5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
Hey, everyone checking out the blog, I'm Green Starfish!
I love making reviews for all types of media. It's fun to reflect on my thoughts and immortalize them in a concrete form. It also improves my skills at being able to formulate my thoughts. I won't post all my reviews on this blog since those can be found on my profile or the Post Your Wins thread. This blog will be used for reviews that are for parts of a game rather than the game as a whole. This applies to Higurashi's multiple arcs, which I consider to be part of a larger whole and games that are constantly changing like Fortnite. I'll also include reviews that exceed the 5000-character limit on the regular review page, since then the full version of the review will be easily accessible instead of buried within the Post Your Wins thread. On top of these regular reviews, every now and then I'll also post some wacky tier lists and rankings, since I like making those as well.
Table of Contents:
Higurashi When They Cry: Someutsushi
Higurashi When They Cry: Himatsubushi
Higurashi When They Cry: Tsukiotoshi
Higurashi When They Cry: Meakashi
Higurashi When They Cry: Tsumihoroboshi
Higurashi When They Cry: Taraimawashi
Higurashi When They Cry: Onikakushi, Watanagashi and Tatarigoroshi
Higurashi When They Cry: Yoigoshi
Higurashi When They Cry: Kageboushi
All games tier list (2024 edition)
Higurashi End of 2024 tier List/ranking
Higurashi When They Cry: Minagoroshi
GoTM 10th anniversary ranking
Fortnite Ch6 S1: Hunters
Higurashi When They Cry: Matsuribayashi
Neon White
The Witness
Fortnite Ch6 S2: Lawless
Fortnite Ch6 MS1: Galactic Battle
Sewer Tales
New Super Mario Bros.
Fortnite Ch6 S3: Super
Persona 3 Reload - Episode Aigis: The Answer
HLTB 500th Forum Post Celebration
Little Kitty, Big City
Unpacking
Ace Higurashi Attorney - The Curry Turnabout
I love making reviews for all types of media. It's fun to reflect on my thoughts and immortalize them in a concrete form. It also improves my skills at being able to formulate my thoughts. I won't post all my reviews on this blog since those can be found on my profile or the Post Your Wins thread. This blog will be used for reviews that are for parts of a game rather than the game as a whole. This applies to Higurashi's multiple arcs, which I consider to be part of a larger whole and games that are constantly changing like Fortnite. I'll also include reviews that exceed the 5000-character limit on the regular review page, since then the full version of the review will be easily accessible instead of buried within the Post Your Wins thread. On top of these regular reviews, every now and then I'll also post some wacky tier lists and rankings, since I like making those as well.
Table of Contents:
Higurashi When They Cry: Someutsushi
Higurashi When They Cry: Himatsubushi
Higurashi When They Cry: Tsukiotoshi
Higurashi When They Cry: Meakashi
Higurashi When They Cry: Tsumihoroboshi
Higurashi When They Cry: Taraimawashi
Higurashi When They Cry: Onikakushi, Watanagashi and Tatarigoroshi
Higurashi When They Cry: Yoigoshi
Higurashi When They Cry: Kageboushi
All games tier list (2024 edition)
Higurashi End of 2024 tier List/ranking
Higurashi When They Cry: Minagoroshi
GoTM 10th anniversary ranking
Fortnite Ch6 S1: Hunters
Higurashi When They Cry: Matsuribayashi
Neon White
The Witness
Fortnite Ch6 S2: Lawless
Fortnite Ch6 MS1: Galactic Battle
Sewer Tales
New Super Mario Bros.
Fortnite Ch6 S3: Super
Persona 3 Reload - Episode Aigis: The Answer
HLTB 500th Forum Post Celebration
Little Kitty, Big City
Unpacking
Ace Higurashi Attorney - The Curry Turnabout
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
The reason I decided to create this blog in the first place, is because my Higurashi When They Cry review hit the character limit and I didn't want to split it into separate chapters since I consider those as parts of a whole. Thus I've decided to make a blog so I can post it. Enjoy my Someutsushi review. For context, it's the first side story arc and the second Ch3 console arc.
September 9th - Higurashi When They Cry: Someutsushi - 9h 49m - (100%) 7/10 - Beat the chapter, saw all the tips, including the after-cast party.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Someutsushi provides a unique perspective of someone in almost the opposite situation that Keiichi is in, where she used to live near Hinamizawa but moved out. Natsumi's perspective provides a fresh unique POV compared to Keiichi with its different setting and slightly older cast. Despite being a couple of hours shorter than the main arcs, Someutsushi still manages to build up its cast so that you get attached to them as much as you do the main cast. Another way that it feels different compared to the main arcs is that it takes place over a much larger timeframe than the main arcs, which mostly works to its benefit by making it more unique.
I liked the ways that the chapter connects to the main chapters in a realistic way, which is technically what makes it a side story. It even manages to expand on some aspects of the main story and give new insights into that as well. The ending of Someutsushi is a bit more sudden than those of the main arcs and it includes one of the most shocking moments so far, which is Haruko murdering Aki out of nowhere.
Neutral:
One aspect of Someutsushi that felt worse compared to the main arcs was the ending sequence. It felt a bit too dragged out. I was expecting it to end after the main climax, but then it went on for another scene, and then another one. It was still very interesting, but maybe it could've been condensed a bit more.
Another slight complaint is that this is supposed to be the question arc for the side story, but it revealed much more than the past 3 question arcs for the main story did, which makes me doubt whether it deserves that title. This is definitely due to the side story being condensed to 2 arcs instead of the main story's 8, but I felt like the mystery could've been kept a bit more secret. I already feel like I know what happened in Someutsushi, there are barely any mysteries I'm left wondering about like I am in the main arcs.
September 9th - Higurashi When They Cry: Someutsushi - 9h 49m - (100%) 7/10 - Beat the chapter, saw all the tips, including the after-cast party.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Someutsushi provides a unique perspective of someone in almost the opposite situation that Keiichi is in, where she used to live near Hinamizawa but moved out. Natsumi's perspective provides a fresh unique POV compared to Keiichi with its different setting and slightly older cast. Despite being a couple of hours shorter than the main arcs, Someutsushi still manages to build up its cast so that you get attached to them as much as you do the main cast. Another way that it feels different compared to the main arcs is that it takes place over a much larger timeframe than the main arcs, which mostly works to its benefit by making it more unique.
I liked the ways that the chapter connects to the main chapters in a realistic way, which is technically what makes it a side story. It even manages to expand on some aspects of the main story and give new insights into that as well. The ending of Someutsushi is a bit more sudden than those of the main arcs and it includes one of the most shocking moments so far, which is Haruko murdering Aki out of nowhere.
Neutral:
One aspect of Someutsushi that felt worse compared to the main arcs was the ending sequence. It felt a bit too dragged out. I was expecting it to end after the main climax, but then it went on for another scene, and then another one. It was still very interesting, but maybe it could've been condensed a bit more.
Another slight complaint is that this is supposed to be the question arc for the side story, but it revealed much more than the past 3 question arcs for the main story did, which makes me doubt whether it deserves that title. This is definitely due to the side story being condensed to 2 arcs instead of the main story's 8, but I felt like the mystery could've been kept a bit more secret. I already feel like I know what happened in Someutsushi, there are barely any mysteries I'm left wondering about like I am in the main arcs.
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
I finished Himatsubushi which is the 4th main chapter of Higurashi. Although, it's shorter than all the other ones.
September 15th - Higurashi When They Cry: Himatsubushi - 9h 18m - (100%) 9/10 - Beat the chapter, saw all the tips, including the after-cast party.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Due to Himatsubushi's short length, it doesn't set up any of its own mysteries but builds upon the main overarching mystery of the game. But before I get to that, first some background. The flashback setting of the chapter was pulled off very well. It made sense why the case it covered wasn't mentioned in any prior chapters, which I originally worried would be an issue. Seeing the differences in Hinamizawa 6 years earlier is also quite the contrast compared to the rest of the chapters and interesting to see.
The main plot twist that Rika knows what is going to happen beforehand including her death raises a lot of questions. Why didn't she try to prevent any of the events? Is she unable to for some reason? Why does she know what's going to happen? I think the most likely answer to the last question is that the link that Rika has to Oyashiro gives her some powers, such as being able to see into the future.
The epilogue is much more shocking than I originally suspected. Not only was Rika trying to warn Akasake of his wife's death but also pleading him for help. It paints the rest of the story in a tragic light, that Rika was doing her best but that it didn't quite work out.
September 15th - Higurashi When They Cry: Himatsubushi - 9h 18m - (100%) 9/10 - Beat the chapter, saw all the tips, including the after-cast party.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Due to Himatsubushi's short length, it doesn't set up any of its own mysteries but builds upon the main overarching mystery of the game. But before I get to that, first some background. The flashback setting of the chapter was pulled off very well. It made sense why the case it covered wasn't mentioned in any prior chapters, which I originally worried would be an issue. Seeing the differences in Hinamizawa 6 years earlier is also quite the contrast compared to the rest of the chapters and interesting to see.
The main plot twist that Rika knows what is going to happen beforehand including her death raises a lot of questions. Why didn't she try to prevent any of the events? Is she unable to for some reason? Why does she know what's going to happen? I think the most likely answer to the last question is that the link that Rika has to Oyashiro gives her some powers, such as being able to see into the future.
The epilogue is much more shocking than I originally suspected. Not only was Rika trying to warn Akasake of his wife's death but also pleading him for help. It paints the rest of the story in a tragic light, that Rika was doing her best but that it didn't quite work out.
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
Tsukiotoshi is another console arc, which according to the 07th-mod reading order should be read after Meakashi. Still, my brother recommended I read it before that, because vibe-wise it's closer to a question arc than an answer arc, which I ended up doing.
September 21st - Higurashi When They Cry: Tsukiotoshi - 7h 34m - (100%) 7/10 - Beat the chapter.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Tsukiotoshi is a combination of all the question arcs up to this point as it shares elements from all of them. The most obvious one is from Ch3, as Teppei is with Satoko in this arc as well. However, the direction of the story is vastly different compared to Tatarigoroshi. For one, Rena and Shion join Keiichi for the murder, which is what allows the elements of the other chapters to seep through into this one.
The chapter builds up a good mystery, while also showing how the viewpoints of the characters can get warped by their insanity. At first, it is unclear as to what happened to Satoko and Shion, which made me think that something similar might've happened to Shion's disappearance in Watanagashi. Instead, the plot twist is that Satoko went insane and killed Shion herself, which is even more surprising since I thought that Satoko was incapable of going insane. This was due to her age and since she didn't do so in Tatarigoroshi.
Even though you can surmise that Satoko was behind the murder due to her clawing out her own throat, the characters are blinded by their insanity and instead suspect Mion, which leads to her murder as well. After this, Rena and Keiichi start suspecting each other as well. (I'll get back to this later.)
For the ending sequence, you switch perspectives to Rena. I like the red text as it showcases how far off the deep end she is at that point. This is also the first time you witness the great Hinamizawa disaster first-hand, which leads to yet more questions than answers. There seems to be an extraordinary group killing people, that might be behind the disaster. This is corroborated by Rena saying that the disaster wasn't caused by a curse after apparently witnessing pieces of paper being struck together. Importantly she also thinks it is vital to inform people right away. This ending sequence is great because it gave me a tantalizingly slight glimpse into the answer, without revealing all that much, which left me wanting more.
Neutral:
The one part of the story that felt a little off at first was Keiichi's and Rena's distrust of each other. It's very sudden and starts immediately after Mion's death. You would think that they would have some more comradery after what they had accomplished together. The game does explain that the distrust stems from the excuses for their terrible actions. Keiichi believed that it was all fate and destined to happen, while Rena believed that by killing them, she was saving them from Oyashiro's grasp. The only problem is that it wasn't conveyed very clearly and needed a bit more explanation.
September 21st - Higurashi When They Cry: Tsukiotoshi - 7h 34m - (100%) 7/10 - Beat the chapter.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Tsukiotoshi is a combination of all the question arcs up to this point as it shares elements from all of them. The most obvious one is from Ch3, as Teppei is with Satoko in this arc as well. However, the direction of the story is vastly different compared to Tatarigoroshi. For one, Rena and Shion join Keiichi for the murder, which is what allows the elements of the other chapters to seep through into this one.
The chapter builds up a good mystery, while also showing how the viewpoints of the characters can get warped by their insanity. At first, it is unclear as to what happened to Satoko and Shion, which made me think that something similar might've happened to Shion's disappearance in Watanagashi. Instead, the plot twist is that Satoko went insane and killed Shion herself, which is even more surprising since I thought that Satoko was incapable of going insane. This was due to her age and since she didn't do so in Tatarigoroshi.
Even though you can surmise that Satoko was behind the murder due to her clawing out her own throat, the characters are blinded by their insanity and instead suspect Mion, which leads to her murder as well. After this, Rena and Keiichi start suspecting each other as well. (I'll get back to this later.)
For the ending sequence, you switch perspectives to Rena. I like the red text as it showcases how far off the deep end she is at that point. This is also the first time you witness the great Hinamizawa disaster first-hand, which leads to yet more questions than answers. There seems to be an extraordinary group killing people, that might be behind the disaster. This is corroborated by Rena saying that the disaster wasn't caused by a curse after apparently witnessing pieces of paper being struck together. Importantly she also thinks it is vital to inform people right away. This ending sequence is great because it gave me a tantalizingly slight glimpse into the answer, without revealing all that much, which left me wanting more.
Neutral:
The one part of the story that felt a little off at first was Keiichi's and Rena's distrust of each other. It's very sudden and starts immediately after Mion's death. You would think that they would have some more comradery after what they had accomplished together. The game does explain that the distrust stems from the excuses for their terrible actions. Keiichi believed that it was all fate and destined to happen, while Rena believed that by killing them, she was saving them from Oyashiro's grasp. The only problem is that it wasn't conveyed very clearly and needed a bit more explanation.
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
I finished Meakashi which is the 5th main arc of Higurashi and the first answer arc.
October 22nd - Higurashi When They Cry: Meakashi - 16h 24m - (100%) 9/10 - Beat the chapter, read all the tips and the staff room.
Pros:
As the first answer arc, Meakashi delivers, answering most of the questions laid out in Watanagshi such as the syringe Rika had and how Mion stabbed Keiichi after she was supposedly already dead. It does this while leaving mysteries for the remaining chapters and even creating new ones, such as who Rika was calling to when she died.
This chapter greatly benefits from the POV character being Shion instead of Keiichi, like in most of the question arcs. It allows the reader to understand the dynamic that Mion and Shion have and how close they are. Alongside that, the chapter starting a year earlier gives insight into Satoshi's disappearance and the twist that he was the one who murdered his aunt.
The big twist that Shion was the one who committed the murders while pretending to be Mion was surprising yet made a lot of sense considering her love for Satoshi and wanting to punish those responsible. This leads perfectly to the moment where she realizes Satoko's strength and how she failed to keep her promise to Satoshi. To further crumble Shion's motivations she finds out that the Sonozakis aren't responsible for the murders, which is easily the most direct clue given to the reader so far.
Meakashi also has the most memorable soundtrack so far, with a bunch of great pieces, such as Solitude, Thanks, Confession, Shadow and of course the ending theme You.
Neutral:
The one plot point that could've been explained a bit better was the fact that Mion and Shion switched places permanently at some point before the events of the game and that Mion was born as Shion and vice versa. The reason I was confused by the swap was due to Shion's insanity. I thought that she was so insane that she started believing herself to be the true Mion. She was already pretending to be her after all. Luckily there's a tip at the end of the game that spells it out for you very clearly in case you managed to miss that plot point.
October 22nd - Higurashi When They Cry: Meakashi - 16h 24m - (100%) 9/10 - Beat the chapter, read all the tips and the staff room.
Pros:
As the first answer arc, Meakashi delivers, answering most of the questions laid out in Watanagshi such as the syringe Rika had and how Mion stabbed Keiichi after she was supposedly already dead. It does this while leaving mysteries for the remaining chapters and even creating new ones, such as who Rika was calling to when she died.
This chapter greatly benefits from the POV character being Shion instead of Keiichi, like in most of the question arcs. It allows the reader to understand the dynamic that Mion and Shion have and how close they are. Alongside that, the chapter starting a year earlier gives insight into Satoshi's disappearance and the twist that he was the one who murdered his aunt.
The big twist that Shion was the one who committed the murders while pretending to be Mion was surprising yet made a lot of sense considering her love for Satoshi and wanting to punish those responsible. This leads perfectly to the moment where she realizes Satoko's strength and how she failed to keep her promise to Satoshi. To further crumble Shion's motivations she finds out that the Sonozakis aren't responsible for the murders, which is easily the most direct clue given to the reader so far.
Meakashi also has the most memorable soundtrack so far, with a bunch of great pieces, such as Solitude, Thanks, Confession, Shadow and of course the ending theme You.
Neutral:
The one plot point that could've been explained a bit better was the fact that Mion and Shion switched places permanently at some point before the events of the game and that Mion was born as Shion and vice versa. The reason I was confused by the swap was due to Shion's insanity. I thought that she was so insane that she started believing herself to be the true Mion. She was already pretending to be her after all. Luckily there's a tip at the end of the game that spells it out for you very clearly in case you managed to miss that plot point.
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
I finished Tsumihoroboshi, the 6th main arc of Higurashi and the second answer arc.
November 14th - Higurashi When They Cry: Tsumihoroboshi - 19h 36m - (100%) 10/10 - Started November 3rd - 11 Days Taken - Beat the chapter, read all the tips and the staff room.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Tsumihoroboshi is action-packed with amazing moments. While other chapters had one or two standout scenes, Chapter 6 has three, which are comparatively longer and more memorable than the previous moments as well. I'll discuss these three moments in detail and why they work so well, but I'll first get some general positives out of the way.
The Tsumihoroboshi's music keeps up the same quality that Ch5 had, with multiple fantastic songs, my personal favourites being Pros, Z.E.R.O, Escape, Cradle Song, and Birth and Death. The opening theme Qualia of the Shining Sky added to the chapter by 07th Mod is great as well, it has a better ending than the other openings so far and has a repeating beat that makes the song feel more coherent.
One benefit is that the chapter has a fast pace, especially at the beginning. It only takes 3 chapters to get to the meat and potatoes of the chapter, which starts with Rena's ENTIRE backstory. (I'll get back to this later.) It only keeps escalating from there with Rina being introduced, made a villain and disposed of within 3 chapters. By that point, you're only halfway through the chapter but you have no idea where the chapter could go from there as there was a resolution to Rena's murders. In classic Higurashi style, one event then naturally sets the trajectory for the remainder of the chapter and brings that to its conclusion. Even before the third part, Tsumihoroboshi starts strong with some non-linear storytelling, specifically a flash forward to something Rena has done, which immediately hooks the player and leaves them thinking about what it could be. By the time the player is about to reach that scene, they will have mostly forgotten about the start of the chapter but will eventually realize what's about to happen and how it all slots together.
That scene is of course the scene where the group discovers that Rena has done the horrible deed of murdering Rina and Teppei, but despite that still manage to forgive her. Keiichi pulls it off by telling her that they're friends and that friends trust each other. Friends don't face their problems alone, forcing them to carry all that mental baggage by themselves. No, instead they reach out and help solve problems together. This may seem a little corny from the outside looking in, but it connects to what is a fundamental core of Higurashi's story. If you think about it, a lot of the problems in the previous chapters came from people not trusting their friends and not talking it out with them. In Ch1 Keiichi stopped trusting his friends after he found out about Hinamizawa's dark past, a similar thing happened in Ch2, where the catalyst for the entire debacle could've been avoided if Mion had talked about it to Keiichi. In Ch3, Keiichi believes that he has to solve Satoko's problem by himself, instead of as a group. Lastly, in Ch5, Shion snaps because she stopped trusting in Mion and that the Sonozaki's couldn't have been behind Satoshi's disappearance. After five chapters of mostly misery and betrayal, it is refreshing to see something good happen for once—something unequivocally good that makes you smile.
This point of trust is reinforced further throughout the chapter. When Rena and Keiichi start believing in Takano's theories, Rena stops trusting Mion and tells Keiichi to not talk about the theories with her. The Keiichi we saw in Ch1, 2 and 3, would've followed these orders and continued living in fear, doubting his friends, but due to the aforementioned scene, in Ch6 Keiichi knows the power of trusting his friends and decides to tell Mion anyway. He immediately finds out that the theories in Takano's scrapbook are complete nonsense. After clearing that first seemingly insurmountable hurdle, he is rewarded for his trust.
The second standout scene in Tsumihoroboshi is the one in the classroom the morning after Rena has gone into hiding. We get some backstory for Keiichi which greatly fleshes him out and lets him fully escape the somewhat basic cookie-cutter protagonist role he had before. This backstory comes in the form of Keiichi talking about his past to Mion, Satoko and Rika, including the secrets he had been hiding. This makes Keiichi realize that what happened in the past doesn't matter as long as you are forgiven for your mistakes and have learned from them.
Up to this point in the chapter, astute players would've noticed the striking similarities that Ch1 and Ch6 share. Ooishi calls a person out to his car and explains what happened on the night of the Watanagashi, which leads to that person doubting their friends. The key difference is that in Ch6 instead of that person being Keiichi, it is Rena. These similarities aren't merely a nod, but they are crucial to Ch6's story as in this scene Keiichi manages to (somehow) remember what transpired in Ch1. Right after learning a valuable life lesson, he is crushed by the realization that he can't be forgiven by Rena and Mion for murdering them in Ch1 because they're dead in that chapter. Keiichi doesn't let this make him hopeless however and turns this tragedy and misfortune around into determination to prevent the same from happening to Rena. In the scene before this one, Rika gives up on the current chapter's Rena and Hinamizawa. She resigns herself to her death and is ready to await the next Hinamizawa, which will likely be more of the same. She has completely given up on making any difference in the current timeline/time loop. The main reason why this scene is amazing is that Keiichi's determination and remembering the events of Ch1 (which Rika believed should have been impossible) shows her that there is hope for her escaping her situation, that she can make a difference and help avoid the tragedy. It's a fundamental shift in her perspective going forward. Likely one she held when she started looping before she became disillusioned at her lack of progress towards escaping the time loop.
