NOTE: I HAVE ONLY PLAYED THROUGH EPISODE 4. PLEASE DO NOT SPOIL ANYTHING FROM FURTHER EPISODES FOR ME THANK YOU
Uhhh holy shit? This is so good?
Well I sound surprised... but I'm also kind of not. I remember watching some of the anime and the manga back in the day (can't believe they're 10 years old at this point) and enjoying it, and I always thought about reading the sound novel, but never got around to it for a few reasons.
But I saw it was in the Autumn sale on Steam and after reading some good impressions on other sites I was like, "fuck it, it's time." And dove in. And now I'm just sitting here after finishing the episode like, "damn I should've read this earlier, I'm hooked."
And it didn't take me long to hook me, like maybe a couple hours. The character introductions were pretty slow but I felt like things started to pick up the second they got to the island. The intrigue with the mystery of the island and the grandfather just builds and builds from there. And even if that mystery wasn't there there's enough drama going on to tide you over until people start dying. There's sibling drama, there's parental drama, there's servant drama... Honestly aside from the kids I felt like everybody was one step away from coming to blows. The tension in some scenes is amazing.
I don't think I was super sold until the adults start talking having their "friendly chat" though. Like goddamn the way the siblings ganged up on Krauss and then he flipped the table on them was excellent, I was clapping. 5D chess!
Soon after that bodies start hitting the floor and the game just ascends from there. You can sort of guess who's going to die this round because the death flags aren't exactly subtle but boy does it hit hard when it still hit hard when it does. Poor George loses everything in the span of like 12 hours?
And I love going into the UI and seeing the character page update to reflect dead characters. I wonder if these were written by Maria? Gosh, they're creepy. Especially Kanon's, poor guy.
I think the thing that get's me the most is how strong Beatrice's presence was without us actually seeing her in the episode, which I think is a really bold move. The fear of the unknown is real. I'm not exactly sure whether all this magic stuff is real or not but from my fuzzy anime memories iirc it's definitely real.
My favorite part was definitely the siblings arguing, particularly this part made me laugh:
Characters seem pretty strong so far. I don't think there's anyone I really "root" for yet, but most of them be pretty deep or more than meets the eye. I like how Maria's "uuh" is something taken seriously and looked at as a problem (and it's so, so much better to read this than hear it, lmao). I really like Eva, like she's rude but I feel like she owns it. I like how Natsuhi really took charge and tried to take her best to take care of everyone. This sounds awful but I feel like she got a lot better after Krauss died lol? Battler is okay for an MC, he get's better towards the end but at the beginning he is super creepy with how much he talks about fondling his relatives' boobs. It's super off-putting.
Also speaking of Battler, here's a fun drinking game: drink every time the following words or phrases are said:
"Beatrice exists" or "Beatrice/witches don't exist"
"Flipped the chess board around"
"When the seagulls cry"
You'll probably die. Maybe not so much for the last one, but definitely the first two categories.
Some sore points I had were how, considering how smart they seem to be, it took them an awfully long time to consider the epitaph. Like they were talking about it the whole day leading up to the murders, and then completely forgot about it until they were in the study lol. I'm not sure if it would've helped, but I was facepalming pretty hard then (what makes this extra odd is how the Tea Party even calls themselves out on this!) Also hopefully they tone down Battler's creepiness in the later episodes, because it just comes off as super out of place here.
Speaking of the study, I thought it was hilarious how everyone felt so sad for Kinzo for pining after a supposedly dead Beatrice... and then realized like 3 minutes later everyone was set up as sacrifices to revive her 😂😂😂Like I was thinking to myself the whole time like, "Am I supposed to feel sad about this when he set yall up as sacrifices?" And then it dawned on them lol.
The Tea Party and the ???? parts were great too, gosh it was so cathartic to finally see Beatrice appear in the game.
Damn Bern looks so dead inside. Looks like she's directly talking to the player here. What I also like about this part is how you can go into the settings and choose to kill and resurrect both Bern and Beatrice. You get mocked, but I thought that was pretty funny.
The lack of CGs does strike me as a little odd but honestly I'm pretty squeamish so just the description of the dead was enough for me, the music and sound effects carry it enough on its own. The music is amazing by the way. The game knows just the right points when to kick it up a notch and I love it.
Can't believe Episode 1 took me 20 hours. It felt like 10 to be honest, but on to the next!
Uhhh holy shit? This is so good?
Well I sound surprised... but I'm also kind of not. I remember watching some of the anime and the manga back in the day (can't believe they're 10 years old at this point) and enjoying it, and I always thought about reading the sound novel, but never got around to it for a few reasons.
