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Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


It was only nine pages of updates and discussion, but took me so long to finish. :stare: Good though, looking forward to mystery solving!

Tamba posted:

There was an interview with the author (can't find it at the moment) where he said that there actually was enough information to solve *everything* after episode 4.
But since many players were all "meh, I won't bother speculating until we have more information", he had to add something like that classic scene where the detective goes "Okay, I've got it" to the next episode so people would know that it's definitely solvable now.
That's reassuring. The thread title includes "No Dine. No Knox. No Fair," which I assume is a reference to Knox's and Dine's rules, so I was worried we wouldn't be able to solve the mystery. (Not that I'd be able to help out with the epitaph, I don't know anything about Japanese or Chinese beyond the basics :v:)


Fightest posted:

Another interesting point is, of course, the mark on Natsuhi's door. It's obviously related to the scorpion charm she got from Jessica, who got it from Maria. I suspect it is some sort of indicator for the killer to leave the adult with the charm alone. The details of how it indicates this are currently irrelevant. What it suggests is that the killer is unfamiliar with who is sleeping in which rooms, which rules out the servants and Natsuhi (but not Kinzo - he hasn't left his room for the entirety of the narrative so far). That this could be a ruse to throw off suspicion in the case that the killer is Natsuhi is unlikely, as very few people know about the scorpion charm.
Was the scorpion charm on the inside or outside of the door? I could've sworn it was on the inside (or maybe it was just the perspective of the shot messing me up). If it was on the inside, the killer couldn't have known to avoid Natsuhi's room, which points to a) it actually being magical protection (and while this seems to go against Knox, it also seems an established part of the setting) b) a coincidence (not likely due to conservation of detail) c) a joke (see b) d) Natsuhi did it (which I think we can rule out). Of course, if it was outside the door, ignore this. :v:

But if we assume a is true, then it explains why the cousins weren't targeted either, since Battler has the charm and they all sleep in the cousins' room. Adding to that is the point you brought up, that all of the dead were killed in the mansion anyway.

Fightest posted:

A mark is a mark, whether it's a glyph or some blood and scratches. The mark is there to denote that this person has been left alone due to them being assigned the scorpion charm. That she locked her door is unlikely to be a problem, there are keys available to the servants (I assume), which Kinzo would have easy access to. I am suspecting a ritualistic murder slant on this, which is why the person-left-alone is singled out in this manner.
So you're saying Natsuhi was an intended target but someone else was killed (to make 6) because they couldn't get in for whatever reason?


And one thing of my own:

"We'll be able to see her again." :stare: I guess that's a reference to the epitaph, if they defeat Beatrice, right?

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Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Battler brought up some good points when he was doing the flipping the chessboard thing. It's too obvious for it to be Eva (and by extension Hideyoshi) or the servants. The cousins were in the guesthouse with the rest of the servants.

This leaves Matsuhi and Kinzo. Matsuhi is just a bit unhinged but Kinzo more so and has a better motive. And now he's missing. :psyduck: I guess it's possible the original murderer was one of the dead 6 (maybe explaining why Rudolf knew he was going to die if that was his plan all along and he felt it might backfire, but I think I'm reaching here), and then someone killed that person for reasons.

It could be Beatrice, but that goes against Knox and I'm not even sure it'd be 'fair' for her to kill people so she herself could be resurrected. Although it would be an explanation for the golden butterflies that Shannon saw. If possession is a power that she has, then maybe she possessed someone in the mansion that night to do it? That seems even more unlikely...

So I guess I'm going with Kinzo, at least for this update, but even that seems almost too obvious. Unless he turns up dead later or something, this game won't be going very far if it is him. We can't rule out multiple murderers, but there's no reason for there to be more than one and it's just the first episode. :ohdear:

It probably means nothing, but they can get a TV signal but no radio? Huh.


Good music and good update. Can't wait for the next one to completely void my ramblings and theory-crafting. :buddy:

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


They might be referring to George's creepiness when proposing to Shannon, because, uh, that was creepy. :stare:

Jessica seems nice and on the basis of that alone I hope she doesn't get offed. Goodness knows this family needs some sanity. Her fist pump pose is annoying though, yeah.

And speaking of Kanon, I had a thought: maybe he keeps referring to himself as furniture because he's furniture brought to life or something. Maybe that's why he, Shannon, and Genji have the Ushiromiya mark (I don't think the old lady does and for sure Gohda doesn't). This probably isn't/won't be relevant for the murders, but I can't think of another explanation beyond extreme brainwashing and Genji seems too aware for that.