You may think that it's unreasonable for Rika to become disillusioned especially when there are many things she could do to help prevent her death, but you have to realize that she's been stuck in the time loop for around 100 years without ever managing to find a solution. This implies that the solution to Rika's death is much more complicated than we might at first imagine. Being stuck in a time loop for 100 years also means that Rika's mental age and the age of her body are so drastically different. To the extent that she feels disconnected from her body and resorts to alcohol to drown out her problems. The biggest thing we learn about Rika's situation however is the existence of a mysterious character who's by Rika's side. It's implied that she's the supernatural one who knows about the future, including when Rika is going to die instead of Rika herself. This is because Rika asks her for that information in one of the tips. She also seems to be the one who seems to have caused the problem, so she's probably behind the time loop in some way.
The third standout scene in Tsumihoroboshi is actually the entire last part of the chapter. It covers Rena's last-ditch attempt to reach "victory" and expose the conspiracy she believes in. At this point, everyone except Rena has realized that the theories in Miyo's scrapbook are false and that she's being delusional. Rena is very clever and devises a hostage situation which results in the school blowing up, with almost no way to avoid it. I thought that this chapter would end in a tragedy like all the previous chapters and there were moments within this last part where I was certain that would be the case. If you had been paying attention to Keiichi's character development throughout all the chapters so far you would've noticed that Keiichi does trust his friends more in each chapter, just not enough to make a difference in the outcome. However, in this chapter, it does make a difference. To further reinforce the message of the chapter, the bad endings are avoided when Keiichi puts his full trust in his friends and their abilities. It is only with that level of cooperation that they manage to diffuse Rena's hostage situation and that Keiichi makes her realize the error of her ways. Finally, tragedy has been avoided.
Neutral:
The one minor nitpick I have for this chapter is that maybe Rena's backstory could've been shown in a more diegetic way. Previous character's backstories are given piecemeal throughout their respective chapters mostly from other characters. Meanwhile, Rena just reminisces on her life and you get given everything in one go, which devalues the backstory compared to if it had been given another way. Especially since Keiichi's backstory was given similarly, but he was prompted to tell it by Rena not trusting him, because he didn't tell her about his past.
November 14th - Higurashi When They Cry: Tsumihoroboshi - 19h 36m - (100%) 10/10 - Started November 3rd - 11 Days Taken - Beat the chapter, read all the tips and the staff room.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Tsumihoroboshi is action-packed with amazing moments. While other chapters had one or two standout scenes, Chapter 6 has three, which are comparatively longer and more memorable than the previous moments as well. I'll discuss these three moments in detail and why they work so well, but I'll first get some general positives out of the way.
The Tsumihoroboshi's music keeps up the same quality that Ch5 had, with multiple fantastic songs, my personal favourites being Pros, Z.E.R.O, Escape, Cradle Song, and Birth and Death. The opening theme Qualia of the Shining Sky added to the chapter by 07th Mod is great as well, it has a better ending than the other openings so far and has a repeating beat that makes the song feel more coherent.
One benefit is that the chapter has a fast pace, especially at the beginning. It only takes 3 chapters to get to the meat and potatoes of the chapter, which starts with Rena's ENTIRE backstory. (I'll get back to this later.) It only keeps escalating from there with Rina being introduced, made a villain and disposed of within 3 chapters. By that point, you're only halfway through the chapter but you have no idea where the chapter could go from there as there was a resolution to Rena's murders. In classic Higurashi style, one event then naturally sets the trajectory for the remainder of the chapter and brings that to its conclusion. Even before the third part, Tsumihoroboshi starts strong with some non-linear storytelling, specifically a flash forward to something Rena has done, which immediately hooks the player and leaves them thinking about what it could be. By the time the player is about to reach that scene, they will have mostly forgotten about the start of the chapter but will eventually realize what's about to happen and how it all slots together.
That scene is of course the scene where the group discovers that Rena has done the horrible deed of murdering Rina and Teppei, but despite that still manage to forgive her. Keiichi pulls it off by telling her that they're friends and that friends trust each other. Friends don't face their problems alone, forcing them to carry all that mental baggage by themselves. No, instead they reach out and help solve problems together. This may seem a little corny from the outside looking in, but it connects to what is a fundamental core of Higurashi's story. If you think about it, a lot of the problems in the previous chapters came from people not trusting their friends and not talking it out with them. In Ch1 Keiichi stopped trusting his friends after he found out about Hinamizawa's dark past, a similar thing happened in Ch2, where the catalyst for the entire debacle could've been avoided if Mion had talked about it to Keiichi. In Ch3, Keiichi believes that he has to solve Satoko's problem by himself, instead of as a group. Lastly, in Ch5, Shion snaps because she stopped trusting in Mion and that the Sonozaki's couldn't have been behind Satoshi's disappearance. After five chapters of mostly misery and betrayal, it is refreshing to see something good happen for once—something unequivocally good that makes you smile.
This point of trust is reinforced further throughout the chapter. When Rena and Keiichi start believing in Takano's theories, Rena stops trusting Mion and tells Keiichi to not talk about the theories with her. The Keiichi we saw in Ch1, 2 and 3, would've followed these orders and continued living in fear, doubting his friends, but due to the aforementioned scene, in Ch6 Keiichi knows the power of trusting his friends and decides to tell Mion anyway. He immediately finds out that the theories in Takano's scrapbook are complete nonsense. After clearing that first seemingly insurmountable hurdle, he is rewarded for his trust.
The second standout scene in Tsumihoroboshi is the one in the classroom the morning after Rena has gone into hiding. We get some backstory for Keiichi which greatly fleshes him out and lets him fully escape the somewhat basic cookie-cutter protagonist role he had before. This backstory comes in the form of Keiichi talking about his past to Mion, Satoko and Rika, including the secrets he had been hiding. This makes Keiichi realize that what happened in the past doesn't matter as long as you are forgiven for your mistakes and have learned from them.
Up to this point in the chapter, astute players would've noticed the striking similarities that Ch1 and Ch6 share. Ooishi calls a person out to his car and explains what happened on the night of the Watanagashi, which leads to that person doubting their friends. The key difference is that in Ch6 instead of that person being Keiichi, it is Rena. These similarities aren't merely a nod, but they are crucial to Ch6's story as in this scene Keiichi manages to (somehow) remember what transpired in Ch1. Right after learning a valuable life lesson, he is crushed by the realization that he can't be forgiven by Rena and Mion for murdering them in Ch1 because they're dead in that chapter. Keiichi doesn't let this make him hopeless however and turns this tragedy and misfortune around into determination to prevent the same from happening to Rena. In the scene before this one, Rika gives up on the current chapter's Rena and Hinamizawa. She resigns herself to her death and is ready to await the next Hinamizawa, which will likely be more of the same. She has completely given up on making any difference in the current timeline/time loop. The main reason why this scene is amazing is that Keiichi's determination and remembering the events of Ch1 (which Rika believed should have been impossible) shows her that there is hope for her escaping her situation, that she can make a difference and help avoid the tragedy. It's a fundamental shift in her perspective going forward. Likely one she held when she started looping before she became disillusioned at her lack of progress towards escaping the time loop.
You may think that it's unreasonable for Rika to become disillusioned especially when there are many things she could do to help prevent her death, but you have to realize that she's been stuck in the time loop for around 100 years without ever managing to find a solution. This implies that the solution to Rika's death is much more complicated than we might at first imagine. Being stuck in a time loop for 100 years also means that Rika's mental age and the age of her body are so drastically different. To the extent that she feels disconnected from her body and resorts to alcohol to drown out her problems. The biggest thing we learn about Rika's situation however is the existence of a mysterious character who's by Rika's side. It's implied that she's the supernatural one who knows about the future, including when Rika is going to die instead of Rika herself. This is because Rika asks her for that information in one of the tips. She also seems to be the one who seems to have caused the problem, so she's probably behind the time loop in some way.
The third standout scene in Tsumihoroboshi is actually the entire last part of the chapter. It covers Rena's last-ditch attempt to reach "victory" and expose the conspiracy she believes in. At this point, everyone except Rena has realized that the theories in Miyo's scrapbook are false and that she's being delusional. Rena is very clever and devises a hostage situation which results in the school blowing up, with almost no way to avoid it. I thought that this chapter would end in a tragedy like all the previous chapters and there were moments within this last part where I was certain that would be the case. If you had been paying attention to Keiichi's character development throughout all the chapters so far you would've noticed that Keiichi does trust his friends more in each chapter, just not enough to make a difference in the outcome. However, in this chapter, it does make a difference. To further reinforce the message of the chapter, the bad endings are avoided when Keiichi puts his full trust in his friends and their abilities. It is only with that level of cooperation that they manage to diffuse Rena's hostage situation and that Keiichi makes her realize the error of her ways. Finally, tragedy has been avoided.
Neutral:
The one minor nitpick I have for this chapter is that maybe Rena's backstory could've been shown in a more diegetic way. Previous character's backstories are given piecemeal throughout their respective chapters mostly from other characters. Meanwhile, Rena just reminisces on her life and you get given everything in one go, which devalues the backstory compared to if it had been given another way. Especially since Keiichi's backstory was given similarly, but he was prompted to tell it by Rena not trusting him, because he didn't tell her about his past.
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
I finished the second ending of Taraimawashi, which you read later than the rest of it. Because of that, I've decided to post my full and updated Taraimawashi review here. I have left the original completion date since that accounts for the majority of this chapter's playtime.
September 3rd - Higurashi When They Cry: Taraimawashi - 4h 8m - (100%) 6/10 - Beat the chapter, read all the tips and the all-cast review.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Taraimawashi is the first console chapter you play and even though it is very short, it still adds interesting information worth considering. The first notable piece of information is that the great disaster happens no matter what, unlike Ch3 where it could be a supernatural force that grants Keiichi's wish to have Hinamizawa perish. The second is that both Mion and Shion went missing around the time that Satoshi disappeared which could mean that they have more involvement in that case than you were first let on.
Before this chapter, I was also under the impression that the right thing for Keiichi to do was to ignore all the strange things happening around him and act normal, but with the existence of the great disaster, that solution is futile.
Despite its short length, Taraimawashi's ending still manages to leave a strong impression due to its sudden nature. You just go 10 years into the future where Mion is the sole survivor of the disaster and in an amnesiac-like state. It's very shocking and frankly harrowing.
Taraimawashi's second ending, which you read much later, eludes to the fact that the disaster is fishy and that there might've not been a disaster at all, but the clue Rena gives is cryptic so I don't know what it could mean. If the chapter had stated that the hamster died from a natural cause like starvation for example, that could potentially prove that there was no gas at all, but it doesn't clarify anything like that, so I'm left dumbfounded how this clue would help Mion figure out the secret behind the disaster.
September 3rd - Higurashi When They Cry: Taraimawashi - 4h 8m - (100%) 6/10 - Beat the chapter, read all the tips and the all-cast review.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Taraimawashi is the first console chapter you play and even though it is very short, it still adds interesting information worth considering. The first notable piece of information is that the great disaster happens no matter what, unlike Ch3 where it could be a supernatural force that grants Keiichi's wish to have Hinamizawa perish. The second is that both Mion and Shion went missing around the time that Satoshi disappeared which could mean that they have more involvement in that case than you were first let on.
Before this chapter, I was also under the impression that the right thing for Keiichi to do was to ignore all the strange things happening around him and act normal, but with the existence of the great disaster, that solution is futile.
Despite its short length, Taraimawashi's ending still manages to leave a strong impression due to its sudden nature. You just go 10 years into the future where Mion is the sole survivor of the disaster and in an amnesiac-like state. It's very shocking and frankly harrowing.
Taraimawashi's second ending, which you read much later, eludes to the fact that the disaster is fishy and that there might've not been a disaster at all, but the clue Rena gives is cryptic so I don't know what it could mean. If the chapter had stated that the hamster died from a natural cause like starvation for example, that could potentially prove that there was no gas at all, but it doesn't clarify anything like that, so I'm left dumbfounded how this clue would help Mion figure out the secret behind the disaster.
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
I've also decided to backport my reviews of the earlier Higurashi chapters here, so they're all publicly available.
November 5th 2023 - Higurashi When They Cry: Onikakushi - 15h 54m - (100%) 9/10 - Beat the chapter, saw all the tips, including the after-cast party.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Onikakushi is an excellent introduction to the Higurashi storyline. You get lulled into a false sense of security with all the slice-of-life moments in the first half of the game that you nearly forget that it's supposed to be a horror game. It slowly builds up the more creepy and unnatural elements until the scene where Keiichi confronts Rena and you witness creepy eyes for the first time. When I first saw that sprite and the following CG I was shocked, completely flabbergasted. After I experienced that, I knew that Higurashi was something special and worth sticking through.
The rest of the chapter manages to masterfully build the stakes and creepiness ever higher until you reach the climax. I especially liked the connection with the first scene you see of Keiichi murdering Rena and Mion, which you at first don't understand, but afterwards you do. Most importantly, however, the ending leaves so many unanswered questions, about the organization going after Keiichi and his cause of death, which leaves you wanting more.
March 31st - Higurashi When They Cry: Watanagashi - 20h 42m - (100%) 9/10 - Beat the chapter, saw all the tips, including the after-cast party.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Watanagashi introduces Shion as a new integral character to the story, who is used in the chapter's main mystery, while also subtly building off mysteries established in Onikakushi. The main point that this chapter hammers home for me is that a lot of Keiichi's issues would have been solved if he just communicated with his friends better. The cause of the events of the entire chapter was Keiichi missing the cue that Mion wanted the doll he won and what ended up being his death sentence at the end was not apologizing for that mistake.
The ending is equally as head-scratching as Onikakushi with the impossible encounter Keiichi has with Mion after she should already be dead and the simultaneous death of Shion. The interesting connection to Ch1 I mentioned earlier is the syringe that Rika has in her pocket when her body is found. Is that the same syringe that caused the death that Tomitake experienced? All in all, due to these factors, Watanagashi's ending is equally as powerful as Onikakushi's.
May 1st - Higurashi When They Cry: Tatarigoroshi - 20h 54m - (100%) 9/10 - Beat the chapter, saw all the tips, including the after-cast party.
Here's my review:
Pros:
When I started Tatarigoroshi I was expecting it to follow the same formula as the previous two where the person who goes insane is the one who is the main focus of that chapter, in this case, Satoko. But the twist that it ends up being Keiichi himself is well done because don't see it coming and because it gives you a glimpse into the mental state that might've been affecting Rena and Mion in the previous chapters.
Where Tatarigoroshi truly elevates itself even further is the second half where it gets supernatural. Keiichi enters a parallel world/timeline where he didn't kill Teppei and he starts doubting his sanity. Then you have the segment where it seems that whoever Keiichi wishes to die ends up doing so afterwards. It's so baffling and I can't even begin to explain it, which is why it's so powerful from a storytelling perspective. I want to know what the cause was and keep reading.
November 5th 2023 - Higurashi When They Cry: Onikakushi - 15h 54m - (100%) 9/10 - Beat the chapter, saw all the tips, including the after-cast party.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Onikakushi is an excellent introduction to the Higurashi storyline. You get lulled into a false sense of security with all the slice-of-life moments in the first half of the game that you nearly forget that it's supposed to be a horror game. It slowly builds up the more creepy and unnatural elements until the scene where Keiichi confronts Rena and you witness creepy eyes for the first time. When I first saw that sprite and the following CG I was shocked, completely flabbergasted. After I experienced that, I knew that Higurashi was something special and worth sticking through.
The rest of the chapter manages to masterfully build the stakes and creepiness ever higher until you reach the climax. I especially liked the connection with the first scene you see of Keiichi murdering Rena and Mion, which you at first don't understand, but afterwards you do. Most importantly, however, the ending leaves so many unanswered questions, about the organization going after Keiichi and his cause of death, which leaves you wanting more.
March 31st - Higurashi When They Cry: Watanagashi - 20h 42m - (100%) 9/10 - Beat the chapter, saw all the tips, including the after-cast party.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Watanagashi introduces Shion as a new integral character to the story, who is used in the chapter's main mystery, while also subtly building off mysteries established in Onikakushi. The main point that this chapter hammers home for me is that a lot of Keiichi's issues would have been solved if he just communicated with his friends better. The cause of the events of the entire chapter was Keiichi missing the cue that Mion wanted the doll he won and what ended up being his death sentence at the end was not apologizing for that mistake.
The ending is equally as head-scratching as Onikakushi with the impossible encounter Keiichi has with Mion after she should already be dead and the simultaneous death of Shion. The interesting connection to Ch1 I mentioned earlier is the syringe that Rika has in her pocket when her body is found. Is that the same syringe that caused the death that Tomitake experienced? All in all, due to these factors, Watanagashi's ending is equally as powerful as Onikakushi's.
May 1st - Higurashi When They Cry: Tatarigoroshi - 20h 54m - (100%) 9/10 - Beat the chapter, saw all the tips, including the after-cast party.
Here's my review:
Pros:
When I started Tatarigoroshi I was expecting it to follow the same formula as the previous two where the person who goes insane is the one who is the main focus of that chapter, in this case, Satoko. But the twist that it ends up being Keiichi himself is well done because don't see it coming and because it gives you a glimpse into the mental state that might've been affecting Rena and Mion in the previous chapters.
Where Tatarigoroshi truly elevates itself even further is the second half where it gets supernatural. Keiichi enters a parallel world/timeline where he didn't kill Teppei and he starts doubting his sanity. Then you have the segment where it seems that whoever Keiichi wishes to die ends up doing so afterwards. It's so baffling and I can't even begin to explain it, which is why it's so powerful from a storytelling perspective. I want to know what the cause was and keep reading.
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
I beat Yoigoshi yesterday which is another extra console arc. I've decided to start rating the individual arcs instead of only Higurashi as a whole because my opinion differentiates between them and it'll give a more accurate view of my thoughts on the game.
December 12th - Higurashi When They Cry: Yoigoshi - 13h 9m - (100%) 7/10 - Started November 18th - 24 Days Taken - Beat the chapter, read all the tips and the staff room.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Yoigoshi is a nice self-contained mystery that (mostly) works well on its own. Its best aspect is its focus on mystery. You do read Yoigoshi during the question arcs, but by the end, most of the secrets are revealed, so it works out. The mystery starts with a bang with the ghost Rika scene, which is a sudden WTF moment. From there the mystery increases slowly by posing questions like "Who's stealing all the cars?", "Why are there this many people staying in an abandoned village?". I especially liked the mystery of who killed Takumi during the long bad ending. In that version, it felt like an honest-to-god murder mystery, which is surprisingly rare in Higurashi.
All this tension and build-up results in an incredibly emotional scene where Otobe and Towada spill their backstories and secrets. Even though these are new characters that we shouldn't care that much for, their backstories still hit hard because they're relatable. You could imagine someone making the same mistakes and ending up with similar problems. Even though these confessions originate from a console arc, they still tie together one of Higurashi's main messages of communication. Both of the outcomes that the characters found themselves in could've been avoided if they had communicated more. Otobe with his parent's about his financial struggles and Towada with her husband about his recent behaviour. After the confession, Towada's mistake is driven home further by the job acceptance paper that Takumi had.
Yoigoshi features a strong supernatural element in the form of ghosts. There's a ghost for Rika and Mion as well as every new dead character introduced in Yoigoshi. The new dead characters seem to be summoned by the ghost Mion and elevate Towada's and Otobe's confessions to greater heights, driving home the mistakes they made by not communicating with those around them.
After realizing their mistakes, we are shown how they'll improve their lives and do better. Otobe returns the cash card he stole, determined to tackle his debt head-on. He's even willing to risk his own life to fulfil Mion's wish, something the coward Otobe we see before the confession, would've never done. Even Arakawa steps in to help because he also realizes that he has to work harder and stop half-assing his work, hoping that he can get a big scoop from Hinamizawa.
I found the reveal that Miyuki was married the entire time, extremely hilarious considering the feelings that Arakawa had towards her during the chapter, which made it very unexpected.
Neutral:
The reveal that the chapter's main mystery was caused by a Yakuza power struggle makes a lot of sense, especially considering how Yoigoshi takes place in the same timeline as one of the bad endings of Tsumihoroboshi. It's just not nearly as emotional as the other reveals in the chapter.
Cons:
Even though I have praised Yoigoshi plenty, it has one major flaw, which is the explanation for the ghosts or the lack thereof. I mentioned that the ghosts were summoned by ghost Mion, but that is my assumption based on one throwaway line. A real in-depth explanation is never given for how she managed to bridge the gap between the dead and the living. This is one of the few times that Higurashi has failed to answer a mystery it set out. Even the explanation that is given for ghost Mion is vague and brief. She stuck around due to a strong attachment to Shion and possessed her body in a time of need. How did she manage to do this? It's not said.
The most illogical outcome of the whole chapter is that Shion somehow survives. It is established that Mion possessed Shion's body, but she takes Shion's place in dying from the gunshot wound. This could still be somewhat reasonable if it was a one-time cause of death and she was healed immediately afterwards. Instead what we get is that after Shion comes to, the gunshot is magically gone even though Mion merely replaced Shion's consciousness within the same body. By all accounts, Shion should've died as well. For supernatural elements like these that are crucial to the main story of the arc, a solid explanation needs to be provided, considering that very few of the mysteries in Higurashi end up being supernatural in origin.
December 12th - Higurashi When They Cry: Yoigoshi - 13h 9m - (100%) 7/10 - Started November 18th - 24 Days Taken - Beat the chapter, read all the tips and the staff room.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Yoigoshi is a nice self-contained mystery that (mostly) works well on its own. Its best aspect is its focus on mystery. You do read Yoigoshi during the question arcs, but by the end, most of the secrets are revealed, so it works out. The mystery starts with a bang with the ghost Rika scene, which is a sudden WTF moment. From there the mystery increases slowly by posing questions like "Who's stealing all the cars?", "Why are there this many people staying in an abandoned village?". I especially liked the mystery of who killed Takumi during the long bad ending. In that version, it felt like an honest-to-god murder mystery, which is surprisingly rare in Higurashi.
