#Umineko saku

[scorpio-system]

i sat down to try drawing flauros and instead this fucking goblin took control of my mind so have a silly asumu Piece doodle

[endlesswords34]

A bit out of nowhere, I was looking at the Umineko Saku PC OP, and noticed quite a bit of writing. I haven’t tried looking up if anyone’s written it down, mainly because looking up something as specific as that sounds implausible.

So instead of trying to find it, I transcribed and (roughly) translated what I could (meaning I did not try to translate that cloud of text near the end of the OP).

Without further ado:

今宵

やはりここは久女に、

新しき客人を招こうではないか！

そなたらを集めたのには

理由がある！

悪く思うな

そなたこらに罪はない(?)

恨むなら、6 年もの長きにわたり

約束を反故しあの男を恨むのだな

我こそは黄金の魔女、ベアトリチエ

魔女

安らかに眠れ

次にそなたが目覚める時は

そこは

黄金郷だ

This evening

After all this time, I have grown old,

Why shouldn’t we invite a new guest?

I have gathered all you here for a reason!

Don’t feel bad

None of you have sinned(?)

I have borne a grudge for these long 6 years

And the man I bore that grudge against threw away our promise

I am the Golden Witch, Beatrice

Witch

Can Yasuda sleep

The next time those people will wake up

There is

The Golden Land

Note: this passage of text flashes on screen during these lyrics:

“誰かの声

きみを蝕む

嘘とまやかしを

黒く染めよ”

The lyrics roughly translated reads:

“Somebody's voice eats away at you

Take those lies and deceptions

And dye them in black.”

This opens up a number of interpretations I won’t go over here.

私はだぁれ…？

Who am I?

Note: Everyone who’s read past Episode 4 should know what this is.

聞け、皆の者…‼︎

今ここに、黄金郷を認める、18人の人聞金員の誓約が揃った…！！

Everyone, listen!

Here and now, observe the Golden Land, Do the 18 people who have seen the gold all agree to the oath?

Note: Out of the three, this is my toughest translation. However it seems to call back to the scene in the Golden Land at the end of Episode 3. Interesting that this would be the last line of Saku’s OP.

[ushiromiyacestcentral]

Tried my best to make Piece’s witch outfit resemble Asumu’s outfit from the manga.

[levenlyne1]

[seacatgirls]

have plans that the haters will smite me for

[heavenlydemonyuricult]

I feel like reading or reading about Ryukishi07's interviews and blogposts really enhances the context and understanding of his works, including When They Cry of course. It's really revealing how his personal life, including his poverty and background as a social worker, and how they and history inform his political beliefs really makes things click as to how When They Cry came about and why it is the way that it is. I'd also highly encourage paying attention to the japanese historical and social context involved and to seriously read up on it. Higurashi, Umineko, Higanbana, Rose Guns Days, and Ciconia are all heavily informed by these things and you will enjoy them all more by paying attention to these aspects.

[gabbyp09]

[goldenlandfiascos]

if Eva and adults had been there

[wildmike48]

dai piano tracks which have the motif of life/living in their titles my beloved

[8bitsupervillain]

End of the Year 2023: Pre-2023 Good Games

Now we're talking, it's time for good games. As with previous years I decided on separate lists to talk about games that came out before 2023 and those that came out during the year itself. I agonized over this list. Hope you enjoy it

10: Diablo III

In the meh games list I mentioned that I'm not a fan of Diablo III. In fact for the longest time I was fairly cold on this game and really disliked it. There's something to Diablo III however, every few months since finishing the Reaper of Souls expansion way back in 2014 that kept the game popping up in my mind. You should play it again, it would say. Roll a new character, it's probably better than you remember. Then I would inevitably try it again, play a few hours and then just sort of peter off it. Perhaps it's simply because of the sheer ineptitude of Immortal, and my complete and utter lack of caring for Diablo 4 that made my most recent playing Diablo III feel so much more fun. I think enough time has passed that I can freely admit to enjoying this game for the most part. I just never go out of my way to play it, but it'll probably happen again that I'll be doing whatever and the urge to play it will occur

09: Doom 3

It's something of the black sheep of the Doom franchise, but I recall quite enjoying the games when I played them spur of the moment this year. A lot of people bemoan the fact that they just made Doom 3 a horror game, but I'm not so sure I agree with that assessment. Sure it has spooky lighting, and impenetrable darkness, but you're never really put into a less empowered state compared to the original Dooms. You're never starved for ammo, and except for the odd jumpscare there's never anything really scary that happens in the game. More so in the Resurrection of Evil expansion, where they give you the super shotgun. It's slower, and more methodical than the other Doom games, but I really don't feel it's any lesser as a result. It's truly unfortunate there's no way to really get the original versions of Doom 3 an Resurrection of Evil outside of looking in nefarious places, because I played the BFG Edition as well as the original Doom 3 and it made me feel physically ill. The originals are surprisingly forward thinking made games because it's wild to me a game from 2004 has support for a 1080p resolution.

