Umineko no Naku Koro ni Review Thread

[Kaguya]

http://fuwanovel.net/reviews/2016/07/28/umineko-no-naku-koro-ni-2/

Oh, Ryukishi. I do love your stories, but they aren't quite without fault.

[Mkilbride]

They are pretty good.

 

My problem with his stories is they always feel like they should've ended much sooner.  Also, he's the M.Night Shyamalan of VN writers. "What a twist!" seriously. It gets so...so annoying. Every "Chapter" of his usual 8 part stories or so, contain twist after twist, to the point you become numb to what is happening in the story. They also all go from "Realistic, scary" to "EVERYONE IS SUPER POWERFUL"

I dunno, I like his VNs...but I feel he needs to tone down the twists.  Like he's pretentious or something.

[Lucius]

13 minutes ago, Mkilbride said:

My problem with his stories is they always feel like they should've ended much sooner.  Also, he's the M.Night Shyamalan of VN writers. "What a twist!" seriously. It gets so...so annoying. Every "Chapter" of his usual 8 part stories or so, contain twist after twist, to the point you become numb to what is happening in the story. They also all go from "Realistic, scary" to "EVERYONE IS SUPER POWERFUL"

I dunno, I like his VNs...but I feel he needs to tone down the twists.  Like he's pretentious or something.

My problem when I arrived at episode 5 was that it got toned down way too much. I like over-the-top and exaggerated twists. It's fun and keeps me entertained. But then episode 5 came along, and everything just kinda grinded to a halt as soon as

Spoiler

Beautrice stepped down from the game.

My other problem is the infodumping. So much text, and yet the autoplay system is so awkward compared to other titles like euphoria or even G-senjou no Maou. Lines and voices get skipped accidentally very often when I use the auto mode. A huge chunk of information would sometimes be repeated again in later chapters. I guess it's for the sake of recapping in case you forgot what happened about some lore or whatever, but it gets kinda annoying how sluggish the pacing can be due to such dumping.

[WinterfuryZX]

2 hours ago, Mkilbride said:

They also all go from "Realistic, scary" to "EVERYONE IS SUPER POWERFUL"

Lol, have you finished the 8th chapter?

[Darklord Rooke]

Kaguya's conclusion -> The game shines in character development and pushing your feelings to the edge, and while it has a non-trivial amount of problems, it pulls off what it tries to do very well. 4/5

Fanboy's comment:

Quote

You are going to regret badmouthing Umineko in this review so badly, when you understand what everything you read is all about :v

Rule of thumb -> if a person is so in love with a game that they climax from the memory of their first playthrough, that person should be aware that any comment they make will sound as though it came from a squealing 6 year old in full cosplay. Not that there's anything wrong with that of course, but they're probably not in the required mental place to rationally evaluate the work's strengths and weaknesses.

[WinterfuryZX]

No he's right you have to finish all 8 chapter or you don't understand shit of what'sgoing on.

[Darklord Rooke]

Knowing ‘what’s going on’ won’t affect the reviewer’s critique with reference to poor scene writing (badly written fighting scenes seems to be one criticism,) or the pacing.

[WinterfuryZX]

For battle scenes:

 

you have to wait chapter 7 tea party, other battles never really happened that's just bullshit sprouted from battler and sayo's mind, and chapter 7 tea party is a masterpiece of writing

[Decay]

1 minute ago, WinterfuryZX said:

For battle scenes:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

you have to wait chapter 7 tea party, other battles never really happened that's just bullshit sprouted from battler's mind, and chapter 7 tea party is a masterpiece of writing

 

None of that changes the specific criticisms Kaguya employed. The battle scenes are indeed poorly written, regardless of their story reasons for happening.

[WinterfuryZX]

I really like how they are written, for the reasons I already mentioned.

[Darklord Rooke]

To expand on Decay's point, a lot of people in the VN community get too wrapped up with 'ideas'. It seems like 'cool ideas' can wipe away deficiencies in technique and make things suddenly okay. I can't count the number of people who tell me Ever17's final route makes up for the tedium of the rest of the game - it doesn't. Not at all. 

In relation to this game, I don't understand why the reason you supplied is supposed to explain away poor technique. I'm sure someone will eventually explain it to me, in a shouty voice and with hands waving excitedly in my face. 

TBH, I really doubt the battle scene in chapter 7 is as good as you say. But I can't comment because I've never read it. I will say that I've never come across a translated battle scene in a VN that's been a 'masterpiece'. Sounds harsh, but eh  

[WinterfuryZX]

No Ever17 never corrects the dulness of the non-true routes, those scenes reamain boring even if you reread them, Umineko is a completely different case, let's say thet Umineko gives you the "keys" to understand certain scenes.

chpter7:

 

it's a battle if you consider duels with gun battles, anyway...

[Decay]

25 minutes ago, WinterfuryZX said:

I really like how they are written, for the reasons I already mentioned.

I'm sorry but I don't follow. The reasons you gave have nothing to do with the quality of the writing. What you gave are reasons to like the ideas and story behind those battles, not reasons to like the way they're written. You don't seem to be understanding the dichotomy between the writing and the story that exists here. Kaguya's criticisms are perfectly valid and shouldn't change no matter what happens in future chapters.

Anyway, that review comment was especially ridiculous considering Kaguya gave it a 4/5 and did very little "badmouthing." And also, chapters 5-8 aren't as good as 1-4, so I really doubt they're able to redeem the series if someone thinks the first four chapters are bad, lol.

[Kaguya]

5 hours ago, WinterfuryZX said:

No he's right you have to finish all 8 chapter or you don't understand shit of what'sgoing on.

I have played chapters 5~8. This isn't my first time with Umineko, and I'm pretty fond of the game. I did give it a 4/5, after all. 

It's not what got released on steam, which is what this review is focusing on, though.