All this tension and build-up results in an incredibly emotional scene where Otobe and Towada spill their backstories and secrets. Even though these are new characters that we shouldn't care that much for, their backstories still hit hard because they're relatable. You could imagine someone making the same mistakes and ending up with similar problems. Even though these confessions originate from a console arc, they still tie together one of Higurashi's main messages of communication. Both of the outcomes that the characters found themselves in could've been avoided if they had communicated more. Otobe with his parent's about his financial struggles and Towada with her husband about his recent behaviour. After the confession, Towada's mistake is driven home further by the job acceptance paper that Takumi had.
Yoigoshi features a strong supernatural element in the form of ghosts. There's a ghost for Rika and Mion as well as every new dead character introduced in Yoigoshi. The new dead characters seem to be summoned by the ghost Mion and elevate Towada's and Otobe's confessions to greater heights, driving home the mistakes they made by not communicating with those around them.
After realizing their mistakes, we are shown how they'll improve their lives and do better. Otobe returns the cash card he stole, determined to tackle his debt head-on. He's even willing to risk his own life to fulfil Mion's wish, something the coward Otobe we see before the confession, would've never done. Even Arakawa steps in to help because he also realizes that he has to work harder and stop half-assing his work, hoping that he can get a big scoop from Hinamizawa.
I found the reveal that Miyuki was married the entire time, extremely hilarious considering the feelings that Arakawa had towards her during the chapter, which made it very unexpected.
Neutral:
The reveal that the chapter's main mystery was caused by a Yakuza power struggle makes a lot of sense, especially considering how Yoigoshi takes place in the same timeline as one of the bad endings of Tsumihoroboshi. It's just not nearly as emotional as the other reveals in the chapter.
Cons:
Even though I have praised Yoigoshi plenty, it has one major flaw, which is the explanation for the ghosts or the lack thereof. I mentioned that the ghosts were summoned by ghost Mion, but that is my assumption based on one throwaway line. A real in-depth explanation is never given for how she managed to bridge the gap between the dead and the living. This is one of the few times that Higurashi has failed to answer a mystery it set out. Even the explanation that is given for ghost Mion is vague and brief. She stuck around due to a strong attachment to Shion and possessed her body in a time of need. How did she manage to do this? It's not said.
The most illogical outcome of the whole chapter is that Shion somehow survives. It is established that Mion possessed Shion's body, but she takes Shion's place in dying from the gunshot wound. This could still be somewhat reasonable if it was a one-time cause of death and she was healed immediately afterwards. Instead what we get is that after Shion comes to, the gunshot is magically gone even though Mion merely replaced Shion's consciousness within the same body. By all accounts, Shion should've died as well. For supernatural elements like these that are crucial to the main story of the arc, a solid explanation needs to be provided, considering that very few of the mysteries in Higurashi end up being supernatural in origin.
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
From now on I'll also start posting my regular game completions on this thread as well as the "post your wins" thread. This will keep them more organized and for those who want to easily look at all my reviews in order without the restriction of the character limit.
December 15th - Outer Wilds - 27h 24m - (Main+) 8/10 - Started December 5th - 10 Days Taken - Beat the main game and the DLC. Got 5/31 achievements.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Outer Wilds is a non-linear adventure game that encourages exploration. This could easily have resulted in a frustrating experience where players get stuck and don't know what to do next but it manages to avoid these traps by giving you leads on where to go next. A lot of the areas you explore will at some point, lead to some other area you need to learn more. This provides a logical next step for the player to follow. This worked so well that it was easy to do another loop to explore the next area hinted at or apply the new knowledge I had learned. It made me play longer sessions than I originally planned because I kept saying "Just one more loop". This system of leads, clues and knowledge is greatly benefited by the ship log, which helps organize and track all the information you have gathered so far. It removes a lot of the mental load off the player by not forcing them to remember all the information they've gathered throughout the entire game. It stores almost all the crucial information, such as the connections between various locations, even showing ones to locations you haven't visited yet, which can help prompt your next move. A great quality of life feature is that it tells you whether you gathered all the information within a specific area, which reduces player doubt and helps them be more focused in their exploration. In essence, the ship log removes the frustration of a non-linear mystery game without detracting from the player's feeling that they are solving the puzzles themselves and from receiving the eureka moments when things finally click together.
Intertwining the story and the mysteries was a great choice. The more you explore and learn the more you piece together about the story. The story is quite a sad and tragic one. The Nomai were stranded in an unfamiliar star system and yet managed to persevere and almost reach the eye themselves. But they were wiped out by the ghost matter from the interloper at the last step. Then you step in, salvage it and reforge the galaxy anew. The game's time loop mechanic being part of the story all along was a shocking reveal that meshes with the story perfectly.
Echoes of the Eye complements the story further by adding a further layer of tragedy and sadness to it. The strangers got curious about the eye and sacrificed their entire planet to reach it. Once they did, they learned of its horrors, but by then it was too late. To retain their old way of life, they recreated their old planet virtually so they could still live out their lives on it. They even tried to stop the eye, so no other species could be lured to their doom like they were, but one rogue stranger released the eye's block for long enough for the Nomai to get attracted to the eye as well. However, in a twisted way, that act indirectly allows you the player to save the stranger's species by including them in the recreation of the universe.
Outer Wild's music is also important because while most of the time it is silent when it isn't, it plays well into the narrative and gameplay. It signifies when you're close to the end of a loop and that same music is played when you remove the warp core from the center of the Ashen twin to highlight the significance of what you're doing. I especially enjoyed the climactic music that played while in the Vessel after supplying it with the warp core. The best musical aspect of the game, however, has to be the main theme. You hear it every time you boot up the game on the main menu, but it's more than just that because every member of the Hearthian crew also plays one instrument of the song. This means you hear the song much more than you may think and results in the final scene hitting that much harder. You bring all the instruments together and finally hear the full complete version of the song during gameplay.
Neutral:
One nice QOL feature would've been the ability to restart at a loop at any time without having to exit the game to the main menu and then resume the game because all it does is waste time.
Cons:
There's only one part of the game that genuinely frustrated me and resulted in me having to use a guide to progress. That part was how to reach the first tablet in the Shrouded Woodlands. I was conditioned to think that the solution to reach each tablet was limited to each area because that was the case with the second and third tablets, which I did before the first one. I could've maybe figured this out by myself if I had a cool head and wasn't already frustrated to hell and back.
What frustrated me you say? The Stranger's. To reach the previous two solutions you had to kite and lure the Strangers away from where they were standing so you could get past them. This is a very action-heavy mechanic in a puzzle game and it goes against a principle that the base game strives for. This principle is that after you figure out the solution to a puzzle and have the eureka moment, actually executing it and getting your reward shouldn't be too difficult and take a long time. The longer it takes to reach the reward, the more the positive feeling of solving the puzzle diminishes. By adding the more action-based Strangers, knowing the solution wasn't enough and you had to kite and lure the Strangers multiple times in the dark. Safe to say that this got quite frustrating after enough failed attempts. The only enemy in the base game, the anglerfish had a clear weakness you could exploit and after you figured it out, you didn't have to worry about them anymore. The same can't be said for the Strangers. They put a massive blemish on an otherwise wonderful DLC that explores a bunch of interesting and unique puzzle ideas.
December 15th - Outer Wilds - 27h 24m - (Main+) 8/10 - Started December 5th - 10 Days Taken - Beat the main game and the DLC. Got 5/31 achievements.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Outer Wilds is a non-linear adventure game that encourages exploration. This could easily have resulted in a frustrating experience where players get stuck and don't know what to do next but it manages to avoid these traps by giving you leads on where to go next. A lot of the areas you explore will at some point, lead to some other area you need to learn more. This provides a logical next step for the player to follow. This worked so well that it was easy to do another loop to explore the next area hinted at or apply the new knowledge I had learned. It made me play longer sessions than I originally planned because I kept saying "Just one more loop". This system of leads, clues and knowledge is greatly benefited by the ship log, which helps organize and track all the information you have gathered so far. It removes a lot of the mental load off the player by not forcing them to remember all the information they've gathered throughout the entire game. It stores almost all the crucial information, such as the connections between various locations, even showing ones to locations you haven't visited yet, which can help prompt your next move. A great quality of life feature is that it tells you whether you gathered all the information within a specific area, which reduces player doubt and helps them be more focused in their exploration. In essence, the ship log removes the frustration of a non-linear mystery game without detracting from the player's feeling that they are solving the puzzles themselves and from receiving the eureka moments when things finally click together.
Intertwining the story and the mysteries was a great choice. The more you explore and learn the more you piece together about the story. The story is quite a sad and tragic one. The Nomai were stranded in an unfamiliar star system and yet managed to persevere and almost reach the eye themselves. But they were wiped out by the ghost matter from the interloper at the last step. Then you step in, salvage it and reforge the galaxy anew. The game's time loop mechanic being part of the story all along was a shocking reveal that meshes with the story perfectly.
Echoes of the Eye complements the story further by adding a further layer of tragedy and sadness to it. The strangers got curious about the eye and sacrificed their entire planet to reach it. Once they did, they learned of its horrors, but by then it was too late. To retain their old way of life, they recreated their old planet virtually so they could still live out their lives on it. They even tried to stop the eye, so no other species could be lured to their doom like they were, but one rogue stranger released the eye's block for long enough for the Nomai to get attracted to the eye as well. However, in a twisted way, that act indirectly allows you the player to save the stranger's species by including them in the recreation of the universe.
Outer Wild's music is also important because while most of the time it is silent when it isn't, it plays well into the narrative and gameplay. It signifies when you're close to the end of a loop and that same music is played when you remove the warp core from the center of the Ashen twin to highlight the significance of what you're doing. I especially enjoyed the climactic music that played while in the Vessel after supplying it with the warp core. The best musical aspect of the game, however, has to be the main theme. You hear it every time you boot up the game on the main menu, but it's more than just that because every member of the Hearthian crew also plays one instrument of the song. This means you hear the song much more than you may think and results in the final scene hitting that much harder. You bring all the instruments together and finally hear the full complete version of the song during gameplay.
Neutral:
One nice QOL feature would've been the ability to restart at a loop at any time without having to exit the game to the main menu and then resume the game because all it does is waste time.
Cons:
There's only one part of the game that genuinely frustrated me and resulted in me having to use a guide to progress. That part was how to reach the first tablet in the Shrouded Woodlands. I was conditioned to think that the solution to reach each tablet was limited to each area because that was the case with the second and third tablets, which I did before the first one. I could've maybe figured this out by myself if I had a cool head and wasn't already frustrated to hell and back.
What frustrated me you say? The Stranger's. To reach the previous two solutions you had to kite and lure the Strangers away from where they were standing so you could get past them. This is a very action-heavy mechanic in a puzzle game and it goes against a principle that the base game strives for. This principle is that after you figure out the solution to a puzzle and have the eureka moment, actually executing it and getting your reward shouldn't be too difficult and take a long time. The longer it takes to reach the reward, the more the positive feeling of solving the puzzle diminishes. By adding the more action-based Strangers, knowing the solution wasn't enough and you had to kite and lure the Strangers multiple times in the dark. Safe to say that this got quite frustrating after enough failed attempts. The only enemy in the base game, the anglerfish had a clear weakness you could exploit and after you figured it out, you didn't have to worry about them anymore. The same can't be said for the Strangers. They put a massive blemish on an otherwise wonderful DLC that explores a bunch of interesting and unique puzzle ideas.
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
I beat Kageboushi which is the answer arc to Someutsushi, although it isn't the final arc in the side arc like I originally expected it to be.
December 27th - Higurashi: Kageboushi - 13h 15m - (100%) 8/10 - Started 20/12/2024 - 7 Days Taken - Beat the chapter and read all the tips.
Pros:
Kageboushi has two different storylines that interconnect in the end. You have the Natsumi's friend group like in Someutsushi, but this time from Chisato's POV. Alongside it, you also have the police group investigating the Great Hinamizawa Disaster and the following incidents, which consists of Tomoe, Akasaka, Ooishi and Madoka. Kageboushi has a few scenes that are lifted from Onisarashi, but most of it is original and a lot of details are changed.
The police storyline shows why Akasaka and Ooishi teamed up to investigate the incidents in Kakiuchi City, which is a detail that I don't think was elaborated upon in the manga. It also shows the process that led them to zero in on Natsumi specifically. Some of the scenes felt a tad slow, but they provide great context, which can largely be applied to Onisarashi as well.
The scenes with Natsumi's friend group are also given additional context due to being from Chisato's perspective instead of Natsumi's. You see a new side of Natsumi's character, one that probably went under your radar when she was the POV character, which is how controlling she is of Akira. That causes her to misconstrue pieces of information and distrust her friends.
The answer given for Someutsushi is that Natsumi has multiple personality disorder and that flipping to her dark side is what caused her to murder her family. At first, I thought this was a bit too much of a stretch and too far removed from what caused Natsumi to go insane in Someutsushi. But when I thought about it more, it all made sense. Every Hinamizawan has a limit on how much stress and negativity they can take before they go insane. Natsumi was given a drug from Hinamizawa that was supposed to remove all her insanity, but instead, all it did was seal her insanity away. The drug created a light side with only Natsumi's positive aspects and a dark side with only her negative ones. This was likely a defect or maybe an unknown side effect. When these two sides become too different from each other, it resulted in a split personality. This idea isn't as far-fetched as I originally thought either because it has frequently been mentioned that when people go insane, they seem like completely different people.
My favourite scene in the arc has to be the final one on the rooftop. At first, we finally learn about Chisato's backstory and the event that was hinted at throughout Kageboushi and even in Someutsushi. The event is that one moment of hesitation and fear resulted in her sister dying from not receiving a blood transplant. She also didn't help Natsumi with the struggles she was going through and decided to not immediately notify the police that it was Natsumi who attacked her, which resulted in Natsumi having enough time to murder her parents. This makes Chisato think that she's unable to save anyone. But her epiphany comes when Natsumi tries to kill her as well, Chisato realizes that even though she failed previously, that doesn't mean that she can't make a difference in the here and now. So she reaches out to Natsumi to pull her out from the clutches of insanity. Her efforts cause Natsumi to remember a similar moment when Tomoe was appealing to her, which hits extra hard because of her death. This results in Natsumi coming to her senses and reconciling with Chisato. This scene allows Kageboushi to showcase one of Higurashi's main messages, which is communication. If Natsumi's friends had talked to her sooner about Hinamizawa or if Natsumi had done the same, they could've solved their conflict and misunderstandings before things went too far. It is only through that communication that prevented Chisato from becoming a victim as well.
After discussing the answer to Someutsushi let's return to the police storyline and what it brings to the table. It focuses on Tomoe's and Madoka's backstory and relationship. Their relationship became strained after their father's death in a fire while on the verge of a breakthrough. Tomoe wanted to provide for her younger sister, while Madoka felt it was putting an unnecessary burden on her. It doesn't help that Madoka then marries Tomoe's boss, which she naturally doesn't appreciate very much. I'll return to this later, but the best sequence in the storyline happens around Tomoe's death. The entire sequence kept me invested, with the epiphany that makes her leave, to her being attacked in the next scene and her passing away. I wasn't expecting a major character like her to die in the slightest, it came as a complete shocker. The scene where she passes away is voice acted wonderfully and you get to see an emotional side of characters you don't get to see very often, which adds an extra layer of depth to them. My favourite was Ooishi's breakdown and admittance that his monicker as the messenger of Oyashiro affects him a lot. Seeing all the people he tries to help, die around him, shows that he's not as cold as we originally thought. It also sets up a great hook for the following arc with the question of who killed Tomoe and whether that is connected to her father's murder.
This arc has some great emotional pieces of music as well, my favourites are Moonlight Butterfly, Melody and Sister.
Neutral:
The one part of the police storyline that felt a little out of place was Tomoe accepting and supporting Madoka's marriage. It felt a little sudden, considering before that, there wasn't that much development and progression in their relationship. Especially in a way that would warrant such a drastic change in attitude for Tomoe.
December 27th - Higurashi: Kageboushi - 13h 15m - (100%) 8/10 - Started 20/12/2024 - 7 Days Taken - Beat the chapter and read all the tips.
Pros:
Kageboushi has two different storylines that interconnect in the end. You have the Natsumi's friend group like in Someutsushi, but this time from Chisato's POV. Alongside it, you also have the police group investigating the Great Hinamizawa Disaster and the following incidents, which consists of Tomoe, Akasaka, Ooishi and Madoka. Kageboushi has a few scenes that are lifted from Onisarashi, but most of it is original and a lot of details are changed.
The police storyline shows why Akasaka and Ooishi teamed up to investigate the incidents in Kakiuchi City, which is a detail that I don't think was elaborated upon in the manga. It also shows the process that led them to zero in on Natsumi specifically. Some of the scenes felt a tad slow, but they provide great context, which can largely be applied to Onisarashi as well.
The scenes with Natsumi's friend group are also given additional context due to being from Chisato's perspective instead of Natsumi's. You see a new side of Natsumi's character, one that probably went under your radar when she was the POV character, which is how controlling she is of Akira. That causes her to misconstrue pieces of information and distrust her friends.
The answer given for Someutsushi is that Natsumi has multiple personality disorder and that flipping to her dark side is what caused her to murder her family. At first, I thought this was a bit too much of a stretch and too far removed from what caused Natsumi to go insane in Someutsushi. But when I thought about it more, it all made sense. Every Hinamizawan has a limit on how much stress and negativity they can take before they go insane. Natsumi was given a drug from Hinamizawa that was supposed to remove all her insanity, but instead, all it did was seal her insanity away. The drug created a light side with only Natsumi's positive aspects and a dark side with only her negative ones. This was likely a defect or maybe an unknown side effect. When these two sides become too different from each other, it resulted in a split personality. This idea isn't as far-fetched as I originally thought either because it has frequently been mentioned that when people go insane, they seem like completely different people.
My favourite scene in the arc has to be the final one on the rooftop. At first, we finally learn about Chisato's backstory and the event that was hinted at throughout Kageboushi and even in Someutsushi. The event is that one moment of hesitation and fear resulted in her sister dying from not receiving a blood transplant. She also didn't help Natsumi with the struggles she was going through and decided to not immediately notify the police that it was Natsumi who attacked her, which resulted in Natsumi having enough time to murder her parents. This makes Chisato think that she's unable to save anyone. But her epiphany comes when Natsumi tries to kill her as well, Chisato realizes that even though she failed previously, that doesn't mean that she can't make a difference in the here and now. So she reaches out to Natsumi to pull her out from the clutches of insanity. Her efforts cause Natsumi to remember a similar moment when Tomoe was appealing to her, which hits extra hard because of her death. This results in Natsumi coming to her senses and reconciling with Chisato. This scene allows Kageboushi to showcase one of Higurashi's main messages, which is communication. If Natsumi's friends had talked to her sooner about Hinamizawa or if Natsumi had done the same, they could've solved their conflict and misunderstandings before things went too far. It is only through that communication that prevented Chisato from becoming a victim as well.
After discussing the answer to Someutsushi let's return to the police storyline and what it brings to the table. It focuses on Tomoe's and Madoka's backstory and relationship. Their relationship became strained after their father's death in a fire while on the verge of a breakthrough. Tomoe wanted to provide for her younger sister, while Madoka felt it was putting an unnecessary burden on her. It doesn't help that Madoka then marries Tomoe's boss, which she naturally doesn't appreciate very much. I'll return to this later, but the best sequence in the storyline happens around Tomoe's death. The entire sequence kept me invested, with the epiphany that makes her leave, to her being attacked in the next scene and her passing away. I wasn't expecting a major character like her to die in the slightest, it came as a complete shocker. The scene where she passes away is voice acted wonderfully and you get to see an emotional side of characters you don't get to see very often, which adds an extra layer of depth to them. My favourite was Ooishi's breakdown and admittance that his monicker as the messenger of Oyashiro affects him a lot. Seeing all the people he tries to help, die around him, shows that he's not as cold as we originally thought. It also sets up a great hook for the following arc with the question of who killed Tomoe and whether that is connected to her father's murder.
This arc has some great emotional pieces of music as well, my favourites are Moonlight Butterfly, Melody and Sister.
Neutral:
The one part of the police storyline that felt a little out of place was Tomoe accepting and supporting Madoka's marriage. It felt a little sudden, considering before that, there wasn't that much development and progression in their relationship. Especially in a way that would warrant such a drastic change in attitude for Tomoe.
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
I made a tier list of every game I've ever played for the Discord server and I might as well post it here.
Every game is also ranked within the tiers so you can treat the tier list as a ranking if you want.

