme actions. When you take into account that this is a conservative family in 80s Japan, it is not strange that she would be deeply stressed about George finding out about her body. And then there's the fact that she obviously gets something important out of living as Kanon, and is conflicted about how she wants to (and can) live. And then she learns that she's also the child of abusive incest, and is actually related to the people she's in love with. It's a very bad situation, and you really have to understand all the pieces for her actions to not seem kind of extreme/weird. It also makes a lot of stuff surrounding Kanon/Lion click into place.

A number of scenes/situations very directly reference this. One of the most prominent is the scene in Episode 2 where Beatrice is ranting about men only caring about sex, etc. When you first play it, it seems like she's maybe referring to Kinzo's abuse of Beatrice #2 or something, and that might be part of it, but it's mostly the part of Yasu that is convinced that she's a fool for even trying to have her own love/relationship with her body being how it is. Scenes like this make a lot of sense when you realize that they're reflective of Yasu/Beatrice's internal conflict. And then there's a scene like the one showing Shannon going on vacation with George, where she notably ends up not staying in the same room as him. Or Battler reaching to touch her chest (I think in Episode 2? or maybe 1?) and her not reacting (because it's fake). Or the scene(s) where George is talking about how important having children is to him, which carries extra significance when you think about how Shannon would feel about that. A lot of stuff suddenly gains significance when viewed through that lens.


Dessel posted:

Random thought about Umineko: Did Jessica's ashtma end up having any significance? It seems too random but descriptive of a detail for it to have no meaning.

I didn't notice any personally.

Edit v: Oh yeah I recall that now

Basically she would pretend to have asthma attacks in order to avoid situations that made her uncomfortable. This is generally one of Jessica's character traits; she isn't really willing to confront/deal with uncomfortable situations.

Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 08:15 on Mar 11, 2019

Heroic Yoshimitsu
Jan 15, 2008

Umineko Episode 8 -- Like, is it just me? Am I the only one who at this point was rooting for Ange? Yeah so if Ange learns the truth she'll die. That not GOOD, I'll admit. I kinda feel like that was pulled back in from nowhere, like there needed to be a reason why learning the truth is bad, so here ya go. Am I rooting for the villain here?? It feels like my opinions and hopes are completely at odds with what I am seeing. This conversation with Will and Lion sealed it. What's about bad about knowing the truth anyway? Why is everyone all "man not knowing is SO COOL. I love to not know stuff!!!"

You know what makes me think the truth won't be seen, more than anything? That fact seeing the truth is being talked about like it's the end of the loving world. You have Lion here being like, "I know this story has a happy ending!!! I will not give in to despair!!" and it's like, what??? Huh??

My one hope now is that I am given the choice to open the book or not. This will be the easiest choice in all human history, if so.

Yakiniku Teishoku
Mar 16, 2011

Peace On Egg

Heroic Yoshimitsu posted:

Umineko Episode 8 -- Like, is it just me? Am I the only one who at this point was rooting for Ange? Yeah so if Ange learns the truth she'll die. That not GOOD, I'll admit. I kinda feel like that was pulled back in from nowhere,

I mean, it’s not really from nowhere. The overall themes of the work are basically about some things being more important than objective fact, & how some truths can be more important than others. It’s not so much “knowing truths is bad” as it is, this specific truth will make it impossible for her to live with the knowledge. In that vein, while the whole party they set up in ep 8 obviously never happened, it’s a representation/reminder of the truth that her family did really love her and they all had good parts of them even if they committed horrific acts. It’s not a statement that “denial is cool” but about not torturing yourself with only the dark bits of the past I guess? I can imagine a lot of people would want to know the truth even if it kills them, but like you said, that’s not necessarily a good thing. If you read it cynically you can see all the magic as an escape from reality but I personally feel like it’s always been talking about a different kind of truth. Emotional truth?

Be Depressive
Jul 8, 2006
"The drawings of the girls are badly proportioned and borderline pedo material. But"
Ok just got a PSP loaded up with Steins; Gate and have already played DanganRonpa on the PC. What I else should I look for? My all time favorite VN is actually Banshee’s Last Cry because of the creative thing they did with unlocking routes without telling you.

