Visual Novel: Umineko no Naku Koro ni

[Xrlderek]

http://forums.gotwoot.net/gallery/files/8/6/4/9/Umineko_no_Naku_Koro_ni_cover.jpg

Umineko no Naku Koro ni takes place in the year 1986, during the time frame of October 4 and October 5 on a secluded island named Rokkenjima (六軒島, Rokkenjima). The head of a wealthy family named Kinzo Ushiromiya, who lives on and owns Rokkenjima, is near death, and eight of his family members arrive on the island to discuss how Kinzo's assets will be divided once he is dead. Also on the island are three family members who live there, five of Kinzo's servants, and his personal physician. After the eight family members arrive, a typhoon traps them on the island and shortly after people start to get mysteriously murdered.
[Taken from ANN]

This is a visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion. The drawings are not supposed to be the main drawing point, and the games are therefore often called sound novels instead of visual novels. The atmosphere created by the music is supposed to be more important. There are currently four games released. All four of them have been translated by The Witch Hunt, and the patch can be found at http://witch-hunt.com/ .

When buying the latest game, all the previous games are included, so you only have to buy Episode 4 to get all four episodes. It can be bought at http://www.himeyashop.com/product_info.php/products_id/11978. Each episode is quite long.. I'm not sure exactly how long it took me to read them all but it was certainly a lot of hours. Without doubt one of the best visual novels I have read. This is a game that has a lot of potential for discussion, hence why I am posting this thread..

If you enjoyed the Higurashi series you should definitely check this out.

Those who plan on only watching the anime should stay away from this thread as the game is so far ahead and the plot is definitely what makes the show.

[shinta|hikari]

What the hell is with that art..?

[Xrlderek]

Yes, it isn't good.. I got used to it though. At least it has gotten better, just look at the higurashi art and compare it with the anime:

http://forums.gotwoot.net/gallery/files/8/6/4/9/Higurashi_original_doujin_game.jpg

[Xrlderek]

Ep 5 has been released now.. time to wait for the translation while dodging spoilers as best as I can. It seems like there will be 7 or 8 Eps in total, but who knows. The more the better.

[divaa]

Or you could just download the game off: http://soraz-yumenokaze.blogspot.com/2009/02/umineko-no-naku-koro-ni-english-patch.html

Don't know if that's against the rules to post.

rar pasword is sakurahana.com

[Archangel]

What the hell is with that art..?

Looks amateur... bad amateur

[divaa]

Looks amateur... bad amateur
but it's a beautiful story.

[Archangel]

I suspect that even if we were talking about fsn quality shit i still wouldn't be able to get past such crappy art

[Xrlderek]

I suspect that even if we were talking about fsn quality shit i still wouldn't be able to get past such crappy art

Took me about 30-60 min before I didn't notice it anymore. You should give it a try. It is around or beyond the F/SN quality level in my opinion.

@divaa

I meant waiting for the EP5 translation. I've already read the first 4 episodes.


Anyway I gave up waiting and downloaded AGTH + Atlas + a translation aggregator.. I think I understand like a third of the text.. meh. Not sure whether I'll give it up or not.

[Xrlderek]

I didn't bother with the translation tools thing, too confusing when it translated the names like Krauss as "mortar pillar storehouse" and Kinzo as "Golden warehouse" + I probably miss many important details.

Anyway, the progress is like this now according to the witch hunt page:

Episode 5: End of the Golden Witch

* Translation: 50%
* Editing: 20%

http://witch-hunt.com/news.html

I'm hoping for a release before the end of the year.

There is a translated intro out there , by someone else, for like 10-15 minutes of the start of the game. Can't speak for the translation accuracy, but I didn't notice any spelling errors. Here is a link to it: Umineko 5 translated intro (http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=2686544&postcount=2558)

The next game should be out at the next Comiket, which isn't too long from now (28-31 December). Apparently the creator(s) barely made the deadline for the last Comiket though, and now he's had about half the time so maybe he will postpone it. I read somewhere that he skipped a Comiket with Higurashi once.

[Xrlderek]

I'm talking to myself here, but anyway, the translation has gotten very far now.

Episode 5: End of the Golden Witch

* Translation: 75%
* Editing: 40%

For those of you watching the anime:

Episode 3 is now done in the anime, so reading EP1-3 will not spoil anything.