Every game is also ranked within the tiers so you can treat the tier list as a ranking if you want.

5 Yrs✓#
GCTuba
5 Yrs✓#
Just wanna say that it's absolutely insane that you put in the effort to do this, well done. You didn't even brag about how each game is sorted in each tier! I feel like that's worth mentioning.
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
I've updated the post with the info about the ranking, thanks for reminding me. I do enjoy ranking/making tier lists of dumb stuff like this. Fun to process and go through my thoughts on various pieces of media.
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
I've decided to make a separate year-in-review post for Higurashi since I don't include it in my completions. This blog is mostly me talking about Higurashi either way.
This is my WIP tier list for the Higurashi arcs I've played/watched/read so far. However, this post will only cover the VN arcs, since this is a gaming website.

I beat 10 Higurashi arcs in 2024 after starting the game last October. In total, I spent 127h 34m playing Higurashi VN arcs this year. Hopefully, it'll be entirely finished by the end of next year.
List of the arcs I beat this year in chronological order:
01. March 31st - Higurashi When They Cry: Watanagashi - 20h 42m - (100%) 9/10
02. May 1st - Higurashi When They Cry: Tatarigoroshi - 20h 54m - (100%) 9/10
03. September 3rd - Higurashi When They Cry: Taraimawashi - 4h 8m - (100%) 6/10
04. September 9th - Higurashi When They Cry: Someutsushi - 9h 49m - (100%) 7/10
05. September 15th - Higurashi When They Cry: Himatsubushi - 9h 18m - (100%) 9/10
06. September 21st - Higurashi When They Cry: Tsukiotoshi - 7h 34m - (100%) 7/10
07. October 22nd - Higurashi When They Cry: Meakashi - 16h 24m - (100%) 9/10
08. November 14th - Higurashi When They Cry: Tsumihoroboshi - 19h 36m - (100%) 10/10
09. December 12th - Higurashi When They Cry: Yoigoshi - 13h 9m - (100%) 7/10
10. December 27th - Higurashi When They Cry: Kageboushi - 13h 15m - (100%) 8/10
My favourite arc I beat this year would definitely be Tsumihoroboshi. The way it breaks from the existing formula does it's reveals and character development is superb.
My least favourite VN arc would be Taraimawashi, but it's not even that bad, it's just very short and only gives a little additional information to add to the existing mystery. The manga and anime arcs are all worse than this, so it's still solid.
Here's a couple of other fun ways I found to rank the arcs, starting with days taken from least to most days.
10. Himatsubushi - 3 days
09. Someutsushi - 5 days
08. Tsukiotoshi - 5 days
07. Taraimawashi - 6 days
06. Kageboushi - 7 days
05. Tsumihoroboshi - 11 days
04. Tatarigoroshi - 15 days
03. Yoigoshi - 24 days
02. Meakashi - 29 days
01. Watanagashi - 104 days
This ranking is for how long they took me to beat from shortest to longest.
10. Taraimawashi: 4h 8m
09. Tsukiotoshi - 7h 34m
08. Himatsubushi - 9h 18m
07. Someutsushi - 9h 49m
06. Yoigoshi - 13h 9m
07. Kageboushi - 13h 15m
04. Meakashi - 16h 24m
03. Tsumihoroboshi - 19h 36m
02. Watanagashi - 20h 42m
01. Tatarigoroshi - 20h 54m
Let's end off with a ranking of my favourite Higurashi tracks that I've listened to over the past year.
7. Moonlight Butterfly
6. Confession
5. Conviction
4. Birth and Death
3. Night When the Invisible Scares You
2. Thanks
1. You (vocals)
This is my WIP tier list for the Higurashi arcs I've played/watched/read so far. However, this post will only cover the VN arcs, since this is a gaming website.

