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alias_sqbr) wrote2026-05-19 05:48 am
alias_sqbr) wrote2026-05-19 05:48 am
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Umineko: When they Cry
I've been watching a Let's Play of the classic, epic Japanese visual novel "Umineko: When they Cry" by Ryukishi07, and am currently up to Episode 5 of 8. I'm quite enjoying it but it's LONG. The LP is 168 episodes which are 30 minutes to two hours long.
I'll try and write a proper review when I'm finally done, since the story keeps reinventing itself, but so far it's a family drama and murder mystery with supernatural elements, which explores events from different angles in ways which cleverly play around with narrative, both from a storytelling perspective and as a way of exploring how people view the world and each other in different ways.
It's very much worth going into unspoiled if you are interested. But content warnings for violence and gore (mostly just text), suicide, child abuse (well written but harrowing), gender essentialism, male gazey character designs and and "joking" perviness (sometimes condoned by the narrative, though it's better about female characters than you might initially assume)
No unambiguous consent issues so far asides from some rape jokes but it feels like the kind of story where that could definitely be a Thing.
I'm watching Jokrono's let's play, which involves two young male gamers sometimes being thoughtlessly Unfortunate, especially about Japan. I'm sure there's others out there but this is the one I was recced and I'm overall enjoying it.
The game is about ten years old, and has multiple versions. The first four episodes were released as the "questions arc" and the second four as the "answers arc", but it's all one story. They were originally rough-around-the-edges indie games and there's rereleases/mods with more professional art, easier to read dialogue structure, and Japanese voice acting. But the let's play I'm watching is the original steam releases with the original setup.
The same creator made "Higurashi: when they cry" and there's some connections between the two games, but they stand alone.
There's not really any gameplay or choices, you just progress through the story and unlock new story and extras. I know there's manga and anime adaptations, I hear the anime is Bad and have heard nothing about the manga, people only ever rec the game.
Jokrono's let's play is two young Australian guys, one of whom has played it before (Ben) and the other of whom hasn't (Felix) and is trying to figure it out as they go. They can be very silly, including through some very sad or dark parts, though they do legit engage with the characters and story. Ben LOVES the story and characters, Felix is more there for the mystery, but he gets really into that.
The advantage of a Let's Play over just buying and playing the game myself is (a) English speakers reading all the dialogue so it's like a podcast I can listen to while doing other things, popping back when it sounds like something visually interesting is happening onscreen (b) Cheerful banter to keep me engaged and help me get through the more boring or upsetting parts. The very start of the game is a lot of somewhat cheesy silliness between characters I didn't care about yet, with the viewpoint character constantly talking about boobs, and the LPers also found this irritating and joked through it, which helped me stay engaged long enough to get past that part and get engaged in the story.
It's one of those stories which is 100% sincerely what it is with no brakes or self doubt, including heavy doses of Ridiculous Shonen Anime Bullshit. It's sometimes very cheesy, male-gazey, long-winded, or over the top. But it's also very cleverly and thoughtfully written, both the family drama and murder mystery aspects are very well done and even after like... 50 hours it's still super engaging and manages to reinvent itself and be surprising in ways which constantly recontextualise the earlier story while still feeling like one consistent whole. Also one of the themes is the importance of letting go of the fear of being cringe, so arguably the cheesiness is Thematic.
And despite the sometimes iffy gender stuff, the main ensemble are all written as fully rounded people, with a lot of compassion for the sexism women face in Japanese society (especially in the 80s, when the game is set) It also does a good job of portraying a family with intergenerational cycles of trauma and abuse without neatly dividing people into Abusers and Victims. One of the themes is the way people and events can be multiple things to multiple people, so you feel deeply how much pain a parent is causing their child while also feeling how much pain that parent is in themselves, and neither of those undermines the other.
Some of the characters are very over the top and one dimensional though. Some of this feels more deliberate and Thematic to me now than it did at first but it's still a Lot. There inconsistencies and jarring choices where I can't decide if it's A Clue or just bad writing.
It's popular with the Toxic Yuri crowd for having messy relationships between fucked up female characters. But I'm not sure if there's actual canon f/f, and there's definitely a lot of Intense Heterosexuality, especially from the initial male viewpoint character.
Over the years I've heard a lot about this game, including lots of spoilers, luckily I don't remember most of the details, and the main Big Twist I knew has been revealed already. But because my memories are hazy I'm never sure how much my correct "theories" are just half remembered spoilers. Anyway even with that I am very bad at the mystery haha. Felix is much better than me, partly because he's trying harder but also because editing the videos means he watches everything at least twice and this apparently often gives him Clues. From all accounts this is the sort of story that rewards revisiting but that's something I'll consider in 50 hours or whatever when I'm done.