[vejita613]

Actually Ive recently started reading this myself. I still like the anime, but wow...so much more stuff is covered in this (no suprise I suppose). For example, in the first episode where the three younger siblings team up to exploit Krauss only to have him reveal the fact that tehy needed money very soon. I think that was covered in the anime as well but it was given so much more emphasis in the VN. It made me want to care about that bit of information.

I hadnt noticed that they updated the episode 5 translation, thanks for the heads up. I havent dled episode 5 yet (I assume one of the links you posted already has it available for dl?), but I heard its pretty sure compared to the previous ones. BUT, I heard theres alot of insane stuff that happens in it too.

[Xrlderek]

I agree with you there, I think a lot of scenes had more impact on me in the visual novel, although I think they have done a great job with the anime too. Plus that there of course are a lot more details in the VN. They have cut a few things from the anime, but nothing serious. Hell, they even kept a lot of the BGM files which is great. I am so happy that they managed to make the EP3 ending as awesome as it was in the VN.

I do think that solving the murders will be way harder by just watching the anime though. There is more red text in the VN and there is more discussion around the murders/mysteries..


I haven't stumbled by even a single spoiler for EP5 so far and I am really happy for that. Btw, the translation group said it would be done before the year is over at least.

[Xrlderek]

Translation for EP 5 finished, only editing left:


Now that we have reached this part of the patch, I guess a little update might be good.

The translation is now done (chrono needs a break I think: chapter 14 took a toll on him). Please note the emphasis however, as we still have many things at hand (editing so to speak).
That being said, we believe that releasing the patch the sooner as we can was the policy we always stick with. So as many could expect, there will be no delay (so no, we aren't waiting for Episode 6).


As far as it goes, we "might" be able to pull the patch before the end of the year, but there is no ETA so to speak.
I'm just done after going through the whole game, save the tea parties for the whole day, 4AM right now... quite taxing for a rough first check (I can sense the joy for us editors, especially the bloody red )

[Xrlderek]

Ep 5 is now fully translated. :D
http://witch-hunt.com/stage8.html

Edit:

Finished reading now, really liked it. It can't be called an answer arc as higurashi kai was to higurashi though, it just continued the story.

The anime was an ok adaption, but it fucked up a lot, especially towards the end. More than half of the discussion at the end was supposed to be in the red truth. Not sure how they will fix that. Adding to that a lack of many details and some changed murder locations, the anime is probably unsolvable. Still, it was great seeing everything animated.

Ryuukishi claims that someone has come really close to solving the game, and regards the epitaph as 98% solved by some people. The 6th game comes out 31. December.

[vejita613]

So I finally, finally, finally got around to finishing everything that has been translated so far. I have to say, episode 5 had me on the edge of my seat. I was like "dammit Battler, when are you going to freaking step in!" I just kept waiting to here the words "its all useless!" Episode 5 definitely did not disappoint. I had thought of a solution that could have helped Battler out although it would given help to the witches side, but I dont want to spoil anyone. Lets just say it had to do with Genjis death.

In anycase, I cant wait for episode 6 to get translated. I heard that some really freaking crazy stuff goes on. But I also heard its very, very depressing too. Apparently a friend of the author (a fellow VN writer) passed away recently and it took a large toll on him. Supposedly, hes even lost his inpiration to write now. Hopefully not, I would like to atleast see him finish this series.

[Xrlderek]

So I finally, finally, finally got around to finishing everything that has been translated so far. I have to say, episode 5 had me on the edge of my seat. I was like "dammit Battler, when are you going to freaking step in!" I just kept waiting to here the words "its all useless!" Episode 5 definitely did not disappoint. I had thought of a solution that could have helped Battler out although it would given help to the witches side, but I dont want to spoil anyone. Lets just say it had to do with Genjis death.

In anycase, I cant wait for episode 6 to get translated. I heard that some really freaking crazy stuff goes on. But I also heard its very, very depressing too. Apparently a friend of the author (a fellow VN writer) passed away recently and it took a large toll on him. Supposedly, hes even lost his inpiration to write now. Hopefully not, I would like to atleast see him finish this series.

I heard Ryuukishi said in an interview that those who had understood it by now would be able to understand what will happen next or something..(EP6 and further). Someone please clue me in because I am far too stupid to have understood/solved the games by now lol. He keeps throwing out hints about the epitaph little by little but doesn't want to give it all away.