I beat 10 Higurashi arcs in 2024 after starting the game last October. In total, I spent 127h 34m playing Higurashi VN arcs this year. Hopefully, it'll be entirely finished by the end of next year.
List of the arcs I beat this year in chronological order:
01. March 31st - Higurashi When They Cry: Watanagashi - 20h 42m - (100%) 9/10
02. May 1st - Higurashi When They Cry: Tatarigoroshi - 20h 54m - (100%) 9/10
03. September 3rd - Higurashi When They Cry: Taraimawashi - 4h 8m - (100%) 6/10
04. September 9th - Higurashi When They Cry: Someutsushi - 9h 49m - (100%) 7/10
05. September 15th - Higurashi When They Cry: Himatsubushi - 9h 18m - (100%) 9/10
06. September 21st - Higurashi When They Cry: Tsukiotoshi - 7h 34m - (100%) 7/10
07. October 22nd - Higurashi When They Cry: Meakashi - 16h 24m - (100%) 9/10
08. November 14th - Higurashi When They Cry: Tsumihoroboshi - 19h 36m - (100%) 10/10
09. December 12th - Higurashi When They Cry: Yoigoshi - 13h 9m - (100%) 7/10
10. December 27th - Higurashi When They Cry: Kageboushi - 13h 15m - (100%) 8/10
My favourite arc I beat this year would definitely be Tsumihoroboshi. The way it breaks from the existing formula does it's reveals and character development is superb.
My least favourite VN arc would be Taraimawashi, but it's not even that bad, it's just very short and only gives a little additional information to add to the existing mystery. The manga and anime arcs are all worse than this, so it's still solid.
Here's a couple of other fun ways I found to rank the arcs, starting with days taken from least to most days.
10. Himatsubushi - 3 days
09. Someutsushi - 5 days
08. Tsukiotoshi - 5 days
07. Taraimawashi - 6 days
06. Kageboushi - 7 days
05. Tsumihoroboshi - 11 days
04. Tatarigoroshi - 15 days
03. Yoigoshi - 24 days
02. Meakashi - 29 days
01. Watanagashi - 104 days
This ranking is for how long they took me to beat from shortest to longest.
10. Taraimawashi: 4h 8m
09. Tsukiotoshi - 7h 34m
08. Himatsubushi - 9h 18m
07. Someutsushi - 9h 49m
06. Yoigoshi - 13h 9m
07. Kageboushi - 13h 15m
04. Meakashi - 16h 24m
03. Tsumihoroboshi - 19h 36m
02. Watanagashi - 20h 42m
01. Tatarigoroshi - 20h 54m
Let's end off with a ranking of my favourite Higurashi tracks that I've listened to over the past year.
7. Moonlight Butterfly
6. Confession
5. Conviction
4. Birth and Death
3. Night When the Invisible Scares You
2. Thanks
1. You (vocals)
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
I quickly went through Minagaroshi because I was very invested in what would happen next.
January 12th - Higurashi When They Cry: Minagoroshi - 23h - (100%) 10/10 - Started 6/12/2025 - 6 Days Taken - Beat the chapter, read all the tips and the staff room.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Minagoroshi starts with a bang by diving deep into the overarching mystery of how the chapters are linked together and how Rika ties into that. This immediately hooks the reader because of how different it is compared to the rest of the story. This also subsequently applies to Rika's very unique POV. It uses this POV to highlight the chapter's main story of fate and how miracles happen. Rika struggles with fate quite a lot, whether she should succumb to it or fight with her will. At first, Keiichi teaches her that a will can overcome fate that is caused by a weaker will. The chapter proceeds to escalate the wills it throws at Rika and see if she can overcome them.
It starts with the board game during the club activity which is Rika's tutorial for changing fate. The main challenge and test of Rika's will in the chapter is Teppei taking Satoko. This was nicely foreshadowed by Rika saying that whenever Teppei takes Satoko, she gives up in that world. She has to do something she's never done before in her 100 years of being alive (mentally at least). The quality of the world and Rika's newfound will to change fate prevents her from doing so in the current world. Overcoming that obstacle and saving Satoko teaches Rika another valuable lesson. For a miracle to happen and change fate, everyone involved needs to have a strong will and believe that the outcome they want is possible.
Then we arrive at the final obstacle which is Rika's death. This seems surmountable since everyone is ready to save Rika, but then the main cast goes home since it's late. Now that Rika and Satoko are alone, defeating fate looks impossible. Their efforts allow them to escape and survive a bit longer, but ultimately their resistance is futile. That is until it is revealed in the greatest plot twist of the chapter, that the rest of the cast never left. This moment made me jump out of my chair at how surprising it was. This restores their ability to change fate, but ultimately it doesn't work out because there was actually one person who didn't believe in the miracle. That person was Hanyuu, who's been telling Rika all chapter to not get her hopes up and to just accept fate. This comes as a shock because Hanyuu can't do anything besides talk to Rika, so how does her not believing make a difference? Even though Hanyuu can't do much, she can still be a source of encouragement and motivation for Rika, which means she can make a difference in changing fate, no matter how small. On a meta-level, this also applies to the reader who's in a similar position to Hanyuu, because they are also a bystander to the events of the story. The player won't believe that Rika can succeed either because they know that there is one more chapter after Minagoroshi. But despite that, when the rest of the cast showed up to save Rika and Satoko, I regained my hope and started believing in a miracle just like Rika did.
Outside of Minagoroshi's focus on fate, it also reveals a lot of overarching mysteries. The true nature of Oyashiro's curse, the disaster and Higurashi's main villain. It does so in chunks, leaving the reader wanting to know more at each step. These reveals also have some foreshadowing, such as the government's ineffective solution for preventing another gas disaster and Takano's strange behaviour in Ch3 after Keiichi kills Teppei. Despite all the reveals, Minagoroshi still leaves some mysteries up to speculation, such as who the person in the opening sequence is, how they are aware of you, the player and what caused Satoko to go insane.
On top of this amazing story, Minagoroshi has some absolutely fantastic music, my favourites are C-examination, Fearlessness, White Mist Peak, Hollow and LIVE. With special note to C-examination and White Misk Peak since they elevated their respective plot twists to new heights.
Neutral:
The one middling aspect of Minagoroshi is that the main plot of saving Satoko does drag the pace down a bit during the third segment of the plotline, but that slight blemish is heavily outweighed by the great aspects the plotline provides.
January 12th - Higurashi When They Cry: Minagoroshi - 23h - (100%) 10/10 - Started 6/12/2025 - 6 Days Taken - Beat the chapter, read all the tips and the staff room.
Here's my review:
Pros:
Minagoroshi starts with a bang by diving deep into the overarching mystery of how the chapters are linked together and how Rika ties into that. This immediately hooks the reader because of how different it is compared to the rest of the story. This also subsequently applies to Rika's very unique POV. It uses this POV to highlight the chapter's main story of fate and how miracles happen. Rika struggles with fate quite a lot, whether she should succumb to it or fight with her will. At first, Keiichi teaches her that a will can overcome fate that is caused by a weaker will. The chapter proceeds to escalate the wills it throws at Rika and see if she can overcome them.
It starts with the board game during the club activity which is Rika's tutorial for changing fate. The main challenge and test of Rika's will in the chapter is Teppei taking Satoko. This was nicely foreshadowed by Rika saying that whenever Teppei takes Satoko, she gives up in that world. She has to do something she's never done before in her 100 years of being alive (mentally at least). The quality of the world and Rika's newfound will to change fate prevents her from doing so in the current world. Overcoming that obstacle and saving Satoko teaches Rika another valuable lesson. For a miracle to happen and change fate, everyone involved needs to have a strong will and believe that the outcome they want is possible.
Then we arrive at the final obstacle which is Rika's death. This seems surmountable since everyone is ready to save Rika, but then the main cast goes home since it's late. Now that Rika and Satoko are alone, defeating fate looks impossible. Their efforts allow them to escape and survive a bit longer, but ultimately their resistance is futile. That is until it is revealed in the greatest plot twist of the chapter, that the rest of the cast never left. This moment made me jump out of my chair at how surprising it was. This restores their ability to change fate, but ultimately it doesn't work out because there was actually one person who didn't believe in the miracle. That person was Hanyuu, who's been telling Rika all chapter to not get her hopes up and to just accept fate. This comes as a shock because Hanyuu can't do anything besides talk to Rika, so how does her not believing make a difference? Even though Hanyuu can't do much, she can still be a source of encouragement and motivation for Rika, which means she can make a difference in changing fate, no matter how small. On a meta-level, this also applies to the reader who's in a similar position to Hanyuu, because they are also a bystander to the events of the story. The player won't believe that Rika can succeed either because they know that there is one more chapter after Minagoroshi. But despite that, when the rest of the cast showed up to save Rika and Satoko, I regained my hope and started believing in a miracle just like Rika did.
Outside of Minagoroshi's focus on fate, it also reveals a lot of overarching mysteries. The true nature of Oyashiro's curse, the disaster and Higurashi's main villain. It does so in chunks, leaving the reader wanting to know more at each step. These reveals also have some foreshadowing, such as the government's ineffective solution for preventing another gas disaster and Takano's strange behaviour in Ch3 after Keiichi kills Teppei. Despite all the reveals, Minagoroshi still leaves some mysteries up to speculation, such as who the person in the opening sequence is, how they are aware of you, the player and what caused Satoko to go insane.
On top of this amazing story, Minagoroshi has some absolutely fantastic music, my favourites are C-examination, Fearlessness, White Mist Peak, Hollow and LIVE. With special note to C-examination and White Misk Peak since they elevated their respective plot twists to new heights.
Neutral:
The one middling aspect of Minagoroshi is that the main plot of saving Satoko does drag the pace down a bit during the third segment of the plotline, but that slight blemish is heavily outweighed by the great aspects the plotline provides.
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
For the GotM 10th anniversary, I decided to go through all the games I've nominated and provide some stats for them.
Here's a collection with some of the stats as well: COLLECTION
I've nominated 17 games in 25 nominations for slightly over 2 years.
There are 4 games I've nominated multiple times.
Luigi's Mansion 3 (2x)
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2x)
Neon White (4x)
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (4x)
None of my nominations have won any of the polls, but some have gotten closer than others, so here's a ranking of how each of my nominations has performed. Votes come first (because the amount of nominations in each poll varies) and if there's a tie, the placement is taken into account. If there's still a tie after that, the tiebreaker is my personal rating for the game.
25. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope(2x) - N/A - N/A (Not included in the polls because it wasn't a horror game.) - October 2023
24. Azure Reflections - 2 votes - 17th place - June 2024
23. The Entropy Centre - 3 votes - 16th place - May 2023
22. Neon White(3x) - 3 votes - 14th place - April 2023
21. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope(4x) - 4 votes - 15th place - May 2024
20. Neon White(4x) - 5 votes - 18th place - February 2025
19. Human Resource Machine - 5 votes - 14th place - February 2025 10th Anniversary
18. Fire Emblem Three Houses(1x) - 5 votes - 12th place - August 2024
17. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope(3x) - 5 votes - 12th place - November 2023
16. Super Mario Bros. 2 - 6 votes - 12th place - December 2022
15. The Looker - 6 votes - 10th place - April 2023 Fool's Choice
14. Metaphor: ReFantazio - 6 votes - 9th place - January 2025
13. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope(1x) - 6 votes - 8th place - September 2023
12. Event[0] - 6 votes - 6th place - June 2023
11. Neon White(2x) - 7 votes - 12th place - February 2023
10. Mini Metro - 7 votes - 8th place - December 2024
9. Luigi's Mansion 3(2x) - 7 votes - 8th place - August 2023
8. Octopath Traveler - 7 votes - 8th place - November 2022
7. Fire Emblem: Three Houses(2x) - 7 votes - 8th place - September 2024
6. Persona 4 Golden - 7 votes - 5th place - July 2024
5. Persona 5 Tactica - 8 votes - 8th place - February 2024
4. INMOST - 9 votes - 4th place - October 2024
3. Neon White(1x) - 10 votes - 5th place - January 2023
2. Stray - 10 votes - 2nd place - November 2024
1. Luigi's Mansion 3(1x) - 12 votes - 3rd place - July 2023
Hopefully one day, one of my nominations does win though.
Here's a collection with some of the stats as well: COLLECTION
I've nominated 17 games in 25 nominations for slightly over 2 years.
There are 4 games I've nominated multiple times.
Luigi's Mansion 3 (2x)
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2x)
Neon White (4x)
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (4x)
None of my nominations have won any of the polls, but some have gotten closer than others, so here's a ranking of how each of my nominations has performed. Votes come first (because the amount of nominations in each poll varies) and if there's a tie, the placement is taken into account. If there's still a tie after that, the tiebreaker is my personal rating for the game.
25. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope(2x) - N/A - N/A (Not included in the polls because it wasn't a horror game.) - October 2023
24. Azure Reflections - 2 votes - 17th place - June 2024
23. The Entropy Centre - 3 votes - 16th place - May 2023
22. Neon White(3x) - 3 votes - 14th place - April 2023
21. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope(4x) - 4 votes - 15th place - May 2024
20. Neon White(4x) - 5 votes - 18th place - February 2025
19. Human Resource Machine - 5 votes - 14th place - February 2025 10th Anniversary
18. Fire Emblem Three Houses(1x) - 5 votes - 12th place - August 2024
17. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope(3x) - 5 votes - 12th place - November 2023
16. Super Mario Bros. 2 - 6 votes - 12th place - December 2022
15. The Looker - 6 votes - 10th place - April 2023 Fool's Choice
14. Metaphor: ReFantazio - 6 votes - 9th place - January 2025
13. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope(1x) - 6 votes - 8th place - September 2023
12. Event[0] - 6 votes - 6th place - June 2023
11. Neon White(2x) - 7 votes - 12th place - February 2023
10. Mini Metro - 7 votes - 8th place - December 2024
9. Luigi's Mansion 3(2x) - 7 votes - 8th place - August 2023
8. Octopath Traveler - 7 votes - 8th place - November 2022
7. Fire Emblem: Three Houses(2x) - 7 votes - 8th place - September 2024
6. Persona 4 Golden - 7 votes - 5th place - July 2024
5. Persona 5 Tactica - 8 votes - 8th place - February 2024
4. INMOST - 9 votes - 4th place - October 2024
3. Neon White(1x) - 10 votes - 5th place - January 2023
2. Stray - 10 votes - 2nd place - November 2024
1. Luigi's Mansion 3(1x) - 12 votes - 3rd place - July 2023
Hopefully one day, one of my nominations does win though.
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
From now on I'm going to start making reviews for Fortnite seasons as well, so I can better form my opinion on individual seasons. I'll start with my review after which I'll provide some of the stats I tracked during that season.
February 16th - Fortnite Ch6 S1: Hunters - 71h - 7/10 - Reached level 201
Here's my review:
Pros:
Starting with the season's battle pass, there were two skins I liked which I used a decent amount. Those two are Shadow Blade Hope and Night Rose. I usually stick to my 5 main skins, so when I use another skin, that means it's pretty good. Night Rose's music pack isn't half bad either.
I don't usually have too strong opinions on a season's gameplay, since I'm fine with pretty much all weapons and game mechanics. Nonetheless, this season did have one unique and interesting item. The Shadow Oni mask, which lets you teleport. I love cool concepts like that and I didn't expect something like that to be added to Fortnite. The boons were a pretty neat new mechanic, allowing you to gain new abilities throughout a match, which provides another mid-match objective to focus on, like the broadcast towers. The unvaults throughout the season like the kinetic blade and lock on pistol fit the season theme nicely. Unvaults in general also kept the loot pool fresh, which prevented it from getting boring and stale.
The map for the chapter has a great amount of variety from the start, with multiple biomes and even a unique design with mountains in the middle. There's also a bunch of neat small aspects like the tunnels going through the mountains and the vault at Nightshift Forest which you can only open by doing a quest for Bushranger. The map changes this season have been better than they have been in a while, with bigger and more numerous changes. For the Christmas event, there was extra snow added to the map and even a mini-event. The Godzilla collab had Shining Span get destroyed and then repaired afterwards. Most unexpectedly of all, a brand new mid-season POI was added. I hope Epic Games keeps up this level of map changes.
The story this season was a little slow throughout the middle with not much happening, like most seasons these days. But it did have some good aspects like tying it together with the previous live event and keeping old characters relevant, while still setting up new mysteries. The best part of the story, however, is easily the mini-event and its aftermath. At this point they can hardly be called mini-events, because it was a whole cinematic battle between Daigo and Shogun X. What I especially enjoyed were the little touches after the event, like Jade foretelling how the season transition will happen to S2 in a way that makes complete sense, instead of it happening out of nowhere, like it sometimes seems. Another detail was Shogun X being replaced by another demon since he got defeated in the event as well as Night Rose no longer being a boss because she was freed from Shogun X's control. These are the little details that didn't have to be added, but make the world feel so much more alive. The story also sets up a potentially great overarching villain with the dark presence in the spirit realm remaining and in control of the zero point shard. I hope this storyline stays throughout the whole chapter since Fortnite has had issues in the past with one-off villains.
Neutral:
Despite there being two skins in the battle pass I enjoyed, the remaining skins were mediocre. I'm not a fan of collabs in the battle pass in the slightest either, especially when they affect gameplay. Although in this case, I will admit that attacking a giant Godzilla in a match is pretty cool and unique, so I can't fault it too much.
Cons:
What I wasn't a fan of was the removal of most Zero Build tournaments. I always do the ranked cups each season for the extra glider, but this season I had to do them in builds, which I dislike much more due to how competitive it is. The only good aspect that came out of this is that I found out that the ranked gliders take your highest rank from any mode, even Rocket Racing, which means I won't have to grind ranks in builds for the ranked cups.
Stats:
Ok, now let's get into my stats for this season, starting with my most used skins. Sylvie is at the top because she's my main, but I also used Shadow Blade Hope a decent amount. The standout new skin though is Hatsune Miku with fantastic hair physics, which is helped by having the longest hair in the game. (Before Cassidy Quinn surprisingly dethroned her in Ch6 S2.) She was so good that she managed to join my exclusive club of main skins, which is currently only at 5.

For most POIs, my favourite is probably Canyon Crossing although Masked Meadows had a great underground tunnel system.

Overall I played about an equal amount of matches of BR and RR. Although not equal by hours spent, because RR matches are much shorter. I do wish RR gets revived at some point, but currently, it's still pretty much dead in the water.

Here are some overall stats for BR this season. Not the best win ratio, but I'm not all that competitive, so I don't care that much. I got my first win early enough, so that's all that matters.

Excited to see how Epic does comparatively in Ch6 S2. Hopefully, they can keep the good aspects from this season going.
February 16th - Fortnite Ch6 S1: Hunters - 71h - 7/10 - Reached level 201
Here's my review:
Pros:
Starting with the season's battle pass, there were two skins I liked which I used a decent amount. Those two are Shadow Blade Hope and Night Rose. I usually stick to my 5 main skins, so when I use another skin, that means it's pretty good. Night Rose's music pack isn't half bad either.
I don't usually have too strong opinions on a season's gameplay, since I'm fine with pretty much all weapons and game mechanics. Nonetheless, this season did have one unique and interesting item. The Shadow Oni mask, which lets you teleport. I love cool concepts like that and I didn't expect something like that to be added to Fortnite. The boons were a pretty neat new mechanic, allowing you to gain new abilities throughout a match, which provides another mid-match objective to focus on, like the broadcast towers. The unvaults throughout the season like the kinetic blade and lock on pistol fit the season theme nicely. Unvaults in general also kept the loot pool fresh, which prevented it from getting boring and stale.
The map for the chapter has a great amount of variety from the start, with multiple biomes and even a unique design with mountains in the middle. There's also a bunch of neat small aspects like the tunnels going through the mountains and the vault at Nightshift Forest which you can only open by doing a quest for Bushranger. The map changes this season have been better than they have been in a while, with bigger and more numerous changes. For the Christmas event, there was extra snow added to the map and even a mini-event. The Godzilla collab had Shining Span get destroyed and then repaired afterwards. Most unexpectedly of all, a brand new mid-season POI was added. I hope Epic Games keeps up this level of map changes.
The story this season was a little slow throughout the middle with not much happening, like most seasons these days. But it did have some good aspects like tying it together with the previous live event and keeping old characters relevant, while still setting up new mysteries. The best part of the story, however, is easily the mini-event and its aftermath. At this point they can hardly be called mini-events, because it was a whole cinematic battle between Daigo and Shogun X. What I especially enjoyed were the little touches after the event, like Jade foretelling how the season transition will happen to S2 in a way that makes complete sense, instead of it happening out of nowhere, like it sometimes seems. Another detail was Shogun X being replaced by another demon since he got defeated in the event as well as Night Rose no longer being a boss because she was freed from Shogun X's control. These are the little details that didn't have to be added, but make the world feel so much more alive. The story also sets up a potentially great overarching villain with the dark presence in the spirit realm remaining and in control of the zero point shard. I hope this storyline stays throughout the whole chapter since Fortnite has had issues in the past with one-off villains.
Neutral:
Despite there being two skins in the battle pass I enjoyed, the remaining skins were mediocre. I'm not a fan of collabs in the battle pass in the slightest either, especially when they affect gameplay. Although in this case, I will admit that attacking a giant Godzilla in a match is pretty cool and unique, so I can't fault it too much.
Cons:
What I wasn't a fan of was the removal of most Zero Build tournaments. I always do the ranked cups each season for the extra glider, but this season I had to do them in builds, which I dislike much more due to how competitive it is. The only good aspect that came out of this is that I found out that the ranked gliders take your highest rank from any mode, even Rocket Racing, which means I won't have to grind ranks in builds for the ranked cups.
Stats:
Ok, now let's get into my stats for this season, starting with my most used skins. Sylvie is at the top because she's my main, but I also used Shadow Blade Hope a decent amount. The standout new skin though is Hatsune Miku with fantastic hair physics, which is helped by having the longest hair in the game. (Before Cassidy Quinn surprisingly dethroned her in Ch6 S2.) She was so good that she managed to join my exclusive club of main skins, which is currently only at 5.

For most POIs, my favourite is probably Canyon Crossing although Masked Meadows had a great underground tunnel system.

Overall I played about an equal amount of matches of BR and RR. Although not equal by hours spent, because RR matches are much shorter. I do wish RR gets revived at some point, but currently, it's still pretty much dead in the water.

Here are some overall stats for BR this season. Not the best win ratio, but I'm not all that competitive, so I don't care that much. I got my first win early enough, so that's all that matters.

