#UMINEKO WHEN THEY CRY SERIES#

Give it maybe half an episode to get used to the ranges of expression and you'll find the designs growing on you more and more. The weird thing is that this character art style fits this kind of story well. The facial expressions of the characters are very well-done and express a wide variety of emotions, but it's too bad 07th Expansion didn't quite master the art of 'fingers'. Umineko fails in this category, by both Visual Novel and general gaming standards. Visual Novels are typically known to have many different drawings and artwork to enhance the experience. Here's the main concern with Umineko: the graphics.

You'll be looking at a 30-40 hour experience depending on how fast/slow you read. Umineko is a pretty lengthy game and adding in gameplay would hinder the story. Umineko has even less than that the game reads like a book, with no choices, no branching routes, no real player input whatsoever except for hitting a button (mouse, spacebar, the 'enter' key, whatever) to advance the text. Most only give the player/reader a choice every now and then. Visual Novels don't have much gameplay in the first place. Strictly speaking, they're kinetic novels, or sound novels in this case, where the emphasis is on creating atmosphere through the soundtrack and sound effects. 1-4 and 5-8, I'll be sticking to 1-4 for this review. Since the episodes are now grouped into two games.

#UMINEKO WHEN THEY CRY SERIES#

Umineko no Naku Koro ni (When the Seagulls Cry) is a doujin (self-published) visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion back in 2007.There are 8 games in total in the series and each game is called an episode.

Before I start this review, some background information is in order.

Umineko when they cry