08: Higanbana no Saku Yoru Ni (The Unforgiving Flowers Blossom in the Dead of Night)

A delightful horror themed visual novel that I freely admit I never would have ever heard of if not for Umineko. It's more of a straightforward horror tale than a Umineko because this is about the local ghosts and monsters that haunt a school. I haven't finished the second of the two games, but I did quite like the stories in The First Night. Well worth checking out if you want to see some of Ryukishi07's lesser known works.

07: The Witcher II

A lot more competently put together than the original Witcher. It's also much more action focused compared to the original. I kind of miss the different fighting stances that were in the first Witcher game, but I can understand that the series needs to undergo some streamlining as they become a more cross-platform series. It's a fine story as well, where it seems to be pulling from more contemporary fantasy stories of the time like your Game of Thrones with all of its fantasy political intrigue. But it also includes troll fart jokes, so it still remembers some of its origins as well. One of the only things I didn't really like in this game was the inclusion of the odd Quick Time Event. There's not a particular lot of them, but they just felt weirdly out of place.

06: Dragon Age II

I think it handled the transition from traditional CRPG to a more action focused one rather well honestly. It's not the deepest combat in the world, but I never really had any particular complaint with how it was implemented. I liked the time skips in the story as well, jumping to more important parts of Hawkes' life rather than meander and get bogged down in the weeds of showing their entire time in Kirkwall. A fine enough story, even though its attempts to make the final endgame events bigger than previous plot points just fall flat on its face. It was fun seeing the fantasy RPG equivalent to a Like a Dragon game.

05: Might and Magic X: Legacy

I don't know a thing about the Might and Magic series. I know one of the strategy spinoffs is regarded as the absolute pinnacle of the genre, but as far as the mainline ones go I know nothing. That being said however I did quite like the first person dungeon crawling and combat here in MMX. It's nothing groundbreaking, and I doubt it was anything particuarly special when it came out nearly a decade ago in 2014. I appreciate that the game is more than willing to let you screw up making your party and going in with a "suboptimal" team. Rather than hold your hand and tell you which classes to bring or how to level them. I wish Ubisoft would let some developers make another one of these because I enjoy these lower budget RPGs that aren't these massive open world fiascos. Also you could make bank by upsetting the crowd who cries about ruining beloved franchises by making new entries in older series. But really I just greatly enjoy this type of RPG, and I would love to see more of them. I don't know if it will save Ubisoft from their impending implosion, but I would love to see them take chances on this type of game again rather than see them put out another big open world game that takes a hundred hours to finish.

04: Bravely Default II

With series like the Bravely Default series I usually try to play the games in release order. I know developers go to great pains to make it so you can follow a narrative for a game without having played every single entry prior to it. Regardless I try to play the first entries first. Sometimes this is a double edged sword because who's got time to play the eight or so entries before you play Ys VIII? Other times you got two entries, Bravely Default and Bravely Second. But here's the thing, while I played Bravely D 1 way back on the 3DS I know I never actually finished it, and I never touched Bravely Second. But towards the end of December 2022 I decided what the hey, I'll play Bravely Default 2 and just try to figure it out from there. This game was an utter delight to play, something about the turn based combat, good story, and charming visuals just combined to make this game a real treat for me. Even when I was going out of my way to suck the fun out of the game by grinding up the job levels I was having a heck of a good time. While I enjoy the story that's not what kept bringing me back to the game. I kept coming back to it just for the sheer enjoyment of playing the actual game. A novel concept! Bravely Default II was just an immensely enjoyable game and I highly recommend it to those who enjoy turn-based RPGs.

03: Potato Flowers in Full Bloom

This is as late an entry as one could possibly get. I went into this completely blind and I came away absolutely stunned. This is a great turn-based dungeon crawler RPG that I cannot recommend highly enough. It's clearly done by people who have a great love for the DRPGs but it isn't so bogged down with the ideas of what a "hardcore" DRPG should be that it loses itself in the fine details. Rather than get super in depth with the challenge one would find in a Wizardry Potato Flowers just focuses on a superlative gameplay loop that is just extremely enjoyable to play.

