Higurashi When They Cry (General)

[Amlux]

Ok, glad you are at least doing that. You were playing it in 4:3 so I wasn't sure. But yeah, I would hate to think of the VN without VAs at this point. Especially going forward. You'll see how voice acting adds a lot to Rika's story especially.

[Maypews]

I've been told that episode 7 pretty much explains everything and that this is my last chance to try to figure it out, so I figured I'd throw my hat into the ring. Admittedly I'm kind of at the point where I'm just really excited to unveil it all, so this post/theory probably won't be as high effort as my other one was.

I enjoyed episode 6, and it does provide us with a few hints regarding the mystery as well as a few big reveals like chapter 1 being a result of Keiichi's own insanity. Rena's back story was very saddening, a shame that her mother was the way she was and the moral dilemma is quite compelling and believeable. The message on comraderie was also very solid and perhaps more poignant than ever today in a world where people are often afraid of showing any kind of weakness to others.

Regarding the mystery I think Shion's theory about the environment causing the murders is correct. The question remains on what exactly fosters said environment. The opening part of episode 7 (I didn't read past the title card don't worry) mentions that there are three rules, X Y and Z. Long story short, there IS something that happens in episodes 2/5 that doesn't take place in the others, and that is the Great Hinamizawa Disaster.

I'm not entirely sure what to make of this. Could this mean that one of the people that Shion kills is responsible for the disaster? That seems rather far-fetched to me, but what if one of the Three Families heads is secretly a traitor that's working with the minister? I'm just going to go and list off a few other things I found as strange while reading it

-The Great Hinamizawa Disaster does not happen in the world where Rule Y is broken

-It is possible to break rules in these different loops

-Why did the Sonozakis have Takano's other textbooks?

-On that note, if Mion had the bodies of Rena's victims dug up then I assume that's likely what happened in chapter 3 with Satoko's uncle too

-The swamp being filled with concrete is incredibly fishy and to me reeks of human involvement/coverup. Given that it was carried out by constructors, could it truly have been the will of government officials? But if that's the case, why didn't they go ahead with the dam project since the interlude with Akasaka is so far into the future?

-Why is the state okay with a Yakuza family having so much influence over such a large area of land anyway, stretching out from multiple locales? Is it possible that the Sonozakis are just the pawns of a hypothetical government big wig?

-The parasite theory is played off as a conspiracy theory and maybe that's true, but I still find it very hard to believe that all of these characters could be driven to murder like they are without some sort of external factor. Also why is Miyo working at the clinic? We still don't have very much actual info on that damned syringe, but I can't help but wonder if there's coorelation between these two things.

-Rena seems to have a dark inner voice/alter ego nudging her in the direction she goes. Is it the same thing as the "demon" Shion mentions? Perhaps it's just a result of mental illnesses shown in the tips but we have nothing to suggest that Shion had that specific brand of trauma as well. The game seems to be trying to downplay the syringe but I remain convinced that it's an important piece of the puzzle.

-Unit 731 is mentioned in some of the earlier chapters, which makes me wonder. Could this perhaps some big human experiment set up by vengeful dam project advocates in powerful positions to see how the villagers react to some sort of foreign substance that directs their will?

-Is the end goal of said experiment perhaps to sway the villagers into supporting the project somehow?

-Perhaps the murders or "curse" itself is organised by powerful government officials in order to scare the villagers in line so that they do not start poking their nose around. It would be trivial to setup patsies to take the fall in these cases.

-Is the story regarding the canned human flesh real? It could very well just be one of Takano's delusions, but Shion mentions having been told about it in Meakashi which causes her aversion to canned foods. Perhaps Hinamizawa has been a testing site for a lot longer than the scope of the game shows. Could it be that the real point of the dam project is to cover up the experimentation, and when it failed they had to use the disaster as the nuclear option so that their deeds would not be publicised? I think this is my acting theory for now.

I dunno what's going on with Rika though and her omnipresent nature, can't think of any explanation except her being some kind of reincarnation. Maybe she found out about the whole conspiracy and was put in some hell realm as punishment? lol. But yeah, I guess this is what I've settled on for now. Looking forward to ep 7.