On Eva, maybe she was planning to kill someone but someone else decided to go on a spree and pin it on her, the obvious culprit. Thing is, unless some of the scenes shown are unreliable, I can't see anyone with both the motive and the means to do it that's already not dead, Eva, or Kinzo. :psyduck:

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


So he's clearly a doormat brought to life. :colbert:


Really, I'm just throwing gum at the wall and seeing what sticks or whatever the expression is.

Now that I think on it, the killer can't be one of the 'dead' six unless Nanjo is conspiring with them and that clearly goes against Knox. I don't know if this makes me feel better or worse.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Yeah, I have no problem throwing out a couple of the guidelines, but I'm also assuming that eventually we'll get all of the details needed to solve the murders.

Anyway, potential culprits identified by the thread so far:
- Kinzo - has the motive, no one besides the servants and Natsuhi has seen him recently anyway, gone missing right after the 6 murders, crazy
- Eva and/or Hideyoshi - has the motive and spouse and child were safe (not to mentioned the girl their son proposed to is dead), not exactly a solid alibi, almost too obvious a culprit (a good scapegoat though); Eva seems a bit more likely to be the one calling the shots if they're working together
- Nanjo conspiring with one of the dead 6 - no real motive yet, would be able to help someone else pretend to be dead (might require a body double for that person though :stare: and wouldn't work for Krauss and Shannon)
- Natsuhi - has motive if you can buy that she's fed up with her husband and wants the money for herself and Jessica (not implausible...), something is up with the scorpion charm, might have a partial alibi since she was talking with Jessica for a time that evening

Additionally, all of the murders were in the mansion, which rules out the cousins and the rest of the servants and puts suspicion on whoever changed the schedule. Who, now I think of it, probably was Genji since he seems to be the head servant!

I'm ruling out Beatrice and possession/magic stuff at the moment because we don't know enough about that. :mad:

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Maria. :gonk:

FrantzX posted:

Didn't Kinzo throw his ring out the window?
Yes. Then again, Battler wasn't there to see it for obvious reasons, so maybe it never happened. But if it never happened, then what else can't we trust? :gonk:


I think we can assume that whoever did it (assuming not-Beatrice), they're a good actor. The entire family is crazy after all. I agree that the evidence overwhelmingly points to Kinzo, but it's not like we can rule out anyone that's not Battler, Jessica, or George.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


A bit odd that she'd kill Krauss though. If her motive is the money, since she's the woman in the marriage, she can't really use it, it would fall to Jessica, right? And Jessica's not exactly a push-over in terms of personality.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Fightest posted:

Which she isn't :colbert:
:hfive:

Jeek posted:

One question: Can we assume that the third-person descriptions in the novel are reliable? I have been assuming so, but if that isn't the case, it would throw off a lot of assumptions.
From the sound of it, we probably have to take it with a grain of salt. Someone earlier in the thread pointed out the perspective switching and the OP said the difference between first and third person was important. If this is the reason why...then oh man. :stare: I guess we could trust the third person perspective up until the point that it's contradicted by known facts otherwise we won't be getting very far.

Obviously, we should trust our protagonist, and I'm willing to extend that trust to Jessica and George as well, if they ever relate events (like George's proposal for example). The protagonist has to have his group of trustworthy friends. :unsmith:


Fightest posted:

This is going to be a big problem. From what I have heard, Umineko loves being an unreliable narrator. While this is against Dine, Christie definitely uses it as a device, so we will just have to deal with it. Battler is the viewpoint character, so we can probably trust what he sees.

That said, there was a good call that Natsuhi getting the key to Kinzo's study is suspicious as hell. If we go into full tinfoil-hat mode, we can actually doubt that she talked with Kinzo at all. If we have a look at all the options:

1. Natsuhi receives key, talks to Kinzo.
Puts suspicion on Genjo. Genjo is close enough to Kinzo that he could well have picked up occult knowledge. Has the opportunity. Motive is shaky, but it could be out of some twisted sense of devotion to Kinzo. I am not entirely convinced, as the cause and effect of him handing over the key if he is a culprit is very shaky. Otherwise we can say that a cigar is just a cigar, and that events transpired exactly as they did with no further implication.