To be more clear I’m looking for high quality English language or translated VNs on PSP, PSX, or SNES.

No Wave
Sep 18, 2005

HA! HA! NICE! WHAT A TOOL!

Yakiniku Teishoku posted:

I mean, it’s not really from nowhere. The overall themes of the work are basically about some things being more important than objective fact, & how some truths can be more important than others. It’s not so much “knowing truths is bad” as it is, this specific truth will make it impossible for her to live with the knowledge. In that vein, while the whole party they set up in ep 8 obviously never happened, it’s a representation/reminder of the truth that her family did really love her and they all had good parts of them even if they committed horrific acts. It’s not a statement that “denial is cool” but about not torturing yourself with only the dark bits of the past I guess? I can imagine a lot of people would want to know the truth even if it kills them, but like you said, that’s not necessarily a good thing. If you read it cynically you can see all the magic as an escape from reality but I personally feel like it’s always been talking about a different kind of truth. Emotional truth?
But then she does learn the truth and is fine. Actually it's only after she learns the truth that she starts to be on Battler's side and is able to move past it as something not very important. I guess you could argue the game was 3 dimensional chess and Ange was meant to be persuaded by Battler's attempt to hide the truth from her while getting to learn the truth all along (which is what happens, and in which case Lambdadelta was really the one in control as she was the character both sympathetic towards Battler and aware that Bernkastel was going to get involved). Still doesn't make me like what Battler is doing there while he's doing it.

No Wave fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Mar 12, 2019

Irony Be My Shield
Jul 29, 2012

Umineko 8: Ange learns the truth at the end of episode 7, she just refuses to accept it. Just telling her again isn't going to help her.

Yakiniku Teishoku
Mar 16, 2011

Peace On Egg

No Wave posted:

But then she does learn the truth and is fine. Actually it's only after she learns the truth that she starts to be on Battler's side and is able to move past it as something not very important. I guess you could argue the game was 3 dimensional chess and Ange was meant to be persuaded by Battler's attempt to hide the truth from her while getting to learn the truth all along (which is what happens, and in which case Lambdadelta was really the one in control as she was the character both sympathetic towards Battler and aware that Bernkastel was going to get involved). Still doesn't make me like what Battler is doing there while he's doing it.

Eh I mean I think it's complicated because meta Ange was probably always going to be fine eventually, where real world Ange from all evidence was very not, so I do think the point was about giving her the space and reason to choose to keep going.

kirbysuperstar
Nov 11, 2012

Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess.

Be Depressive posted:

Ok just got a PSP loaded up with Steins; Gate and have already played DanganRonpa on the PC. What I else should I look for? My all time favorite VN is actually Banshee’s Last Cry because of the creative thing they did with unlocking routes without telling you.

To be more clear I’m looking for high quality English language or translated VNs on PSP, PSX, or SNES.

I think someone ported the English translation of Ever17 to the PSP port, if you haven't played that

Alder
Sep 24, 2013

Be Depressive posted:

Ok just got a PSP loaded up with Steins; Gate and have already played DanganRonpa on the PC. What I else should I look for? My all time favorite VN is actually Banshee’s Last Cry because of the creative thing they did with unlocking routes without telling you.

To be more clear I’m looking for high quality English language or translated VNs on PSP, PSX, or SNES.

I want to say you should play Tokimemo Girl's Side 3rd story. I feel like there weren't too many localized PSP VNs that weren't later ported to vita.

dmboogie
Oct 4, 2013

Irony Be My Shield posted:

Umineko 8: Ange learns the truth at the end of episode 7, she just refuses to accept it. Just telling her again isn't going to help her.

Yeah. She wanted an answer where Eva was responsible for everything.

Irritated Goat
Mar 12, 2005

This post is pathetic.
Decided to stop waiting on Higurashi to get finished. Is https://github.com/07th-mod/watanagashi/releases/ where the PS3 mods are or did I find an older one?

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
That is the correct site, though you probably want to use the installer they put together a while back. If there are problems there then yeah you can manually download it on the link you posted.

Be Depressive
Jul 8, 2006
"The drawings of the girls are badly proportioned and borderline pedo material. But"
Last night I played some PSP game called Higurashi Daybreak Portable Mega Edition and it was real weird. Probably weirder than that Neon Genesis Evangelion DS game where you manage Ayanami Rei’s outfits and school schedule.