02: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

It seemed like a lock way back at the start of the year. Sure Bravely Default 2 was a sheer delight, but it couldn't match Deadfire. The combat, the look, the storyline, everthing was just such a marked improvement over the basic perfection I felt playing Pillars of Eternity 1.

01: Umineko: When the Seagulls Cry

But something came along in May that just swept the legs out from under it. There has not been an experience that has just taken up permanent residence in my head since finishing it. I went into Umineko knowing basically nothing, and by the time I finished it my mind just kept going over it again and again thinking about the characters, and the story, just replaying and rethinking events over and over again. Just a masterfully crafted narrative, and a killer soundtrack to boot.

01: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

But the thing about games is that there's more to them than just the story, the gameplay also matters. The short of it is that Pillars of Eternity II quite handily beats Umineko on the gameplay front. Plus, I really don't want to downplay the story of PIllars II because it stands strongly in my memory as one of the most superbly written stories I have ever experienced in any RPG, much less games in general.

01: Umineko: When They Cry

But the story contained within the one hundred and twenty hours worth of Umineko is without hyperbole some of the best written I have had the pleasure to experience. Just some of the most astonishingly well-written character I have ever seen in any medium. Such dedication to the crafting of some of the most vile duplicitous bastards you have ever seen, it's staggering.

01: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

The storyline in Deadfire takes the already major stakes from Pillars of Eternity I and manages to raise them even higher without making it seem like it's going to ridiculous lengths. The many characters you meet in this game are some of the strongest and best written I have seen in an extraordinarily long time. It's such a wonderful balancing act that you have such a range of characters who have their own plots and schemes that can affect the world but they all gel really well together. Even the overtly optimistic characters are played in a very realistic way where it doesn't come across as the game trying to pander with naive cheerful characters.

Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

I find it incredible that a series of such gargantuan length was able to maintain and hold my interest for the majority of its length. There were a couple of times early on where I felt my interest waning a bit, but everytime it was able to draw me back in and just revitalize my enjoyment. I am also immensely surprised at just how strongly it has remained lodged in my memory since finishing it. I feel reasonably confident if pressed I could give a summation of the entire VN just going off of memory and lose very little in the retelling.

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

As with the original Pillars the sequel does an amazing job integrating the DLC expansions quite seamlessly into the main narrative. There were times that I would embark on what I thought was a simple sidequest but was actualy a large add-on that was just as well crafted as the stuff in the main game. It was a very nice and greatly appreciated attention to detail.

02: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

I adore this game, I will sing its praises even while carrying the small issues I have with the production. It is such a genuinely great piece of work that I worry that I might be overselling how good it is. But I genuinely feel that it is certainly worth all the praise the visual novel has accrued since its release.

01: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

However, games are more than just their story. It comes down to gameplay as well as the story that determines what I think the best of the year (pre-2023) truly is. And that's Pillars of Eternity II. I went in to this game with very high expectations, and I was truly surprised at how masterfully the game had met every single one of them. Despite some minor character and story wobbles I adore everything Pillars II set out to do. I highly, highly recommend this game to anyone who has even a passing interest in CRPGs.

What do you think everyone?

But in my heart I know the award goes to Umineko.

[auxryn]

I started reading 'Haru Tsutzuru, Sakura Saku Kono Heya de' and I realized that reading 'Umineko no Naku Koro Ni' has permanently altered my brain chemistry.

Specifically, I will always try to interpret magical realism as an unreliable narrator. Girl, that ghost is not real. You are experiencing mental illness. You need to talk to a psychiatrist.

[izunias-meme-hole]

One Villainous Scene - Confession of The Golden Witch

Umineko No Saku Koro Ni is a visual novel and manga that I highly recommend on so many levels. Between starting strong with a horrific first episode, being a great yet wild deconstruction of both the mystery and fantasy genres, and balancing out so many different flavors of villainy and antagonism. Though it also happens to be a tiny critique of conservatism, a commentary on the problems women face, and carries some transgender/intersex allegories, which is surprising to see from a Visual Novel from 2007. So how are these points expressed? Through one single tragic villain of course.