- I was more into the Higurashi anime at the time for one thing. Maybe it was because I was younger and some of the inheritance talk went over my head. Now that I'm old and grumpy the adult stuff was the most interesting part of the episode.
- It's funny because Higurashi also brings me to another reason I hesitated reading it: I didn't really enjoy reading the first episode of Higurashi much. Like once the action started it was great but oh my god... I remember what came before that was painfully dull. The stuff where they were playing games comes to mind. I also didn't like the art (sorry guys!) and when I played the game the original sprites were the only option.
- I have heard that Umineko is long. Like insanely long. Something like 100-150+ hours long? And well, now that I'm seeing the credits of episode 1 at 20 hours... yeah that ballpark range seems to bear out.
But I saw it was in the Autumn sale on Steam and after reading some good impressions on other sites I was like, "fuck it, it's time." And dove in. And now I'm just sitting here after finishing the episode like, "damn I should've read this earlier, I'm hooked."
And it didn't take me long to hook me, like maybe a couple hours. The character introductions were pretty slow but I felt like things started to pick up the second they got to the island. The intrigue with the mystery of the island and the grandfather just builds and builds from there. And even if that mystery wasn't there there's enough drama going on to tide you over until people start dying. There's sibling drama, there's parental drama, there's servant drama... Honestly aside from the kids I felt like everybody was one step away from coming to blows. The tension in some scenes is amazing.
I don't think I was super sold until the adults start talking having their "friendly chat" though. Like goddamn the way the siblings ganged up on Krauss and then he flipped the table on them was excellent, I was clapping. 5D chess!
Soon after that bodies start hitting the floor and the game just ascends from there. You can sort of guess who's going to die this round because the death flags aren't exactly subtle but boy does it hit hard when it still hit hard when it does. Poor George loses everything in the span of like 12 hours?
And I love going into the UI and seeing the character page update to reflect dead characters. I wonder if these were written by Maria? Gosh, they're creepy. Especially Kanon's, poor guy.
I think the thing that get's me the most is how strong Beatrice's presence was without us actually seeing her in the episode, which I think is a really bold move. The fear of the unknown is real. I'm not exactly sure whether all this magic stuff is real or not but from my fuzzy anime memories iirc it's definitely real.
My favorite part was definitely the siblings arguing, particularly this part made me laugh:
Characters seem pretty strong so far. I don't think there's anyone I really "root" for yet, but most of them be pretty deep or more than meets the eye. I like how Maria's "uuh" is something taken seriously and looked at as a problem (and it's so, so much better to read this than hear it, lmao). I really like Eva, like she's rude but I feel like she owns it. I like how Natsuhi really took charge and tried to take her best to take care of everyone. This sounds awful but I feel like she got a lot better after Krauss died lol? Battler is okay for an MC, he get's better towards the end but at the beginning he is super creepy with how much he talks about fondling his relatives' boobs. It's super off-putting.
Also speaking of Battler, here's a fun drinking game: drink every time the following words or phrases are said:
"Beatrice exists" or "Beatrice/witches don't exist"
"Flipped the chess board around"
"When the seagulls cry"
You'll probably die. Maybe not so much for the last one, but definitely the first two categories.
Some sore points I had were how, considering how smart they seem to be, it took them an awfully long time to consider the epitaph. Like they were talking about it the whole day leading up to the murders, and then completely forgot about it until they were in the study lol. I'm not sure if it would've helped, but I was facepalming pretty hard then (what makes this extra odd is how the Tea Party even calls themselves out on this!) Also hopefully they tone down Battler's creepiness in the later episodes, because it just comes off as super out of place here.
Speaking of the study, I thought it was hilarious how everyone felt so sad for Kinzo for pining after a supposedly dead Beatrice... and then realized like 3 minutes later everyone was set up as sacrifices to revive her 😂😂😂Like I was thinking to myself the whole time like, "Am I supposed to feel sad about this when he set yall up as sacrifices?" And then it dawned on them lol.
The Tea Party and the ???? parts were great too, gosh it was so cathartic to finally see Beatrice appear in the game.
Damn Bern looks so dead inside. Looks like she's directly talking to the player here. What I also like about this part is how you can go into the settings and choose to kill and resurrect both Bern and Beatrice. You get mocked, but I thought that was pretty funny.
The lack of CGs does strike me as a little odd but honestly I'm pretty squeamish so just the description of the dead was enough for me, the music and sound effects carry it enough on its own. The music is amazing by the way. The game knows just the right points when to kick it up a notch and I love it.
Can't believe Episode 1 took me 20 hours. It felt like 10 to be honest, but on to the next!
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