2. Natsuhi receives key, does not talk to Kinzo.
Puts suspicion on Genjo. Puts suspicion on Natsuhi, leading us to wonder what she has to hide. We know that she has been in an uplifted mood after entering Kinzo's study. Perhaps she performed some sort of crucial action there. While I am throwing out standard conspiracy, Natsuhi could be an unwitting conspirator if, say, Kinzo earlier instructed her to do something by playing on her insecurities. Once she has performed her task, perhaps she is feeling relieved that she has no more obligations? The scorpion charm has a stronger link to the case if this is so. This could make Genjo an unwitting conspirator as well. This is more convincing than 1.
Do you mean Genji (head servant) or Nanjo (doctor), because I think you ran them together? :v:

If 2 is true however, then there's the proof that we definitely cannot trust anything that's not Battler's perspective. And it's plausible, that's for sure.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Fightest posted:

gently caress. Yes, I meant Genji.
Making sure. :v: In Genji's case, he's likely to be the one to change the servants' schedules around too, so there's also that going for a possible conspiracy/Genji being manipulated by Kinzo theory. I know he doesn't like any of the adults or Gohda, but that does raise the question why he/Kinzo would want Shannon dead.


TheArchimage posted:

In any case, it's probably not a good idea to ignore everything during a third-person narration segment simply because we're not sure if it's reliable. Even if they're not 100% literally true (which has not been shown one way or the other), they could give us valuable hints on the setting or characterization. To put it another way, we know Dine Rules #2, 3, and 16 are all shot to hell but given how much time has already been spent developing the personalities of the Ushiromiyas I find it hard to believe they'd ditch #19 (The motive for the murder(s) must be personal).

Also, the reasoning might be a little metagamey, but there certainly would have been audible internet backlash if R07 strung people along for eight games only for the culprit to have been motivated solely by money or something underwhelming like that.
To get meta-gamey, I just sort of assumed that each part of the epitaph would get its own chapter. Chapter one for the 6 sacrifices, chapter two for the pair torn apart, and so on. Maybe additional motivation to kill is introduced? :ohdear: It's entirely possible (and likely) that we don't know something about the siblings' past. Old grudges?

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Jeek posted:

A day has already passed and we are still in Chapter 1. If each batch of murder gets its own chapter, the later ones would have to occur after the typhoon has passed, and I doubt the murderer would do something so risky.

Unless a witch is involved, that is. :unsmigghh:

Talking about the murders, I think it is quite likely that the victims are killed without a struggle - it is too time-consuming and risky to fight six persons in one night, and the post-death disfigurement is meant to make everybody think they are violently killed.

Likewise, the murderer probably lured the victims to the warehouse (or somewhere nearby) because moving six dead bodies is a tough job even if for Kinzo, who have servants at his disposal. Perhaps the magic circle is drawn to lure them there?
I figured you could do that middle batch "strike the ____ and kill" all in one batch like this one. Not that I want any one else to die. :( And maybe there's a witch but she's not behind anything. :colbert:

That could offer an explanation for why Shannon died if Kinzo was behind this and Genji an unwitting or not conspirator. Maybe the killer intended to lure Eva or Hideyoshi instead but Shannon got mixed up for some reason or the intended victim didn't go so the killer decided six people was six people and killed her anyway. Of course, this would mean that neither Eva nor Hideyoshi would be the killer.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Despair. :gonk:

Well, we know Battler didn't do it, since I assume we can rely on his narration at least (and Jessica and George sneaking past him is a bit hard to buy but doable I guess). I agree, they won't look at the riddle until the third night. However, I interpret the second verse as killing two people who are close. Maybe Eva and Hideyoshi or Natsuhi and Jessica.

Is it possible they were smothered in their sleep somehow? I know Natsuhi was a bit paranoid about locking doors, but that doesn't mean anyone else was.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


The protagonists discussing things! :)

Even if Battler is telling the truth about losing the charm (I think we can assume he is, he's the main character and reliable so far), you could explain away the fact that he wasn't killed as the murderer just not going to the guest house to commit murder. And the way Kanon puts it does seem like Shannon or Gohda was the replacement for Natsuhi, but it's just a hunch.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


I like (well, not really, but as a concept :smith:) the idea of the charms being signals and that there's a list of potential victims. Now two issues come up:
1) Battler didn't really show off the charm. Only Maria, he, Jessica, George, and Shannon can we safely assume know he had the charm prior to him losing it (if indeed he lost it, as opposed to him trying to one-up Maria).
2) Jessica gave Natsuhi the charm, but who would know that? Natsuhi placed the charm on the inside of the door.