I cannot understand Japanese but there are some quite well made unskippable CG cutscenes and after that it’s a 3D 2v2 third person shooter fighting game with some 2d art assets that arguably look better than remasters Of The PC games or Season 1 of the anime.

Ultimately I found this all very confusing. As a game about little girls murdering each other it’s not that great. Everyone can fly, for some reason, or at least jump twenty feet in the air. There’s a lot of odd creative choices.

My niece once told me about some Roblox game called Yandere High School where you have to stalk and kill a specific player while role playing a day at school. I think that sort of thing would suit Higurashi really well, like a battle royale game, and it would make sense in canon. Every time you play the game the characters are in different places and have slightly different backgrounds and progressively everyone in the town becomes murderous and starts hunting you would be really fun. And with enough randomization you wouldn’t need that many locations and environments, which would be reused constantly.

It’s a smart idea for an efficient game project. Given the 50 million Evangelion VNs though it’s not like animu companies are known for compelling licensed games.

Be Depressive fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Mar 15, 2019

Merilan
Mar 7, 2019

Wasn't the Higurashi fighting game the prototype that would later go on to be Touhou Sky Arena and all the rest of that jazz?

Be Depressive
Jul 8, 2006
"The drawings of the girls are badly proportioned and borderline pedo material. But"

Merilan posted:

Wasn't the Higurashi fighting game the prototype that would later go on to be Touhou Sky Arena and all the rest of that jazz?

Judging from screenshots that looks to be so. Super crowded HUD. Everyone flying for no reason. Girls with knives shooting fireballs at each other.

Ytlaya
Nov 13, 2005

Regarding Umineko Episode 8, Battler isn't really portrayed as being correct and Ange wrong in that situation (though the manga is better at expressing this than the VN). At one point Erika even says something along the lines of "maybe if you hadn't done this convoluted game and had just been direct and honest with Ange about your feelings it would have gone differently" and he doesn't really have a response to that. The manga is more explicit about it being possible to both know the truth and come to terms with it and her feelings for her family.

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
Higurashi Daybreak is a bad game but it does have a character who can use Dio's time freeze (don't look this up cause of spoilers) and that's pretty good.

theblackw0lf
Apr 15, 2003

"...creating a vision of the sort of society you want to have in miniature"
Heart of the Woods received a strong recommendation over at RPS

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/03/18/unknown-pleasures-its-a-mystery/

Heroic Yoshimitsu
Jan 15, 2008

I finished Umineko Episode 8.

The later half really picked up for me. The little game where you solve the murder mystery yourself was fun! I thought for a long time that Ange would never get to read the book, but she did! I thought that maybe the story shown in Episode 7's epilogue could be the actual truth, turns out it was. I was really frustrated with how the story was going for a LONG time. I think ever since Episode 7 didn't answer what it looked like it was trying to answer with Yasu and the earlier murders, I had a very pessimistic outlook and how 8 began did not help. Then Ange comes in and starts to apologize to people, EVEN EVA, which I also did not like. But then there was this little conversation with Battler that turned everything around. Just an honest talk about how this all isn't real, and Ange needed to learn from the truth and move forward.

The rest of the story I don't have many complaints. Rosa getting any time to shine sucks, she is objectively terrible, but what can you do? Ange learned the best counter to the red truth, just ignore it!! I first picked the Trick ending, it was fun but I'm pretty sure the Magic ending is the real one. The ???? was interesting and bittersweet.

Oh, I did learn after this that Kanon was also Yasu. I suspected for a while that Shannon and Kanon could be the same person, but didn't think it was possible. It felt REALLY weird that Yasu was dropped ever Episode 7, and didn't come up at all in 8.

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry

Heroic Yoshimitsu posted:

I finished Umineko Episode 8.

Oh, I did learn after this that Kanon was also Yasu. I suspected for a while that Shannon and Kanon could be the same person, but didn't think it was possible. It felt REALLY weird that Yasu was dropped ever Episode 7, and didn't come up at all in 8.
Oh noooo, that was definitely supposed to be more or less obvious after EP7. No wonder some of your reactions seemed a little weird.