"Beatrice" is the witch who haunts the entirety of Umineko, and when you first read the piece you rightfully assume that she's the main villain since she's responsible for the massacre of the Ushiromiya family. Then as the story goes on, we kinda see that's not the entire picture, especially when we slowly remove all the fantasy elements and piece together the truth until we finally learn about the real mass murderers, the history behind the original Beatrice alongside her daughter, and the person behind the witch with her name. A suicidal androgynous "trans" person named Sayo Yasuda.

Sayo didn't have the best life. Between having her privates becoming non-existent thanks to a life threatening injury she suffered as a baby, being looked down upon by others, living in a very conservative area, slowly having her heart shattered, and figuring out that something seemed "off" about herself, things weren't the best. However, she still carried hope. She found love with 2 different people, and it was the hope of at least some happy romantic ending that kept her going. Then, she decided to solve Kinzo Ushiromiya's Epitaph, the path to the Ushiromiya's mythical gold... and that sealed her fate.

Sayo processed the cold harsh truth that was she was being told, and denied it at first.

But it reached the point where she couldn't deny it... and she broke down.

With the knowledge from before about what little details we had about the IRL Rokkenjima incident, along with the entire family history and the drama within it, it's clear that Sayo Yasuda was a fckin' scapegoat. While she did set up the tools for the demise of the Ushiromiya family, and made Rokkenjima into one big catbox, she is ultimately a byproduct of Kinzo's greatest sin against his daughter and by extension, the first Beatrice. She's been doomed from the start thanks to a shitty old man, and when she learns that she breaks. It drove her to make up a million plans to kill herself, the Ushiromiya family, and the servants that basically "raised" her (Who funnily enough were willing to help her!). To think that this was who the Golden Witch was all along.

Happy Rokkenjima Massacre Day Eve everyone.

[nyaagolor]

Passerby here, congrats on finishing Umineko! Now that you've finished reading the main series, there's actually two extra shorter Episodes that were released in Umineko Saku you can read! They're not available on Steam (yet?), but there's fan translations you can find on Youtube and the like - the first one is called Our Confession, the second is Last Note of the Golden Witch, if you get lost I can send you links later. I'd also recommend reading the manga adaptation of Episode 8, as it adds new content not in the VNs (Ryukishi changed his mind on how much he wanted to hide by the time the manga caught up). Also, for something jolly, I want you to know that there is official merch of Kanon, Shanon, Beatrice, Battler, and Ange dressed as easter bunnies and it's extremely cute. I hope you had fun reading the series!!!

Thank you!! Umineko has been an absolute blast, easily one of the top ten works of fiction I've ever read. To my delight and utter anguish I am a changed person after finishing it

In terms of side stories, I actually finished all of Tsubasa + Angel of 17 years! I've been keeping up with the manga as well, but only through chapter 5-- the person I was streaming with told me that 6/7/8 are more explicit with the answers and I should wait to read them until after I finished, so I plan on tackling that next week along with Our Confession and Last Note. Thanks for the heads up on all this!

Also, OHHH MY GOD THEYRE BNUY...... my day is made

[batbeato]

Yet again while talking about Umineko my partner put a hand on my shoulder and told me "you should write a tumblr post about this". Save me, everyone.

Anyway, about Sayo and Confession of the Golden Witch - I know I've talked about this before but bear with me - Ryukishi has talked about Sayo and her thoughts about her message bottles before.

Behold: the similarly named, though entirely different, Our Confession. For those who haven't read it: Beatrice shows Dlanor her unfinished manuscript, which involves some of the mechanisms behind how she carries out the murders. Afterwards, they talk about how many people won't be able to understand the truth/all layers of the story, and while Beatrice wants 1 out of those 1000 people to understand her, it might not be possible. Beatrice tells Dlanor she can release the unfinished manuscript upon her death. Dlanor releases the manuscript upon Beatrice's death and, in her notes, has these lines:

She said that she wrote two stories and revealed one. However, that was also wrong. She wrote three stories and revealed one. By reading this incomplete manuscript, you will know two of those stories. I would like you to reach the third and final one with your own power.

If we go by Our Confession, even knowing what happened (the first story, and the fantasy), and how it happened (the second story, the reality), there is still a third unreleased story (the whydunnit, the heart). Even after Beatrice's death, the third story - Beatrice's heart - is not revealed, and we as the audience are still expected to reach the heart on our own.