Dr Pepper posted:

Character's discussing things is half the fun of Umineko.

Also apparently Beatrice likes to hang around the kitchen.
Oh god, it's Kumasawa all along, isn't it? :mad:

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


I think George is projecting. :colbert:


Fightest posted:

Yes, but why mark only Natsuhi's door?
Is it possible something in the guesthouse was marked and no one (besides the murderer) knows it, because everyone's been cooped up in one room for the entire day?

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Is it possible they enlisted Gohda and Shannon to help for reasons (I don't know work with me here :v:), and then killed them once they had finished getting the other four bodies to the shack?

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


I've never played/watched Higurashi, so I don't know about retreading ground, but I guess that sounds plausible. Maybe he got Gohda or Shannon to kill the four, the murderer realized that Natsuhi had a charm when Jessica shouldn't have had it, and killed one of the servants in her place. I imagine one person could overpower the remaining servant and kill them, maybe after getting their help to bring them over to the shack.

Also, Kinzo is the best Ushiromiya.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


But there's a Umineko translation, right? Part of the Dangan Ronpa LP's popularity came from that you couldn't really get a translation anywhere else on the Internet.

pocketwatch posted:

I think we can't rule anyone out based on needing to drag corpses; before the murders it would have been easy for the killer to say 'I found something crazy in the shed' and lead the victims there, or somewhere nearby, before killing them.
Fair enough. I suppose it's possible for everyone here to have anime strength (Jessica would be a prime culprit for that) too.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


I guess it's completely possible the servants are lying about meeting Kinzo last night, but that would mean they, Nanjo, and Natsuhi are in on something together. I like Battler's explanation, especially since it's devoid of witch shenanigans.

quote:

...If I remember correctly, yesterday, you had some rooms prepared for us in the mansion so that we wouldn't need to go back to the guesthouse, right? There should be a bath and a toilet there, as well as a lock and a chain to secure the door. There's even a bed to lie on, and my husband will be able to watch TV without having to fight with Maria-chan over which channel to watch, okay?
No, Eva, no. You're going to get yourself and Hideyoshi killed. :negative:

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Kinzo can't be dead yet, can he? That messes up the prophecy.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


quote:

"Horrible...That's horrible...He proposed to the girl he loved and lost her the next day. ...And on the same day, even his Mom and Dad were killed...I, ...isn't that too harsh..."
:cry: I take it all back. Please let it be Beatrice.


And I was really feeling for Eva and Hideyoshi there. Eva might be a jerk and Hideyoshi's business might not be doing well, but they're still people with depths. And now they're dead. :smith:

Everyone pretty much is accounted for, though, other than Kinzo. How could you get from the parlor to the guest room and back, after drawing the magic rectangle of blood, within the time that Kanon and Genji left and came back with Kumasawa, Nanjo, and Natsuhi (and then everyone else shortly after)? The only way I can see it happening, if there is no witch, is if the third-person narrator (ie, things Battler doesn't narrate) is not reliable, but then where would we be? And that's not even getting into the issue of the locked room, barring some weird murder-suicide that makes no sense.

I'm going to be looping hope for a while.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


They're going to run out of people to kill at this rate, if there's 7 episodes left. :stare:

TheArchimage posted:

Alright, let's start dissecting this supposedly "locked room". There are a number of ways to commit a murder in a room which appears locked. This list is not exhaustive, and I will not elaborate on how likely each of these are in the spirit of further discussion, but should get you thinking:
Is it possible that the killer and the person who draws the magic stuff are separate, working together? Like, Kinzo could be behind the occult things happening later while someone else did the actual murders beforehand? I guess there could be a secret passage, but someone had better mention it soon and there should only be one. :colbert:

Additionally, I don't think this rules out Eva or Hideyoshi as the people behind the first batch of murders.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


What are we going to do for the other seven chapters? They keep dying off. :(

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


MonsterEnvy posted:

So if I am reading this right. All the events of the first chapter were just the contents of a letter that Maria sent and said to be what happened on the island. Which means nothing that we saw is reliable.
:argh: Maria.

What's really interesting is that random POV switch into third-person omniscient when Battler is breaking down the door, when before and afterwards, it was all from his perspective. I'm sure it has something to do with this. Oh well, looking forward to the tea party.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Maybe the witch thing is a red herring and the real objective is to loop until they follow the epithet, find the gold, and manage to save everyone. :unsmith: Battler can still acknowledge Beatrice exists while claiming it was one of the 18 was responsible for the murders, as much as he doesn't want to.