Heroic Yoshimitsu
Jan 15, 2008

Yes, well, (Umineko Big Spoilers) a lot of things DID point in that direction. Besides some random oddness in the first 4 episodes, in 7 there's the thing where Shannon and Kanon couldn't be in the same room at the same in the chapel, and Shannon 'knew' Kanon was coming to the island before he arrived in the Yasu flashbacks. Plus in 8, when Shannon dies in the little murder game Kanon coincidentally "disappears" too. So yeah, the clues were there, and I wanted to believe it was true. Also I almost forgot, but in 6 Battler's escape from the locked room hinges on Shannon and Kanon.

But there were SO many scenes with Shannon and Kanon together with other people acknowledging them. The explanation I found for that was "well, those scenes can't be trusted!!" which is like.... OK I guess. Plus, there's the fact that for Shannon to be Kanon that means people like Natsuhi and Krauss would have accept this and almost "play along" or be fooled, which seems impossible to me. The idea of people believing in something so much that they see others as different beings came up with Maria before, but the parents? So the explanation for THAT is apparently "well, Yasu just swapped disguises very well and Natsuhi and Krauss never knew they were the same person, plus Gneji helped", which I mean I guess that's fair? But it just feels like there's somewhat flimsy explanations to explain these things. Almost as if this reveal was thought of after the original episodes, and these not so great explanations occurred to cover up inconsistencies yknow?

Heroic Yoshimitsu fucked around with this message at 13:18 on Mar 19, 2019

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
One of the central aspects of EP5-EP7 is the concept of the "detective" (since much of Chiru is a comment upon and exploration of murder mysteries in general) and when/where/how the narrative is clearly from the perspective of said detective. in EP1-EP4, the detective is Battler, in EP5-EP6 it's Erika, and finally Will in EP7. All of those were effectively hints as for how the twist is supposed to work.

This feels like cheating a little bit (because I think the VN does a good job of establishing most of this part of the mystery on its own) but this EP8 manga chapter makes a lot of this more explicit and might help you out a bit.

Irony Be My Shield
Jul 29, 2012

Umineko: There are two conditions under which you see scenes which are not literally true:
1. The only witnesses are in on the murder conspiracy (ie, they're lying)
2. The only witnesses are about to die (dead men tell no tales)

That said, you should go back and reread the Shannon/Kanon/Beatrice scenes in episode 2. Their conversations represent an internal monologue that basically fully spells out Yasu's motivations once you understand the metaphor. Episode 1 is also very cleverly written so that almost every scene means something different on a second read.

Irony Be My Shield fucked around with this message at 13:50 on Mar 19, 2019

Meallan
Feb 3, 2017

theblackw0lf posted:

Heart of the Woods received a strong recommendation over at RPS

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/03/18/unknown-pleasures-its-a-mystery/

I had dismissed that game because the art made me think it could be "one of those" yuri games, but after that recommendation and steam reviews I'm going to buy it. drat, I'm excited it sounds awesome.

Meallan fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Mar 19, 2019

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Sefal
Nov 8, 2011
Fun Shoe

Saoshyant posted:

It's been a long time coming, but after a whole year I finally finished The House in Fata Morgana and I can say "wow", because I know I won't ever play/read another VN like it. Between life getting in the way, me not enjoying sitting much on the computer these days (due to holding two jobs that force me to be sitting on the computer all day), and the story being pretty drat bleak, I had a hard time going through it, but even with all the time it took I never forgot about it or any of its key moments; I always knew what I was getting back to when I had an opportunity to revisit the mansion.

At times, it felt like the plot was plodding about with some pacing issues, but after the ending I can say I was wrong: had it been shorter, it wouldn't have worked as well because there wouldn't be room for all characters to breathe... and they are all important. I think it's a story that changes one to be better, to be stronger, in spite of all the bleakness. And that soundtrack... both astounding and unique. I will never forget it.

So, my sincere thanks to Sefal who gifted me this title many moons ago. I would have sent a message directly on Steam, but I haven't seen them in a long while there (hope all's well).

If you haven't yet, stop whatever you're doing and go check out Fata Morgana.

I am glad you liked Fata Morgana!

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply