Higurashi When They Cry Hou - Ch.2 Watanagashi

Big cookin

rena go boom

I fucking love Ryukishi

I think it took a little too long to get going (and it's not entirely clear what is going on if you jump in straight from finishing Chapter 1 like I did), but once the story gets moving, it really doesn't stop. I did feel that some decisions the main character made at the end were kind of dumb, but at least the lore of Hinamizawa was expanded upon. Can't wait to play Chapter 3!

keiichi maebara winner of the fell for it again award

Comentario Analítico: "Higurashi When They Cry Hou - Ch.2 Watanagashi"

Segundo capitulo de "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni" o "Higurashi: When They Cry", la serie de novelas visuales autodenominadas "Novelas Sonoras" escritas por Ryukishi07, fundador de 07th Expansion, también autor del excelente Umineko When They Cry y recientemente confirmado como escritor para el próximo Silent Hill f.

Detalles mucho más técnicos relacionados a la publicación de estas obras, así como sus distintas ediciones y adaptaciones, las nombré en mi reseña del primer capítulo de esta saga. No pretendo repetir todo eso, así que voy a hablar directamente de lo que aporta este segundo arco.

Posterior a los acontecimientos de Onikakushi-hen (Arco del Rapto del Demonio), se conserva al lector particularmente expectante, pareciera imposible continuar el argumento y, aún así, los mismos personajes están ahí, con los mismos intereses y en la misma Hinamizawa, de la que poco a poco comprendemos cada vez más. Es en este capítulo que empieza a lucirse la dinámica de los arcos de Incógnita que tanto caracteriza a esta franquicia, y así va a continuar siendo en próximos episodios.

Se introduce a Shion como la segunda hija de los Sonozaki y se explora los acontecimientos consecuentes al Watanagashi, véase el festival del "Algodón a la Deriva" o "Algodón por la Corriente".

Si tuviera que criticarle algo, sería cuán extensos son los flashbacks y diálogos vacíos y carentes de progresión alguna. Por momentos es cansino y pedante, y no cesa incluso en los episodios que lo suceden; no obstante lo compensa con el mérito del terror psicológico y cuán bien conecta con próximos acontecimientos.

¿En conclusión? Se introduce de manera lenta y algo cómica, pero nos ayuda a entender más sobre Hinamizawa y sobre la dinámica de bucles que vamos a ir observando de ahora en adelante.

It's part of my favourite Visual Novel series, the No Naku Koro ni series. A;though not such a masterpiece like Uminako, Higurashi is great as well. Mystery, Horror and food for thought are everywhere in this VN,
The drawbacks is that there is very much time wasted to unnecessary scenes. 3 chapters devoted to the protagonists playing games is a lil bit too much. But that happens next, it's totally worth it.

nipaaaaah

Nipah~

After finishing Meakashi-Hen, this arc seems so much more sad. It truly was a tragedy, no one deserved this. I love that we saw both the murderer's and victims perspectives, and that neither of them truly knew what was going on. I love each of these arcs. Anyways that's all! I probably should've wrote something about it earlier (lol)

horrible ass loli content ass fanservice ass what the fuck is the point even the plot is actually good so why. literally disgusting

im literally mion if you even care..

This is a 10/10 just from Shion alone

Another great chapter, this time focused more on Mion and the history of the town.

absolute cinema.

great, i like how it leaned into romance a little

WHAT

Peak fiction right here

DRY humping Mion Sonozaki. Dick hard on Butt, Titty in Hand, Kiss ya Neck, Hell Yeah!!!

Peak

higurashi have a serious pacing problem but its ok i think keiichi is funny

Mion:((

shion sonozaki

everyone is so mad and why? don't like the fact that a girl has hobbies?

a game to be remembered, compared to the first chapter onikakushi the mystery is much easier to understand .. on the surface anyways. truly this is a step above the last chapter in the best way possible, while the introductory chapter is amazing at world building and making you feel at home with the characters in this chapter you learn more about the mysterious village of hinamizawa itself that you didn't receive in chapter one... and it's certainly nothing to scoff at. the story of watanagashi is something i think i'll never forget and the ending .. well it certainly hit the nail on the head. if you enjoyed onikakushi you'll love watanagashi ! maybe even more then the last, just like me !!! especially if you like mion <3

what the fuck did i just play

These Higurashi VN's were written in an era when a lot of VN's were based on different manga and were expected to give you a ton of exposure to all the characters and their lives before getting into the plot because that was paying homage, or something.

So back then, a Visual Novel was kind of expected to spend the first 2+ hours boring the absolute living hell out of you with the most God-awful "slice of life" writing that you will ever read in your life. Slice of life writing that was not only uninteresting and shallow but would not get accepted by any reputable publisher on the face of the planet. You'd read it and know that you, personally, could write better than that. You'd hate the characters, you'd hate the MC even more, and you'd hate everything about the story and just grind through it so you could finally be rewarded and get to the part where it got good because everyone would tell you that yes, it does get good eventually.

In fact you were lucky if it took 2 hours. Often it would take 5, some novels I hear took 10.

I read the first chapter of Higurashi in 2018. IIRC it took about 5, 6 hours to get to the good part. I almost binned it a couple of times but people told me to stick with it and I did, and the last half turned out to be great.

And so it is with this one. 90 minutes in and omg this is absolutely terrible. The MC is stupid. The characters are as one dimentional as you can get and the plot is awful.

I KNOW it will get better if I stick with it for 4 more hours but this isn't 2018 and I won't do this to myself again. Stop torturing me as a reader and just get to the f**king point already.

These games were really cheap and the endings, if the first chapter is anything to go by, really are good. But do you really want to spend 4 hours mentally chewing steel wool? Your time is worth more than this. Get a modern VN that pulls you in quickly and is more like a book and doesn't waste your time.

to get the negatives out of the way, watanagashi has pretty much all the same problems as onikakushi did, although here they felt a little more egregious to me given the explosive climax that you're likely coming off of. keiichi just clawed his own throat out, mion and rena are dead by their best friend's hand, and we still have no idea how tomitake and takano died, but oh- everyone's back and fine again and we're gonna start off the chapter with a game board tournament. at least it's not another punishment game scene, for now

I do get why in this case though, we needed to establish the format of the story going forward and shunting the characters back to the assumed status quo after such a brutal ending in onikakushi is some good whiplash and really gets you wondering what the fuck is going on. and luckily from this chapter's intro onward, the slice of life stuff at the beginning gets cut down a lot. enough to still learn more about the characters, but not so much that it drags like it does in onikakushi and watanagashi.

that said, I didn't love this chapter as much as onikakushi when i first read through, mainly because I'm not as big of a shion fan as most. but on reread, man does this whole experience take on a whole new light. I won't spoil for the benefit of those going in blind, but I highly recommend coming back to this one after reading meakashi, you'll pick up on so many amazing hints and details you wouldn't have caught on first read.

that said, I really enjoyed getting to see more of mion, she is woefully underrated compared to her sister. again, I can't say too much though without spoiling. This is also the chapter where I really started to like rena and see her as more than just the kind of cutesy airheaded girl that onikakushi and keiichi himself portrays her as. in a genuinely dangerous situation, she immediately becomes the sharpest, most cool-headed person in the club. seeing her lay out her reasoning for how she came to the conclusion that REDACTED was the culprit behind rika and satoko's disappearance was so cool to watch. that entire ending scene at the sonozaki mansion was equal parts tense, heartbreaking and horrifying.

7/10, the stakes have been raised and the characters are really starting to become more fleshed out

god forbid women do anything

What is going on?!?!?!

Most elements bar the story and plot are common with the other Higurashi iterations. The focus is on the story itself, which is very well written, and artwork is secondary to the novel.

Great music and sound effects that fits in with the story at hand.

No CGs, no voice acting, rough backgrounds, and the sprites of the characters themselves appear less often then just big plain wall of texts, often with not even background at all.

As for the story itself, this is where the novel excels at. Great story telling, deep character and story development that gets progressively darker and thrilling as it progresses.

Like the first half of the series, some story content requires reading the sequels in order to be understood.

Overall, a great novel, if for the story alone.

Rating: 7/10.

HOLY SHIT

Great next game in the series, focusing a bit more on Mion (The oldest in the main group and the "leader" of their lil club.) This one really invested me in the characters and would further cement Higurashi as one of my favorite series of all time, just by making me cry at a very relatable moment near the end of Mion's story (do not want to spoil that...!)

fun and normal game

good game

I honestly can't recommend this highly enough. I've already read it on youtube but I want to buy it all to support the writer because it's just that good. Seriously. Check out the first chapter for free. If you're at all interested after that, you're in for a hell of a ride! I introduced it to my friend who doesn't even like visual novels and now he loves it, too. I'd recommend it even if you've seen one or both of the animes since there is waaaay more story in this than in either adaptation.

If a girl shows you her torture chamber, try running.

shows that going outside is bad

A great chapter building on the mystery and horror of the last.

mion was a little quirky in this chapter

абсолют

The mystery deepens...

Mion best girl

good

This is a mindfuck.

Why didn't you give her the damn doll

Should of just given her the doll...

I don't recommend it, it's very boring.

Hau

It just a f ing doll, chill !