Convince me to buy Higurashi

Visual Novel Community Visual Novel Talk
#1

I realize this would be more suitable for MangaGamer forums, but this board is more active, so here goes:

I’ve got serious VN withdrawal, and release delays for both Koihime Musou and Demonbane don’t help. So, I started double-checking translated VNs I haven’t tried yet. That’s where Higurashi comes in. To be honest, I’m not keen on it, because:

a) I absolutely hate the character design. What the freaking hell is wrong with this artist? All characters looks as if they’re 8 years old, but with huge hands. :?
b) I have to admit that lack of sexual content is a serious problem for me. But nevertheless, I enjoyed Ever 17 [size=85]and another acclaimed VN from a certain company that signed with JAST recently[/size]. You know the one I’m talking about. :wink:

So, is Higurashi really good? What makes it worth my money?

#2

It’s good if you can appreciate the really good story and the characters, especially if you see how the events of each game developes these characters. There is also the mystery element to the story, though if you’ve seen the anime version, that’s kinda spoiled.

#3

It’s got a great story and great characters and once you get into it, like anything else, you stop paying so much attention to the lousy art. Besides, at least it looks better than Tsukutori.

Steins;Gate? I still have to get around to playing that.

#4

No, I’m a rare breed of VN fans, I don’t watch anime at all. So no worries there. :slight_smile:

How does it compare to other all-ages VNs like Ever 17 (and the other one, ahem) in terms of story? I suppose they’re not similar, so direct comparison would be impossible, but in terms of immersion, great plot twists, etc?

I guess I’m just finding it hard to get over the unbelievable ugliness of characters, otherwise I’d have bought and played it by now. :?

I was referring to Chaos;Head actually. Not sure if it’s okay to mention that I played it with the fan patch, it seems to be a sensitive issue now that Nitro+ is officially on board with JAST.

#5

You won’t mind the art anymore after the first few hours of playing. The game itself is quite good, especially if you like mistery fiction. I find the slice-of-life part of the story (usually, the first half, up until people start dying) not particularly well-written or entertaining, and that’s why I liked more the first four episodes of Umineko rather than Higurashi. But still, the game is really solid and you won’t probably regret buying it.

#6

I don’t understand why people hate the art so much. I like the way the characters are drawn, it’s something fresh and original and I like them way more than those generic looking characters from the “improved” PS version. And I also like backgrounds. They add kinda mysterious feeling to the story. At least for me… ~_~ But it’s true that Higurashi is probably not for everyone. I also make long breaks between the story arcs and I finished only first two.

#7

After playing a few hours, you won’t mind the art any longer (and may even start to think the characters are cute in their own way) because the story is just that awesome (and the soundtrack very appropriate [talking about the doujin version, not the commercial version that uses a different soundtrack due to copyright]). Higurashi is a top tier galgame; there’s little way not to like it.

#8

Is somewhat repetitive, but I also agree that a little while in you stop minding the characters designs, and can even dislike the ps2/anime ones. They first chapters start somewhat slow (though I think that that strengthens the second half), but about the middle on you become completely engrossed.

#9

It actually does have a couple things in common with Ever 17, but I can’t say what they are without spoiling the story. Still if you want immersion, then you’ve definitely got that with Higurashi. It really amazes me how this game is able to draw you into the story utilizing the primarily text and the music. As for great plot twists, I can certainly say it has that once you get to the answer arcs.

#10

I have yet to play it although I bought it on CD… but I know there’s a fan patch to switch the original art to the PS2 art. (includes characters and most backgrounds. No CGs though.)
Also there is a patch for the music, and some SFX (but I dunno if the SFX patch does anything really…) I prefer the SFX from the original release which I happen to have purchased before MangaGamer appeared… I am disappointed they had to change that too…
There may be other patches for CGs in the future… but looks doubtful.
(I can’t find a patch to change the music to the PS2 music… too bad I wanted to hear it…)

#11

Would there happen to be a voice patch?

#12

You’ll get used to the art, for example, I stayed away from Umineko b/c of the art, but once I started playing it, I thought it was a nice change. Although, Ryukishi drawing skills seemed to have improved by the time he did Umineko. Btw, if I watched only the First season of the Higurashi anime, would I still enjoy playing/reading Higurashi? Also, does the Sprite replacement patch works for MG release? And also, is there a voice patch.

#13

Even if you watch season 1, you can still play and enjoy what was covered in the anime since the original content has plenty of segments not shown in the anime.

#14

I don’t think there is one currently…
Here is the link to speculation on the voice patch :
http://higurashifix.wikia.com/wiki/Voice_Patch

There might be tools on that page that could get you started if you wanted to do it though D:

#15

if you can past the boring prologue, with crappy SE, crappy Music, crappy Background, Crappy sprite, crapy use of NlScripter… to find a crappy and boring story.
No i won’t say “i don’t like it”, because you can like Crappy game and dislike awsome one.

And, in fact, Higurashi and all the 7th expansion are crap… I don’t understand how people can buy something worst that some really bad doujin you can found on DLsite.

#16

Well, as long as you understand that you’re almost alone on your position, you’re of course entitled to think that 7th expansion games are crap.

#17

Higurashi did not become insanely popular by accident. Ryukishi was an UNKNOWN when the first one was released. There’s only one reason it became famous- because it was very very good.

Of course, in eroge, this will always be up to one’s own subjective values! For example, TakaJun reviewed Subarashiki Hibi: Furenzoku Sonzai, a rather famous game you’ve probably heard of (J-List is selling it). He gave it 3/10. I reviewed it as well, giving it 100/100. Yet I don’t disagree with TakaJun’s review (if you’re asking how someone can disagree with a review, it’s very easy. I’ve read many eroges I’ve disagreed with, mostly because they’ve mentioned a point about the eroge that simply isn’t true) - it’s simply a different person seeing the eroge in a very different light. I’m not denying that there are incredibly terrible games that are very popular (eg. Shuffle!). I’m not denying that there are bad games that are critically well regarded and loved by many people (Seinarukana). I’m also not denying that there are very good games that I myself DISLIKE (Utawarerumono, Biniku no Kaori) and even rather bad games I’m quite fond of (Studio Regrips’ Himawari, Tenshi no Tamago). But I am a little surprised someone would hate Higurashi to this extent.

#18

Let’s just look what vndb says about Higurashi: 257 votes total, average 8.60. There are no votes below 5. So among those 257 people who voted is no one who thinks this game is “crappy”… ~_~

#19

Well, color me convinced then. :wink:

#20

Any artistic work is subject to subjective values. No matter the movie, book, story, paint, sculpture, game, music, etc., you’ll find people who utterly hate it whereas some other people would praise it. The point with scoring sites such as erogamespace is that it gives you a consensus. Though your opinion may totally differ from most people, you’re more likely to enjoy a game with an average score of 99 while scored by 9000 people than a game with an average score of 10 while scored by 5000 people!

From what I observed, it seems people who played Aselia regarded Seinarukana as being bad (since it’s inferior to Aselia character-wise, story-wise and writing-wise) whereas people who discovered the Eternal Sword Worlds and its game system through Seinarukana regarded it as being good (probably because of its game system and world).