I'll try and write a proper review when I'm finally done, since the story keeps reinventing itself, but so far it's a family drama and murder mystery with supernatural elements, which explores events from different angles in ways which cleverly play around with narrative, both from a storytelling perspective and as a way of exploring how people view the world and each other in different ways.
It's very much worth going into unspoiled if you are interested. But content warnings for violence and gore (mostly just text), suicide, child abuse (well written but harrowing), gender essentialism, male gazey character designs and and "joking" perviness (sometimes condoned by the narrative, though it's better about female characters than you might initially assume)
No unambiguous consent issues so far asides from some rape jokes but it feels like the kind of story where that could definitely be a Thing.
I'm watching Jokrono's let's play, which involves two young male gamers sometimes being thoughtlessly Unfortunate, especially about Japan. I'm sure there's others out there but this is the one I was recced and I'm overall enjoying it.
The game is about ten years old, and has multiple versions. The first four episodes were released as the "questions arc" and the second four as the "answers arc", but it's all one story. They were originally rough-around-the-edges indie games and there's rereleases/mods with more professional art, easier to read dialogue structure, and Japanese voice acting. But the let's play I'm watching is the original steam releases with the original setup.
The same creator made "Higurashi: when they cry" and there's some connections between the two games, but they stand alone.
There's not really any gameplay or choices, you just progress through the story and unlock new story and extras. I know there's manga and anime adaptations, I hear the anime is Bad and have heard nothing about the manga, people only ever rec the game.
Jokrono's let's play is two young Australian guys, one of whom has played it before (Ben) and the other of whom hasn't (Felix) and is trying to figure it out as they go. They can be very silly, including through some very sad or dark parts, though they do legit engage with the characters and story. Ben LOVES the story and characters, Felix is more there for the mystery, but he gets really into that.
The advantage of a Let's Play over just buying and playing the game myself is (a) English speakers reading all the dialogue so it's like a podcast I can listen to while doing other things, popping back when it sounds like something visually interesting is happening onscreen (b) Cheerful banter to keep me engaged and help me get through the more boring or upsetting parts. The very start of the game is a lot of somewhat cheesy silliness between characters I didn't care about yet, with the viewpoint character constantly talking about boobs, and the LPers also found this irritating and joked through it, which helped me stay engaged long enough to get past that part and get engaged in the story.
It's one of those stories which is 100% sincerely what it is with no brakes or self doubt, including heavy doses of Ridiculous Shonen Anime Bullshit. It's sometimes very cheesy, male-gazey, long-winded, or over the top. But it's also very cleverly and thoughtfully written, both the family drama and murder mystery aspects are very well done and even after like... 50 hours it's still super engaging and manages to reinvent itself and be surprising in ways which constantly recontextualise the earlier story while still feeling like one consistent whole. Also one of the themes is the importance of letting go of the fear of being cringe, so arguably the cheesiness is Thematic.
And despite the sometimes iffy gender stuff, the main ensemble are all written as fully rounded people, with a lot of compassion for the sexism women face in Japanese society (especially in the 80s, when the game is set) It also does a good job of portraying a family with intergenerational cycles of trauma and abuse without neatly dividing people into Abusers and Victims. One of the themes is the way people and events can be multiple things to multiple people, so you feel deeply how much pain a parent is causing their child while also feeling how much pain that parent is in themselves, and neither of those undermines the other.
Some of the characters are very over the top and one dimensional though. Some of this feels more deliberate and Thematic to me now than it did at first but it's still a Lot. There inconsistencies and jarring choices where I can't decide if it's A Clue or just bad writing.
It's popular with the Toxic Yuri crowd for having messy relationships between fucked up female characters. But I'm not sure if there's actual canon f/f, and there's definitely a lot of Intense Heterosexuality, especially from the initial male viewpoint character.
Over the years I've heard a lot about this game, including lots of spoilers, luckily I don't remember most of the details, and the main Big Twist I knew has been revealed already. But because my memories are hazy I'm never sure how much my correct "theories" are just half remembered spoilers. Anyway even with that I am very bad at the mystery haha. Felix is much better than me, partly because he's trying harder but also because editing the videos means he watches everything at least twice and this apparently often gives him Clues. From all accounts this is the sort of story that rewards revisiting but that's something I'll consider in 50 hours or whatever when I'm done.