Excited to see how Epic does comparatively in Ch6 S2. Hopefully, they can keep the good aspects from this season going.
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
I finally finished Matsuribayashi, which is the final main arc of Higurashi When They Cry. However, I won't write my full game review until after I finish Saikoroshi. And even after that, I still have all the remaining console arcs. This was the longest arc so far and it took me the second longest to beat because of a 2-week break I took halfway through.
March 21st - Higurashi: Matsuribayashi - 27h 48m - (100%) 10/10 - Started 10/2/2025 - 39 Days Taken - Beat the chapter, read all the tips, the staff room and got all the achievements.
Here's my review:
Pros:
As the final main arc of Higurashi, Matsuribayashi has big shoes to fill, especially after the culprit reveal in Minagoroshi. It does this by throwing your expectations for the arc through the window (at least for the beginning). Instead of starting with Rika planning to take down Takano like in the previous arc, you instead get an entire prologue sequence dedicated to Takano. This gives the player insight into her motivations and makes her a lot more sympathetic to the player. Even after that, the arc still hits you with another curveball with the Connecting Fragments section. In the main arcs, there have been no branching paths or choices up to this point, so for it to pull out a full-on minigame was very surprising, yet a welcome one. It gives answers to multiple remaining questions, while making you feel like a detective, slowly piecing together the clues behind Hinamizawa.
Then it goes over to what you'd expect, Rika rallying everyone together to save herself and, by extension, Hinamizawa. But due to what she'd learned in Minagoroshi, it goes much faster than you'd expect, so there isn't a moment where you can get bored. Matsuribayashi goes full sprint ahead at all times. The final chapter is fittingly a multi-hour fight for Hinamizawa. You feel some relief when it's finally over and Rika's group manages to best Takano, but at the same time, some sadness at the realization that Higurashi is nearing its end. Yet, Matsuribayashi immediately wipes that sadness away with the beautiful ending segment.
This is one aspect that Matsuribayashi does excellently; it disperses its climaxes throughout the story, so you're always interested in what will happen next and are never bored. First, you have the ending of the prologue with Takano declaring war against Hanyuu, then you have the Connecting Fragments ending fulfilling Akasaka's wish to create the ideal fragment of Matsuribayashi. This is followed by the entire chapter before Watanagashi, with everyone reconciling and preparing to fight the final battle. Lastly, you have the ending segment as well as the additional fragment, which show how even though Higurashi's main arc is over, there is always more to speculate about.
This is a genius way to handle the ending of the series. With such a large investment to reach this point, fans may be disappointed in the way you end it, that not everything went the way they wanted to. Ryukishi just provides an in-universe way to have multiple outcomes and says, "If you don't like the ending, come up with your own one, see if you can do it better". This also allows speculation to keep going past the ending of the series. "How would things play out if this had happened instead?" The extra fragment you can see after beating the game shows one of these possibilities and how things could work out differently. This allows players to get their minds racing after being shown a more concrete example of how these additional timelines can be created.
Outside of these climactic moments, other fantastic moments get your heart racing, especially in the final chapter. These would be Shion nearly dying, Akasaka saving Rika, Shion reuniting with Satoshi and Rika causing a miracle to save Hanyuu. I want to focus a bit more on that last one, since it's a great parallel to Minagoroshi and exemplifies their differences. In both Takano shoots one of the club members with a gun; however, the key difference between Minagoroshi and Matsuribayashi is that in the former, Hanyuu doesn't believe in a miracle, while in the latter everyone does. This allows for a miracle to happen and for Hanyuu to be saved.
Lastly, I want to focus on Takano, because she's given a lot of attention this arc, and it shows how no person is truly good or evil. People are just put in circumstances and have to make decisions to deal with them. At the start, Takano is in a remarkably similar situation to Satoko, being orphaned and abused by those around her. But then she is saved by people who care about her, however, this is where Takano makes her first mistake. Takano hyperfixates on her father's work instead of connecting with children her age like Satoko does. This isn't necessarily a bad thing if it's used for good, but then Takano makes her second mistake, which is taking revenge against the higher-ups for deriding her grandfather's work. From there, she works to show its importance, but in the process, destroys the legacy it would have otherwise had. Although to give Takano some credit, she was goaded into this decision by Nomura, who used her for her own personal gain. Takano only realizes her mistakes near the end of Matsuribayashi and wishes to never having been rescued by her grandfather. However, Hanyuu points out that this isn't her true wish, which we are shown in the extra fragment. At the end of the arc, the only one we see miserable is Takano; the reason I brought up her mistakes is to show that a different set of decisions could've led Takano to be just as happy as the rest of the cast. That her sadness isn't an inevitability, that there's a fragment where she can be happy as well.
I'd be remiss not to mention the music in this chapter, which, as per usual, is fantastic. My favourite tracks would be you -destructive-, Squall, Beyond the Skies(vocal) and Banquet. Other tracks that are not quite as good as those ones but are still amazing would be Being, Festival, Air Pizz and Search and Destroy. Furthermore, I love how this arc's opening song Angelic Bright's lyrics tie very well into the events of the arc. It feels directed, unlike any of the other openings.
March 21st - Higurashi: Matsuribayashi - 27h 48m - (100%) 10/10 - Started 10/2/2025 - 39 Days Taken - Beat the chapter, read all the tips, the staff room and got all the achievements.
Here's my review:
Pros:
As the final main arc of Higurashi, Matsuribayashi has big shoes to fill, especially after the culprit reveal in Minagoroshi. It does this by throwing your expectations for the arc through the window (at least for the beginning). Instead of starting with Rika planning to take down Takano like in the previous arc, you instead get an entire prologue sequence dedicated to Takano. This gives the player insight into her motivations and makes her a lot more sympathetic to the player. Even after that, the arc still hits you with another curveball with the Connecting Fragments section. In the main arcs, there have been no branching paths or choices up to this point, so for it to pull out a full-on minigame was very surprising, yet a welcome one. It gives answers to multiple remaining questions, while making you feel like a detective, slowly piecing together the clues behind Hinamizawa.
Then it goes over to what you'd expect, Rika rallying everyone together to save herself and, by extension, Hinamizawa. But due to what she'd learned in Minagoroshi, it goes much faster than you'd expect, so there isn't a moment where you can get bored. Matsuribayashi goes full sprint ahead at all times. The final chapter is fittingly a multi-hour fight for Hinamizawa. You feel some relief when it's finally over and Rika's group manages to best Takano, but at the same time, some sadness at the realization that Higurashi is nearing its end. Yet, Matsuribayashi immediately wipes that sadness away with the beautiful ending segment.
This is one aspect that Matsuribayashi does excellently; it disperses its climaxes throughout the story, so you're always interested in what will happen next and are never bored. First, you have the ending of the prologue with Takano declaring war against Hanyuu, then you have the Connecting Fragments ending fulfilling Akasaka's wish to create the ideal fragment of Matsuribayashi. This is followed by the entire chapter before Watanagashi, with everyone reconciling and preparing to fight the final battle. Lastly, you have the ending segment as well as the additional fragment, which show how even though Higurashi's main arc is over, there is always more to speculate about.
This is a genius way to handle the ending of the series. With such a large investment to reach this point, fans may be disappointed in the way you end it, that not everything went the way they wanted to. Ryukishi just provides an in-universe way to have multiple outcomes and says, "If you don't like the ending, come up with your own one, see if you can do it better". This also allows speculation to keep going past the ending of the series. "How would things play out if this had happened instead?" The extra fragment you can see after beating the game shows one of these possibilities and how things could work out differently. This allows players to get their minds racing after being shown a more concrete example of how these additional timelines can be created.
Outside of these climactic moments, other fantastic moments get your heart racing, especially in the final chapter. These would be Shion nearly dying, Akasaka saving Rika, Shion reuniting with Satoshi and Rika causing a miracle to save Hanyuu. I want to focus a bit more on that last one, since it's a great parallel to Minagoroshi and exemplifies their differences. In both Takano shoots one of the club members with a gun; however, the key difference between Minagoroshi and Matsuribayashi is that in the former, Hanyuu doesn't believe in a miracle, while in the latter everyone does. This allows for a miracle to happen and for Hanyuu to be saved.
Lastly, I want to focus on Takano, because she's given a lot of attention this arc, and it shows how no person is truly good or evil. People are just put in circumstances and have to make decisions to deal with them. At the start, Takano is in a remarkably similar situation to Satoko, being orphaned and abused by those around her. But then she is saved by people who care about her, however, this is where Takano makes her first mistake. Takano hyperfixates on her father's work instead of connecting with children her age like Satoko does. This isn't necessarily a bad thing if it's used for good, but then Takano makes her second mistake, which is taking revenge against the higher-ups for deriding her grandfather's work. From there, she works to show its importance, but in the process, destroys the legacy it would have otherwise had. Although to give Takano some credit, she was goaded into this decision by Nomura, who used her for her own personal gain. Takano only realizes her mistakes near the end of Matsuribayashi and wishes to never having been rescued by her grandfather. However, Hanyuu points out that this isn't her true wish, which we are shown in the extra fragment. At the end of the arc, the only one we see miserable is Takano; the reason I brought up her mistakes is to show that a different set of decisions could've led Takano to be just as happy as the rest of the cast. That her sadness isn't an inevitability, that there's a fragment where she can be happy as well.
I'd be remiss not to mention the music in this chapter, which, as per usual, is fantastic. My favourite tracks would be you -destructive-, Squall, Beyond the Skies(vocal) and Banquet. Other tracks that are not quite as good as those ones but are still amazing would be Being, Festival, Air Pizz and Search and Destroy. Furthermore, I love how this arc's opening song Angelic Bright's lyrics tie very well into the events of the arc. It feels directed, unlike any of the other openings.
1 Yr
✓#
hellobion
1 Yr
✓#
Was very interesting seein gyour stats and thanks for sharing
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
I'll probably start putting the full reviews for games that exceed the 5000-character limit on the review page, so I can keep the extended version more organized. So here's the first one of those.
March 28th - Neon White - 40h 12m - (Main+) 9/10 - Started December 25th 2022 - 824 Days Taken - 100%'d the main story. The only thing I didn't do was Mikey's and White's Hell Rushes.
Pros:
Neon White is a game that oozes with style from the gameplay, art style, humor, story, and music. It doesn't miss a beat for any of them. Starting with the gameplay, this game manages to make speedrunning fun. I'm not the type of player who is inclined to speedrun, because redoing the same part of a game over and over seems super tedious and boring to me. But Neon White makes it fun through a variety of means, the main one being that the levels are relatively short. Having to reset doesn't put you far back, and you can immediately try again. This is the same reason why I didn't mind Celeste's difficulty. The entire process feels smooth and fluid.
Even if you have fast resets, speedrunning won't be any fun if the gameplay isn't good, which Neon White delivers on as well. The weapons and movement controls feel snappy and precise. The weapons are also all distinct from each other, and their discard abilities allow for a lot of gameplay depth in the ways that they can be put together and used in conjunction. This especially allows for the level design to flourish with wacky ideas. These aspects combine to make you feel in control when you're playing and like you can always do better on a level. Your failure (almost) always feels fair and deserved. Despite the high-octane gameplay, you're always thinking of what you could've done better in the previous run, which leads to the "One More Turn" phenomenon where you do another run to see if you can beat your current time by a little bit. This type of behaviour is encouraged further by seeing how you stack up against your friends, but also your global rank on the leaderboards. I always wanted to push myself as fast as I possibly could on a level, especially when I got good placements on the leaderboards.
Even if you're not the best player, the game still manages to make the gameplay fun by adding various goals that you can aim for in the form of medals of differing ranks. Each medal also unlocks aspects of the gameplay, such as the aforementioned leaderboards, but also other features like gifts and a hint towards the shortcut hidden in each level. Speedrunning a bunch of levels in a row might get a bit tiring after a while, that's why gifts are extra clever, as they allow you to take a break from the constant action within a level. They are usually hidden somewhere that is normally out of reach, which necessitates slowing down to look for them. After which you need to devise a plan to reach them and execute it successfully. I went for the gifts after acing levels, and it prevented me from getting burnt out by the speedrunning side of the gameplay.
Meanwhile, the cut in each level, which you are hinted towards, keeps the gameplay fresh even while speedrunning through a level. It's not always immediately obvious what you have to do to perform the cut, so they get you thinking and get you to experiment with your route through the level. When you manage to figure out the trick and pull off the cut in a successful run, it feels rewarding as you usually manage to shave a bunch of time off your total.
The game's art style is absolutely stunning, and it has clear color contrasts for all the weapons in the game. This allows you to quickly tell what cards you have in your hand and which ones are coming up in the level. This way, you can focus your brain power on performing tricks throughout a level instead of remembering what cards you currently have. Aside from the weapons, the art style also provides great contrast between each of the characters in the game. The main cast is color-coded, and text box names match the color of the character who is talking, which is some nice visual clarity.
Speaking of the characters, let's move on to Neon White's humor and story. You wouldn't expect it for a game so heavily focused on its gameplay, but Neon White manages to hit both out of the park as well. The dialogue is unique as it strikes a perfect balance of being a little cringey without crossing the line and being crude. It's like if Miu Iruma's dialogue from Danganronpa V3 was good. This balance results in dialogue that is consistently hilarious, which got a ton of good chuckles and wheezes out of me.
The story isn't anything to scoff at either. It has a lot of mysteries to uncover and plot twists that get revealed throughout the game. The story also has two sides to it, you want to learn more about Heaven, but also about what led White there and how he died. Besides all that, Neon White is a story about forgiveness. You learn about all the terrible things Green did to his crew, and you want to take revenge against those deeds. But that is the same motivation that Green has and what led everyone to their deaths in the first place, and it is Red's act of forgiveness towards White that allowed him to join the afterlife in the first place. These aspects make it quite clear what the correct choice is at the end of the game, which is forgiving Green and writing his name into the Book of Life. Otherwise, you would just be perpetuating the same type of behaviour that got everyone killed to begin with. I do wish that this forgiveness vs revenge angle had been brought up a bit earlier in the game, though.
However, the best part of the story for me wasn't any of this, but the character deaths. In death games, you expect characters to die; it is a given. You don't expect a game like Neon White to kill off its main cast of characters like that, though. Naturally, the first death is the most shocking, but even the second one was surprising. By the end of the game, every single main cast member has died a second time in the afterlife. Although looking with hindsight, the deaths should've been expected considering the game takes place in heaven after everyone has already died once.
Now to finally address the music, which is unsurprisingly also phenomenal. It is a vibe to listen to, and there are multiple great tracks. Even the music manages to tie back into the gameplay, since having a good track in the background makes it harder to get bored while replaying the same level over and over. This is especially effective because the music keeps up the high intensity that the game wants you to feel while dashing through levels as fast as possible. This was made especially apparent in the one level in the game that doesn't have high-octane music in it. It felt much more boring by comparison, and I didn't have the same drive to keep replaying the level for a good time.
Neutral:
The one aspect of the gameplay I wasn't the biggest fan of was the boss battles. In those levels, you have a much higher chance of dying before finishing the level. The problem with this is that it doesn't work as well as a motivator as seeing your time at the end of the level does. If you see your time, you think you can do just a bit better or that it wasn't quite good enough because of the mistakes you made. That's something you can reflect on. When you die, you don't get that. Instead, it was just that you weren't skilled enough to execute your route and have to try again.
March 28th - Neon White - 40h 12m - (Main+) 9/10 - Started December 25th 2022 - 824 Days Taken - 100%'d the main story. The only thing I didn't do was Mikey's and White's Hell Rushes.
Pros:
Neon White is a game that oozes with style from the gameplay, art style, humor, story, and music. It doesn't miss a beat for any of them. Starting with the gameplay, this game manages to make speedrunning fun. I'm not the type of player who is inclined to speedrun, because redoing the same part of a game over and over seems super tedious and boring to me. But Neon White makes it fun through a variety of means, the main one being that the levels are relatively short. Having to reset doesn't put you far back, and you can immediately try again. This is the same reason why I didn't mind Celeste's difficulty. The entire process feels smooth and fluid.
Even if you have fast resets, speedrunning won't be any fun if the gameplay isn't good, which Neon White delivers on as well. The weapons and movement controls feel snappy and precise. The weapons are also all distinct from each other, and their discard abilities allow for a lot of gameplay depth in the ways that they can be put together and used in conjunction. This especially allows for the level design to flourish with wacky ideas. These aspects combine to make you feel in control when you're playing and like you can always do better on a level. Your failure (almost) always feels fair and deserved. Despite the high-octane gameplay, you're always thinking of what you could've done better in the previous run, which leads to the "One More Turn" phenomenon where you do another run to see if you can beat your current time by a little bit. This type of behaviour is encouraged further by seeing how you stack up against your friends, but also your global rank on the leaderboards. I always wanted to push myself as fast as I possibly could on a level, especially when I got good placements on the leaderboards.
Even if you're not the best player, the game still manages to make the gameplay fun by adding various goals that you can aim for in the form of medals of differing ranks. Each medal also unlocks aspects of the gameplay, such as the aforementioned leaderboards, but also other features like gifts and a hint towards the shortcut hidden in each level. Speedrunning a bunch of levels in a row might get a bit tiring after a while, that's why gifts are extra clever, as they allow you to take a break from the constant action within a level. They are usually hidden somewhere that is normally out of reach, which necessitates slowing down to look for them. After which you need to devise a plan to reach them and execute it successfully. I went for the gifts after acing levels, and it prevented me from getting burnt out by the speedrunning side of the gameplay.
Meanwhile, the cut in each level, which you are hinted towards, keeps the gameplay fresh even while speedrunning through a level. It's not always immediately obvious what you have to do to perform the cut, so they get you thinking and get you to experiment with your route through the level. When you manage to figure out the trick and pull off the cut in a successful run, it feels rewarding as you usually manage to shave a bunch of time off your total.
The game's art style is absolutely stunning, and it has clear color contrasts for all the weapons in the game. This allows you to quickly tell what cards you have in your hand and which ones are coming up in the level. This way, you can focus your brain power on performing tricks throughout a level instead of remembering what cards you currently have. Aside from the weapons, the art style also provides great contrast between each of the characters in the game. The main cast is color-coded, and text box names match the color of the character who is talking, which is some nice visual clarity.
Speaking of the characters, let's move on to Neon White's humor and story. You wouldn't expect it for a game so heavily focused on its gameplay, but Neon White manages to hit both out of the park as well. The dialogue is unique as it strikes a perfect balance of being a little cringey without crossing the line and being crude. It's like if Miu Iruma's dialogue from Danganronpa V3 was good. This balance results in dialogue that is consistently hilarious, which got a ton of good chuckles and wheezes out of me.