The Twilight manga began release in 2012; Our Confession was released in 2011. Our Confession, in its original pamphlet format and in the VN release for Umineko Saku, asks the reader to choose to open the catbox (the pamphlet has a physical seal). Confession of the Golden Witch does not - the reader agreeing to open the catbox is not part of the manga.

Rather than opening the catbox being a meaningful choice the reader makes, the manga chapters are forcing one interpretation of 'the truth' onto the reader, eradicating the catbox which Yasuda Sayo worked so hard to create.

Beyond even whether or not it would be in-character for Sayo (which I don't believe it is, nor do I like the confinement to one interpretation of their character, or giving shape to a character who does their best to have none at all, to instead haunt intangibly), it goes against the very delicate treatment given to the subject before. Even in opening the catbox in Our Confession, we still aren't given all the answers to Sayo's heart. We are still expected to search and interpret and find Sayo in the stories they left behind.

In opening, against our wills, the catbox in Confession of the Golden Witch, we are told this is the answer, and to look no further. The catbox is dead; how is Ange ever meant to reconstruct it so Battler and Beatrice can sink peacefully into the ocean?

[goldentruths-pod]

UMINEKO EXTRA MATERIALS CHRONOLOGICAL READING ORDER

this is a repost from jenn's old blog, which got nuked for reasons that are too stupid to get into. it has been re-patched with new info regarding symphony. please enjoy!

ok hi again. along with the eight main arcs of umineko, theres been a bunch of side content released in the form of booklets and short stories. though (most) of these extant materials have been rounded up in the form of the compilation discs umineko tsubaba, hane, and saku, almost all of them were released during the ongoing release of the main series! this is a list of all known, translated extra materials, in as chronological a release order as i could put together. know that none of this is required reading. you can just read straight through the main arcs and get everything you need to enjoy the story. but if you’re a nitpicky completionist, like me, this stuff can enhance your enjoyment of the series, and maybe give a few extra hints to those that might want them.

a few notes up front: 1) as much as umineko is for a niche otaku audience, this extra stuff is even more so. stories marked with a * have a cw for jokes (big or small) about incest and/or pedophilia. i was pretty liberal with what i thought counts, but better safe than sorry imo. 2) i recommend the vn adaptations of the short stories, when available. those found in tsubasa will be blue, those in hane will be yellow, those in saku will be red, those in symphony will be purple. those without vn adaptations will be uncolored.

*PATCH NOTE: since the original publication of this list, the final console adaptation of umineko, symphony of catbox and dreams, has been released. this new release includes vn version of four previously non-vn stories, as well as including ALL STORIES WITH VN VERSIONS EVER. this comes at the cost of only using the ps3 sprites. maybe this is better for you, maybe its worse. the choice is yours, reader, and yours alone.

EPISODE 1: LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN WITCH

EPISODE 2: TURN OF THE GOLDEN WITCH

Important Facts Concerning Magic

EPISODE 3: BANQUET OF THE GOLDEN WITCH

Bern’s Letter

Anti-Fantasy vs. Anti-Mystery

Letter from a Summoner

Memoirs of the ΛΔ

Why Are Closed Room Murders So Beautiful?

Notes from a Certain Chef

EPISODE 4 :ALLIANCE OF THE GOLDEN WITCH

A Certain Witch Hunter’s Interview Tape

*The Seven Sisters’ Valentine

*Beatrice’s White Day

The Witches’ Tanabata Isn’t Sweet

EPISODE 5: END OF THE GOLDEN WITCH

Arigato For 556

Cornelia the New Priest

Labor Thanksgiving Day Gifts

EPISODE 6: DAWN OF THE GOLDEN WITCH

*Game Master Battler!

*Valentine’s Day Letters

Whose Tea Party?

Jessica’s Mother’s Day Present

To Mount Purgatory, Sakutaro

*Jessica and the Love Charm

EPISODE 7: REQUIEM OF THE GOLDEN WITCH

EPISODE 8: TWILIGHT OF THE GOLDEN WITCH

Jessica and the Killer Electric Fan

Forgery no.XXX

*Our Confession

*Angel of 17 Years

The First and the Last Gift -technically a sort of prologue to another ryukishi07 work, but since it includes bern and lambda ive included it here. maybe the least relevant thing on this list.

*Last note of the Golden Witch - saku/symphony exclusive.

[heavenlydemonyuricult]

If you're wondering why some seemingly more obvious choices are missing, I only picked characters with next to no redeeming qualities in their respective novels. Literally there to be sacks of dogshit from start to finish with personalities pushing how fucked up and evil they are.