I've read some pretty funny theories out there, including one that says that Beatrice is a bomb(therefore she can kill battler at the end of EP4 even though Battler is the only one alive on the island). The bomb part is reached by solving the epitaph from using the hints given in episode 5, so I guess it is possible, but there are so many different conclusions you can reach depending on which town you choose as Kinzo's Hometown so I don't know if that means anything.

Some spoilers below so those who haven't read EP 5 yet might want to stop reading here.



The "????" part of Episode 5 was really satisfying, I almost thought it would end without Battler fighting back further. I was a bit disappointed that all the twilights wasn't in this episode though(here the author also said that those who "understood" would be able to know what would happen later on in this game). I mean, Natsuhi isn't the culprit, so further murders would certainly occur, it would be interesting to see them. I liked Furudo Erika's character, I hope she will be in the next episode too.

Heavy backstory on Natsuhi and Krauss in this episode(which I thought was great). I knew she wasn't well respected, being a "borrowed womb" and all, but I didn't think she was a "war trophy" taken by Kinzo. Maybe this was mentioned in earlier episodes, if it was I've forgotten. Here's to hoping for more backstory on other characters too.

Apparently Kinzo being dead at the start of all games wasn't supposed to appear until EP6 or something, but because so many people guessed it he chose to include it in EP4.

Rudolph singing from the jack bauer song when climbing up to the window was great. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga4nNSqsYp0)

SPOILER: I hope there will be more explanations of the golden truth in the next few episodes. Really wondering what it "really is", and how strong it is.

[Xrlderek]

Episode 6 translated.

http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=3132641&postcount=4204

[Ryllharu]

So if I get the game, will the patch translate all the chapters contained in the game, or do I need to grab each patch? And the new game still has all the previous chapters?

It doesn't look like the anime will ever get a second season, and I'm more interested in the series than ever.

[Xrlderek]

Knew you'd turn :)

If you get the 4th episode it contains Episodes 1-4, the 1-4 patch on the witch hunt site will translate it fully.

If you get the 6th episode it contains 5 and 6, and the newest patch will translate both.

The anime used only episodes 1-4(but did leave out details, scenes etc, as is usual for adaptions).

Edit:
Finished it. Very good episode, loved it, sick soundtrack.

[vejita613]

Also finished it. The very end just leaves me wondering (and scared?) how the next novel will turn out.

[panos]

Please i have installed the english translation with onscripter and i have the 2 following questions 1)can i play the game in full screen or at least zoom it in because i can hardly see a thing.
2)Does it differ from other visual novels because i cannot find an option entry with cg gallery and ending list?
Thanks.

[Xrlderek]

F or alt+F or a similar combination should work to make it fullscreen, I remember there was an option to do so.

It does differ, there aren't any cgs, story is key here.

[Xrlderek]

EP 7 is translated. Decent game. I wish I had enough time to go through the games again and form a theory because the author is clearly saying that all he is doing now is giving hints. Also, it is said that the last game won't be like higurashi, he won't explain everything at the end. The episode was good though.

[Archangel]

Apparently there's a patch that adds the art of the ps3 version to the PC game? Anyone got any info on that?

I might bring myself to give a shit if this happens.

[shinta|hikari]

If both voice and art are patched in, I would play it again. I almost never replay or re-watch anything. It is that good.

[Archangel]

If both voice and art are patched in, I would play it again. I almost never replay or re-watch anything. It is that good.
Your avatar and sig aren't doing a good job of selling the idea that your opinion's one to be trusted.

[shinta|hikari]

Umineko has no fanservice, so it actually bolsters my opinion.

[Archangel]

Yeah and those 2 witches are lolis because they have to be.

[shinta|hikari]

Well, not the type of fanservice you are referring to when you mentioned my sig and avatar, at least.

And even then, they are not lolis just for fanservice.

[vejita613]

Your avatar and sig aren't doing a good job of selling the idea that your opinion's one to be trusted.

I believe this is what you are looking for.

http://uminekofix.wikia.com/wiki/Tweaking_Umineko_Wiki

Or more specifically, this:

http://uminekofix.wikia.com/wiki/Downloads

Apparently, it's just for the first two books. I have not tried it myself, however. I got rid of my computer that had my all my seacats stuff and I really don't feel like downloading everything again. But, if they officially release it with these graphics, I just might.