The story isn't anything to scoff at either. It has a lot of mysteries to uncover and plot twists that get revealed throughout the game. The story also has two sides to it, you want to learn more about Heaven, but also about what led White there and how he died. Besides all that, Neon White is a story about forgiveness. You learn about all the terrible things Green did to his crew, and you want to take revenge against those deeds. But that is the same motivation that Green has and what led everyone to their deaths in the first place, and it is Red's act of forgiveness towards White that allowed him to join the afterlife in the first place. These aspects make it quite clear what the correct choice is at the end of the game, which is forgiving Green and writing his name into the Book of Life. Otherwise, you would just be perpetuating the same type of behaviour that got everyone killed to begin with. I do wish that this forgiveness vs revenge angle had been brought up a bit earlier in the game, though.
However, the best part of the story for me wasn't any of this, but the character deaths. In death games, you expect characters to die; it is a given. You don't expect a game like Neon White to kill off its main cast of characters like that, though. Naturally, the first death is the most shocking, but even the second one was surprising. By the end of the game, every single main cast member has died a second time in the afterlife. Although looking with hindsight, the deaths should've been expected considering the game takes place in heaven after everyone has already died once.
Now to finally address the music, which is unsurprisingly also phenomenal. It is a vibe to listen to, and there are multiple great tracks. Even the music manages to tie back into the gameplay, since having a good track in the background makes it harder to get bored while replaying the same level over and over. This is especially effective because the music keeps up the high intensity that the game wants you to feel while dashing through levels as fast as possible. This was made especially apparent in the one level in the game that doesn't have high-octane music in it. It felt much more boring by comparison, and I didn't have the same drive to keep replaying the level for a good time.
Neutral:
The one aspect of the gameplay I wasn't the biggest fan of was the boss battles. In those levels, you have a much higher chance of dying before finishing the level. The problem with this is that it doesn't work as well as a motivator as seeing your time at the end of the level does. If you see your time, you think you can do just a bit better or that it wasn't quite good enough because of the mistakes you made. That's something you can reflect on. When you die, you don't get that. Instead, it was just that you weren't skilled enough to execute your route and have to try again.
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
Didn't expect my review for The Witness to be this long, but here we are, so enjoy!
April 6th - The Witness - 24h 54m - (Main+) 7/10 - Started March 28th - 9 Days Taken - Beat the game, did a good chunk of the environmental puzzles and found 3 theater videos.
Pros:
The Witness is a great puzzle game that was the perfect difficulty for me. The puzzles were challenging, but not frustrating. Even when I got completely stuck on the final puzzle of an area, I was able to just leave and go to another area. This leads me to another one of The Witness's great aspects, which is its map. You can tackle most of the areas in any order you want, with a couple of areas requiring knowledge from other areas to progress in.
The game also teaches you the puzzle mechanics incrementally, so you fully understand how they work by the end, and it never feels like you're being thrown into the deep end. When I got stuck, it was because I misinterpreted a part of the puzzle or just made a stupid mistake, rather than anything on the game's part. I enjoyed most of the puzzle types and their combinations provided a whole host of interesting and varied puzzles. There are a couple of puzzle types I didn't like as much, however, which I'll address later.
Neutral:
Aside from being a great puzzle game, The Witness is weird in a way that's difficult to describe. A lot of puzzle games are all about the puzzles and have no story or message to speak of, which is a camp. The Witness also kind of falls into this. Because unlike those games, which don't bother to include those elements, this game does, however, it doesn't seem to have any overarching purpose. Games have audio logs to let the player learn more about the game's story or world. The Witness has audio logs, but they are unrelated to each other and all about different topics. The same thing goes for the video clips, which are also completely disjointed. Granted, I didn't find all the audio logs or video clips, so maybe there's some overarching message I'm not seeing, but I've tried my best to connect these pieces of content, and I can't find anything linking them together. Even if there was an overarching message present between all the content, it doesn't relate to the game in any way. It makes me question why they were included in the game, because content doesn't just appear in a game; someone had to decide to add it to the game and create it. There must've been some reason to include this optional content, and yet I can't figure out what that is. I'm almost wondering whether the audio logs and videos were created for the game itself, maybe they were royalty-free pieces of content that were found and added to the game. One of the video clips even has credits for the BBC at the end, which I doubt they would've been able to get the rights for if it was made specifically for the game.
On top of the optional content, other aspects of the game are also weird, such as the stone statues of people found all over the map, as well as the title of the game itself. The title of a game is supposed to communicate an important aspect of the game or what type of game it is to the consumer. However, "The Witness" doesn't seemingly have any relation to the game itself. My best guess is that you, as the player, are witnessing the island frozen in time as the stone statues seem like people who were petrified while doing something. However, I have no idea what those people were trying to do or if there's a story related to them which went over my head.
Other oddities include the endgame area and the ending sequence. The endgame area is inside the mountain, which is entirely mechanical, and you can even see miniatures and concept art of the buildings you see around the island. This implies that the entire island could be fake and constructed for some purpose, but yet again, I have no idea of knowing of the why. The ending sequence is the only time you hear dialogue in the main story, since the audio logs and video clips are optional. However, this dialogue doesn't unravel any mysteries and only makes the situation more confusing. The dialogue is merely describing things close by as you fly over the island in the glass elevator. The path the elevator takes retraces your steps throughout the game, and you eventually end up in the same location where you started the game. What's curious is that as you fly around, all the puzzles unsolve and turn off. My theory is that the game is a game in a meta sense. Where there is only one copy, and once you've beaten it, the game resets, so someone else can play the game.
The Witness also has a couple of puzzle elements, which I don't quite get the purpose of either. The game has what I call environmental puzzles, which are lines you find outside of the puzzle board in the world itself. These are often hidden and most of the time require some trickery to solve. My favourite environmental puzzles were the obvious ones, where the challenge was less about noticing them and more about solving a solved puzzle in a more challenging way to allow for you to complete the environmental puzzle. They are kept track of using totem poles, where the individual puzzles light up once you've solved them. However, they are vague and don't list what area each face of the totem corresponds to. This makes it much harder to find all the environmental puzzles because you don't know where to look unless you remember it yourself. Because of these factors, I didn't even get close to getting all the environmental puzzles. On top of this vagueness, the game doesn't tell you what the environmental puzzles are used for. I never managed to fully complete any of the totems, but maybe if I had, I would've gotten some indication about what they would do. My best guess is that they might lead you to a different true ending or something of the like. This same vagueness also applies to the triangle puzzles, which are singular optional puzzles found across the entire map. They don't even have any way to track how many you've completed and how many you have left to find, so I have no clue what their purpose is meant to be, as nothing ever happened after I solved them.
Cons:
Let's finally return to those puzzle types I didn't like as much as the others, which are the light and especially the audio puzzles. That's because those puzzles had less to do with the puzzle board and more with outside factors. You're just walking around trying to get the right angle or trying to decipher what you're hearing instead of logically deducing what shape to draw so you can solve the puzzle. What made me especially dislike the audio puzzles, however, is that they waste your time. Instead of going by your own pace, you're spending a lot of time waiting for the audio clip to play again, so you can have another shot at deciphering it. The later puzzles layer multiple audio clips on top of each other, which just increases the time it takes to decipher the audio. The last audio puzzle was just me sitting still for 25 minutes trying to understand what on earth I was hearing, it was an excruciating experience, mentally speaking. Luckily, the audio puzzles only returned once after that, and that puzzle was optional.
April 6th - The Witness - 24h 54m - (Main+) 7/10 - Started March 28th - 9 Days Taken - Beat the game, did a good chunk of the environmental puzzles and found 3 theater videos.
Pros:
The Witness is a great puzzle game that was the perfect difficulty for me. The puzzles were challenging, but not frustrating. Even when I got completely stuck on the final puzzle of an area, I was able to just leave and go to another area. This leads me to another one of The Witness's great aspects, which is its map. You can tackle most of the areas in any order you want, with a couple of areas requiring knowledge from other areas to progress in.
The game also teaches you the puzzle mechanics incrementally, so you fully understand how they work by the end, and it never feels like you're being thrown into the deep end. When I got stuck, it was because I misinterpreted a part of the puzzle or just made a stupid mistake, rather than anything on the game's part. I enjoyed most of the puzzle types and their combinations provided a whole host of interesting and varied puzzles. There are a couple of puzzle types I didn't like as much, however, which I'll address later.
Neutral:
Aside from being a great puzzle game, The Witness is weird in a way that's difficult to describe. A lot of puzzle games are all about the puzzles and have no story or message to speak of, which is a camp. The Witness also kind of falls into this. Because unlike those games, which don't bother to include those elements, this game does, however, it doesn't seem to have any overarching purpose. Games have audio logs to let the player learn more about the game's story or world. The Witness has audio logs, but they are unrelated to each other and all about different topics. The same thing goes for the video clips, which are also completely disjointed. Granted, I didn't find all the audio logs or video clips, so maybe there's some overarching message I'm not seeing, but I've tried my best to connect these pieces of content, and I can't find anything linking them together. Even if there was an overarching message present between all the content, it doesn't relate to the game in any way. It makes me question why they were included in the game, because content doesn't just appear in a game; someone had to decide to add it to the game and create it. There must've been some reason to include this optional content, and yet I can't figure out what that is. I'm almost wondering whether the audio logs and videos were created for the game itself, maybe they were royalty-free pieces of content that were found and added to the game. One of the video clips even has credits for the BBC at the end, which I doubt they would've been able to get the rights for if it was made specifically for the game.
On top of the optional content, other aspects of the game are also weird, such as the stone statues of people found all over the map, as well as the title of the game itself. The title of a game is supposed to communicate an important aspect of the game or what type of game it is to the consumer. However, "The Witness" doesn't seemingly have any relation to the game itself. My best guess is that you, as the player, are witnessing the island frozen in time as the stone statues seem like people who were petrified while doing something. However, I have no idea what those people were trying to do or if there's a story related to them which went over my head.
Other oddities include the endgame area and the ending sequence. The endgame area is inside the mountain, which is entirely mechanical, and you can even see miniatures and concept art of the buildings you see around the island. This implies that the entire island could be fake and constructed for some purpose, but yet again, I have no idea of knowing of the why. The ending sequence is the only time you hear dialogue in the main story, since the audio logs and video clips are optional. However, this dialogue doesn't unravel any mysteries and only makes the situation more confusing. The dialogue is merely describing things close by as you fly over the island in the glass elevator. The path the elevator takes retraces your steps throughout the game, and you eventually end up in the same location where you started the game. What's curious is that as you fly around, all the puzzles unsolve and turn off. My theory is that the game is a game in a meta sense. Where there is only one copy, and once you've beaten it, the game resets, so someone else can play the game.
The Witness also has a couple of puzzle elements, which I don't quite get the purpose of either. The game has what I call environmental puzzles, which are lines you find outside of the puzzle board in the world itself. These are often hidden and most of the time require some trickery to solve. My favourite environmental puzzles were the obvious ones, where the challenge was less about noticing them and more about solving a solved puzzle in a more challenging way to allow for you to complete the environmental puzzle. They are kept track of using totem poles, where the individual puzzles light up once you've solved them. However, they are vague and don't list what area each face of the totem corresponds to. This makes it much harder to find all the environmental puzzles because you don't know where to look unless you remember it yourself. Because of these factors, I didn't even get close to getting all the environmental puzzles. On top of this vagueness, the game doesn't tell you what the environmental puzzles are used for. I never managed to fully complete any of the totems, but maybe if I had, I would've gotten some indication about what they would do. My best guess is that they might lead you to a different true ending or something of the like. This same vagueness also applies to the triangle puzzles, which are singular optional puzzles found across the entire map. They don't even have any way to track how many you've completed and how many you have left to find, so I have no clue what their purpose is meant to be, as nothing ever happened after I solved them.
Cons:
Let's finally return to those puzzle types I didn't like as much as the others, which are the light and especially the audio puzzles. That's because those puzzles had less to do with the puzzle board and more with outside factors. You're just walking around trying to get the right angle or trying to decipher what you're hearing instead of logically deducing what shape to draw so you can solve the puzzle. What made me especially dislike the audio puzzles, however, is that they waste your time. Instead of going by your own pace, you're spending a lot of time waiting for the audio clip to play again, so you can have another shot at deciphering it. The later puzzles layer multiple audio clips on top of each other, which just increases the time it takes to decipher the audio. The last audio puzzle was just me sitting still for 25 minutes trying to understand what on earth I was hearing, it was an excruciating experience, mentally speaking. Luckily, the audio puzzles only returned once after that, and that puzzle was optional.
5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
Ch6 S2 in Fortnite has come to an end, so here's my review for that season. The next season is a short month-long collab season, so the next review won't be that far way.
May 1st - Fortnite Ch6 S2: Lawless - 69h 27m - 7/10 - Reached level 190.
Pros:
My favourite aspect of Ch6 S2 is a specific weapon, the kneecapper. It's a combined melee and utility weapon in the shape of a bat. Previous seasons have had these as well; last season had the typhoon blade, for example. I usually enjoy mobility items, but this one was especially fun to use. Instead of having a mobility move that is performed on the click of a button, you instead sprint faster, jump higher, and your stamina decreases more slowly while holding the item. This, on its own, is decent, but combined with its melee attack is fantastic. The melee attack is a chargeable swing that can send players flying. It feels great when you manage to hit someone and they subsequently die from fall damage. The best part is that you can charge it while still moving with the bat. You can duck and weave between enemy bullets while approaching them and then hit them with a killing blow.
Outside of the kneecapper, the season's loot pool also had a lot of variety within the loot pool. For each weapon type, there were multiple weapons that I liked equally, so I wasn't forced to use the same weapons all the time. This got even better as the season progressed because they unvaulted all the main Ch4 S4 weapons, which I enjoyed back then and did this time around as well. On top of a stellar standard loot pool, this season added a boatload of new exotic weapons, which we haven't gotten in a while. I like exotic weapons because they add a unique and interesting gimmick to regular weapons. Most of them were on weapons, I didn't like, so I didn't use them all that much, but even then, there were still some very unique ones in the bunch. I'll highlight the lawless shockwave rocket launcher, which pretty much just allows you to rocket jump like in TF2. It was a bit clunky to use compared to past similar weapons like Kit's shockwave launcher, but the fact that it exists in the first place is a plus in my book.
The main gameplay cycle this season was to rob banks, armored vans or the armored train and then use the gold in black markets, where you could buy powerful weapons. On top of gold, a new currency was also added Dill Bits, which didn't carry over between matches and could only be found at vaults or specific locations. You would need them to get the best rewards at the black markets, usually the aforementioned exotic weapons. I'm a player who usually hoards all my gold and barely spends any of it, but the black markets provided a fantastic gold sink that I got low on gold a couple of times, which is a good thing because it got me to interact with the games mechanics is a more fun and dynamic way. The high prices for black market items weren't an issue either because it was just as easy to rack up tons of gold from the various gold sources.
We've seen the heist theme before, and I'll get back to that later, but the way it was implemented in Ch6 S2 also provided plenty of gameplay variety. If you were an aggressive player, you could land directly on the black markets with gold saved up and start the match with god-tier loot. The next step down in risk would be to land at one of the bank POIs and get gold and Dill Bits from there, and then head to the black markets. Alternatively, you could pick the safe option of getting your gold from the jewellery stores and armored vans. You could also get Dill Bits from Dill Bit farms, allowing you to sidestep the banks entirely. (This was my preferred strategy.) These options were spread throughout the entire map, so you weren't limited to landing in the new biome that was added in the season, either.
This chapter's overarching story is continued well in Ch6 S2. It stays focused on Daigo. This time his goal is to rescue the zero point shard that's stuck in the spirit realm, using any means necessary. As a result, he works with Fletcher Kane, who provides him with the funds necessary to construct a mask that can let him breach the spirit realm. In return, he promises Fletcher Kane the power that the shard would provide. However, Daigo fails in his mission and gets corrupted by the spirit realm. This was shown in a cinematic video, which we usually only get at the start of a season. I appreciate it, especially since we didn't get a mini-event this season. By the end of the season, Fletcher Kane has spent most of his money funding Daigo, which leads well into the destruction of the banks and mines in the next season. This plotline follows up well from last season by keeping existing characters relevant and continuing their motivations. It also continues setting up the threat of the dark presence within the spirit realm that was established last season.
Neutral:
Outside of its contributions to the overarching storyline, Ch6 S2's story has a lot of filler in it. Most of the story quests are pretty inconsequential and don't have much to do with the overarching storyline, or if they do, they don't end up leading anywhere new. However, the start of the storyline does nicely continue what was built up in Ch6 S1, with Fletcher Kane taking control of the gold that came out of the ruined portal and building new POIs with his wealth, which ends up attracting criminals and thieves.
As I already said, this season's robbery/crime theme is somewhat similar to Ch2 S2's spy theme and extremely similar to Ch4 S4's heist theme. I don't know why Epic keeps choosing such similar themes, especially when the possibilities are practically limitless. My best guess would be that they try to stick to themes they know work. Repeating themes is much less interesting and can make themes stale after a while. However, I do think that this season did just enough differently from its predecessor to make the theme feel unique, by focusing more on mafia street-level crime rather than the elaborate high-tech heists from Ch4 S4.
I mostly use my main skins, for this season it was around 75% of all matches I played. Consequently, I only used a couple of the battle pass characters, so I can't comment too much. I will say that most of the skins seemed decent, those being Outlaw Midas, Joss and Fletcher Kane. My favourite skin in the pass is Cassidy Quinn because she has the longest hair in the game and I'm a sucker for hair physics in Fortnite, although it wasn't my preferred style, so she didn't join my main roster. Looking at the pass as a whole, the theming is great with the exception being Sub-Zero, the token out-of-place collab skin. Last season's collabs matched the season, Epic just loves to flip-flop between collabs that do and don't make sense.
Cons:
The only aspect of the season I found a bit disappointing is the build-up to next season, which is a short Star Wars collab season. The buildup is there, with the Death Star coming closer to the island, however, it isn't explained why that is happening. I've heard that it's because Daigo's attempts to breach the spirit realm are what attracted them, however, I haven't seen anything confirming that in-game. Even if it is true, it should be just as clear as last season was; there should've been an NPC mentioning it at the very least.
Stats:
Now, for my stats this season. I ended up playing a very similar number of games as last season, although my performance was worse, with only 2 wins throughout the whole season and a lower K/D. It took me 7 weeks before I got the victory umbrella for the season.

