If you consider it, I said I would do this review about a year and a half ago but never actually got around to doing it as I never actually bothered trying to translate anything. Now that the translation team WITCH HUNT has been translating all four episodes so far which has been happily encouraged by head producer Ryuukishi07, I finally decided to take the plunge and get all four episodes, which the 4th comes with all three other episodes as well. I will be reviewing one on the occasion. This is the first episode called “Legend of the Golden Witch” and whilst not being as brutal or as magic based as the other episodes, definately starts with a heavy introduction to the series. For the purpose of spoilers, I will not be doing a summary of this episode however future novel reviews will be summaried with potential spoilers. Image-Light but that will change in future novel reviews.
Artwork
Okay, right of the mark it had to be something negative. Unlike other visual novels where they pride themselves on the excellent graphics and CG Artwork, Umineko no Naku Koro ni does not have any CG art and only average graphics with a few different emotes for each character. This continues on with the trend of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, which whilst originally having basic artwork, makes up for it in other areas. Fortunately, there has been a significant graphical improvement from the Higurashi visual novel which is always welcome however it is hard to bypass the fact that each character nay Maria has a above average bust size. Nothing wrong with that but it is hard to not notice that the Ushiromiya family has a large-bust trait. Background is another thing that is not great however does have that 1986 charm that gives the setting that feeling like you were looking though a window at that era. A nice diversity of backgrounds however and the Rokkenjima mansion is based off a real building just like Hinamizawa is based off a real Japanese village. Special effects are also displayed as backgrounds with the same blood shots that are not only reused in this episode, but the other three as well.
Music
I will give this series a big round of applause for Umineko’s choice of music. With several Japanese instrumentalists such as dai, Pre-holder and zts taking part in supplying the musical tracks and they are all pretty good in portraying the mood. My only slight complaint towards the music which is only possible after playing other games is that it doesnt really have as many stand out tracks such as worldenddominator, dreamenddischarger and Happy Maria!. The OP theme is also pretty impressive which does set the mood. The OP Theme is named Umineko no Naku Koro ni by Akiko Shikata. Honestly, once you finish episode 2 (Too bad if you only purchased Episode 1) you could actually sit down and listen to the music for quite a while… I know I have all the tracks on my ipod haha.
Storyline
Welcome to Rokkenjima. The Golden Witch extends her heartfelt greetings. First, put yourself at ease.
There is nothing too difficult to think about.
Accept entirely, silently, the events to happen.
That is all that is asked of you.
The difficulty is standard.
Shall we first take the easy road?
Whilst not having as much mystery as the other versions, it does set a good scene and it does at least have some confusing murders which actually get you thinking on whodunnit. For a general synopsis, the Ushiromiya family has gathered at the Rokkenjima mansion of their crazed grandfather Kinzo to discuss how the family inheritance will be distributed as Kinzo apparantly only has weeks to months to live. That is until the youngest member of the family Maria recieves an umbrella and a letter from the supposed witch Beatrice which states that she is going to take not only the inheritance but use them in a ceremony of hers as stated on the epitath infront of her portrait unless someone solves the riddle in it. The epitath goes:
He who lays hand upon the key shall travel under the rules below.
At the first twilight, you shall life up as sacrifice the six chosen by the key.
At the second twilight, the surviving shall tear apart the two who are close.
At the third twilight, the surviving shall praise my honorable name of high.
At the fourth twilight, gouge the head and kill.
At the fifth twilight, gouge the chest and kill.
At the sixth twilight, gouge the stomach and kill.
At the seventh twilight, gouge the knee and kill.
At the eighth twilight, gouge the leg and kill.
At the ninth twilight, the witch shall be revived and none shall be left alive.
At the tenth twilight, the journey shall end and you should reach the village of gold.
The Witch will praise the wise, and should bestow four treasures.
One shall be, all the gold from the Golden Land.
One shall be, the resurrection of the souls of all the dead.
One shall be, even the resurrection of the lost love.
One shall be, to put the Witch to sleep for all time.
So the family take it as a lot of nonsense until they find that the first twilight has occured and their numbers are dwindling. From there, you have to read and find out.
Overall, it is a really interesting story filled with plot-twists, closed-room murders and many other components that make you wonder…. could a human actually acomplish this or is the witch really out to hunt them down?
Extras
If you were to look at this volume seperate from the others, there are not as many bonus features however there is still a generous share of extras which include:
TEA PARTY
Please do take a break.
Did you find your stay on Rokkenjime pleasant?
The Golden Witch has gratified you with an invitation letter to a Tea Party.
It would truly be a pleasure if you took part.
The Tea Party extra story which involves Battler, Maria, Jessica, George, Kanon and Shannon discussing the story so far and it sets the scene for the next volumes as Beatrice steps in to lend them a not so friendly hand with their detective skills.
????
Welcome to the Tea Party of those who are not Human.
This extra story contains discussions between witches, usually between Beatrice, Rika Bernkastel and Takano Lambadelta. For the first few volumes it isnt as interesting as the tea party, but it does contain potentially useful information and Higurashi references that are always useful.
TIPS
As they did in the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Visual Novels, they offer TIPS during the game which contain reading material such as letters from the witch, and more importantly, status updates for the characters and information on either themselves or how they died. The TIPS bonus menu basically shows the TIPS screen but allows you to view all information as well as being able to execute and resurrect characters to see their different information.
Personal Opinion
All I can say that this is a simply fantastic visual novel despite its lack in artistic value and with the anime being released this Thursday, I can happily recommend that they get their hands on the Episode 4 disk (It contains the first four novels) so they can gather extra information cut out from the anime and also being able to see the original source of the storyline.
Overall
Artwork: 4/10
Music: 9/10
Storyline: 18.5/20
Extras: 4/5
Personal Opinion: 5/5
Total: 40.5 (81% A-)