Edit: I like the Battler revives everyone theory though but that basically is an admission of defeat.

Mecca-Benghazi fucked around with this message at 08:15 on Jan 11, 2013

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Jeek: Oh, yeah, there could definitely be a 19th person. I would bet, after seeing the update, that one of the loops deals with this possibility.

Now, would Beatrice consider finding the gold/solving the epithet an acknowledgement of her existence or not? :v:

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Umineko works on Windows 8? Well gently caress, now I don't know if I want to wait for the LP or just go get it. :argh:

When you 'execute' the characters in the TIPs to unlock that, is there any rhyme or reason to the solution?

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


I thought a chessboard always had the lower right corner be white?

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Jeek posted:

Turn the chessboard, man.
I walked right into this one. :negative:



Since there's that really suspicious empty space there in the list of characters right where Maria's father would go, I would think that we meet him eventually.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Oh god, Shannon/Sayo breaking the mirror lets Beatrice become more powerful, doesn't it? :(

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


:lol: They forgot Battler was an Ushiromiya too.

Beatrice is surprisingly merciful. Now, are we to assume that this same lead-up happened before Episode 1?

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


The only thing I know about Touhou is that it's popular on ADTRW. :shobon:

I really like Beatrice as a character. She seems to have a lot of depth. I almost want witches to be real after all! :v:

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Wili posted:

Besides the change in the CGs, Jessica sings a different, original, song in the PS3.

Sui-Sui Sweet
I actually prefer this song, it sounds more like her.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Kyrie and Kanon are all right. :unsmith: I'm excited to see how Beatrice is going to get involved with the murdering.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


There's no reason Rosa couldn't be collaborating with another person. Jessica is pretty suspicious as she looks very similar to Beatrice, and the changing third- to first-person POV has me wondering what is really reliable and what isn't as far as we see.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


:stare: So why didn't he take that out earlier and go for the hatchet instead??

I keep forgetting the whole point of this exercise is to prove to Beatrice that witches don't exist, and the death of the original 6 is pretty easy to do that with. Depending on the details of how Kanon and Jessica died, their deaths could be easily done by non-magical means, since I don't think anything with Beatrice in it is trustworthy.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


So now we finally have confirmation that disturbingly few scenes in the first episode were reliable (beyond the fact that it all might have been a letter that Maria wrote). Fantastic.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Beatrice's troll face is really creepy when you're scrolling and it just appears. :stonk:

Is it possible that one of the servants let, say, Kinzo, borrow a key? I don't think anything Beatrice has said limits stealing or loaning keys.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


I know Battler's limitation on the mystery is that he doesn't want to believe one of his friends and family is a killer, but we don't have the same limit. Beatrice's suggestion of Jessica faking her death with Nanjo's help is a good one, actually.

As for this most recent murder, Battler wasn't there so we can't prove that Kanon actually showed up and killed Nanjo and Kumasawa, can we?

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


(I hate that Beatrice face)

I guess what I was trying to say is that since we know for a fact that Kanon is dead, combined with the fact that Battler wasn't there to witness the murders, it's really likely that Nanjo and Kumasawa didn't die in the manner that the other servants describe (and may not even be dead at all). I suppose the simplest explanation is that the servants in this episode are all in on it but that feels unsatisfying.

Also you raise a good point about the contradiction in the servants' testimony. The only people still living that could pass as Kanon are Shannon and George. George was with Battler through the whole thing and Shannon was with the servants...until she ran out of the room. Hmm. Spitballing but maybe the narration was unreliable and she never went to the servants' quarters, but instead went out, dressed as Kanon, then the other servants heard 'Kanon', carried him to the servants' room, and she killed the two before fleeing and then came back as Shannon. Another person dressed up but didn't look entirely like Kanon would explain the testimony oddness and not require all the servants to be in on some conspiracy, which would be really unfair. :colbert:

InfiniteJesters posted:

Fun idea from my friend to me to all of you:

Try changing your ringtone and/or Skype alert sounds to ahaha.wav sometime.

It. Is. GLORIOUS. :unsmigghh:
This is pretty good. :allears:

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Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


Ooh. That's a good idea, although I don't think Battler knows about the whole furniture thing.

Are we meant to assume Kinzo is just...in his room, doing his thing?

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