I already talked a bit about my skin usage this season and how it was mostly mains. Here are the specific stats:

What I didn't mention earlier was that even though I didn't use the new battle pass skins much, I was still able to get that experience of enjoying new skins by creating new variants for my existing customizable skins. I created 5 new ones, 4 from Higurashi When They Cry and Bernadetta from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
In order: Rena, Keiichi, Satoshi, Satoko, Bernadetta

For the POi stats, I started the season mostly landing at the new POIs, but in the end, the top couple POIs ended up about equal, with a slight preference for Crime City.

Later on in the season, I found my preferred strategy of looting a jewellery store, going to a Dill Bit farm and then to a black market. I found out this strategy by landing at the Yokina Boardwalk landmark, which subsequently became my most landed at landmark by a landslide.

I'm still playing plenty of RR as you can see from my overall stats. Still praying that Epic will do something more with it one day.

May 1st - Fortnite Ch6 S2: Lawless - 69h 27m - 7/10 - Reached level 190.
Pros:
My favourite aspect of Ch6 S2 is a specific weapon, the kneecapper. It's a combined melee and utility weapon in the shape of a bat. Previous seasons have had these as well; last season had the typhoon blade, for example. I usually enjoy mobility items, but this one was especially fun to use. Instead of having a mobility move that is performed on the click of a button, you instead sprint faster, jump higher, and your stamina decreases more slowly while holding the item. This, on its own, is decent, but combined with its melee attack is fantastic. The melee attack is a chargeable swing that can send players flying. It feels great when you manage to hit someone and they subsequently die from fall damage. The best part is that you can charge it while still moving with the bat. You can duck and weave between enemy bullets while approaching them and then hit them with a killing blow.
Outside of the kneecapper, the season's loot pool also had a lot of variety within the loot pool. For each weapon type, there were multiple weapons that I liked equally, so I wasn't forced to use the same weapons all the time. This got even better as the season progressed because they unvaulted all the main Ch4 S4 weapons, which I enjoyed back then and did this time around as well. On top of a stellar standard loot pool, this season added a boatload of new exotic weapons, which we haven't gotten in a while. I like exotic weapons because they add a unique and interesting gimmick to regular weapons. Most of them were on weapons, I didn't like, so I didn't use them all that much, but even then, there were still some very unique ones in the bunch. I'll highlight the lawless shockwave rocket launcher, which pretty much just allows you to rocket jump like in TF2. It was a bit clunky to use compared to past similar weapons like Kit's shockwave launcher, but the fact that it exists in the first place is a plus in my book.
The main gameplay cycle this season was to rob banks, armored vans or the armored train and then use the gold in black markets, where you could buy powerful weapons. On top of gold, a new currency was also added Dill Bits, which didn't carry over between matches and could only be found at vaults or specific locations. You would need them to get the best rewards at the black markets, usually the aforementioned exotic weapons. I'm a player who usually hoards all my gold and barely spends any of it, but the black markets provided a fantastic gold sink that I got low on gold a couple of times, which is a good thing because it got me to interact with the games mechanics is a more fun and dynamic way. The high prices for black market items weren't an issue either because it was just as easy to rack up tons of gold from the various gold sources.
We've seen the heist theme before, and I'll get back to that later, but the way it was implemented in Ch6 S2 also provided plenty of gameplay variety. If you were an aggressive player, you could land directly on the black markets with gold saved up and start the match with god-tier loot. The next step down in risk would be to land at one of the bank POIs and get gold and Dill Bits from there, and then head to the black markets. Alternatively, you could pick the safe option of getting your gold from the jewellery stores and armored vans. You could also get Dill Bits from Dill Bit farms, allowing you to sidestep the banks entirely. (This was my preferred strategy.) These options were spread throughout the entire map, so you weren't limited to landing in the new biome that was added in the season, either.
This chapter's overarching story is continued well in Ch6 S2. It stays focused on Daigo. This time his goal is to rescue the zero point shard that's stuck in the spirit realm, using any means necessary. As a result, he works with Fletcher Kane, who provides him with the funds necessary to construct a mask that can let him breach the spirit realm. In return, he promises Fletcher Kane the power that the shard would provide. However, Daigo fails in his mission and gets corrupted by the spirit realm. This was shown in a cinematic video, which we usually only get at the start of a season. I appreciate it, especially since we didn't get a mini-event this season. By the end of the season, Fletcher Kane has spent most of his money funding Daigo, which leads well into the destruction of the banks and mines in the next season. This plotline follows up well from last season by keeping existing characters relevant and continuing their motivations. It also continues setting up the threat of the dark presence within the spirit realm that was established last season.
Neutral:
Outside of its contributions to the overarching storyline, Ch6 S2's story has a lot of filler in it. Most of the story quests are pretty inconsequential and don't have much to do with the overarching storyline, or if they do, they don't end up leading anywhere new. However, the start of the storyline does nicely continue what was built up in Ch6 S1, with Fletcher Kane taking control of the gold that came out of the ruined portal and building new POIs with his wealth, which ends up attracting criminals and thieves.
As I already said, this season's robbery/crime theme is somewhat similar to Ch2 S2's spy theme and extremely similar to Ch4 S4's heist theme. I don't know why Epic keeps choosing such similar themes, especially when the possibilities are practically limitless. My best guess would be that they try to stick to themes they know work. Repeating themes is much less interesting and can make themes stale after a while. However, I do think that this season did just enough differently from its predecessor to make the theme feel unique, by focusing more on mafia street-level crime rather than the elaborate high-tech heists from Ch4 S4.
I mostly use my main skins, for this season it was around 75% of all matches I played. Consequently, I only used a couple of the battle pass characters, so I can't comment too much. I will say that most of the skins seemed decent, those being Outlaw Midas, Joss and Fletcher Kane. My favourite skin in the pass is Cassidy Quinn because she has the longest hair in the game and I'm a sucker for hair physics in Fortnite, although it wasn't my preferred style, so she didn't join my main roster. Looking at the pass as a whole, the theming is great with the exception being Sub-Zero, the token out-of-place collab skin. Last season's collabs matched the season, Epic just loves to flip-flop between collabs that do and don't make sense.
Cons:
The only aspect of the season I found a bit disappointing is the build-up to next season, which is a short Star Wars collab season. The buildup is there, with the Death Star coming closer to the island, however, it isn't explained why that is happening. I've heard that it's because Daigo's attempts to breach the spirit realm are what attracted them, however, I haven't seen anything confirming that in-game. Even if it is true, it should be just as clear as last season was; there should've been an NPC mentioning it at the very least.
Stats:
Now, for my stats this season. I ended up playing a very similar number of games as last season, although my performance was worse, with only 2 wins throughout the whole season and a lower K/D. It took me 7 weeks before I got the victory umbrella for the season.

I already talked a bit about my skin usage this season and how it was mostly mains. Here are the specific stats:

What I didn't mention earlier was that even though I didn't use the new battle pass skins much, I was still able to get that experience of enjoying new skins by creating new variants for my existing customizable skins. I created 5 new ones, 4 from Higurashi When They Cry and Bernadetta from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
In order: Rena, Keiichi, Satoshi, Satoko, Bernadetta





For the POi stats, I started the season mostly landing at the new POIs, but in the end, the top couple POIs ended up about equal, with a slight preference for Crime City.

Later on in the season, I found my preferred strategy of looting a jewellery store, going to a Dill Bit farm and then to a black market. I found out this strategy by landing at the Yokina Boardwalk landmark, which subsequently became my most landed at landmark by a landslide.

I'm still playing plenty of RR as you can see from my overall stats. Still praying that Epic will do something more with it one day.

5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
Fortnite Chapter 6 Mini Season 1: Galactic Battle has ended, so here's my review for it. Not a big fan of the fact that it's a collab, but did have some good aspects. From now on, I will also use the seasonal reviews as an opportunity to review the new seasons of the other modes that Fortnite has.
June 3rd - Fortnite Ch6 MS1: Galactic Battle - 24h 52m - 4/10 - Reached level 66
Pros:
The best part of Galactic Battle was the live event. There were some great animations throughout, and it nicely closed out the season's story. I especially enjoyed the ending because it perfectly bridged the gap between S2 and S3. At the end of S2, Daigo went into the spirit realm and got corrupted. Then he spent MS1 trying to return to the island by reopening the spirit portal that broke in S1. During the event, a chunk of the destroyed Death Star hit the portal, which supercharged its activation and caused a shockwave to go over the island. This shockwave is what granted the superpowers we see in S3, which was also teased in the event. The ending was shocking and built mystery and intrigue for the next season. Great way to end the season. While you were waiting for the event to start, you played an LTM of sorts where you fought in the Tie-fighters and X-Wings, which was enough to keep me engaged during the wait.
This season featured the controversial decision of adding generative AI to Fortnite in the form of a AI Darth Vader NPC, who would use various LLMs to respond to your voice in real time after you recruited him. It was something truly unique to Fortnite and new, which is something I haven't seen in a while. It spawned a bunch of funny clips, and the possibility of Darth Vader commenting on the skin you were wearing was intriguing. As long as AI is used in fun and harmless ways like these, I don't mind it being used. This is something that would've been impossible with voice actors. If Epic starts replacing voice-acted story quests with AI, that's when I would start having a problem with it, since AI can't replicate the intonation and quality that real people can.
Neutral:
The season's gameplay was somewhat unique because not a single gun used ammo and used the cooldown system instead. In theory, this sounded pretty unique, as it was the first time in Fortnite history that ammo boxes were vaulted. However, in practice, it played pretty similarly to most seasons, with the usual gun types. The various weapons added in the later updates didn't compel me to play much more of the season either. The one weapon I did really enjoy was the Junk Rift, which is one of my favourite Fortnite weapons because of how chaotic it is.
Cons:
I had very little interest in the battle pass because it was all Star Wars-themed. The one skin I liked a bit was Apprentice Evie, since that was a Fortnite collab mashup skin, but even that one was decent at best. The same thing applies to the Lego Pass, which started and ended on the same days as MS1. The saving grace for both is that this was the first mini season, which meant it was only a month long, unlike previous collab seasons like Ch2 S4 and CH5 S4. I don't like collab seasons in general because they take away from Fortnite's originality, but if collab seasons are a must, this is a better way to do it. Although I would still prefer the mini pass system used during Ch4 and Ch5, which allowed collabs to have their time in the spotlight without having to dominate the game for such an extended period of time.
While the end of Galactic Battle managed to tie together seasons 2 & 3, the rest was entirely disconnected from the original Fortnite storyline and felt like a complete filler season. The only impact MS1 has on S3 is the live event, and in its place, you could've had Daigo power up the portal at the end of S2 after he got corrupted, and have its opening cause the shockwave. Even if we disregard the fillery nature of the season, it's a poorly told story. There was no motivation behind anything. The Death Star just appeared and then decided to blow up the island. Why? I don't know. Even the map changes were somewhat lackluster. Resistance Base, First Order Base and Vader Samurai's Solitude make enough sense as map changes where the factions took over those locations and converted them to their personal uses. But Outpost Enclave is completely nonsensical. Where did the desert come from? Why is it there all of a sudden? No answer given.
Stats:
I forgot to take a screenshot of the page I usually use for stats, so I'll have to resort to the in-game one, which I've found is wildly inaccurate at times. I got a similar K/D as last season, although this time I managed to get more wins and my first win was surprisingly early in the season, on its 4th day.

I stuck to my main skins even more than I usually do, because I had no interest in the Star Wars skins. My main skin usage was at 90%!

For the POIs and Landmarks, there wasn't really anything outstanding, although I did land at Vader's Samurai Solitude quite a bit, trying to get the AI.

Pretty standard overall stats as well, although I did play more OG than usual, because I wanted to get a win there as it was the season I got my first win umbrella in. Although I didn't manage to pull it off due to a lack of time.

June 3rd - Fortnite Ch6 MS1: Galactic Battle - 24h 52m - 4/10 - Reached level 66
Pros:
The best part of Galactic Battle was the live event. There were some great animations throughout, and it nicely closed out the season's story. I especially enjoyed the ending because it perfectly bridged the gap between S2 and S3. At the end of S2, Daigo went into the spirit realm and got corrupted. Then he spent MS1 trying to return to the island by reopening the spirit portal that broke in S1. During the event, a chunk of the destroyed Death Star hit the portal, which supercharged its activation and caused a shockwave to go over the island. This shockwave is what granted the superpowers we see in S3, which was also teased in the event. The ending was shocking and built mystery and intrigue for the next season. Great way to end the season. While you were waiting for the event to start, you played an LTM of sorts where you fought in the Tie-fighters and X-Wings, which was enough to keep me engaged during the wait.
This season featured the controversial decision of adding generative AI to Fortnite in the form of a AI Darth Vader NPC, who would use various LLMs to respond to your voice in real time after you recruited him. It was something truly unique to Fortnite and new, which is something I haven't seen in a while. It spawned a bunch of funny clips, and the possibility of Darth Vader commenting on the skin you were wearing was intriguing. As long as AI is used in fun and harmless ways like these, I don't mind it being used. This is something that would've been impossible with voice actors. If Epic starts replacing voice-acted story quests with AI, that's when I would start having a problem with it, since AI can't replicate the intonation and quality that real people can.
Neutral:
The season's gameplay was somewhat unique because not a single gun used ammo and used the cooldown system instead. In theory, this sounded pretty unique, as it was the first time in Fortnite history that ammo boxes were vaulted. However, in practice, it played pretty similarly to most seasons, with the usual gun types. The various weapons added in the later updates didn't compel me to play much more of the season either. The one weapon I did really enjoy was the Junk Rift, which is one of my favourite Fortnite weapons because of how chaotic it is.
Cons:
I had very little interest in the battle pass because it was all Star Wars-themed. The one skin I liked a bit was Apprentice Evie, since that was a Fortnite collab mashup skin, but even that one was decent at best. The same thing applies to the Lego Pass, which started and ended on the same days as MS1. The saving grace for both is that this was the first mini season, which meant it was only a month long, unlike previous collab seasons like Ch2 S4 and CH5 S4. I don't like collab seasons in general because they take away from Fortnite's originality, but if collab seasons are a must, this is a better way to do it. Although I would still prefer the mini pass system used during Ch4 and Ch5, which allowed collabs to have their time in the spotlight without having to dominate the game for such an extended period of time.
While the end of Galactic Battle managed to tie together seasons 2 & 3, the rest was entirely disconnected from the original Fortnite storyline and felt like a complete filler season. The only impact MS1 has on S3 is the live event, and in its place, you could've had Daigo power up the portal at the end of S2 after he got corrupted, and have its opening cause the shockwave. Even if we disregard the fillery nature of the season, it's a poorly told story. There was no motivation behind anything. The Death Star just appeared and then decided to blow up the island. Why? I don't know. Even the map changes were somewhat lackluster. Resistance Base, First Order Base and Vader Samurai's Solitude make enough sense as map changes where the factions took over those locations and converted them to their personal uses. But Outpost Enclave is completely nonsensical. Where did the desert come from? Why is it there all of a sudden? No answer given.
Stats:
I forgot to take a screenshot of the page I usually use for stats, so I'll have to resort to the in-game one, which I've found is wildly inaccurate at times. I got a similar K/D as last season, although this time I managed to get more wins and my first win was surprisingly early in the season, on its 4th day.

I stuck to my main skins even more than I usually do, because I had no interest in the Star Wars skins. My main skin usage was at 90%!

For the POIs and Landmarks, there wasn't really anything outstanding, although I did land at Vader's Samurai Solitude quite a bit, trying to get the AI.


Pretty standard overall stats as well, although I did play more OG than usual, because I wanted to get a win there as it was the season I got my first win umbrella in. Although I didn't manage to pull it off due to a lack of time.

5 Yrs♥✓#
GreenStarfish
5 Yrs♥✓#
Per Exi's suggestion, I will now be posting all of my reviews here, while the "Post Your Wins" thread will be relegated to TLDR versions of the reviews. The first game in this format will be the first game of the Itchmas in July challenge, Sewer Tales. For the challenge I'll at least play all the games I voted for. The next one will be Fall of Lazarus, which is one of the longer games in the challenge. I'm also still making my way through Deltarune, although at a slow and slightly inconsistent pace. I still hope to be able to finish it this month.
July 5th - Sewer Tales - 17m - 100% (3/10) - Finished same day as started - Beat every enemy got every rat type.
Pros:
Sewer tales has a nice art style, however the aspect of the game I liked the most were the sound effects that the rats made. They sounded very Pikmin-esque and equally as cute.
Neutral:
The game had power ups which your rats could consume, which would transform them into different types of rats. The problem is that only the buff rats felt more powerful than the standard rats. They were bulky and were thus able to survive more hits from enemies. The other two rat types, lab and radioactive barely seemed to have any differences from the regular rats, especially in combat. The lab rats moved faster, but that didn't matter since the regular rats can outrun all of the enemies. For the radioactive rats, I genuinely have no idea what separated them from the regular rats.
The gameplay itself also felt quite clunky at times, since it would refuse to send the minions to the location you clicked relatively regularly and the enemies mostly seemed to target the main character, while completely ignoring the minions.
Cons:
I found the game was quite boring to play and stopped playing after only 17 minutes. The reason why is because the game doesn't have an ending or even really any goal to work towards. The closest thing that exists to a goal would be reaching the max rat count of 100, which is nigh impossible to reach since there is not consistent way to grow your minions and instead you get them randomly from trash bags. Fighting enemies is also pointless since you lose rats doing so and there's no guarantee you get a reward for beating an enemy. After defeating an enemy there's a random chance they spawn a healing item or a trash bag to replenish your rats. The game should've had some goal to work towards to reach the ending, which you would progress by defeating enemies. You could also add a timer like in Pikmin to add some more tension into the game.
July 5th - Sewer Tales - 17m - 100% (3/10) - Finished same day as started - Beat every enemy got every rat type.
Pros:
Sewer tales has a nice art style, however the aspect of the game I liked the most were the sound effects that the rats made. They sounded very Pikmin-esque and equally as cute.
Neutral:
The game had power ups which your rats could consume, which would transform them into different types of rats. The problem is that only the buff rats felt more powerful than the standard rats. They were bulky and were thus able to survive more hits from enemies. The other two rat types, lab and radioactive barely seemed to have any differences from the regular rats, especially in combat. The lab rats moved faster, but that didn't matter since the regular rats can outrun all of the enemies. For the radioactive rats, I genuinely have no idea what separated them from the regular rats.
The gameplay itself also felt quite clunky at times, since it would refuse to send the minions to the location you clicked relatively regularly and the enemies mostly seemed to target the main character, while completely ignoring the minions.
Cons:
I found the game was quite boring to play and stopped playing after only 17 minutes. The reason why is because the game doesn't have an ending or even really any goal to work towards. The closest thing that exists to a goal would be reaching the max rat count of 100, which is nigh impossible to reach since there is not consistent way to grow your minions and instead you get them randomly from trash bags. Fighting enemies is also pointless since you lose rats doing so and there's no guarantee you get a reward for beating an enemy. After defeating an enemy there's a random chance they spawn a healing item or a trash bag to replenish your rats. The game should've had some goal to work towards to reach the ending, which you would progress by defeating enemies. You could also add a timer like in Pikmin to add some more tension into the game.