[Maypews]

Finished ep7, it was cool and had me binging it fairly hard (though that's largely a rite of passage for this game at this point). I am actually pretty happy with my predictions, I got a few things wrong but overall think it went pretty well barring a huge last second twist in ch8. The main detail that I got wrong is that this seems to be a fringe group of researchers that wants to weaponise Hinamizawa syndrome rather than those that were behind the dam conflict itself, and also I wasn't able to figure that it was a disease but it was sort of a "Ahh shit of course" moment when that was unveiled.

Could parasites be the cause of the disease? It wouldn't be strange for Takano to have wrote about that knowingly in her journals. Also hadn't considered that the syringes could be used both as a cure and as a injection tool. Did enjoy seeing the cast overcome the situation with Satoko's uncle, that was quite lovely and there were lots of good character moments for the entire cast.

Still don't really get what's going on with the time loops though, and I am praying the game doesn't pull some multiverse theory bullshit on me. That's like the only thing that could happen for me to seriously lower my critical perception of it at this point. Please no!

I do wonder what exactly Takano's motives are, and I must say this game does such an incredible job of conveying the underlying message of comraderie. The scene at the end where Takano kills all of them, how all the characters refused to give in even in their last moments is very touching. Usually the whole "power of friendship" thing doesn't work on me, but I think Higurashi does an incredible job of handling this theme compared to most things.

Where in many narratives friendship is used as a plot device to rationalise unexplainable power jumps and plot contrivances, here it is simply explored in it's emotional depth and nothing more. I find it particularly poignant given that we're in an age where often times folks are afraid of forming connection with others. On to ep8 now!

[Maypews]

Probably won't write a ton because I'm a bit exhausted on all the writeups I've been doing but I finished Higurashi up. Enjoyed arcs 7 and 8, though for some reason the ending of arc 8 felt a bit flat to me in spite of my great enjoyment of the meat and potatoes of the arc. The action in 8 is a great deal of fun, definitely the best of the series in that respect imo (didn't care much for the 6 rooftop fight desu). It was nice seeing Hanyuu grow out of her doomer shell and I also enjoyed the few moments we got of Shion in the 7th and 8th parts. Takano's backstory also made me rather emotional, they did her backstory very well IMO.

I think I like the Question arcs a bit more than the Answer arcs on the whole, something about the atmosphere and unreliable narraration in the first half is just incredible and it didn't help that I had figured out most of the reveals with my last prediction post, I was kind of hoping for a big twist but it sadly never came. This is why I try to avoid theorising when I play/read things usually, hurts the suspense for me. My arc rankings are something like

5 > 2 > 8 > 1 > 4 > 7 > 3

Made this ending CG my laptop wallpaper. Incredible game, one of my favourites even if it had some obvious flaws. Debating on if I should read the Console Arcs, Rei and some of the manga spinoffs or pick up something else.

ezgif-88f040ee5151a2c1.png (3.07 MiB) Viewed 13 times

[glass]

...My arc rankings are something like

5 > 2 > 8 > 1 > 4 > 7 > 3

But what about my GOAT 6? (half-joking, my loose ranking is something like 5&2 > 6&1 > 3&7 > 8 > 4.)

On a serious note I'm very glad you enjoyed the series! Ryukishi does so well with seamlessly tying together suspenseful horror and heart-wrenching personal/sociological issues and it's great to see more people become invested in his work, especially Higurashi. It could be just me, but it seems a lot of people jump straight to Umineko these days, which is also quite good from what I've read, but still disappointing since they're interconnected works and Umineko half-expects you to already be familiar with Higurashi.

Also, I can vouch for Rei and the manga adaptations/original story arcs being pretty good (pre-2020, I haven't watched/read anything from GOU onwards since I hear it spoils/is related to Umineko which I haven't finished).

[RadioHades]

You convinced me to give it a try "sometimes". Looks like I'll have to wait for a Steam discount though! I feel forced to use the 07th mod, anybody used it with Proton?

Hope having read your first posts and having seen the anime long ago won't spoil the experience too much...